Need a song later. I'm trying to get ready to preach. You're supposed to be singing. All right, back to Genesis. Well,
wait a minute. Let's go to Isaiah twenty nine.
First, let me give you a little something before we begin this. Several times brought to your
attention why we look at these Old Testament pictures of Christ,
these stories. So many of you who grew up in
religion will attest to the fact that you were brought up reading
these old Bible stories, yet never seeing Christ in these
stories. In the stories like of the woman's
seed and Noah's Ark, clear pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
on and on, smitten rock, and so forth. Ruth, the story of
Ruth, on and on. The story of Joseph is one of
the clearest of all the pictures. Christ and Scripture. Did you turn to Isaiah 29? Do
you remember Sunday's message? I hope it hadn't left you completely. From Isaiah 43, in which he said,
bring forth the blind people that have eyes. The Lord is talking
about us by nature, whom he reveals the truth to, because we're blind
until he opens our eyes to see. Bring forth the deaf that have
ears. We don't hear God's word until
he gives us ears to hear. Scripture says, See an eye and
a hearing ear is of the Lord. And then he goes on to say, You
are my people whom I have chosen, that you might know me and believe
me and understand that I am the only true God. Well, One reason we study the Old Testament
tithes is if we can see Christ clearly in these Old Testament
scriptures and rejoice. I know they're interesting. They're
interesting to the average person, but if we can see Christ and
rejoice, then maybe we are one of those
chosen because Look at Isaiah 29 verses 10 through 12 says
the Lord have poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep
and have closed your eyes. The prophets and your rulers,
the seers, have covered the vision of all. That is, the vision of
the whole book has become unto you as the words of a book that
is sealed, which men deliver to one that has learned it. They
bring it to a man who's supposed to know. preacher that he is,
and they say, read this. He says, I pray thee, and he
says, I cannot, it's sealed. I don't understand. The book
is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, read this, I
pray thee, and he said, I don't understand, I'm not learned.
But look at verse eighteen. And in that day shall the deaf
hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity and out of darkness. That is, God's people will see
over in little obscure passages of Scripture, see clearly, see
light out of darkness. The meek, look at verse 19, the
meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord. That's why these
stories are written, that we might rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not to tell us about Jewish history. The Old Testament's
not about Jewish history. The Old Testament's his story. The Lord Jesus Christ's story.
The Old Testament, like the New, is to give faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, to tell who He is. And that man should, and
the poor among men, should rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Now,
I don't want these stories just to be merely interesting to you,
although they are. And I don't want you to be just
merely impressed We need to see Christ, and we,
as with all gospel messages, it's a matter of life and death.
Today is a day of salvation, tonight. Scripture says today
if you will hear his voice. All right, go to Genesis 40 now.
Here in Genesis 40 is the story of Joseph, who is in prison with
two men, a butler and a baker. And this is a story of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the story of salvation and damnation. The story of a
man receiving life and a man receiving death. And it all has to do with Joseph.
All right. Two men, a butler and a baker,
are in the service of the king. And they have offended the king. Gather yourselves up. Every night
I see there's a paw hanging over there like a sack of wine. Wednesday
night, I know you're tired. I know you, I'm tired. But I
ask the Lord to give you ears to hear a mind to the mind. There's two men, a butler and
a baker. They're in the service of the
king, that they have offended the king. And now they're in
prison. Look at verses 1 through 4. Genesis 4 says, It came to pass
after these things, a butler of the king of Egypt and his
baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh
was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of
the butler, against the chief of the baker. And he put them
in war. That is, put them in prison in
the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the place
where Joseph was bound. The captain of the guard charged
Joseph with them. Joseph had charge of these two
men, and he served them, and they continued a season. That
is, they were in prison for a while. Here's these two men. They have
offended the king, and now they're in prison awaiting what they
believe is certain execution, all right? And the captain of
the prison gave these two men to Joseph to take care of them,
to serve them. Now, this is a picture of how
that all men have offended God Almighty. Scripture says, all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the love
of God does not abide on all men. John 3, 36 says the wrath
of God does. Most people just know John 3,
16. They don't know the last verse in that chapter. It says,
He that believeth not, the wrath of God abides upon him. Who's
that? Everyone, by nature, believeth
not. No prophet in the Old Testament
ever went around telling people, God loves you. but rather telling
them God is angry, repent. Now, all men and women and young
people have offended a holy God. God is not going to destroy this
world because he loves it, but because he's angry and the wrath
of God abides upon him. Preachers have told this generation
so long that God loves them that nobody's afraid. Nobody fears
God, Romans 3, 18. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
When do we ever stop fearing the Lord? Never. David over and
over in the Scriptures says, Unite our hearts to fear thy
name. Never quit fearing God. Anyone
who doesn't fear God doesn't know the thrice-holy God. God is angry with the wicked
every day, Psalm 5.5. Not in love with them, angry
with them. And this world is kept, Scripture
says, in store for the fiery wrath of God Almighty. That's
what the Scripture says. All right, these two men represent
all human beings by nature. They've offended God. That's
what the scripture says. All have sinned, none good, no,
not one. And all are in bondage to sin. Men and women and young people
are not free moral agents. That's not in the Bible. They're
bound by sin, bound by ignorance, bound by darkness, bound by superstition,
bound by tradition. They're bound, imprisoned to
these ignorant thoughts that we have of God and salvation
and so forth. But do you know, we're here where
Joseph was. The Lord Jesus Christ, God, was
manifest in the flesh. God Almighty came down to this
earth, bound himself to the flesh, came down to this prison house.
Why? Isaiah 61, which the Lord quoted
when he was a young man, I've come to preach deliverance to
the captives. He didn't say, I've come to offer
it to all men. He said, I came to set at liberty
them that are bound and imprisoned, my people. God was manifest in
the flesh. Christ came to this earth and
bound himself. to the flesh to save some prisoners,
not all, but some, his people. And eventually he himself was
bound to the altar as our sin sacrifice. And Scripture says
that, like Joseph was given authority of all prisoners, these prisoners,
our Lord said in John 17, 2, as thou hast given him authority
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him." Not as many as are letting it happen,
but as many as God has given him. Christ has authority over
all flesh to give eternal life to whom he will, to whom God
gave him. All right, these men are in the
charge of Joseph, right? Romans fourteen says there let's
listen to this Romans fourteen nine. I don't want to misquote
it. I think I can quote it, but I don't want to. It says to this
end Christ died. To this end Christ both died
and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead
and the living. In other words, all flesh is
in his hands to dispose of as he will. He doeth according to
his will. Not our will, His will. That's the reason we're told
to pray, is to die with Him. Die will be done. All right? The prisoners had a dream. Note
these prisoners had a dream. Look at verse 5. It says, They
dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and
the baker, and the king of Egypt, which were bound in a prison.
Had a dream. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes,
chapter one. Right after the book of Solomon,
you'll find the book of, I mean, Proverbs. Right after Proverbs,
you'll find Ecclesiastes, chapter one. All right, it says, each
one of these fellows dreamed a dream. Well, man, mankind is
filled with thoughts, with dreams, with opinions. with all sorts
of things. Man is filled with his own thoughts
and dreams and so forth. Scripture says, Scripture says,
God's Word says that the law of God is written upon every
man's heart, even the Gentile, even those who don't, you know,
have a Bible or whatever. The jungle native knows it's
wrong to kill, to steal, to take his neighbor's wife, to lie and
cheat and so forth. How do they know that? Well,
that's what Romans 2 says, or yeah, Romans 1 and 2, that the
law of God is written upon their heart. These that do the law
of God, though they don't have the law, are a testimony that
that law is written on their heart. All right? Man has a conscience, a conscience
that tells him right and wrong, and yet A man cannot by searching
find out God. The only one way to know. Not by sitting out under the
stars, not by crossing your legs and your eyes and chanting a
mantra, not by seeing some fellow on a mountain, but none of the
same. Only through the Word of God.
Look at Ecclesiastes 1, it says verses 12 and 13, I, the preacher,
was king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I gave my heart Seek and
search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under
heaven. And this sore travail hath God given to the sons of
man to be exercised with." The margin says, "...to afflict man."
And everybody is looking for answers. Everybody is looking
for this and that and the other one. Every human being is troubled by his thoughts.
and so forth, is looking for answers to this and that, yet
they think, if only I can have this, I'll be happy, if only
I can do this, only if I can find this, if I'm going to find
my way. The only way we're going to have
peace and true happiness is if Jesus Christ, who is peace, Scripture
says, he is our peace, only if he reveals himself to us. How does he do that? Again, it's
not by sitting on a mountain. It's through the preaching of
the Word, the Word. Only if he reveals himself to
us. And you know, Scripture says
this two or three times, there is no rest, no peace for the
wicked. Who are the wicked? Not the murderers and the rapists
and all that. They are wicked, but that's not
solely the wicked. Christ called some workers of
iniquity, some people, some religious people, workers of iniquity. It's anyone who doesn't know
and love the Lord Jesus Christ and give Him all the glory and
tribute everything. Anyone who takes any glory for
himself, self-righteous, is wickedness of the worst sort. There is no
peace for anybody who's looking for to know God, to get to God,
looking for peace, looking for happiness or whatever, anywhere
else but Jesus Christ, there will be no rest for them, ever. No joy, no happiness, none of
it. And both these fellows were troubled.
Go back to the text. They were troubled by their dreams.
Look at verses 6 and 7. Joseph came in unto them in the
morning, looked upon them, said, and, behold, they were sad. I think most people put up a
good front. Only God's people, I believe,
are truly happy people. Or should they? Should they? Those that rejoice in Christ
Jesus, they don't have anything to be sad about. Well, he asked
Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his Lord's
house, wherefore, why do you look so sadly today? Verse eight, they said unto him,
We dream the dream, there's no interpreter of it. No interpreter of it. And, you
know, the scripture says, no scripture is of any private interpretation. The holy men of old spake as
they were moved by the Spirit of God. Prophecy came not at
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God's faith as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. We don't understand anything
until God reveals it to us. It also says in 1 Corinthians
2, which I quoted a verse to you, it also says that we can't understand until the
Spirit of God shows us something. You can't do it. Well, there's
no interpreter. No interpreter. Interpretation
belongs to God, Joseph said. Do not interpretations belong
to God? Then he said a strange thing. Tell it to me. Tell me. Well, Joseph, I thought
you said interpretations belong to God. Well, who does Joseph represent?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Job 33 with me. Job 33. I looked at this and we've studied
this before together, Job 33. One of the thousands of beautiful
stories of the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of you, the young preacher
named Elihu was speaking to Job and his three parents, here in
Job 33. And he upbraves, he rebukes all
of them. They were all sitting around,
you know, discussing God. And they just, they just talked too
much. They all began, they just talked too much. Scripture says, God is in the
heavens, thou art on the earth, therefore let thy words speak
you. It says, be not hasty to utter
anything for thou. So they began to talk, these
four theologians, and they were messing things up. And God sent
this young man, Elihu, preached it all for them. Look at verse
33, 12. He says, Behold in this, that
is, in everything that's said before, thou art not just. I
will answer thee. God is greater than man. Why
dost thou strive against him? He giveth not account of any
of his matters. Human beings are full of questions,
aren't they? Demanding things from God. God
giveth not account of His matters to worms. Why should He? He doesn't have to explain himself.
You know, people say, well, if he'll prove to me that I'll believe
him, why should he? What if some ant in your yard,
in your yard, some ant lifted up his fist one day, you're walking
by and say, hey, you, I just don't believe you own this place.
I don't believe you're all powerful as you, as somebody said to you.
I just don't believe, I don't believe, you just prove yourself
to me. OK. Let's stop and explain yourself,
ants. The scriptures said the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as what? Grasshoppers. That's the God of the Bible,
and that's what he says about us. People are so ignorant of
God's Word. God doesn't give an account of
His matter. Some foolish woman told my wife
and I, she was childless, and she said, someday when I get
to heaven, she was real presumptuous, wasn't she? But she said, someday
when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God why He didn't give
me any children. Well, God doesn't give an account
of His matter. Verse 14, look at this. God speaketh
once, yea, twice, but man perceiveth it not. God has spoken very clearly,
but men don't listen. What's that? Twice, once, twice.
What's that mean? Over in Psalm 19, it talks about
two books that God's written. Number one, the book of creation.
Heavens declare His glory. The permanent show of His handiwork.
Day under day, others flee. Night after night, knowledge.
The invisible things of God are clearly seen, even His eternal
power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. But where
is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Doctors,
lawyers, philosophers and all that don't even believe there
is a God when these things so clearly revealed in Him. No snowflake is the same. No
thumbprint's the same. I refuse to believe the fool,
they're fools, is what they have. Not God made foolish the wisdom
of this world. God wrote a book, it's called
Creation, and nobody paid a bit of attention to it. Men perceive
it not. It clears the nose on your face
that God is. That's what it says. They're
without excuse. And then another book. God wrote another book.
It's the most amazing, glorious, magnificent book ever written. Men could get together for four
million years and try to concoct all this, and they couldn't do
it. Sixty-six books written over a period of fifteen hundred years
by how many men? Thirty-five or forty different
men, and it all tells the same story. Most men who didn't know
each other, who didn't collaborate their story, yet they all come
together perfectly, without error. prophecies, minute
prophecies of things, thousands of years later, that every jot
and tittle came true. Men and women don't pay any attention.
Oh, they're selective in it, you know, they go through like
it's any book of man and pick out what they want, pick and
choose religion. I like this, I like that. Well, men perceive it not. God
speaketh once, twice, yet men perceive it not. Look at verse
23 of Job 33. But if there be a messenger with
man, an interpreter, one among a thousand. Are you looking at
it? It's not my text, but it ought
to be. If there's an interpreter, one
among a thousand, who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. No man hath seen God at any time,
the only begotten, which is in the bosom of the Father. He hath
declared Him. Christ came to reveal the Father. He said, I am the truth. Not a truth. He said, I am the
truth. You want to know the truth? It
has something to do with Jesus Christ. If it doesn't have everything
to do with Jesus Christ, it's not true. I am the way. If there's a religion that doesn't
have Jesus Christ as 100% the way to God, it's not the religion
of God. He said, I am the life. There
is no life outside of Jesus Christ. He's the eternal life. One among
a thousand, one among ten thousand. The fairest of ten thousand. Read on, and here's what he will
say. He's gracious, verse 24, "...to show unto man his uprightness."
Whose uprightness? Not man's uprightness, but the
interpreter's uprightness, Christ's uprightness. Then he's gracious
and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit. I found the
ransom. And his flesh will be fresher than a child. He'll return. God will be favorable
unto him. You'll see his faith with joy.
You'll render unto man his righteousness. That's the gospel according to
Job. They like it. Oh, they said there's no interpreter.
Oh, yes, there is. Joseph said, Do not interpretations
belong to God? Tell me. The Lord Jesus Christ said to Philip, Philip, he that
hath seen me hath seen the Lord. This puny little human being
is arguing what, who Jesus Christ, what is the Son of God, what
did he just say? The Lord himself said, You've seen me, you've
seen the Father. You've seen the Father. God was manifest in the flesh.
He is the interpreter, the only one of his Word. It belonged
to us. Show me. Show me. Christ is the interpreter. All
right? Look at these dreams, and I'll
hurry. The dreams of the butler and
the baker, two dreams. Now it sounds somewhat similar.
But one man died because of one of them, the other one lived.
And I'm here to tell you that within these two dreams is one
is how you can be accepted by God Almighty, and the other is
how you'll be damned. These men, each of them brings
something to the king. Each of these men, in their dreams,
brings something to the king, and according to what they brought,
determines whether they were to have life or death. And what
we see in these is our acceptance with God Almighty. It's only
one way. All right. Look at verses 9 through
11. This is the butler's dream. Chief
Butler told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream,
behold, a vine. I saw a vine. It was before me. I beheld a vine. And in that vine were three branches. Three branches, one vine. And it was as though it budded.
A fruitful vine. Blossoms shot forth. And the clusters there have brought
forth ripe grapes. A fruitful, flowering vine with
three branches. I saw that. I beheld this in
my dream. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand.
I took the grapes from the vine. and pressed them into Pharaoh's
cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand, a cup full of the blood of grace.
That's what I gave to Pharaoh. I beheld, I looked, something
appeared before me. It was a vine with three branches,
budding, blossoming, full of ripe, precious fruit. full of the blood of grapes,
and I crushed those into that cup, and I thought that was amazing." Well, Joseph said, here's the
interpretation. Verse 12, "...the three branches
of three days, and 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 brother." But think on me when it shall
be well with thee. Think on me. Remember me. Just
remember me. When you come back into your
service with Pharaoh and you're accepted by the king, remember
me. Now, I understand this is what
thou readest. Some of you do. I see recognition
on your face. Who is divine? Christ said, I
am the vine. John 15. I am the vine. You are the branches. We the
branches. And that fruit, the grapes, all of that comes
from Christ the vine. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
is what all this represents. And really, the butler here himself
represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, but in the context,
it says the butler crushed these grapes, didn't it? Scripture says we with wicked
hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory. We're the
ones that shed his blood, our sins. shed his blood, and the very
blood which was upon our hands is the only thing that can justify
it. The only thing that will make us accepted by a thrice
holy God is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only
one way to be accepted into the presence of God Almighty, and
that's through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I was
an old Preacher, I'd say, somebody say, Amen. And only one way, Christ said, I
am the way. What he meant by that was there's
only one way you, a sinner, are going to get into the holy presence
of God Almighty, and that is if you have my blood upon you. All right? Now, this other fellow
had a dream too. Now, a butler, what does a butler
do? Nobody in here has ever had a butler. I doubt. Except for
one of those pieces of furniture he called a butler. Maybe been
one. But a butler, all a butler does,
what does a butler do? Does he stand around thinking
about what, how he'll decorate the house or how this and that
and the other? No, he's at the bidding of his master. All he
does is stand around and wait on his master's view to tell
him what to do. Right? He doesn't make up things
to do, he waits on his master's bidding. He sure doesn't tell
the master what he's going to do. All right, now next we have,
so all he does, the butler brings to Pharaoh what Pharaoh demanded
of him. He brings to Pharaoh what Pharaoh
had loved. What Pharaoh must have, what
Pharaoh told him to do. When I tell you that you bring
me my cup and it better be full of good wine. All he does is
bring to Pharaoh what Pharaoh demanded of him. Do you see the
picture? What faith is, faith merely brings
to God what God demands of us. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. God gives
it. Like this dream, God gave this
dream to that man. And if anybody sees that the
Lord Jesus Christ, God gave him life. If anybody sees the truth,
knows the truth, understands the truth, God reveals it to
them. And they come by faith. If anybody comes, it's because
they're drawn by it. God gets all the glory. All the
glory. Man was created to serve God, and
man fell into sin, trespasses in sin, and serves himself. And when we're restored into
the service of God, that's what we're concerned with. Not how I might serve myself,
make myself happy. How may I serve my King, my Master? All right this other fellow was
a baker and now remember Joseph all Joseph said to the butler
was. And when you're when you go back
to be with them. This is all. Remember. Take that. OK. OK. Verse 16, this baker had a dream. When the chief baker saw the
interpretation was good, he said, I like that. He said, Joseph,
I had a dream. And behold, I had three white baskets on my head. Do you see any difference? The
butler says, behold, before me. I saw. Something was revealed. The baker
says, I have three baskets on my head. On my head, read on. And he said, do you have a marginal
reference beside white baskets on my head, Sam? It says full
of holes. Had three white baskets. on my
head, but they were full of holes, like his head. Verse 17, in the
uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked meats for
Pharaoh, and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my
head. You see what it says about baked meats? It says the work
of a baker or a cook. In other words, this baker had
made up all sorts of stuff. and put them in these baskets
on his head. They were the works of his hands.
He worked real hard. He was trying to impress Pharaoh,
trying to please Pharaoh, and he worked real hard with all
this stuff that he'd concocted. He sat around, you know, and
said, well, what shall I do for Pharaoh at that time? I'll bake
him this, I'll bake him that. You know, cooks, nobody tells
cooks what to do, do they? Nobody tells Pierre what to do,
you know. He does whatever he... I'm going
to make up some great thing and he will really be impressed with
it. Right? That's what cooks do, bakers
do. And oh, he will... Oh, this is my favorite recipe.
I'll put this in. I'll put that in. I'll put this
in. I'll put it in a basket. And here you are, Pharaoh. Aren't
you pleased with what I have done? Does that sound like religion to you?
Men make up all sorts of things. That's why there are 40 zillion
denominations all over the planet. Oh, how shall we please God?
How shall we come to God? Well, it will do this. Well,
I think this is good. Well, I think that's good. It's all full of
holes. It's all man's works. The Scripture
says no man living is justified by works. But by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, one way. Now we are either a butler or
a baker. There's only two religions, like
Cain and Abel. You read, and I was just so amazed
when you read that. In Romans 11, verse 4, it says,
these two brought two sacrifices, Cain and Abel. Cain brought a
more excellent sacrifice. I mean, Abel brought a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, by which he proved he was righteous. What
he brought was his acceptance with God. What did Abel bring? Blood. The blood of a lamb. What did Cain bring? The works
of his hand. The works of his hand. The butler
saw something. The baker made something. See the difference? The baker had something revealed
to him. The butler brought what God provided for him. It was
all right in front of him, Irene. There it is. Lay hold on it. He did it. Press the grapes,
he said. Press the grapes into them. This
is a pressing matter. The gospel is preached in men. The kingdom is preached in men.
Press into them. I've got to have that. Baker brought what he had made.
And Butler or Baker? Which are you? Three baskets, this is interesting,
three baskets. Significantly, the Lord said
to those people in Matthew 7, that came to Him, they said,
Lord, Lord, have we not preached? No, no. Cast out the others. It doesn't make much difference.
Three baskets, full of them. And the birds of the air, it
says, plucked them out. Satan and his demons blind
the minds of men that believe not the truth because of their
own self-righteousness. Well, verse 17, let's go on now,
verse 19, Joseph said, in three days, Pharaoh's going to lift
your head from off of you. He didn't say Pharaoh sure loves
you and he's giving you, he's offering you a chance. And if
you'll accept him as your personal Pharaoh, then he'll let you in.
He didn't say if you, you know, if you'll straighten up and live
right and turn over a new leaf. And Pharaoh, he said, your head's
coming off. And that's the way the Lord Jesus
Christ taught me. He said sinners. He talked to
self-righteous Pharisees. He said, you're of your father,
the devil. What did he say to them? He said, God, you're the
father of me, love me. He said, you're of your father,
the devil. If you were of God, you'd love me. But you don't. He said, he that of God, heareth
God's word. You don't believe me because
you cannot believe me. As I said unto you, no man can
come unto me except through the Father which hath sent me, draw
him. Didn't he say that? Your head's coming off. Do all men deserve a chance to
be saved? Nobody deserves to be saved,
period. Men aren't savable, lovable.
They're spinners against God. But God, who is rich in mercy,
and for His great love, wherewith He loves a multitude of people,
as the sand, the sea, and the stars of the sky, Reveals unto
them Christ. He does it all. He does it all.
To love Him, to save Him, to choose Him, to draw Him, to bring
Him, to give Him. It's all of them. They're dead, they're blind,
they're dumb, they're deaf until God quickens them. That's what
it means to be born from above. The new birth. God gives it. That baby that Melanie's about
to have didn't will itself into life. And a mother and a father
got together and brought forth a child. They get to go. So it is in salvation. And we're either baker or butler.
And it says in verse Twenty came to pass the third day, which
was Pharaoh's birthday. He made a feast unto all his
servants. He lifted up the head of the
chief butler and the chief banker. That is, he brought them before
him. They both stood before him. And
some day, all men will stand before the judgment seat of God. And it says he restored the chief
butler unto his butlership again. Could he not have done with his
own what he will? Could not have Pharaoh done what
he would, will, with whoever he will. They both offended him. Could he not have killed them
both? Sure he could. Could he not have raised up the
baker instead? Sure he could. Whose choice was
it? His king. That's a king. Not a would-be king. And that's
God. He's not a would-be God, a will-be
God, a might-be God, a God if you'll let him be God. He's God.
And someday all men and women are going to find out. Salvation
is to find out now and bow before Him by His grace and bring the
blood of Christ by faith. And it says, He restored the
chief butler under his butlership again. And what did the butler
do? Oh, buddy, here's what you demand. Here's what I This is
what I'm all about. And Steve, that's what every
person in heaven is saying right now. Not I'm here because mama
prayed me and not I'm here because I decided to be. I'm here because
the blood was shed for my son. Period. Exclamation point. Use the blood. But he hanged
the chief baker that Joseph had interpreted. It's all going to
be done just exactly like God said. Everything done, dictum
facto. Right, Vicki? Dictum facto. As I said, that's all the Latin
you need to know. Said, done. Yep. Amazing. The butler. Did not remember just. Forget. How could. It's like we did. It's like we
did. I got all caught up for a year
in a fine arrears. Everything's fine now. You know,
I was real desperate. I was under the sentence of death. Things looked real bad for me.
Boy, he was anxious then. He was saving then, wasn't he?
Everything was okay and fine and damn good. I got all of my
children. How could he forget his Savior?
Same with us. Don't worry. Same with us. With
Kelly, bless God, he didn't forget him completely. He didn't forget
him. One day, he remembered him. Now, next story, next week, Lord
willing, will be Chapter 41, A Man Discreet and Wise. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
word, which is so marvelous, so amazing, truly the word of
the living God. Certainly of no man's interpretation
or concoction, but it is the word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. Lord, take your word and powerfully
use it. It's the only thing that can
break these proud hearts and give us the mind. Thoughts of
God, because our thoughts are not our thoughts. These are thy
ways, our way. Lord, give life, give faith,
increase faith, all these things through your word, which is your
power. For it's in Christ's name, for his glory, we said all these
things and ask these things. Amen. You're dismissed.