Turn to Genesis 42 this morning. I pray the Lord will help me
to speak to you plainly on this. You know, when I first entered
the Sovereign Grace Church years ago, my pastor was going through
the Old Testament pictures of Christ And up until that time,
I thought that this was just a bunch of stories for kids,
you know. Joseph is a preeminent picture of Christ. I'll give
you a few tips here. If you look at chapter 37 for
a second, you see this immediately. It says in chapter 37, verse
3, 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.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was loved above all his brethren. And the
Lord did make him a coat of many colors. He stood out among all
men. He was given the spirit without measure, and grace was
poured into him in a way that none of us will ever know anything
about. And it says in verse 4, When his brethren saw that his
father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him
and could not speak peaceably to him. Now, if you read on,
you'll find out that Joseph had two dreams, and in the dreams
he saw a bunch of sheaths in a field, and the ten sheaths
bowed down to his sheath. Then he saw a dream of the stars,
ten stars bowing down to his star, and the sun and the moon
bowing down to him. And everybody that heard that
dream knew exactly what he was saying. that they were going
to bow to him. And so the whole story of Joseph
is a story of authority rejected. And my friends, that is the story
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Authority rejected from the very
start. And he went, you remember, His
brethren could not speak well of him. In chapter 37, if you
look, it says down here in verse 13, Israel said to Joseph, Jacob
said to Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock and Sheshem? Come,
I'll send thee unto them. And he said unto him, Here am
I. And he said, Go, go, I pray thee,
see whether it be well with thy brethren and with the flocks
and bring me word again. So he sent them to the vale of
Hebron and he came to Sheshem. Joseph was sent on a mission
from his father to check on his brethren and to check on his
father's sheep. Who does that sound like? And
you know what? When he got there, he found they
were not where they were supposed to be, and that sounds like you
and me. Alright, and when they got there,
and I'll just go on down, we won't deal too long with this,
but what happened is when they saw him coming, they despised
him and set out to murder him. But instead, they sold him for
20 pieces of silver, even as our Lord was sold for 30 pieces
of silver, and they sent him down into Egypt. He ended up
in the house of a man named Potiphar, and Potiphar, in that house,
he was greatly tried. Look at verse chapter 39 for
a second. Verse 7, it came to pass After
these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph,
and she said, Lie with me. And he refused, and said to his
master's wife, Behold, my master wanteth not what is with me in
the house, and hath committed all into mine hand, and there
is none greater in the house than I, neither hath he kept
back anything from me." from me but thee, because thou art
his wife, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"
Joseph was a man of integrity. Joseph was a man who would not
sin against his God. And it came to pass, as she spake
to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her to lie
with her, to be with her. What's this all about? Here's
a man that's being tried, tempted and tried constantly, just as
our Lord who was tried in all points and yet without sin. And when He refused, she grabbed
His coat and made false accusations, and that's exactly what happened
to our Lord Jesus Christ. He was tried on all points and
falsely accused, sent down into prison. He went down, down into
the prison house. But that's not the end of the
story. That's not the end of the story at all. You folks,
you know I can't read all of this to you today, but when he
was in the prison, he had some people there that were with
him. There was a baker and a butler and they had a dream and he interpreted
their dream for them. The baker was killed and the
butler lived and the butler promised that he would remember Joseph,
but he didn't. He left and he went back and
spent quite some time, I believe it was over a year, might have
been two years, working with Pharaoh. That's who he was with.
And one night, Pharaoh dreamed a dream. And there was nobody
that could interpret that dream. And then the butler spoke up
and said, I know a man that can interpret that dream. And they
sent for Joseph. Now, you think of the picture
here. We've got this man who's down in the prison house. He's
gone about as far as you can go. And one day they come down
to get him. They bring him upstairs, shave
him and clean him up and bring him before Pharaoh. And he interprets
Pharaoh's dream. And this saves the entire nation
of Egypt from the great famine that's coming upon that land.
And Pharaoh was very happy to have someone that could do that.
And it says in Genesis 41, look at this, Genesis 41, Verse 40, here's what happened.
This one who came out of the pit was suddenly exalted. Thou shalt be over my house,
and according to 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. And
Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's
hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold
chain upon his neck, and made him to ride on the second chariot
which he had. And they cried before him, Bow
thy knee. Bow the knee, and he made him
ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand
or foot in the land of Egypt." Everything that took place, all
the primary movement in the land of Egypt was under the rule of
this man. Ah, yeah. Who does that sound
like? Who does that say? Listen to
me. And Pharaoh called his name Zapnathpaniah. Now, if you have
in your center margin, and I hope you do, it says, a revealer of
secrets, the man to whom the secrets are revealed. Who is
that? Who is the one, according to
Colossians, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Who is the one? Who is the one
that knows all the secrets? All the secrets. Who is wisdom
personified? This is our Lord Jesus Christ. And He gave Him a wife. He gave
Him a wife. He gave Him the wife Ashnaf,
the daughter of Potiphar, the priest at Thon. And Joseph went
out over all the land of Egypt. He was given a Gentile bride. Our Lord has been too. Most of
His church, most of His sheep, are Gentiles. Most of his people,
historically. What a great, great, great story. But I tell you, if you look on
down here, it says in chapter 41, at the end of it, in verse
55, when all the land of Egypt was famished and the people cried
to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, go
unto Joseph what he saith to you. Do. You go to Joseph. You're hungry? You go to Joseph.
Ah, yes. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses
and sold them to the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in
the land of Egypt. And all countries came unto Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was sore in all the
lands." I'm telling you, my friends, That's the case. That's the case. This world in which you and I
live is a famine, and it's sore in all the lands. There's a famine
of the Word of God, and you and I, from the day we're born, are
born. We have sin imputed to us. We're dead, and we're starving
to death. But listen, there's hope. Listen.
Now, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said
to his sons, why do you look one upon another? And he said,
behold, I've heard that there's corn in Egypt. Get you down thither
and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. You know, it makes perfect sense
when a person realizes their spiritual plight to do something
about it. I love what he says. Why do you
and I look upon one another for help in spiritual matters? Why do we hope that there's anything
that we can gain from any other human being in spiritual matters? There's corn in Egypt. There's
one down there that can handle our famine. And that's not very
far away. Paul said that in Acts 17 when
he was speaking up there on Mars Hill. He said that this one is
near thee. He's not very far from you. In
him we live and move and have our being. There's one that's
close to us. Very close to his people. And
I tell you this day, if any man thirsts, let him come to the
Lord Jesus Christ." That's a picture here. Now, when Jacob and his
sons heard there was corn in Egypt, and here, Joseph's ten
brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's
brother, Jacob, sent not with his brethren. For he said, lest
peradventure and mischief should befall him. And the sons of Israel
came to buy corn among those that came. For the famine was
in the land of Canaan, and Joseph was the governor over the land,
and he was that sold all the people of the land. And Joseph's
brethren came down, and look here, and bowed down themselves
before him with their faces to the earth." Ah, the dream, the
dreamer's dream comes true. bowing themselves down. And Joseph
saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange
unto them, and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them,
Whence come ye? And they said, From the land
of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams
which he dreamed of them. And he said, Your spies, your
spies, you've come to see the nakedness of the land. He knew his brethren, and they
did not know him." Guess what? Is that not the case with you?
How long? How long? Our Lord has known
us from the beginning of time, and we spent our lives, many
of us, many, many years of our lives unaware of who we were
dealing with. We did not know. We had absolutely
no idea. He knew us and we did not know
Him. A bit like Mary standing out
there in that garden that day after our Lord had arisen. She
said, they've taken my Lord now. I know not where they've laid
His body. Her eyes were held. Just like the men on the road
to Emmaus. Their eyes were held. You know, one of those men, Cleophas,
who's also known as Alpheus, was actually a blood relative
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was one of his uncles. And
he didn't know Christ until he broke bread and Christ was revealed
to him. So you know, you don't know him
by human relationships. He reveals himself to you. And
these people, these people here. Now, what's this all about? It
says he dealt roughly with them. Well, is that the case? It was
for me. First thing he did. is take away
my false notions about myself. I always thought I was just a
little spiritually sick and I had some medicine on the cabinet
next and I could get up and get well any time I wanted to. But
when I heard about my total depravity and I heard someone preaching
about unconditional election and a limited atonement and God's
irresistible grace, something I thought I'd always resisted,
And the final perseverance or the eternal security, as some
people call it, of the saints, I hated it. I hated it. But you
know, often times you have to get mad before you ever get glad. That's right. The Lord reveals
these things to His people. He deals roughly with us. He
dealt roughly with us. And if you look down here in
verse 17 with me, Now, I just want to say this.
Why is he sending after Benjamin? He's going after Benjamin and
going to send them back because of this reason. Every one of
the Lord's brethren are going to appear before him. Not only
Benjamin, but all the other seventy. The total seventy are going to
be brought there. Why? Because they're the Lord's
sheep. And all the Father giveth me
shall come to me. They're going to send for Benjamin. He's coming.
And he puts these men in a prison. He puts them here. He says in
verse 16, send one of you and let him fetch your brother and
he shall be kept in prison that the words may be proved whether
there be any truth in you or else you'd be by the life of
Pharaoh, surely your spies. And he put them together in a
ward three days. He put them together, separated
his people. Now that's something that happens
when the Lord starts dealing with a man or a woman. He separates
those people. I tell you, and Joseph said unto
them the third day, this do and live, for I fear God. Now, he's given them some instructions
and he's saying, you do what I told you to do and you will
live. And he says, he says this, I
fear God. Now, what does that mean? Well,
that's simple. Friend, let me explain that to you. The Lord
Jesus Christ has told you and I to do some things, to believe
on Him and live. And the reason we can do that,
the reason we can be sure that we'll live, is because He fears
God. It's the faithfulness of Christ
Himself that is the hope of all the Lord's brethren. It was the
faithfulness of this man saying that that day that was their
hope. And while they're confined, look at the words. Listen. Verse 21, And they said one to
another, We are guilty, guilty, we are guilty concerning our
brother, in that we saw the anguish of
his soul. We would not hear. Therefore,
this distress has come upon us. Twenty-two years have passed,
and these men, when they're separated, Remember how they did not regard
the anguish of Joseph's soul. How about you? How long did you
listen to preachers talking about that one who was made a bloody
sacrifice for your sins? And you paid no attention. You
thought it was just the talk of some gray-haired old man rattling
in a pulpit. You paid no attention to the
anguish of his soul. And you did not regard when he
spoke. And therefore, therefore, this
distress has come upon us, our refusal to acknowledge the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you feel this guilt. This
is something a believer is going to feel. It's not just going
to be the guilt over the fact that Christ died, but the guilt
over the fact that He died for me, bearing my sins. Bearing
my sins. And Reuben answered, saying,
Speak not I unto thee, saying, Do not sin against a child, and
ye would not hear. Therefore, behold, his blood
is required." Now Reuben gets on his brethren here, but don't
give Reuben too much credit because Jacob went on to tell us that
Reuben was as unstable as water. He was just as bad as his other
brethren. They were just as wicked. And they knew not that Joseph
understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
And he turned himself away from them and wept and returned to
them again. to commune with him. What love
Joseph had towards him. He had to hide his face. What I want you to see there
is he never spoke directly to them. He spoke to them through
an interpreter. An interpreter. What's that?
That's what's happening right now. That's what's happening right
now. The Lord has sheep and He has preachers that He sends to
those sheep. He's pleased to do that. He could
use angels. He could speak to you through
dreams. He could speak to you any way He wanted to. But He
has chosen that by the foolishness of preaching, He was going to
save His elect. Now that's it. And this man, this man here,
do you read his name? I don't read his name. He's like
John the Baptist. When they asked him who he was,
he said, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. That's who
I am. And that man who was preaching that day, interpreting, his only
job was to interpret the words of Joseph and tell it to Joseph's
brethren. That's it. That's his only job,
is to interpret Joseph's words and tell them to Joseph's brethren. That's what we do. We strive
to. And I'm sure this man did not
know what was going on until Joseph got around to revealing
himself to him. And then he said, it all makes
sense to me now. It all makes sense. I wish I
could look out when I speak and look out and see where the Lord's
dealing. I confess to you, I can't. I've
never been able to. But I'm always happy when the
Lord shuts His people up and teaches them something. Look
down at verse 22. I just read that, I better go
on. As I was saying just a moment
ago, when Paul was questioned, there was a lot of controversy
about the preachers. He just said this, he said that
in 1 Corinthians 3.5, who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but
ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord gave to every
man. He gives ministers by whom you
believe. Look here in verse 25 for a second.
Joseph commanded to fill the sacks with corn, to restore every
man's money into his sack, and give them provisions for the
way. And thus did he unto them. And they laded their asses with
corn, and departed thence. And as one of them opened the
sack to give his ass provender in the end, he aspied his money.
For behold, it was in the sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren,
My money is restored, and lo, it's even in my sack. And their
heart failed them. And they said, saying one to
another, What is this that God hath done to us? What is this
that God hath done to us? They were worried about it. They
actually told Joseph when they got back there. See if I can
find this for you. Actually told him when they got
back there. Chapter 43, look at verse 23. They told him. about this money being in the
sack. And listen to what he said. Joseph
said, Peace be unto you. Fear not. Your God and the God
of your father have given you treasure in your sacks. I had
you money. And brought Simeon unto them. No. The Lord's brethren will
never pay for the corn. They never did. The first time
I heard about grace, it made my heart fail too. It was almost
too good to be believed. Almost too good to believe that
it was all purely by the grace of God. You think about these
scoundrels. You read the lives of these brethren
of Joseph. It's amazing to me that he had
any love or concern for them at all. Every one of them was
worthless. To stand there and say to them,
The God of your fathers has given you treasure in your sack. That's
what I'm here to tell you this morning. If you don't learn anything
else out of this Sunday School lesson, it's the God of your
fathers has put this treasure in this earthen vessel. There's so much more. There's
no way I can finish it this morning. We'll save that maybe for another
visit. Alright, brother.