If you would, go to the book
of Genesis now. And we'll go to Genesis chapter
41. And the subject is the exaltation
of Joseph. The exaltation of Joseph. As
you know, when we last met, last Wednesday evening, we left Joseph. He was in prison. He's in Egypt. He has risen to be a very trusted
inmate and he's been given authority over the other prisoners. We
know two of them had dreams which Joseph was enabled by God to
interpret. Pharaoh's chief butler and his
chief baker both had dreams and Joseph was enabled by the Lord
to interpret the dreams. And both the dreams came to pass
as Joseph interpreted them, with the chief of the bakers being
hung and the chief of the butlers being exalted. And it was up
to the king, up to Pharaoh, as to what happened to both of them.
Let us learn a valuable lesson The King of the ages. That One
who governs all things according to His own sovereign will. In
His hands are the issues of life and death. Oh God, if it pleases You, You
can cause us to live for You. To live spiritually. To live
by Your grace. If it pleases you, you can leave
us right where you found us in our spiritual death. Lord, show
mercy to us, show grace to us is our plea. And so, Joseph is
the interpreter of dreams and he has forgotten by the chief
butler. Joseph had said to him, now when
you're exalted back to your former position, remember me. Don't forget me. I'm the one
who interpreted your dream. And I'm here unfairly. Please remember me. And the chief
butler said, I'll remember you. I won't forget you. But he did. But he did. And yet that lapse
in his memory, that was according to the purpose of God. Because
as I thought about this this morning and yesterday afternoon
as well, if the chief butler had said to Pharaoh, hey, or
to his, you know, to Pharaoh himself, this fellow interpreted
my dream, and he's in jail unfairly. Why don't you release him?" Well,
if he had been released, no doubt Joseph would have gone back to
be with his dad. But that wasn't the purpose of
God. That wasn't what God had ordained. Not at all. And so
even though the memory, that's under the sovereign authority
of God, so is our forgetfulness. And he forgot about Joseph. But
that's going to work out for Joseph's good. And so Joseph
sits in the prison for two years. And maybe he thought he had been
forgotten by God. Certainly the chief butler forgot
him, but maybe he thought, we don't read this of course, but
maybe he thought that the Lord has forgotten him. The psalmist
said in Psalm 31 and verse 12, I'm forgotten as a dead man out
of mind. I'm like a broken vessel. But though all others should
forget Joseph, I'll tell you somebody who never forgot him.
God never forgot him. And He's never forgotten any
of His children. He said, I have engraven you
upon the very palms of My hands. He said, can a mother forsake
her baby? Maybe. Maybe she would. The Lord
said, I'm not going to forsake you. And He'll never forget us. Listen, He's the One who chose
us unto salvation. He's the One who ordained us
a neverlasting life. He's the One who redeemed us
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. He's the One who
sent His Spirit to woo us and to take away from us that heart
of stone and give us a heart of flesh. It's the Lord who miraculously
and irresistibly He called us unto Himself. He established
within us a principle of grace. the very life of God in the soul. Could you ever be forgotten by
God? That is impossible. And though we may forget our
Lord, He'll never forget us. I well remember my mother in
her Last months and weeks, she was an Alzheimer's patient. And
she forgot all of us. And that hurts. And some of you
have been there. You know what that means. And
we'd go to see her and, who are you again? And she even forgot the message
of the Gospel. I talked to her. She said, is
this what I believe? Had no memory. But the Lord never
forgot her. We are etched upon the very heart
of God. And though all men forsake us
and forgive us, the Lord won't. He remembers us. We're told to
remember Him, and we remember Him certainly in the Lord's Supper.
This do in memory of me. That's inscribed upon the table
in front of me. But even when our minds aren't
on the Lord, and God help us and God forgive us, but our minds,
there are only so many things that can occupy our minds at
one time. There are times when the Lord
isn't in our thoughts. Now, He's not very far away from
our thoughts, but there are times when we have other things that
occupy our time, and you know what I mean. But He is always
fully occupied with His people. And though Joseph may be there
in the prison, and though he may have been forgotten by the
chief butler, Yet, our Lord who ordained him unto everlasting
life never forgot him. He knew exactly where he was
and the circumstances in which Joseph found himself. And the
Lord knows the circumstances in which you find yourself and
those of you who are watching. There are some of you who are
going through tremendous difficult times. But those who are loved
of the Lord need not fear. The Lord is with you. I was visiting
with Peggy and quoted some Scripture to her and prayed with her. And I said, I've got to go, Peggy. I've just got to go. And she
said, I wish you could stay with me. I don't like to be by myself. And I said, oh, sweetheart, You're
not by yourself. And she said, oh, I know I'm
not. I know I'm not. The Lord is with us. I'll never
leave you, he said. I'll never forsake you. So that
we may with boldness say, I'm not going to be afraid of anybody
or anything. I tell you what, if the Lord is
with me, I'd attempt to do whatever He called upon me to do. But
if I didn't feel like He was with me, I wouldn't try to sweep
the floor, would you? Don't attempt to do anything
without the very presence of the Lord. So Joseph, he's in
prison. But then we see the absolute
authority of God because the king has a couple of dreams. Let me read them to you. Look
at verse 2. I'll read verse 1. It came to
pass at the end of two full years, I expect they dragged on. Don't
you think that? Two full years in prison? Well, Pharaoh dreamed. And behold, he stood by the river,
and behold, There came up out of the river seven well-favored
cows, kind and fat-fleshed. They fed in a meadow. Fine cattle. They're fattened up, ready for
the slaughter. And behold, seven other kind
that came up after them out of the river, ill-favored. and lean-fleshed. They stood by the other kind
upon the brink of the river, the other cows. And the ill-favored
and lean-fleshed cattle did eat up the seven well-favored and
fat kind." Pharaoh awoke. Bad dream. Confusing dream. Goes back to sleep. Verse 5.
He slept and dreamed the second time, and behold, seven ears
of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. Yes, beautiful. And behold, seven thick ears,
very thin ears. They were blasted with the east
wind. They sprung up after them. Verse 7, the seven thin ears
devoured the seven rank and full ears, and Pharaoh awoke, and
behold, it was a dream. Verse 8 says he was troubled.
Now, of course, the Egyptian people, they were very superstitious
people, and to them, dreams meant something. And indeed, these
dreams did mean something. And here we see the absolute
authority of God, even over the subconscious thoughts of a heathen
king. The dreams that he dreamed, though
they were in his own mind, yet it was the Lord who put those
thoughts in his mind, and then he sought an interpreter of the
dreams. Never underestimate the absolute
authority and dominion of God. He even controls the thoughts
of the heathen. The heart of the king, the Scripture
says, is in the Lord's hands, even as the rivers of water.
He turneth them whithersoever he will. And here the Lord turns
the thoughts of an Egyptian king, a superstitious, idolatrous man. The Lord turns his thoughts that
he has these two dreams, of course, that paralleled each other. He's
very troubled. So it says in verse 8, and it
came to pass in the morning his spirit was troubled. He sent
and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men
thereof. And Pharaoh told them his dream,
but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
He called in all the soothsayers, all the wise men. all the men
that had the degrees. Remember, Egypt was at that time
the most powerful nation in the world. This was a very cultural,
cultural center of education and philosophy. But as we read
in the book of 1 Corinthians, man by wisdom knew not God. Here within Egypt and within
the reach of this mighty king were the wisest men on earth. And yet the wisest men on earth
did not have any understanding of his dreams. They were foolish. They were
foolish men. They couldn't understand what
the dreams meant. And so we read in verse 9, And
then spake the cheap butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember
my faults this day. You see, God brings to his memory
that which he needs to remember at exactly the right time. Understand this, people of God.
God's time is always the right time. Joseph, don't be discouraged.
Two years in prison? The chief butler forgot you?
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hang on, brother.
Just hang on. The Lord is behind all this.
And I say to all of you who are the Lord's people, whatever your
circumstance is, no matter how difficult some of you may feel
like your trials and your troubles and your afflictions are, our
God governs all things. There is nothing that is outside
of His domain. You understand that? That's what
we need to remember. God is the God of all things.
We just read in Romans 11, for of Him and through Him and to
Him are how many things? All things. There are no exceptions. Oh, but you don't know what I'm
going through with. Well, I don't. But I do know
who does. And the reason you're going through
whatever it is that you're going through is because God, your
Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, deemed it best for you. Therefore, you're right where
God would have you to be. And I've always maintained this.
I try to comfort people when they're troubled and distressed. If there was a better road for
you to be on, don't you think your heavenly Father would have
you on it? He is so tender-hearted toward
His children. But He who from the beginning
ordained the end is bringing everything to pass for your good. And even if we're spending two
years in a prison, believe God. Believe God. He's too good to make a mistake. He's too holy to do anything
wrong. And He loves you too much to permit anything truly destructive
to your soul to happen to you. Nothing's going to happen like
that. And I do maintain this, if you have heard the good news
of that full salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, of the full
forgiveness of sins, of that righteousness imputed to us,
that we're clothed with the garments of salvation. If you have really
heard the good news, there is no bad news. There is no bad
news. I remember when Joe was talking
about how he lost a tooth today. I remember when I went to my
dentist here several weeks ago, and he was looking at a tooth. I had a tooth problem, and he
said, I've got some really bad news for you. He said, it's the
worst news I could give you. I said, really? He said, yeah,
that tooth, it's shot. He said, I've got to operate
on the root. You're going to have to go to an oral surgeon.
He's going to cut it open. And that's the worst news you
got for me? That's not the worst news. There is no bad news for the
child of God. The Scripture says we must through
much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God. In Revelation
chapter 7, John sees this number which no man can number. They're
all clothed in white garments. The righteousness of the saints,
which is the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus. And the question is raised to
one of the elders, who are these? The elder said, you know. These
are they that have washed their garments in the blood of the
Savior. And they've all come out of great
tribulation. All of them. And that means you're not going
to be excluded from tribulation. whatever degree God has ordained,
and the sorts of tribulation you're going to go through may
be altogether different than the tribulation somebody else
in this congregation is going to go through. But rest assured,
all of God's people enter into the Kingdom going through great
tribulation. But we shall go through. That's
the reason I selected that song for us to sing. How firm a foundation. Isaiah says, and he quotes the
Lord, when you go through the fiery trials, you're not going
to be consumed. When you go through the river,
the waters aren't going to overflow you. Oh brethren, truly we worry
much too much for a people who says, I believe in the sovereign
authority of our God. I say, shame on us. God will
forgive us, and thankfully He does. He does. Here's our God. Why is Joseph
down there in prison? God put him there. Oh, no, no,
no, Preacher. Apollofer put him there, and
his wife was the one instrumental in having him put there. They
were just instruments that God manipulated to get Joseph where
he needed to be. This is what we need to remember.
And we tend to forget this. Every single, every single event
that happens to you, it happens according to the sovereign authority
of God. I find great comfort in that. And I know you do. There's no
luck. There's no chance. Well, you
know, such and such a thing happened. Well, you were very fortunate.
No, it's not about being fortunate. It's about God's divine providence. The Lord is directing all things
in your life toward the end that He has purposed for you. I'll tell you, you know, somebody
said, The reason we worry is because
of a six-inch difference between the head and the heart. What
we have in our minds, and we know the truth. We know the truth. But boy, if it be in our hearts,
more than it is, I'm not fussing at anybody. I'm fussing at all
of us. Me included. I'm just saying
that we need to rest more fully in our Lord. Well, the chief
butler says, now I remember, all of a sudden God triggers
his memory. This is under the authority of
God too. I remember a Hebrew. who interpreted
my dream and the dream king of your chief baker, whom you hanged."
And I tell you, this Hebrew man, he told me about that. And he
told me I would be exalted to my former position. And here
I am. And so, look at verse 14, Pharaoh
sent and he called for Joseph. And they brought Him hastily.
Let me tell you something. The King sends for you. You're
going to come hastily. And I see a Gospel picture right
here. Of us in the dungeon of Satan
and sin. And the King, the King of Kings,
He calls for us. And when He sends forth that
effectual call, we will come forth hastily out of the prison. When he speaks, the door to the
prison just opens up. And he draws us effectually unto
himself. And the Scripture says here concerning
Joseph, he shaved himself, he changed his raiment. Why has
he got to have a change of raiment? He's going to stand before the
king. And you and I, the Lord has cleaned
us up. He's washed us in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's put a change of raiment
on us. What is that? He took off our
old, tattered, dirty rags of our self-righteousness and He
robed us in the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even
as Isaiah said, the garments of salvation. Oh, now we're fit
for the presence of the King. You see, by nature, we're not
fit for the presence of the Lord. But by grace we are. By grace
we are. So He appears before Pharaoh
in verse 15. Pharaoh says to Joseph, I've
dreamed a dream. Nobody can interpret it. I've
heard say of thee that thou canst understand a dream to interpret
it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh saying,
watch this, takes no credit to himself. It isn't in me. This is the man of God speaking.
It isn't in me. It's not in you. You say, Jim,
you stand and you set forth the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the grace of God. It's not in me by nature. God
gives me the message. And Joseph says, it's not in
me. It's not me. It's not you. Let's don't give too much credit
to the preacher. I'm thankful God uses preachers.
Don't misunderstand me. But I'll tell you, the preacher
can't reveal truth to you. Only the Spirit of Grace can
do that. He says, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And
so, Pharaoh, he repeats the dream that he had. Tells Joseph all
about it. And we get that in verse 25.
And Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh is really just
one dream. God has showed Pharaoh what he's
about to do. Not what he's going to endeavor
to do or try to do or attempt to do. What God's going to do. And you read on, there's going
to be a time of lots of food coming in, and then there's going
to be a time of drought. Understand this, the same God
who is sovereign over all things is sovereign over the weather. He sends the rain. He sends the
famine. He sends the harvest. He sends
the dearth. This is all of the Lord. And
I know men want to all, you know, we're destroying the environment.
We're bringing this on the earth. The earth is cursed because of
us. We're destroying the environment. So forth and so on. Our God governs
all things. That includes the weather. And I know we often times are
unhappy about the weather, but actually we shouldn't be. Because
our Heavenly Father is behind that too. He sends the rain upon
the just and the unjust, and He sends the sunshine upon the
just and the unjust. And so Joseph, he interprets
the dream. He said, it's going to be seven
years of lots of food. And I'll tell you what you need
to do. You need to take about 20% of
the country of Egypt and just raise crops on that. And save them. Put them in the
granaries. Don't waste them. There's going to be lots and
lots of food. God's going to see to it. And you go ahead and
preserve a goodly amount of it. And that's going to be followed
by seven years of famine. And everybody's going to get
hungry. But if you've done this, what
I'm advising you to do, I'm interpreting the dream. In fact, it says you
appoint a man who's wise and he can take care of this for
you. But if you don't do that, everybody's going to starve to
death. Pharaoh said, boy, that's a good
idea. Talk to his servants. Paul said,
this guy makes sense to us. The king says, you're the man
I'm going to appoint over the land and all these crops. You'll be the one to take care
of all of it. And he says to Joseph, he said, look at verse 39, Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch
as God hath shewed thee, or manifested thee, all of this, there is none
so discreet and wise as you are, while you'll be over my house.
And according unto 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. Learn this. In Joseph's exaltation, we see
a picture of the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who was
brought low. Yea, even put in the very prison
of death. But death couldn't hold Him.
God brought Him forth. And God has exalted Him and seated
Him in His own right hand. And He is the Governor of all
things. Our Lord Jesus. Our Elder Brother. He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. And the Father says, You're over
My house. You're over My people. You're
the governor. You take care of my people and
in so doing, you govern all the world. And here's what Pharaoh did in
verse 42. He took off his ring from his
hand, put it upon Joseph's hand. He arrayed him in vestures of
fine linen, put a gold chain upon his neck. Our Lord has been
exalted with honor and glory. and seated at the Father's right
hand. And the Father commands all men
to bow to My Son." In fact, the king had servants go before Joseph
in verse 43, and he made him to ride in the second chariot
which he had made, and they cried before him, bow the knee. And that's what God's servants
do today. We go before our Lord Jesus as
it were and we say, bow the knee. He's the Lord. You can't make
Him Lord. God made Him Lord. God exalted
Him with His own right hand because He was faithful to do the work
of redemption God gave Him to do in the covenant of grace.
And of the Savior it is written in Isaiah, He shall not fail. He redeemed God's people. He
saved God's elect. Was it not spoken by the angel
of the Lord to Joseph? Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Of course it
was spoken to him. Well, did he save them or not? If he didn't, he's a failure. But he couldn't fail. He did
save His people. He did save His people. He saved
His people by His death. Therefore, He has been exalted. And the Lord said through Pharaoh
to Joseph, verse 44, I'm Pharaoh, when without thee shall no man
lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And you hear
me. without the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. Nobody can even lift up their
hand or their foot. You can't make a move without
the Lord giving you the ability to do it. He's the governor of
the nations. He doesn't want to reign. He
does reign. He doesn't desire to rule. He
does rule. And you will bow to Him either
sooner or later. Somebody said bowing in this
life by the grace of God, by the enabling ability that the
Spirit of God gives you, that's salvation. But if God doesn't make you bow
to Him in this life, He'll make you bow to Him at the judgment.
Every knee is going to bow. Every tongue's going to confess.
It's not a matter of letting Him be the Lord of your life.
He is the Lord. God made Him Lord. These so-called
preachers, they say, won't you make Jesus Lord of your life?
And I just want to grab them through the television screen
and say to them, you can't make Him Lord! God beat you to that! God made Him Lord. We bow to
His Lordship. Well, Pharaoh said, here's your name,
Zaphnath-Paeonea, you're the revealer of secrets. And I'll
tell you, our Lord Jesus, He's the revealer of the secrets of
God. No man can know the Father but
the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal. Do you understand
how God can save sinners? That He does it through the substitutionary
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus? By the satisfaction of divine
justice? Only the Lord can reveal that
to you. And our Lord Jesus says, Father,
I thank that You've hidden these things from the wise and the
prudent. Here are the magicians of Pharaoh. They can't make heads
nor tails of this. You've hidden these things from
the wise and the prudent. And He's revealed them unto babes,
even the babes of His people. Do you see in your mind's eye
and do you see and understand by faith Christ reigning and
ruling over all things? Thank God for revealing grace. Well, it says in verse 46, Joseph
was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. That's when he really began his
public ministry. Oh, that's when our Lord Jesus
began His public ministry at 30 years of age. And of course, everything that
God had said, it all came to pass. And then I just want to skip
down to verse 53. The seven years of plenteousness that was in
the land of Egypt were ended, and the seven years of dearth
began to come according as Joseph had said. And the dearth was
in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt
was famished, The people began to cry. They cried to Pharaoh,
we need bread. We need bread. And Pharaoh said
unto all the Egyptians, go to Joseph. Go to Joseph. What he said to
you do, and the famine was over all the face of the earth. And
you know what Joseph did in verse 56? He opened all the storehouses. And let me tell you something,
all the storehouses of God's saving grace, they're under the lock and key
of Christ Jesus. He has bread enough and to spare. And I'll tell you what God will,
He'll create within you a hunger. He will create within you a hunger
and a thirst for righteousness. And as it says in that beatitude,
blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
What does the scripture say? What does the Savior say? They
shall be filled. Lord, I'm hungry. I'm hungry
for the bread that only You can give me. The bread that will
satisfy the soul. He gives us the hunger. And He
satisfies the hunger. He gives us the thirst. Our Lord, on the last day of
the Feast of the Tabernacles in John 7, He stood before the
people and said, Let Him come unto me and drink. But you know what's going to
happen first? You've got to be thirsty. I don't understand why more people
don't believe this Gospel. They're neither hungry nor thirsty. Where does that hunger, where
does that thirst have to come from? It isn't in the natural
man. The Lord has to create that thirst
for the water of life. He has to create within you that
hunger for that One who is the bread come down from heaven. And if the Lord does that, you'll
go to Joseph, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll find
out all the storehouses of the infinite blessings of God are
in His hands. And He opens the storehouses
to you. So, it says in verse 57, And
all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn, because
the famine was so sore, in all the lands. And we're in a spiritual
famine. There's no question about it
in our country. There's a spiritual famine for
the Word of God. But here and there, the Lord has a storehouse set
up for His hungry people. The people He's going to make
hungry. And they'll learn by the preaching of the Word I learned
that a greater than Joseph, He has come and satisfied God's
justice, laid down His life, gave His life a ransom for many. He's gone back to glory. The
Father has exalted Him. And He gives to us that desire
to know God. To know Him and the power of
His resurrection. And such is that irresistible
work of God, that when He creates a hunger, it's only satisfied by feeding
on that One who is the Bread of Life, Christ Jesus. And He creates a thirst. And
the thirst is only satisfied by drinking from the wells of
salvation. even from our Lord Jesus, who
is the water of life." Oh, He's the sovereign Christ. And He
reigns over all. Lay your worries aside. As Peter
said, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. Don't worry anymore. I was reading
today a poem by William Cowper, or
Cooper as some people call him. He wrote, There is a fountain
filled with blood. But he also wrote this, and this
is about the providence of God. And I was thinking about Joseph
being in the prison in Egypt. And William Cowper, he said,
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His
grace. Behind the frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face. And that providence that has
brought you into the dungeon of life as it were, that providence
made to you seem like a frown. Let me tell you something. God is never frowning upon His
people. He's pleased with us in Christ.
And that which befalls us works together with all things for
your good. And we can say accurately to
Joseph, listen, Joseph, over your whole life, Romans 8.28
is written, And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are they called according
to His purpose. Couldn't we kind of summarize
the whole life of Joseph that way? You'd agree with that, wouldn't
you? Sure, there's no question about it. But wait a minute.
That's also true of your life. The headlines over your life,
it will be written at last. All things worked together for
good to them that love God. Do you love God the way He's
revealed in His Word? Holy, just, righteous, sovereign? I do. I can't put up with anybody
speaking against the attributes of God. I just don't stand for
it. I love God as He's revealed in
the Book. He Himself has called me by His
grace. And I know he's working all things
together, together, for my good and for the good
of all of his people. That ought to help you. That
ought to help you. And I believe it does.