This morning we will be looking
in the book of Genesis. The first book in God's Word. The book of Genesis chapter 40.
Genesis chapter 40. I hope you will follow along
with me in your Bible. If not, please listen carefully
as I give you an old and possibly a familiar story to you. This
is the story of Joseph who is in prison with two men, a butler
and a baker. Now, this story, as with all
stories in the Scripture, tells us who God is, what man is, and
what salvation is, what Jesus Christ has done to save his own. This is a very simple story,
but it is a profound picture of the salvation that is in Christ
alone. Now, there are two men in this
story, well, three actually, including Joseph. Two men, a
butler and a baker, who were both at one time in the service
of the king, and they have offended the king and now they are in
prison. I am reading verses 1-4 of Genesis
40. It came to pass after these things
that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended
their lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was wroth against these
two. And in verse 3, it says, he put
them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard in the
prison, the place where Joseph was bound. Joseph was already
there. And the captain of the guard
charged Joseph with these two men. And he served these two. And they continued there in war. Now, two prisoners. And they
are under the charge of Joseph, who himself is a prisoner. Now, this is a picture of all
mankind, all men and women by nature. They are under bondage
to sin, to the world, to the flesh. They are, though, servants
of the Lord God, willingly or unwillingly. All persons and
all things serve the purpose of God Almighty and are under
His rule. And all have offended the Most
Holy God. Scripture says all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Scripture says that none
doeth good. No, not one. Scripture says God
is angry with the wicked every day. And that is all of us by
nature. These two men, Butler and the
Baker, represent all of mankind who are servants of God in one
way or another, who have offended God and are in bondage to sin,
to the world and the flesh, and we are under the rule of, under
the authority of, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Christ said,
that He has been given authority over all flesh, that He should
give eternal life to as many as God had given him. That is John chapter 17. And
Christ himself came to this earth and was manifest in the flesh
and was bound to a human body and eventually bound to an altar
as a sin offering for his people. But Christ became a prisoner
to the flesh here to restore his own, to restore his people
back to his God. Now, these two prisoners dreamed
a dream. Each of them had a dream. Verse
5, they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in
one night. Each man, the butler and the
baker. They were bound in prison and they dreamed these dreams.
And this is a picture of man who is filled with thoughts and
opinions and dreams. And man also has the law of God
written on his heart. Man has a conscience given to
him by God. Yet, man does not know the meaning
of what is in his heart. Man does not know God by his
own thoughts. Man cannot, Scripture says, by
searching find out God. The natural man, Scripture says,
receiveth not the things of God. They are foolishness to him.
They are a mystery. Only if the Son of God, The Word
of God made flesh. Only if Christ Himself reveals
the truth to us and in us will we know who God is, what we are,
and how we may approach that God. Now, all souls belong to
Christ, and only if Christ is pleased to reveal the truth to
us will we be restored to God. Now, I continue to read verses
6 and 7. Now these two men dreamed a dream,
and it says in verse 6, "...Joseph came unto them in the morning,
and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad." And he asked
Pharaoh's officers, he asked the butler and baker, why are
you so sad today? Why are you sad? Mankind is generally
unhappy. In fact, the whole of man's life
is spent trying to make himself happy. Man is generally unhappy
and sad because his thoughts trouble him. His conscience pricks
him. Some, by God's grace, are troubled
to the extent that the gospel is finally revealed to them.
And then others, most, that is, never hear the gospel. That is,
they never hear it with the ear of faith. They never hear the
gospel and remain in their troubles and in their condemnation and
eventually to their destruction. Now, verse 8, I read in verse
8, it says, they said unto Joseph, we've dreamed a dream and there's
no interpreter of it. They said, we're sad because
we've dreamed a dream and there's no one to tell us what it means. There's no interpreter. And Joseph
said, Do not interpretations belong to God? Do not the mysteries belong to
God? Yes, truly. Interpretations,
all knowledge, all wisdom, all understanding of all things,
the mystery, the truth, all belongs to God. God, the truth of who
God is, of what man is, what salvation is, who Christ is.
How God saves sinners, that all belongs to God, and it is all
a revelation from God. We cannot figure these things
out of ourselves. No man by searching can find
out God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. They are foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them, Scripture said, for they are spiritually
discerned. And only when the Spirit of the
Most High God reveals them unto us, only when that happens will
we know the Man does not figure out the truth by human will or
human wisdom. Only when God is pleased to reveal
it. Alright? So Joseph says, Do not
interpretations belong to God? Then he says, Tell me, I pray
you. Tell me. Joseph, throughout this
story, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no clearer
picture of Jesus Christ in all the Old Testament than the story
of Joseph throughout these chapters, from chapters preceding this
to the end of the book of Genesis. The story of Joseph is the story
of Jesus Christ. And if you want a blessing, go
through these chapters and ask God to reveal Christ to you in
the story of Joseph. Better yet, come thou with us
and we will show them unto you. Well, Joseph here says interpretations
belong to God. Tell me, I pray you. Well, he
represents the Lord Jesus Christ here who said, Come unto me and
I'll give you rest. Come unto me. Tell me. I'll pray to the Father. Look
to me. I'll reveal the truth in you. Yes, Christ is the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He, the only begotten
of the Father, he alone can declare God unto a human being, reveal. Now, here are the dreams of these
two men, the dreams of the butler and the baker. Two dreams, and
they are somewhat similar, yet vastly different. Now, both of
these men were servants of the king, and both of these men,
in their dreams, approach the king. Each man brings something
to the king, and it is according to what they brought, whether
or not they were received by the king, or whether they lived
or died. It was life and death. These
dreams were a matter of life and death. Here is the first
dream, the dream of the butler, verse 9. The chief butler told
his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream, behold,
a vine was before me. And in the vine were three branches,
as though it budded, and their blossoms came forth, and the
clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup
was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into
Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand." So
the essence of what the butler dreamed was this. He saw a vine,
he saw branches, a cup, He saw grapes growing from that vine,
and he saw, eventually, wine in the cup which he brought to
the king. In short, what the butler brought
to the king was the fruit of the vine. The butler brought
the wine of the grape unto the king. Now, here is the interpretation
by Joseph, verses 12 and 13. Joseph said unto him, this is
the interpretation of it, of your dream. The three branches
are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh
lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place, and thou
shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner
when thou wast his butler. In other words, in three days
you will be restored back to the place of butler because of
what you brought to the king. Now, this interpretation of this
dream is far more than what meets the eye here. Joseph spoke of
three days. He spoke of a head being lifted
up. He spoke of restoration unto
a place. He spoke of the butler being
restored back to the place of acceptance. because the wine
was in his hand. Now, do you understand what you
read or what you heard me read to you? All who hear this this
morning, do you understand that? I hope you'll say with the man
who told Philip, that I'll understand if you tell me, only if a man
tells me. Well, this story is of Christ
who is divine. and we are the branches. And
the fruit, the blood of grapes, all comes from Christ the vine. And verse 11, the butler brings to Pharaoh
the blood of the grape into Pharaoh's hand. And though we with wicked
hands have crucified and shed the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Yet if we come to God by faith in that very blood, if that very
blood, we bring that very blood by faith to this God, we are
restored to the place which Christ had prepared for us and told
us, into the presence of the very King. In other words, in
short, very simply, we will live with God only if we come by faith
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only if we come to this
most holy God who is angry with the wicked every day, pleading
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as remission of our sin. Well,
the next dream now, the next dream, and I must hurry for the
sake of time. The baker had a dream. Down in
verse 16, it says, The baker had a dream and said, I had three
white baskets on my head, and the baskets were full of all
sorts of meat that I had made, and I brought those to the king.
And then Joseph answered and said, The three baskets are three
days, and in three days the king is going to cut your head off.
He is going to hang you, and the birds are going to eat the
flesh off of them. And in short, in closing, let
me sum up this dream. What the baker brought was what
he had made with his own hands. What the butler brought was what
had been provided to him by the vine. The difference being a
spiritual story here is that we will only be accepted by God
and restored to the place that we lost in Adam if we bring the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, but if we come to God
with our own works, with what we have done, and plead before
God what we are, what we have done, we will not be accepted,
but rather rejected and condemned and sentenced to death. But if
we come like this butler, we'll be accepted. Well, I hope this
has been a revelation to you. Until next Sunday, may God bless
His Word to you. Amen. Thank you.