Let's take our Bibles now, turn
to the book of Genesis. I'll be making some references
here to the book of Genesis. And next in line, we've been studying
the types. Now, there's all kinds of types
in the Old Testament. There's things which are typical
that were contained in the law. Sacrifices. Especially the sacrifice
of the Lamb. When John the Baptist saw Christ
coming down the way, he said, Behold the Lamb. And everybody
in Israel knew what he was talking about. The sacrificial Lamb.
The Lamb that God promised the coming Redeemer. Just about everything that had
to do with the tabernacle was typical of Christ and the work
that he came to do, including all of the priesthood, the high
priest representing Christ and the priesthood, the common priesthood
representing the church, and so on. But we've been studying
men in the Old Testament who were types of Christ. And next
in the line here in our study is Joseph. Jacob's son Joseph. And Joseph is a type of Christ. Now, Genesis 37 through the end
of the book have to do with Joseph and his life. And he was a very
prominent figure in the forming of the nation of Israel. And
much has been said and commended of God about his character. Joseph's character. But this
morning I want us to consider him as he typifies the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there's a lot of ways in
which Joseph typified. Brother David Edmondson brought
a message while he was here on Joseph and how he typified Christ. But I'm going to limit our lesson
this morning to six things. Six ways in which Jacob's son,
Joseph, is a type of Christ. So first of all, Joseph is a
type of Christ as he is his father's well-beloved son. He tells us that over in the
book of Genesis. When Joseph was born and come
of age, he says that he loved him more than all the rest of
his house. And it was very noticeable because
in Genesis 37-4 it says, when his brethren saw that their father
loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not
speak peaceably unto him. Now, when Peter, James, and John
were contemplating the building of three tabernacles. They went
up with the Lord on what's called the Mount of Transfiguration.
And there before their eyes, the Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured. He was glorified. His raiment
become white and glistering. And they looked up and they saw
Moses and Elijah with him. And they were so overtaken by
what they seen that they Peter's the one who said it, but I'm
sure the other two were in on it also, and he said, let us
just make three tabernacles here. We're gonna make three monuments
here. We're gonna make three tabernacles
to commemorate what we're seeing here on this mount today. And
suddenly, a cloud overshadowed that mountain, and a voice came
out of that cloud and said, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm
well pleased, hear ye him. You don't need three tabernacles.
You have the tabernacle standing in your midst. Listen to what
he has to say. This is my well-beloved son. And that's what Joseph was. He
was Jacob's well-beloved son. Though the Father has many heirs. If we're believers, we're heirs
of God. Heirs of God. But though the
Father has many heirs, he has one heir above the rest. And
he tells us about him in Hebrews chapter one. And I know this about that heir,
it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
In this heir. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. It pleased the Father that that
be so. This one who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God was appointed heir, it says in Hebrews 1, of all things. He's the creator of the world,
it says. He tells us again in Colossians
1 that he is the head of the body who is the beginning. The
head of the body, the church, who is the beginning. That in
all things he might have the preeminence. for it pleased the
Father that in him should all fullness dwell. So he's a type
of Christ as he was his father's well-beloved son. And then secondly,
Joseph is a type of Christ in that he was sent of his father
unto his brethren in the wilderness to minister unto them, to see
to their welfare and report back again. He tells us in Genesis
37 verse 14, Jacob said to his son Joseph, go thee and see whether
it be well with thy brethren, and with the flocks, and then
bring me word again. Now, this is, I'm trying to show
you here how that Joseph typified the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ
appeared in this world, he said, I came not of myself, But I came
to do my father's will. And this is my father's will
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing but raise it up again in the last day. The father
sent me. This is what he told the Jews.
And they sneered at him and mocked him because when he talked about
God being his father, he made himself equal with God. He was sent of his father into
this present evil world to minister to God's elect. He would subject
himself to suffering, humiliation, and shame, and he'd do so for
them. In 1 John chapter 4, he's talking
about the love of God, and he said, herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. He sent his son to minister to
us. Joseph was not concerned with
all the flocks in the wilderness. He was not concerned with all
the under shepherds in the wilderness. He didn't go by checking on each
shepherd and each flock. He came to see of the welfare
of his father's flock. Scripture said, when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. There's no other way to express
the love and grace of God than to show the coming Redeemer to
men and point Him out as God's expression of His grace and His
love and His mercy. This world's often called a wilderness. That's where Jacob's flocks were
in the wilderness. That's where his sons were in
the wilderness. And that's where he sent his
well-beloved sons. This world is called a wilderness
because it has no life in it. You have to be quickened who
were dead. If you're here this morning, you're a believer, you've
been quickened by God. But you were quickened from the
dead. Not dead physically, dead spiritually. There's no life in it. You remember
the type that I preached from in the Old Testament. And he
told his property, he said, son of man, what do you see? He said,
I see bones. That's what we'll see when the
Spirit of God carries us out and allows us to see it. There's
nothing here. This is a wilderness. It's called a wilderness because
there's no food in it, no spiritual food. If you want a dose of religion,
there's a doctor of religion on every corner. He can give
you a dose of that. But you can't find spiritual
food except just in places. And this world is called a wilderness
because in this place there's much danger. Just about everything
in the desert will stick you or bite you or do something.
It's full of venomous vipers and spiders and scorpions and
go on and on. There are not very many friendly
creatures in the wilderness. All right, thirdly, Joseph is
a type of Christ as he bore the condemnation of the law for the
crimes of another. Joseph didn't do anything. Didn't
do anything. But he spent a lot of years in
prison. He spent a lot of years in prison. I've never counted out the years
that he was in prison to see how they compare with the time
Christ was on this earth. There might be some connection
there between the time of his ministry and the time of his
life on this earth. This is where he came. He came
into the wilderness. And the scripture is very clear
about the death of Christ. In 1 Peter 3.18 it said, For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins. Now listen to this.
The just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. He
was just, Russell. He was just. Which of you convinces
me of sin? And then if I tell you the truth,
why don't you believe me? You can't convince me of sin.
These other men, you'll allow them to come and sit on the front
queue and there's nobody in here who couldn't convince them of
sin that they don't. But which of you can convince
me of sin, you see? He had no sin, he did no sin.
In 1 Peter 2, 24 it said, who his own self bore our sins in
his own body on the tree. He bore our sins. He wasn't bearing
his sins, he's bearing our sins. The death of Christ is a substitutionary
death. And this is what he's showing
us there in Joseph. His brothers meant it for evil,
God meant it for good. The death of Christ is a substitutionary
death. We're reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death to present us holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. And then the death of Christ
is vicarious. He died for certain individuals. He didn't die for the whole world. You can't find that in the scriptures.
It's not in there. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Isn't that what he told them?
They said, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told
you, but you believe not because you're not of my sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. A few verses before
that, he said, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
He knows who they are that he died for. In Romans 4.25, he
tells us, now I want you to listen to this. I'm gonna give you a
little bit of argument here. So you can, if you got some questions,
here's something you can argue with yourself about. In Romans
4.25, he tells us that Christ was delivered for our offenses,
for our sins, for our transgressions. He was delivered of God to that
cross. And then he was raised from the
dead for our justification. In other words, all that he did
in his suffering and death satisfied God. And then to declare our
justification, God raised him from the dead and seated him
at his own right hand. All for whom he died were declared
justified by his resurrection. Now watch this, Romans chapter
eight and verse 33. He said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Isn't that what that says? It is God that justifieth. So when God raised Christ from
the dead, he justified all his elect, who then shall lay anything
to their charge. You see that? All of the sins of all of God's
elect were laid on the Redeemer, and their Redeemer died in their
room instead. And there's no peace that can
soothe a condemned soul like the peace that can see their
sins being fully paid for and their debt fully satisfied in
the person of our Savior and our God. All right, fourthly, Joseph was
a type of Christ in that having satisfied the law, he was taken
from prison and seated at the right hand of all power and dominion. Isn't that something? Here's
Joseph. He's a stranger to that country. He's a Jew. You know
those Egyptians didn't like Jews. They didn't like any kind of
stranger, no matter where he was from, but especially Jews.
And here's this man, and he's down in prison, and he's been
accused of doing wrongfully to Pharaoh's, some of Pharaoh's
honored citizens. And here he is, he's down there
in the prison. Now all of a sudden, Pharaoh begins to see something
in him that he don't see in anybody else. And Pharaoh takes Joseph out
of prison and exalts him to his own right hand. Pharaoh said to Joseph, thou
shalt be over all my house. And according to thy word shall
all my people be ruled. And Pharaoh put his ring upon
Joseph's hand and dressed him in royal apparel, and put a gold
chain about his neck, and he rode in the second chariot behind
Pharaoh, who had criers run along behind the chariot, shouting,
bow the knee to Joseph. Bow the knee to Joseph, he is
ruler of all Egypt. And that's all. He said, without thee, without
thee, Pharaoh said, shall no man lift his hand or his foot
in all Egypt. That's power. Now the scripture says of the
resurrected Christ, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall confess him to be, what? Lord. To the glory of God the
Father. Bowing to Joseph was not an option. If you refused to bow to him,
you refused to bow to Pharaoh, and your name was mud. Obeying Joseph was not left to
individual discretion. Pharaoh himself had criers telling
them to bow to Joseph. They were commanded of the sovereign
to bow to him. Joseph, I don't know if you've
ever thought about this or not, Joseph was sovereign by the decree
of a sovereign. And so is the Lord Jesus Christ.
God hath made him both Lord and Christ. That was Peter's main
point of his message at Pentecost when he summed it all up. He
said God hath made this same Jesus that you crucified both
Lord and Christ. God made him Lord. Now I want you to listen to the
words of our resurrected Lord. Matthew 28 verse 18. This is after his resurrection
and before he ascended into glory. He came and spake unto them saying,
now listen to this, of all the things that we like to think
that Jesus might say to us or say to somebody or say this or
that, I want you to listen. Here's the first thing he told
them. He spake unto them saying, all
power is given unto me in heaven and earth. that's a lot of power all power is given unto me in
heaven and earth just like it was to joseph except on a infinitely
greater scale now go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing
them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit
what am I going to teach them? I'm going to teach them about
this person who was raised, whose suffering
and death satisfied God and who was raised by the Sovereign and
seated at His right hand and declared to be Lord. That's what
I'm going to tell you. I'm going to teach you that.
And I'm going to baptize all who believe in the name of the
Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He said, teaching
them to observe, that is to do all things whatsoever I have
commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world. There come a time when the famine
and drought occurred in Egypt, and the people ran to Pharaoh
crying for food. They said, we're starving. We
don't have any corn. The marketplaces don't have any
corn. The farmers don't have any corn. Our pantry's empty. We're starving to death. What
are we going to do? Pharaoh said, go see Joseph.
OC Joseph, and whatsoever he saith, you do. Whatever he tell
you, you do that. You do that. Our Lord said, I
am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. And I'm going to tell you this,
do not imagine that you're saved without a willing submission
to the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here's the fifth thing.
Joseph is a type of Christ in that his whole life was purposed
of God to save his people and preserve them in this strange
land until they become a great innumerable multitude. No number is ever given for the
amount of people who came out of Egypt. No number. They estimated it to be in the
millions that came out of there. Joseph said to his brothers,
he said, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold
me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life.
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the
earth and to save your lives by great deliverance. Genesis
45 verses five through seven. Now thousands were ignorant of
Joseph being the revealer of secrets. You know, when his brothers
first came to see him, all they could remember of Joseph was
this irritating little boy. He was always telling them dreams
and his dreams always belittled them. He said, I dreamed a dream
and I had sheaves and all your sheaves bowed down before my
sheep. Wouldn't that irritate you? Sure
it would. Your little brother standing there looking at you.
Got on his daddy's coat. That aggravated him. He was an
irritating little boy. And then he told his daddy that
his daddy was going to correct him for talking that way to his
brothers. And he said, I dreamed another
dream. And in that dream, what he saw, had his daddy bow down
before him. And he said, are you saying that I'm going
to bow down before you? He said, I'm just telling you
what the dream was. But you know, when it was all over, they all
bowed down before him, including Jacob. God sent me before you to preserve
life. And I'm sure a lot of people
knew about it. But here's the point that I was
working on a few minutes ago. When they came up before Joseph,
he wasn't an irritating little boy anymore. God gave him a new
name through this sovereign, Zathmath-Penea. You know what
that means? The revealer of secrets. And
he's second in command over all Egypt. And they stood before
him quivering in their boots. This irritating little boy. When
Christ was little, don't you think he was irritating to those
scribes when he asked them questions they couldn't answer and answered
questions that they didn't even think to ask? Must have been irritating to
them to listen to him because they couldn't find any fault
in him. All they found in him was wisdom.
The more they questioned him, the more they saw wisdom in him. And I'm sure a lot of folks knew
about it, but even more didn't. But whether you knew it or not,
one thing they all come to know, there was corn in Egypt. And
if you wanted corn, you had to see Joseph. You had to see him. Joseph was sent of God to preserve
life. And I expect many saw it another
way. But there was no other way but
Joseph. When God begins a work in a man, he starts looking everywhere. Didn't you? Sure you did. You went here and you went there
and you listened to this and you listened to that. You tried
everything on some, but nothing helped you. Just like that woman
with the issue of blood, you spent all you had for a cure
and still had the disease. I expect many sought some other
way, but there was no other way but Joseph, and so it is with
Christ. The vast majority of this world
does not know that they're in a spiritual drought. They don't
know that. They don't know that their life
is in danger of eternal condemnation. You die in your sins today, you're
gonna suffer for your sins for eternity. I'm just telling you
the truth. I'm not trying to scare you,
I'm trying to tell you the truth. You die in your sins today and
you and your sins are going to be in hell forever. Men don't know about that. They
don't think about that. They don't know anything about
their fallen Adam or their sinful nature or the beguiling love
affair that they have with antichrist religion. Most of them don't look at this
country as being condemned of God or a spiritual wilderness. People tell me all the time,
there's a church on every corner. Is there? Has God raised up a church on
every corner? Let me tell you why there's a
church on every corner. Because this one raised up and
split, and this one raised up and split, and the one that split
raised up and split. They don't agree on anything.
They can't agree on anything except one thing. They believe
in a universal salvation. They believe in man's free will.
They believe in a God who will compromise to save your soul.
It's the only thing they agree on. Everything else is a big
disagreement. Nobody came to Joseph until they
become aware of the curse. Is that right? Nobody came to
Joseph until they was hungry. Nobody sought him out until their
pantry was empty. Nobody came to Joseph until they
were made hungry by the sovereign power of God. Then they came
to Joseph. And those who truly came to him
got what they sought. Fifthly, the reign of Joseph
typifies the reign of Christ in that it was purposed of God
to save his people and raise up a great nation to bear his
name. That's why he reigned. That's
why God put him second in command in Egypt. He told Abraham about
it years before. Your sons and daughters are going
to all go down to Egypt, and they're going to stay down there
for about 400 years. And then they're going to reach
this big number. And when the fullness of the
wickedness of the Gentiles come in, I'm going to come in and
deliver them. I'm going to raise up a deliverer. He told Abraham
that long before Joseph was ever born. And then, sixthly, Joseph
is a type of Christ in that all who came to him received what
they needed. Christ said, come unto me, all
you that are weary and heavy laden. You'll find rest for your
souls. Come to me. And nobody else can give you
rest. You can't give yourself any rest, but Christ can. He can give you rest. All of the sons and daughters
of Israel came to Joseph for bread, even so Christ said, all
that the Father hath given me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Seek him while he may be found,
the scripture said, and call upon him while he's near. Scripture
said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. See, this is why we preach Christ.
This is why I don't preach foolishness. This is why I'm not going to
have garage sales and bake sales and all this nonsense that people
have and Christmas pageants and all this kind of ridiculous nonsense. We preach Christ. We preach Him
as the God-man mediator. What's that mean? That means
God put everything into His hands before the world was. Everything. That's why He created the world. All things were made by Him and
for Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
We preach Him as the God-man mediator, one mediator between
God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. And we preach Him as God
come into the flesh as a representative seed of His promise. He's a representative man. His
life under the law is what constitutes the believer's righteousness.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. I'm not looking to the law for
righteousness. I'm not looking to my church
attendance for righteousness. I'm not looking to the gifts
and sacrifices that I give or the life that I've given to the
ministry. I'm not looking for any of those things to constitute
a righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. All
of our righteousnesses, if we want to look at our obedience
to the law, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We preach Christ as a representative
man. We preach him as the sinner's
substitute. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. We preach Him as the end of the
law for righteousness. In Romans 3, 21, he said, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all that believe. And we preach Him as the assurance
of our salvation being seated at the right hand of God. Is Jesus Christ God? Huh? When you think of Jesus
Christ, do you think of Him as God? Did God come into the flesh? That's why we worship Him. If
we're worshiping Him and we don't believe Him to be God, That's
an abomination before God. We worship God alone. And we worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's God come into the flesh. Now listen to this. This is Paul's
argument. This is what they call the golden
chain of assurance in Romans 8, beginning with verse 28 and
going through the end of that chapter. I want you to listen
to what they say. If God be for us, who can be against us? Huh? And he was for us as he
came to represent us before the holy law of God, before the crimes
due to our sins, for our high priest, our mediator, our surety, If God be for us, who can be
against us? As there was bread in Joseph
alone, so there is life in Christ alone. May God help us to see
that, to see that. Not just for argument's sake,
but to rest our souls on him.