If you wouldn't open your Bibles
with me to Genesis chapter 41. Genesis chapter 41. Begin reading
in verse 46 and read through verse 52. And Joseph was 30 years old when
he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out
from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land
of Egypt And in the seven plenteous years, the earth brought forth
by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food
of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid
up the food in the cities. The food of the field, which
was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph
gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he
left numbering, for it was without number. And unto Joseph were
born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath,
the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On, bare unto him. And Joseph
called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, which means forgetting. For God, said he, hath made me
forget all my toil and all my father's house. And the name
of the second called he Ephraim, which means fruitful. For God
hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this evening, begging a blessing from your storehouses of grace.
All that our Lord Jesus Christ has earned and purchased and
stored up for his people, Father, we pray you give us an outpouring
of that mercy and that grace, righteousness, every blessing
that our Lord Jesus Christ has earned for his people, we pray
you'd give us an outpouring of it this evening. Father, how
we thank you for such a Savior. The Savior is your own Son, who
came in the flesh to do for us what we can never do for ourselves.
How he obeyed the law perfectly, not for himself, but to earn
a righteousness for his people. and how he suffered and died,
not for his own sin, but the sin of his people charged to
him. And how we thank you how his
sacrifice, how his precious blood has put away all of the sin of
all of your people and made us accepted in thy sight. Father,
how we thank you. What a savior. Father, I pray
that you'd give us a soul hungering after him. and that you would
be pleased to defeat us with the preaching of your gospel,
the opening of your word. I pray you'd give us a soul thirst
for him. And Father, then that you would
open the fountains of the water of life to us, enable us to drink
freely by the preaching of your word. Father, bless us tonight
as we met together. Bless us for thy great namesake.
That your name be exalted and Father, that your people be taught
and comforted and edified. And what we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people wherever they meet this evening.
Father, bless your word in this dark, dark day. Let the light
shine forth that your people may see the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, we continue to pray for those that you brought into the
time of trouble and trial, sickness, heartbroken, misery, Father, we pray you'd be with
your people, that you'd comfort, that you'd heal. Father, that
you'd deliver as soon as it could be thy will. In all these things
we ask, in that name which is above every name, for the glory
and sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, amen. Now I've titled the message this
evening, Christ the Active Savior. I want us to see Joseph as a
picture of Christ, our Savior, During his earthly ministry,
he came to be a servant. That's why I read that passage
in Matthew. He came to be a servant. He didn't
come to be waited on. He came to serve. I want to see
how active the Savior was in that ministry, how active he
was in saving his people from their sin. That's what I want
us to see. Now, first thing I want us to see is this. Joseph was
30 years old when all this began. Verse 46, that Joseph was 30
years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now,
the fact that Joseph was 30 years old, that's not just a random
fact that Moses threw in there, you know, to kind of interest
us. He wrote that as a picture of Christ. Luke 3, verse 23 tells
us that the Lord Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his
public ministry, the same age as Joseph is. And there are a
few reasons that age 30 is significant. First, to the Jews, a man was
considered to be a real adult once he reached 30 years old.
But the Lord Jesus waited until the Jewish community considered
him to be a real adult before he began his earthly ministry.
He could have begun it at age two, age three, age 12. He's
12 years old. He confounded all the doctors
and lawyers there in the temple, didn't he? He could have started
earlier, He had the wisdom, he had the ability, but he waited
until he was 30. So now the Jews had to say, yes, this is a fully
grown man, capable of being in this position. And I just see
something so beautiful there. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
righteousness of his people. He came in the flesh and he obeyed
the law as the representative of his people. When Christ obeyed
the law, His people obeyed it in Him. That's our righteousness,
that we obey the law in Christ. God's elect are made righteous,
not by what we have done, but by what a representative man
has done for us. It's the same way we are made
sinners. It's by the disobedience of a representative man, Adam. We're made righteous by the obedience
of another representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
righteousness was earned. by a full grown man. This is not the obedience of
a child that just lasted a few years. It wasn't something that
just happened overnight. This is the obedience of a full
grown man who endured every temptation of life that all of us endure. He endured all of them without
sin. All the way through adulthood.
30 years. That's just hard to imagine,
isn't it? What those first 30 years were like for our Savior.
Scripture doesn't tell us very much about it, very little at
all does it tell us about those first 30 years. But I do know
this, the Lord Jesus always knew who He was. He always knew He
was the Son of God. This isn't something He just
discovered, you know, as He got older in life. No, He always
knew He's the Son of God. He always knew he was the Savior.
He always knew he was the God-man. And I know that so because of
one hint we do get about the Lord's childhood. When he was
12 years old and he was confounding all those doctors and all those
Pharisees and talking to them about the Scriptures, Mary and
Joseph thought he was lost and they come back and find him.
And he said, don't you know, I must be about my father's business. Gene, he wasn't talking about
down there in a carpenter shop. He wasn't talking about his foster
father, Joseph. He was talking about God the Father. He said,
don't you know, I must be about this business of doing my father's
business and serving him and pleasing him. See, he knew he
was God in the flesh. Now, just think about this. Yet
he submitted himself to the authority of his parents who didn't have
a fraction of the wisdom that he had. He submitted himself
to the authority of his parents, who he created, who he gave life
and who depended on him for breath. He submitted to the end. And
he endured all of that. I mean, you could just keep going
on and on and on about all the ways that this child, Jesus,
and this young man, Jesus, how he submitted himself and obeyed
authority, obeyed every law that was about him. He endured all
of that, clear to adulthood, so there would be no question,
he worked out a perfect righteousness for his people. This was not
some fly-by-night operation. He did it perfectly to an adult. Second, to the Jews, once a man
turned 30, they considered him capable of leadership. You know,
interestingly enough, you have to be 30 years old to be elected
to the House of Representatives. That's right, I think that's
right, 30 years, I should have looked that up, I think that's
right. To be elected to Congress, you'll be 30 years old before
you're considered capable of leadership like this. Well, the
Lord waited until he was 30 years old to begin his public ministry.
So the Jewish leaders, now they might not like what he was saying,
they didn't like what he was saying, did they? But they had
to admit, He's worthy of leadership. He's reached that age where we
say He's worthy of leadership. And there just cannot be any
question about the leadership of our Savior, His ability to
lead. He told us, follow Him, didn't
He? If a man tells you to follow Him, he better be able to lead.
He comes into the sheepfold and He calls His sheep. He calls
them by name and leads them out. Now he's worthy to lead them
out. He's worthy to take every step before his sheep do and
lead them out. He's capable of guiding and protecting
and leading his sheep and bringing them all the way to glory. When
he says, follow me, tell you what to do, follow him. Because
he proved himself worthy of following him because he proved himself
capable of leading and guiding and protecting Sheep like you
and me. Sheep who would wander off. Sheep
who would get lost. Sheep that the wolf would devour.
He's proved himself capable of leading wandering sheep like
you and me and bringing us to glory. When he says follow me,
follow him. He's proved himself worthy, a
worthy leader. And then third, once a man turned
30, the Jews would recognize him as an authentic teacher.
Again, I go back to this 12 year old boy, confounding those Pharisees
and scribes and lawyers with his knowledge of the scriptures.
And they just always would have, 12 year old boy, he doesn't know
anything. But the Lord waited until he
was 30 to begin his earthly ministry so that people would recognize
him as an authentic teacher. Even the Pharisees had to admit
he's an authentic teacher. I mean, naked demons came to
him and said, Master, you're a teacher of sin from God, I
know that. You're a teacher. And what a teacher he is. No
one else taught what the Savior taught. Everybody else taught
the law, didn't they? That's all the Pharisees were
teaching was the law. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Grace dripped from his lips.
He taught grace. And how the publicans, how the
sinners, how the harlots, how the uneducated flock to him.
He's teaching what I need. Grace, mercy, peace with God. And you know how he does it?
The teacher teaches himself. Christ is the teacher. He's the
lesson. He teaches his people come to
him. He teaches his people, depend
on me. Depend on me to be everything
that you need. I'm your wisdom, I'm your righteousness,
I'm your sanctification, I'm your redemption, I'm your prophet,
I'm your priest, I'm your king. These are not just things. They're
not things in God's kingdom. Salvation is a person in its
entirety. Salvation is a person and I tell
you how, you know, you've been taught of God You come to Christ
That's what the Lord said. Everybody's taught of the father
comes to me comes to me Now come to him rest in him He's worthy
to be trusted. Oh He's worthy to be believed
he's the one that teaches his people Aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful He didn't
leave it up to us to figure it out? Aren't you thankful He doesn't
leave it up to a man to teach you? Oh, we have pastors, we
have teachers. We need them, don't we? But tell
you when you'll be taught so that you come to Christ. It's
when God speaks to your heart. When He teaches you, you'll come.
You'll come. All right, here's the second
thing. Joseph personally went through
all the land of Egypt Verse 46 says, Joseph was 30 years old
when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went
out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land
of Egypt. Now Joseph went out from Pharaoh
and he began to serve. And here's how he did it, by
going through all the land of Egypt. He went everywhere, all
the land of Egypt, preparing for this famine of seven years
away. Here he is standing before Pharaoh
and says, now we're getting ready to start having seven years of
plenty, and then there'll be seven years of famine. I mean, you
know, we don't have just, you know, emergency right now. Joseph
went out from the presence of Pharaoh and immediately began
preparing for what was to come. Went through all the land of
Egypt to him. And that's such a beautiful picture of our Savior.
who sacrificed everything to save his people, who did everything
it took at his own personal expense to save his people from their
sin. He came to earth and he went everywhere. I mean, he went
in every city, in every town. That passage we read to open
the scripture, you know why he went to Jericho? So that he went
out of that place, he'd give sight to those two blind beggars.
That's why he went, he went everywhere. Just like Joseph went through
all the land of Egypt, our Savior went everywhere, showing himself
as the promised Savior, as the promised Messiah. He showed it
by his preaching. He showed it by his character.
He showed it by his miracles. He showed everyone everywhere. Here's the answer to your spiritual
dearth. It's me. Look at Matthew chapter nine. Matthew, the ninth chapter. In verse 35, Jesus went about all the cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease
among the people. The Savior went everywhere. all
over the land, in every city, in every burg, in every town,
healing everybody that needed healing. If there was a disease,
he healed it. He preached the gospel to everybody
that needed to hear it. He went and found every lost
sheep, and he saved them. Now that's what the Savior did
during his earthly ministry, public ministry. Now I'm gonna
ask you a question, here today, 2,000 years later. Do you need
to hear the gospel? I mean, hear it in your heart,
hear it with a heart of faith. Do you need to hear the gospel?
Do you need to be healed of your spiritual diseases, your wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores? Do you need to be saved from
your sin? Do you? Well, you know what? The same savior is still in the
same business today as he was during his public ministry. He
still sends His gospel to His sheep wherever they might be.
He promised us He's here tonight. I mean, you think of that. He's
here meeting with His people when they gather together to
worship Him wherever His sheep are. He still saves everyone
who needs saving. Everyone. Now doesn't that just
calm your heart right down? You cannot go anywhere. The Savior
can't reach and find you and save you. You can't go anywhere
outside of his reach. He goes everywhere to save his
people from their sin. It's like Joseph went through
all the land of Egypt. I've always found this very,
very interesting. Even as a little boy, this occurred to me. Now, Joseph set free from prison. He's given all of this power.
He's given freedom to do whatever he wants, wherever he wants,
however he wants. Pharaoh said, Joseph, it's all
on you. I mean, you just do whatever you want and everybody better
be bound to need Joseph. When Joseph was set free to do
whatever in this whole wide world he wanted to do, what did he
do? He began surfing. He immediately
began serving Pharaoh. He immediately began serving
the people of the world. He immediately began preparing
for this famine that was to come. Now that was self-sacrificing.
And he did it everywhere he went. I mean, he did it with everything
that he had. I would think that surely in
seven years, seven years, There was enough downtime to go see
his father once. Surely, in seven years, there's
available time for the man to take a vacation. No, sir, he
didn't do it. He spent all seven of those years,
24-7, preparing for the famine that was to come. He would not
please himself. And that's such a good picture
of our Savior. And He's God. He can always do as He pleases. Isn't that right? He can do whatever
He pleases. Well, what did He do? He went out from His Father.
Joseph went out from Pharaoh. Christ went out from His Father. He was with His Father in glory.
Daily the delight of His Father, and He came to earth clothed
in human flesh, To be a servant. To be a servant to everybody.
He came to serve his father. He came to do his father's will. Fulfill the father's covenant
of grace. Fulfill the father's purpose
to save a people. Not by ignoring their sin, but
by making them righteous. By making them righteous through
Christ's obedience. By putting their sin away by
the sacrifice of God's own son. God was so intent on saving his
people in truth and mercy. He sent his son to be slaughtered,
to put the sin of his people away. And Christ came as the
willing servant, determined to do that. He came determined to
please his father. And I know he did it because
the father said, you better listen to him. This is my beloved son,
in whom I'm well pleased. And he came to serve his people.
He's Lord and Master. He told his disciples, you call
me Lord and Master and you say, well, for so I am, but he came
to be their servant. He came to serve his people by
obeying the law for them, by establishing righteousness for
them. He came to serve his people by taking their sin away from
them and making it his. To take their sin that defiled
their souls, that would condemn them to hell and do his own body
on the tree. and suffering and dying to put
that sin away. So those people could be brought
to God. And he never one time sought
his own comfort. He never one time sought his
own well-being. He was always seeking the salvation
of his people. He was always seeking the will
of his father. Now that's our savior. That's
our Savior. Aren't you thankful for the faith
to trust Him, the God-given faith to trust Him? That's our Savior. And Joseph is such a good picture
of that. Joseph went through all the land himself, himself. The task of being sure that the
world had enough food to eat during those seven years of famine,
Pharaoh gave that job to Joseph, didn't he? Joseph, it's your
job. Well, Joseph went out through all the land of Egypt to personally
be sure the job was done right. Who could blame Joseph if, at
least for a while, he said, you know, I've been in prison. I
got these chains been around my wrist and my ankles. You know, I'm tired. I'd like
to take a good long bath. I'd like to have somebody feed
me some grapes and waving a fan on me. Just let me have a few
days to kind of recover from these years in prison. That's
not what he did. He didn't stay in the palace
and enjoy the high life. He didn't gather some servants
together and say, now you boys, you're gonna be my minions and
you go out and do this in this city. No, he went out himself. And he oversaw all that work
himself. And he did it as a picture of
Christ. You know, there's been times the Lord sent an angel
to do something on earth. He sent the angels to announce
the birth of the Lord, didn't he? The birth of the Savior.
Angels did that. But when it came time to redeem
his people from their sins, the father didn't send an angel.
The father didn't raise up a man like Moses to be a prophet, to
do this job of redemption for his people. When it came time
to redeem his people from their sin, the father sent the son
himself, the son himself, the son of God, the light of glory,
the glory of heaven, clothed himself in human flesh and came
to this earth to be sure the job was done right. The father
gave him the job, saving his people. He said, son, in the
covenant of grace, I've chosen this people. I've elected this
people. I'm giving them to you to save. And you got to make
them righteous. You got to obey the law for them. You're going
to have to suffer and die to put their sin away. The job's
yours. And the son said, Father, I'll do it. And he came himself
to make sure the job was done right. Gary, it was done right. He did
it perfectly. And I love to think about that.
I love to think about the savior coming to do this job of redemption
himself because he loved his people so much. He was going
to personally see the job was done right. So they're saved
from their sin. Then here's the third thing.
Joseph gathered so much corn, you couldn't count it all. Verse
47 says, and in the seven plenteous years, the earth brought forth
by handful And he gathered up all the food of the seven years,
which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities.
The food of the field, which was round about every city, laid
he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the
sand of the sea, very much until he left numbering, for it was
without number." And it's just hard to imagine the silos and
the storage facilities that Joseph must have built to store up this
seven years of plenty so there'd be enough corn. And I'm sure
it's not just corn, it's wheat and every kind of grain that
they grow in that area. Joseph had to gather enough of
that together and store it so there'd be enough to feed that
whole area of the world for seven full years. I mean, it's just
hard to imagine. There had to be silos everywhere.
But he did it. He got the job done because one
man, one man in all the world knew this famine was coming.
And one man knew what to do about it. And he went and did it. He got the job done. And that's
such a good picture of our Savior. There's one Savior. There's one
Savior. Before creation, the father gave
a people to his son to save. And Scripture tells us that number,
the number that the Father chose to save is a number that no man
can number. It's like the corn that Joseph
was storing up. I can just see Joseph. I think
you can pretty well tell this is a diligent man. Don't you think you can just
safely say this is a diligent, diligent man. I'm sure he got
his little accounting book out there and he's keeping track
of all this, you know. And he's doing such a good job
of it And the abundance just kept coming in, and coming in,
and coming in. And finally Joseph says, I quit,
I can't keep track of it all. It's just too much, I can't keep
track of it all. That's a picture of God's elect. God's elect are
a number. Scripture says no man can number. It doesn't say they can't be
numbered, it says no man can number them. But God has numbered
them. He's numbered them specifically.
It's not just a number. He knows each one of them by
name. God knows who they are and where they are. He's not
lost track of one of them. And he sent one man to save all
those people. One. Now, it was the God man. It was God in human flesh, but
it was one man. And this one man is so precious. He's so perfect. He's so wonderful
that by Himself, He saved all that number that no man can number.
He saved every last one of them, made them perfect. Look over
at John 17 for a moment. Like I said, this number is a
number no man can number. I mean, there's just so many
of God's elect. You and I would never notice
If one was missing, if just one was missing, we never know this,
but the Lord would know it. He knows for sure, not one of
that innumerable host is lost. John 17, verse 12. While I was
with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that
thou gavest me have I kept and none of them is lost. But the
son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled, but the son
of perdition was never given to Christ. He was just there
that the scripture might be fulfilled. Of all that you've given me,
I've kept them. Not one of them is lost. Now I want you to be sure you
don't miss the comfort and assurance for God's people that's in this
statement our Savior made. He said, Father, you gave them
to me and I've kept them. If the Father gave you to Christ,
He didn't lose you. And He won't lose you now. He's
not going to forget you now. If Christ died for your sin,
He died for your sin on purpose, with your name on His heart. He's not going to lose you. He's
not going to forget you now. He's not going to let you perish.
And you know how I know that? God himself said, not one of
them's lost. And none of them are lost. What
a savior we have to trust him, that he came, he saved and he
kept that innumerable host all by himself. And then here's the
last thing I want us to see tonight. Joseph's ministry produced life. Verse 50 of Genesis, Chapter
41. And unto Joseph were born two
sons, before the years of famine came, which Asenath, the daughter
of Potiphar, priest of On, bare unto him. 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. And the name
of the second called he Ephraim. For God hath caused me to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction. Now it's been 13 years. 13 years. Since Joseph was sold away from
his father. 13 years. 13 years of being a
slave. 13 years of being a prisoner
in a foreign land. In a dungeon. I mean, in the
worst conditions. where the enemies of the king
were kept. Those that committed treason
against the king were kept. Thirteen years of that kind of
treatment. Thirteen years of hopelessness.
If it weren't for the dreams, if he didn't believe those dreams
that the Lord gave him, that eventually everybody's going
to be bound down to him, the situation looked hopeless for
thirteen years. Thirteen years. Now there's Joseph
one day. They're in the dungeon. I mean,
the guy is just trying to survive another day. I mean, he's just
trying to get through another day. He's trying to find a way
not to have those chains that they had on him hurting so much.
The scripture says they hurt him. He's just trying to make
it worth not hurting so much. He's just trying to get through
the day. And suddenly, these fellas from Pharaoh's court come
and grab him and wash him up and give him a razor to shave
himself and take him into Pharaoh And suddenly, Joseph's on the
throne. Suddenly, he's got a wife. He's got children. Joseph was
fruitful in the land of his sorrow. Now that is a good picture. Those
13 years, I see them as a picture of those 4,000 years between
Adam and Christ. 4,000 years since Adam's fall. 4,000 years of darkness. 4,000 years of sin and death. 4,000 years of hopelessness. Now I know there were prophets
in that time preaching the truth. Almost nobody believed them.
Isaiah said, Lord, who's believed our report? I mean, the Jews
thought Isaiah, he's the best prophet ever was. He said, nobody's
listening. Nobody believed what I say. We had some promises. We have some types of the savior
who was coming, but almost nobody could see it. It was hidden in
the types and shadows and pictures of the Old Testament law, hidden
for 4,000 years. And then one day, suddenly, The
Lord Jesus came into his temple. At least one man was looking
for him. Simeon was looking for him, wasn't he? Suddenly, out
of all that darkness, there was light. Suddenly, out of all that
death, there was life. Christ our Savior. Oh, you and
I cannot imagine how he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. We can't imagine how living in
this world grieved his holy soul. We just, we can't imagine. But he endured it, and he was
fruitful. Oh, he suffered. But Isaiah said,
he shall see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. Every last one of God's children
are gonna have eternal life, because our Savior is fruitful.
His obedience, his suffering unto death, It's fruitful and
it gave all of God's children eternal life. That one man is
so fruitful. He gave a number no man can number
eternal life. Now I'm sure Joseph had absolutely
no idea he's going through his life. He's doing what he thinks
the Lord put to his hand to do today. I mean, Joseph's in prison. He thinks, well, you know, I'm
supposed to be a prisoner. I'm supposed to serve the other
prisoners, you know, like the warden's given me responsibility
to do. Just doing what the Lord's put my hand to do today. And
suddenly that afternoon, the Lord put to his hand, saving
the world from starvation. And Joseph said, well, that's
what the Lord's put my hand to do today. That's what I'm going
to do. I'm sure he had no idea he was such a picture of Christ.
What a type of Christ he is. I should have looked this up
before I left home this evening. I got a book that Arthur Pink
wrote. Some of you might have it, The
Gleanings in Genesis, he called it. I think Pink came up with
80 or 90 ways that Joseph is a type of Christ. Joseph just
had any idea what a type of Christ he was. But the Lord's been pleased
to show that to me. Not so that we're impressed with
Joseph. I mean, pretty impressive guy. You know, I'm impressed
with the guy. But Lord showed us this. So it
causes us to be impressed with Christ. It causes us to trust
him. It causes us to rest in him.
That's my prayer for you and me tonight, that Lord enable
us to do that. All right, let's bow in prayer
together. Our Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for this Time you've
given us, we can open your word and see Christ in it. And Father,
I do pray that you would be our teacher tonight, that you would
give each one of us here tonight faith to see this picture of
our glorious Savior and trust Him. Father, it's for Christ's
glory. It is for our good, but it's
for Christ's glory that we pray and ask these things. Amen. All
right, Sean, come lead us in a closing here.