Let's be turning to Genesis 37. Genesis 37. Now we're looking at the patriarchs
here and with Abraham, well we see a picture of believers in
the patriarchs here that speaks to our salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Abraham we see a picture of
our election and of the believer's calling. And then when you get
to Isaac, there's a picture given to us that shows the spiritual
birth. Ishmael was the works of Abraham's
flesh that he brought forth to try and accomplish or bring to
pass the promises of God. but it was Isaac that is the
son of promise and he was born of the spiritual work. He's a
miraculous birth by God and so it's a picture of the new birth.
Then we come to Jacob and Jacob we see in him a believer that
is taught of God, that is chastened of God and conformed to Christ. Jacob had a lot of trials, and
when you look at those trials they were brought on by himself,
by his own sin, by his own folly, by his own works, and yet God
dealt very graciously with Jacob in chastening him, to strip him,
to turn him from vain confidences in the flesh. And that's true
in the scriptures we're taught that whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. You could see that when Jacob
was coming out from Bethel coming out of Canaan and the Lord revealed
himself to Jacob at Bethel and he goes into Paddan Aram and
Laban just gives him a very difficult time, constantly switching things
out on him, constantly changing the wages, and just really tried
him. And I would imagine that Jacob
could recall the things he had done to his brother Esau, and
how he deceived Isaac, his father, to get the blessing that his
father would have given to Esau instead. But you see the Lord
dealing with Jacob in this and coming out. He goes through all
these trials and he's brought to great distresses in it, but
it was all effectual in stripping him of his vain confidences and
of his fleshly works. Right. So that he began to settle
down and it says, it brings us to verse one here, Genesis 37,
one. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. So here's
a man now that's now chastened. He's humbled. He's stripped down. And now he's content. He's content
to settle down in the land where his father was a stranger. And
he's happy. He's happy and content. He's
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And now we transition at this
point to the life and times of Joseph. And this brings us to
the life and times of Joseph. And this is given in one sense. It'll help us when we get to
Exodus. It'll help us to understand how
we got there. How did we get to Exodus? Well,
it's through Joseph here and his life. But with Joseph, the
Lord, so building on, you see the election and calling and
the new birth and the chastening of the Lord. Well, with Joseph
we see a man who suffers for righteousness sake. He suffers
for righteousness sake, not because of anything he had done, but
because it pleased the Lord. and to use Joseph in a special
blessed way. And it speaks to what the Lord
does for his people. And so through this lens, We
see through this suffering and the glory which follows, we see
great pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered for us and
was glorified in what he suffered and how that he goes before his
brethren, before his people, and giving us things to suffer
for, for righteousness sake and the glory which follows. We see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death. Not for his sins. He committed
no sins. There's no evil in him. There's
no wickedness in Christ. But he suffered. He was made
lower to suffer death. for his brethren, crowned with
glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. And so through the sufferings
of Christ, by his redemption, he paid for the sins of his people. And so one more picture here. We see this, that whom he did
predestinate. This is from Romans 8.30. This
is a picture of believers, brethren. Whom he did predestinate, them
he also called. Bam! There's Abraham in the election
and the calling of God who chose him out of all the heathens In
that area, in Ur of the Chaldees, under the shadow of that broken
down Tower of Babel, under the rule of Nimrod, that wicked man,
he calls Abraham out to go into a land, not knowing where he
would go. He called Abraham out. And then,
whom he called, them he also justified. Well, there's a picture,
again, of Isaac, picturing the new birth. of Jacob, how the
Lord chastens us and deals with us to conform us to Christ, that
we put off the old man and put on the new man, that's pictured
in Jacob. And then we come to Joseph, who
now, trusting God, believing God, suffers for righteousness
sake. He suffers and the glory which
follows, the glory which follows there. And so we see an orderliness
here of our salvation given by God in these patriarchs that
picture what he does in our lives, you that believe him. He shows
all these things, what he does for you in salvation through
Jesus Christ. And if we're talking now about
righteous suffering, there's none that we see that more perfectly
I mean perfectly, in Christ Jesus. And in that sense we see in Joseph
wonderful manifold pictures of Christ. He's a wonderful type
of the Lord Jesus Christ and what Christ works in us. It works
in us. So, our focus this morning is
going to be looking at seven points, some a little longer,
some very quick points from verses two through four here in Genesis
37, two through four, in which we see that Joseph is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's read verses two through
four now. Genesis 37. These are the generations
of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years
old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was
with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's
wives. And Joseph brought unto his father
their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. So the first
thing that we're going to notice here with Joseph is that Joseph
actually had two names. The name we're given here in
this passage is Joseph, Joseph being 17 years old here. But
he also receives a second name, which is coming up in the scriptures
we'll see eventually. And that, so he has his earthly
name Joseph, and then he has another divinely given name,
a divinely appointed name, which is Zaphnath, what is it? It's Zaphnath-pa-aneah. Zaphnath-pa-aneah, which is given
to him by the Egyptians when he was there. Well, our Lord
Jesus Christ, He is the Son of Man, and He is the Son of God,
and He has two names. His earthly name is Jesus. And
that's what he was given at his birth. But God also gave him
the name Christ. He is the anointed one of God
for the salvation of his people. And so these names, Joseph and
Zaphnath, Paonea, These names reveal something to us of what
Christ, our Savior, accomplished for his people. Joseph means
adding. We saw that back in Genesis 30,
verse 24. If you have a good Bible, it'll
have the center column, which shows you what it means. And it means adding. His mother,
Rachel, said, God shall add to me another son. So she she named
him adding and you'll recall that the first Adam in Genesis
here the first Adam He was a subtractor right what he did Subtracted
what he did brought us into to he were lost because of him in
sin were ruined and because of Adam. He's a subtractor of the
people. But the last Adam, Jesus Christ,
like Joseph, he's the great adder. He seeks that which is lost,
and we are found in him. By him, we believe unto salvation. We're added by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're found and given life in
him. Now the second name, Zaphnath-paneah,
means revealer of secrets. That's found in Genesis 41, verse
45. And it says there in the center
column that he is a revealer of secrets. And so we know that
of Joseph, right? He heard the dreams. that no
man understood the dark sayings, and he revealed them. He made
them known. He revealed the truth of them
to the people. I think the Egyptians meant it
as saying he's the savior, the savior of that age. And the Jews
interpreted it more literally as revealer of secrets. Well, that's true of Christ.
That's true of Christ. By Jesus Christ, we have the
Father revealed unto us. We don't know Him by nature.
He's our enemy by nature in Adam. But Christ has come and He reveals
to us the true and living God. He makes known the Father. By Him we understand and know
the love of God for us through Christ's coming. Just as Joseph
was loved of his father, so we understand the love of God. For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. No man knoweth the Father, save
the Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. He hath revealed
him unto us. The coming of Christ reveals
the true and living God unto his people. He makes known who
the Father is. Philip, have I been with you
so long, and yet you still don't know me? He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. He reveals the Father unto us. And so we see His revealing,
His grace, His power that reveals the true and living God to us. He is also a revealer of our
hearts. He makes known to us our sinful,
ruined condition. so that we don't continue thinking
that we can save ourselves and negotiate with God and by works
create a righteousness for ourselves with which we think that we can
stand before the true and living God. He shows us that no, we're
sick, we're defiled, we're diseased, we're dead in trespasses and
sins, we're ruined and we need the Great Physician, we need
the Savior. He makes that known to us. When
Christ was here, we're told that when he was nearby, they would
gather up all their sick, all their wounded, all their ruined,
and bring them to Christ and he would heal them. It shows
us what we are by nature. We're the sick ones. We're the
diseased. We're the ones with the filthy
spirits. We're the ones that need salvation. He reveals that
to us. His coming is the light of men
so that He revealed to us our great need and who the great
Savior is. He is the Savior, sent of God
to save His people from their sins. And so Joseph is aptly
named Joseph and Zaphnath Paneah. He's the revealer and the adder. Second, the second thing we notice
about Joseph here is that he shared an occupation with Christ. He was a shepherd of sheep. It says there in verse 2 that
Joseph was feeding the flock with his brethren. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He too is revealed as the Good Shepherd
of His people. He says in John 10-11, I am the
Good Shepherd. and the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. He laid down his life to put
away the sins of his people, to obtain the forgiveness of
our sins with holy God, to do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves by the law, by our changing, by our works in the
flesh, We cannot make a perfect righteousness for ourselves to
stand before God accepted of Him. But Christ did that, and
through His resurrection, He now provides for us of all that
we need as a faithful, good shepherd of the flock of His people. He provides for us. He gives
us what we need. He takes from us what we don't
need. He does all things well. He's the good shepherd, brethren. And we see that in Joseph. As
we go forward, as we see more and more of Joseph, we find he
was exactly as that faithful shepherd of his family, of his
people. by what they did to him. They
sold him in slavery because of their hatred. And Joseph, Jacob
mourned. His father mourned his death
as one that was dead. They never thought they were
going to see him again. But all that proved to be their
salvation. All that proved to provide for
them everything that they needed in order to live. Joseph would
say to them later on, he thought evil against me. When you sold
me into slavery to get rid of me because of your hatred, 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. And isn't that what we're taught
about Christ and our Father? Isn't that what we're taught?
That Christ was delivered by the determinant counsel and will
of God. God purposed him to be delivered,
to be crucified for the sins of his people. But ye have taken
and with wicked hands have crucified and slain him. Men meant it for
evil. but God meant it for good. And God raised him up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. And so Joseph's painful suffering,
that which he suffered, it resulted in the salvation of many, of
many. And it pictures what Christ did
as our Good Shepherd. His death, His suffering results
in the salvation of all His people for whom He has shed His blood.
He's the Savior and now He provides all that we need as the Good
Shepherd. Third, we see in Joseph, the third thing is that he testified
of the truth. concerning his brethren. It says
in verse 2, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the
sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto
his father their evil report. He testified of the truth. He
spoke the truth and testified what they were, what they did.
Well, John 7.7 says, Christ says, The world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof
are evil. And that's why men hate Christ,
because He is the light, and He testifies, His very presence
testifies to us what we are. The very presence of Christ in
the world testifies that we cannot save ourselves. The very presence
of Christ testifies that our works are evil, that we've done
wickedly and cannot save ourselves. That's what Christ testifies
and he testifies who is life himself, that he is the salvation
of his people. And so, just as Joseph was hated
by his brethren because of the truth, so Christ is hated by
the people because of the truth in exposing that we are sinners. Fourth, in Joseph, we see his
father's great love for him. We see that in many pictures.
The father gave him a coat of many colors. The father mourned
his death and never let the other boys forget that. They knew how
it grieved their father that his son, the son that he loved,
died. And they understood that. They
saw what they had done, their works, how it resulted in grieving
their father. And then we see the great joy
that he had when he heard that Joseph lived and he went down
to Egypt to see his son once more before Jacob died. And so we see this love. Well, the father loves his son,
his only begotten son. When he was baptized, the heavens
opened, and the voice of God spake, saying, this is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased, revealing to us that that's how
we come to the father, accepted of him in Christ, in whom I am
well pleased. And our Lord tells us that one
of the reasons that the father loves his son so is because he
laid down his life for the sheep. He came and fulfilled all that
the father sent him to do. He speaks the words of his father. He does the works of his father
and pleases him well in all things. You that believe Christ, you
shall not be ashamed. for trusting Him and putting
all your hope and confidence in Christ the Son, in Jesus Christ
whom the Father loves and sent to save His people from their
sins. And because the Son of God glorified
His Father, God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name
which is above every name. The Father loves him. He gave
him that name when he chose him before the foundation of the
world and chose a people and gave them to Christ before the
foundation of the world. And then he comes and accomplishes
that work, obtains salvation, eternal redemption for his people.
Fifth, Joseph is the son of Jacob's old age. And that there is a
picture of Christ, the eternal son of God. who has been with
the Father always. He's the eternal Son of God with
no beginning and no end. And he says, now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. Sixth, Joseph was given a coat
of many colors. And this coat distinguished him
from his brothers. This coat of many colors distinguished
him from all his brothers. And when he wore it, anyone who
wore in scriptures a coat of many colors like this, it was
a distinguishing mark. We have one example in Judges
chapter 5 and verse 30. There's Sisera who was an enemy
of the people of God, but what they sang and what they said
is they spoke of the prey that they would divide, the spoil
that they would divide in their conquests. And it said, to every
man a damsel or two, to Sisera a prey of diverse colors, a prey
of diverse colors of needlework, of diverse colors of needlework
on both sides. Meet for the necks of them that
take the spoil. And so for a warrior, this was
a mark that he was a great warrior. He wore a coat of many colors.
He was a great warrior. And you could see it in the spoils
of his victories. Well, so it is that we see Christ
is set apart, set above all. He is most exalted because of
his great victory in redeeming his people and delivering his
people and spoiling the strong man's house and taking us out
of that prison of darkness and death and bring us into the family
of God. We're his spoil. And we rejoice
in his beauty, in his glory, giving him all the praise, all
the thanks, all the honor, because he's the great champion. He's
our captain. He's our savior. He's all our
salvation. And the Lord says to him, I've
set thee to be a light for the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. He's the mighty
warrior. He's the great Savior, brethren.
Then there's another example in scripture of David's daughters.
They were robed with a coat of many colors to distinguish and
show that they are the king's daughters. These are the virgins.
These are precious in the sight of the king. And it speaks of
their royal birth. And it testifies of Christ, who
is the Son of God, who is our all. We have life in and because
of Him. He is the one that is preeminent
among us, brethren. God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto Him. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into His hand. All things are His, for
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He is
the preeminent One. At His birth, angels, a host
of angels came and sang declaring His birth. At His birth, a star
appeared that then led the wise men of the East a long journey
so that they could find Him. by that star at his baptism the
heavens open when he came up out of the water the heavens
open a dove the Holy Spirit like a dove descended upon him and
God testified this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased
at the Mount of Transfiguration Peter James and John saw him
in his heavenly glory They saw him in the beauty and glory of
Christ that shone like the brightness of the sun at noon. They saw
him and they saw Moses and Elijah talking to him. A picture of
the law and the prophets talking to Christ. And to make sure that
the disciples who saw it understood God came overshadowing them in
a cloud and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Hear Him. So that we would understand
that the Law and the Prophets testify of Christ. They don't stand on their own.
They were given to testify, to point to, to show us the glory
of the Son, of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, 17-19 says, He
is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. He's the preeminent
one, brethren, for please the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell. This is why in the preaching
of the gospel we declare, exalt, lift up the Son of God because
He is salvation. We don't turn you to the flesh
because you don't save yourselves. Christ is our Savior. We fly
to him. We run to him. We go to him because
he is the very salvation of God. He's the preeminent one. He's
the one who receives all the glory, the praise, and the honor
for our salvation. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's
sake. Even in his death, he's entirely
distinguished from us. He gave up the ghost when he
finished the work. It is finished. And then he bowed
his head and gave up the ghost. When he died, darkness came over
the land for three hours. When he died, an earthquake came.
And the veil in the temple was rent in two, thus showing us
that the way unto the holiest of holies is now open to you
who come through the veil of his flesh, to you who trust him,
to you whose hope is not in your works of righteousness, but in
his righteousness, in his salvation. To you who come to the Father,
the way is open. Jesus Christ the son and so he's
the one that we are to hear and worship hear him hear him we
don't come in anything less than Christ alone he's the preeminent
one 7 Joseph suffered the hatred of his brothers it says in verse
4 Genesis 37 for And when his brethren saw that their father
loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not
speak peaceably unto him. And so what we see here is that
Joseph's very presence testifies of the love of the Father. And
Joseph's very presence testifies of the hatred that is in his
brethren. That hatred by nature, which
was in their hearts, was revealed and manifested by Joseph being
there. Joseph brought that out. He testified
of the Father's love and of the hatred of the people, the enmity
of his brethren against him. Well, so it is with Christ. His
coming testifies of the love of God for His Son and all who
come to Him in the Son. And when He preached and spoke
and testified of the truth, the Jews hated Him for it. It revealed,
it manifested that hatred that was in their heart by nature. from which we must be delivered
from, because we're dead in trespasses and sins. It reveals that enmity
in us, which was witnessed in Adam all the way back in the
garden, when he heard, after he ate the fruit, the forbidden
fruit, and he heard the voice of God, the pre-incarnate Christ
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and he ran.
He ran the other way to hide himself from God, because he
feared him. He was now his enemy. He didn't
run to him and say, I'm sorry, look what I did. No, he hid.
And well, we need that same salvation of God to come to us and deliver
us from that enmity. And so he's first testifying
and making known to us what we are by nature. Now, thanks be
to God, there is a people who will hear. and say, Thou hast
the words of eternal life. All by His grace and power, not
by our power, but by His power, He reveals salvation. He gives a new birth. He gives
salvation to turn us from dead works that cannot save, to look
to Christ. And so, Christ's presence bore
witness to that, that enmity in us by nature, and of the love
of God which is shed abroad in the hearts of those who were
given to Christ. And then when the apostles came
preaching the gospel and testifying of Christ, it continues to reveal
and manifest the enmity and the hatred in man. Paul said it this
way in 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 15 through 17, for we are
unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. He's talking about the preaching
of the gospel. We declare Christ. We declare
who man is and who God is in the face of Jesus Christ. And
that testifies what's in the heart of man. To the one, it's
a saver of death unto death. Preaching Christ, giving Him
all the glory, all the praise, turning our hearts to Christ,
it manifests them that hate Him, because they won't hear it. They
want to hear, tell me what I've got to do to save myself. Don't
give Him all the glory, give me some glory. That's what man
hears, who doesn't have the spirit, who doesn't know the truth, and
it reveals, he says, that's death. I've got to save myself. But
in them that have been covered and washed by the blood of Christ,
apart from their works, apart from them doing anything, Christ,
the preaching of Christ, is a saver of life unto life. They hear.
They hear what Christ has done. And they're delivered from darkness
and brought into the light. And they believe Christ and trust
him. For we're not as many which corrupt
the word of God, but as of sincerity. But as of God and the sight of
God, speak we in Christ. We testify of the Son, whom the
Father loves. And so to preach Christ is to
speak as Joseph spake. As we go through it, Joseph tells
of a dream. He speaks of his exaltation.
which is what Christ did. He spoke of his death that he
should accomplish at Jerusalem and of his exaltation. And the
people hated him for it, took him and crucified him. Well,
as Joseph spoke of the dream that the Father gave him, that
God gave him, and spoke of his exaltation, and they hated him
for it. And so they took him, they were
going to murder him, but they sold him into slavery picturing
the sacrifice of Christ for the redemption and salvation of his
people. And so brethren, we speak of
the suffering and the exaltation of Christ Because to him every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. And I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts and manifest in you a saver of life unto life. To the praise, honor, and glory
of his name, amen.