All right, as I said, we're gonna
be looking at Genesis 41 at the subject of Christ, our storehouse. And of course, the theme of this
lesson, the theme of this message has to do with the fact that
in the Lord Jesus Christ, every sinner saved by grace, every
believer has all the blessings and benefits of salvation. all that God can give freely
and fully in and by the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 1 and verse 3 that
we worship God, we bless God, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom we are blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Christ himself is the storehouse
of all blessings. In Him we have all that God requires
and all that we need to ensure our complete salvation under
glory. For example, in Christ we have
all the righteousness that we need that God has imputed to
us, charged to our account for our justification. We stand in
Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness, and he is the fullness of righteousness,
out of him who is the storehouse of righteousness. We have all
we need, all that God requires, nothing contributed by us. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but which he's done. And then in Christ, we
have all the life of the spirit given to us that we might believe
and repent and rest in him. It's all from him. It's given
freely to us out of the storehouse of Christ. All blessings, all
benefits, the fruits of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit, all
of these things are given in Him. And what we see here in
Genesis 41 is that Joseph is a type of Christ. Because Joseph,
as you know, he was the first son born to Jacob by Rachel. the wife of his love. He wasn't
the firstborn of Jacob because Jacob had otherwise had Lynn,
then he had servants. But Joseph was the firstborn
by Rachel and Rachel named him Joseph, which means God shall
add. adding, that's what it means,
because obviously Rachel believed that God would give her other
children. You know, Rachel at first was
barren. She couldn't have children, but by a miracle of God's power
and goodness, she had Joseph, and then later on, the youngest
of Jacob's 12 children, Benjamin. But Rachel believed, obviously,
that God would give her more children. And as we come into
Genesis chapter 41, you know the story of Joseph. I don't
have to relate all the details to you. Read about it. Go through
these, you read this. In fact, in Genesis 41, I'm not
gonna read every verse here, because it's a long chapter,
but I'm just gonna kind of survey it and hit some of the highlights.
But by this time, Joseph had been sold into slavery by his
older brothers. who resented Jacob's love for
Joseph. Jacob loved Joseph. Now he loved
the other children, but they realized that Joseph was special
in Jacob's heart. And Joseph had the gift of the
interpretation of dreams. Now that was a God-given gift
in the providence of God. to do what he was intending to
do with Joseph. And you remember, one of the
things that made his brothers hate him so much is that Joseph
had a dream, and in the dream, his brothers were bowing to him
and paying homage to him, and they resented that. They were
the elder brothers. Joseph was the second to the
last. He was not the youngest, Benjamin
was the youngest, but Joseph was younger than them. And you
tell me that we're gonna bow to you and pay homage to you?
And yet that's what God showed Joseph and he told his brothers
and they hated him for it. So now Joseph had these great
gifts. He had the special love of his
father. But I think it's important that we need to understand that
Joseph himself, now he's a type of Christ, we're gonna look at
that, but Joseph himself as an individual was no more than what
the rest of us are in salvation, a sinner saved by grace. And
if you'll look at Genesis chapter 39, there's something real significant
here. When Joseph was sold into slavery
in Egypt, you remember he became a servant in the house of a man
named Potiphar. And Potiphar looked upon Joseph
as a special person. And it was because of this, look
at Genesis 39 verse two, it says, and the Lord was with Joseph
and he was a prosperous man. Now, why was Joseph so prosperous? It's because the Lord was with
him. This is all, everything that happened in Joseph's life
was by predestination and the promise and the providence of
God. And we see in that a type of
Christ. Joseph is a type of Christ here.
The Lord was with Joseph. The Lord God was with Christ
for Christ is God. The Spirit was with him without
measure, the scripture says, just like the Lord was with Joseph. Christ is the human manifestation
of the Lord God. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And Joseph was a prosperous man,
and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Well, we
certainly know Christ was a prosperous man, the prosperous God-man. The pleasure of the Lord prospered
in the hands of Christ. And then it says in verse three
of Genesis 39, and his master saw that the Lord was with him
and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hands.
Now, I don't know what was in Potiphar's mind. Does this mean
that Potiphar recognized the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and that he was saved? I don't think so, but what Potiphar
saw was prosperity. He saw physical gain and he knew
that whatever God Joseph worshiped, that God was with Joseph. It was very common back then
for people to view and give credence to many gods. So anyway, but
I'm not talking about Potiphar today. But look at verse four
of Genesis three. And Joseph found grace in his
sight and he served him. Joseph found grace in Potiphar's
sight. But we also know that Joseph
found grace in the eyes of the Lord, just like Noah of old.
That's the way it is. Well, Christ is the storehouse
of grace for all of God's people. So just wanted you to look at
that in Genesis 41. But what's happened here in God's
providence, and you know what God's providence is, it's God's
governance of this world. God's in control. God is working
all things after the wisdom and his own purpose and wisdom, after
his own will. And in God's providence, Joseph
wound up here in Egypt. Here he was in Potiphar's house.
Now you know what happened, Potiphar's wife, tried to seduce Joseph,
and Joseph ran, and then she lied upon Joseph, and he was
put in prison. And so by the time we get here
in Genesis 41, here's Joseph. He had gone to prison in Egypt. You remember there he met several
men, but one of them was Pharaoh's chief butler. And he had a dream,
the chief butler had a dream, and Joseph interpreted the dream.
There was a baker and a butler, and Joseph interpreted all their
dreams. It was bad news for the baker and good news for the butler.
And so the butler was set free and gone back into Pharaoh's
service. And then later on, Pharaoh had
a dream, which nobody could interpret. And that's where we start off
here in Genesis 41, when Pharaoh had this dream and he saw seven
lean cows and seven fat cows, all of that. And it says in verse
four of Genesis 41, and the ill-favored and lean flesh cows, those starving
cows did eat up the seven well-favored and fat cows, kind it says. And so this was Pharaoh's dream.
And Pharaoh wanted somebody in his court to interpret that dream,
but nobody could. And when the butler heard about
this, he remembered Joseph. Now this is all God's providence
now, you understand that. Again, God's working all things
after the counts of his own will. And so Pharaoh called on Joseph
to interpret his dream. This is in Genesis 41, beginning
in verse 14, it says, and then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph
and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. This is how
God brought Joseph out of prison. Pharaoh called upon Joseph to
come and interpret his dream. And what happened here is that
God revealed to Joseph that this is what the dream meant. That
the seven lean cows, or the seven fat cows, meant that there would
be seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt for the harvest.
There's gonna be a bountiful harvest. That's what the, a complete
harvest. The number seven in the scripture
means a complete bounty of harvest there. And it says later on it's
corn and probably corn and wheat and things like that. But after
the seven years of bounty and the complete harvest, there would
be seven years of famine, complete, desolate famine. And God revealed
that to Joseph and he told that to Pharaoh, but God had also
revealed the solution. And over in, look at Genesis
41, look at verse 33. It says, now therefore let Pharaoh
look out a man, discreet and wise, and set him over the land
of Egypt. In other words, pick out the
best man that you can. and set him over the house of
Egypt, and he says in verse, the land of Egypt, and he says
in verse 34, let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers
over the land, take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in
the seven plenteous years, in other words, those seven bountiful
years of harvest, let them gather all the food of those good years
that come and lay up corn under the land of Pharaoh, let them
keep food in the cities, and that food shall be for store
to the land against the seven years of famine. So God reveals
the solution. And so what happens? Again, by
the providence of God, Pharaoh appoints Joseph to be the ruler
over Egypt, second only to himself. And that's where in verse 39
there it says, Pharaoh said unto Joseph, for as much as God hath
showed thee all this, now did Pharaoh believe in the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Well, he believed that that was
one of the gods. That's all we can say. He says,
there is none so discreet and wise as thou art. Verse 40, thou
shalt 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. So Joseph is second in command
over Egypt. Think about that. This boy in
the land of his father's, sold into slavery, put into prison,
and now he's second in command to the Pharaoh of Egypt, which
was probably the most powerful human kingdom in the world at
that time. And what a great God that we
have. So Joseph began, he began storing
up provisions during the seven years of plenty so that the people
could survive the seven years of famine. And there's so many
lessons learned from this story. Obviously, again, as I've been
saying, we learn about the sovereign providence, the divine purpose
of God in the life of Joseph, bringing him from a Hebrew shepherd
boy to the throne of Egypt. And God ruled and overruled all
events, all creatures, even the sinful actions of Joseph's brethren
and all their actions to accomplish his will and his purpose toward
Joseph. And Joseph, if you look over
in Genesis 45, Joseph recognized this, and I'm gonna deal with
this later on in more detail. But in Genesis 45, listen to
what Joseph said in verse five. He says, now therefore be not
grieved, talking to his brothers, nor angry with yourselves that
you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve
life. God sent him there. And then
over in Genesis 50, and you know, Joseph, the story of Joseph closes
out the book of Genesis. Joseph in verse 20 of Genesis
50, he makes this statement to his brothers. He says, but as
for you, you thought evil against me. Now what they did, they did
sinfully and evilly. But he says, now listen to this
now. Somebody says, well, God doesn't have anything to do with
sin. God is not sinful himself. He's not the creator of evil.
He's not the cause of sin, but at the same time, he controls
it and it says, God meant it unto good to bring to pass as
it is this day to save much people alive. Now, can we not see a
direct parallel in God's purpose to send Christ into the world
to save his people from their sins. Before the foundation of
the world, God purposed and planned the whole plan of grace and salvation
in the covenant of grace appointing Christ, his only begotten son,
the son of his love, the second person of the Trinity, to be
the surety and the savior of all his chosen people, his elect,
everyone whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Their
whole salvation was conditioned on Christ as our surety. Our sins were imputed, charged,
accounted to him and God And you see in the fall of Adam,
in the sinfulness of this world, God overruling all of that and
sending Christ into the world to become incarnate, to be our
substitute. And you remember what Peter said
at Pentecost. He said, he told him, he said,
you have taken and with wicked hands, you've crucified the Lord
of glory. But he said, you did nothing
more than what God had foreordained to do. That's an amazing thing. That's a mind-boggling thing.
But we see that parallel pictured out here in the life of Joseph.
Everything that happened to the Lord Jesus Christ was according
to the sovereign purpose and will of God for the salvation
of his people. And so secondly, we see not only
the sovereignty of God over men, but over everything, over the
world, the weather. God controls the weather. He
controls the crops. The seven years of bounty, the
seven years of famine, that was all God. God even controls heathen
kings and heathen nations. The king's heart is in his hands
to turn it however he will, even over men's dreams. He's the one
who calls favor to have that dream. You remember later on
when Daniel who had the interpretation of dreams and Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream and Daniel interpreted? See, God's in control of all
that. God rules, God controls. He steers the course of the world
and all of events and human beings. It's for his glory and it's for
the good of his people. And this is the only way that
we can be assured that all things work together for good. to them
who love God who are the called according to his purpose. And then thirdly, we see the
faithfulness and the power and the grace of God in keeping his
promise, keeping his servant Joseph, and he kept Joseph faithful
in the midst of all these trials and adversities. in the worst
environment that a person could be. Joseph, think about it, in
Egypt, the land of bondage, which is a picture of our natural bondage
in sin. And Joseph, even in the land
of bondage, he was in prison. And then he's elevated to a position
of power and authority, second only to Pharaoh. And Joseph walked
with God and maintained a strong testimony of God's truth and
grace, even in a heathen nation. Joseph glorified God and God
blessed him. And we know it was not because
of any goodness or power in Joseph, because Joseph was a sinner saved
by grace. It was all because of the power
and goodness of God. And so Joseph, like us, was a
sinner saved by grace through the righteousness of the promised
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Joseph's story is a testimony
to God's faithfulness, to God's power to preserve his people
in his grace. Now, he's a wonderful type of
Christ. You can see it throughout his
life, the entire story. is given and revealed to praise
and exalt not Joseph, but our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ
in his redemptive glory. This is what the Old Testament
is about. It's not just lauding this man Joseph as an individual
as if he rose above the crowd on his own. No, Joseph, all that
he did in his power and his wisdom, It was all of God. He supervised
the crops. He filled the storehouses of
Egypt, and when the famine was over, Joseph opened the storehouses,
and he sold to all who had need. So this is a picture of Christ,
our storehouse. Look at verse 33 of Genesis 41
again. It says, now therefore let Pharaoh
look out a man, discreet and wise, and set him over the land
of Egypt. Joseph was the only fit man.
Discrete and wise, that word discreet has to do with knowledge.
Intelligence, even understanding, mainly in discernment, knowing
the difference between right and wrong, what to do and what
not to do. The word wise is just what you think it is, has to
do with cunning, skillfulness, to use the knowledge in the right
way. A lot of people have knowledge,
but they don't know how to use it. They don't have wisdom. But
Joseph prophesied of the famine. No one else knew about it. Joseph
planned the crops in the storehouses. Nobody else could have done it.
Joseph gathered the corn and stored it up. And this is a great
picture of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's the only fit
and qualified person to save us from our sins. There's none
so wise, none so discreet and so wise as our Savior. He is
knowledge and wisdom and love incarnate. That's what Christ
is. He's God manifest in the flesh. God man, the word made flesh
to dwell among us. He foreknew the fall and famine
of human nature and sin and death, he ordained it. He purposed and
planned the everlasting covenant of grace whereby people would
be saved out of Adam's fallen race. He came to earth in the
likeness of human flesh without sin. He obeyed unto death, even
the death of the cross, in order that his people might have a
perfect righteousness before God's law and stand justified
in God's sight based upon his righteousness imputed to us.
He filled the storehouse of salvation with grace and mercy for all
those he would bring to eat and fill them up. He's the only one
who has the capacity and the power, the ability to contain
all the fullness of God. The Bible says, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in
him. He is the very wisdom of God. The only one who has the wisdom
to distribute the glory of God and the only one who has the
eternal fullness in himself to continue to do so. Look over
at verse 39 of Genesis 41. It says, and Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, for as much as God hath showed thee all this, there is
none so discreet and wise as thou art. There's a great picture
of our Savior. He says, thou shalt be over my
house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled,
ruled by Joseph's word. How are the people of God ruled?
By the word of Christ. He says, if you love me, keep
my commandments. And so that's not salvation by
works, that's just simply following the commands of the one who's
loved us freely and gave himself for us. graced us, opened himself
as the storehouse of grace. And then in verse 40, it says,
only in the throne will I be greater than thou. That's a picture
of God the Father who represents the sovereign authority of the
Godhead. Christ made himself the servant
of the Father, even though in himself, in his deity, In his
nature, he's equal with the Father and the Spirit, but he made himself
a servant. The book of Philippians chapter
two speaks of that, how he became a servant and he became obedient. He condescended, why? For the glory of the Godhead
and the salvation of his people. Look at verse 41. And Pharaoh
said unto Joseph, see, I have set thee over all the land. And
Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, put it upon Joseph's
hand, arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold
chain about his neck. This is a type of the exaltation
of Christ based upon the work that he accomplished for his
people. And all things were given to Christ. All things were put
into his hand. The whole salvation, the whole
government of grace, the Bible in Isaiah chapter nine and verse
seven says, the government was upon his shoulder. That means
the whole well-being and welfare and salvation of the church,
of God's elect, the people of God, the chosen people, was placed
squarely upon the shoulders of Christ. Not on our shoulders,
if it were, it'd fail, but upon the shoulders of Christ. Verse
43 says, he made him to ride in the second chariot which he
had, and they cried before him, bow the knee, and he made him
ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand
or foot in all the land of Egypt. What a picture of coming to God
through Christ. Our mediator. Verse 45, Pharaoh
called Joseph's name. Now listen to this one, Zaphnath-paraneah. Can you pronounce that? That's
the Egyptian name that Pharaoh gave to Joseph. And you know
what it means? It means one to whom hidden things
are revealed. This is one who knows things
that other people can't see. That's what it means. And certainly
that's Christ. Because in Him are all the hidden
treasures of wisdom, the glory of God. If you wanna know anything
concerning God, concerning salvation, and if you wanna know anything
in reality concerning yourself as a sinful person, it's revealed
in Christ and Him alone. And so, Pharaoh, verse 45, Pharaoh
called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paraneah, and gave him to a wife Asenath,
the daughter of Potipharah, priest of on, and Joseph went out over
all the land. So Joseph married an Egyptian
wife. And I think anytime you see things
like that, it shows that, I think it's one of those elements that
shows that God has a chosen people out of every tribe and nation,
Jew and Gentile. It's precluding the law on Mount
Sinai, showing that salvation is not only for the Jews, but
it's also for God's elect among Jew and Gentile. So understand
that. Now, look over at verse 51. Just as a side note here, And
I'm gonna deal with this later on when we come to Jacob blessing
his children. But it says in verse 51, and
Joseph called the name of the firstborn. He had two children
with this woman Potipharah, or two that's mentioned here. And
it says in verse 51, and Joseph called the name of the firstborn
Manasseh. For God said he hath made me
forget all my toil and all my father's house. In other words,
our fallen state in Adam and sin and death is past as far
as condemnation is concerned or anything like that. And then
verse 52, in the name of the second called he Ephraim, for
God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
In Christ, who's opened the storehouse were fruitful in salvation. And that name Ephraim is close
to the name Ephratah, which is another name for Bethlehem. So
it's a reference to Christ. So look at verse 56. Now look
at the last two verses of this chapter. It says, 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 or grew sore in the land of Egypt. The famine grew worse.
And verse 57, and all countries came unto Egypt to Joseph for
to buy corn, because that the famine was so sore in all lands. Joseph opened the storehouses. Well, what happens when God saves
a sinner? He saves them through Christ,
our storehouse. He opens, Christ opens the storehouse
of salvation, the storehouse of blessing, the storehouse of
benefits, the storehouse of forgiveness, the storehouse of life, the storehouse
of righteousness, the storehouse of redemption and glory. The reason Joseph filled the
storehouses is that the people might eat and live. He didn't
put it in the storehouse just to keep it there to rot. Well,
that's why Christ became our surety, our substitute, our sin
bearer, our sin offering. It's that sinners might feed
upon him the bread of life and be saved. He is the bread of
life. He is the storehouse of life.
We read here that Joseph had plenty and he was delighted to
distribute it. Well, our Lord is plenteous in
and delights to show mercy. God says that's his chief glory.
I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll be merciful
to whom I'll be merciful. He says, ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the waters. Joseph opened the storehouses
when the people cried for bread. Well, they were hungry. Well,
Christ opens the storehouse of spiritual food When he brings
us to see our need of him and his righteousness, blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, they'll be filled.
How are they gonna be filled? Out of the storehouse of Christ.
His righteousness imputed. The merits of his obedience unto
death. The life of Christ given to us
by the Spirit. And the Bible says Joseph opened
all the storehouses. and sold unto the Egyptians. Now, salvation by God's grace
is not for sale. But anytime you see this in line
of the types of Christ, it's simply showing this. It's free
to us. We don't have anything to pay.
But there is a price. There is a cost. And that price,
that cost, is the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. When we come to Him, we bring
that price. Now I know the hymn says, in
my hands no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. But we
bring the redemption price, we plead the blood of Christ. And
that's what Augustus' top lady meant there, simply to thy cross
I cling. We're spiritually bankrupt. We
have no money to buy. When Isaiah prophesied of it,
ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk
without money, without price. How am I gonna buy without money?
I buy with the price that Christ provides out of the storehouse,
which is his blood. And then it says here that Joseph,
in conclusion here, that Joseph opened the storehouses to everyone
who came for food from all nations, not just to the Egyptians, not
just to Jacob's family, anybody who wants it. The problem with
man by nature is we don't want it. The problem with man by nature
is that we're so spiritually dead that we don't even know
our, that we don't have a hunger for righteousness. for the forgiveness
that God freely gives. We hunger after religion naturally,
we hunger after works, but that is something that won't fill
us. But when he, by the power of
the Spirit, convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment,
he gives us a thirst and a hunger for what only he can give out
of the storehouse of Christ. And so he brings us to that point,
gives us that hunger, that thirst that can only be quenched by
Christ, the water of life, that hunger that can only be filled
by Christ, the bread of life, that need that can only be filled
by Christ, the righteousness of God. And so he says, come
everyone, anyone who wants, all who call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And when he brings you to see
your need, your famine, your spiritual famine, he'll show
you the storehouse of plenty that can only be filled in your
soul, in your heart by the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of
his person and in the power of his finished work. All right.