All right, if you would, hope
you still have your Bibles open there to Genesis chapter 37.
The title of the message this evening,
Joseph's Coat, Christ's Nature. As I said last week when we looked
at the genealogy of Jacob, Joseph is one of the clearest pictures
of Christ that we have in the Old Testament. Moses says here
that Jacob loved Joseph the most because he was the son of his
old age. Well, that's a picture of Christ,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of the Ancient of
Days. The Father has eternally loved
the Son. You and I don't have the capacity
to understand the depth, the purity, the eternality of the
Father's love for His Son. That's how Joseph is a picture
of Christ. He's the favorite son of Jacob. Joseph, the favorite son, as
Brother Gary read to us, is a shepherd. He kept his father's sheep and
he was hated by his brothers. He ended up being sold into slavery.
He was thrown into prison for crimes that he did not commit. He was suddenly raised to the
throne of Egypt so that he could save much people alive. And later on, he was received
from the dead by his father, Jacob. Jacob thought he was dead.
His son was alive. He received his son from the
dead, and Joseph forgave his brothers for everything they
did to him. You meant it for evil, he said,
but God meant it for good, and I'm not out to get you. Now,
that's the life story of Joseph. That's a work we're getting ready
to look at in these coming weeks. I'm very excited about it because
that's a wonderful picture of how Christ our Savior, everything
he went through, in order to save his people from their sin.
Now tonight, I want to look at the beginning of the story. I
want to look at the coat that Jacob made Joseph to wear. And
this is not a coat like we consider a coat. It's a long shirt or
a tunic that he made. Verse two says, these are the
generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old was
feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons
of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, 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, this shirt or tunic 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 poor old Jacob
made no bones about the fact that he loved Joseph more than
he loved his other children. I mean, it's astounding, isn't
it? This is such horrible parenting. It's so wrong. It's no wonder
Joseph's brothers hated him. It's their father's fault. It's
Jacob's fault. Of course they hated him. It's
just natural for a child, no matter how old he is, to want
his parents' love. And when you don't get it, he's
upset about it. That's what happened to Joseph's
brothers. It's all Jacob's fault. But you know, like we've seen
so many times over and over again, our study here in Genesis, God
brings good out of evil. From Jacob's bad parenting comes
a picture of Christ the Savior that we can trust to save our
souls. The coat that Jacob made for Joseph, this was a beautiful
coat. Joseph was more well-dressed
than his brothers. And they didn't like that. Because
that coat distinguished Joseph as the favorite son. It made
him stand out from all the rest. And Joseph's coat, this is how
I want us to look at this coat that Joseph wore, this tunic.
It's a picture of the nature of Christ. The father loves his
son the most. Matter of fact, The father only
loves the son. All of the father's love is in
his son. And the father loves his son
the most with good reason. You know why? The son is everything
the father loves. It's his character. His character
is everything that the father loves. He's holy. He's righteous. He's perfect. It makes him stand
out as more beautiful than anyone else. The Lord Jesus Christ is
so beautiful. Song of Solomon said, we read
it to be open to service. He's altogether lovely. Everything
about him is lovely. Just like there was no one dressed
as well as Joseph, there's no one who has the beautiful nature
of Christ. It's Christ and Christ alone. The father only loves the son. Now here's where the reality
is better than the picture. The father will accept people
who are in his son. Now he'll only accept people
who are in his son, but if you would be accepted of the father,
you come to him in Christ. Joseph's brothers couldn't do
anything to get their father to love them as much as he loved
Joseph, could he? If you would have the father
love you and accept you, come to the father in Christ. He accepts
sinners. in Christ. The father accepts
people who bow to his son, who worship his son. The father only
accepts people who quit trying to make themselves beautiful
with their works of righteousness and they submit themselves to
the righteousness of Christ. They claim Christ as their only
righteousness. That's who the father accepts,
those who come to him in Christ. If you would be saved, if you
would be accepted, if you would be loved, if you would be made
righteous, If you have anything, you've got to go to Christ. It's
all in Christ. We cannot be loved or accepted
because of who we are or anything we do. It's all for Christ's
sake. Now, the father has provided
such a perfect, wonderful salvation in his son, who is altogether
lovely. And how do men react to it? men
hate Christ for. They hate him. Men cannot speak
peaceably to or about the God of the Bible. Now they can, they're
Jesus, they can, they're idol, but not the Christ of the Bible.
You know why? They don't like what the nature
of Christ says about them. It says here that Joseph brought
unto his father their evil report. Apparently his brothers were
You know, lazing around, not really watching the sheep, not
really taking care of the sheep. The sheep are suffering because
the brothers aren't doing what they're supposed to do. And Joseph
brings this evil report to his father. You know how the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, brings an evil report of you and me? Just by
standing in contrast to us. Our ugliness is seen compared
to his beauty. Our depravity is seen compared
to his righteousness. The filth of our sin is seen
in comparison to his perfect holiness. And rather than hate
ourselves for our sin and beg God for mercy, you know what
man by nature does? They hate Christ. They hate Christ. Joseph was hated for this beautiful
coat that his father made him. And that coat, remember, is a
picture of the character, the nature of Christ. Now, we don't
know any specific colors that were in Joseph's coat, but I
can make some pretty good guesses based upon other colors that
we have in scripture that are given to us as pictures of Christ. And I've looked at these things
carefully, even though we don't know the exact colors that were
in his coat. I can make these guesses without doing damage
to any scripture. The many different colors of
Joseph's coat are pictures Their pictures are the many different
facets of the beautiful character of Christ our Savior. And it's
all these facets put together that make Christ the Savior that
we need, that we must have. All these different colors, when
you put them together, show us Christ is all. He's everything
we need. He's everything that the Father
requires of us. If you would have what the Father
requires of you, go to Christ. That's what these colors show
us. First, I'm just sure there had to be some white in Joseph's
coat. You know, a good, bright white. That just helps out, helps bring
out the beauty of the other colors, you know, by its contrast. Now,
it can't be dingy white, can it? Oh, it's gotta be a good
white, bleached, or however you make something more white. It
can't be dingy, it's got to be a bright white. Well, the white
in this coat represents the perfect holiness of Christ the Savior. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration,
when he showed the disciples his glory, they said his clothes
glistened and were whiter than any fool or soul could make.
This is holiness, that white, Purity is the nature of Christ's
holiness. That makes it impossible for
him to sin. Impossible. And that's beautiful. In Exodus 28, verse two, when
the Lord is giving Moses the instructions for the high priest
garment, he says, thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron,
thy brother, for glory and for beauty. Those white garments
for glory and beauty, that's a picture of the beautiful holiness
of Christ our High Priest. If our High Priest is holy, the
Father will always accept Him. The Father will always accept
His sacrifice and He'll accept the sacrifice that He's making
for the people that He's making the sacrifice for. He'll accept
them. It's the holiness of Christ that causes us to worship Him. You think of the angels about
the throne of God. You know one of the reasons that
they say they worship God? It's His holiness. Remember when
Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter six, he saw the Lord high and lifted
up. His train filled the temple. And he said he saw seraphims
flying around the throne of God, and what were they crying? Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. The reason they're worshiping is tied to his holiness, isn't
it? And God's holiness is what causes you and me to worship
him. David said in Psalm 29 verse two, give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. That's why we worship him. It's
the beauty of his holiness. And if God ever lets us see it,
We'll worship Him. We'll worship Him. It's the holiness
of Christ that makes His people sing praises. In 2 Chronicles
20, verse 21, it says, He appointed singers unto the Lord. And you
know why, what they should do? These singers, you know what
the king told them they should do? Praise the beauty of holiness. They went out to battle singing
the praises of God's holiness. And here's the thing that makes
this holiness, the holiness of Christ so beautiful. It's just,
it's a wonder, so beautiful, it's just a wonder. It is the
holiness of Christ that gives his people a holy nature before
the father, that lets the father accept thee. Hebrews 10 verse
10, by the witch will, we're sanctified, we're made holy.
by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The holiness of Christ is the
holiness of his people. He gives his people a holy nature. Now that's something so beautiful
and so wonderful, only God could do it. And not only did he do
it, he did it for the likes of you and me. He did it for sinners,
the worst of sinners, to make them holy. There had to be some
white in that coat, don't you reckon? If it's gonna be a picture
of Christ. Then second, there had to be some blue in Joseph's
coat. Blue is the color of the sky. Not being much of the color of
the sky today, but normally blue's the color of the sky. That's
a picture of Christ coming from heaven to earth. Now that's a miracle. Brother
Cecil Roach, I've chewed on this for years, he said this in a
message one time, he said, the greatest miracle that's ever
taken place on earth is God became flesh. That's a miracle. That Christ came from heaven,
the Son of God came from heaven and was made flesh. The Apostle
Paul, who's smarter than all of us put together, said this,
great is the mystery of God. God was manifested in the flesh.
If that's a great mystery that's beyond Paul's comprehension,
you and I ain't never gonna comprehend it either. What a miracle. God came from heaven and came
in the flesh. And I tell you what makes that
even a greater miracle. He came in the flesh to save
sinners who rejected him, who hated him, who sinned against
him every chance they got, who utterly refused, to bow to him.
He came in the flesh. He came from heaven to earth
in the flesh so that he could save those sinners. Sinners like
you and me. Now that's beautiful. What a
beautiful act of God's mercy and grace. Christ came from heaven
to earth in the flesh. And when he had finished the
work that the father gave him to do, he suffered. and died for the sin of his people.
He lay in a tomb dead for three days. I can't explain that, but
that's what he did. There was a dead body in that
tomb for three days, and then he rose from the dead. And he
rolled that stone away and walked out because his sacrifice had
put away the sin of his people. And 40 days later, he ascended
back to heaven where he sits right now making intercession
for the sin of his people. And there he'll be until he calls
us home. Now, Christ came from heaven
to save his people, and then he ascended back to heaven. You
know why? You know what that tells us?
The salvation of God's elect is accomplished. It's done, lock,
stock, and barrel, and it's all done but shallow. Let me show
you that in Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians, the fourth chapter. Verse eight of Ephesians chapter
four. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, this is after he came to earth, he ascended up
on high. When he did, he led captivity captive and gave gifts
unto men. Now he that ascended, what is
it? But that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
or fulfill all things. Christ ascended back to heaven
because he fulfilled all the Father's purpose of redemption.
Christ from heaven is now back in heaven. And that's the assurance
of our salvation. Salvation is complete. That's
the only reason that Christ would be accepted back into the presence
of the Father. Now that's beautiful, isn't it?
That's a salvation that came from God. from heaven to sinners
on earth like you and me. That's beautiful. Then I figured
there must have been some red in Joseph's coat. The son of
God became a man for a purpose. It's so that he could be the
representative of his people and so that he could die as a
substitute for his people. Christ became a man, the son
of God became a man so that he'd have blood to shed as an atonement
for the sin of his people. That's what the red picture is,
it's his blood. Now before time began, before
anything was created, God elected a people to save. But those people
are poor sinners. They're lost, vile, wretched
sinners. Now God's chosen them unto salvation,
but they must be redeemed. Their sin, their debt cannot
be swept under the blood, or under the rug, excuse me. They
must be redeemed. And Peter tells us the only way
that we can be redeemed is with the precious blood of Christ. Contrary to what you hear in
man's religion, the holy God is not pleased with our works
of religion and our motions of religion. You know, when we go
through these works of religion, these motions of religion, Thinking
that what I'm doing here in these religious ceremonies, this is
what's gonna make God happy with me. When that's our purpose in
doing them, you know what God says? There's smoke in my nose. They're offensive to me. Our
works of religion cannot put away our sin. God said without
the shedding of blood is no remission. But now it can't just be any
blood. Can't be the blood of bulls and goats, which never
put away sin, could it? It must be perfect blood, pure
blood. Look over at 1 Peter. I quoted
part of this a minute ago. 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 18. For as much as you know, you're
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from
your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. See that without blemish and
without spot, that's the white. Thy figure had to be in Joseph's
coat. It's the holiness, the purity
of Christ. Christ must be redeemed. He must
have a holy nature, so he has sinless blood that can atone
for sin and pay for sin and wash it away. Verse 20, Peter goes
on, he said, who verily was foreordained from the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. He was made manifest. He was made visible from that
blue. When he came from heaven to earth,
when he was made flesh, he was made visible to me. John said,
we saw him. We handled him. He was made flesh
and dwelt among us. But now he was manifested. He
appeared. He came from somewhere else,
didn't he? He came from heaven. This is the eternal savior. He
came from heaven to earth and made himself manifest to his
people. And he got the job done too. Verse 21. He was manifest
in these last times for you. who by Him, by His power, by
His grace, by His gift of faith, by Him do believe in God. It
raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory. That your faith
and hope might be in God. Now if your faith and hope is
in God, I can tell you this, you'll never be disappointed.
Because God can't fail. If your hope, your expectation,
your hope, of eternal life, that your hope, that your sin is forgiven,
is in the blood of Christ, you've got a good hope. If the blood
of Christ was shed for your sin, your sin's forgiven. It's been
blotted out and you've been made righteous. Because what does
the book say? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. If your hope is in the blood
of Christ, you have no sin. Now get a hold of that. You're
holy, you're righteous, and you can never perish. And the reason
is, the son of God became a man to shed his blood for you. Can you think of anything more
beautiful than that? Can you think of any news that's
better news than that? I can't. Then fourthly, I figure
there had to be some purple in Joseph's coat. Purple, you get that as a combination
of blue and red. Blue, the color of heaven. Red
is the color of man. There had to be some purple,
I figure, in Joseph's coat as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the God man. The God man. Two natures, one
person. The Lord Jesus Christ is 100%
God. And he's 100% man. Not 50-50, 100% God and 100%
man. The math of that I know does
not work. It's heavenly arithmetic. This is what God did. And it had to be this way. The
Savior must be the God man. He must be 100% God and he must
be fully man for this reason. He's got to have the power. He's got to have the right to
save sinful men and women. That's the power of God. That's
the right of God. But he also must be a man so
he can be the representative of the people he's saving. You
see, we were made sinners by representation. We weren't made
sinners first time we told our mama a lie. We were made sinners
a long time before that. We were made sinners by a representative
man, by Adam. When Adam took that fruit and
ate it in open rebellion against God, he knew exactly what he
was doing. When Adam sinned, you and I sinned
in it. That's how we became sinners.
We sinned in Him. It's not like we sinned when
Adam sinned. God's not just charging Adam's
sin to us even though we weren't there. No, sir. We were there. We were in the loins of our father,
Adam. And when he sinned, we did too. We did sin. Well, if we would
be made righteous, we need another representative. See, we can't
do it ourselves, can we? When Adam died, we died in him.
We died, we can't do anything for ourselves. We need another
representative man to come and do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. So God became a man. He became a man so he could be
the representative of his people. And when he obeyed God's law,
all of his people did too. God is not just accounting, not
just given you the righteousness and obedience of Christ, even
though you weren't there, you didn't do it. No, sir. Whatever
Christ did, his people did do because they were in him. God
accounts his people to be righteous because Christ, our representative,
made us righteous. You see that? But if Christ is
going to be our representative, he's got to come in our nature.
So he came with the nature of man so he could be the representative
of his people and make them righteous by His obedience for them. But
now something's got to be done with our sin. Something's got
to be done with our sin. There's got to be death. Somebody's
got to die to satisfy God's justice against our sin. Well, our death
won't do it. Our death won't satisfy God's
justice. We need a substitute. Well, God can't die. God's perfect,
but God can't die. God's holy and righteous, but
God can't die. So the son of God became a man.
So he could be the substitute for his people. That's why the
blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin. They can't
take away the sin of man because they have a different nature.
God took on him the nature of a human being so he could be
the substitute for his people. He put their sin away. to pay
the debt and wash their sin away in his perfect blood. You see, God in the flesh, that's
the only way sinners could be saved from their sin. That's
why the son of God suffered the humiliation of being made flesh. And so he could be the representative
of his people. He could be the substitute for his people and
save them from their sin. Now that's beautiful. That's
beautiful that someone so glorious and so wonderful would do something
like that for the low down wretches that you and I are. That's wonderful. And purple's also the color of
kings. I'm just sure Jacob, even though
he didn't know what he was doing, put some purple in this coat,
the coat of his favorite son, to be a picture of Christ the
King. Christ the King of Kings, the
sovereign savior who saves whom he will, when he will. Joseph
was the favorite son, but little did Jacob know how Joseph would
rule. Oh, what a king he would be,
how he'd rule over the whole known world at that time. Now
that's a picture of Christ. The only way a sinner can be
saved is by a Savior who's got the power and the right to save. Christ the King has the power
to save. He's got the right to save. And
He has used His sovereign power to obtain redemption, eternal
redemption for His people. He's used His sovereign power
to apply that salvation to the hearts of His people. He makes
them willing, the day of his power, when he comes and makes
them women. When in his power, he causes
a new nature, a new man to be born in the hearts of his people
that loves Christ, that believes Christ, that bows to Christ.
God does that with his power. He could use his power to send
every one of us to hell. Instead, he used his power to
save his people from their sin. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Then I figured there had to be
some gold and silver. Maybe it was just threads sewing
all these pieces together. But I figure there had to be
some gold and some silver in Joseph's coat. There had to be
some gold and silver to picture the preciousness of Christ our
Savior. The whole person of Christ is
precious to the Father. He's precious. He's the only
one that ever pleased the Father. He's the only one that ever did
the Father's will. He's the only man to ever live who's righteous
and holy. Oh, the whole person of Christ
is precious to the Father. And the blood of Christ is precious
to the Father. That's why the blood of Christ
pays the redemption price for His people. When the Father sees
the blood of His Son, the Father says, it's enough. The debt is
paid in full. Nothing else is valuable enough
to pay that debt. But the blood of Christ is, because
it's precious to the Father. And Christ is also precious to
his people. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. And that word is preciousness. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is Christ is preciousness itself. His whole person is precious. His sacrifice is precious. His
love, all that He loved the likes of us, that's precious. His grace
is precious. His mercy is precious. His gospel
is precious. His gospel is precious because
it tells us about Him. Christ is so precious. He is all His people want. And He gives Himself to us freely. Now that's beautiful, isn't it?
Isn't that a beautiful, that's the beautiful character, nature
of Christ our Savior. That's what that coat pictured.
But that's not the end of the story of this beautiful coat
that Jacob made for Joseph, is it? I'd say everybody here knows
the story of Joseph. What happened to Joseph's beautiful
coat? How did it end up? It ended up covered in blood.
Remember, the brothers covered that Joseph's coat in animal
blood. There wasn't any DNA testing
like there is now. It was just animal blood. And
they dipped Joseph's coat in that blood trying to tell their
father that some animal must have killed Joseph. What happened
to the beautiful character? the beautiful, precious nature
of Christ our Savior. It was covered in blood, wasn't
it? His blood. His blood. The blood that he
shed to pay for the sin of his people. See, Jacob just thought
Joseph had died. He lived many years thinking
Joseph was dead. Christ did die. He did die. The Father's the one that put
him to death. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. And then
after many years, Joseph was raised to sit on the throne of
Egypt. Now that happened as a picture of Christ. Christ was raised
from the dead and he ascended back to glory to sit on the throne
of his father's right hand. Christ the Savior is sitting
on the throne, ruling and reigning over everything in his creation. There's not one thing that his
finger doesn't directly move and make happen in his creation.
He's sovereign over it all. That's Joseph. He sat on the
throne. And you know why he said he sat
on the throne? Well, it's just not because, you know, God saw
all this bad stuff happened to me and he evened it out. You
know, let me be king. No. He said, God put me on the
throne to save much people alive. Now, Joseph saved many people
alive. But you know who he cared about saving alive? his brethren,
his brethren. When they came to, we'll look
at this in a few weeks, when Joseph called and said, now you
come to Egypt. And he sent word to his father,
forget your stuff. Leave your stuff. Come here. I'll provide everything for you.
And they got there. Joseph did just make sure they
had enough to scrape by. He put them in the land of Goshen,
the best place to live in all of Egypt. Joseph was put on the
throne to save Israel alive. That's why he was put on the
throne. Christ our Savior sits on the
throne. Now he's ruling over everything, he's disposing of
everything that happens in his creation for this reason, to
save his people alive. That not one of them perish until
they're brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He sits on
the throne, ever living, to make intercession for the sin of his
people. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ,
the successful, victorious, accepted Savior, is sitting on the throne,
making intercession for you, you can never perish. Never perish. You'll always be accepted. Now,
that's beautiful, isn't it? Isn't that beautiful that he'd
do that for the likes of sinners like you? That's beautiful, isn't
it? To my way of thinking, that's pretty good reason to trust your
soul to him. Pretty good reason. All right,
well, I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together in
prayer. Our Father, how we thank you for this time we've had together
to look into your word. Father, how I beg of you that
you would enable each one of us here this evening to be able,
by your mercy and grace, by faith, to see Christ our Savior, to
trust our souls to Him, to hang onto Him, to cling to Him, to
trust Him and Him alone. Father, how we thank you for
such a wonderful Savior. How can we ever even begin to
thank you? that someone so wonderful would
suffer such great depths and great agony, great humiliation
in order to save sinners at the bottom of the barrel like we
are. Father, our thanks can't be enough,
but we do thank you. Our praise is not enough, but
we do praise you. Our worship is not sufficient,
but we do worship you. Thank you, Lord, for such a Savior.
And I pray that you use your words that's been preached tonight
for the glory of Christ our Savior. Of course, in his precious name,
for his sake we pray, amen. All right. If you would, now let's stand
together and sing hymn number 463. 463, all that thrills my
soul.