Good morning. I invite your attention
to the book of Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1, look with me
at verse 1. Now these are the names of the
children of Israel which came into Egypt. Every man in his
household came with Jacob, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar,
Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And
all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy
souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and
all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children
of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied,
and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them." We looked a couple weeks ago, just a short time after this,
The children of Israel, they were in the wilderness, they
didn't have any water. And I mentioned briefly that it wasn't
always that way. For a time, they were in Egypt
and they were prospering. Right here, that's the case.
They're in Egypt, they're fruitful, they're increasing abundantly,
multiply, they're exceeding mighty, the land is full of them. Do
you know why? Do you know why it was well for
them in Egypt? Perhaps someone here doesn't
know why. I pray we all will by the time this message is over.
There was a time when the children of Israel were strangers to the
land of Egypt. And right here, soon, they're
about to be headed for the Promised Land, okay? But here they are
in this land of Egypt, and they're thriving. They're doing exceedingly
well. And it was all because of one
man, Joseph. Joseph. Now, Joseph pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ. Beautiful picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I titled this message, All Because of Christ,
all right? Now, for the children of Israel
here, all their prosperity, all their success, physically speaking,
was all because of Joseph, okay? And I pray we'll see spiritually
that all our prosperity, all our well-being, all our success,
if you will, is because of one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? Now, we're gonna spend some time
here answering this question. Who was Joseph? Now, there's
a lot of scripture here covering this account of Joseph. We're
gonna look at a little bit of it, but for time's sake, obviously,
I'm gonna have to be brief and summarize some things. Turn over
with me to Genesis 37. This is where it starts. Genesis
37. Who was this man, Joseph? Genesis 37, look at verse 3 with
me. Genesis 37, verse 3. Now Israel,
that's Jacob, God gave Jacob a new name, Israel, okay? 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. Joseph was Jacob's beloved son. Whom does God the Father love? The Son. Father loveth the Son,
giving all things into his hand, committed all judgment to the
Son. You know, Peter said, let's build three tabernacles. He said,
this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear him. Hear
him, must see the Lord Jesus in him only. That's who God the
Father loves. Look right here at verse four. wasn't accepted in his own country.
That coat of many colors that the father here, Jacob, made
for his son, whom he loved, Joseph. You know, his brothers, they
wanted that coat to themselves. They thought, where's our coat?
Why is this dreamer, why does he get a coat? You know, that
coat was a symbol of God's love. That code, I believe, represents
the righteousness of Christ. There's only one. There's only
one righteousness. It's Christ. It's Christ. It doesn't belong
to us. It belongs to Him. The praise,
the honor, the glory, it all belongs to Him. It all belongs
to the Son. All of it. And we want it, but
it's His. It's all His. I'm not going to keep reading
on here. We could spend a lot of time here. It goes on, Jacob
sends Joseph to go check on his brothers to see whether it be
well with them. And when he does, they seek to kill him. And then
Reuben says, hold on now, let's not kill him. Let's just throw
him into this pit and leave him there with no water. That's much nicer,
right? And then they just sat, sit down and start eating some
bread and thinking, what are we gonna do? Well, then they sell him
for 20 pieces of silver, sell him to some Ishmaelites. That
was so kind of them, wasn't it? Do we see how evil we are? Honestly. Right here in verse 2, Joseph
brought unto his father their evil report. We have no idea
just how evil our report is. We have no idea. What Joseph's brothers did to
him is such a great picture of our Lord on the cross. We wanted
nothing to do with Him. You know, you think about who
was it there that crucified Him? It was the religious leaders. It was us. If we can't see ourselves as
the ones who crucified our Lord, we've not seen ourselves as we
really are. Pray God will show us. When given
the opportunity, what did fallen man do with the Lord of glory?
Nailed him to a tree, spit upon him, mocked him, crucified him. And you and I were right there.
Right there. Nothing's changed. Fallen man
and false religion still hates the Lord Jesus Christ today.
Still has nothing to do with him today, just like we had nothing
to do with him 2,000 years ago. Nothing's changed. Everybody
says, I love Jesus. Not the Jesus who rules and reigns.
Not the Jesus who is the Christ who does all things well. Not
the Jesus who is our maker in whose hands we are. For him to
do whatever he will with us. Not what will we do with him,
it's what will he do with us. Man does not like that Jesus. And let me tell you something,
there is no other. There's one Lord, and that's Him. And that's
who Joseph pictured here. These Ishmaelites, they took
Joseph to Egypt. That's how the children of Israel
wound up in Egypt. They wronged Him. They sold Him. And let me mention, too, they
took that coat and they tore it to pieces and went and lied
to their father and let him believe a beast devoured him. We're liars,
aren't we? Now when Joseph makes his way
down here to Egypt, he winds up in a man's house named Potiphar.
Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard. Once there, the world might say
some unfortunate things happened to him. Potiphar's wife tried
to get him and got Pharaoh to throw him in prison. You know, it might seem like
what happened to him was unfortunate, but I'm telling you, God was
with him. Oh, God was with him every step of the way. Though
he was falsely accused, he was imprisoned. You know, he interpreted
Pharaoh's dream, and then he was forgotten. But according to God's infinite
wisdom, and His goodness and His purpose. God caused Joseph
to find favor with the man in charge. Look over a couple pages,
Genesis 41. Genesis 41, verse 38. You know,
it just so happened, no? It's so unfortunate Joseph wound
up in Egypt, no? Remember who's in control here,
all right? Remember who's in control. Genesis
41, verse 38. And Pharaoh said unto his servants,
Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God
is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou.
Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall
all my people be ruled. Only in the throne will I be
greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt." Do you not
love that? Oh man, that is so good. I thought of this psalm tune,
God has set his king. upon his holy hill of Zion. Though
man, though man rage against him, though man would have nothing
to do with him, God has set him on high, and we can't dethrone
him. We can't even say to him, what
doest thou? He's in control. Now, again, according to God's
purpose, right after this, a great famine arose. And Jacob and his children, they
were running out of food. They didn't have any more food.
So he sends them to Egypt. He heard that there was food
in Egypt. There's corn in Egypt. Go to Egypt. You know who Joseph's
brothers were going to have to be confronted with? You know
who they were going to have to come beg for food? Joseph. What a story. What a story. You
mean to tell me they're gonna have to come stand before and
beg before the one they sinned against? You mean to tell me
we're gonna have to come before and stand before and plead before
the one we've sinned against? You know, Joseph had told a dream
here in Genesis 37. He told a dream that they were
all gonna make obeisance to him. That's what happened. My daughter's
memory verse for today was, every knee shall bow. Every knee shall
bow. Every knee shall bow. You know,
I'm sure his brothers thought, well, that's the last we've seen
of Joseph. We're never going to see him again. No? Oh, prepare to meet thy maker.
You know, when they came before Joseph asking for food, They didn't recognize him. It
says they knew him not, but it says that he knew them. He knew exactly who they were. And if you read the account,
Joseph dealt kind of rough with them. Joseph tried and tested them,
didn't he? He didn't make it easy for them. And in fact, the way he dealt
with his brothers was grievous, not only to them, but to their
father. Remember, Joseph was the beloved son of his father.
And all this time, his father thinks Joseph is dead. But the
way Joseph dealt with them was all in love. Remember, whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. Turn over a couple pages to Genesis
45. Genesis 45 verse 1. If we don't see it here, we're
not going to see it anywhere. Joseph dealt with his brothers this
way because he loved them. Look at Genesis 45 verse 1. Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by
him. And he cried, cause every man to go out from me. And there
stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto
his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? You
imagine how they must have felt. It tells us right here. And his
brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his
presence. My sinner Martin says, terrified.
Wouldn't you be? Can you imagine? Honestly. Verse
four, Joseph said unto his brethren, look at the mercy and grace here,
come near to me. I pray you, and they came near. You know, they couldn't even
respond with words, but he said, come near, and they came near.
And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Now therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that
you sold me hither, For God did send me before you to preserve
life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the
which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent
me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and
to save your lives by a great deliverance. Now look at verse
eight. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Can you imagine? They sinned a great sin, and
yet look what God all along, all this time, look what God
was doing for them. While they threw him in the pit,
while they thought in their hearts, Let's kill him. God was working
all things together for their good. Consider the evil, the
wrong that we've done, the sin that we are in this flesh right
now, and yet consider the great things our God hath done for
us in spite of us. my soul, just like he made himself
known unto his brethren, our Lord, our Savior, has made himself
known unto us. Had he not, we would not know
him otherwise. And let me tell you this, this
is life eternal that we might know him. What did Paul pray? Oh, that I may know him. Wouldn't
it please God to reveal His Son in me? We must have Him revealed
to us and in us. We must know Him. God used Joseph
to save their lives by great deliverance. Christ saved us. He delivered us from us. Is that not what they needed
to be delivered from themselves? Is that not what we need to be
delivered from ourselves? There's so much more to this
than just needing corn. The famine was within their own
heart. So is ours. Our drought is within. Verse nine right here. Haste
ye and go up to my father and say unto him, thus saith thy
son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down
unto me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the land
of Goshen. Thou shalt be near unto me. Thou and thy children
and thy children's children and thy flocks and thy herds and
all that thou hast, And I love this so much, verse 11. And there
will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine,
lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. What love. Imagine what good
news that was to Jacob. He just couldn't believe it.
Oh, but he was so happy. You know, if we don't come near
to Christ, we will perish. Without Joseph,
it's over for them. They were fully dependent on
Joseph. Are we fully dependent on the
Lord Jesus Christ? Either we are or we're not. He told them. He said, you sold
me, but I will nourish you. What grace. You know, I've heard
it said, mercy is not getting what we deserve. That's mercy.
And I've heard grace is getting what we don't deserve. That's
grace. Mercy and grace in Joseph. Mercy and grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we need. You know, we meant it for evil.
You look at Calvary, we meant it for evil, but praise God,
he meant it for good. He meant it for good. Didn't
catch God off guard. He knew exactly what he was doing
all along. He was saving His people. Call His name Jesus.
He shall unfortunately be nailed to a cross and hopefully someone
will believe on Him and be saved. Oh no. Call His name Jesus for
He shall save His people from their sins. And praise God, that's
what He did. And physically speaking, that's
what He used Joseph to do too. Let me acknowledge this, if we're
gonna come near to Christ, we must be drawn. Here, Joseph reveals
himself to his brothers, and he sends them back to their father,
and he says, you tell my father, you all are coming here. He's
drawing them to himself. Do you notice what he said there?
He said, and thou shalt be near unto me. That's what we need,
is to be near unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look down here at
verse 20. This is so good. Genesis 45 verse 20, also regard
not your stuff for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.
Does that not bless your soul? Regard not your stuff. And I
had always had just thought reading that, I don't bring anything.
But right before it, he tells them to go get your father and
get your stuff. He says, regard not your stuff. Here's what that
means. It means to look upon with compassion. regard, don't
look upon your, don't look upon anything of value. That's what
stuff means right here. Don't look upon any of your things
of value with compassion. You know, that made me think
of the verse in Colossians, set your affection on things above.
If you'd be risen with Christ, you will. What do we love? Whom do we love? Where is our heart right now? I'm gonna tell you something.
It's either on the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone, or it's
on something, someone else. Naturally, it's on self. But if he's made himself known
unto us, he's revealed himself in loving kindness to us, oh,
our heart's on him. Where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. Is he your treasure? Have you found
the pearl of great price? Is everything else worthless
to you compared to him? Scriptures say Christ is all.
Is he all to you? Is he altogether lovely to me?
Right here, the children of Israel, Jacob was Israel. His children. That's where the children of
Israel come from. The children of Israel, right here, their
life was in Joseph's hands. My life is in Christ's hands. My life is in Christ's hands.
Not only that, Christ is my life. You know, people say, oh, Christ
is the most important part of my life. Well, it's more than
that, isn't it? He is our life. If He's not, we don't have life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. All right, back to
our text, Exodus 1, verse 6 again. Joseph died and all his brethren
and all that generation and the children of Israel were fruitful
and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding
mighty and the land was full of them. Because of Joseph, they
just kept on prospering. Because of our Lord Jesus Christ,
it is well with our souls. They just kept growing and growing
and becoming a mighty people just like God promised us to
Abraham a long time ago. Now consider this thought. What if God hadn't promised? What
if God hadn't purposed to overrule their evil for their own good?
What if God didn't delight to show mercy? I'll tell you this.
It wouldn't have ended this way for Joseph's brothers. Their
sons and their family, they'd grown into a massive family here. And they were thriving in the
land of Egypt. If God didn't delight to show mercy, there
would be no children of Israel. If God didn't delight to show
mercy, there would be nobody saved. Not me, not you, nobody. No. But praise God. Listen to
this. Amos 5 15 says, It may be that
the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of
Joseph. The remnant of Christ. Sinners
saved for Christ's sake. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Verse 8 right here. Now there
arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. Now it
doesn't mean he didn't know who Joseph was. There's no way. How
could he not know who he was? He knew about Joseph, but the
word means he wasn't acquainted with Joseph. He did not know
Joseph personally by experience. You know, people may know of
Christ. They may know about Christ, but
that's not enough. We must know him. We must know
him personally. And we just saw it. The only
way to know Him personally is by revelation. He must make Himself
known unto us, and I pray He would. I pray He would. This
Pharaoh here, he knew not Joseph. He had no regard for Joseph.
He didn't honor him. He didn't respect him. He didn't
revere him. He didn't love him. That's who God put in charge
over the children of Israel right here. A man who knew not Joseph. Let us never forget, it is God
who removeth kings and setteth up kings. Daniel 2, 21. And this
too, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers
of water, so he turneth with us whoever he will. Proverbs
21. We have a king, brethren. You
know, we get all torn up about the politics of this world, but
here's the thing. We have a king. We have a king. You know, God
tells us, don't put your trust in man, put your trust in your
king. God has put his holy king on
his holy hill, and he shall reign forever and ever. We have a king. Praise God. Verse 8 again, there
arose up a king over Egypt, a new king which knew not Joseph and
He said unto his people, Behold, the children of Israel are more
and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with
them, lest they multiply and it come to pass that when there
falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight
against us, and so get them up out of the land. He wanted the
children of Israel gone out of here. But here's the thing, it
wasn't happening. It wasn't happening. If they're gonna leave Egypt,
it's gonna be on God's terms, in God's time, according to God's
will. But this is true. In Christ,
we're stronger, we're more, we're mightier than them. I believe
it's in the Psalms, it says, the Lord shall increase you more
and more. God is for us, brethren. Who
can be against us? Who can prevail against us? Nobody. I love this. I listened to a
message on this and a man pointed me at this scripture. It's so
good. Psalm 105, verse 24 and 25. He increased his people greatly,
and it's literally talking about right here, the children of Israel.
He increased his people greatly, speaking of God, and made them
stronger than their enemies. Now listen to this. He turned
their heart, their enemies, to hate his people. God did. to deal subtly with His servants. Who was in charge of all this?
Who put that king in charge and set that king to afflict them,
to hate them? God did, because He's the king. Yeah, this was just another king,
another son of Adam king, you know? It's not the king in charge. No? Look at verse 11. This king,
he had it out for these children of Israel. Verse 11, He enslaved
these children of Israel. He put them to work. That's what false religion does,
enslaves them. Right after where I'm gonna quit,
I'm gonna leave after verse 12, but right after that, he puts
them in hard, bitter bondage. That's what the law do, brethren.
That's what false religion does, point us anywhere but to Christ.
Remember, this king didn't know Joseph. That's why he didn't
love him. That's why he didn't care for
him. That's why he made life hard for them, because he didn't
know Joseph. He didn't know Christ. This world may put us to work,
but keep looking to Christ, brethren. When hard times come, especially,
you keep looking to Christ. And you remind me, you know,
we're in a hard time, you remind me, you just look to Christ.
You look to your Lord. You look to Him who's done everything
for you. Verse 12. This verse right here is what
led me to this text, and I'm barely gonna touch on it, but.
Exodus 1, verse 12. But the more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew. Is that what your Bible
says? That just sounds backwards, doesn't
it? The more they afflicted them,
they just fell apart. If it weren't for our Lord being
with us, we would fall apart. But if we're His, if we're in
Christ, if we've been caused to know Joseph, to know Christ
and believe on Him and trust in Him, these afflictions will
just make us multiply and grow. And I love the end of that verse.
And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. You
know, this Pharaoh, he had in his mind what he's gonna do,
what he wants. He's the king. He didn't have his way, did he?
No, he did not. No, the Lord did. The Lord did. He didn't know Joseph, and he
saw these children of Israel as a growing, mighty army, and
he thought they were gonna be his detriment. They were Egypt's
detriment in the end. But he saw them as a threat,
and he came after them, but to no avail. To no avail. Christ said in John 10, no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Even the cross was God having
his way. You know, in Zephaniah where
it says, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty,
he will save, that's so true. Even at the cross, especially
at the cross, he was in the midst of them, in the midst of men
and women that hated him, and yet he had his way, and he was
mighty in saving his people. Now, let me just touch on this
matter of afflictions real quick. I really wish I could learn this.
May God teach me this. Afflictions are not the problem. They're not the problem. Right
after this, the children of Israel are going to continue to be afflicted.
They're going to cry out unto the Lord, and the Lord's going
to deliver them. And then He's going to bring them into a wilderness.
Then they're not going to have any water, and they're almost going to die,
and the Lord's going to deliver them. They're not going to have any food, and
He's going to send them bread from heaven. The Lord's going to deliver
them. And then eventually, those whom He purposed to deliver to
the Promised Land are going to be delivered to the Promised
Land. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to wonder what's
going to happen to us if we're in Christ, if our hope is in
Christ. What's our problem then? Sin?
Unbelief? That's our problem. This old
man's going to struggle with that until we drop him. Who shall
deliver us from the body of this death? Thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. He shall. He shall. Let me say
this, people keep telling me they're praying for us, and that
means so much to me. Whether they actually know God
or not, I really do appreciate the kindness. I really do. I
think we should. But they'll also say things like,
well, you know, it's so good to have your faith to lean on
in a time like this. I hope they hear this. I'm not
trusting in my faith. I am not leaning on my faith. My hope is in the faith of the
Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. By God's grace, by God-given
faith, I'm clinging to my Lord. Their hope was in, physically
speaking, their hope was in Joseph. Spiritually speaking and physically,
my hope is all in Christ. It's all in Christ. The children
of Israel here represent spiritual Israel, God's Israel, God's elect,
God's people. He provided for them through
Joseph. He's provided everything for us through our Lord Jesus
Christ, everything. There's nothing we'll ever need
if God has given us him. We have everything. He told his
brothers, he said, you're going to be near me and all the land
of Egypt is yours. It's all yours. What do we not
have in Christ? We have all spiritual blessings.
God has freely given us all things because he's given us Christ.
Who's all? What do we lack? Nothing. Nothing. We never will. God loves us. God's redeemed us. God has saved
us and God will keep us because of Christ. All because of Christ.
No matter how afflicted we may become, remember who sends us
our afflictions, our God. No matter how afflicted we become,
nothing can ever take this away from us. You know, he told Mary,
you've chosen the good part, which shall never be taken away
from you. What was that? The one thing needful, Christ,
our Lord. She just wanted to be near her
Lord and hear his voice. We'll have that forever. We'll
have that forever. Like the children of Israel,
we've been fruitful, we've increased abundantly, we've waxed exceeding
mighty, our enemies can't touch us, and our afflictions only
cause us to grow because of Christ. Do our afflictions
not draw us nearer to him, bring us to our wit's end? To whom
shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal
life. We believe and we're sure they are the Christ. Our life
is in you. Thank God for Christ. May God enable us to trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Amen.