King of Egypt, and Joseph went
out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land
of Egypt. The earth brought forth by handfuls,
and he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were
in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities. The
food of the field, which was round about every city, laid
he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the
sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering, for it was
without numbering. And unto Joseph were born two
sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath, the daughter
of Potiphar, a priest of old, bare unto him. And Joseph called
the name of the firstborn Manasseh, that is, forgetting, for he said,
For God, saith he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all
my father's house. And the name of the second called
he Ephraim. For God hath caused me to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction, forgetting and fruitful the name
of his two sons. And the seven years of Plenteous
that was in it in the land of Egypt were in it. And the seven
years of dearth and the seven years of famine began to come,
according as Joseph had said, And the dearth was in all lands,
but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all
the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for
bread. And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph,
what he saith unto you to do. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and
sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in the
land of Egypt. And all countries came unto Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn, because that the famine was to soar in
all the land." Well, you remember last week, Joseph was brought
up out of prison, and he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, where there's
going to be seven years of fat cattle and seven years of great
big ears of corn. Seven small lean cattle came
along, ate all the big cattle. Seven miserable ears of corn
came and ate the seven ears of good corn. Seven years of plenty,
seven years. But the point was that Joseph
was brought up out of prison. Went from being in prison to
being the prime minister over Egypt. To being exalted only
under Pharaoh. And everything that Pharaoh had
in all of Egypt, in all of his affairs, He turned it over to
Joseph. Turned it over to Joseph. Because
of God was with him. Because of his character. And
because of his ability to tell men's secrets. And that's what
his name means. And that's the way our Lord Jesus
is. God. God raised him up. God gave him
a name that's above every name. And by virtue of his blessed
person, God made him to be Lord over everything in this world.
And I am absolutely thrilled that it's that way. And so here's
Joseph, he brings up out of prison. And then he's made prosperous.
He goes from being a servant to prison to prime minister.
That's kind of a change, ain't it? Dramatic change. But he's
made to be prosperous and made to be successful. And prosperity
and success is dangerous to most people. It produces pride and
self-sufficiency. And those who have plenty, they'll
forget God and don't feel the need of Him. That's what he said
about Sodom. He said, thy sister Sodom is
full of pride, full of bread, full of idleness. And they forget
the poor and needy. But Joseph, When he was exalted,
remained what he always was. He was the same when he was a
servant, a slave in Potiphar's house. He was the same when he
was in prison. He is exactly the same when God
put him on a throne. It never changed him. Never changed
him. He is always the same. What he
always was, he was a worshipper of the true God. Look what he
says there in verse 51. He said it for God, saith he
in the middle of the verse, for God saith he, for God saith he. Verse 52, for he says, for God
hath caused me to be fruitful. He still worshiped the true and
the living God. He said, God done this. God did
this. So let's continue with Joseph
and the typical teachings about our Lord Jesus Christ. More a
type of Christ than anyone at all. And like I say, all types
have a They cannot be perfect. Here he was selling bread. Our
Lord Jesus Christ gives the bread. That's the difference. And there's
a lot of differences. But Joseph was really a type
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And look what it says in verse
46. And Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. Before he ever went out into
the land of Egypt, he was 30 years old. You know how old our
Lord Jesus Christ was when he entered the ministry? When the
Lord God, when the Holy Ghost came down on him, when he was
being baptized, when the Holy Spirit came down on him. God
said this is my beloved son who not who I'm well pleased and
the scripture said Jesus being about 30 years of age and that's
when he entered his ministry at 30 years of age Joseph entered
into his life's work when his 46 I Lord entered into his life's
work at 36 and I'm waiting there. Excuse me at 30 So that's one
thing the same about him and then look what else it says here
in verse 46. I In the middle of the verse, and
Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh. and went out all
through the land of Egypt. He went from the presence of
Pharaoh to do his work. He didn't stay in the palace.
He didn't stay in the presence of pomp and pleasure and circumstance. Pharaoh ruled Egypt and he delighted
in Joseph and sent him over everything, over all things. And I want you
to see this. Look with me over in Mark chapter
1. It's about our Lord Jesus. He went out from the presence
of Pharaoh. Mark chapter 1 and verse 9. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't stay up there in the presence
of Pharaoh. He didn't stay there and send other people to do the
work. He went out Himself. He went to do His work. He went to do what the Lord called
Him to do. And our Lord's ministry, look
what happens here in verse 9. Mark chapter 1, And it came to
pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth to Galilee,
and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out
of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the Spirit, like a
dove, descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven,
saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And immediately, immediately
the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And he was there
in the wilderness forty days. Attempted of Satan with the wild
beasts and the angels, ministered unto him. Now after that John
was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel
of the Kingdom of God. and saying, the time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the
gospel. So he left from the presence
of God saying, my beloved son, I'm well pleased. And he went
immediately into the work. He went immediately into his
ministry. And the first thing that happened
to him was to be tempted of the devil. And then he come out of
the wilderness preaching the gospel. Repent ye and believe
the gospel now look in verse 16 now as he walked by the Sea
of Galilee He's out doing his work see he saw Simon and Andrew
his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers
This is what the Lord said now, but he's at his work. He's at
his ministry He's doing what he's called to do just like Joseph
and our Lord said of him come after me I'm gonna make you become
fishers of men and And they said, I don't believe I will. No, no,
they straightway will. But what my point is, is that
as Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, our Lord Jesus Christ
went out from the presence of his father, who said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, and went to the work,
immediately went to the work. And that's the way Joseph did,
and that's the way our master did. And now back over here,
Joseph, Joseph was active and I'll tell you what he was a worker
and he traveled all over the place Look what he says there
in the last part of verse 46 as he went out from the presence
of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt He didn't
just go here and yonder and go to some big place and stay around
in palaces and that. He went throughout all the land
of Egypt. He faithfully did His work. He
didn't stay in a place of peace and comfort. And thy Lord Jesus
Christ, that's the way He was. Again, I don't want to wear you
with this, but look in Matthew 4.23. I don't want to worry you
with this, but He faithfully did His work. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, He faithfully, faithfully did His work. Matthew 4.23. You know, and He didn't stay in a place
of ease and comfort. He had work to do. And that's
the way our Master was. Look what He said here in verse
23. And our Savior, that's what He
did. And Jesus went about all Galilee. He didn't stay in one spot. He
went everywhere. Teaching in the synagogues. Preaching
the Gospel of the Kingdom. Healing all manner of sickness
and manner of disease among the people. He went out among the
people. The common people heard Him gladly.
Look at 9.35. Matthew 9.35. He's like Joseph. He's, you know,
Joseph was like our master. Our master went out working.
He went out doing things for people. He went out seeing that
people's needs were met. Look what he says in verse 35.
And Jesus went out about all the cities and villages. Like
Joseph, he went into all the land of Egypt. Jesus went into
all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every
disease among the people. And I tell you, Joseph went throughout
and our Lord Jesus Christ went everywhere, went everywhere.
And our Lord said this, he said, foxes have holes, birds of the
air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his
head. And there was a time when the scripture says that in John
7, 53, the last verse said, every man went unto his own house and
Jesus Went into the wilderness. Everybody left him. He was healing
people and taking care of people. Everybody went home. And our
Lord was left. Didn't even say, would you come
here and stay with me? Left alone. Left alone. And here's another
thing about Joseph. Back over here in chapter 41. Joseph was exalted. You remember
he was exalted. With such a wise man as you,
I want you to take care of everything. Won't you take care of everything?
And Joseph's exaltation, Joseph being raised up. And you know
they went through the streets and they told everyone to bow
down before him and everybody had to bow before Joseph. But
Joseph's exaltation was followed by a season of plenty. When he
was exalted, there was a great, great season of plenty. Look
what it says here in verse 47. He's just exalted now. He's going
out to all the land of Egypt. And in the seven plentish years,
the earth brought forth by handfuls, handfuls, just handfuls. And
he gathered up all the food of the seven years which in the
land of Egypt and laid up the food in the cities, the food
of the field which round about every city laid he up in the
sand. And all listened when he was exalted, followed by a great
season of plenty, handfuls, handfuls, the earth brought forth abundantly.
And we live, we live by God's blessed mercies and a day of
grace. A day of blessed grace, plenteous
grace. God's got grace that he's never
yet given. And God's got bundles of grace,
heaven full of grace. He himself is the God of grace. And we live in a land and a place
and a day of grace, and plenteous grace. And as that earth brought
forth handfuls, God, listen to me, God sends his messenger into
all the world And they preach a full and a free salvation through
faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's exalted Son. There's plenty for you now. There's
plenty for you now. But there's coming a time when
the plenty will stop. The day of grace one of these
days is going to stop. The day of grace is going to
cease. The day of God's mercy is going to stop one of these
days. Right now Christ is exalted. Plenteous grace. With thee, David
said, with thee there's plenteous grace. And oh, we're telling
men and women, there's grace. Oh, grace. Wonderful grace. Blessed grace. Marvelous grace. Amazing grace. Grace is a charming
sound. And you know it. Here's the thing,
that God God is long-suffering to us for it. What a damn grace.
Long-suffering to us for it's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come unto repentance. Who's he talking
about there? His people. He's not willing.
There's not going to be one for whom Christ dies. He's going
to perish. God is long-suffering towards him. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and
die, it abideth alone. But if it dies, it brings forth
plenty of fruit, abundance of fruit. And it was so abundant
that on the day of Pentecost, Peter pre-strapped that day,
and over 3,000 people. God saved you one time. And then,
when they was going into the temple, into the temple, beautiful,
at the hour of prayer, the blind man was laying there, blind,
said, asking for alms, and Peter set his eyes on him. He said,
silver and gold, we ain't got none of that. We're preachers. We ain't got no silver and gold,
but I'll tell you what we have got. We've got the Lord Jesus
Christ and his power and his presence and his blessings. Stand
up and walk. And he jumped up and went to
leaping and jumping. And that gave Peter the opportunity
to preach. And you know how many people's
converted that time? 5,000. You think there ain't plenty of grace? How would you like to preach
a sermon, 3,000 be converted, and preach a sermon the next
day, and 5,000 be converted? I'd be tingled to death to see
one. I'd love to see one. Just see
one. But that's what I'm talking about.
Plenteous, plenteous of grace. Plenteous grace. And it was after
Christ was exalted. And when Joseph was exalted,
they had a season of plenty. Season of plenty. And then his
exaltation was also followed by a famine, a period of famine. Look what it says in verse 53. and the seven years of plenteousness
that was in the land of Egypt were ended and the seven years
of dearth or the seven years of famine began to come according
as Joseph has said and the dearth was in all the land but all the
land of Egypt there was bread so it's you know there's also
a time of Famine and I want to read a verse
scripture to you. I know you've heard this but
I won't have you look at it But this is what it says Behold the
days come Amos 8 11 behold the days come saith the Lord God
that I'll send a famine in the land not a famine for bread not
a thirst for water, but a famine for hearing the words of the
Lord and And that's where we're at. You know the scripture says
that the end will not come except there come a falling away first. And when it talks about a falling
away, it's not talking about people falling away from the
gospel. That's not what he's talking
about. People don't fall away from Christ. People don't walk
away from Christ. People don't undo a new birth.
But it's talking about walking, falling away from revealed religion. A revelation of God. A revelation
of what God Himself said. Instead of hearing what God has
to say, God said, I'm going to send a famine for hearing the
words of the Lord. And I mean, a man will hear anything.
I've told you one time a man can preach hell to the house
of the devil to groundhog and somebody will believe him. Oh,
Ross Barnard said one time, and he used to teach our Piedmont
Barber College out in North Carolina, and he said this, he's talking
to a bunch of young men, and he said, young men, be very,
very careful what you preach. He said, for there's two things
that will happen. That men will believe what you preach and they'll
go into eternity believing what you preach. So you better know
what you're preaching. And that's the way it is. Men
will believe what you preach. I don't care what it is. Sooner
or later somebody's going to believe. How could you be a Mormon?
How could you be a Catholic? How could you be a Pentecostal? How could you be somebody that
believes you can be lost again? But people do it. But people did it. And God said,
I'm going to send a famine. Oh, we're going to have plenty
to eat. And we're going to have plenty to drink. But he said,
people ain't going to want to hear my word. And look what he
goes on to say. And they shall wander from sea
to sea, from the north to the even to the east. They shall
run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord. And they ain't going
to be able to find it. They ain't going to be able to find it.
And that's the way it is, a great falling away. And I'll tell you,
beloved, we're right at that point where the scriptures tells
us that this world, this world's just about to wrap up. I mean,
things is not good. People not listening to the scriptures.
Look at us here tonight. Look at us here tonight. Handful
of people, a handful of people. If we pulled a truck up here
in town, a couple of semi-trucks, trailers, and them being full
of food, and things that you wanted to give away, and expensive
things you wanted to give away, there would be people up there
in line, in line, and they'd say, oh, oh, they'd be up and
giving away. And yet we preach a salvation
that God gives. that God gives and look how few are interested
in it. We're talking about something that's free. Now you can get
up and start preaching that it's going to cost you something.
It's going to cost you living right. It's going to cost you
dressing right. It's going to cost you quitting
this habit and that habit and not being able to go here and
not being able to go there. You're going to have to change
how you dress. You're going to have to change
about the people you run around with. And you start preaching
all the things that people need to do and put a price on it and
the place will run over. But when you say there ain't
no price to this, it's already been paid. Our salvation is already, we
say, listen, salvation is free. Well, how do I get it? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how am I going to believe
on Him? He'll give you the faith. He said, by grace are you saved
through faith, and that's not of yourself. That's how free
it is. He even gives you the faith to
believe on Him. And He loves you, and because
He loves you, He'll put the love of God in your heart to love
Him back. And He'll attribute your faith to you and He'll attribute
the love for Him to you after He's the one that gives it to
you. He says it's yours. But listen, when you ain't got
nothing, when you ain't got nothing to give and nothing to bring,
you got to stand with both hands out. Both hands out. And now let me show you something
else that Joseph's doing here in verse 55. Now he's dispensing
bread to a perishing world. Verse 55. And when all the land
of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And
Pharaoh, they went to Pharaoh, you know, that's like going to
God. God said, you know, people go to God, give me something
to eat, give me something to eat. And Pharaoh said unto all
the Egyptians, there's only one place you can go, one person
you can go to, and that's Joseph. And what he said to you, that
dude, oh, Here is this despised, here is
this rejected Jew. He is hated by his brother. He
was put in jail, lied on. And now, beloved, this despised,
rejected Jew is now exalted to be the only hope for people to
get life in Egypt. The only hope. And after, you
know, they were famished, the scripture said. They were starving.
And to keep them from perishing for hunger. And He was the only
Savior, the only one with food in the whole world at that time.
And if you got anything from Him, you had to go to Joseph. Huh? And I ain't that the way
our Lord Jesus Christ is. Our Lord said it like this. He
says, no man, I'm the way to the Father. I'm the truth to make God known. And I'm the life. And he says
this, you want to go to God? No man can come unto the Father
but by me. You want the way? You've got
to come by me. You want the truth of God? You've got to come by
me. You want the life of God? You've got to come by me. And
Father ain't even going to speak to you. You have nothing to do
with it except you come by me. And our Lord Jesus Christ, you
remember when they was on the Mount of Transfiguration and
Moses and Elijah was there and they left and the great shining
light was around them. Well old Simon Peter said, oh
Lord it's so good, oh it's so good for us to be here. He said,
I'll tell you what we're gonna do, we're gonna build three tabernacles
real quick. There's gonna be one for you,
over here's gonna be one for Moses, one over here's gonna
be one for Elijah. He no sooner got that out of
his voice than this shadow, this big shadow came down over him.
And a big booming voice came out of that cloud. And it told
Simon, Peter, John, and James, and everybody that could hear,
this is my son. Hear him. And that's why God, if you want
to hear from God, we're going to hear through Christ. We're
going to approach God, it's going to be through Christ. We're going
to have life, we're going to get it through Christ. We're
going to eat bread, we're going to get it through Christ. If
we're going to have a relationship with God, it's going to be through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you something,
my Lord not only dispenses the bread, but He Himself is the
bread. He Himself is the bread. And
then not only that, not only He was best bred to a Persian
world, but look what He said, He became a Savior to all people.
Look what I said down here in verse 57. And all countries came to Egypt, into Egypt, See
in verse 56, and the famine was over all the face of the earth,
and Joseph, he's got it all. He opened the storehouses. Christ's
the only one who opened the storehouse. And sold unto the Egyptians,
and the famine and waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all
countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn, because
that the famine was sore in all lands. This famine became worldwide,
and Joseph was raised up. Raised up of God to meet the
needs of the world. To have food for the world. And
the Lord Jesus Christ, God raised Him up to be the Savior of every
tribe, every kindred, every nation, every people. Jew, Gentile, bond-free,
male or female. He's the Savior of all. I'm going
to be going down to Mexico. God saves a lot. He saves a lot
of people in Mexico. There's a lot of wonderful works
down there. A lot of wonderful preachers. You know why? God saves Mexicans. God saves
Chinese. He saves... And this is what
amazes me. He saved me. He saved me. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He says, God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten son. What that means is that God don't
love every soul on the top side of the earth. That couldn't possibly
mean that. Because over in John 5 over there it says the whole
world lies in wickedness. And he came into the world and
the world received him not. There's three worlds in John
and every one of them has a different meaning. He was in the world
He made the world and the world didn't receive it. So what's
those three worlds there? So when we talk about John 3.16,
you got to find out what world he's talking about. The only
world that he could be talking about there is the world that
he died for. That means people from all over
the world. Before, everybody said salvation
is for the Jews and the Jews only. And our Lord went to the
Jews, but He saved Gentiles. And then when He opened the door,
He said He became a light to every... a great light rose in
darkness. And our Lord, when He says He
so loved the world, that means that He loved men of every character,
every type, every age, every ethnicity, every... He excludes nobody on the face
of this earth as far as who they are. That's what it means. And so when he said he's the
Savior, he's the Savior. That's why we go preach the gospel. If Jesus loved, now listen to
me now, if our Lord loved everybody and died for everybody in this
world, what in the world would it be any reason for us to go
preach the gospel? They're going to be saved. Ain't
that right? As I do know, if He loves a man,
He's going to love him eternally because He said, I love you with
an everlasting love. And if He saves a man, He saves
him eternally. He says He gives him eternal
life. And He says if He saves a man, He saves him by blood,
saves him by righteousness, and saves him by grace. So if Christ loved everybody
and died for everybody indiscriminately, there's not a better reason for
us to go preach the gospel. If they can be saved without
the gospel issue, and they can be saved because God loved them,
Jesus died for them, let's just take the house, because he's
going to save them anyway. But you know how God saves sinners?
Through the gospel. Oh, my, that's why he's the Savior. He's the only Savior. And let
me tell you this, back over here again. Joseph had unlimited resources
to meet the needs of all. I mean, he had unlimited resources. Look what it says in verse 49. And Joseph gathered corn as the
sand of the sea, very much. Listen, he had so much he couldn't
number it, for it was without number. He couldn't number all that he
had to give to people. And you think he had so much,
you imagine the riches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The riches
of His grace. The scripture says he is rich
in mercy. They're called the unsearchable
riches of Christ. God is rich over all, Jew and
Gentile. You reckon we'll ever exhaust
the riches of God and the riches of Christ? He said they're unsearchable. And as Brad prayed tonight, he
said, Lord, we cannot begin to speak of you and praise you and
thank you of what you're worthy of. And we can't. How can you? God's got all the wealth. All the wealth in the world.
And when we're talking about wealth, we're talking about the
spiritual wealth. He has all the material wealth
too. It all belongs to Him. And He has all spiritual wealth. He has all the grace. He has
all the mercy. He has all the power. He has
all the light. He has all the wisdom. He has all the love. He has all the abilities. So
I tell you what, people have been receiving from Him since
the world began and He is just as rich today as He was to start
with. And when we go into eternity,
when we go into eternity, and then we're going to really know
to some degree how rich He really is. Down here we hear that, oh
the riches of His grace. You know what, how rich is His
grace? His grace saved you. His grace called you. And His
grace keeps you. And His grace is going to continue
to do that. That's how rich His grace is. And you know how many
people He's doing that for in this world? Right now. Oh my. Well, let me close with
this. Thank God we're talking about
numberless riches, the riches of Christ. Thank God there's
infinite value in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God there's infinite love
in his heart for sinners. And bless His name, there is
infinite readiness and willingness to save all who will come to
Him. And bless His name, there is
infinite power to save and keep that which is committed unto
Him. He's infinite and all He has for us. You think Joseph
would have plenty? Here's a drop in the bucket to
one of our Lord Jesus. He said if you count the nations
as a drop of a bucket, imagine how wealthy is our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Father in the precious, holy,
blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for the riches of your
grace. Thank you that you have a storehouse full and we can come to you and everything
that we need, everything that we need in this life, all our
spiritual blessings, all the grace and all the strength and
all the help and all the hope and the food that we need. the
spiritual food we need, the spiritual drink we need. Lord Jesus, you
provide it. And so we come to you as your
father told us to, come to you. And we always come with stretched
out hands, empty, to take from your hand to ours, take from
your wealth to our poverty, take from your might to our weakness,
take from your power to our inability. Lord, we take all from you. And
we bless you and praise you and thank you for the great wealth,
the great love, and the great grace that you've given us all
these years. And for real, Lord, we look forward
to enjoying and receiving from you throughout eternity. We bless
you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's say just a couple of verses
of 209. We'll sing two verses of this
and then you'll be at liberty to go. 209. 209, let's stand together. Marvelous grace of that exceeds our sin and our
guilt. Yonder, O Calvary's mount, outpoured
there where the blood of the Lamb was shed. Grace, grace, God's Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace
that is great. Dark is the shade that we cannot
hide. Look, there is flowing a crimson
tide. Wilder the snow you may be today. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse. God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin