Let us commence our service this
evening by singing together hymn number 167 to the tune Dida Mater,
77. Come all harmonious tongues,
your noblest music bring. Tis Christ the everlasting God
and Christ the man we sing. Tell how he took our flesh to
take away our guilt. Sing the dear drops of sacred
blood, Let hellish monsters spill. Hymn 167, Tune Diademata 77. The bowl of good news comes,
young of his years, he prays. Tis Christ, the everlasting God,
and Christ, the man which came. Sparrow, he took her place, And in her way appeared, In the deep
drops of her window, A vanished monster's spirit A lustre cruel spin Him deep
into his heart And the rich man o'er heaven o'er earth their
mattress where first died. The wage of swearing gain, Lift up His person, Lord, And
have change over my people, Lay heavy on His soul. Down to the shades of death He
held his awful head Yet he arose to live and pray When death itself
is dead. No more the body's bare, the
cross and bells now rung. Oh, heaven itself shakes at this
day, I know the heavens adore. There the Redeemer sits, high
on his father's throne. The father lays his vengeance
by and sloughs upon his son. Where his All glory shine with uncreated
grace Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God in the Book of Genesis and chapter 49 Genesis chapter 49 And Jacob
called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that
I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Gather yourselves together, and hear ye sons of Jacob, and hearken
unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art my firstborn,
my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of
dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, thou
shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed,
then defilest thou it. He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brethren.
Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul,
come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly. Mine honour,
be not thou united. for in their anger they slew
a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed
be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Judah,
thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall
be in thee, Neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp, from
the prey my son, Loah, gone up. He stooped down, he couched as
a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, until Shiloh come. and unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine,
and his ass's coat unto the choice vine, he washed his garments
in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall
be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Zebulun shall
dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be foreign haven
of ships, and his border shall be unto Zidon. Issachar is a
strong-ass couching down between two burdens, and he saw that
rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his
shoulders to bear, and became a servant of tribute. Dan shall
judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be
a serpent by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse
heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited
for thy salvation, O Lord. Gad, a troop, shall overcome
him, but he shall overcome at last, Out of Asher his bread
shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Nephtali is a
hind let loose, he giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
him, but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from thence
is the shepherd the stone of Israel. Even by the God of thy
Father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty who shall
bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the
deep that lieth under, Blessings of the breasts and of the womb,
the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings
of thy progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the
head of him that was separate from his brethren. Benjamin shall
rave in as a wolf, In the morning he shall devour the prey, and
at night he shall divide the spoil. All these are the 12 tribes
of Israel. And this is it, that their father
spake unto them and blessed them. Everyone according to his blessing
he blessed them. And he charged them and said
unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people bearing me with
my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before
Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham brought with the
field of Ephron the Hittite for the possession of a burying place.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, There they buried
Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah. The
purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end
of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and
yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people. May the Lord bless the reading
of his own precious word and grant unto us a spirit of real
prayer. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty,
which is an art, an art to come, we bow before thy great majesty,
we call upon thy great and holy name, we come as poor sinners,
and poor needy sinners, poor empty sinners. But we come to
a great saviour, an almighty saviour, who is able to save
to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth. And as one declares thou art
coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace
and power are such, none can ever ask too much. Lord Jesus,
we pray for thy presence here in the sanctuary, that we may
truly worship in thy holy hill of Zion, that we may behold thy
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of great, wonderful blessings. Wonderful blessings, a fullness,
a completeness, there is in thee. and we pray that we may be partakers
of it this evening hour and that we may behold that glory of thy
righteousness and that glory of thy sacrifice and its eternal
worth, thy precious blood that has been shed, the holy blood,
a blood that cleanses from all sin, the blood of Jesus, the
Son of God. We do desire to worship thee
in him this night. We pray for the divine power,
love and grace of our Eternal Father to be sweetly known and
felt in our hearts. We pray that thou would send
forth the Spirit of thy Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. We do humbly pray that we might
know thee, that we might hear thy voice and see thy countenance,
We do thank Thee that in Jesus dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, and that He is an almighty Saviour, an
almighty Redeemer. As we read in Thy Word, their
Redeemer is strong. O gracious God, we do thank Thee
that it is so. He's mighty to save, mighty to
redeem, mighty to deliver, we have just read together in thy
word until Shiloh come. O Lord Jesus, thou art that heavenly
Shiloh, and that we do pray that we may know thee this night as
our Shiloh, one that rescues and delivers from sin and Satan's
power, that we may be brought into union and communion with
Jesus Christ and become true followers of thee, and of those
who through faith and patience inherit the promises, or that
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father,
and the sacred fellowship of the Holy Spirit may rest and
abide upon us for thy great namesake. We pray to be led by the Spirit
of God, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are
the sons of God. We pray that we may have the
witness of thy spirit with our spirit, that we are the children
of God, that we are indeed joint heirs with Christ to that eternal
kingdom of everlasting glory and happiness where sin no more
defiles. We do pray that we may have a
sacred realisation tonight that such an high priest have we,
who is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, and advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Oh, we do pray,
most gracious Lord, that we may have that realization, tis He,
instead of me, is seen when I approach to God. Oh, that that may be
so, most gracious God, that we may be led and taught and guided
and directed by thee. And we do pray, most gracious
Lord, that thou, in thy great mercy, would remember us as a
church and as a congregation, and work mightily, powerfully,
and effectually among us, and that we may see thy goings in
the sanctuary, that we may see thy power and thy glory as thou
usest to be in the sanctuary, that we may see thy work appearing,
thine arm may bear in the gospel, the strongholds of Satan pulled
down, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus set up in the hearts of
sinners, prodigals returning, precious souls gathered in. Lord,
these are the things that we long for, watch for and wait
for and pray for, that we may see thy work, that we may see
an in-gathering, that we may see a building up, that we may
see a renewing, a replenishing, a reviving, that we may see the
outpouring of thy spirit under the ministry of the word and
precious souls gathered unto Christ. Hear us, O Lord, we humbly
beseech thee. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory unto their children. O Lord, we do pray
thee. But we pray, most gracious God,
that thou, in thy great mercy, We remember those in a path of
trial and perplexity. We think, O Lord, of the family
of a Joshua Jemson. Pray that thou wouldst graciously
be with them at this time of great difficulty. And if it is
thy heavenly mind, we pray that thou wouldst be Jehovah Rophi.
I am the Lord that healeth thee. There's none beyond thy power.
But above all, O Lord, that he may be blessed in his soul, we
do humbly beseech thee. Hear us, O God, we do pray thee,
and remember all in any trouble, or trial, or perplexity, or sorrow,
or sadness, or bereavement, to grant thy sustaining, thy upholding,
and thy strengthening mercies. We do humbly beseech thee. Oh,
we do pray, most gracious God, that thou in thy precious mercy
wouldst remember this village, O that thou wouldst cause an
ingathering from this village, that thou wouldst bring our sons
from far, and our daughters from the ends of the earth, they may
be gathered in by thy good spirit, and come into the sanctuary,
that desire, that longing, that, sirs, we would see Jesus, Lord,
grant that it may be so. Gather in precious, hungry, longing
souls, and graciously quicken souls and make them cry, give
me Christ or else I die. Bless thee, Lord, the word of
the Lord that has gone forth and distributed in the area.
Oh, that it may bring forth an abundant harvest in due season. that the word of the Lord may
have free course and thy name be honoured and glorified. Lord, we earnestly beseech thee
to cause the prodigals to return, that they may come again, that
they may come with a need, with a desire, with a longing in their
heart, that they may not be able to keep away. Oh, let thy work
appear. We do humbly beseech thee Bless
thy word for thy great namesake. We do pray, most gracious Lord,
that thou, in thy precious mercy, would remember all thy servants
as they labour in word and doctrine upon the walls of Zion. Set them
free, set them at liberty. Grant that thus saith the Lord,
grant that as they go forth, they may be that sacred, fresh
anointing of thy spirit, and the word of truth open, and the
spirit of power attending the word, reaching into the hearts
of poor lost sinners, and reaching into the hearts of thy poor and
afflicted people. Gracious God, do grant that it
may be so. We do humbly beseech thee. Let
thy work appear unto thy servants and thy glory unto their children. We pray, most gracious Lord,
that thou in thy great mercy, was to remember thy Zion, and
remember thy people, wherever they are, whatever condition
they're found in. We pray for dear Ina in her great
age, that those that divinely support and strengthen and help
her day by day. We pray for our brethren, the
deacons, that grace, wisdom, and help may be given to them.
And we pray, O Lord, that thou in thy precious mercy would remember
those that, especially those that go forth from among us,
that minister the word of truth in the nations of the earth.
We think, O Lord, of that great work being done in Ghana, in
the Savannah Education Trust. And we do desire to thank thee
for what thou hast enabled them to do. and we do pray that thou
would continue to supply all their many returning needs, we
do humbly beseech of thee, send out thy light and thy truth,
that it may be down to the honour, glory and praise of thy great
name and the building up of thy church there. And oh Lord God,
we do pray. Remember the Mombasa mission,
and thy servant there and his dear one as they labour, and
at a lonely position, we lovingly commend them to thee. Pray that
he may be enabled to preach the word and be instant in season
and out of season, and that thou wouldst grant an abundant harvest
in due season. Give thy servant patience to
wait upon thee and to watch unto prayer. And we pray for thy servant
Ian Sadler, that as he labours in so many different places on
the earth, ministering the word of truth, distributing the word
of God, Lord, supply his needs, we do humbly beseech thee. Graciously
hear us, Lord, and arise, we humbly beseech thee, that we
may bear thine holy arm in the gospel, that we may see thy goings
in the sanctuary, that we may see thy power and thy glory as
thou usest to be in the sanctuary. We thank thee for all thy tender
mercies. Thy mercies to us each are new
every morning and great is thy faithfulness. We thank thee,
most gracious Lord, for all the mercies of thy kind providence
and all thy goodness that has passed before us in the way.
We thank thee above all for those rich spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. We thank thee for the glory of
his name and the fullness of his grace. We thank thee for
the law fulfilled and honoured and magnified in his glorious
person as he lived as a man here upon earth. Everlasting righteousness
has been brought in. The holy law has been fulfilled.
thy people are set free in that glorious liberty of the people
of God. We thank thee for his precious
blood, we thank thee for his glorious righteousness, we thank
thee for Calvary where the lamb was slain. Oh hear us Lord we
humbly pray thee and be with us now as we turn to thy holy
word and come and touch one's lips with a live coal from off
the heavenly altar. and open the word of truth to
our heart and to our understanding. We ask for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Let us now sing together hymn
number 205. The tune is Regent Square, 684. Jesus is our great salvation,
worthy of our best esteem. He has saved his favourite nation. Join to sing aloud of him. He
has saved us. Christ alone could us redeem. Hymn 205, tune Regent Square,
684. ? The spirit of salvation ? ? Of
the all-powerful majesty ? ? He has made his way ? ? With light
and joy too ? He can save us, He can save us,
Christ the Lord to God's pity. ? When in holiness we have heard
Him ? ? Ever, ever, ever stand ? ? Jesus, God, His praise proclaim ? ? Praising all that still in the
world ? ? He that knoweth not ? ? He that knoweth not ? ? Will
shall rejoin him much time ? ? And God and King ? ? Make us
whole as children here ? ? We have lived beyond the glory of
mankind ? God bless you. ? I shall love thy glory ? ? This
shall be the age of mine ? ? Since I am full and full of glory ? O come ye, O come ye, O come
ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. greatly feeling to need the Lord's
gracious help. I direct your attention to the
chapter that we read, the book of Genesis chapter 49, and we'll
read verse 22 and 23. Genesis chapter 49, verses 22
and 23. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well whose branches run over the wall. The
archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. Joseph had a double portion in
Israel and Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh was the eldest, Ephraim
was the younger and he gave both his sons a tribe in Israel. So we have no tribe of Joseph
But we have two of his sons, Ephraim the younger, was the
greater blessed. Jacob said to Joseph when he
tried to change his hands, putting his hands on the wrong person
as he thought, and Jacob said no. The blessing is to be upon
Ephraim. And Ephraim became a very great
tribe, a very large tribe. in Israel. But I want to look at this tonight,
Joseph as a type of Christ and the things that he passed through
and the things that he went through. And as it says in our text, the
archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him.
And when we look at the life of Joseph, when he was but a young man in
his teens. And the Lord gave him dreams
that all his brethren would come and bow down to him and do obeisance
to him. And he told his brethren of these
dreams. And coupled with that, Joseph
was the favourite son of his father. and his brethren were very jealous.
He had a special coat of many colours that Jacob had given
to him, being a special son. And the reason he was special
is that it was Rachel's son. Jacob dearly loved Rachel. And she bore him Joseph and then
Benjamin, They're both the sons of Rachel. They were very special
to Joseph, to Jacob. And Joseph having had these dreams
of how his brethren would bow down to him, they hated him because of it. And when they saw him
coming, when they were in Dothan, looking after the father's sheep,
and Jacob had sent him and he came to his brethren and
they bound him and cast him into a pit and they would have murdered
him were it not for Reuben who counselled them to sell him
as a slave rather than murder him. But his coat of many colours,
they took it and they dyed it in blood and they took it back
to their father and they said well some beast must have laid
hold of him and killed him because we found his coat covered in
blood. They treated him in a terrible
way, his own brethren. And that is what is meant here. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot him and hated him. See, but Joseph is a fruitful
bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run
over the wall. So because it was by a well,
it had a sufficient and constant supply of water. And therefore
the boughs run over the wall and the fruit hang off of it,
laden with fruit because it had plenty of water. And the Lord
said, this was a beautiful picture of Joseph, a fruitful bough,
bearing fruit. He was sold then by his own brethren
and taken down by the Midianites into Egypt and sold as a slave. And Potiphar, one of the captains
of Pharaoh's army, brought him. And everything he touched prospered. It's a wonderful thing. Everything
he touched prospered, even though he was here in this foreign land
among the Egyptians, separated from his brethren. And yet the Lord blessed him
wherever he was. He was falsely accused by Potiphar's
wife. She wanted to lay with him. He
was a man He was a man of a very fair countenance. And when her
husband was away, she sought to allure him to her bed. And Joseph said, how can I do
this thing? You see, I fear God. How can
I do this thing? My master has put everything
into my hand. He was the chief servant. And she took his coat when he
ran away and when her husband came back she said Joseph came
here and he mocked me and he sought to lay with me, etc. Of
course, totally false. Therefore Joseph was imprisoned.
But what a pathway he had, wasn't it? But then when he was in prison,
we find that the prison warder could absolutely trust him with
everything. In fact, he put everything into his hand. He could completely
trust in him, he was a faithful servant. He was elevated even
in the prison to a place of importance. The other thing is, he had those
dreams when he was younger and he also, Pharaoh had a dream
Pharaoh's servants, the butler and the baker, were both cast
into prison with Joseph. And they both had dreams and
Joseph interpreted the dreams and they became absolutely true. The butler was restored, the
baker was hung, just as Joseph had said to them through the
dreams that he had. But then when the butler was
restored to his position, he forgot all about Joseph in the
prison. Joseph had said, remember me,
when they'll come east in before Thera. And he forgot all about
him. And Joseph languished in that
prison for another two years. What a trying time that must
have been. He'd had those dreams when he was a young man that
the Lord was going to bring his brethren to bow down to him.
Everything had gone opposite to it. And we read in the book
of Psalms, I think it's Psalm 105, that the word of the Lord
tried him when he was in prison. The word that the Lord had given
him, it tried him. Why am I in prison? Why have
I been falsely accused? Why did my brethren turn against
me? Jacob himself said on one occasion didn't he all these
things are against me I've got no doubt that there were times
with Joseph when he was in the prison And when his brethren
that sold him as a slave All these things are against me The
other thing with Joseph he had a very excellent disposition
Of kindness of compassion the reason I'm highlighting these
things is because he's such a beautiful type of Christ. He is. Jacob sent him to Dothan to his
brethren. The father sent his son here
to this sin-cursed world. He sent him to suffer, bleed,
and die for his people. When Joseph came to his brethren, They rejected him, they bound
him, they put him in a pit, they sold him as a slave. The father
sent the son, his only begotten son. And we read that when he
came here upon earth, he came among the Jews, he was born a
Jew. And what does the Bible say?
He came unto his own and his own received him not. You see
the wonderful type that Joseph is of Christ. He came unto his
own, and his own received him not. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we
have as it were our faces from him. So was dear Joseph, despised
and rejected of men. Not only his own brethren, part
of his wife, and yet wherever he went, The Lord favoured him. Wherever he went, the Lord helped
him. In all his troubles, in all his
trials, and how deep they were, and yet the Lord helped him,
supported him, sustained him. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The
archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him, and hated him. But what does it say here? But
his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands remain
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is
the shepherd the stone of Israel, that's Christ. You see, even
by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, it says here,
verse 25, And by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings
of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings
of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of thy father prevailed
over the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills, they shall be on the head of Joseph, nor
the crown of that of him that was separate from his brethren. Lord's blessing, that was the
great thing wasn't it? And there's no doubt that Joseph
desired that blessing, longed for that blessing, even though
he came into difficult circumstances. So we find that he was a man
that was fair to look upon, that was Potiphar's wife said so wasn't
it? He was a man of fair countenance
and You think of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the altogether lovely one.
He's the chiefest among 10,000. My beloved is white and ruddy.
The chiefest among 10,000. And it appears to me that wherever
Joseph went, he became the most looked to person in that place.
A man that was faithful, that was honest. A man that feared
God above many, in spite of all his difficult circumstances and
perplexing things and false accusations. There was a spirit of kindness,
because in Joseph was the spirit of Christ. And Joseph is a beautiful
type of Christ. Just as Christ humbled himself,
so did Joseph. Christ humbled himself. You know, we see this so beautifully in
the Lord's servant Joseph, how he humbled himself. But oh, look
at he that is greater than Joseph, even our Lord Jesus Christ, how
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven,
of things in earth, of things beneath the earth. Highly exalted. The wonderful thing with Joseph
is that when the day came that he was to be delivered, he was
delivered in a moment. He had to very hastily shave,
put proper clothing on him, just as it would if you were going
to see the king today. And they brought him in hastily,
because the king had had a dream. And the butler had remembered.
That was all ordered, you know. I know the butler forgot him.
And that was a very unkind thing to do. But it was all ordered
and decreed by God that he should be left another two years in
that state of humiliation. But in one day, he was brought
from the prison house, brought before Pharaoh, interpreted Pharaoh's
dream, made chief ruler in all Egypt
under Pharaoh. Quite literally, it was nothing
short of a miracle, how that these things happened. And just like our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he bared the sin of many, in all our afflictions
he was afflicted. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and bled and died for the sins of his people. He did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. And yet he was despitefully used,
set at naught, opposed on every hand when he was here upon earth. He humbled himself and became
obedient. Oh, there's something so deep
and profound in the humility of Jesus. He humbled himself. He humbled himself to be made
of a woman and to be made under the law. When the Son of God
assumed human nature, how humbling that was. When he came to live as a man
here upon earth, the almighty, the eternal, the ever-living
God, took into union with his divine nature, a sacred, holy
human nature, and became bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh. And when he lived here upon earth
as a man, he was set at naught, he was. He was set at nought. This is the path. When the Lord
Jesus comes into the woods, the end of his ministry, he says
to us, for it is through much tribulation that you shall enter
the kingdom. That's his word to his disciples
and to his people. It is through much tribulation
that you shall enter the kingdom. And the purpose of those tribulations. What are they? To humble us. When Joseph was passing through
these tribulations, these trials, it was to humble him. Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. Oh that the
Lord would grant us this true humility and to be humbled under
the pathway that we have to walk to bring us to the feet of Jesus,
to crucify our flesh. That's the purpose. You know, it remains with me,
and I keep repeating it to you because it remains with me. It
is the spirit that quickens. The flesh profiteth nothing.
And when the Lord brings us into great troubles and trials and
perplexities, things that we look not for, deep sense of our
own sinfulness, wretchedness and helplessness, crucifying
pathways, crucifying circumstances. What's the purpose? To humble
our flesh. Our flesh is our flesh and always
will be our flesh. And therefore the Lord leads
the child of God in a path that is humbling to his flesh. Because
our flesh has to be humble, it's trying, it's perplexing, Paul the Apostle, the great Apostle
to the Gentiles. He said he laboured more than
all the other Apostles, which he did. You can read of it in
the Word of God. And his ministry was abundantly
blessed, but he says that he had much tribulation. Imprisoned,
40 stripes, much tribulation. And then as he went about the
churches, while enduring that tribulation, But what do we read? I had a messenger of Satan to
buffet me. Why? Because in the spirit, he'd
been lifted up into the third heaven. He saw things that were
wonderful, so glorious, the things of Christ, the things of God.
And the Lord saw fit to give him a messenger of Satan. And
the apostle tells us why, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Our flesh gets lifted up with pride. We've got nothing whatsoever
to be proud of and yet our flesh gets lifted up with pride. So
what does the Lord do? He gives him a thorn in the flesh.
That thorn was with him every day. It rankled, it festered,
it was very painful. And he says, I sought the Lord
thrice to deliver me from it. But he didn't. You might say,
how do you know? Because we're not told so in
the Bible. What did the Lord do to Paul? My grace, that's
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. My grace, or the wonderful grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we see then in Joseph
this spirit of Christ. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well,
whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot at him and hated him. The devil opposes the Lord's
people. He fires those arrows of temptation
into the heart of the Lord's living family. It brings them
down, it humbles them. They feel their weakness, their
helplessness, their sinfulness, their insufficiency. And they
have to say again and again, Lord help me. How many times? How many times in the life of
Joseph did he say Lord help me? And now Joseph was the firstborn
of Rachel. And so the Christ was the firstborn
of his brethren. And we read that in several places
in Holy Scripture. It says, Him my firstborn. Christ
was the firstborn. Joseph is a type of Christ, being
the firstborn. Such a wonderful type of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And the archers have sorely grieved
him. What a type of Christ. When he
suffered and bled and died. When he suffered opposition from
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And the chief priests etc. persecuted him. when he was here
upon earth. They set at naught his claims
but he humbled himself. He lived as a man here upon earth
and he humbled himself. And as it was here with Joseph
but his bow abode in strength in spite of all those great tribulations
that Joseph passed through in those terrible things that his
brethren did to him. It says later on here in Genesis
how that they heard his cries and wouldn't listen. That's his
brethren. You see, and when Joseph died,
which is recorded in the next chapter, and we read how that
Joseph's brethren were afraid. They went and buried their father
and took him back to the land of Canaan as he'd asked them.
And Joseph returned on to Egypt, it says in chapter 50, he and
his brethren and all that went up with him to bury this father
after he had buried his father. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, you see, They still had a great guilty
conscience. Even though Joseph has shown
such kindness and compassion to them, they had a terrible
guilty conscience about the way that they dealt with their own
brother. They said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will
certainly acquit us of all the evil which we did unto him. And
they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command
before he died, saying, So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive,
I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin,
for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servant of the God of thy father. And Joseph
wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and
fell down before his face. And they said, behold, we be
thy servants. Now listen to the response of
godly Joseph. And Joseph said unto them, fear
not, for I am in the place of God. What a beautiful type of
Christ. Fear not, for I am in the place
of God. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave his life
of ransom for all to be testified in due time. Fear not, for I
am in the place of God. And then look at the gracious
response here, verse 20. But as for you, ye thought evil
against me, but God meant it. unto good, to bring to pass,
as it is this day, to save much people alive. Joseph could now
see the overruling providence of God in his life and how that
pathway of great tribulation and great trial had been sanctified
to him. And he says in verse 21, now
therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake
kindly unto them. Now just think of the heavenly
Joseph, our Lord Jesus Christ. When we read this language of
Joseph, fear ye not, I will nourish you. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the bread of life. He's the water of life. He's
the wine of the kingdom. Now therefore, fear ye not, I
will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them and
spake kindly unto them. What a wonderful spirit. Joseph, by the grace of God,
what was enabled to show. Even the spirit of Christ, our
heavenly Joseph, and his spirit that he showed. There's other
characters in the Word of God. David, in many, many ways, is
a beautiful type of Christ. Boaz, the farmer in Bethlehem, who
married Ruth of Herbitus, he's a beautiful type of Christ. What
did he say to Ruth? Fear not, my daughter, all that
thou requirest, I will do for thee. What a wonderful promise,
isn't it? And you look there at Boaz as
a type of Christ. All that thou requirest, I will
do for thee. Oh, my dear beloved friends,
may the Lord Jesus be made so precious to us when we see what
he has done for us. And when we have a view by faith
of His loving kindness, His mercy. Yahweh, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. Now there are those of you here that have been drawn
unto Christ. You've been drawn unto Christ.
We read in Holy Scripture that none come except the Father draw. What a wonderful thing to be
drawn unto Christ. is the evidence of the new birth,
to be drawn unto Christ, to see a beauty in Christ, to see a
loveliness in Christ. You see, just as it was with
Joseph, because he was given that wisdom by God to gather
together all the fruits of the earth in the seven years of plenty,
He gathered them into barns, storehouses. He built them right
the way throughout Egypt. He gathered together all the
fruits of the earth. And when those seven years of
famine came, and we read here in the context that Pharaoh owned
the whole of Egypt through Joseph's wisdom. People had nothing to
eat. They gave everything that they'd
got. And eventually he took all their lambs and everything, and
they all became pharaohs because they were desperate for food.
You see, and the Lord gave him that wisdom to do that. Joseph
said unto them, fear not, for am I in the place of God. But as for you, ye thought evil
against me. And so it was when they took
our Lord Jesus Christ, when the elders of the Jews in hatred
and enmity and jealousy against the glorious person of Jesus,
the Son of God. He was taken by the hands of
wicked men. He was. And he freely allowed
them to do it. He's the King of Kings. He's
the mighty God. He's the everlasting Father. He said to Peter, I could have
called on 12 legions of angels and destroyed all these men,
but the cup that my father giveth me, shall I not drink it? Oh,
the humility, the love, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he willingly suffered and
bled and died for the sins of his people. But as for you, And
it was like this with the elders of the Jews and the Romans. Ye thought evil against me, but
God meant it unto good. What a wonderful truth that is.
But God meant it unto good. You know the disciples said,
didn't they, those disciples on the road to Emmaus, that he's
been taken by the hands of wicked men and was crucified. But when they could not believe,
even though Lord Jesus had warned them, they could not believe.
And Jesus said to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things? But as for you, ye thought evil
against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass,
as it is this day, much people alive. You think of the whole
Christian Church, gathered from every nation, kindred, tongue,
and tribe and people. They are. The Holy Spirit proceeding
from the Father and the Son enters into their hearts, quickens their
soul into life, brings them to realize their lost condition,
and reveals unto them that Jesus is the way to God. Jesus is the
way to bliss. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. And this Jesus, this glorious Jesus, is the bread
of life. He's the water of life. If any
man shall drink of the water that I shall give them, said
Christ, it shall be in him. What's he speaking of? The Holy
Ghost. It shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. These are the wonderful truths
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But 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. You hath he quickened
who were dead, in trespasses and in sins. But now you're alive. But now you're brought to fill
your need as a sinner. And you've been brought to look
to Jesus Christ, the only saviour of sinners. And the Lord will sustain you
in this wilderness journey. Just as Joseph says here, now
therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake
kindly unto them. So does the heavenly Joseph.
Even our Lord Jesus Christ, he sends the comfort of the Holy
Ghost to reveal the things of Jesus, to carry you through those
trials and those perplexities, those sorrows and those sadnesses
that the Lord's people come into. And he has said, fear not, I
am with thee, be not dismayed, I am thy God. I will help thee,
I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness, Joseph. is a fruitful bough. Even a fruitful bough by a well,
whose branches run over the wall. See his roots went down into
that water. So there's a bringing forth of
fruit. That water beautifully represents the Holy Ghost. And
that's in every believer, springing up into everlasting life. And it said that this Holy Spirit
would never leave the Lord's people. I would never leave thee
nor forsake thee. I would never leave thee. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot at him and hated him. And well then he was elevated
to the second ruler of the kingdom and he was there for many years.
A very great man. in Egypt and the Lord gave him
wisdom and help and supported him and sustained him. But what
a type of our eternal Joseph, even our Lord Jesus Christ, exalted
far above all principality and power and every name that is
named, sitting at the right hand of his Father. For such a high
priest hath we who is passed into the heaven, Jesus the Son
of God. It says in the Revelation that
he hath a name upon his vesture and upon his thigh written, King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. Oh my beloved friends, may our
eyes be lifted to the heavenly Joseph who's promised to come
again and to receive his people unto himself. That where I am,
there ye may be also. Oh that the Lord in his great
mercy was lift our eyes to the heavenly Joseph, to Jesus himself,
who suffered and bled and died for our sins, who passed through
untold humiliation and sorrow, and now is highly exalted. He
entered into death itself. He put away the sin of his people.
He that knew no sin was made sin for us. But then he rose
from the grave. he ascended into heaven and he's
at the right hand of the Father and this same Jesus will come
again in like manner and the first thing that he will do when
he comes again in like manner he will gather his elect from
the four corners of the earth the resurrection of the Lord's
living family to be with Christ which is far better because I
live because I died and rose again, then you will die and
rise again, and you will be with me eternally in heaven. Oh, my beloved friends, may you
see this Joseph as a type of Christ is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The
archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him,
but his bow abode in strength. May the Lord have His blessing. As I was thinking of this heavenly
Joseph, the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ, my mind
was so much drawn to this hymn, 587 and we'll sing it to the tune
down in 840. Come whosoever will, nor vainly
strive to mend. Sinners are freely welcomed still
to Christ, the sinner's friend. In 587, tune down in 840. O come all ye faithful joyful
and triumphant O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave ? In Christ the Savior's place
? ? And the cross shall carry no sin ? ? And richly furnished
day ? With vine and bill, and gift
in bread, The pages of taboo. The guilty vine and fate, The great, beautiful Lord. Thou wilt continue the peace,
the praise, the good which they have done. For goodness he expended, He
gave to straight the poor. For helpless souls, In heaven and on earth and from
his throne. His tender loving heart, the
violet breath embraced. Now may the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the sacred fellowship
of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us each both now and
forevermore. Amen.