Greetings, Lord, and may you
be glorified and magnified today, and may our hearts, we who are
your people, rejoice over these wonderful truths that we look
at, that you're ever with us, you never leave us nor forsake
us. No matter what we're going through, Lord, you are ever beside
us, as a great shepherd of our souls, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Let's read the last verse of Genesis chapter 37, and then
we'll go to Genesis 39, where the story of Joseph picks up
again. Genesis chapter 37, verse 36. And the Midianites sold him
into Egypt under Potiphar, an officer of pharaohs and captain
of the guard. So we see here that Joseph is
sold to Potiphar, who is an officer of pharaohs and a captain of
his guard. Now let's go to Genesis chapter
39. Now let us always remember too,
as we've went through this study, that we've seen Joseph as a type
of Christ. Already, just in chapter 37,
we've seen Joseph as a type of Christ. Joseph was the son of his father's
old age, and Christ is the son of the ancient of days. So there's
one type. Joseph was beloved by his father
over all his brethren. Christ is the dear son of his
father's love. the dear son of his father's
love. Jacob made for Joseph a coat of many colors and God prepared
a body in human nature for the word of God, for Christ. Filled
and adorned with the various gifts and graces of the spirit
without measure, without measure. Joseph was hated by his brethren.
They could not endure to think he should have dominion over
them. The Jews rejected Christ, rejected Christ. who according
to the flesh, he's God incarnated in the flesh, he's the Messiah,
and they rejected him and they hated him, and in their actions
and in their words they said, we'll not have this man reign
over us. Joseph was sent by his father
on a long journey to visit his brethren, and we know the welfare,
to find out the welfare of them and of the flocks, while Christ
was sent from heaven to earth to seek and to save the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Joseph's brethren, when they
saw him come to them, they conspired to take away his life. The Jews received not Christ. Scripture
says he came unto his own, but they received him not. And he said, this is the error,
let us kill him. And they consulted to take away
his life too. Joseph was stripped of his clothes
and sold for 20 pieces of silver motion of Judah, and Christ was
sold for 30 pieces of silver and was stripped of his clothes
by the Roman soldiers. You see the types and pictures
here? Joseph was delivered into the hands of foreigners, the
Mediites, the Ishmites, and Christ is delivered into the hand of
the Gentiles. Joseph being thought of as dead
by his father was yet alive. Again, this is a picture of Christ's
death and resurrection from the grave. So with all this in our
minds, let's now look at chapter 39, and we'll read verses 1 to
6. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard,
an Egyptian, bought him out of the hands of the Ishmaelites,
which had bought him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph.
Look at that. You know, the Lord was with Joseph
when his father gave him a coat of many colors. And the Lord
was with Joseph when Jacob sent him to see his brethren. And
the Lord was with Joseph when his brethren stripped him of
his coat and threw him into a pit. And the Lord was with Joseph
when he was sold to the Israelites. And we see here, and the Lord
was with Joseph. And he was a prosperous man,
and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his
master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made
all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace
in his sight, and he served him, and he made him overseer over
his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it
came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his
house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's
house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing of the Lord
was upon all that he had in the house and in the field. And he
left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he knew not aught he
had, save the bread which he did eat, and Joseph was a goodly
person and well favored. So let us remember that Joseph
was on his way to Egypt because that's what our sovereign
Lord had purposed. That's what our sovereign Lord
had purposed. Joseph, at the time when he was sold into slavery,
had absolutely no idea that he was on his way to the position
of prime minister over all of Egypt. He had no way of knowing
that. He had no way of knowing this.
He was to be prime minister over all of Egypt to save much people
alive during the time of famine. We'll see that later on in our
study. And this all came about by the sovereign hand of God.
But he must get from Dathron to Egypt. Well, we saw how that
happened. And look at verse 1 of Genesis
39. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard,
an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which
had bought him down thither. Now we who are the born again
people of God know that our great majestic God has a reason for
everything that He does. We don't always understand it,
do we? Most times we don't understand it at all. We don't understand what's happening,
but when we go through situations, we trust our great sovereign
God, don't we? We trust that He's in full control,
knowing that He's working all things for our good and for His
glory. This is what He does. Take note
of the words of verse 2, and the Lord was with Joseph. He
was with Joseph. And we know this to be true of
every born-again blood-bought saint of God. Every believer
can look at that verse and say, the Lord's with me. He's with me all the time. Because
we know in Hebrews it says, I'll never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Never. So this is true of every believer.
In times when we feel and know the presence, and in times when
we don't. He's ever with us. Ever with
us. Humanly speaking, when Joseph
sold off into slavery, the world would say, what? The Lord's with
him? Yes, he's with him. We know by
faith that he's with us. We know he's with Joseph during
this time. So we know that it was God's
purpose for Joseph to rule over all of Egypt in time. That's
the key, in time. in time. But Joseph was a young
man when Potiphar bought him, and Joseph needed to be prepared
for the position that God had ordained for him. And think of this, our great
God has Joseph taken down to Egypt
when Joseph When Joseph was at home, the Lord was with him.
Again, when he was sent away from his dear father, the Lord
was with him. And when he was sold as a slave, the Lord was
with him. Picture in your minds the slave
market. See, these are things that we
often forget. Picture in your mind the slave market. It's not some fancy place. They're selling humans. as merchandise. So picture Joseph's at a slave
market to be bought and sold, and think of what's going through
his mind. He was in his father's house,
maybe a few months before that, with his brothers and his family,
and now he's standing on the slave block. being auctioned
off to whoever would purchase him. Not dressed in fine array, stripped
down probably to almost nothing. And he has no idea what the Lord
has in store for him. Will he get a good master or
will he get a bad master? Will one purchase him? Will we
treat him good? Or will I get a slave owner who's
cruel to him? He's standing there to be sold
off like an animal. And always remember, the Scripture
proclaims here before us, the Lord was with Joseph even at
that time. Even at that time. And there he stood to be sold.
And he fell into good hands, didn't he? All by the eternal
purpose of God. All by the eternal purpose of
God. There could not have been a better place for Joseph to
be instructed in the things that were waiting for him under Pharaoh's
rule. Now remember, he doesn't know
it, but he's going to be prime minister. And we're seeing And he gets
placed in Potiphar's house where he's going to learn how to oversee
things. And he had no idea that he would
be exalted to the second most powerful position in all of Egypt. He had no idea at all. So he's
purchased by Potiphar and in we see he's put in charge of
the affairs of Potiphar's house. And remember, as we see in verse
1, that Potiphar is an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard. And some folks think that he
is the captain of the bodyguards of Pharaoh. Some people also
think that he was the captain of what's called the slaughterers,
the executioners, those who would do whatever Pharaoh bid. But
we know he was a high-ranking officer in Pharaoh's court. We know that. And remember, all this time,
God's preparing Joseph for the position that he will assume.
Prime minister over all of Egypt. And this is how our great God
even equips his ministers before he calls them to preach the gospel. As Pastor Henry Mahan said, a
man can no sooner tell someone something he does not know than
he can come back from a place where he's never been. The reason I preach and proclaim
Christ is he saved me. He saved my soul. I once was
lost, but now I'm found. And he's sent me to preach the
gospel. And that's the message that's
proclaimed. Salvation in and through Christ alone. I couldn't
tell you about Christ unless I've experienced salvation in
him. I couldn't tell you about Oregon
except I lived out there. Right? And you guys will tell
me about places you lived at that I never lived at, but I
couldn't tell you about those places. You see? A man can't
tell something he doesn't know. And so God's preachers have a
message. And God will equip his preachers, his pastors, his evangelists,
his missionaries before he sends them to preach. Think of this,
an infant learns to crawl before they learn to walk, right? And then they learn to walk.
And then they learn to run. And God's preachers suffer many
falls and trials and tribulations just like every other saint of
God. And these things again are working
out for God's glory. And so Joseph is being prepared
for the position that he will assume. And we see that God's preparing
him. We see that in these next few verses. He does not know
that he's being prepared. No. But the Lord's preparing
him. Look at verses 2 and 3. And the
Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. And he
was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master
saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that
he did prosper in his hands. In his hands. Take note again
of verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph. And in verse 3, and his
master saw that the Lord was with him. The Lord was ever with Joseph.
Watching over him, guiding him, directing him. And we'll see
later in the study, protecting him from sin with Potiphar's
wife. We'll see that next week. How the Lord protected him from
that. Now he ended up in a place where he didn't think he was
going to end up, but there's even a picture there with the
two inmates that he's in there with. So we see that Joseph was taken
from the slave block where he was purchased and we know that
he was a young man and no doubt he started at the bottom as a
servant in Potiphar's house. Potiphar didn't just raise him
up to that position, he started off as just a servant. And we
know time passed, we don't know how much, but we know time passed.
And Potiphar sees that the Lord is with Joseph. And that the
Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hands. Now we
know again that when Potiphar first purchased Joseph, that
he didn't put all into his hands, Joseph had to prove himself. He had to prove himself to Potiphar.
And this took time, beloved. It took time. But we see in our
text again that the Lord was with Joseph. Potiphar saw that
the Lord was with Joseph. And that the Lord made all that
he did to prosper in his hands. And this took time also, too.
This took time as well. But Joseph had a right spirit
within him, didn't he? He had a right spirit with him.
Because the Lord was with him. And we see that God blessed Potiphar
for Joseph's sake. For Joseph's sake. And we know
that Joseph would do all that he was to do unto the Lord. Just
like a believer, when you're doing work, you do it unto the
Lord. When Vicki and I had our cleaning
business, we did our work unto the Lord. He's our master, and I know you
all do too. You do your job to the best of
your ability, and you do it unto the Lord. You do it unto Him. Joseph, we know, looked to Christ.
He's born again by the Holy Spirit of God. He looked to Christ.
But Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and that the
Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hands. We see
in verse 4 that Joseph found grace in Potiphar's sight. He
found grace in Potiphar's sight, and he made Joseph overseer in
his house over all that he had. Now remember again, this took
time, beloved. It took time. It didn't happen
overnight. It took time. And Joseph would
earn the trust of Potiphar because this is what the Lord had ordained
that Joseph would do. He was placed right where the
Lord put him. And again we see all this occurring
to God's eternal purpose, His eternal plan. And we see that
Joseph is placed in a high position as overseer in the house of Potiphar. And all that Potiphar had was
placed in his hands. Look at verse 4, "...and Joseph
found grace in his sight, and he served him." And He made Him
overseer over His house and all that He put into His hand. Well,
we find grace in the sight of God, don't we? And what do we
do? We serve Him. With glad hearts. With glad hearts. We pray to
our great King. We give Him all the glory and
all the honor and all the praise. Because He's our King. Again,
when Joseph was sold to the Israelites, the Lord was with him. When he
was on the slave market, the Lord was with him. When he was
purchased by Potiphar, the Lord was with him. And now he's made
overseer of all the house of Potiphar, and the Lord's with
him. The Lord's with him. See, that never changes, does
it? Remember this. Always remember this. Our God
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Joseph is one of
his, one of his sheep. from eternity, and he's ever
with him. The Lord's ever with Joseph,
ever with Joseph. And remember, the Lord is always
with you who are born again, you who are a blood-washed child
of God. Never forget that. Never forget that the saints
of God, every one of us who believe, every one of us who are saved,
have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We have all found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. And we see here again, that Joseph
is a type of Christ, because all the Father, what has the
Father given Christ? All power, all power, all power
over everything. Christ is the great overseer
over the household of God, isn't he? He's the great overseer. With that in mind, let's read
verse five, and it says, and it came to pass from the time
that he had made him overseer in the house and over all that
he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's
sake, And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had
in the house and in the field. Now we know that Joseph looked
to the Messiah. We know that he worshipped our
God. We know that he worshipped the
one true God, Jehovah. Jehovah is Joseph's abode. Jehovah is Joseph's comfort.
Jehovah is Joseph's consolation. He looks to him just like we
do, beloved. Abraham looked to God. by faith,
just like we do. I was talking to someone this
week and they were trying to tell me that the Old Testament
saints, again, didn't have the Holy Spirit. I was like, it's
the same faith. They were granted the same faith
we are. They had the same spirit we have as believers. And all the elect from all the
ages are the bride of Christ. All of them. He's trying to tell
me, this fellow's trying to tell me that the Old Testament saints
are friends of the bride. It's a landmark thing. It's a
landmark Baptist thing that they do. And I said, that's just not
true. The bride of Christ is composed
of every believer of every age. Old Testament and new. And again,
what do you do? You bring them to the scripture,
right? There's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free. We're all one in Christ. That
means the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints.
Saved by the same Savior, regenerated by the same Spirit, and has the
same Father. And all you can do is leave it
there, you know, because you can't argue with the Scripture,
right? You can't argue with the Scripture, but you just... He
was saved the same way we are. He is saved the same way we are.
So Joseph would ascribe all his success, everything that he would
do, all the fact that he prospered, he would ascribe all that to
God, just like we do. We ascribe everything we have,
everything we know, to God. To God. And he would do the same thing.
But Potiphar, he saw that the Lord was with Joseph, so he put
everything in his hands. Everything in his hands. And
we see the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the
house and in the field for Joseph's sake. For Joseph's sake. Look
at that in verse 5. And it came to pass from the
time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that
he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's
sake. Three little words. Why are we saved? For Christ's
sake. for Christ's sake, because of
what he's done. For Christ's sake, we're blessed.
Because of what Christ has done. Because of what Christ has done. And Potiphar, he knew that the
Lord was with Joseph, and so we see in verse six, his reaction
to the blessings that that came from Joseph's sake. Look at this. And he left all that he had in
Joseph's hand, and he knew not ought he had, save the bread
which he did eat, and Joseph was a goodly person and well
favored. Now note that Potiphar knew that he could trust this
young Hebrew man, so he put all things into Joseph's hands. And
how great this trust was, as we see in the text, that Potiphar
didn't even know what he had. Note that. And he left all that
he had in Joseph's hands, and he knew not ought he had. He
fully trusted Joseph. He put it all in his hands. And he knew the blessings just
kept coming as Joseph had been his overseer. And we see in the
text that he's just content to eat his meals. Look at this.
And he knew not what he had saved the bread which he did eat. He's
just content to sit there and eat his meals while the Lord
blesses his house for Joseph's sake. Oh, how he trusted. how he trusted
Joseph. And then he enjoyed what he had.
And it says, and Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. But
look at the verse there again, and he left all that he had in
Joseph's hands, and he knew not what he had save the bread which
he did eat. Now remember I mentioned before that Joseph was a type
of Christ, our Lord, and the fact that all things were given
into his hands by Potiphar Our Lord was bought to a low
estate, beloved. He was bought to a low estate.
He condescended to come to this earth to save His people from
their sins. Never forget what He left. He left the glories of heaven,
if you're a believer, to save your soul. He condescended to
a low estate. He's bought to a low estate.
There's Joseph on the slave block. Can't get much lower than that,
can you? Can't get much lower than that. Bought down from a
position in His family as the well-beloved. Bought down. Our Lord was bought to a low
estate and He was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. And our great God has what, now highly exalted Him,
hasn't He? He's highly exalted Him now. And all things visible
and invisible have been put in the sovereign hand of our great
King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. Everything is in
His hands. Everything. There's nothing that's
not in His control. All things are in His hand, visible
and invisible. All things are subject to our
great King. All things are under the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ and every blessing that we who are
the born again children of God have come to us because of what
Christ did for Christ's sake and comes to us in and through
Him. In and through Him. We receive all our blessings
from the Heavenly Father and they're given to us for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. And it's the
Lord Jesus Christ who died in our place on Calvary. I was thinking
about that this week. He died for my sins. All of them. All of them. Oh my. He redeemed my eternal
soul. And the same for you if you're
a believer. He died for all your sins. Every one. The ones that
we know we do and the ones even we don't know. Omission and co-omission it's
called. We sin in our sleep. We sin all
the time. But He died for all my sins.
If He's a believer, He died for all yours. And God has forgiven us for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was perfect, wasn't he? He was perfect, he's sinless,
he's God incarnated in the flesh. The God-man, fully God and yet
fully man. And he is the one who is risen
and is in absolute control over everything. He's the great overseer,
beloved. Our savior, our redeemer. In Him, Christ, we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. Ephesians 1, verses 11 and 12.
So all these things happened to Joseph after the counsel of the will
of God. Think of this, too. Your salvation
occurred according to the counsel and eternal purpose of God. It's
humbling, isn't it? It's very humbling, but it makes
us rejoice at the same time. It makes us rejoice. God our
Father trusted Christ, too, didn't he, when he sent him into this
world? When he sent him into this world, He trusted the Son
that He would accomplish all, everything that the eternal covenant
of grace demanded in the place of His people. And Christ did
it, didn't He? He did it. He did it. He did
it. The second person of the Trinity
came into this world and met all the conditions of the eternal
covenant for every single one of His people. The eternal salvation, the redemption,
the justification of God's chosen people was all put into the hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's prospered in His hands,
hasn't it? Because He's accomplished that which the Father sent Him
to do. And it's only through Christ
who is the way, the truth, and the life that sinners are saved.
The scriptures declare this. In whom ye also trusted. Writing
of God's people. In whom, being Christ, ye also
trusted after that ye heard the word of truth. The scriptures
proclaim. That tell us about Christ. The
gospel of your salvation. Not somebody else's. Your salvation. Personal. Lazarus, come forth. Didn't cry
out, open graves, did he? No, he called effectual, the
name of Lazarus. Just like he effectually calls
every single one of his people. And the gospel becomes the gospel
of your salvation. It's only through Christ and
what he's done. But it's, you're the one who's saved, aren't you?
By grace. I'm the one who's saved by the
grace of God. That's what Paul's saying when he says, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom after you believe, God's people will
believe. If people don't believe on Christ, they're not saved. Folks often talk about this graveyard justification, where
someone dies and all of a sudden, even though they lived a life
where they hated God, all of a sudden, oh, they're in heaven.
Something happened between the morgue and the funeral home.
No, that doesn't happen, does it? No. God's people who are
saved believe on Him while we're here on this earth. We believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe on Him. So Paul writes
here, I'll go read it again. In whom, being Christ, ye also
trusted after that ye heard, The word of truth, the gospel
was revealed to us. Our ears were opened by the Holy
Spirit of God. We were regenerated by the power
of God. The gospel of your salvation is personal, in whom also, after
you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Ephesians 1, verse 13. It's all the work of God, beloved.
It's all the work of God. And then in verse 14 of Ephesians
1, it says, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession and the praise of his glory.
Now we see in our text that a wicked Egyptian trusted Joseph so much
that he was content to leave Joseph in charge of all things,
all things that pertained unto him and his household. How much
more should we who are the children of God then be content to just
trust our Lord? who is in charge of all things. Just rest. Just trust Him. That's the hardest thing for
us to do, beloved. It really is. It's the hardest thing for
us to do, just trust Him. But that's what we do, right?
We just keep going to Christ. We just keep going to Him. When
we try to do things in our own flesh, we're always brought to
a point where we just go, I still haven't learned this
lesson. No, we just trust Him. We just trust Him. May God give
us grace to trust our great King, just to rest in Him, just to
repose in His eternal arms. Remember, we bought nothing into
this world. We bought nothing into this world, and it's certain
that we can carry nothing out. And having food and remnant,
let us therewith be content." 1 Timothy 6, verses 7 and 8. Let us just be content. Let us
just be content. And then look, it says in the
latter part of verse 6 here, Joseph was a goodly person and
well-favored. We know that Joseph was only
good and well-favored in Christ. Right? We know that. This speaks
of his character, too, though, and we'll see that next week
when he flees Potiphar's wife. when he flees. He was a goodly
person and well-favored. And again, we're only good and
well-favored in Christ because the Father proclaims, this is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. He's only pleased with us in
Christ. And then the Father says, hear
ye Him. Oh may God give us hearing ears and hearts just to trust
and rest in our great King. Heavenly Father, we thank you
again for the Scriptures how comforting they are, and how
they point us right to Thee, Lord Jesus, right to You. May You be glorified and magnified
through the preaching of Your Word today. May our hearts be
lifted up in rejoicing, we who are Your people, that You have
shown us mercy and grace, that we found grace in Your eyes,
Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.