I want to say just a few words
to you before we get into our study tonight in Genesis 37 about
Genesis chapter 36. I didn't read through the chapter,
although I suggest that you do. It's a genealogy of Esau. It talks about Esau's family
all the way through chapter 36. It's a genealogy of Isaac's firstborn
son. And in this chapter, for the
first time, I believe I'm right in saying that, the word Duke
appears. His sons were Dukes. All of them. Every one of them. It's amazing.
You go down through there and you see his children and his
grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. And they all were royalty. They
all were Dukes. And a Duke to the best of my
understanding, is an uncrowned king. That's what he is. He's
next in line to be king. And so there was a great lineage
of kings that came out of Esau's loins, all his children. And
they were held in high regard in this world. But when I finish
this chapter, this is what came to my mind, the high estimates
of men are not shared by the living God. He said that which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto the Lord. And although this world held
all Esau's children in high esteem, and if you study Esau, you'll
see that he was a big burly man. He was a man's man in every sense
of the word. He was a hunter. He was a businessman. He was a man of war. He wasn't
afraid of anybody or anything. He was a man's man. And all of
his children were that way. And they were all royalty. They
all benefited from those things in this world, but not before
God. None of those things make a hoot
to him. None of them. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. God recognizes their existence
in his book, and he closes the book, recognizing them no more. Don't hear anything else about
it all the way through the book. And Esau's children, as did Esau
himself, he sought after this world's riches and pleasures
and benefits and rewards. This world won his heart. And
he sold out the things of God for a bowl of red porridge. And
so it can be said of his children also. They sold out to these
things. But here in Genesis chapter 37
begins the story of Joseph. And his story goes clear through
chapter 45 of Genesis. And I recommend, I'm going to
just take my time and as the Lord shows me something in here,
and open something to me, I'm going to try to in turn open
it to you and give it to you. But I want you to read through
these chapters because this tells the whole story of Joseph clear
through until having reconciled his own family, he brings Jacob
down into Egypt and the whole house of Israel is redeemed. And his story goes all the way
through and tells the story of them. And there's a lot to say
about Joseph. Joseph marks the end of the patriarchs. Whenever we talk about the patriarchs,
we're talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All the way
through, you'll hear him. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. But he never includes Joseph.
Because Joseph is the beginning of the story of the children
of Israel. He's the beginning of their story.
And under Joseph's reign in Egypt, the family of Israel grows into
millions, literally millions. He was the son of Jacob's beloved
Rachel. And I know there's something
here. I just can't put a solid finger on it. But he only had
two children by Rachel. And these two boys, you can see
after I mention a few things to you tonight, what a clear
picture Joseph is of Christ. And then I see Benjamin. I see
Judah standing surety for Benjamin. So these two boys are brought
out into the limelight, these two sons of Rachel, as none of
the other children are, except for maybe Judah. But I want you
to see this, that all the way through, he was the son of his
old age. And I suppose there's a sense
in which we can apply that to Christ. He was God's Christ before
the world was. In God's own time, He brought
him into this world. And this is what I want you to
see as we go through these chapters, that Joseph is an eminent type
of Christ. And I'll just give you a basic
outline here of what it is I'm talking about. As our Redeemer,
he was the son of promise. Now, you remember that Rachel
couldn't have children. No matter how hard she tried,
she couldn't have children. But God was kind to her and gracious
to her and gave her these two sons. And both of these sons
were born by an intervention of God. So when we're talking
about Joseph, we're talking about the son of promise. He was the
divine gift of God. And he was stripped of his coat
that his father gave him. He was cast into a pit, sold
into captivity, served as a servant. endured temptation, wrongfully
accused, punished for the crimes of another, and then raised up
to sit at the right hand of majesty, so that by the hand of God, this
man Joseph becomes the redeemer, single-handed, of the whole house
of Israel." What a type of Christ he is. And so as we go through
his chapters, I'll try to emphasize these different things as we
go through them. We'll look at them because they're
emphasized in the scripture. He takes several chapters here
to tell the story. And what I want you to see and
the reason I mention these things is that I want you to see without
the story of Joseph, there's not going to be anything to say
of his children different than what he said of Esau. You take
the story of Christ out of the picture. Take Christ out of the
picture altogether. What kind of story do we have
to tell? Huh? No different than Esau. We were
here. We were dukes. We were whatever.
And that's the end of it. That's the end of it. Without
that story of Joseph, there'd be nothing more said of Joseph
and his brethren than there was of Esau and his. Without the
gospel of Christ, we're not going to have a better history than
they did. But tonight I want to just focus our attention on
one thing, on Joseph's coat. I believe the Lord's given me
some things here. I was looking at this and talking
to Rupert earlier this week on the telephone and I told him
some of these things and he got all excited about them. I think
they're very obvious once I mention these things to you, but there's
four or five things about him. Now let me just read a couple
of verses to you here in Genesis 37, verse 3. It says, Now Israel
loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was a son
of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. When his
brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren,
They hated him and could not speak peaceably unto it. Now, what do we know about this
coat? Relatively speaking, we know very little, don't we, about
this coat? His father made him a coat. I don't know what it's
made out of. I don't know if it was a long
coat or a short coat. I don't know a whole lot about
it. But whatever this coat was, it singled this boy out and testified
of the father's affection for him. And when his brethren saw
it, they knew what the coat stood for. And it angered them. They got angry. Well, let me
give you four or five things tonight and see how this thing fits into
the obvious picture of this type of Christ. This coat separated him in the
eyes of all his brethren as someone very special. Nobody else had
a coat like this. Not only people in the land,
but among his own brethren. The father gave him a coat that
singled him out. And to me, this is like in the
military when a man has on a coat, but over here he's got all these
stripes coming down on the collar. You know he's not just a, that's
not G.I. Joe there. He's somebody. He's
somebody. And this coat separated him in
the eyes of all his brethren. The coat distinguishes Joseph
from testifying of his father's affection. And the coat, to me,
seems to be a picture of the deity of Christ. God purposed
with the second person of the Godhead, the Word. He purposed
in him to manifest his redemptive glory to men. And that's what
his appearance, that's what this coat is. It's something to signify
to all His brethren the love of His Father. That's what it
is. It singles Him out. And to me, this is what this
is all about. The testimonies of the Father
to Christ the Son were not spoken of God to Him for His benefit
when He speaks of His love for Him. This is my beloved Son,
hear ye Him. He's not talking to Christ. God
is Spirit. They don't have to talk to one
another in voices. Whenever they talk, it's not
for their benefit, it's for ours. And everything about Him, these
voices, these testimonies, these miracles, everything He did was
a testimony of God concerning that glory that was to be manifested
in Him. And so it is with this coat that
Joseph wears. Our Lord is a representative
of men. He is not down here representing
Himself. He is representing a people.
He down here is a substitute. Now Joseph will one day be the
redemption of Israel in a natural way. And so in a natural way,
God pictures a special affection for him of His Father. But they
tell us when Christ came into the world, thou shalt call His
name Immanuel. God with us. God with us. Listen to these Scriptures. For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. In 1 John 4, verse 9, it says,
In this was manifest the love of God toward us, because that
God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. It's this fleshly appearance
of Christ that testifies of the Father's love for us. And He
testifies what? God was in Christ. Ain't that
what He testified? God was in Him. God was in Christ. And it's His fleshly appearance,
this fleshly appearance of Christ that reveals the glory given
to reveal to us. John said, and the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. Ain't that what he said he sang?
The glory as of the only begotten of the Father. We saw deity in
Him. That's what John testified. We
saw deity in Him. His coat was a coat of many colors. And so it is with this glory
of Christ that this deity, deity become flesh and dwells among
us. That's what He's telling us.
God robed Himself in human flesh and walked among men and we beheld
His glory. Oh, what's He talking about?
What kind of glory? He's talking about His glorious
love. God is love. He revealed to us
the glory of God's love, the glory of God's mercy, His grace,
righteousness, holiness, justice, power, kindness, long-suffering,
judgment, and wrath. All of His glory is a coat of
many colors. And when we consider Christ as
He appears in human flesh, appointed of God, very God of very God,
yet man, bone of our bones, Here's his glory, and it's being
revealed in a man. He sets him apart. He's a man,
but yet he's different than all the rest. He's different than
all the rest. Joseph was a son. He was a son
of Israel. But he was different than all
the rest of the sons. Because Jacob, his father, put
a coat on him, and it distinguished him from everybody else. It was the coat of many colors.
And then when Paul talked about the calling of the Thessalonians,
He said this, He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. What's He talking about? He's
talking about to your obtaining that revelation of who He is. We obtain that glory. We worship
Him for who He is. We understand that. Over and
over in the book of 1 John, He just keeps telling us. And we
know. And we know. And we know. We know that God
was in Christ. This is very God of very God. God over all, blessed forever. And then he tells us this over
in Hebrews chapter 1. He said in these other times
and in different manners, just like Joseph dreamed these dreams. That's what he's talking about
when he talks about these various manners, divers' manners and
so on. In days gone by, he spoke to
our fathers through the prophets. That's what he's talking about.
He spoke to them some in dreams. Some heard voices. There were
all kinds of ways that God spoke to men. But in these last days,
He has spoken unto us through His Son. Now watch this. His
Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom He made
the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and expressed the
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high." Sounds a whole lot like Joseph,
don't it? God so clearly and so greatly
set apart His Son in the Incarnation as a man, that when He brought
Him into this world, He said, and let all the angels of God
worship Him. Worship Him. To which of the
angels said he at any time, Sit thou at my right hand. He set
him apart. And it is this glory and this
affection that caused all men to despise him. God put Joseph
in this world to preserve the whole house of Israel. And they
come a day when he does. There come a day when all His
sons will fall on His neck and kiss Him and weep, but until
that day of reconciliation, they envy Him and despise Him because
He's set apart. He's set apart. All right, here's
the second thing. What do we know about this coat?
I know that it's a type of God's deity. It's a type of God singled
out His Son in such a way that no man can can refute it. He said, if you don't believe
what I'm telling you, it's what Christ told those Jews, if you
don't believe the words coming out of my mouth, then you better
believe me for the very work's sake. Because your average Joe
can't call a man out of the tomb that's been in there for three
days and can't heal leprosy and he can't do those things. And
then here's the second thing I know about this coat. His brothers
took this coat off of him. They took it away from him. This coat that was a token of
their father's affection and love. And this is what it testifies
of, they robbed Christ of His glory. I'll never forget Brother
Scott Richardson bringing this message down in Ball, Louisiana
years ago. He preached out of Malachi, will
a man rob God? And his first point was, will
a man rob God of his glory? You bet he will. You bet he will. That's the first thing he wants.
His brothers stripped his coat off before they ever threw him
in the pit. They took away from him the one token of his father's
affection and love. They tried to rob him of his
deity. And more than any other doctrine, the Jews despised the
most, the testimony of being the father's own son. Every time Christ told them that,
they bent down and got stones to stone him. They wanted to
kill him. He said to them, before Abraham
was, I am. And they took up stones to stone
him. He said unto them, I and my father am one. And they took
up stones again to stone him. And he said, for which of the
works that I do do you stone me? And they said, for a good
work we stone thee not, but because thou being a man hast made thyself
God. You've made yourself equal to
God. It's the dignity of his person
as the God-man and the glory of the Father that manifests
him as the Redeemer that men despise. Isn't that what Paul
told Ophiuchus? He said, this is the stone God
decreed to make head of the corner. And you builders took this stone
and looked at it and cast it aside. Only one man in which God will
speak to men, only one man in whom He has declared His name,
only one man in whom He declares His affection, only one man in
whom He's purposed to save His elect. Paul said, neither is
there salvation in any other. Except you believe that I am,
he said, you'll die and you'll sin. This is that stone. And men will own Him as a brother.
They'll own Him as an equal. But they will not own Him alone
who holds the keys. They won't do it. He that hath
the Son, He said, hath life. He that hath the Son of God.
I don't care what else you have. That part can vary. You can have
all kinds of things. But if you don't have the Son,
you don't have life. Because life's in the Son. Natural
man will always try to strip the dignity of Christ away. That's his intention. You know,
I know that there's doctrinal points. And I don't know how
else to do this, you know, when I'm setting before you doctrine
in a bad light. I'm talking about men who hold
to doctrine. and don't pursue Christ. In other words, it's just a catechism. It's just a book, no different
than the book of the law. Now, if I memorize these things
and say, you know, Catholics have a catechism, and Baptists
have a catechism, and Lutherans have a catechism, and catechism
ain't going to save nobody. But there are doctrines. And
John, it's a serious thing. John said, he that cometh and
bringeth not the doctrines of Christ, don't even bid him Godspeed. Don't let him in your house.
Don't listen to him. Don't give him a kind word. Tell
him to hit the road, lest you be partakers of his evil deeds. There are doctrines to be adhered
to. But we go past the doctrine to
him who is doctrine. You see what I'm saying? I don't
want you to stop with doctrine. Election is a good doctrine.
Sovereignty is a good doctrine. Predestination is a good doctrine.
But you can believe all those things and go to hell. You see
what I'm saying? Joseph spoke to his brethren
concerning what God intended to accomplish, that all his brethren
were going to bow to it. And his father would also be
in subjection to it. And it says in verse 8, they
hated him yet more for his dreams and for his words. They didn't
like it. In another place it said, we're
not stoning you because of what you did. We're stoning you because
of what you said. Because of what you said. I don't think anybody can come
here and throw too many rocks at me for what I do. But they'll
pile them up for what I say. And they'll throw. Even old Jacob
rebuked him. But then afterwards he thought
about it and it said he observed the saying. See it there in verse
11? He looked at it a second time. Alright, here's the third
thing I know about this coat. Having taken his coat from him,
They killed a kid of goats and dipped a coat in its blood. Now
this to me represents a natural man's explanation of the death
of Christ. That's what it does to me. He'll
take the coat given to Joseph by his loving father and pollute
this coat in the blood of an animal sacrifice. That's what
he'll do. And he'll bring it to the father
and he'll hold it up. And he'll say, this is what I
have to show for your son. This is what I have. They'll
kill a goat and mix its blood with the coat in hopes that it'll
satisfy the father as to the death of his son. They'll actually attach more
to the token of the father's love. They will attach no more to that
token of the father's love than the blood of a goat. You know,
it's no wonder to me over in Hebrews chapter 10 that he said,
for the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. Can't do
it. They'll come to their father
and hold up the bloody coat in a vain hope that he'll be satisfied
and be deceived by their lying evidence. And in an hypocrisy
that only a fallen son of Adam could conceive of, they stood
before the loving father and held up a coat stained with the
blood of a beast. and hoped that their father would
draw the conclusion that they planned that he would draw. But
they didn't say anything. They just held up the bloody
coat. They tried to sell his death to the father as a victim
of chance. Think about it. That's what they
wanted him to believe. They tried to explain away his
death as an accident. He was a victim of circumstance.
They tried to appease their father's grief by telling him that the
death of his son accomplished nothing. Died by beast. He died and the
only thing they brought to console their father was the bloody coat
stained with the blood of their own imagination and a pretense
of their love and grief for the missing son. That sounds like
a religious man to me. I've been there and done those
very things. Verse 35, and it says, and all
his sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused
to be comforted. The bloody coat did not avail
to comfort the father. He said, I'll go down to the
grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. It was not the coat that the
father loved. It was the son that was in it.
Now we're getting down to what I was telling you a few minutes
ago about doctrine. It's not the doctrine that he
looks for. It's the son that he loves. It's not the coat,
with or without the blood. It's not the coat. It's the son
upon whose back he put the coat. That's who he loved. It was the
son who wore it. And it's not the coat that will
appease him in his death. It's the son himself risen from
the dead. When he saw the travail of his
soul, of his soul, not the coat, not our bloody excuses, not these
wicked things of our own imagination. When he saw the travail of the
son's own soul, he was satisfied. He was satisfied. Oh, this is
a very important point and one I've been working on for the
past several weeks. Anything that we bring to the
father except the son makes his death of no value whatsoever. Can you see what this did? They
brought this bloody coat to him. What did that accomplish? What
was accomplished? Nothing was accomplished in his
death. If there was any potential in
man to save himself, it would make the death of Christ unnecessary,
and it reveals the loving Father has sent Him to be absolutely
delusional. Why would God expose His Son
to such cruelty if there was any other way? What does that
make God out to be? What a total mockery we make
of His glorious obedience and sacrifice when we add to His
work the uncleanness of our own efforts and affections. I think
I read this scripture to you earlier in Genesis when He talked
about making altars. He said, if you make an altar,
just gather the rocks up and put them there. Don't take your
little tool and start carving things on them. He said, the
day you lift up your tool upon it, you've polluted the altar. And I believe this is also a
picture here of men and women like the Israelites who tried
to explain the death of Christ or understand the death of Christ
by animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Now, let me explain
myself. The revelation of the old is
by the new. You don't understand the new
by the old. You understand the old by the
new. I don't go back and look at these animal sacrifices and
then that tells me what this was all about with Christ. What
Christ accomplished up here in the New Testament is what explains
that blood of that bulls and goats and things that was offered
back there in the Old Testament. We don't go to the shadow and
try to understand the object when the object's already come.
We look at the object and see the details and then we understand
what the shadow foreshadowed. You see what I'm saying? And
there's men right now, I read them on the internet. They'll
get on there and begin to argue and all of these things over
this, that, and the next thing. And what they're doing is they're
going back into the Old Testament and they're taking these vague
shadows and patterns and pictures back here and they're trying
to explain the death of Christ. Come over here. Come over here
where the thing is revealed and manifested in all of its detail
and clarity. Then go back and we'll talk about
the Old Testament sacrifice. All right, here's the fourth
thing I know about this coat. The coat without the beloved
son in it testifies of the work of the beast. Now hear what Joseph
tells you. Genesis 37, 31. And they took
Joseph's coat and killed a kid of goats and dipped the coat
in the blood. They set the coat of many colors
and brought it to their father and said this, this we found. Know now whether it is thy son's
coat or not. And he knew it. He knew it was
his coat. And he looked on that bloody coat, and he said, this
is my son's coat. An evil beast has devoured him. I read that, and I thought, well,
that's exactly what they wanted him to believe. But God in this
thing reveals exactly what they did. I don't care what it is
that you bring to the father in the way of the crucified Christ
other than him. I don't care what it is that
you bring. Unless it be the confession of your own guilt, it will be
understood and received of the Father as the work of the beast.
Now you think about it. That's exactly how God is going
to answer that gift that you bring or that explanation you
bring if you don't come confessing your guilt. Old Peter brought
that message on Pentecost and he said this same Jesus. that
you with wicked hands of crucified and slain, God raised Him up
and set Him at His own right hand. And they said, oh, what
are we going to do? Repent and be baptized. You're going to
tell God you're guilty. That's what you're going to do.
You're going to tell Him you're guilty. And you tell Him anything
else, all you've revealed is this work. That's how the Father
is going to receive it. It's just the work of the beast.
You might think that's a play on words, but this beast in all
those influenced by the power of the old dragon, Satan. And
you can read about him over in Revelation 13. And this beast
is defined in two ways. First, it's rising up out of
the sea. Now, you've got to do some hop,
skip, and jumping around to understand what that sea represents. But
you can find it back in the book of Isaiah. I think it's chapter
37. And this sea represents nations
and powers, principalities in the earth. So you see this beast
rising up. He's in control. He's in those
offices. He's doing those things. And
I know that God overrides him and uses those things for his
good. But basically, those things are all being manipulated around
and arranged and doing things by Satan's influence. All these
things. And then secondly, he shows this
beast rising up out of the earth. That's talking about false religion.
False religion. And this beast that rises up
out of the earth, the old harlot rides on his back. Rides on his
back. Religion carries her around. And this has got to do with all
the religions of the world. And that old harlot babbling
rides up on the back of the beast and he stays there. He continues
to carry her all the way to judgment. You never see her coming off
his back. He's right there all the way through to judgment.
The number of that old beast is 666. It's the number of man. I love this explanation. Brother
Don, I owe him for this. He said, why the number 6? Because
6 is not 7. That's why. It's almost. But it ain't quite. 7 is the
number of perfection. Paul said over in Romans chapter
3, He said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Seven has to do with perfection,
completeness, satisfaction, and everlasting rest. Six is one
shy of seven, and it comes short of the glory of God. And six
is the mark of the beast. It represents man. He's man,
man, man. And all that wear the number
are represented is belonging to or influenced by man-centered
religion. Man-centered religion. And all
those that have the mark of the beast are those who identify
themselves with it. And all those who refuse to wear
the mark will bear the wrath of the beast. Now you can just
write it down, that old beast. All those who come to the Father
accepting Christ come confessing that what they bring to be the
work of the beast. That's what they bring before.
The coat they bring is soaked in the blood of a beast. And
there's a whole message in this. I'm trying to just get it across
to you in its basics. But when he talks about the blood
of a beast, the blood of a goat or a beast of any kind, think
about the blood of Christ as it's represented by that beast,
by that spiritual beast. And it's all the blood of beasts,
isn't it? Because that blood doesn't testify the same as the
blood that God testifies of in His book. It's a blood that's
not effectual. It's a blood that's not sufficient.
It's a blood that must be mixed with your works. And that's what
they tried to do. They tried to take a little bit
of blood and put it on that coat and appease the Father, and it
didn't work. It didn't work. And then the last thing I know
about this coat is that everything that the son accomplished, he
accomplished without the coat. Think about that. Joseph did
all that he did and laid the coat aside. You remember what
I told you at the beginning of the message that coat represents
his deity? He laid that deity aside. And
as a man, as a man, he accomplished perfect righteousness. As a man,
he accomplished satisfaction and redemption. He accomplished
these things. And it was all accomplished by
God in him. He laid aside all this dignity
and majesty and honor. Read Philippians chapter 3. It
said, let that mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus
our Lord, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, took on him the form of a servant,
and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, given him a name
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee gonna
bow, every tongue gonna confess. Laid it aside, dignity and majesty
and honor, went down into Egypt and served there as a servant,
a faithful servant. Think about that, he was thrown
in a pit, sold out by his own brethren. Sold out down there
to Potiphar's house and his wife tempts him and he's faithful.
He doesn't give in to the temptation. And then he's cast into prison.
He does all those things. And Joseph is like a cork. God
just keeps bobbing him back up. Until finally one day, God raises
him up and sets him second in command in all Egypt. And then
he calls on his brethren that sold him into slavery. And he
calls them. And he calls them. And they come
to him. And he reveals himself to them.
What a picture of Christ. Think about that coat as we go
on through here. And just those ways how this
coat, how he laid it aside. And being laid aside, they couldn't
have taken it from him. He gave it to them. But they
stripped it from him. They thought they really had
something. And they thought they were going to take this to the
father and explain why he was dead. And the father wouldn't
have nothing to do with it. Wouldn't have nothing to do with
it. And he ain't going to have anything to do with these sacrifices
and excuses that men bring him today. He wants to hear two things
from you. He wants to hear, I'm guilty. And I'm guilty of his death. I'm guilty of his death. And
his death is my hope. It's all my hope.