Genesis 39. In this chapter, the Holy Spirit
brings us back to Joseph. And there are many moral lessons
that we can glean from this chapter. where if a man conducts himself
by the things he sees in Joseph here, such as Joseph's faithfulness
in the face of adversity, such as Joseph's diligence in his
business and the blessings which follow a man who is diligent
in what he does, such as fleeing immorality, fleeing adultery,
fleeing youthful lusts because they are wicked, vile, and they
are death. We should have no part in those
things. There's some value in that. But the primary lesson
that the Lord is bringing his people to see, the scarlet thread
through the whole of Joseph's life, is that he is the Savior
of his people. God has purposed him to be the
Savior of his people and as such he is a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it would be the height of
folly for us to ignore Christ and what the Spirit is teaching
us and making us to see in Christ. We ought to be moral. We ought
to do that which is right and not just go the way of the world. But we need Christ. We need his
life. We need his spirit. We need his
salvation. Otherwise, it's just a dead letter
form. It's just a form of religion
that cannot save. And so rather than neglect the
picture of Christ the Redeemer here, we're going to zero in
on an aspect that's brought out to us in the first verse where
we see that Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ as the servant
of God, the servant of God. And we, as the servants of Christ,
the bond slaves of Christ, we see him, we look to him, and
that's how we know how to walk and conduct ourselves, walking
by faith in the Spirit, looking to Christ. In Christ we flee
youthful lusts. In Christ we flee immorality. Looking to Christ, feeding upon
him, being helped and strengthened and nourished by Christ, by his
gospel. So looking at verse 1, it says,
Joseph was brought down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the
Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither." And so, there's
some familiar imagery here. There's something very familiar
of Christ when He came into this world, this wicked world, this
strange and awful place, as a servant. And so here we see the well-beloved
son of the father is brought down to Egypt as a lowly servant. And this is a major point with
regards to Christ. This is his office as the servant
of God. And this was entirely missed
by the religious world. And I want to show you that and
why it's such a danger. The religious world missed the
servant of God. And when Christ came down into
this world, He came as the servant of the Father to serve Him in
God's wisdom to fulfill God's will and purpose for God's people,
His chosen people whom He gave to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so it's by Christ as the faithful servant of God that Christ obtained
His exaltation. as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, both over heaven and earth, of all things in heaven and earth.
So we're going to hover over this point here this morning,
because this is the fact. This was lost on the religious
world when Christ was here in his ministry in the flesh, in
his ministry. He was rejected by men. because he came as a lowly servant. They despised him. Man despised
him because he came as a lowly servant. He came not in pomp
and circumstance and in the court of a king. He came lowly, riding
on a donkey, the foal of a donkey. He came born in a manger. He came to parents poor. He came
from a line that seemed like it was just nothing. Nothing. And they hated him for it. So,
what we see in this is that the religious Jews of that day, they
had a very carnal expectation of who the Christ would be, what
he would be, what he would do. And so, their long awaited Messiah,
they believed that when he came, he would set up an earthly kingdom. And they would rule over their
enemies according to their fleshly lusts and wicked desires. And
it would all be OK because we're the enemies of God as far as
they were concerned. It would all be OK. But the scriptures
reveal that the purpose of Christ's coming was altogether different
from their carnal expectation. Even the disciples of Christ
had to be corrected. Even they kept asking him, Lord,
at this time are you going to set up the kingdom? Lord, at
this time are you going to set up the kingdom? And he was establishing
the kingdom. It was a spiritual kingdom wherein
he saved all his people scattered throughout the world. And so
it was very different from what spiritually dead men and women
were expecting. Christ came to fulfill the covenant
engagement of his father between him and his father set up before
the foundation of the world. He came as Jehovah's servant
going before his brethren to save them alive just as he did. He went before his brethren through
the veil with his own flesh to save his brethren, to deliver
his brethren. And he finished the work given
to him to do as the servant of God for all his people, that
his people, his chosen people, would be purchased by his blood,
redeemed by his blood, sanctified by him, washed in his blood of
their sins, sanctified, set apart by him for his own use and glory,
justified by him in perfect righteousness, perfect righteousness that we
cannot do by the law. We come up short. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. For this purpose Christ
came. to do that which we cannot do
for ourselves. He came to save his people from
their sins and that is the testimony of scripture going all the way
back to the volume of the book, the beginning of the book. Right
there from the promise in the garden. that by him, the shedding
of his blood, he would clothe our nakedness by covering us
in our shame, putting it away, that we might stand before God,
accepted of him, and worship him in spirit and in truth, which
Christ told us was his whole purpose, his whole purpose in
coming. And he came to destroy the works
of the devil, to deliver his people out of spiritual bondage. We don't even know the darkness
we're in. We think we're free, and we're bound in shackles of
this nature, this fallen, wicked, sinful nature. And we think we're
working a righteousness, and we're deceiving ourselves. We're
deceiving ourselves. We need Christ. We cannot work
a righteousness apart from Christ. We need him. He is the salvation
of his people. Now the Jews, they were confounded,
they were confused, they were perplexed, they were thrown off,
ashamed of this Christ, of his coming, because they counted
themselves as free. They counted themselves as full
of life, full of life, full of salvation, full of righteousness,
by their own works, even though they were actually bound in utter
darkness. They were like the Jews in Egypt.
We're happy as a clam. We're eating leeks and the onions.
We're fine. The garlic, we love it here.
We love it here. We're not slaves. Yes, you are. Yes, we are. By nature, we're
bound in sin and darkness. Christ told them, ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall set you free. That's what he
came to do, to reveal the truth, to reveal himself to us. and
the truth shall set you free. And they heard that and answered
him, we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any
man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free? Well, they are. They're bound in sin, and they
don't see that they are the slaves of sin, the slaves of iniquity. And they're not righteous before
God by their works. They're slaves to sin. Men today
who count themselves holy and knowledgeable about the truth
of God are just as dead and confused as the Pharisees having a dead
letter form and claiming, we're free. We're free. We're free
indeed. And they don't see that they're
in spiritual bondage. So let's see what the scriptures
declare about the servant of God. Let's first go to Isaiah
50. I want to give you the various
scriptures that speak to Christ as the servant of God and what
he fulfilled and accomplished for us. We may worship him and
glory in him. Isaiah 50, verse 5, he says, the Lord God hath opened mine
ear. The Lord God hath opened mine
ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back." And
so this is Christ as Jehovah's Servant speaking. And he says,
I was obedient to God. I was obedient to my Father.
I did exactly what he sent me here to do. I bound myself to
him in love and in faithfulness to the Father and to my wife,
my children. to do for them, to save them.
I bow myself to that willingly, gladly. And I know that's what
he's saying, that he's speaking of his obedience because of this
phrase where it says, the Lord God hath opened mine ear. What's he talking about? What
does he mean, the Lord God hath opened mine ear? Hold your place
in Isaiah 50, because we're coming back to it, and go with me to
Exodus 21. Exodus 21, and we're gonna look
at verses four through six. Exodus 21. Picking up in verse four, if
his master, speaking of servants, speaking of bond slaves, if his
master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or
daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, And he
shall go out by himself. He's free to go. His time's up. He's free to go. And if the servant
shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children,
I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him
unto the judges. He shall bring him to the public
square where all can see. in public. He shall also bring
him to the door, or unto the doorpost." That doorpost was
a wooden post, a wooden post. If you can hear it, the cross,
the cross. He shall also bring him to the
door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through within all. He shall open his ear, and he
shall serve him forever. That's the opening of the ear
of the servant of God. He's bound himself. He loves
his father. He loves his bride. He loves
his children. And he's bound himself. Rather
than go out free and deliver himself, he's bound himself to
put away our sins, to give us salvation and life in him, in
him, liberty and life in him. So here we see that this law
was given us for a type of Christ. God didn't say, oh, that's a
convenient law. I think I'll use that for Christ. No. He gave
that law to show us what Christ did for us. Christ is first. Christ is preeminent. He's not
second or third or fourth or fifth. He's first. He's the preeminent
one. And so it's a type to show us
the love and the faithfulness of Christ, our husband, who loved
us and gave himself for us. Now go back to Isaiah 50, where
we see that Christ's love made him willing to faithfully fulfill
the will and purpose of God for his people, for his wife and
his children. So starting over again in verse
five, the Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. He could have gone out free,
but he refused his freedom to give us freedom and life in him,
by him. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded. I will not be ashamed, trusting
the Lord. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. This is the faithful God and
Savior of us, brethren. You that believe him, you that
worship God, you that love God, that desire him, to know him,
to worship him in spirit and in truth, This is your God and
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in that capacity now
as the faithful servant of Jehovah that I want us to go to Psalm
40. Let's go to Psalm 40. We're going
to be looking at verses 6 through 10. We're done with Isaiah for now. Verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. And so Christ
here is revealing to us that holy God is not going to be propitiated
by man's form of religion. We can fiddle and whittle and
do all we want in religion, and God is not propitiated by our
works under the law, and our form of religion, and our customs,
and our tradition. Therefore, as the servant of
God, whose ear is open, with that all on the wooden doorpost,
mine ears hast thou opened, because his ear is open, that's how our
spiritual ear is open. We are his body. That's how your
ear, my ear, that's why we hear and hear his voice and how he
turns us from dead letter form and religion to worship God in
spirit and in truth. To know God isn't pleased with
man's traditions and customs and what man prizes and values
and thinks, this is it. This is how I'm going to come
to God. No, God's not going to receive that. And it's by his
grace, his faithfulness, his teaching, his spirit, that we
know this. And we know that God is pleased
not with my works, but with the works of Christ. He's pleased
with his Son. And we come in the Son. That's how we come to the Father,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Savior of sinners. He's the Savior of His people. He served Jehovah perfectly to
secure your salvation, you that believe Him. That's why we're
saved. That's why we have fellowship
with God and hear His voice and understand that the scriptures
are revealing Christ to us. And hear Him and follow Him by
His grace and power. The law was given to show us
we're sinners, and the law was given to point to him who is
our righteousness. And the natural man doesn't see
Christ. He says, oh, here's my how-to
manual. I'm going to fix myself up here, and I'm going to please
God by my works, and doesn't see that his works stink, and
that all he's done is just spread human feces all around him on
the walls by his works, and says, isn't this great, God? Doesn't
this smell pretty? Isn't this wonderful? No, you
missed Christ. He is the sweet saver of God,
by whom the Father is well pleased. He's pleased by the Son. That
woman at the well, our Lord said to her in John 4, 22, ye worship
ye know not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. He's talking about what we saw
in Luke 11. when he said, take he therefore
that the light that is in thee be not darkness." The Jews had
the light. They had the scriptures. They
had the law. They had the oracles. They had
the prophets. They saw these things. God revealed
to them, gave them this light. But that light received by those
spiritually dead is darkness. And that's why I said, take heed
that the light you do have, the understanding you do have, that
it be not darkness. What is the light? Jesus Christ,
the light in life of men. He is the light of the world.
He is the light by which we know God. And so missing Christ, this
is no light. It's darkness, like it was to
the Pharisees. It was darkness to them. They
didn't hear him. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, because that's who the Father seeks to worship
in, in spirit and in truth, that we know him, that we don't come
in a ministration of condemnation, that we don't come in a ministration
of death, that we come in the ministration of life, which is
the spirit's work, applying the blood of Christ to us, taking
the coal off that fire, that live coal, and touching our lips,
and causing us to speak not of what we do, but of what he has
done for us. And we glory in him and give
God all the thanks and the praise for what he has done to save
a filthy, wretched, vile sinner like me. And you that are sinners,
rejoicing in Christ, confess the same thing. Lord, thank you
for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Thank
you for your word. Thank you for your son. Thank
you for your spirit. Thank you for your mercy, and
your faith, and your grace, and your fruits, whereby we worship
God and praise him. and praise him. God is a spirit,
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth." And those Pharisees were not coming in spirit and in truth.
They were worshiping something, but it wasn't God. They were
worshiping themselves. They were worshiping the form.
They were rejoicing in their works and would not hear Christ,
because he was a servant. lowly servant they wouldn't hear
him and so the Lord makes known unto us that Christ is salvation
to know that the obedience that the father seeks of us is not
the righteousness of the Pharisees he said your righteousness better
exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees And they were perfect
before the law, Paul said. I was perfect before the law.
And Christ said, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness
of the Pharisees, or else you have no part in the kingdom of
God. How is my righteousness going
to exceed those fellows that were so exact, so perfect in
all that they did? so correct in all that they did.
How is my righteousness going to exceed that? By faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Father is pleased
with. Come in Christ the Son, whom I've sent to save you from
your sins. I provided Him the salvation
of my people. Believe Him. Trust Him. Come
to him confessing your sins. When we come to Christ, we come
as sinners or we don't come at all. We're confessing, Lord,
I'm the sinner. Save me. Have mercy on me. Deliver
me from this bondage and these filthy works that I think were
my righteousness. Lord, save me. So Christ reveals
the Father unto us that we may worship him aright in spirit
and in truth. It's in Christ. Now, Psalm 40,
continuing verse 7. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me. And that volume, if you look
it up, means the beginning. In the beginning of the book,
this word is testifying to us of Christ. We see it in Joseph. We see it in Jacob. We see it
in Isaac. We see him in Abraham. We see him in Noah. We see him
in Enoch. We see him in Seth. We see him
in Abel. We see him clothing the nakedness
of Adam and Eve all the way back there in the garden. We see him
shining his light. He's that uncreated light that
God brought forth upon this dark, fallen, formless, void of life
world. Christ is that light. We see
him all the way back at verse one, in the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth. We see Christ right in the very
first word, right in the very, very beginning. And so he says,
he shows us, he says, I delight to do thy will. You and me practicing
the law, that's not salvation. You and me memorizing scripture,
that's not salvation. You and me knowing doctrine,
that's not salvation, except to be the doctrine of Christ.
in our hearts, knowing that doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, that
is, coming to God by faith in him who loved me and gave himself
for me as the propitiation that God the Father provided to save
his people from their sins. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. The spirit and truth of
it is within the heart of Christ. It's in Christ. I have preached
righteousness. What did Christ preach? The gospel,
the gospel, turning men from dead works that cannot save to
himself. He said, if you believe not that
I am he, you will die in your sins. So Johnny, you will die
in your sins. In the great congregation, though
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest, I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart." He didn't clam up
and go silent to deliver himself and for himself to go out free.
Nope. He spoke the truth. He shone
the light. He declared what he heard the
Father say and did the works of the Father. He said, I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy
faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy love
and kindness and thy truth from the great congregation, the chosen
people of God. He broadcast this word far and
wide for all to hear and was not quiet about it. faithfully
declaring the Father to us in what true religion is, which
is in Christ. It's found in Him, it's understood
in Him, it's practiced and walked in Him, in Christ, in Christ. Peter said, Wherefore also it
is contained in the Scripture Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded or shamed. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, which they rejected,
the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. Now, let me ask you, when something's
up high over your head, do you stumble over that? Do you stumble
over things that are above your head? Do you stumble over a branch
still attached to the tree over your head? Are you tripping over
that branch in the yard? No. No. You stumble over things
that are beneath your feet. You stumble over things that
are low. and on the ground, they're beneath you. That's what you're
stumbling over. And they stumbled over Christ
because he came as the lowly servant serving the Father. He came as a servant and they
stumbled over him. They wouldn't hear him. How dare
you say those things to us? Don't you know who we are? We're
the Pharisees. We're righteous. We're accepted
of God. How dare you shine that light
on us and expose our wickedness and our hypocrisy. They stumbled
over Christ, and they hated him for it and crucified him for
it, thus opening the way of salvation for his people that are also
lowly, poor, brokenhearted, wounded sinners. who have no righteousness
of their own. That's what Christ did for his
people. The Lord who is humble makes his children humble so
that we're low in ourselves. We see eye to eye with Christ
by his grace and power. We hear his gospel. We're thankful
for his gospel. We're thankful for his mercy,
his patience, his grace, his kindness, his spirit, his love,
his blood, his life. We're thankful because he makes
us low like him. Not puffed up and high-minded
like the Pharisees who stumbled over him, because he was beneath
them. Now, from this psalm, we would
go to Hebrews. Let's go to Hebrews 10, verse 1, and then verse 4. And then we'll read from there. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. Verse four,
for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. We need a savior to deliver us
from our sin. These works cannot save, we need
to deliver. Wherefore, when he cometh, verse
5, into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst
not, but a body hast thou prepared made. In burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. God's righteousness is not accomplished
by man's dead-letter practice of religion. He's going to accomplish
righteousness for us by the righteous servant. Then said I, verse 7,
lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to
do thy will, O God. He's quoting from Psalm 40. Above,
when he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin thou wouldest not, neither hath pleasure therein which are
offered by the law. And all that we offer to God
by the law is not accepted. He's not propitiated. He's not
pleased with what we do. He's pleased with the perfect
righteous servant who fulfilled the law perfectly for his people. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. My people can't, so I'm coming,
and I'm doing it. Because if there had been a law
that could have been given, which would have given us righteousness,
God would have gave it. But the Son being here, coming
in the flesh, testifies that there was no law. Because of
the weakness of this flesh and the infirmity of this flesh,
we cannot keep ourselves righteous, perfect. We need Christ. We need him to save us. He taketh away the first, that
old covenant of the law, that he may establish the second,
the new covenant of grace. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. And every
priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Do you believe him? Do you believe
that his one offering has forever perfected them whom he sanctified
with his own blood and has separated for himself, giving you his spirit
to draw you to Christ, to follow him, to hear him, to rejoice
in being accepted of God and in communion with God through
Christ Jesus? And so we see how the well-beloved
Son is now raised to such great heights, because He hath served
the Father perfectly, saving His people, chosen of God, and
given to Him for an inheritance. Romans 14.9 says to this end,
Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord
both of the dead and the living. And so the Lord is well pleased
with his sacrifice. He's received him. He raised
him from the dead, justifying all who believe him. You're justified. Now those things which you cannot
be justified with by your works. God says in Isaiah 42, 1, behold,
my servant. my servant, whom I uphold, mine
elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." And he has.
He's brought forth the judgment, the gospel. God's saying, the
scripture's concluding, all under sin that we might receive the
promise by faith of Jesus Christ. That's the judgment of God, which
Christ brings to us. We see that we're sinners, filthy,
vile, vagabond sinners that cannot save ourselves, but he's our
righteousness. He's our righteousness. Look
to him. He's the faithful servant of the father. Verse four, he
shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have said judgment in
the earth and the aisles shall wait for his law. This is the savior we need, brethren,
and the father sent him. The Father sent him. Look to
him. We are received of the Father.
We worship the Father in spirit and in truth through this one,
Jesus Christ. Come to him. This is why Joseph,
who pictures Christ the servant of God, is going to say to his
brethren in Genesis 50, in verse 20 and 21, 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. Now
therefore, fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake
kindly unto them." That's why Christ is called the friend of
sinners, because he speaks comfortably to them, drawing them to himself. And we know those that hear him
because they come to Christ and they follow him. And they stay
upon him, believing him. So brethren, I pray the Lord
bless that word to your hearts. Amen.