In Genesis chapter 37, let's
read the last part of the chapter again, verse 12. And his brethren,
Joseph's brethren, went to feed their father Jacob's flock in
Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I
will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray
thee, see whether it be well with our brethren. See if you
can see the gospel here as I read. And well with the flocks. And
bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale
of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him,
and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked
him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man
said, they are departed hence, for I heard them say, let us
go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren
and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near unto them, they conspired against
him to slay him. And they said one to another,
behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some
evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall see what will become
of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered
him out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben
said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that
is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him that he might
rid him. out of their hands to deliver him to his father again.
And it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren that
they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors
that was on him. And they took him and cast him
into a pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And
they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and
looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead
with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh going to carry
it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren,
what profit is it if we slay our brethren and conceal his
blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not
our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh.
And his brethren were content. Then there passed by Midianites,
merchantmen, And they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit
and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And
they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the
pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren
and said, the child is not, and I with her shall I go. And they
took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped
the coat in the blood. And they sent the coat of many
colors, and they brought it to their father and said, This have
we found. Know now whether it be thy son's
coat or no. And he knew it and said, It is
my son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him.
Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his
clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his
son many days. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
And he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh's and captain of the guard. Now Joseph is wearing
his coat of many colors that his father had made for him.
And that coat was a symbol It was an open, visible manifestation
of his father's preeminent love. It says in the text that Jacob
loved Joseph more than all of his brethren, and he made him
a coat. This coat is the visible evidence
and symbol of Jacob's regard and love for Joseph. Just as
God the Father has done all things so that in Paul's words from
Colossians 118 Christ might have the preeminence. Everything that
the Father has done is to show Christ preeminent and glorious
and beautiful to manifest Him unto His brothers. Paul said
there in Colossians 1 that it pleased the Father that in Christ
should all fullness dwell. He delivered us from the power
of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son, in whom we have redemption through his blood. He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,
He created all things, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions,
principalities, and powers. By Him and for Him are all things
created by Him. He is before all things. By Him
all things consist. He is the head of the church.
He is the beginning. He is the firstborn from the
dead. That, all of that, that, in all things, He might have
the preeminence. He is manifestly the preeminent
son of the Father's love. And that's this code of many
colors. Joseph had told his dreams to his brothers and his father,
and these dreams foretold of his preeminence. That's what
they were about. In one, he and his brethren are
gathering sheaves in the field, and Joseph's sheave arose and
stood upright and his brother's sheaves bowed down before Joseph's
sheaf. In the second dream, the sun,
the moon, and the stars bowed down and worshipped Joseph. These dreams are significant.
We didn't talk about this much last time. In the first dream,
it was the work of Joseph's hands that was worshipped. It was his
labor in the field that was worshiped. In the second, it was he himself
showing that the Lord Jesus Christ in both his person and his work
is to be and shall be worshiped. He's preeminent in who he is
and in what he did. You can't separate Christ and
his work. They're one. He is and he does. But they are distinguishable
and identified as being three things at least in the scripture.
First of all, preached. We preach Christ and we preach
what he did. What did Paul say so concisely? We preach Christ crucified. That's his word. Person and work. He's also secondly
in his person and work to be imitated. to be followed. In Ephesians 5, 2, Paul said,
and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. That's who he
is. Walk like he walked and hath
given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet smelling safer. Imitate him in his love. The
whole law fulfilled in love. And Christ is love. So we love
as He loved. We imitate Him. And He offered
Himself a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. And what
did Paul say we're to do? Present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Not to add to His work, of course,
but because His work for us is perfect and accepted by God and
all-sufficient. His finished work is our salvation. And our imitation of Him is our
honoring of Him. This is how my father's glorified
the Lord Jesus said, that you bear much fruit, that you honor
me. He that honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father, and he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the
Father. And then also in His person and
in His work, He's to be worshiped. Listen to this, and there's multiplied
hundreds of of examples of all three of these all through the
scripture. We preach Him and what He did. We imitate Him and
what He did. Well, you have to imitate what
He did in order to imitate Him. No, that's not right. It's His
thinking in His heart. Paul said, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ. It's not just what we do, it's
what we are. We're created in His image. ordained
by God unto good works. And we imitate what he did. Not what he would, we don't speculate
about what he would do. We rejoice in what he did. And
we sing, oh, to be like thee, blessed redeemer. And then he's
to be worshiped just for who he is. And for his glorious bloody
cross works. Galatians 1.3, grace be to you
and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father.
Now, grace comes to us from who? Our Lord Jesus Christ, the person. And he gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world. That's
what he did for us, his person and his work. And then Paul,
having said that, said this, to whom be glory. He's to be
worshiped and honored and glorified in himself and in what he has
done for himself and for what he's done. In the first dream,
Joseph is shown to be worshiped on the earth. in the second,
in the heavens. And so our Lord Jesus Christ,
listen to Philippians 2.9, wherefore God hath also highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in the earth. The sun, moon and stars are gonna
worship him. The angels of glory are gonna
worship him. And he said, you pray this way, thy name, thy
will be done on this earth down here by us as it is in heaven. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the
Father. What we do is going to worship
him and what he did. That's what we're gonna do. Our
sheaf is gonna be to bow down to him and what he did. And all of the heavenly creatures,
all of the angels and all of heaven and earth will sing his praises. Now in
verse 13, Jacob sends Joseph to see about two things. You
know Saturday verse 30 see it see if it's well with your brothers
and with the sheep In the spiritual truth that's
taught here the brothers and the sheep are one saying Called
by two names here. He came down here To make sure
that all is well with his brothers. I He was bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. He not ashamed to call us brethren,
but also we're his sheep. He came down here to make sure
that all is well with his sheep. And so in these two is seen us,
his people, his elect identified in these two different ways.
Our heavenly Joseph is charged in the eternal covenant of grace
with making sure that it is well with the brethren, the sheep,
and since God the Father has put the care of us, the eternal,
spiritual, everlasting care of us in the hands of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's laid help upon one that
is mighty. His well-beloved preeminent Son,
arrayed in all of the colors of His beauty and glory. We,
His preachers, can say as instructed in Isaiah 310, without hesitation,
without doubt, it shall be well with the righteous. Because He's
the one that was sent to make sure it's so. It shall be well
with the righteous. These ones that God the Father
calls His brethren. Hebrews 2 11 for both he that
sanctified and they who are sanctified are all one for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren. My brother. My brother's on the
throne. He's sitting on the throne right
now. My brother. These ones that he calls his
sheep and throughout the scripture he calls his righteous ones,
his elect, his church. in making sure that it was well
with us, the brethren, the sheep. God the Father sent his only
begotten, well-beloved, precious, preeminent Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In
the making sure that it was well with us, God the Son came to
do his Father's will. God the Son came where we were
in all of his beauty and glory as a man. And one more color
was added to his glorious raiment while he was here, perhaps the
most beautiful color of all to the sinner, the color of blood. We dipped his coat in blood.
And though it was our own wicked, vile hands of enmity that stained
our Savior's coat in blood, it is that very blood that washes
us clean. And as I hear his gospel declared,
I can say as one of his brothers, as one of his sheep, it is well
with my soul. And Jacob said, make sure that
all is well with your brothers. And he has. As soon as our preeminent
brother came, as soon as he came, we conspired against him. They
saw him afar off and they said, let's kill him. As a baby in
a manger, sinful man sought to destroy him. As he taught, as
he went around everywhere doing good, he said, for which of these
good works do you stone me? What shame he heaped upon us.
As he taught, we conspired against him. In Luke 11, 53, it says,
as he said these things unto them, the scribes and Pharisees
began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak of
many things. laying weight for him and seeking
to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse
him. In fact, it was what he said,
just as with Joseph. Why did his brothers hate him?
Because he said, I had a dream. And let me tell you about it.
Let me tell you about my glory and my preeminence. Let me tell you about all creatures
in heaven and earth bowing down to me. That's what he came and
did. It was what he said that caused
us to hate our Lord Jesus Christ the most. And particularly when
he spoke of his own preeminence. Turn to Matthew chapter 26 and
let's look at that together. Matthew 26, when our Lord spoke
of his preeminence, when he spoke of his glory, when he wore his
coat of many colors in our presence, and spoke of his glory and power
and majesty. That's what caused us to rise
up against him in hatred and conspire to kill him. Matthew
26 and verse 62. And the high priest arose and
said unto him, answerest thou nothing? What is it which these
witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace and
the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee
by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ
and the son of God. Here's this wicked, vile high
priest calling on the name of God in the very presence of God. Jesus saith unto him, thou hast
said, nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter shall you see
the son of man sitting on the right hand of power. You're not
gonna have to wonder about it then. You're not gonna have to
ask then. You're gonna see him sitting
on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Then the high priest rent his clothes saying, he hath spoken
blasphemy. What further need have we? of
witnesses. Behold, now you have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, he is guilty of death. Then, then, when he said, you're
going to see me sitting on my throne soon and coming in clouds
of glory. Then did they spit in his face. and buffeted him, and others
smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto
us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? You see the then
there. When he speaks of his glory and
majesty and power and preeminence, then did they say blasphemy,
then did they spit. Also, they said to him in John
1033, when he said, for which of these good works do you stone
me? They said, we're not stoning you because you're doing good.
We stone you because you're a man and you say you're God. And so as Joseph spoke of being
bowed down to by his brethren and by all the heavenly host,
They said, let's kill him. And they mocked him in it, didn't
they? They said, we'll see what becomes of his dreams. Just like
we did our Lord. And though our Lord knew of his
brother's enmity, he sought them out. Joseph knew his brothers weren't
happy with him, but he went and sought them out and found them
anyway. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. He was successful in finding
them. He shall not fail, we said this
morning, and I'll say it again. As long as I have breath, may
God give me grace to preach the gospel that declares that my
Lord Jesus Christ shall not fail. He came to save his people from
their sins and he shall not fail. He said, I'll raise you up at
the last day. I won't lose a single one. That's
my Lord Jesus Christ. And he sought us. to secure all
our welfare and make sure that it would be well with us, but
we sought to kill him. And ultimately we sold him for
30 pieces of silver, just like Joseph was sold for 20, that
the scripture might be fulfilled and to show our personal disdain
for the Lord of glory. And so our Lord, though it was
foretold and certain that he should be worshiped and adored
and bowed down to in heaven and earth. First, he had to be humbled. First, he had to suffer. Hebrews
2.10, for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are
all things. You think that's an exaggeration?
Have you ever given that any thought? For whom are all things. It's for him. Everything is for
him. Do we live like that? Oh. and by whom are all things. Next time some petty little something
of this earth begins to take on great value and meaning to
you, think about that for a second. For him are all things and by
him are all things. It doesn't seem that important
anymore, does it? Unless it honors him, unless it glorifies and
serves him. For whom are all things and by
whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory. That's
what he came to do. He come to get Jacob's sons and
make sure it was well with them. And in bringing many sons unto
glory, it became him to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings, through sufferings. He got to suffer. He got to die if we're going
to live. He got to be humiliated if we're going to be exalted.
We see this in Joseph who was stripped of his coat. As our
Lord was stripped by us of His glory in a sense, we know that
He was never essentially less glorious in His person, but we
glorified Him not as God. It doesn't excuse our sin. We
stripped Him of His coat in every way that we could. Did we not? Though He clearly revealed Himself
in the works that He did, and His Father from heaven identified
Him, as his preeminent son, yet we glorified him not as God. We stripped his coat off of him.
And he was mocked and ridiculed as Joseph, when his brethren
saw him, they said, we'll slay him and cast him into some pit
and then we'll see about his dreams. We'll see who gonna bow
down to him then. Our Lord was mocked also concerning
what he had said. They said in Luke 23, 37, as
he hung bleeding upon the cross, if you're who you say you are,
save yourself. If you're the preeminent son
of the Father, we'll see about that. And Joseph's brethren, after
throwing him into a pit, verses 23 through 27, did you see there
what they did? They threw him into a pit that
didn't have any water in it. Our Lord Jesus Christ hung upon
the cross and said, I thirst. And you know what we did? Look
at what it says they did. They sat down to eat and talked about whether they
would sell him or let him die in that pit. That's what we did. It was nothing
to them. While our Lord Jesus Christ was
hanging on the cross, bleeding and dying, we were rolling dice
to see who would win his robe. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? I think we know the answer to that,
don't we? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And then we put a purple robe
upon our Lord, mocking him in his character as the sovereign
preeminent Christ. And we stained his robe with
blood. in hatred for and defiance of him and out of complete disdain
for the father. Look at what these brothers did
to their father. They took the one who he loved preeminently
and treated him this way. Joseph's brethren knew that their
father loved Joseph more than anybody in the world, but that
didn't mean anything to them. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
in Luke 10, 16, he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. When they despised Joseph, they
despised the one that sent him. Yet in spite of all of this, we know this is also true. What
Joseph said All those years later in Egypt, to his brothers, in
Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20, he said, as for you, you
thought evil against me. That's the truth, isn't it? Concerning
our Lord Jesus Christ, we thought evil against him. We despised
him from the day he was born and sought to kill him. But God meant it unto good. To bring to pass as it is this
day. We could say that tonight, couldn't
we? As it is this day. To save much people alive. Here
we sit, saved. By the one whom we crucified. And God the Father sent him for
that very purpose. delivered him into our wicked
hands to be crucified and slain, that he might save much people
alive, that he might give unto us eternal life through that
precious blood that we shed, that he shed, that we shed, that
we're guilty of, and that he and his glorious almighty grace
shed for us at Calvary. Paul said in Ephesians 3, 8,
unto me who am less than the least of all the saints is this
grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ and to make all men see what is the fellowship
of the mystery which from the beginning of the world have been
hid in God. This was hidden from his brethren
now, what was happening here. They meant evil. But God was
doing good and they didn't have any idea about it. It was hid
in God from the beginning of the world who created all things
by Jesus Christ to the intent that now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church
The manifold wisdom of God. They finally saw the wisdom of
God one day, didn't they? When Joseph said, it's me, your
brother. And though you meant evil against
me, you conspired against me. You cast me into a pit and left
me for dead. But God's good purpose of grace
was being carried out. And the manifold wisdom of God
was revealed, as Paul said in verse 11 of that text, according
to the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Do you see the wisdom of God
in this? Unto the Jews, a stumbling block.
Unto the Greeks, foolishness. But unto them which are called,
Christ, the power of God. God's power to save is the Lord. How can God be just and justify
you? How can he have the power and
the authority to do that and still be God? Christ, the power
of God. There's power in that precious
blood to wash sins away, to give life to the dead. And Christ,
the wisdom of God. When this world by wisdom knew
not God, By the wisdom of this world, we knew nothing. The flesh
profiteth nothing. But God, in his wisdom, sent
his only begotten son into this world to save his people. When the world, by wisdom, knew
not God, it pleased God. By the foolishness of the preaching
of this gospel, of our heavenly Joseph, to save them that believe,
God's purpose of grace in all that happened to Joseph was eventually
made known. And God, right now, even now,
as we sit and stand here tonight, is making manifest, as we preach
the unsearchable riches of Christ, He's making manifest His purpose
of grace in Christ Jesus, which was hid in God from the beginning. Isn't it wonderful to be in on
it? to be part of. That's what God's
doing tonight. He's making manifest His wisdom
in His purpose of grace in Christ Jesus. What an honor and a privilege
to be in on that. Let's bow in prayer tonight.