If you're in Genesis 39, look
with me at verse 1. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt. We know that Joseph was a picture,
or a type, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was in many ways. I'll mention a few. He was loved
of his father, hated of his brothers, plotted against, cast into a
pit, as we just read, with no water. His coat of many colors
was ripped up. He was lied about, and he was
sold as a slave into Egypt. Here he is. It tells us right
here he was brought down to Egypt. Not of his own accord. Somebody
else brought him down into Egypt. He didn't come to Egypt willingly. Now again, he's a picture of
Christ. Think about how his father must
be feeling right now. You read it at the end of Genesis
37. He mourned for his son many days. Jacob didn't want Joseph to go
down into Egypt. Best I can tell, Joseph didn't
want, he wasn't looking to go down into Egypt. What about Christ?
What about God the Father? God the Father sent him here. Christ came here willingly. He's the willing servant. He
said, lo, I come to do thy will. Oh God. Verse one again, 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." Here, Joseph
is sold, notice, for the second time. At the end of chapter 37,
his brothers sold him to these Ishmaelites. Now, a very short
time later, these Ishmaelites sell him to Potiphar. Interesting,
isn't it? How much they sell him for? I don't know, but I have a theory.
You can take it or leave it, but I'll tell you this much.
It would no doubt have been for a little bit more than they paid
for them, wouldn't it? They were merchantmen. That's
what they did. They'd buy and sell. Well, you're going to buy something
and sell it for more, right? Make a little money. Profit off of
him. How much did they buy him for? 20 pieces of silver? I wonder
if they might have sold him for, I don't know, maybe about 30?
Just a guess. But I have no doubt they sold
him for a little more than they paid for him. And I'll tell you
this, Potiphar here, he got a bargain. Oh, he got a bargain. And he's about to find out. He's
about to find out. This is Joseph. Isn't it sad that nobody, the
Ishmaelites, they don't want him. They just make a little
money off of him. Does anybody value him? We know the father
does, don't we? His brothers sure didn't. They didn't care
for him. Remember who this pictures. Joseph pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. What's he worth to us? What's he worth to you? What's
he worth to me? I pray we see him as the Father
sees him. The Father's well pleased in
him. Well pleased in him. I love the scripture that mentions
the pearl of great price. All those other pearls meant
nothing to that man when he found the pearl of great price. I thought
of the rich young ruler. He had much wealth, he had much
self-worth, self-goodness, and the Lord told him, he said, you
just, you go sell everything you have, you come follow me,
you'll have treasure in heaven. That's what Christ is. Christ
is treasure in heaven. He's the treasure of heaven,
he's heaven itself. Verse two right here, and the
Lord was with Joseph, The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a
prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master, the
Egyptian. You know, people often look at
the story of Joseph, and they see all the evil that befell
him, all the bad things that happened to him, and they think,
poor, pitiful Joseph. But it was not so, and here's
why. Because the Lord was with him
every step of the way. The Lord was with him. His brothers
had forsaken him, but God hadn't. God hadn't. Through this whole
story of Joseph, and it runs from Genesis 37 through Genesis
50, a lot happened. And a lot more is gonna happen
between right here and Genesis 45. A lot takes place here. A lot of evil befalling him,
if you will. But here's the thing. God was...
God was the one in control of all these things. God was working
something miraculous through Joseph, and he was doing something
wonderful for Joseph, fulfilling his promise to his children.
Here's what the Lord said. He said, I will be with thee.
That's what God says to his children. I'll be with you. It applied
to Joseph, too. He said, I'll never leave thee. I'll never
forsake thee. Never. He's with us, brethren. And I love how it tells us right
here in the fine details. It tells us the Lord was with
him. He was just sold twice. He was just thrown into a pit.
He was just done away with. And yet the Lord was with him.
The Lord was with him and he prospered. He prospered. He was a prosperous man. You
know that my life has had some trials lately. You know, usually
it's been easy street for me, as you like to say. but it's
been not so easy street here of late. And here's what I want
to say. Whether or not things seem to be going well for us
or not, if we're in Christ, if we have Joseph, if the Lord is
with us, we prosper. It may feel like a gloomy day,
but in Christ we're prosperous. We're prosperous. In Christ,
we can only prosper, and here's why. Because whatsoever he doeth,
this is Psalm 1 verse 3, the blessed man, that's Christ, whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. And we're in him. We're in him. He shares that glorious, eternal
prosperity with us. Verse 3, and his master saw that
the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did
to prosper in his hand. What a glorious picture of Christ
this is. The Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. Everything he ever did, our Lord
prospered in it. Everything. Turn to Isaiah 42.
I'm gonna look at a few different verses here in Isaiah. Isaiah
42. Jesus Christ is not who most
people think he is. People speak of him as someone
who did not always prosper. Someone who did not always have
his way. Someone who's not seated on the
throne. Someone who's less than God.
Look here, Isaiah 42. I'm telling you, this is who
Joseph pictures. Isaiah 42, verse one. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail. nor be discouraged till he have
set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his
law. Our Lord never failed at anything. He never failed at anything.
In our text, Joseph is the servant. And what a wonderful servant
he was. But there's one glorious servant, capital S, and it's
Jesus Christ. He's the servant of God. God
is the servant of God. Turn over to chapter 53. He's
God's servant, we just read it. He's God's elect in whom his
soul delighted. Christ is God's chosen, okay?
And look here at Isaiah 53 verse 8. Speaking of Christ, Isaiah 53
verse 8 says he was taken from prison and from judgment, and
who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his
death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit
in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days. Now look at this. And the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Do you remember what
we just read about Joseph? All that he did. The Lord made
sure that all that Joseph did prospered in his hand. Picture
in Christ. The pleasure of the Lord. What
was the pleasure of the Lord? We just read it. The pleasure
of the Lord was to bruise Him. For Him to come and trade places
with us, with His people. That was the pleasure of the
Lord. You mean to tell me the cross was the pleasure of the
Lord? Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. That's exactly what
God is saying. That was God's good pleasure, to give unto us
His only begotten Son. And I very clearly see this,
I pray you do too, The cross prospered in his hand. Has God shown us that? Oh, my
soul. And because of this, because
of Christ, look over at page Isaiah 54, verse 17. Isaiah 54, verse 17. Because
of Christ, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. He gave up his life to give us
life. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Is that not wonderful? In Christ,
we are the servants of the Lord, servants of God, servants of
Jehovah. We're servants of God in Him. And what about our righteousness?
You know, everybody's working righteousness, trying to please
God, establishing their own. I don't know if there's a phrase
in the scriptures I like more than that. Their righteousness
is of me. That's good news, isn't it? You
know, that's prosperity. We all want health, wealth, and
prosperity. It doesn't get more prosperous than that. Righteousness. Our righteousness is of Him.
Turn back to our text, back in Genesis 39. Do you need Him to be your righteousness?
I have no other righteousness. There is no other righteousness.
Only in Christ. Genesis 39, verse four. And Joseph found grace in his
sight. Joseph found favor in Potiphar's
sight. He found favor. Who has favor
in God the Father's sight? One man. One man. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. What about you and
me? You say, oh, well, hold on now. There was, I remember somebody
in the book of Genesis who found grace. Noah, that just man, that
perfect man, he found grace. Did he find grace because he
was a just man? Did he find grace because he
was perfect? No, grace made him a just man. Grace made him a just man. Grace
made him a perfect man. You see, only if we find grace
In the Lord Jesus Christ, can we be just and perfect? Only
if we find grace in the Lord Jesus Christ before God the Father
will we be accepted. Grace is in Christ. Grace is
of Christ. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is Christ. If God's given us grace, God's
given us Christ. Oh, how we need Christ. Verse
four, Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him who served
whom Joseph served Potiphar when it comes to serving I want
us to hear this I need to hear this it's it's so easy for us
and I know false religion is all caught up in this but it's
so easy for us to get caught up on our serving God But I'm
telling you, my hope is not anything related to my service to God,
but in God's service to me. In God serving me. Is your hope in what Christ did
or in what you've done? Is our hope in somebody else
or ourselves? Christ came to serve the Father,
and in serving the Father, he served us too. He saved us. Our hope is either in ourselves
or it's in our substitute. It's either in us or in God's
servant in whom he's well pleased. Jesus Christ is the servant.
The servant. The servant of God. The king
became a servant. Imagine that. You think about
that. The king of heaven and earth came here, took upon himself
flesh. No sin, but flesh. and served, and oh how he served. There's
never been a more gracious, tenderhearted, faithful, loving, meek, and lowly
servant. There's never been a servant
like the Lord Jesus Christ, never, never. I thought of the scripture where
there was a certain man who made a great supper and he bade many. And everybody just gave their
excuses, nobody wanted to come. And then finally he told his
servant to go out into the streets and the highways and you find
some people, you find some people who, they are nothing, they have
nothing, you go compel them, you go draw them to my supper. And you know every single one
that that servant went out and compelled to come came. And I
thought about how we just had one last week. We have these
get togethers. We had one the last two weeks. Thank you to
those of you that hosted these dinners. But when we have these
dinners, I notice something. And same thing with our fellowship
dinners. Everybody chips in and brings something, right? That
seems right, doesn't it? And yet, spiritually, when that
man made that great supper and he bade many, nobody brought
anything. He prepared it all, all by himself. Nobody brought anything. In fact,
if someone had brought something, it would have been incredibly
insulting to him. You see the picture? Christ has
fully prepared, fully accomplished and finished salvation by himself. There's nothing for us to bring,
and if we so much as bring one good work to add to that, to
make us accepted, we ruin it. Nothing can be added to it or
taken from it. It's finished, it's perfect. Verse four again
right here. And Joseph found grace in his
sight, and he served him, and he made him overseer over his
house, and all that he had he put into his hand. In Egypt, in this chapter and
then in chapter 40 and 41, I see three ascensions
of Joseph in Egypt. The first right here, his first
landing spot right here, Potiphar's house, he ascends. Made him overseer
of all his house, everything that he had. Right after this,
Joseph winds up in prison. Wrongfully, I might add. But
again, the Lord was with him. It was of the Lord. Picture of
Christ. And yet, once he gets to prison,
he ascends there. He's in charge of the prison.
Then a couple years later, he gets out of prison. And he's before Pharaoh, the
king, the king of Egypt. And he tells Pharaoh, you need
a man. Pharaoh says, you're the one. He ascended there. Everywhere
he went, he ascended. Is that not our Lord? Is that
not our Lord? He put Joseph in charge of everything
he had. Joseph's brothers hated him.
They couldn't stand to hear him talk and talk about his dreams.
They hated him and they sold him away with this man. We don't want him. Do you know
that they were unknowingly doing God's bidding? Read you a verse, I'm sure you
know. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified,
both Lord and Christ. Acts 2.36. We didn't want him. We didn't want him. You know where he is right now?
We sing a song, risen, ascended, seated on high. Jesus Christ
is King of kings. He is Lord of lords, the blessed
and only potentate. He's God, there's none else.
No God beside him. The same one who was hated and
sold is now in charge. Amazing, isn't it? Amazing how
that works. Who has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm?
Who sent the storm that kept you here today? We don't have
to wonder, do we? We don't have to wonder. Hebrews
1 verse 8 says, unto the son he saith, the father saith, I
love this, thy throne, oh God, is forever and ever. The scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Jesus Christ is, it's not you
have the father, then you have the son, no, no. The father says,
oh God. Well, then he's God. If that's
what the father says, if that's how the father views him, then
that's who he is. That's who he is. God Almighty,
verse five right here. Genesis 39, verse five. And it
came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his
house and over all that he had, notice what it says here, that
the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing of the Lord
was upon all that he had in the house and in the field. The Lord blessed this man's house."
Why'd he do it? For Joseph's sake. That's not hard to see, is it?
He blessed this man's house for Joseph's sake. Now, let's back
up a second. How were things for Potiphar before Joseph entered
the picture? Was he blessed? What do you think? If you take Christ out of the
equation, are we blessed? Turn to Ephesians 1. If Christ ever enters the picture,
everything changes. It doesn't matter what we have,
if we don't have him, if we don't know him, we don't have anything.
We don't know anything worth knowing. But if Christ comes
in, if Christ enters our house, You know, that's what he told
Zacchaeus. He said, this day of salvation come to thy house.
Joseph came to Potiphar's house. I pray Christ would enter our
house. Look here, Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus, grace be to you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed. Be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, I hear people at work talk
about being blessed all the time, and they'll sign their emails
with, have a blessed day, bless this, bless that. Listen, being
blessed is having Christ. That's it. You know, I know that
we'll talk like, oh, the Lord's blessed me with a good job, and
that's okay, I think it's fine to say that. We thank the Lord for
these things, these blessings, right? But I like how what we
just read says spiritual blessings, spiritual, that's what we really
need, spiritual blessings. We need to be spiritually blessed
before God, and the only way that's possible is if God has
given us Christ. Gotta have Christ. If we don't have him, we're not
blessed, simple as that. God's blessings don't come as
a result of something that we do. Again, someone at work told
me once about how God has blessed him
because of what he'd done. Because of how he had served
God, God in return had blessed him. God's blessings are in Christ,
they're because of Christ, and Christ is the blessing. We can't
stress it enough, can we? We preach Christ, determined
not to know anything, but Christ and Him crucified. You know,
I say, you don't have Christ, you don't have anything. Well,
what do the scriptures say? Colossians 3.11, Christ is most
things. Christ is pretty much everything.
No, Christ is all. And in all, period. Turn over
a couple pages to chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4. Why? Why did the Lord bless Potiphar's
house? For Joseph's sake. Why will God
bless you or me? Ephesians 4, 31. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. We sing a song, and I really
like it, but there's a line in it that I don't like. I mean,
I sing it, you know, but in tenderness he sought me. I wondered what
he saw in me. We know what he saw in us. We're
nothing but sin. wounds, bruises, and putrefying
sores from here to here. But how does God see us? Brethren,
he sees us in Christ. He sees us in that coat of many
colors, the righteousness of Christ. For Christ's sake. It's just
like Mephibosheth, that lame man. He had nothing, did he?
And yet, when David showed great kindness to him, David had mercy
on him, he covered his lameness when he sat at the king's table,
and there was one reason that David was so kind to him and
so good to him, and it was for Jonathan's sake. If we have God's
blessings, if we can sing, it is well, it is well with my soul,
and those words ring true from our heart, it's for one reason,
for Christ's sake, that's it. Let's not go looking for another
reason. There is no other reason. That's it. For Christ's sake. We're nothing. But in Him, we're
rich toward God. Rich toward God. And we want
to be rich here, don't we? Oh, I want to be rich toward
God. We have joy unspeakable. Joy unspeakable. Our life may
seem joyous. It may not. But in Christ, we
have joy unspeakable. Not lawful for a man to utter
just how joyful it is. You look back in our text, Genesis
39, verse 6. Genesis 39 verse 6, And he left all that he had in
Joseph's hand, and he knew not aught he had save the bread which
he did eat. He trusted Joseph completely.
He entrusted him with everything he had. How much does God the
Father trust Christ the Son? Do we have any doubt? The father who first trusted
in Christ, do we have to wonder how much he trusts him? Do we trust him? You know, there's
nothing safer we could possibly do than trust him. But it takes
the work of God for us to do that. This is the work of God
that you believe on him whom God has sent? Oh my God, work
that work in us. Work that faith in us to trust
him completely. The Father trusted Christ with us. The Father trusted Christ
with the salvation of his people, the redemption of his bride,
his purchased possession. I heard somebody say this at
a conference recently, it might've been here, I'm not sure, but
he said, we were his responsibility. I love that. He took responsibility
for us. We who are commanded to believe
on God, Christ took responsibility for us. A couple chapters later,
we read about this word surety. Surety. Christ is our surety. If I don't get the job done,
you let me bear the blame forever. He got the job done, and we'll
praise Him forever. Here through Joseph, God is gonna
see to it that a great deliverance takes place through Joseph. And this great deliverance is
gonna be for many people, but in particular, it's gonna be
for those sorry brothers of his. That's why I love the story of
Joseph so much, when I see who he did this great kindness for.
who he showed great mercy to. Praise his holy name. The end
of verse six right here says that Joseph was a goodly person
and well-favored. Ah, well, there it is. He was
a good person. You know what this is talking
about? And let me say this, Joseph was a good person just like you and
I might be good people in Christ. There's none good but God. He's
the only one that's good. But the description right here,
a goodly person and well-favored, it's talking about his appearance.
Just like his mother, Rachel, well favored. Beautiful. Pleasant to look upon. A sight
to behold. Now, and I won't get into this,
but what happens the rest of this chapter is, perhaps because
of how pleasant he was to look upon, Potiphar's wife starts
to try to mess around and that's how he winds up in prison. He
sins not. I get the picture in Christ.
But nonetheless, Joseph was pleasant to look upon. Do you know who
the scriptures command us to look upon? Do you know who the
scriptures command, not suggest, command us to behold? Scriptures command us to look
somewhere, away from our vain, empty selves. Behold the Lamb. Behold the man. Behold our King. It's the same
person. The Lord Jesus Christ. We need a man. He's the man.
He's the one we need. He's the chiefest among 10,000. He's altogether lovely. Is he
not? I pray he's lovely to all of
us. I pray he is. And yet by nature, Just like
Joseph's brothers saw nothing desirable in him, there's no
beauty in him that we should desire him. We must acknowledge
this. If we don't acknowledge that
he wasn't beautiful to us, then he's still not. Maybe the Jesus
of our imagination, but not the Jesus who's Christ, Jesus who's
God. Nevertheless, we will be saved
unto his glory. It's all gonna be for His glory.
When this is all over, when, I love chapter 45 of this book
so much. If you're interested, if you
don't know it, or even if you do know it, you wanna see it
again, go home and read it, it's so glorious. What happens here, physically
speaking, was for Joseph's glory, picturing salvation is for Christ's
glory. He gets all the glory. Are you
glad to know that? Does that make your heart rejoice?
Oh, when we see Joseph in Egypt, I pray we see our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord is with him. The Lord caused him to prosper
in all that he does, prospered in all that he's ever done. Everything
has been committed into his hand, just like Potiphar gave it all
to Joseph, just like Pharaoh's gonna give it all to Joseph.
He's over all. He's good and pleasant and beautiful
in every way. May God cause us to believe on
him. I want to leave you with a few words of a song. Fairest
Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, O thou of God and man the son,
thee will I cherish, thee will I honor. Thou my soul's glory,
joy and crown. Pray God would make the Lord
Jesus Christ altogether lovely to us. Amen.