Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter 41. Genesis 41, we'll begin reading
in verse 53. And the seven years of plenteousness
that was in the land of Egypt were ended. And the seven years
of dearth began to come, According as Joseph had said, and the dearth
was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there is bread.
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried
to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians,
go unto Joseph, what he saith to you, do. And the famine was
over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses,
and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in
the land of Egypt. and all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for
to buy corn because of the famine was so sore in all lanes. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together, seek the Lord's blessing. Our Father, we bow before you
carefully, reverently, and Father, also thankfully, how thankful
we are sinful men and women like us, because of your mercy and
your grace, because of the redemption that's in your son, that we can
come boldly before a throne of grace and call the God of heaven
and earth our father. We bow before you, fathers, your
children, asking that you teach us, that you'd feed us, that
you'd take care of us, that you'd provide for us, cause us to look
to thee and to depend upon thee as your obedient little children.
Father, I pray that this evening that you would especially bless
this time of worship, that you give us a heart that hungers
and thirsts after thee, a heart that can receive and believe
the things that have been prepared for us to hear. Father, that
you enable us to, by faith, see the Lord Jesus Christ and run
to him. Let each one of us leave here
tonight, resting in and rejoicing in Christ our Savior, finding
him to be our all and in all. Father, I thank you for this
place. I thank you for this family of believers that you've called
together. And Father, pray you continue to bless us, continue
to bless your word, continue to bless us for thy great namesake,
that this can always be a place where poor sinners can come and
hear of the Savior. Give each of us the wisdom and
the love and the compassion to carefully guard the unity of
the spirit that we have here. That we don't get pulled off
on attention, but that we continue, each of us, focused on Christ
alone. Father, we pray for our world
at this time. Every day, it seems like the
world goes more and more and more off its rocker. Father,
we're thankful to know that these things are not accidents, that
they're directly in your control and your will and your purpose.
Father, we pray that you'd give peace in the land, that you would
save us and preserve us from ourselves. And we do pray, Father,
for those who are in times of great difficulty. There's those
who we know of and those that we don't. those who suffer silently. Father, we pray you to undertake
on their behalf in a mighty, mighty way, to comfort and to
heal. And Father, until such time as
you're pleased to deliver them, I pray you give them a special
portion of your presence to comfort their hearts. All these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
Christ our Savior. I will tell you that from the
time I first began feeling led to go through the book of Genesis
verse by verse, however long ago that was, at that time I
thought about the end of Genesis 41 and couldn't wait to get here.
Now it's here. Believe the Lord may have given
me some. Now by way of introduction, let me make this, lay this groundwork
so you can, you can see where I want us to go tonight. And
by God's grace, we preach God's electing love for his people.
We preach that because that's what the scriptures declare.
Father elected a people to save. He set his love upon those people
and chose to save them even though they would never do anything
to deserve it. The scriptures also declare that the Lord Jesus
Christ, son of God, came to earth as a man to save God's elect
from their sin. He came to save those that the
father gave him in divine election. He suffered and he died for the
sin of the elect and no one else. He didn't suffer for the sins
of every man and every woman on earth. He suffered and died
for the sins of the elect and the elect. And only those elect,
those that the father chose, those that the son died for,
they shall be saved. They shall be. for whom Christ
died will be saved. I know that because the Son of
God is not a failure. That's why I know he didn't die
for the sins of all men and all women, because hell's full of
people now. They wouldn't be there if Christ
died for them, because their sin would be put away. Christ saved
everyone he intended to save, and those people he intended
to save are God's elect, those that the Father gave him. The
scriptures also declare that the Holy Spirit is going to come
in power. He's going to give life and faith
to God's elect. He's going to do it through the
preaching of Christ, by the preaching of the gospel. Those elect, they
will hear and they will believe. They'll believe on Christ. I
know they will because God's going to see to it. God's going
to see to it. He's going to make it happen.
And God's going to keep those people and preserve those people
by the power of his grace through faith. Now that's the truth from
scripture. of how God saves sinners. I would
venture to say everybody here has heard that truth preached
many, many times. Now with that backdrop, God's
electing love for his people. Here's what I want us to take
home with us from the message tonight. I don't want any of
us to ever think that God's election means you cannot come to Christ
begging for mercy and be saved. don't ever think that God's election
means that some people will want to be saved on God's terms, but
they can't because they find out they're not one of God's
elect. God didn't choose them. You won't find that anywhere
in scripture, not one place. That is a lie that the enemies
of Christ had made up so that men will continue trusting in
their own works. So they have something that they
think they can take some credit for. The Lord Jesus did not come
to close the way of God for anyone. He didn't have to do that. Adam
had already done that for us by his rebellion in the garden.
Christ came into the world to open the way of salvation. He didn't come to close it up
for the non-elect. He came to open the way of salvation
for every sinner who needs saving. I've said this before and let
me say it again in case anybody didn't hear it the first time
or in case they forgot it. The issue for you and me is not
to find out whether we're one of the elect because we'll never
come to Christ finding out we're one of the elect. The issue for
you and me to find out is this, am I a sinner? You can find that
out, am I a sinner? If you're a sinner, come to Christ
because what does the scripture say? Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. Now, if you're a sinner,
you come to Christ. You'll find out soon enough he
drew you. You'll find out soon enough that
he chose you first and he was drawing you with his everlasting
love. But you're not gonna find that
out until after you come to Christ for salvation. Christ didn't
come to close the way of salvation for anybody. He came to open
a fountain for sin and for uncleanness. so that sinners can be washed
in his blood, be accepted by the Father. Now the way of salvation
is open. And if you and I don't come to
Christ, we'll be damned and it will be all our own fault. It
will not be God's fault. God opened the way. We just refused
to come. Isn't that what the Lord told
the Pharisees? You will not come unto me. You
refuse. You will not come unto me that
you might have life. Nobody in hell will ever blame
God for being there. They won't be able to do it.
But if we do come to Christ, Gary, that's going to be all
God's doing, isn't it? That's going to be all God's doing.
If we come to Christ for salvation, it's because the Father chose
us. It's because the Son died for us and the Spirit drew us
to Christ. That's all God's doing. And God
does that for his people because Christ came and opened the way
of salvation. Once Christ opened the way, there's
nothing stopping any sinner from coming directly to Christ. Not
one thing. Now that's what I want us to
take home from this message tonight. The title of the message is Joseph
Opened the Storehouses. Joseph is a picture of Christ
opening the storehouses of salvation for his people. And I have four
points I want us to see. See Christ opening the storehouses
of salvation. Number one is this. Joseph opened
the storehouses sovereignly. Verse 55, Genesis 41. And when all the land of Egypt
was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh
said unto all the Egyptians, go unto Joseph. what he sayeth
to you do. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and
sold unto the Egyptians. And the famine waxed sore in
the land of Egypt, and all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for
to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all the land. Now when Joseph opened the storehouses,
he opened those storehouses sovereignly. He opened the storehouses right
when they should have been opened. He didn't open them a day early,
and he didn't open them a day late. And the decision as to
when to open all those storehouses was all up to Joseph. It was
all Joseph's decision. It had to be that way. It should
have been that way, shouldn't it? Because Joseph was the only
man fit to make the decision. Look back earlier in chapter
41, verse 33. This is where all this came about. Joseph has told Pharaoh what
his dreams mean, what's gonna come to pass, and he says, now
therefore, let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise and set
him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this and let him
appoint officers over the land and take up the fifth part of
the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. And let them
gather all the food of those good years that come and lay
up corn under the hand of Pharaoh and let them keep food in the
cities. that food shall be for store to the land against the
seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt that
the land perish not through the famine and the thing was good
in the eyes of pharaoh pharaoh says that's a good idea in the
eyes of all his servants they say that's a good idea and pharaoh
said unto his servants can we find such a one as this is a
man in whom the spirit of god is and pharaoh said unto joseph
for as much as god has showed thee all this there's none so
discreet and wise as thou art 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. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. Now everybody knew that Joseph
was the only fit man. So it's only right that he make
the decisions. He sovereignly decided when it
was time to open the storehouses. Now that is such a good picture
of Christ our Savior. He's sovereign in all things. The father has put everything
in his hand. The father put the son in charge
of everything. Since he's in charge of everything,
that means he's sovereign in salvation, doesn't it? So it's
Christ who opens the storehouses of salvation. To whom and when
he will. The decision of who will be saved
and when they'll be saved is not up to us. It's all up to
the choice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one in charge. That's what the Lord told Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, you're gonna
learn this. The most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and he
giveth it to whomsoever he will. And the same thing's true of
salvation. The most high ruleth in the kingdom
of men, and he giveth salvation to whomsoever he will. See, it's
only right that Joseph be the one to decide when to open the
storehouses. He's the one that filled them. By the same token, it's only
right that the Lord Jesus Christ open the storehouses of salvation
to whom he will. He's the one that filled them.
He's the one that earned salvation by his obedience. He's the one
that bought redemption for his people by the blood of his sacrifice.
It's only right that he open up those storehouses of salvation
to whom he will. Now, I know the natural man does
not like that. The natural man feels like, well,
I deserve a chance. You know, I bet some Egyptians
didn't like Joseph being charged this thing either, don't you
reckon? I don't know when the hatred of the Jews began, but
I got a good hint of it here. Look at Genesis 39. Remember
when Joseph was working in Potiphar's house, and Potiphar's wife wanted
him to commit adultery with her, and she wouldn't, He escaped
from, you know, and left his cloak there in her hands, she
escaped. In verse 14, then she called unto the men of her house
and spake unto them, saying, See he, Potiphar, my husband,
he hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us. Don't you know
when she said Hebrew, she just practically spit out the word,
this Hebrew. Well, sometime later, at least
nine years later, Potiphar's wife, had to go to Joseph to
get corn. And I'm just betting, human nature
being what it is, she didn't like it. She didn't like having
to go to that Hebrew to get bread. Maybe she said, I know Pharaoh. I mean, my husband works with
the guy. I know Pharaoh. She'd go to him
and say, Pharaoh, why can't I get bread from you? Why do I got
to go to this Hebrew? It's because Joseph opened the
storehouses by royal decree. That's a fancy way of saying
because Pharaoh said so. You had to go to Joseph. Joseph
is the one to open the storehouses because Pharaoh said so. And
again, I know the natural man does not like having to depend
on Christ for all of our salvation. The natural man doesn't like
having to go to Christ and beg for mercy, beg for salvation.
We don't like being in the hand of Christ that he can do with
us as he pleases. But that's the way it is by royal
decree. That's the way it is because
God said so. God said so. It pleased the father to put
all of salvation, to put all of righteousness, to put all
of mercy, all of grace, all of life, all of forgiveness, all
of acceptance. He put it all in his son. Now,
if you would be saved, go to Christ because God said so. because God said so. Now here's
the wonderful thing about God's salvation. The father did not
put all salvation into his son so that his son could play keep
away with it and keep people from getting it. That's not why
the father did that. The father put all of salvation
into his son so that the son would open the storehouses of
salvation and mercy and grace for every sinner that needs it. That's why the father put it
all in Christ. The father didn't elect the people to keep the
non-elect out, to keep the non-elect from being saved. The father
elected the people because that's the only way anybody's going
to be saved. They're going to be saved in Christ. And Christ
has come and opened the storehouses of God's salvation to sinners. Now let that sink in for a second.
He's opened the storehouses of salvation for sinners. Are you
a sinner? See, that's the question, isn't
it? Are you a sinner? Then go to Christ. He's the one
who can open the storehouses of salvation for you. All right,
number two. Joseph opened the storehouses
wisely. Now Joseph was the one who knew
there's gonna be seven years of plenty. And during those seven
years of plenty, Joseph was very wise. He gathered up corn. He gathered up so much corn in
those seven years, he gave up trying to count it all. It was
just without number. And he kept, he did that wisely.
Now in year five, after they had four years of bumper crop,
Joseph didn't say, boys, we've got so much grain in all these
storehouses, let's just take a whole year off and just party
all year long and live off the plenty that we've got saved up
and we'll plant again next year. Let's just take a year-long vacation
and whoop it up because we've had these four years of plenty.
He didn't say that. That would have been very foolish,
wouldn't it? Joseph filled the storehouses
wisely. As long as there was plenty,
he kept filling those storehouses. And when it came time, Joseph
opened the storehouses wisely. He waited until the famine was
over all the face of the earth. And when all the cupboards were
bare and all the people were hungry, that's when Joseph opened
the storehouses. He opened them when there was
a need. And see, there had to be a famine. There's got to be
a famine first. I know we don't like it. The
feeling of a famine is horrible, It's got to go. There's got to
be a famine before we'll ever come back for bread. Isn't that
right? Well, Joseph was wise to wait
and open the storehouses when there was a need. I know you
see the picture here. Everybody in the whole earth
is in a spiritual famine. We're just a, a, spiritual famine,
desert wasteland, just in ourselves. We're all just dead. We got nothing
in us. I know most people don't know
they're in a spiritual famine, but we are. And if God's ever going to save
us, He's going to show us we're in a spiritual famine. He's going
to show us we're empty. We're going to need, we're needy.
The Lord Jesus Christ opens the storehouses of God's grace and
God's salvation wisely. He only opens it when there's
a famine, when there's a need. Now, if you're a needy, empty,
guilty sinner, I'll tell you what to do. Come to Christ and
beg Him for mercy. He's the one who can open the
storehouses. He's so wise. Our Savior is so
wise. He opens the storehouses of salvation
every single time there's a need, every time. You scan through
scripture, you'll never find Joseph turning a hungry person
away empty, not one time. You scour scripture, you'll never
read one time of the Lord Jesus Christ sending away a guilty
sinner and sending him away without forgiveness and without mercy,
not once. He opens the storehouses wisely
every time there's a need. See, the reason that Joseph could
wisely open the storehouses is he wisely stored up enough food
for the people during the famine. Well, during his earthly ministry,
his life as a man, the Lord Jesus wisely earned righteousness. He obeyed the law every second
of his life. And he wisely earned a righteousness. He earned a righteousness that
is so so bountiful, so perfect that it makes every guilty sinner
who needs it righteous because he stored it up for him. The
blood of Christ was wisely shed. His blood is enough to redeem
every guilty sinner that needs it. His blood is enough to wash
every filthy sinner who needs it. So again, the question is
this, are you a lost sinner that needs to be saved? Are you a
guilty sinner that needs to be forgiven? Now that's the issue.
Are you? Well, if you are, come to Christ
and beg him to wisely open the storehouses of God's grace and
give you just exactly what you need. All right, here's the third
thing. And this goes very closely with
the second point. Joseph opened the storehouses
graciously. Now Joseph wisely opened the
storehouses when there was a need, but he also graciously opened
the storehouses. When did Joseph open the storehouses?
When there was hungry, needy people. That's when he opened
the storehouses. Now I'm sure Joseph is, I don't
know what the right word is, far less petty, far less vindictive,
far less self-righteous, whatever it is to me, But you know, it
would have crossed my mind. You know, you guys could have
saved up enough grain during the seven years of plenty. I
mean, you could have. You didn't, but you could have.
I mean, don't you just think that most people in the land
of Egypt at any rate heard, hey, there's going to be seven years
of plenty. This Hebrew Joseph told us there's going to be seven
years of plenty. Sure enough, we're having all these years
of plenty. And then he said after that, there's going to be seven
years of dearth and famine. Maybe we'd be smart to save up
some corn. But they didn't do it, did they?
They didn't do it. But Joseph did. Joseph did. And when they were hungry, and
they were needy, and they were desperate, Joseph graciously
opened the storehouses as a picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
graciously opens the storehouses of salvation. He does it graciously. to needy sinners. He never beats them up for their
sin. He never shames them for their sin. He opens the storehouses
freely, without restriction, without certain conditions for
you to meet. That's grace. That's grace. You and I have broken God's law.
We have rebelled against God and we have refused. I know we can't, but we've also
refused to do anything right. We don't have anything that God
requires of us. But Christ does. He does. And he opens the storehouses
of salvation freely to everybody who's in need. And Joseph was so gracious. He
didn't just do this for local folks. He did this for people
that came from every other country, all around. They came into Egypt
to buy corn, and Joseph sold it to them. Joseph made sure
they left with plenty of corn. Now that's gracious, isn't it?
Not just taking care of us here, but people in every nation. Oh,
if there's somebody in need, Joseph says, let's give them
some corn. Let's get some corn in their sacks. Isn't that a
good picture of Christ? He didn't come just to save a
few Jews, a few natural descendants of Abraham. By his blood, the
Lord Jesus Christ redeemed a people out of every kindred, every tongue,
every people, and every nation. I tell you, that doesn't sound
to me like a savior who's trying to exclude people, does it? From
every nation, from every tongue, from every tribe, from every
kindred, he came to open salvation for everybody. No, I don't care
what's your skin color, what's your background, what's your
nationality. He came to open the way of salvation for everybody
that needs it. Now come begging for mercy. Isn't
that just obvious? Come beg Him. Lord, you said
you came to save sinners. Well, I'm a sinner. Save me.
Open the storehouses of salvation for me. I know I don't deserve
it, but the point is you open those storehouses of salvation
graciously. graciously. Our God is so gracious. He is
so gracious. He knows our frame. He knows
what we're like. He knows our weaknesses. So you
don't find God inviting sinners to come to the storehouse. God
didn't invite anybody. He's so gracious. He commands
it. He commands it. His commandment
is come and beg for mercy. What are you waiting on? Huh? If God commands you to come beg
for mercy, you reckon He's going to turn you away if you come?
Huh? Beg Him for mercy. God tells us to come beg Him
for mercy. And we don't go beg for mercy from a man who's unjust,
who's mean, who's hard. He's a hard-hearted gatekeeper. Don't you hate when, boy, you're
working through the government system or health care system,
whatever it is, and you run across a gatekeeper. And it's just they
have the power to keep you out, so boy, they're going to do it.
Don't you hate that? I mean, I hate that. We don't come beg
for mercy to a gatekeeper. Mercy from the man who came to
open the storehouses. He came to open the storehouses
of grace, not keep them shut. Isn't that merciful? Isn't that gracious? That makes
me want to come to Him, begging Him for mercy. What a heart for needy sinners
He has. That's His character. That makes
me want to come to him, doesn't it, you? All right, here's the last thing.
When Joseph opened the storehouses, he glorified Pharaoh. Now, we
won't read through all this. I'll just tell you what happened.
You can read it later for yourself if you want, Genesis chapter
47, but here's what happened. Joseph sold grain to the Egyptians. Now, he didn't give it away for
free. He sold it, which would only be right But I point all
that out to say this, isn't Christ better than the picture? He's
not selling you salvation. You don't have to give him something
in return, he gives it freely. Christ is always better than
the picture, always. But for the way it was with him
working for Pharaoh, he sold corn to everybody that came. And Joseph took that money and
he deposited it in Pharaoh's bank account. Well, for too long,
Everybody had given Joseph all of their money. Every bit of
money that there was in the land of Egypt was in Pharaoh's bank
account because the people spent it all to buy food. Well, when
that happened, now they're hungry. They need food. Don't have it.
I can't pay anything. Joseph already gave you all my
money. I mean, how big and how rich is the land of Egypt? And
every bit of money, every coin, every bit of money in that country
was in Pharaoh's bank account. I mean, you think of that. Well,
people still needed food. So Joseph said, well, give me
your flocks. Give me all your cattle and all your sheep and
all your goats and all your animals and give those to me in exchange
for food. They said, all right, we'll do
that. Now Pharaoh owns all the animals too. All the herds, he
owns them all. Well, now the flocks are gone.
People are still hungry. And Joseph said, I'll tell you
what I'll do. I'll trade your land for food. and they traded land
for food. Well, now Pharaoh had all the
money, he had all the flocks, and he had all the land in the
land of Egypt. He owned it all. All because Joseph managed this
thing for him, he became wildly wealthy. By the way Joseph handled
this thing, he glorified, he enriched Pharaoh, didn't he?
By the way he opened the storehouses. Well, here's the picture, and
this is a very important thing for us to understand. The Lord
Jesus Christ redeemed his people in such a way that God is glorified. Man doesn't get any of the glory,
and God gets it all. Tell you how we see God's glory.
It's in the way that Christ saves sinners. In Christ, we see the
wisdom of God. God is so wise. It's by the sacrifice
of the substitute. God can be both just and still
justify the ungodly. That's so wise. Nobody but God
ever could have conceived of such a way of salvation. That's
God's wisdom. He made the substitute guilty
and killed him for it, gave us his righteousness and gave us
life for it. That's God's wisdom. In Christ, we see the grace of
salvation. Oh, what grace, the depths of
grace that the Son of God would suffer for the sin of people
like you and me. I mean, it's just more gracious
and more amazing than the human mind can comprehend. He suffered
what sinners deserve and sinners receive what Christ earned. Now
that's grace, isn't it? In Christ, we see the security
of salvation. Salvation is secure because it's
based on Christ, not me. Well, I like it that way. All
of that glorifies God. It shows us the glory of God. And you might wonder, well, if
I come to Christ and beg for mercy, beg him to open the storehouses
of grace for me, will he do it? He will if he can get all the
glory for doing it. He's not gonna share his glory
with you. But if you've got nothing so that he gets all the glory
for saving you, he'll save you. He always saves his people in
such a way that glorifies God. Now there's no question, salvation,
that's something good Christ did for you and me, isn't it?
That's something good he did for his people. I mean, I'm so
thankful for it, but I tell you the reason he did it wasn't just
to be good to you and me. The reason he did it is to glorify
his father. He saves his people in such a
way that God is glorified for it. That's the reason sinners
are saved. It's for God's glory. And in closing, I want to tell
you the same thing that Pharaoh told all those hungry people
that came to him at that time looking for food. Pharaoh said,
go to Joseph, go to that type of Christ. I have the great blessing, great
privilege to be able to tell you Go to Christ. Don't go to a picture. Go to
Christ. He's the real McCoy. He is the
Savior of sinners. Now, go to Christ. Go to Him. Beg Him to open the storehouses
of salvation for you. Go to Christ. Don't go anywhere
else. Don't go to Christ plus your
decision. Christ plus your aisle walking. Christ plus your doctrine.
Christ plus your knowledge. Go to Christ and Christ alone
and stay right there. Stay right there. Don't ever
graduate beyond needing Christ to be your home. The way is open. Christ has opened
the storehouses. He's opened the way. He is the
way and He's the one that opened the way. Now go to Him. Go to Him. and go to him right
now. Go to him right now. I told the folks in Cottagefield,
I believe it was Sunday, I talked about one time, I was here, I
think it was a Wednesday night, Brother Don Fortner was coming
through, and like I do with all our visiting preachers, I announce
them, Don certainly didn't need any introduction here, did he?
But I liked introducing him, I said something about Don's
preaching that I love, and I try to emulate this. I could tell
when he's preaching that he wants me to come to Christ, and I appreciate
that. I appreciate it. I mean, he's
not just giving a lecture. He don't care whether I believe
it or not. He wanted me to come to Christ. I just always appreciate
that by his preaching. He was sitting right there. And
that big booming voice came out after I said it. He said, I want
you to come right now. That's what I'm telling us. Come
right now. The way is open. Why won't we
come? All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, oh, how we thank you that you condescend to come
where we are and to fill the storehouses of grace and then
to open them to your people freely. And Father, I pray you would
draw each and every one of us to your son. Draw us to Christ,
cause us to need him and run to him. And then stand in awe at how
graciously he opens the storehouses for such a rebellious sinner
like I am. Father, how we thank you. Bless
your word, Father. Bless it for your glory. Enable
us to see more of the glory of our God through the preaching
of your word tonight. Father, it's in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake and his glory, we
pray. Amen. All right, Sean.