Okay, I can share it. Alright, back to Genesis 40. Another beautiful story of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As seen in the story of Joseph. Very simple story really two
men a butler and a baker. Who were in the service of the
king. And yet they offended the king. And they were put in prison. Because of that offense let's
read the first four verses again and 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. And Pharaoh was wroth,
angry, against two of his officers, the butler and baker. Verse three,
he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard in
the prison, the places where Joseph was bound. And the captain of the guard
charged Joseph with them. Joseph had the charge of the
prison. And he served them. He was a
servant to these prisoners. And they stayed there a while.
They were in prison a season. And this is, you probably already
see it, a picture of how all men and women, we serve the Lord. All human
beings serve the Lord, willingly or unwillingly. All human beings
serve his purpose. They do. Everything, every person
and thing, serves God's purpose. And all human beings, though,
have offended their God. God is angry, Scripture says,
with the wicked every day. have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. And all human beings are in bondage. We're in bondage
to sin, bondage to this world, to the flesh. And this is where
Joseph was bound. This is where our Lord came.
You notice these prisoners were where Joseph was. Joseph was
where they were. And our Lord was made flesh.
God was manifest in the flesh. Christ came to this earth and
bound himself to human flesh in order to save some of these
prisoners, prisoners of hope. And it said there in verse 4
that Joseph had the authority over these men, didn't he? And that's what Christ said concerning
himself. He said, The Father has given
me all authority over all flesh that he should give me. Eternal
life, as many as thou hast given him. Now one of these men in
the prison was restored to life. The other man was condemned to
death. And that's exactly what Romans
14 said. Let me read this to you. Romans
14, so I won't To this end, Christ both died and rose and revived,
that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. So Christ
is every man's Lord, whether he acknowledges it or not. Saved
and unsaved. And they all serve his purpose,
but they've all offended him. And Christ is in his hand to
save whom he will. And one of these men he restored. Both of these prisoners had a
dream. Look at verse 5. They dreamed a dream, both of
them. Each man, his dream. And one night, each man, Butler
and the baker, which were bound in the prison, they each had
a dream. I want you to turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 1. Right after Proverbs. Psalm,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Chapter 1. It says each one of
these fellas had a dream. That is, something came in their
mind that troubled them. Something arose in their heart,
in their mind, that troubled them greatly. They were both
very troubled. Ecclesiastes chapter 1. Look at verses 12 and 13. This
is what a picture of Christ this is. I, the preacher. was king
over Israel and Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and
search out my wisdom concerning all things that are done under
heaven. And this sore travail hath God given to the sons of
man to be exercised therewith. The margin says to afflict them. In other words, concerning all
things that are done in the heaven. Mankind doesn't have answers
to anything, but he seeks answers, doesn't he? And mankind is filled
with thoughts and dreams and opinions and all sorts of things
fill his heart and his mind, but he can't figure anything
out. And it troubles him. It troubles him. Scripture says that the law of
God is written on the natural man's heart. The law of God is
written on the heart. Man knows right and wrong. He
really does. And it troubles him. And man has a conscience, a God-given
conscience that pricks him until There comes a time when the Lord
cuts him off, and then he has no conscience. But for a while,
man has a conscience, and it troubles him greatly. And man
cannot, Scripture says, by searching, find out God. Can't do it. This is what all Eastern religions
do, and I've been involved in this. Eastern religions try to,
by I don't know, meditation and things like that. Searching.
Try to find out God. Philosophies. All sorts of man-made
religions and things. Try to find out God, but they
don't have any answers. A man by searching can't find
out God. No man has seen God or known
God or can know God, but the only forgotten Son, the only one come from God, He
hath declared. He alone is the interpreter of
God. Christ alone is the Word of God
made flesh. The Son who dwelt with the Father
came, He who is wisdom. was made flesh and dwelt among
us to tell us who God is, to tell us our thoughts, to reveal
the discerner of the thoughts and intents of our faith. Only if the Son of God reveals
the truth to us. And as we noted there, all souls
belong to Christ. Both of these men in this story,
they were in Joseph's charge, weren't they? And all souls belong
to Christ. And some, he delivers a savor
of life. And others, a savor of death.
Right? It's key. All souls. All right,
now let's continue. Verse 6 and 7. It says, Joseph
came in unto them in the morning. After they awoke and had their
dream, Joseph came in and looked upon them. Behold, they were
sad. And he asked them, Pharaoh's officers, why are you so sad? Why do you look so sad? And I
thought about this. Man is generally an unhappy creature. You know, men, women, young people,
that's, they are generally speaking, unhappy creature, very unhappy.
The beasts out there seem to be more content. They're always
the same and never moody, really. But man's an unhappy creature
because his thoughts are troubling him, his conscience pricks him,
and he spends his whole life trying to find some happiness.
Spend our whole life. Now some persons, by God's grace,
their thoughts Their sins trouble them until the time that Christ
reveals the truth to the good news to them, like this butler. Their sins, their thoughts, God
causes these things to trouble them until finally he reveals
the truth to them. And then, for the first time
ever, they have joy. They have real happiness. And
others remain in their troubles and in their sorrows till the
day But they die. And Christ does not restore them.
All right, now look at verse eight. They said unto him, we
were sad because we've dreamed a dream and there's no interpreter
of it. There's no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them,
well, do not interpretations belong to God. There is an interpretation. There is an answer. to these mysteries, these secrets.
There is someone who can discern your very thoughts and the intents
of your heart. There is someone. Him. God. God. Look at, you've got to look
at this. In Job, the book of Job, right
before Psalms, right before the book of Psalms, is Job chapter
thirty-three. I remember well us looking at
this together, this whole chapter. What a picture of Christ this
is. Job 33, Job 33. Now look at this. I hope we can look at this again
sometime more fully. Verse 13, look with me. Verse 13, Why dost thou strive
against him? Against God, that is. He giveth
not account of any of his matters. That's man right there. Man is
striving against God. His complaints, his murmuring,
his complaining, his grumbling, his anger is against God. Because God's on the throne.
God is the first cause of all things. And man, his murmuring,
his complaining, his fault finding, he gets mad at other men, other
women, at circumstances. That's really God. And what Elihu says here is God
doesn't give an account of any of his past. Quit your murmuring. That's what our Lord said. Why
are you murmuring? And what Paul told us there in
1 Corinthians 10. He doesn't give an account of
any of it. He doesn't have to. We're servants. We just take
what's coming to us. And generally it's good in general. Well, read on. God speaketh once. God has spoken. Verse 14. Once, yea, twice, but man perceiveth
it not. Do you remember in Psalm 19,
the two books? I think it's Psalm 19. Let me
look real quick. Make sure I've got the next quote. Yeah, Psalm
19. The two books which God has written. The heavens declare
his glory, the firmament, the book of creation and everything
declares the handiwork, the works of God, that God is, that God
is, that I, God reigneth. If he charts the course of the
stars, you know your life is set. Huh? If he charts the course
and every step that an ant takes is ordained of God, you know,
you know yours is. everything about it. If there's
not a bird that falls to the ground, that God didn't direct
it according to his all wise, eternal purpose, you know, every
part of your life is divinely ordained. So why worry? Why fret? Why murmur? And so the book of creation tells
it. And then he wrote a book that
you have in your lap right here. in which are all answers to every
problem we've ever faced in this time. There's nothing new under
the sun that's not dealt with, that some person hasn't gone
through, that some thought that hadn't come into the brain of
a human being that's not spoken in this book, and God answered
it. So why don't we understand? God
has spoken once, maybe twice, but men perceive it not. You
understand? Go back to Job 13. Oh, you're
still there. Job 13. So he says in verse... Job 33, I'm sorry, 33. He says
here in verse 15. In a dream, in a vision of the
night, when deep sleep falls upon men and slumbers upon the
bed, then he opens the ears of men and sealeth their instruction
that he may withdraw man from his purpose. And hide pride from
me. Oh, so many verses come to my
mind about that, but look down at verse twenty three. Here's
here's. Answer interpretation. If there
be a messenger with a man talking about with us, with a with with
this person in trouble, if there's a messenger with. If God sends
him a message, an interpreter, One among a thousand. That's
the ratio of true interpreters. To show unto man Christ's uprightness. Christ's righteousness. Then God's been gracious unto
us. And here's what that message is. Here's what the interpreter
said, delivering from going down into the pit. You know the truth
and the truth. I found a ransom. What a book, what a. And that
was free. OK, all right, back to Genesis
40. So. So Joseph says, do not interpretations
belong to God? Yes, they do. It's not a question. It's been asked that there's
not an answer to God's word. But I look at this, this is everything
is written as it was written, as a picture of Christ. All right.
Joseph says, Do not interpretations belong to God? Then he says,
Vicki, tell me. Anybody catch that? Joseph says,
Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me. You see, Christ said, you call
me Lord and Master, and you say, well, so I am. Philip, have I
been so long time with you, yet you've not known me? He that
hath seen me, seen the Father. I am God. I am that I am. Do
not interpretation belong to God? Christ said, come unto me. You believe in God, you believe
also in me. Come unto me. I'll give you read
come on to me. I'll take you to the father.
Tell me. I'll pray for the father. Look to me. I will reveal the
truth to you. So Joseph there's a clear picture
of Christ. Oh, we can go on and on with
that. All right. Now, here's the two dreams. Here are the
two dreams. Two dreams and they're very similar.
Now, Now, here's the key to these
two dreams, OK? Here's the key. I'm going to
give you the key. OK, so the bomb drops. Whether or not these two men
lived, two men, whether or not they lived, or that is, they
were restored to the king, depended on what they brought to the king.
There's the answer. You see, don't you? Here's my
Whether or not these two men lived or not, they lived or died
according to what they brought to the king. Right there's the answer. All
right, now let's look at these dreams. Verses 9 through 11,
the butler's dream. Chief Butler told his dream to
Joseph. He came to Joseph and said to
him, in my dream, behold, a vine was performed. And in the vine
were three branches. And it was as though it budded,
the branches, the vine budded, and her blossoms shot forth,
and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. That is, they
were fully full of juice. They were ripe grapes, no green
grapes. It was all perfect, perfect grapes,
complete grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them or trod them into Pharaoh's
cup, and I gave the cup full of this juice of the grape into
Pharaoh's hands. I gave the cup. All right, so
in short, now here are the elements of what, of his drink, the butler's
drink. There's a vine, there's branches,
there's a cup, there's grapes, there's wine, except And all those elements sound
familiar to you? In short, what the butler brought, what the
butler brought to the king was the fruit of the vine. Fruit
of the vine. And more specifically, a crushed
fruit. Blood of the grape. Are you getting
the picture now? He brought the blood of the grape
to the king. All right? Now here's the interpretation.
Joseph said in verse 12, this is the interpretation. Three
branches are 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, and you'll
be the butler like you were before. You'll be restored. Three days.
The head lifted up. Restoration. Back to the camp.
Ah, boy. No longer a prisoner. You'll
be accepted. No longer offensive to the king,
you'll be accepted with that wine in your hand. You're going
to be restored as a servant of the king, and it's going to be
so because I told you so. Understand this is what Thou
readest. Christ is the vine. He said that very thing in John
15. I am the vine, and you're the
branch. He, Christ, the fruit of his
life, his righteousness, the blood from his broken body, which
comes from him, that blood is what we bring to God. What he brought, really, verse
11, verse 11 is Christ speaking. See that? Verse 11 is a message
within a message. Look at this as Christ speaking.
Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. The cup, did not Christ say,
the cup which my father hath given me, must I not drink it? And he said, I took the grapes
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup. He tried the wine press
of God's wrath alone. And the very life blood of Christ
he gave, he presented He went into the holy place once, not
without blood, and obtained eternal redemption for us. Restored us
unto the place that he prepared for us. That's Christ speaking
right there. But really now, we speak, we
speak. This is a butler speaking. And
we say this by faith. This is what we say. By faith,
we bring the blood of Christ. We come to God by faith saying,
Lord, God, I plead the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for
remission of my sin. I plead the fruitful life of
the Lord Jesus Christ as my own righteousness. Will you accept
me on his behalf? And we're cut, we're vessels
of mercy. Vessels of mercy. We're in Christ's
webs, are we not? We have a transfusion of his
blood in us. So this is us speaking by faith. You know, the Berkeley says we
the Butler says he took the grapes and pressed them, didn't we? With wicked hands. Have crucified
the Lord, haven't we? With our own hands, let his blood
be on us and our children. We did we with wicked hands have
taken and crucified the Lord of glory at the very blood that
was shed with these hands. Purify these. justified it. Well, Joseph, now
that in three, you notice three branches so much here, so very
much here is a fine and three branches. Behold, our God is one, but these
three are one so much. But here, Joseph says in parting,
here's Joseph's parting words for this, but verses 14 and 15. After he revealed the truth to
this fellow, he said in verse 14, just remember me. You're going to be restored.
I'm going to restore you. You're going to be restored because
of what I have told you, what I have revealed to you. I have
told you the truth that's going to set you free. Now, one thing
that I demand of you, remember me. Remember me. Think on me, and it will be well
with you. When it's well with you, show
kindness, I pray thee. Oh, there's so much here, too.
Our Lord said, whatever you've done, the least of these, my
brethren, you've done unto me, show kindness unto me. Make mention
of me unto Pharaoh. Whenever you talk to Pharaoh,
talk about me. Bring me out of this house. Indeed,
I was stolen away. And all of this reminded me of
2 Corinthians 5 21. Clear as gospel. He was made
to be sin for us who knew no sin. That we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. This butler, see Joseph had done
nothing amiss. The butler had appended the king.
The butler was restored to the king. The butler was forgiven
all. The butler was ascended back
to the place of Honor Joseph remained in prison. Innocent. He said, I've done nothing to
men, so here I am in prison. You're going to the right hand.
Remember me. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of Christ? Remember me. All right, now here's
the baker's dream. Now, notice how each of these dreams
begin. All right, are you with me? Verse
9, the butler, this is his dream, he said, In my dream, behold,
a vine. Now here's the baker's dream,
verse 16. The chief baker saw, and he said unto Joseph, I also
was in my dream, and behold, I had three baskets. Isn't that amazing? You catch
that? The butler said, behold, my dream
was this. I saw a vine before me. And everything, I got, I went back to Pharaoh because
of the vine. The vine produced it all. And
the baker said, I have a dream too. I had three baskets of,
on my head, things I made. Did you notice, look at verse
16. He said, I had three white baskets on my head. Do you have
a marginal reference? You see that? You see that, Margaret?
White, what does that mean? Full of holes. I had three baskets
on my head. But they were full of. In that
amazing, absolutely amazing, you see, the difference between
these two dreams is the difference in life and death. The difference
in what these men saw was one, the savior of life and death,
one grace, one work, one Christ, one man. The butler saw something,
the baker had something. The butler brought what God provided. The baker brought what he had
made. That's full of hope. And the very nature, listen,
the very nature of their occupations will tell you. A butler is a servant. Now what
does a butler do? Whatever the master commands
him to do. He doesn't make anything. He serves. He brings the master,
whatever the master tells him, go get this, go get that, go
get that, bring me my, bring me this, bring me that, wash
my shoes, wash my feet, wash my car, bring me the wine. A butler is just a server. A
baker, he can bake up anything he feels like. Boy, I think I'll
bake up some pâté today. Surely the Pharaoh will love
this, because I did it. But I'm Pierre, you know. That's
what bakers do. You know, they concoct things,
wild things, you know. Surely he'll like this. Well,
a baker concocting, cooking, making all sorts of things as
it pleases him. The servant, the butler does
what pleases the master and brings only what the master is pleased
to have. The word of God is so perfect,
isn't it? So perfect. So, but the baker
said, Behold, I had three baskets. I immediately thought of Matthew
seven, where our Lord said, Many will say unto me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not preached? Cast out devil. Done many a wonderful
work. Three baskets full of it. Isn't that amazing? It won't
hold up. Verse seventeen, Pharaoh, or
verse seventeen, the uppermost basket was all manner of baked
meats, meat for Pharaoh, the work of a baker. Baked meats
for Pharaoh, and the birds did eat them out of the baskets upon
my head. And though, that tells me, though
zealous for God, though doing many wonderful works, yet without
blood there's no remission of sin. No work will be accepted.
The birds are going to eat them. He's going to eat it all away.
That old stupid saying, only one life soon will be passed. Jesus Christ for life. Everything
done by man is plushy. It'll leak out. It's no good.
Only what Christ does for us will last. All right, verses
18 and 19. And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation thereof. And he said in three days, those
three baskets of three days, in three days Pharaoh's going
to lift your head up too, but he's going to lift it off. He's going to hang it, hang your
head. I just imagine this man didn't
like what he heard. He probably dismissed it, wouldn't
you say? He didn't like that. He says
when he heard the other one, oh, that's good, I like that.
He liked that, but he didn't like this. He probably forgot
that. But it happened. It happened,
just like Joseph said. Everything happens the way Joseph
said it. And he's such a picture of pride.
No matter what men, whether they like it or not, all things, heaven
and earth will pass away, but not one word of pride will pass.
Whether men like it or not, it's going to happen just as He says.
So the thing is, here's the question, the moral of the whole story
is, the question we need to ask ourselves, am I a butler or a
baker? Am I a butler or a baker? All who bring their own works
to God will perish. One little sweet rose, I don't
care if it's one business. And all butlers, all who bring
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, will live with the
king again. The last few verses trouble you
a little bit, kind of strange to you. Verse 20, it came to
pass the third day. Pharaoh's birthday, he made a
feast, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the chief
baker, and he restored the butler again, and he gave the cup into
Pharaoh's hand. It happened. But he hanged the
chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to him. Yet, the chief butler, he didn't remember
Joseph. He forgot him. I bet you'd say that tomorrow, sometime after 9 o'clock, if
not sooner, you'll forget everything you heard tonight. You wonder, how could that man
forget? He did. It took him three days. We'll
forget in 16 hours. We don't know how forgetful we
are. Now forgetful we are. Forget the Lord's mercy. Forget
his grace. Forget his gospel. Go right back
to murmuring complaining. Go back in the prison again until
we hear the... But now, the butler did in the
next chapter. We're going to see. He came to
his senses. Pharaoh had a dream. We're going
to look at that next Wednesday night. Pharaoh had a dream and
The butler I've seen, I forgot somebody. There's somebody I
forgot, the interpreter of dreams is down in the prison out there.
And may the Lord renew our memory of Christ. All right, stand with
me. Our Father, thank you for your
word. This is a a marvel and a wonder to us.
It is truly the Word of God. Without doubt, we are convinced
now more than ever. Yet, we will stand against thee. We will forget thee as this butler
did. Just as surely as we wake in
the morning, as the day goes by, we'll forget thee and forget
thy mercy and resort back to offending our God. Forgive us,
Lord. for our Joseph's sake, for Christ's
sake. We pray, we bring. This is why
we continually plead the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Bless your people this week.
May it be in your good grace that you would bring Christ to
mind to us throughout the day, the days ahead. We need this
meat to go on through the days, to chew on and make it through
this wilderness. Bring us back again to get a
double portion on the Lord today. Forgive us, O Lord, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Q. Sir, can I ask a question? Thank you very much.