Turn, if you would, to Genesis
chapter 37. The name of the message is, Shalt
thou reign over us? Shalt thou reign over us? Genesis
chapter 37 will continue our study in the life of Joseph.
We saw last week that Israel, Jacob, distinguished Joseph from
his brethren by giving him a coat of many colors and by his love
that was set upon him. He loved Joseph more than all
his other children. And the coat of many colors we
looked at pictured the righteousness of Christ and how we are clothed
by the Father. Remember that it was Israel who
made the coat for Joseph. And it's a picture of how we
are clothed by the Father and the righteousness of Christ.
It's He who gives the righteousness of Christ. This beautiful coat
of righteousness all because His love was set upon us from
eternity. Let's read Genesis chapter 37
verses 1 to 11 this morning. And Jacob dwelt in a land wherein
his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are
the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years
old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was
with the sons of Bilah, and with the sons of Zilphah, his father's
wives. And Joseph brought unto his father
their evil report. Now 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 told it to his brethren, and they hated
him yet 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 stood
upright. And behold, your sheaf stood
round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren
said to him, Shalt thou 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 to his brethren. said, Behold, I have dreamed
a dream more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven
stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him and said,
What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy
mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee in the earth. And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the same." And we see that Joseph and his
brothers were jealous about the affection that Israel felt for
Jacob, and how he had given Joseph a coat of many colors. The brethren
were envious and jealous of this, and their wicked hearts exposed
their hatred for Joseph by their attitude towards him, by the
way they spoke to him. Look at verse four. 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. So
their actions betrayed their heart. And the attitude that
Joseph's brother had towards him is typical of unregenerate
man's dead human nature towards the people of God. And we know
from the New Testament scriptures that unbelieving Jews could not
hide their hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ. They couldn't hide
it. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
three. Acts chapter three. They hated
the Lord Jesus Christ without a cause while he was here upon
this earth. He did miracles, he gave sight
to the blind, he cast out demons, he opened the ears of the deaf,
he raised the dead, and they still hated him. Look at this
in Acts 3, verses 13-16. The God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son,
Jesus, whom he delivered up. and denied him in the presence
of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But she denied
the Holy One, the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto
you, and killed the prince alive, whom God hath raised from the
dead, wherever we are witnesses. In his name, through faith, in
his name hath made this strong whom ye see now. Yea, the faith
which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the
presence of you all. But they desired a murderer to be set
free and for Christ to be crucified. Now we know that it's all by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. We know that. But it
shows you the hatred that they had for our Lord. He was hated
without a cause. He went around doing good. We
can't do good. Everything we do is tainted with
sin. He went around and did good, and they hated him. They hated
him without a cause, so much so that the scripture says there
they desired a murder to be granted to them and killed the prince
alive. Now this same hateful heart is in all of Adam's descendants.
We manifested our hatred for God's beloved son by our rejection
of him and by the way we sinned against him, the way we talked
about him, the way some of us engraced gods of our own imagination
before the Lord saved us. We manifested our hatred In all
these actions and words, we proclaim the same hateful heart as those
who crucified Christ. I remember hearing a grace preacher
say this, and I'd never heard this until I heard grace preaching,
and it's so true. And the preacher said, we'd have
been right there with the whole crowd, and you've heard me say
this before too, we'd have been right there with the whole crowd
saying, crucify him, crucify him in our natural state. Because
we all have that same heart before the Lord saves us. And praise
God, we're born again by the Holy Spirit and He gives us a
new heart, a new spirit. What a blessing for us. And the
only one who's made us to differ, ask yourself the question then,
who has made us to differ? If we'd be just like them at
the cross, or just like those who delivered up the Prince alive. If we're just like them, who
is it that's made us to differ? Who? It's not ourselves, because
we can't. We have no ability to make ourselves
differ. Well, it's God the Father who
made us to differ. And we know from Scripture that He loved
us before we loved Him. Now we love them, and this wondrous
truth is manifested to show us, after we're born again by the
Spirit of God, the great love that God has for us in this fact
that we're just like them, except for the grace of God. It's God
and God alone who's made us to differ. It's God and God alone
who's brought us from death, the scripture says, to life.
It's God and God alone who's brought us from darkness to light.
It's God who's done this. No one else. God did all this. And now what do we do? Now what
do we do as believers? Now we openly manifest our love
for him, don't we? Isn't that amazing? Only God
can do that. Only God can make a change like
that. We, we confess our love for him. Do you love the Lord?
You confess it, don't you? I love you, Lord. You're wonderful.
Yeah. It's God that's put that love
in your heart. Do you love the gospel? It's God that's giving
that love for the gospel. Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. Do you love the word of God?
Does it soothe your soul? It's God that's the cause of
that. God alone. Oh, what mercy he's had on us. God's grace makes the difference.
It's God who makes the difference. Not our works, not our will.
Not anything. In us. Let us never forget. Let us never forget this. That
we contribute absolutely nothing to our relationship with the
true and living God. That goes against the grain of
religion, don't it? We contribute absolutely nothing to our relationship
with God. We are just but receivers of
the grace of God. Now that is a sovereign God. That is a God who rules. That's
my God. Is He yours? Praise God. Praise
God. Our love for the Lord, our love
for God is all according to the pure mercy and grace of God in
and through Christ Jesus our Lord. It all flows, and never
forget this. It all flows from the throne
of grace, beloved, right to you and I through Christ, all according
to God's will and purpose. Now Joseph, we know in the text
here, was 17, and we know that he grew in wisdom and stature.
As he got older, the Lord gave him special discernment and spiritual
truths, and we'll see that in our future studies in the life
of Joseph. Let's read verses 5 to 11 again, and we see that
Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to his brothers. Oh, and they
hated him even more. They hated him even more. And
their hatred again is manifested in their response to Joseph in
these verses. And Joseph dreamed a dream and
told it to 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 finding sheafs in the field,
and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright. And behold, your
sheafs arose round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And
his brethren said to him, Shalt thou reign over us? Sounds like
the natural man, doesn't it? Shalt thou reign over us, or
shalt thou indeed have dominion over us, you little brother? Remember, he's only 17. So probably
some of his brothers were probably in their 30s, maybe 20s. You? Well, he's just telling them
about a dream that he had. Shall thou indeed reign over
us or shall thou have dominion over us? And they hated him yet
the more for his dreams and for his words. Their hatred for him
just increased. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it to 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 brethren envied him,
but his father observed the same. So we see in verse five that
Joseph tells his brothers about the dreams that he had, and they
hated him even more. And this dream was fulfilled
when the sheaves of corn, which represented themselves, bowed
down to Joseph, which represented Joseph's sheave, which was fulfilled
when they went down into Egypt. We'll see that later on, when
they went down into Egypt to get corn, and he was the governor
of all of Egypt. Always remember that all this
was purposed by our great sovereign God. Now he's telling them this
and they're growing in hatred for him. which will lead to actions
we'll see later on in our study, which they cast them in a pit,
they sell them to slavers, and it's all by the purpose of God.
It's all by the plan and purpose of God. Always remember that
these dreams that he gave them was purposed by our great sovereign
God, the brothers of Joseph hating him, and even more, when he told
them the dream, they could not imagine their bowing down to
their little brother, and imagine the scorn on their lips when
they said, Shall thou indeed reign over us? Imagine the scorn
in their heart, and the anger in their heart. Or shall thou
indeed have dominion over us? They hated him. And look, turn
if you would to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. Look at
verses 12 to 14. He said, therefore a certain
nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom
and to return. Well, our Lord came into this
world, right? To receive for himself a kingdom. To establish
a kingdom. And to return, he's back in glory.
And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds
and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated
him and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have
this man to reign over us. Well, that's the same thing that
Joseph's brethren said over there. Shall thou indeed reign over
us? See, this is natural man's response. Christ, shall thou
reign over us? Now, in this parable, the Lord
brings forth that his citizens hated him. This is speaking of
the Jews. They despised and rejected him. The message of the gospel,
the good news, comes after him. And they still cry, as does all
natural man, we shall not have this man reign over us. Jew and
Gentile, in their natural state, all proclaim this. The disciples
and the Lord's people after his ascension were mocked and laid
hold upon and cast into prison. They were persecuted from place
to place. A natural man, wherever they went, would be sane in their
words and by their actions. We will not have this man reign
over us. disciples were going out and preaching Christ in natural
man's response and their actions, how they treated them, were not
to have this man made over us. That was my state before the
Lord saved me. Was it yours? It's very clear, isn't it? Very
clear. Praise God that God chose the
people, otherwise there'd be no one saved. You ever think
of that? Praise God he chose the people. Praise God I'm one
of them. That's what the believer says, eh? Because otherwise there'd
be no one saved. Not in our natural state, but
we who are the people of God are a people of His chosen, by
His will, and all according to His purpose. And that's why Christ
came into this world, to save us from our sins. To do that
which is impossible for us. And He did it willingly. Willingly
for us. And now we say, this man reigns
over us. Don't we? This man is my king.
This man reigns over all. And His name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. See how it flips? It totally
flips, doesn't it? Oh my. Look at verse 8 here.
Look at verse 8 here. And his brethren said to 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. So we see here in Genesis 37.8
that Joseph was a type of Christ and how he was hated by his brethren.
Remember, the Lord was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
fully human and yet fully God. And again, they would have thought
what Joseph said was absurd, that they'd bow down to him.
But we know our great, sovereign, almighty God brought it all to
pass exactly as he had planned and exactly as he had purposed.
And we're seeing later on in our study that Joseph did indeed
reign over his brethren. He did. He did have dominion
over them. And we see here that Joseph had
another dream, and told it to his father and his brethren.
Look at verses 9 to 11. And he dreamed yet another dream,
and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed
a dream more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven
stars made obeisance to me. And he said, and he told it to
his father and to his brother, and his father rebuked him and
said, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and
thy mother and brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the same. We see here the sun referred
to him as the head of the household and the moon as reference to
his wife. So Israel is the head of the
household, the sun and the moon in reference to his wife who
reflected the light of the head of the household and the 11 stars
were in reference to Joseph's brothers. And Israel's response
to Joseph's dream was, shall I and thy mother and thy brother
indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee in the earth? He knew
what it meant. Listen to what one grace preacher brings forth
about Israel rebuking Joseph. Jacob did rebuke his son Joseph,
but I believe it was more for the sake of Joseph's brothers
to keep them from uncontrollable rage. The last part of our text
says, and his brethren envied him, but his father observed
the same. Or as John Gill stated, Israel laid it up in his mind,
he laid it in his mind and kept it there, often thought of it
and waited to see its accomplishment. So he believes, Gill and other
commentators believe that the reason that Israel rebuked Joseph
is just to keep the rage of the brothers at hand, at bay. Because
you see that he pondered it, we see that in the text, that
he kept it in his mind. He kept it in his mind. His father
observed the saying. And I like what Gil said, Israel
laid it up in his mind and kept it there, often thought of it
and waited to see its accomplishment. Because we know Israel, Jacob,
he believed in the sovereignty of God. And we know that Joseph's
second dream was accomplished again all in God's timing, all
by his sovereign hand when Joseph was appointed as prime minister
over all of Egypt and Joseph ruled and reigned over the whole
family of Jacob. And then the divine providence
of God caused him to move and to dwell in the land of Egypt.
And we know that was all according to the plan and purpose of God
as well, because they were to come out of Egypt. So we see
in these verses a picture of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man. All unbelieving Jews, along with
the whole human race, will not bow down to Jesus in our unregenerate
state. We just will not. And even the
majority ever thought of this too. Even the majority, I find
this a lot talking with different folks, this happens so much,
the majority of professing Christians have never bowed down to the
absolute sovereign reign of our great God. Just talk to them,
you'll find out real fast. They do not believe God's sovereign,
but they will one day. to their doom if the Lord doesn't
save them. My goodness. You start talking
to people about God's absolute sovereignty and how he's in full
control and how we have no ability to save ourselves and people
will just go squirrelly. What about my will? Well, you
have a will, but it's bound to your dead nature. God never violated
my My free will, I like what Rupert Reichenbach said years
ago, if God doesn't violate your free will, your supposed free
will, you'll never be saved. Isn't that true? Why? They don't
have a proper understanding of who God is. I was thinking about
this this week, just how absolutely sovereign our God is. I was just
out walking and walking to get a drink and I was thinking about
how Everything I see and everything I don't see is in His absolute
control. And that's the one who saved
me. What a God! We don't fully grasp who He is.
Our little finite minds cannot grasp the infinite, can it? But
the little glimpse we get just leaves us in absolute awe. There's
not a leaf that falls. You ever see when the sun comes
into the house and you see those pieces of dust dancing in the
sunlight? A.W. Pink used to say, every one of
those little pieces of dust is ordained by God to float in the
air at that exact time. I believe that. That's how sovereign
our God is. And then think of this. He chose
to save you. He chose to save me. That's security,
isn't it? You see why we say, if you're
in Christ, you're safe. He doesn't give us a license
to go sink, because we know the Lord will chasten his people.
He does that. He does. We start to wander, he chastens
us and brings us back. That's what the crook in the
staff is for, just gently brings us back. But he loves us, beloved.
And that's the God who saved us. The one who's in control
of all these things, everything. Every drop of rain that falls
is the God who saved us. That's the same God who purposed
and planned that all this would happen to Joseph. Oh, it's wonderful. So the majority of professing
Christians have never bowed down to the absolute sovereignty of
God. Listen to what Isaiah 45, 23
says. It says this, I have sworn by
myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall swear. There is a day when every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. Whether people believe it or not, that will occur. And
the one they'll be bowing down to, the one we'll all be bowing
down to, is the absolute sovereign God over all. And again, that's
our Savior. That's our Lord. Oh my. Concerning our Lord in the New
Testament, these words thunder. Listen to these words thunder
in Philippians 2 concerning our Lord. Being found in fashion
as a man. The Word of God. The second person
of the Trinity became a man. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death. The sinless, perfect sacrifice.
Obedient unto death. For who? For you, if you're a
believer, and for me. He did that for us. Obedient
unto death. Perfect, sinless, spotless. Even
the death of the cross. He showed his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him. Where is he? He's risen above
all our enemies. You ever think that? He's risen
above all his own enemies that were here on earth with him,
and he's risen above all our enemies too. God in all the exalted,
and given him a name which is above every name, that the name
of Jesus is on every knee, every knee. That means Caesar, that
means Pilate, That means all the high priests
who rejected Him, Caiaphas, that means all of them. That means
even people today who die in their sins. And all God's people,
everyone, will all bow before Him. Every knee shall bow of
things in heaven and things on earth. That's things visible
and invisible, everything. Everything. And things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. He is Lord. We don't make Him
Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord. To the what? To the
glory of God the Father. Giving God all the glory. Look
at that. That's amazing. It's God the
Father who has raised up our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ
from the grave. He glorified the risen God man.
The man Christ Jesus. And God has all power in heaven
and earth. And He's given it all to Christ.
Christ has all power, doesn't He? He has power to give eternal
life to as many as the Father gave Him. He gives eternal life.
He gives life to the dead. He takes the one in darkness
and brings them into the light of His marvelous kingdom. He
does it all. He's sovereign over all. Absolutely
sovereign. He's the true and living God.
And He's the object of our faith. He's the object of the faith
of the elect of all ages. Christ. He's the object of our
worship and praise. And it is He who we must bow
down to. And the believer in Christ bows down willingly to
the absolute sovereignty of God, don't we? Willingly. Because
we've been made willing in the day of His power. The one who
said, I'll not have this man reign over me now, says, oh Lord,
you're king. You're king. You're my king. You're my king. You're my Lord. And we willingly
bow down before Him. Because it is He who has obtained
eternal redemption for us. And we confess Him as our sovereign
God. We confess Him as our Lord. We
confess Him as our Redeemer. And He is Lord over all people.
Whether people believe it or not. You get someone who says,
I don't believe that. Well, don't change it. You ever
hear people say that when you talk to them about Christ? I
don't believe that. Well, it's still true. It's still
true. Whether you believe He's King
or not, He's reigning right now. What do you believe? He's the
only way to get the glory. Or not. He's the only way to
get the glory. Don't change it. I pray that God would make you
willing and that you'd see Christ and that you'd flee to Him and
know that He's the only way. Oh yeah. He's the only way. He's
Lord. He's Lord over all. Whether people
acknowledge it or not, He's Lord over all things visible and invisible,
He's Lord over all the power of darkness, He's Lord over all
the demons and Satan, Lord over all! His kingdom is a vast domain!
There's nothing outside of His kingdom! And I was thinking about
something, I was thinking about something this week too, again,
getting ready for this message. I thought about how how kings,
I'm gonna run out of time, how kings in the old days, they would
have people in certain areas of their kingdom, right? To be
able to keep an eye on things, right? So you put a lord or duke
over here, or guy over here, they did that so that they could
keep an eye, the king could keep an eye on his kingdom. Our king
sees his whole kingdom. He don't need someone over here,
and someone over here, and someone over here. He's king over all,
and he sees everything. Even that little speck of dust
that floats in the sun. His ways are not our ways, and
his thoughts are not our thoughts, are they? No, he's so high above
us. He's so high above us, oh my.
He is king over a vast domain. Over a vast domain. And he's
king of the saints, and we give praise and glory to him, don't
we? We give praise and glory to him. Oh my. And we bow down
to him. We bow down to our great God
and king. And think of this, the words
that on judgment day, the words that those who reject Christ
and will hear depart from me, I never knew you. Hell is a real
place. Hell is a real place. I'm going
to read you a quote that a grace preacher said, and I talked to
Vicki about it, and we were just talking about it this week. Hell
is a real place, real torment, real separation. Hell is truth
realized too late. Remember the rich man that was
in hell, and he said, can you just talk to my brothers? Truth
realized, but he still hated God, didn't repent. My, so rejoice
in this wonderful truth. If you're a child of God, rejoice
in this wonderful truth. If you're born again, it's by
the will of God. If you're redeemed by the blood, it's by the will
of God. If you love the gospel, it's by the will of God. If you
love his word, it's by the will of God. And we will hear this,
on that great day. And we know we know we do not
deserve this wondrous salvation. We know we do not deserve to
hear these words, but these are the words from the master that
the believer will hear on that great day. Come ye blessed of
my father. and oh how blessed we are in
Christ. Come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. May that bless your hearts this
week. May that just make you sing in your souls.