Good evening. If you'll join
me in Psalm number 8, the 8th Psalm. And when I finish reading the
chapter, just hold your place there. The 8th Psalm is a Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, How excellent
is Thy name in all the earth, who has set Thy glory above the
heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies,
that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I
consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful
of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned
him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands. thou hast put all things under
his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field,
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth." David wrote these
words and as we read them I hope we read them as the congregation
of Israel. There are men who we know and
love who are against the red letter edition of the King James
Bible because they say that the whole Bible is the words of Christ,
has some merit. When our Lord walked upon this
earth, he was taught the scriptures. Luke 2 says Jesus increased in
wisdom, in stature and in favor with God and man. Our Lord read
this psalm. He was taught this psalm. These
are his words that he learned. I want to read them again as
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in
all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens! Out
of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because
of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy in the avenger. When I, the Son of Man, when
I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained. What is man, that thou art mindful
of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned
him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
his feet, all sheep And oxen, yea, and the beast of the field,
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the sea, O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth. Let's bow together
in prayer. Genesis 37. Sweep over my soul. Sweep over my soul. Sweet spirit, sweep over my soul. I pray he does. I pray he does. Gonna start on the life of Joseph
here, and I'm hitting the high spots going through Genesis,
not dealing with everything that's in it. And Joseph, this 37th chapter
deals with him, and as a youth, and how his brothers treated
him. And Joseph's a well, well-known type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Arthur Pink says that he's a
type of the Lord Jesus in 100 ways, 100 ways. I think, I think now I may end
up with 70 something. I don't know if I'll come up
with a whole hundred, but it's a lot. He is more a type of our
Lord Jesus Christ than anybody else in the scriptures. And one
way he was like our Lord Jesus Christ is this. that you never
ever find any sin in him in his life. No sins mentioned about
him in his life. No sins mentioned against him.
Daniel's another one that no sins mentioned against him. And
he was a young boy, and he was the son of his father's old age.
And this young man, in several ways, he is like our Lord Jesus
Christ. He is despised and rejected.
He ended up becoming a man of sorrows and he was well acquainted
with grief when he went into prison and the way his brothers
treated him. And like our blessed Lord who
was cast out by man and he's exalted at God's right hand,
Joseph was cast out by his brethren and exalted to be a prince and
a savior over his own brethren in Egypt. As our Lord Jesus Christ
exalted to be our prince and our savior. Now, I'm gonna read
a few verses and then we'll go back and go over them. But let
me read down to about verse 12. And Jacob dwelt in the land where
his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. He's went
back home now. He went home. Him and Esau are
okay. And these are the generations
of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with
his brethren. And the lad was with the sons
of Bilah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wife. And
Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Evidently
these sons was pretty rotten, pretty mean. But now Israel loved
Joseph, went from being Jacob now to Israel. Israel loved Joseph
more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph
dreamed a dream and he told it his brethren and they hated him
yet the more. And he said unto them, here I
pray you this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were
binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaf stood
round about, and made obeisance, or bowed to my sheaf. And his
brethren said unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or
shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet
the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet
another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I
have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his
father and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him and said
unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee to the earth? And his brother envied him, but
his father observed him, saying, The saying, and his brethren
went to Shechem, the brethren went to feed their father's flock
in Shechem. Shechem, and Israel said unto
Joseph, do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and
I will send thee unto them. And he said, here I am. And he
did. Let's show you just a few ways
in which he was like our Lord Jesus Christ. He was beloved
of the Father. Ain't that what it says now in
verse three? Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all of his children. God's got lots and lots of children,
lots of children. He's got children all over the
world. He's had children from Abel until the day that this
thing's winding up. He had all the children, but
you know the one that he loved more than anybody else? He loved
his own son. He called him the son of his
love. This is my beloved son. That's what he called him. He
called him his beloved son. Called him and told him how precious
he was and how glorious he was and how powerful he was and how
exalted him. And I'll tell you what, he was
well beloved by his father, but his brethren, his brethren despised
him and hated him. Ain't that what it says? And
when his brethren, verse four, saw that their father loved him
more than all his brethren, they hated him, hated him. And they
couldn't even say a good word to him. They couldn't even say
a good word to him, a kind word to him. They couldn't speak peaceably
unto him. When they spoke to him, they
had to speak ill. They had to be angry. They was
upset with him. They didn't like him. because
of the way his father was. And how was our Lord Jesus Christ? How was he hated? How was he
despised? The Lord Jesus says in John said,
he came unto his own, came unto his own, came unto his own nation,
came to his own people, came where he was born and raised.
He came unto his own and his own received him not. And I tell
you what, in fact, they said things about him. They called
him a winebibber. They said he's beside himself.
They said, this man's crazy. He's beside himself. And all
the things that they said about him, said he had a devil. Oh,
they couldn't speak peaceably to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
that hated him and despised him because he is so loved to the
Father, they could not speak peaceably to the Lord Jesus Christ. They say, we've got Moses. As
for this fella, we don't have no idea where he come from. And
oh, and I tell you what, it was envy and jealousy. Look what
it says there again in verse four. And when his brethren saw
that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated
him and could not speak peacefully. And you know what, how many times
did you go through the Gospels? And it says there that they,
for envy, Deliver Jesus Christ up for envy. And envy is crueler
than the grave. Jealousy is crueler than the
grave. The grave's cruel. It takes away people that we
love. It takes it, when it comes to
get you, you gotta go. And it's a cruel thing. And you
know, when it comes into jealousy, and envy is crueler than the
grave. And here they had, and they hated, and our Lord Jesus
says, they hated me without a cause. Why did they hate me? They had
no cause. Why did they despise me? They
had no cause. What fault did they find with
me? They had no cause. The only thing cause there was
was because he was the son of God, because he was beloved of
his father, because his father would speak to him, his father
blessed him, and his father gave him grace, and used him, and
they hated him for that very reason. Hated him. Hated the
Lord Jesus Christ without a cause. And I'll tell you something.
Beloved, there was a time we hated him just like they did.
That's what's awful about it. People, I heard a preacher say
one time, said, if I'd have been there, I'd have stopped him.
No, oh Lord, no, no, no, no. If I would have been in that
mob that day, if I'd have been in that mob that day, when they
delivered up the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross, my voice would
have been just as loud as anybody else's. And when he hung on that
cross, my voice would have cried out just as much as anybody else's.
And that's what makes grace so precious. That's what makes grace
so amazing. That's what makes God's power
and grace and love so amazing to us is because that's what
we were. I remember thinking the Lord
Jesus Christ was probably a very good man and probably a great
prophet. But he meant nothing to me, meant
nothing to me. It's like his brethren, they
just, they couldn't speak peaceably to him. And then, oh, look what
else, and then he was hated for his words, not only because he
is loved of his father. His father made him a coat of
many colors. Our Lord Jesus Christ was dressed
like nobody else was dressed in the Father's presence. He
made his son a coat. He was dressed different than
anybody, all the rest of his brethren. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, God dressed him like no man's ever been dressed in
this universe. He dressed him in the very righteousness
of God. He dressed him in the power of
God, dressed him in the grace of God. And oh, God dressed him
up, and he dressed him so gloriously, so powerfully and so graciously,
and he said that everyone who believes on me and comes to me,
I'll dress them just like my son. I'll put the same clothes
on them that he's got. It didn't look what I'd not only
was he hated because his father loved him, but he was hated for
his words. Look what it says here in verse
five. Joseph dreamed a dream and he said, called his brethren
around and said, listen, I had a dream and I'm gonna tell you
what my dream was. He said, we were out in the field
binding up sheaves and my sheave stood up and all the rest of
you bowed down to my sheave. He said, you all bowed down to
my sheave. And oh, my, look what his brother said to him. Shalt
thou indeed reign over us? You're gonna have dominion over
us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his
words. Oh, my. Ain't that what they
said about our Savior? Said we will not have this man
reign over us. That's what Pharaoh said. Who
is the Lord that I should obey him? Oh my, and he asked, those
Pharisees asked, those people said, has any of the leaders,
has any of the rulers believed on him? What's the matter with
you folks? None of us are following him.
None of us take him at his word. None of us believe his word.
None of us believe who he is. He's nobody. That's what they
said about our Lord Jesus. We know his brethren. We know
his sister. We know his mother. He's just
a man. He's just a man. He's no different
than anybody else. And that's what they said. Oh,
we're not gonna have this man to reign over us. We're not gonna
have Christ to reign over us. Now, some of you may remember
years ago, and I don't know if it still goes on or not. I know
I've been pretty isolated for a long time. But they used to
have this debate over the lordship of Christ. And they would say,
you know, that you could get saved. And that's what they used
to call it, getting saved. And they'd get saved, and then,
you know, they'd be carnal Christians, and then they'd start preaching
to them that now, if you want to live a good, victorious life,
you need to make Jesus Lord. There's only one thing wrong
with that. He was Lord before anybody's ever born on this earth. He had to leave glory to come
down here. He had to leave his throne to
come down here. And you know how he came? Our
king came into Jerusalem. You know how our Lord Jesus Christ,
his king, came into Jerusalem? You know, when kings came into
a town. You know, you take Queen Elizabeth. When she comes in,
they bring in carriages and they bring in all these people and
all big soldiers follow around, great big horses and all. Big
deal, you know. Well, when kings conquered and
when kings ruled in the earth, they would come in and they would
always come in with a great big trumpet going before them, telling
them, oh, here comes so-and-so and all the armies he's defeated
and all the kings he's won and all the things that he's accomplished.
And then he'd come in on a big old white horse or a bunch of
big great, you know, big entourage. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
the king. Come right into Jerusalem on
a coat Just to quote, the foal of an ass. That's how he came. Made himself of no reputation.
Nobody ever like him. And this man, who come into town,
the king of Israel, and all those folks find Hosanna to the son
of David. Hosanna to the son of David.
Throwing palm branches around in front of him. And those men
around him says, what are these people doing? Don't they know
who this is? This ain't nobody. This ain't
nobody. And so they said, we're not going
to have this man to reign over. And they despised him for his
words. Despised him for his words. Now
look what else. And they plotted against him
now. It's enough to hate him because his father loves him.
It's enough to hate him because of his words. They hated him
for his words. Hated him for his words. And
oh my, how many times did they come and the scripture says they
tried to, and they said these things tempting him, trying their
best to trip him up. But now look what happens now.
And the father sent him, down here in verse 13, 14, he said,
"'Do not your brethren feed the flock in Shechem? "'Come, and
I'm gonna send you there.' And he said, "'Go, and I pray thee,
"'see whether it be well with our brethren "'and well with
the flocks. "'Bring me word again.' So he sent him out of the vale
of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And he was wandering around,
he was running around, and finally he found his brethren in Dothan."
And down in verse 18, oh my. "'And when they saw him afar
off, "'even before he came near unto them, They conspired against
him to slay him. The father sent him to go check
on his brethren. See how things are going with
his brethren. The father sent him. God sent his blessed son
into this world. He said, I came not of my own
will, I came of my father's will. I came not of my own volition.
I didn't come here, but you know, I came here because my father
sent me. Herein doeth my father love me because I do what he
says. And I tell you what, the father sent him to check on his
brethren, to see how things were with his brethren and that. And
then they conspired against him. How often did the rulers conspire
against our Lord Jesus Christ? How many times did they say,
oh, we can't take him because of the people that are being
uproared. One time they sent a bunch of men to get him and
they stood there and they was waiting to get him and the Lord
Jesus was preaching. was preaching, and they waited
till he got through, and then those Pharisees saw somebody,
and they came back without him. And they said, why haven't you
brought him? Said, we got to listening to
him. We got to hearing what he had to say. I ain't never heard
nobody speak like him before. I never heard anything said like
what he said. And they said, that's why we
didn't bring him. And so they conspired against him, not only
to hurt him, but to slay him. And oh, how they conspired against
our Lord. How they conspired against him
to slay him. And they figured out time and
time and time and time again. But our Lord Jesus Christ, how
many times did they come to get him? And he'd say, my hour's
not yet come. My hour's not yet come. My hour's
not yet come. And then finally he said, my
hour's now come. My hour's now come. And you know
how many people, these are 11 brethren doing this to Joseph.
And you know how many people there was that when they inspired
to kill Christ, you know how many people they sent out to
get him? Over 500 to take one man. Over 500 to take one man. And then look what else it goes
on to say. And they said in verse 19, they said, oh, to one, to
another, behold, this dreamer, this dreamer's coming. And oh,
listen to what they said. Come now therefore, let us slay
him and cast him into some pit. And we will say, ain't that what
they said when we kill him? Said our error will be worse
than the first one if we don't put a watch over that grave.
Cause they'll say his people come and took him out of the
grave. They'll come and steal him away and that'll make the
last error worse than the first one. They understood they done
something bad when they crucified Christ. And they said, oh, we'll
slay him and put him in some pit, some pit. Let me tell you
something. Here's something to think about.
I just thought of this, about the resurrection of Christ. Now
here, just think about this for a minute. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was put in a, there was a hole in a rock. They whittled out
a road, you know, chiseled out a hole in a rock, in a cave-like,
and that was his grave. And they put him in this, rock
and put him in this grave and then they set this great big
huge stone over it and then they put some Roman guards around
it to watch it so that nobody could come and steal the body
away. Now you tell me how many people, how many of his disciples
could have moved that rock? And so it shows to prove that
our Lord Jesus Christ moved the rock himself, the Lord Jesus
Christ come out of the tomb by himself, and those Roman soldiers
never had a clue that he'd come out. They was as dumb as they was
when they sat there. But that's the way they conspired
to kill him. And then look what it says down
there in verse 23. And all Reuben told him said,
no, no, let's don't shed his blood. They said, let's not kill
him, let's not kill him. Let's don't shed his blood. And
oh my, and it came to pass in verse 23, when Joseph was come
unto his brethren, look what they did. They stripped Joseph
out of his coat, his coat of many colors. They took our Lord's
clothes off of him. And he says, they gambled for
my garments. There at the foot of the cross,
those Roman soldiers, They had the garments. The Lord Jesus
Christ had a garment woven from top to bottom. It didn't have
a seam in it, woven from top to bottom. And they took his
garment and they got down there and all the sandals and all the
stuff that he had, whatever he had, they got down there and
those Roman shoulders was gambling, gambling for our Lord Jesus Christ's
clothes while he was hanging on that cross naked. And they
stripped him of his garments. They humiliated him all they
could possibly humiliate him. But thy greatest humiliation,
our Lord Jesus Christ endured on this earth, was being identified
with human nature. Coming into this world and becoming
a man, that's the greatest humiliation. That's why it says, what is man
that thou visit him? What is the son of man? Who is
he? And then our Lord Jesus Christ,
it said, he was made lower than the angels. Why was he made lower
than the angels? That he could suffer death. And
I tell you, they took our Lord Jesus Christ and took his garments
off of him and all, listen, stripped him down and then gambled for
him. And then verse 24, look what
they did. And they took him and cast him into a pit. And the
pit was empty and there was no water in it. They cast him into
this pit. No way out of that pit. And there
was no water in that pit. You know why they done him this
way? They wanted him to suffer. They wanted him to suffer greatly.
They wanted his body to suffer. They wanted his mind to suffer.
They wanted his soul to suffer. They wanted Joseph to suffer
because they hated him so. And they put him in that pit
and there's no water in there. No comfort in there. He was in
there without his garments on. They stripped him of his garments.
And I tell you what, thy Lord Jesus Christ cried from the cross,
I thirst! My tongue is the tongue of a
potsherd, dries a potsherd. And the ungodly, here's the thing
about it. The ungodly can have no power
except it be given them from heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when he stood before Pilate and even Joseph here, they couldn't
do anything except God willed it to happen to him. But our
Lord Jesus stood before Pilate and Pilate said, don't you know?
Don't you know that I've got power to let you go or power
to crucify you? And he said, you got no power.
You got no authority. Oh, listen, you got none whatsoever. Except my father gave it to you.
You're doing just what my father willed for you to do for me.
And I tell you, that's what happened to Joseph here. The ungodly has
no power except God gives it to them from heaven. It's like
the fire, when the three Hebrew children were in the fiery furnace,
did the fire hurt them? No. Paul and Silas in prison,
was they hurt? No, they started singing. And
our Lord was put in the place of death, put in the pit, put
in the pit, put forsaken of God, forsaken of man, thirsty. He went out thirsty, and our
Lord was put in the place of death like Joseph was. They put
him in there to die, walking away and leaving him to die.
Well, our Lord Jesus Christ was put in the place of death, and
you know why he's put in the place of death? To win the eternal
victory over death, over sin, and over hell itself. And oh
my, so he was plotted against. Look what else happened to him
now. Then he is sold as a slave. This fella says, now wait a minute,
wait a minute. Down in verse 25. And they sat
down to eat. They put him in this pit. No
water, no comfort. They wanted him to suffer. And
they sat down to eat. They sat down to eat. And as
while they was eating, they lifted up their eyes and looked and
there was a company of Ishmaelites coming. They had camels and they
was bearing spies and bomb and going down to carry it down into
Egypt. And oh, listen to what old Judah says. What profit is
it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? It won't profit
us nothing. I'll tell you what we'll do.
We'll sell him. We'll sell him. And our hand
won't even have to be upon him. For he is our brother in our
flesh. And his brother said, that's okay, we'll do that. And
then there passed by Midianite merchantmen and they drew up
and lifted up Joseph out of the pit. And listen to this. And
they sold Joseph to the Mishelites for 20 pieces of silver, 20 pieces
of silver. Oh, listen, Joseph was made of
no reputation. Joseph was empty. Joseph was
stripped. They had no regard for his person. They had no regard for his innocence. They had no regard for him. And
in fact, they sold him and treated him, said, I'll tell you what,
We'll clear ourselves of this situation. We'll sell him and
we'll make some money. We'll make some money. Sold as
a common slave. And our Lord Jesus Christ, they
sold him for 20 pieces of silver. Our Lord Jesus Christ was sold
for 30. Sold for 30. But you know what
happened to him later? Look over here in Genesis 39
too. Oh, he was brought very, very
low. He was brought low, and you ain't seen nothing yet to
how low he's brought. Sold as a slave into Egypt. But he is
a prosperous man. It said in verse two, Genesis
30, 39. And the Lord was with Joseph,
and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his
master, the Egyptian. And ain't that the way it is
with our Lord Jesus Christ? He's put in that pit. Brought
him up out of that pit. They slowed him into slavery.
And then he prospered. In spite of them, in spite of
the hatred, in spite of the despising him, our Lord Jesus Christ, he
said, oh, listen. He said, I finished the work.
I done it. Ain't that what God said? He
said he'd cause the work of the Lord to prosper in his hands.
Ain't that what he said in Isaiah 53? The work of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. And he said, other sheep I had
were not this full. I got to bring them. Was our
Lord Jesus Christ prosperous? Oh my, in fact, he's so prosperous,
he said he'll bring many sons to glory. A multitude that no
man can number. Oh, he was prosperous. He saved
all his sheep. And our Lord Jesus was sold for
30 pieces of silver, yet the pleasure of the Lord prospered
in his hand. And he was falsely blamed, but
the Lord was with him. Look in Genesis 39, in verse
seven. Let me see if I can say a few
things about this. He is falsely blamed, but the
Lord was with him. Look what happened in verse seven.
And it came to pass after these things. Now he's down in Egypt
now. He's a slave. And it came to pass after these
things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. And she said, lie with me, but
he refused. And his master's wife, behold,
my master, he's not in the house and he has committed all that
he has to my hand. That's what Joseph says. My master
has committed everything in this house and everything about it
into my hand. There's none greater than house and me. And he's not
even kept back anything But Thebe, because they are his wife, how
then can I do this great wickedness and sin so against God? Oh my. So she went day by day to do
that to him, tell him, come lie with me. And it came to pass,
in about verse 11, this time that Joseph went to the house
to do his business, there's none of the men of the house therein.
And she caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me. And he left
his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. And oh my, and
it came to pass when she saw that she had left his garment
and her hand was fled forth that she called a minute out and said,
see how he hath brought in then the Hebrew unto us to mock us.
He came in unto lie with me and I cried with a loud voice. And
he left his garment with me and fled and got him out. And she
got laid up his garment until his Lord came. Oh my, so she
falsely accused him. And then oh my, and Joseph's
master, down in verse 20, verse 19, And it came to pass, when
his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto
him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me that his
wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him,
and put him into the prison. A place where the king's prisoner
was bound, there was he in prison. But now watch this. But the Lord
was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the
eyes of the prisoner, of the keeper of the prison, and the
keeper of the prison committed to Joseph all the prisoners that
were in the prison. Whatsoever they did there, he
was the doer of it. He was falsely blamed, lied on,
and accused But the Lord still exalted him even in prison. The
Lord was with him. And whatever happened to our
Lord Jesus Christ, falsely accused, lied on, brought false witnesses
against him. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
God was with him and exalted him and exalted him. Our blessed Savior, our Lord
Jesus Christ, our God, and our Savior, one and the same. And
we cry out, my Lord and my God, we thank you and bless you for
what you endured for our sake, the shame you endured, the ridicule
you endured, the mockery you endured, the hatred you endured,
the beatings you endured, the lies you endured. And you did
it all for your people. And oh Lord Jesus, we thank you
and bless you for it. And our Lord, I pray for the
saints of God, as they part from here, that you would bless them,
keep your hand on them, meet all their needs. And again, we
pray for Zachary. Lord, as he leaves Tuesday, please
put a hedge about that young man. Keep him, preserve him,
and make him to be a great blessing to his mother and his father
and us as we hear good things about him. We ask these things
in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.