He is for us to give Help me,
bright angelic spirit Bring your sweetest, noblest flame Help
to sling our Savior's merit All right, Genesis 37, book of
Genesis chapter 37. Now again, I'm going to remind
you why we preach these Old Testament titles. keep bringing this up. I have to confirm this to myself,
too. Why do we preach the Old Testament,
Titus? Number one, because it's God's Word. It's God's Word,
and there's a greater portion of the Old Testament than there
is the New. And so it's God's Word. And these aren't necessarily
in order. Number two, the Old Testament
reveals the true Christ, a true Christ, as opposed to a false
one. This is how this other Jesus
and other gospel is exposed by the Old Testament. Number three,
it strengthens the faith of the believer. We trust that that
one who came named Jesus is the Christ. Well, how do we know?
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word. We go back and look
at these things that so clearly reveal Christ. And we're made
to say, He is the Christ. I am persuaded. And then we preach
the Old Testament type because the world is not. Because the
world's not preaching them. And we know for a fact that whatever
the world is not saying is closest to the truth. And I thought about
this, too. The Old Testament types are like
parables. You know that? The Old Testament
types, these stories in the Old Testament, are like parables.
To us, they're given. They're revealed to us. But to
the world, they're hidden. They're just stories of Jewish
history to the world, and they miss them entirely because they're
hidden from the wise and the prudent. Bible scholars. But they're given to us, and
we clearly see, don't we? If you have the key, Christ,
the key of unlocking scripture, every single story is just, is
brought to life. Christ is that lamp, that light.
All right. Joseph is our subject. We're looking at the life of
Joseph. And in review, let's look at a few things. Chapter
37, verse 3. Israel, the father, loved Joseph
more than all his children. He loved Joseph best. Now, we
have seen that Joseph was worthy of that love, wasn't he? He was
worthy to be loved the best. The rest of these fellows were
scoundrels. They were no good, worthless sons. We also saw that
they were all illegitimate children. None of them were born of Rachel,
except Joseph. Rachel was Jacob's, or Israel's,
true wife. The rest of them were born of
handmaids and Leah. Jacob had one legitimate One
true begotten, one well-beloved son, Joseph. And he was a man of lovely character. From a youth, you start looking
at him at seventeen years old. And all this is so fitting, all
of this is such a clear picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only begotten, well-beloved, the only man deserving of the
love of God. The rest of us, the sons of Jacob,
are a bunch of scoundrels. All right? And he says, well,
beloved, and it says in verse 3 that his father gave him, made
him, his father made him a coat of many colors. Now, you notice
his mother didn't make him coats. Rachel didn't make this coat. The father did with his own hands.
A coat of many colors. And what is that? Well, that's
the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This coat which
Jacob made for his beloved son distinguished him from the rest
of his children. He wore this coat and he said,
look at this glorious, beautiful son of mine. Look at him in that
beautiful coat which I made. And the rest of them had old
plain rags. And what a picture that is of
our Lord's perfect character and beautiful life and the unsearchable
riches and glories and beauties of Christ as compared to our
filthy rags of righteousness. And Mary didn't make Christ.
Mary was not his mother. She was a borrowed woman. All
right? And verse, okay, verse 4. says, when his brethren saw that
their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated
him and they couldn't say a good thing about him. They hated him. Why? They hated
him without a cause. That's exactly what it says in
the Lord Jesus Christ, that they hated him without a cause, just
because he was holy. Well, verse now, so Joseph dreamed
the dream. Joseph dreamed a dream, and it
was told him by God. Where did Joseph get this dream?
God. God came to him in the night
and gave him this word of prophecy. It's not just a dream. This was
prophecy. Hebrews 1 says, Holy men spake
in times past as they were, you know, God spoke unto us by the
prophet. Peter said, holy men's faith
is there removed by the Spirit. Joseph dreamed a dream, it came
from God, and he told it to his brethren. Verse 5. He dreamed
a dream, it was really a prophecy. Told it to his brethren, and
they hated him even more. They hated him even more. Verse
8. And his brethren said, are you going to rain, shalt thou
indeed rain over us? Shall you indeed rain over us?
Yes, he shall indeed. And they hated him now, but boy,
later on, they're sure going to be glad that Joseph was made
to reign, that this dream did come true. Now, you reign, verse
9, and he dreamed another dream and told it to his brethren and
said, I've dreamed another dream. The sun, the moon, and the stars
made Obedecence to me. In other words, all principalities
and powers. I'm going to reign over and be
the head over all principalities and powers. I know we've looked at this before,
but I'm having a good time again. And the father, it says,
pondered these things, considered these things. Jacob, down in verse 11, his
brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. His
father's thought. If Joseph said it, there's virtue
in it. My beloved son has never lied.
It must be going to come true. And our Lord's earthly parents,
it says over in the Gospel of Luke, it says that they both
That's the things that he said and pondered the things that
he said as a child when he was 12 years old. Remember, Joseph
was 17 at this time. All right. Now, tonight we look
at the rest of this, beginning with verse 13 and 14. This is the beloved son sent
by the father to his brother. Verse 13, 14, Israel said unto
Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock, and sheek them come.
I will send thee unto them. And Joseph said, Here am I. I'll go. Willing, obedient son,
willing to go down to these worthless. He knew them. He was around them. He'd already brought back the
evil report, and he didn't have to go. wouldn't have blamed me if he
hadn't. Father, they're not worth fooling with. That's just you
and I. Let's leave them alone. He could
have said that, but no. Love him. He loved his brothers.
Oh, how he loved them. He loved them to the end. They were worthless, but he loved
them. There's nothing loving Well,
verse 14, he said, the father said, Go, I pray thee, see whether
it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flock. Bring
me word again. Go. Come again. I'm going to send
you down there. I want you to come back again. He said, OK, I will. What a picture
this is of our Lord who was sent by the father. So many times
he was called the sent one. sent one come to his brethren. All right, verse 15. Now, a certain
man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. Joseph
was walking through the field, and the man asked him, saying,
What seekest thou? He said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. The man said,
Well, they're over here, so and so. Now listen, this is something
my pastor has always said. No type walks on four legs. No type walks on four legs. You can't make every single thing
in these stories fit something. Because no shadow can perfectly
reveal the truth, right? You study my shadow right here,
you can't, you can't see, you can't tell what, you know, you can't even tell
how much hair I have by the shadow, can you? You can't tell what color clothes
I have on, you can't tell anything by the shadow, really. You can
tell pretty much that it's a man. And that's it. So you see, no
shadow perfectly depicts the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't
make everything. But now, I did think of this.
Who does this man represent? I thought about when our Lord
came and began his ministry as a man, as a 30-year-old man,
that he was accosted by Satan in the wilderness. Remember? It's the first one he dealt with
was Satan in the wilderness. Our Lord, he took him into the
wilderness, you know, and did what he did, tempting our Lord
in that manner. So that could apply. All right,
now let's get down to the major part of the story. Verse 17.
Now, this is certainly easy to understand. Joseph, it says,
the last line of verse 17, Joseph went after his brethren, and
he found them. Joseph went after his brethren.
They weren't seeking Joseph. We're going to see in a minute.
And when they saw him, they didn't They didn't want him to come.
They hated him. Joseph was going after them.
And he went after them. Well, did he find them? Well,
he sure did. Indeed, he did. And that's our
Lord coming after his own. And he told the story there of
a shepherd, a shepherd leading the nine and nine, going after
the one lost sheep in the wilderness. And when he finds it, our Lord
told his story. And when he findeth it, there's
no doubt whatsoever, no possibility of it. When he findeth it, he
lays that sheep on his shoulder and took it home and rejoiced
in it. And we're going to see that happening
in this story. The Lord Jesus Christ, a good,
great chief shepherd of God's sheep, left his father's home
to find his lost sheep, and he found them all. I say found as
in past tense. All right, verse 18, now when
these worthless sons of Jacob, when they saw him afar off, so
they were afar off from him, he hadn't come to them. And when they saw him afar off
before he came near, they conspired against him slowly. Before he
even came close, they were already conspiring. Now, who saw who
first? Joseph saw them first. That's
obvious. He found them. He spied them
afar off. But they saw him coming, too.
And when he was yet afar off, they started talking among themselves,
telling him, let's get him. Here he comes, that worthless
murderer. Let's kill him. I hate his guts. Father loves
him. He thinks he's something. And they conspired against him
afar off before he came near. I thought about how that I've
thought about Stephen's. Message. Overnight, Stephen. Preaching to the Pharisees, the
Jews sons of Jacob. Stephen, the deacon, was standing
up before a bunch of sons of Jacob. And this is what he said,
listen. Which of the prophets? Have not
your fathers persecuted? and slain them which showed before
of the coming of the just one." Do you see what that's saying? He said, which of the prophets
have not your father persecuted and have slain every one of them
which showed before? All the prophets from afar off
began to tell of the coming of the Christ. of man's utter depravity,
of man's need of a Christ. And they hated them all. And
they killed them all. They conspired against Christ
before he came. Our Lord said, they didn't hate
you, they hated me. Not you they hate, it's me. That's
what that's prophecy is. See, this is the first book,
you see, ain't it? This is Genesis. This is the beginning of God.
This is the story of the sons of Jacob and the one who saved
the sons of Jacob, Joseph. And it's no coincidence that
his name is similar. Joseph sounds kind of like Jesus,
doesn't it? No mere coincidence. The whole life of Joseph is a
prophecy of the coming beloved son of God. who they hated afar
off, but they persecuted everybody that said anything about it.
All right, but Joseph came there. Verse 19, And they said one to
another, Behold, this dreamer cometh, this dreamer. They made
fun of his prophecies and so forth. I thought about how many
times you knew that these Pharisees and doctors and lawyers all mocked
him as master. Do you look at your marginal
reference there to Dreamer? See where it says that this master
of dream, this revealer of secrets, And
that's what they mocked our Lord. Master, tell us. They were mocking
him. And then when they had him at
Pilate's hall, they blindfolded him and smacked him and said,
pop this out. Tell us who smoked it. It's a dreamer of a dream. Verse 20. It says, let's read
down through verse 22. Now come now, therefore, and
let us slay him. They said, cast him in some pit.
We'll say some evil beast that divided him. We'll see what will
become of his dream. Reuben heard it, and he delivered
him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. Reuben said
unto them, shed no blood. Cast him into this pit that's
in the wilderness. Lay no hand upon him. Reuben intended to
rid him out of their hands, deliver him back to his father again.
I thought of Reuben perhaps as a type of Holy Spirit of God,
who several times prevented the Lord's, you know, the mob tried
to get our Lord many times and kill it, pass through their hands. Well, he was free. He was helped
by the Spirit. I also thought about Nicodemus.
You remember when Nicodemus stood before his fellows, Sanhedrin
and intervened with his fellows and said, our law doesn't judge
fellows until it hears them. Remember that? They kind of intervened. They wanted to apprehend Christ,
and they said, no, we need to hear him out. But all this had
to happen. This had to happen to Joseph. Reuben couldn't dissuade this
from happening. Reuben couldn't prevent this
from happening. It had to happen. It must happen. Look over chapter 50 with me.
It must happen. He had to come. Joseph had to
come. They had to apprehend him, lay hold on him, reject him.
He had to be delivered up for them all. He had to be delivered up for
his brethren. Now they're going to do what
their evil hearts conspired to do, but they're going to do what
God determined before to be done. Look at chapter 50, and this
is the climax, the punchline, this is it. We might not live
till Sunday. I'm going to tell you the end
of this whole story right now. We might not get there. Look
at chapter 50, verse 20. Here's the end of the story.
Joseph's on the throne, they're all before him, they're all safe.
And he said, As for you, you thought evil against me, but
God meant it unto good. to bring the past, as it is this
day, to save most people's lives. You did what you're sorry, depraved,
harsh, determined to do, but you did what God, in His love
and mercy and grace, in determining to save you, what He determined
to do. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for your greatest good. So this is the story of Joseph. Verse 23, And it came to pass,
It came to pass, in the back, chapter thirty-seven, verse twenty-three. So it came to pass when Joseph
was come unto his brethren, they grabbed him, and the first thing
they wanted to do was rip off that coat, strip him. They stripped that coat. Give
us, you think you're just a man like we are, and they ripped
that coat off. You're nothing special. Give
us that coat. Ripped that, stripped him out of his coat. And it makes
it, you see how careful it is to say his coat of many colors
that was on him. It's very careful to tell us
they stripped him of his coat. His coat of many colors and so
on. This coat, this distinguishing coat, this coat which his father
gave him to distinguish him from the rest. A coat showing his
father's love. A coat which made him far above
his brethren. A coat of, well, unlike theirs. They stripped that. Get that
off. We don't like that coat. And
not only did they literally, the first thing they do to our
Lord is strip Him. Not only literally do they strip
Him of His clothing, but they, man would strip Him of His righteousness. Even now. But you know, God really is the
one that stripped Him. Isn't He, John? 2 Corinthians
5, 21 says so. He said, God hath made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made. the righteousness
of God in him. God stripped this coat off him.
Like, I thought about the first sinners, Adam and Eve. They were naked, weren't they?
What did God do? He reached over here and got
an innocent lamb, a precious lamb without spot, without blemish.
What did He do? Split, skinned it. Took that
lamb's coat off of it. strip that lamb of its skin,
and robe those worthless sinners in it. Oh, this is all such a clear
picture, isn't it? Who's with me? All right, verses
24 through 28. They took him, and they cast
him into a pit. The pit was empty. There was
no water in it. They sat down to eat bread, and
they lifted up their eyes. And behold, a company of Ishmaelites
came from Gilead with their camel bearing spicery. What kind of
spice? Balm and myrrh. This is just... You know, I can't
think of a... We use the term. This is unbelievable.
When we see something that's so incredible, it's unbelievable. Amazing. Well, they saw that it became
this company of Ishmaelites, other illegitimate sons of Abraham,
going down to Egypt. Judah said unto his brethren,
verse 26 through 8, what profit is it if we slay our brother
and conceal his blood? Come, let us fell unto the Ishmaelites.
Let not our hand be upon him. He's our brother, our flesh.
His brethren were content. Yeah, we can get some money out
of that. Then there passed by Midianites, merchant men, and
they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph
to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought
Joseph into Egypt. Now all of this happened to Joseph
as a prophecy of what would happen to our Lord. Everything in him. Our Lord said, They are they
which testify of me. They sold him for 20 pieces of
silver. Why not 30? Because he's not worth what Christ
is. They sold Christ for 30. Nevertheless,
he was sold. He was cast into a pit. Our Lord,
the Scripture says he was taken from prison. He was cast into
prison. He was taken from prison. Who shall declare his generation?
Isaiah said. He was cast into prison. He says in verse 25,
I like that, and after they cast him into the prison, they sat
down and lifted up their eyes, sitting down. They watched him
there. They sat down, they began to
eat bread. Joseph was saying some things, later
on we're going to see that he was saying some things from that
pit. But they sat down and, oblivious
to what he was saying and doing what they were doing, and look
on him occasionally. And the scripture says, when
they hung our Lord on the cross, sitting down, they watched him
there. And he said many things. And
that's when they cast lots for his garments. Well, they put
him in a pit without water. Why does it say that? But Joseph
got thirsty. They put him in a pit where there
was no water, and he got thirsty. And he said to them, I'm thirsty. Well, they put him in a pit that
was empty. In other words, nobody had ever
been in that pit before. Our Lord was put in an empty
tent. a borrowed tunic, wearing no
man had ever laid. And so they cast Joseph into
this pit and sold them to their brethren, Ishmaelites. And for
your historical information, these are the Arabs. Why do you
think we need nothing to do with the Arabs? They're Ishmaelites,
aren't they? They're Ishmaelites. All the
Arabs. Jews and Arabs. They're all sons
of Abraham. But they hate each other, I guess. And there are other illegitimate
sons of Abraham, without the Christ, they're all illegitimate.
Whoever doesn't acknowledge Jesus as Christ is a bastard. Well, Judas sold our Lord, didn't
he? Didn't Judas sell our Lord for
thirty pieces of silver, but didn't all twelve of them forsake
him? Judas, Judah said, let's sell
him. The Jews, all the Jews took him
and crucified him, but all the brethren, all the, all the apostles
forsook him. There seems to be some virtue
in old Reuben, doesn't it? Not a, don't you think about
it. In verse one, it says he brought
the evil report about all these boys. Joseph came back and said,
there's none of them that good. No, not one. If Reuben had been
in a county, he wouldn't have been down there with them. What
about Judah? What about Judah? If he'd have
been any count, yeah, he said, don't, let's don't slay him.
About like Peter, huh? About like Peter, real noble
fellow, huh? Don't slay him. Takes that sword
out in a few minutes, he's powering before a little mate. If Judah
had been any count at all, he'd have said, you're not touching
my brother. You've got to come by me. Right? There's a whole
lot of them are no count. You can't find any good in any
of them. There's nothing but an evil report
about it, all of them. And so it is with all of us.
None good, no not one. None righteous, no not one. That's
the evil report concerning all the sons of Jacob. We've killed
an innocent man. All of us have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified the Lord of Glory. Well, verse 29, now, down in
our text, in verse 29, Reuben returned. Reuben went somewhere,
and he came back to the pit, and Joseph was not in the pit. And he ran his club. Peter, remember
they told Peter, the Lord is risen, and he came running to
the tomb. And he looked, and it was empty. He was not there.
Scripture says he was not there. Jesus was not there. Where was
Joseph? Y'all, where was Joseph? He wasn't
in the pit. Where is he right now? Where was Joseph at this time?
Well, he's on his way to the throne of Egypt. On his way to
the throne of Egypt. That's where he was. He's not
in the pit anymore. Now, listen to this. This is wonderful. In
a few short years, these sinful brethren are going to see Joseph
and his beloved brethren. In a few short years, these brethren
are going to see Joseph completely different than the last time
they saw him. The last time they saw Joseph was in a pit, defeated,
sold like a dead man. The next time they see him, they're
going to bow before his throne. They're going to see him in all
his glory, high and lifted up. all the prophecies will be concerned. Well, look at this. This is this
is one versus thirty one. And I'm I'm hurrying through
this. There's so much here, but this is Wednesday night. I know
you're tired. Verse thirty one. They took Joseph's coat, killed
a kid of goats and dipped that coat in blood. So this gloriously beautiful
coat of many colors was saturated with blood. Is this your son's coat? This bloody
coat? Is this your son's bloody coat,
Father? We present to you. this bloody
coat. Is this your son's bloody multicolored
coat? And verse 33, he knew it and
said, It is my son. Oh, my, my, my. The blood and
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ was presented to the father,
not by us. You see, that's not tight skin,
aren't perfect, but Christ himself presented that bloody coat. It
was not just enough job to be a righteousness, but there had
to be. For the remission of our sins,
his blood and righteousness were presented to the father on our
behalf, and he said, Will you accept this as. On behalf of
my sons, these worthless sons of Jacob, we accept them in the
beloved son's bloody coat. I will. I will. Verse 34 and 5, and Jacob
ran his clothes, put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for
his son many days. You know, I thought, surely God
the Father... Our Lord is merciful, gracious,
compassionate, kind. Surely God the Father... Now,
surely God the Father grieved that his sons horrific torture and death, huh? Come on, that's not some unfeeling
awesomeness, huh? Don't you know that? Yet, here's the mystery of it
all, it says, yet it pleased the Lord. Pleased the Lord. Now, Jacob's
grieving right now, but later on he's so pleased. He's so pleased. The joy that was going to be
set before him. that his son was apparently. He's so glad Jacob is so glad
when this all ends that it happened the way it had to it had to be
seated. According to the prophecy of
Joseph himself. Well, and verse. Thirty five
and all his sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him. He refused
to be comforted. They all my sons and daughters
others there were grandsons and all mourned and our Lord said
now when I go away you're going to mourn, didn't he? You're going
to mourn. Let's do it in remembrance of
that. Mourn over your sins, mourn over what I endured for your
sake. Mourn. You will mourn. Yes we
will. Let your laughter be turned to mourning. But you're going
to rejoice. You're going to rejoice. And
then it says verse thirty six in the media night sold him into
Egypt under a fellow named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's and a
captain of guard. In other words, for a long time
after this, he was in the house of one named Potiphar, who was
an officer of the king and a captain of the king, an officer of the
king. Joseph was in his house and all things happened while
he was under in the house of this pot. Many things happen.
It says Joseph prospered and the land prospered and all that.
I thought about this as the Holy Spirit. Our Lord says it's expedient
that I go away. If I go not away, the comforter
won't come. The officer of God, the Holy
Spirit, through whom all things will prosper because I'm because
of me. And that's our next story. Next
Sunday, the prosperous man. It begins. Well, just a little
hint. You want a little hint? You can
read it for yourself. It's chapter 39. You can skip
chapter... Well, read it. Chapter 38 is
the story of Judah and his sin. And there's a picture there,
but we're not going to look at it. But chapter 39, and again,
we might not make it to Sunday. And excuse me not to hold him
out. Right off the bat, it says now
Joseph was brought down to Egypt to Potiphar's house, verse 2,
and the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man in
the house of his master the Egyptian. The very last word in this chapter,
the very last line, verse 23 says, and the Lord made it to
prosper. So we're going to look Sunday
at the prosperous man, everything prosperous. under the hand and
the presence of Jesus. Isn't that a good name? Good man. Good man. Good type. All right, stand with me. Our Father, we thank you so much
for your word. You give us meat to chew on and
not just milk. He'd give us honey out of the
rock, water out of the rock. He'd cause the blind to see out
of obscurity, the deaf to hear glorious things. How we thank
You for opening Your Word, for breaking the bread of life unto
us. We see Christ through His life.
We thank You. We truly see Him. Now, make it
a savor of life to us, make it, put it in our hearts that we
might Rejoice in Him, Christ our Lord. Bring us back Sunday
according to thy will. Watch over and lead God by your
spirit. In Christ's name, amen. You're
dismissed. you you I don't know if I'm going to
be able to do this, but I'm going to do this. Thank you. Thank you. you All right. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and get
started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Thank you.