And everything that you say and
everything you contemplate should be done within the framework
and grid of that flowing stream. You know how important the blood
of Christ is. Do you know? Do you think that
the blood of Christ is sort of another artifact in the whole
scheme of the religious panorama we call Christianity? From Genesis
to Revelation, we've been learning that this Bible, this book we
call the Word of God is about Jesus Christ. Now, I know you've
heard that before, but have you experienced the power of that
revelation as it's been made known to you through the exposition
of the scriptures? Have you? Have you been able
to read through the book of Genesis and see what is called the scarlet
colored thread of redemption? Has the spirit of God opened
your eyes to help you see the Lord Jesus coming in the volume
of the book as it is written of him? Has that happened for
you yet? Because if it has, it means that
the Lord has given you saving faith, eyes to see God's glory,
ears to comprehend his redemption. If not, there is a whole bunch
of work to still be done because woven within the fabric of the
human experience is God's purpose of redemption for his people
whom he chose in Christ before the world began. Now that's the
story we talked about this last week. There is a story of things
below and the story of things above. And here's what I want
to say. In the world, the world will not talk about God's glory.
When you listen to the news or you read the newspaper or you
watch CNN or Fox News or the British broadcasting system,
listen to me now, they will never tell you about God's story. Running through the news events
will never be the scarlet colored thread of a savior who is seeking
and saving that which is lost, never. You will hear all the
bad news, all the difficult news, all the troublesome news, but
you'll never hear the good news. And you will never know that
good news intimately and powerfully until you see it for yourself
by the spirit of God, through the preaching of the gospel.
In this book, we call the word of God. So then here's another
problem that I want to share with you that is extremely disconcerting
to me, how that Christians can call themselves believers rooted
and grounded in Christ and have an empathy towards the word of
God. You've heard me say that before. I think you're in real
trouble if you think you can walk with Jesus and not have
a an intimate knowledge of his word. I think you're in real
trouble if you don't see that the lens through which you are
to comprehend this world, not only this world, your life, and
the purposes of God, his eternal counsel is through the scriptures. I think if you think that you
can get away from the word of God and you can kind of just,
you know, feel your way through this life, you're in mortal danger. I think you need to get back
to a real sense of commitment to reading the scriptures and
then asking God to read the scriptures for you. And then you will begin
to see what we're going to see today, a glorious savior, as
our elders so aptly put it in the book of Zephaniah, who is
mighty to save. Now, today, I want to talk to
you about Joseph, the forerunner. Joseph, the forerunner, you guys
know what a forerunner is. I bet you don't. I bet you don't. I bet you don't know what a forerunner
is. But if you do, that's good. I'm not going to bet you any
money, but I bet you don't know what a forerunner is. Anyhow,
I want to talk to you about Joseph, the forerunner. We have learned
last week that many of the patriarchs in the Old Testament were great
and glorious types of the Lord Jesus Christ, weren't they? A
type is a pattern or a design or a model of something that
is real. And Joseph played for us a glorious
type in the opening features of Genesis chapter... What was it? Genesis chapter...
37, a 17 year old boy who was loved of his father, who had
these dreams of him being exalted and preeminently ruling and of
his brethren who hated him, who put him in a pit, sold him into
Egypt, and he becomes a slave. And in this sort of extremity
of circumstances, God exalts him highly. makes him prime minister
of Egypt, the vicar, vizier of Egypt. And we learned that all
of this was foreshadowing the exaltation of God's darling son,
Jesus Christ. Well, I wanna go on with the
account just today and help us to understand a few things about
the details of this man's journey because they pertain to us. So
our thoughts today are on Joseph, the forerunner. Joseph, the forerunner. Now, what is a forerunner? If
you follow me in your outline, you'll see this. A forerunner,
by definition, means to go before someone. That's literally what
it means. It's to go before. It means to
pave the way. to pave the way. It means to
set the course. It also means to secure the path.
It's a Greek term for runners, not an Old Testament Hebrew term.
It's a Greek term for Damas. And it's used very scantily in
the scriptures. In fact, it's only used one time
in the book of Hebrews, chapter six, verse 20. And we'll go there. But the concept of the forerunner
It's prevalent through scripture. In fact, it's replete because
the concept of the forerunner has to do with one who went before
us. to pave the way. One who went
before us to establish the course, to set the path, to secure the
path for us. Now the term prodomos or forerunner
was used in early Greek language, early Greek culture. It was very
prolific in that culture. And here is how it was used.
The forerunner was used in the context of military activity
where an army scout an army scout would go out and in advance of
the main troops and search out the land. He would be called
a forerunner and his job would be to obtain intelligence and
And as he would obtain intelligence, he would seek to know where the
enemy is and what the enemy was doing strategically in preparation
to destroy his own camp. That's what the forerunner did.
Not only that, they said that the word forerunner was not used
in the singular much. And therefore, it really described
what was called a cavalry troop. The forerunning troop was a cavalry
troop who went through, obtained intelligence, found out where
the enemy was, understood their strategies, and then they fought
what was called the initial battle, the initial battle. The cavalry
troop was said to be so proficient, so skillful that when they went
in and did what was called the initial battle, that was often
the decisive battle. It was the battle that when it
was accomplished, the latter group basically came in as cleanup. I saw they just came in as cleanup. Do you get the message? See,
the forerunner went in and paved the way. And Jesus Christ is
our forerunner. Do you know Calvary was a forerun?
Calvary was a forerun. It was the means by which our
scout, Jesus Christ, went through, cleaned up and made the path
for you and I. It was a term that was also used
in early Greek culture for the first ship. that would lead all
the other ships safely into harbor. Did you get that? It was the
primary ship that led all the other ships safely into harbor.
He would navigate and work himself around the rocks. in order to
bring all the other ships safely to harbor. Can you see the analogy?
One more thing. It had to do with that person
who also was running the race. We see all these analogies in
the scripture, but the forerunner was that person who in running
the race. He would go out in front of all the other runners. He would actually chart the course
and they would follow him. He would run that race all the
way to the end and they would follow behind him. Now this is
where the Hebrew writer speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as being
our forerunner. And I want you to look at that
here in a moment. But in the Old Testament, the term was used
by way of analogy concerning anything, anything that was first. For instance, you remember in
Numbers 13, where God told the children of Israel to go in and
obtain the land. You remember that? And so he
said, I want to send some spies. Those spies were called forerunners. And it was 13 of those knuckleheads.
You remember that? And 11 of them brought back a
bad report. But it was two brothers who saw
things the way God sees things. That's just the way it always
is. Most don't, a few do. Remember that, because that's
the story even for us today. Now, the two were who? Joshua
and Caleb. Isn't that right? Now, Caleb
means faithful dog. I don't mind being called a faithful
dog, do you? Caleb means faithful dog and Joshua means savior. And you and I know that it was
Joshua that brought the children into the land of Canaan and not
Moses. And we'll talk about that in
the future. But those two men were called the forerunners,
the forerunners. Now, something that's very interesting
about the forerunning that you need to know. In the human experiment
of forerunning, that individual would simply go ahead of you
and then you would follow behind. But in terms of what Jesus Christ
did, I want you to know this, our forerunner did a whole lot
more than simply run ahead of us. He did a whole lot more go
with me to Hebrews chapter 6 verse 20. Keep your hand here Hebrews
6 20 and then we're going to see how this ties into Joseph's
account and all I want to talk about in Joseph's account in
chapter 39 or three things in Hebrews chapter 6 Hebrews chapter
6 the writer to the Hebrews is talking to the people of God
about not being weary in well-doing. because the Hebrew people were
coming under the disillusionment of persecution for the gospel
sake. They were becoming weary because as the people of God,
they were suffering persecution, affliction, and trouble. Now
that's not the message you hear today when you cash your lot
with Jesus Christ. Today you hear that if you cash
your lot with Jesus Christ, all will be well. You will prosper
and God will pour upon you blessing after blessing after blessing
and make you whole. I heard Creflo Dollar say that
the other day. Creflo takes everything in the
scriptures and ties it to money. I told you, I know he changed
his last name to Dollar for a reason. The Hebrew writer is speaking
to the church and telling the church, you and I have a great
and precious promise. And that is this, that God not
only promised to redeem us, but he swore by an old. Those were
the two immutable things by which it was impossible for God to
lie. First, he promises, isn't that right? And then he swears
with an oath. You know, you're good to go if
God promises you something and then he swears by it. So this
was the encouragement of the people of God. And I want you
to notice what it says over in verse 18, that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation Who are the we who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which
entereth into that within the veil. Now, do you see the analogy?
The analogy is being connected to a hope. This hope is called
an anchor. But now this anchor has went
before you. And guess where he's went. He's
went into the veil, into the holy of holies. You're connected
to this hope. And that hope has entered into
the veil before us. He's called the forerunner. Now
watch what verse 20 says. Whither the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus made in high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Do you see that? Now you know
then that Jesus is the forerunner of his people. Is that right?
Now, I said earlier that the forerunner is one who goes before.
But if you notice carefully that the text says not only was Jesus
the forerunner, but he was the forerunner. Watch these words
now for us. So you miss this if you don't
get it. The forerunner for us. Mark those down. The word for
us is a little participle that always means substitute. It always
means to take one's place. It always means to be in our
stead. If someone did something for
me, then he actually took my place, didn't he? If he died
for me, he died in my place. That's the doctrine of substitution.
What that really means is, now watch this. Now, we were forerunners
in Christ. See, I know you missed that.
But what it says is we were forerunners in Christ because he was the
forerunner for us. He ran the race for us. You missed that, did you? See,
he didn't just run and say, now follow me. There's a fella named
Greg Laurie. He wrote a book and the book
is out, Running the Race Well. running the race. Well, here's
how he depicts Jesus. He depicts Jesus at the end of
the race with a prize. And he's telling all of God's
people, come on now, run, run, run. Come on now, I'm rooting
for you. I'm rooting for you. Come on
now, so I can say to you, well done, my good and faithful servant.
Can I tell you something? Jesus Christ is not only my forerunner,
but he ran for me. He already ran the race. Christ ran my race, and the race
he ran was the real race run. And not only is it the real race
run, but it's the real race, watch this now, won. Christ has
already won the race. Do you believe that? No, you
have to understand that what we're talking about when we talk
about the gospel, we're talking about what Christ did for us,
not simply what he did, but what he did for us. And so when he
foreruns, he foreruns for his people. He's in glory for me. He has the prize for me. You know what that means? Even
though he's called me to run, And I am running by the grace
of God. You know what? Christ has already
run for me. And I'm not sweating whether or not I'm going to get
to the finish line and whether or not he's going to give me
the prize or he goes, you know, you didn't run too well, Jess.
Yeah, I know, Lord, I was overweight by 15 pounds. I'm not really
worried about that, because you know what? When we get to glory,
when I get to glory, God's going to give me a prize. And you know
what that prize is? The prize he won himself. Do you hear me? See, this is
called the grace of God. I want you to know that not only
was Christ my forerunner, but he was the one that actually
laid out the track. He drew up the plans. He ran
the race. He wanted, he obtained the prize
and he has it giving to his people right now. This is so very important
for you to see because this is going to be the typology drawn
out for us in the Genesis account. This is so glorious. You remember
John chapter 14 verses one, two, and three. We learned this when
we were little kids. If you did any church in my father's
house of many mansions, You know, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go, I shall return again and receive you into myself,
that where I am, you may be also. You guys remember that? Well,
see, this is what Jesus meant by being the forerunner of his
people. He says now in my father's house are many mansions. Bad
translation. See again, this is where Creflo
says, now see y'all get mansions when y'all go to glut. Now poor
folk like that, poor folk like that. But the translation should
be many rooms. Watch this, many dwelling places.
Many dwelling places, literally. The King James got caught up
in mansions. I don't know why they shouldn't
have done it because it gives you a wrong connotation. It gives
you the connotation that when you get the glory, God is going
to give you something that is like unto the real estate down
here, particularly if you do good. If you do good now, you'll
get your mansion. But if you do bad, you got to
live in the ghettos in heaven. This is bad theology, isn't it? This is bad doctrine. When we
get to glory, follow me now, we're gonna all be in the same
place. Not only that, I wanna share
with you what has come to me in this. John chapter 14 is not
talking about what will be, but it's talking about what is. Listen
to what the text says, in my father's house. See it? in my father's house. Now, the father's typical house
was the temple in Palestine 2000 years ago. It was typologically
God's house. It was typologically the dwelling
place of God Almighty. It was a place where Jesus went
in with switches and cords and whipped out all the false prophets.
You remember that? Because he said, my father's house, you
have turned into a den of thieves and robbers, my father's house.
So now follow this. Now, Jesus says in my father's
house, there are many abodes and, and I go to prepare a place
for you. It's in what is called the present
indicative middle voice. And what he's saying is I'm already
on my way. I'm already on my way to prepare
a place for you. Watch this now in my father's
house. So now don't think in terms of
dying and going to glory. And I have not seen the air,
have not heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man.
That's all true, too. That's all true, too. But John
14 is not talking about glory eschatologically. He's talking
about his cross. He's talking about him going
to the cross. Watch this now. And by virtue
of his death at the cross, as my forerunner, he secures me
a place in the church of God. See, stone upon stone, we're
called lively stones in the temple of God. Now, if I talk about
the historical context, he was promising the apostles. Watch
this now. He was promising the apostles
that shortly after his little separation from them in terms
of his cross work, which he had to do by himself, immediately
the apostles would follow. Immediately, the apostles would
come into that experience with Jesus and find the same blessing
that Jesus found if they went his way. Now, let me see if I
can expand on that. Verse three, verse four. Remember, I think it was Nathaniel
or Thomas. He said, Lord, we don't know
where you're going. You remember that? He says, Lord,
we don't know where you're going. I want you to see that because
this again is going to lay the foundation. Thomas said unto
him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. And how can we
then know the way? You got it? Now, if I don't know
where you're going, I certainly don't know the way. And you know
what our Lord said, you better mark these words, watch this
now. He said, I am the way. Now stop right now because you
need to understand that that wasn't simply a euphemism to
be used in songs and sort of a Christian rhetoric. He said, I am the way. What that
means is Christ is the course. Christ is the path. Christ is
the way. That's what he's saying. He's
saying to Thomas, if you see me, if you comprehend who I am,
if you comprehend my work, you know the way. That's what he's
saying. In other words, Christ didn't
simply go before us. He established the path. That
path was himself. And then he went not only for
himself, but for me. So that what he told him is I
am the way and I'm the truth. I'm the truth. I'm the truth
of all that you need. I am the truth of everything
that God has declared. I am the sum total truth of that
which constitutes reality before the living God. And see, when
I say that, this is what I'm saying. When you see Jesus, when
you see him according to the biblical record, when you comprehend
Christ in the truth, you've got the truth, period. Now, if you've
got the truth, there's no other place to go. Do you hear me? If you've got the truth, there's
no other place to go. So not only is he the way, he
is the precise way. So when I see Christ, I see the
course. And when I see Christ, I see
the truth. And then he says, I am the life. Now watch this. No man comes
unto the father except by me. See, this totally increases the
value of the concept of being the forerunner. Because what
the forerunner does in this redemptive scheme, as Christ is our forerunner,
is not only run the race for us, but he picks us up and he
carries us in himself through this course to bring us to the
other side. Do you like that? See, now that's
called grace. But the proud don't like it.
See, the proud person would much rather say, well, Lord, I wanna
run the race myself, just help me. Just help me. Just put some light posts along
the way and a few signs and just let me run this race. So after
I run this race, I can say Jesus help me, but I ran it myself.
That's not grace. I want you to know there is a
false grace being taught whereby you and God work together to
get the job done. That's not saving grace. Saving
grace is God choosing you picking you up, carrying you through
the whole course of the race, setting you down on the other
side and said, boy, you did a great job. Here's the prize, which
he already won for us. That's what that's saying. Now,
let me see if I can build on that with the Joseph account.
Go back to Genesis chapter thirty nine. I said that Joseph in this
account plays a great and glorious type of our savior. And he really,
he really, really does. And there are about three points
that I wanna make in this text. If you can hold on with me, if
you can hold on, you'll see this. The first point in Genesis chapter
39 that I wanna make is a very peculiar point, and it's called
our affinity to Egypt. Now this is gonna hurt a little
bit, but it's necessary. Our affinity towards Egypt. What
do you mean, pastor, our affinity towards Egypt? We love Egypt. We love Egypt. Listen carefully
to me. God's problem with his people
is that they love Egypt. If you are aware of the account,
what you are aware of is that the whole family of Jacob is
headed to Egypt right now. Do you know that? Not only that,
God prophesied to Abraham back in Genesis 15, verse 13, that
your children would be in a land whose nation would afflict them.
That's what we were talking about. And troubled them and make them
sorrowful for 400 years. God saw when he called Abraham
out that Abraham's children were headed to Egypt. Do you hear
me? We have an affinity to Egypt.
Now I want you to know you do too. You do too. All through
the scriptures, God constantly admonished his Old Testament
people. You guys have trusted in a broken reed called Egypt.
Every time you get into trouble, you run to Egypt. Every time
there's trouble in your land, you run back to Egypt to get
help. That's what God said. So much so, there are several
things I want you to know. way toward the end of the book,
which is called the Book of Revelation. God uses the name Egypt as a
synonym for disobedient Israel, Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. Not only that, he not only did
God tell Abraham that Egypt would be the place that his children
would go into for 400 years, but Abraham had a problem with
Egypt. You'll notice in the book of
Genesis, I'm not sure where it is. Genesis, oh, Genesis chapter
12, verse 10, Abraham finds himself going down to Egypt. You remember
that account? He goes down to Egypt with his
wife, Sarah. And it was there in Egypt that
he finds himself telling a little white lie to the king about Sarah.
You remember that? Sarah's my sister. Don't tell
me Abraham was not a sinner. Abraham was a sinner just like
you. Sarah is my sister. Yes, she was his sister. She
indeed was his half sister. Genesis 10 and 11 will affirm
that his father had several wives. And one of those wives, Sarah
was the daughter of, and she therefore was Abraham's wife.
Before the severe noetic effects of sin, dominated the human race,
it was possible to marry near of kin. But by the time we get
to Moses era, which is 1500 years before Christ, God says, don't
do it because when you inbreed like that, because of your sin,
you're going to go crazy. Do you hear me? So it was all
right for Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Noah and his sons
and for Abraham and even Isaac. Isaac married his relative and
Jacob did, too. They're very close. But once
the law came, you can't do that anymore. So Abraham goes down
there and in Egypt is a wonderful place to hang out at. And he
finds himself tempted to give up. Sarah is a bad deal, wasn't
it? God was ready to destroy all of Egypt for Sarah. Isn't
that what he said? I'm going to shut up the whole
womb. You guys are going to die. Don't touch Sarah. Don't touch
Sarah. Great gospel truth there too.
But do you know what? Isaac was tempted with the same
thing over in Genesis chapter 26 verse 2. God knew that Isaac
was getting ready to run down to Egypt. You see, What the children
of Israel had to deal with very often is what you and I have
to deal with often. And here's the word that I'm
gonna bring up and we'll deal with this in another message.
It's called famine. Famine. That's when the land
is depleted of its resources and all the food dies out and
you begin to starve. And people will show their true
colors when famine occurs. In every account, Abraham, Isaac,
and now Jacob, they're headed to Egypt. And you know why they're
headed to Egypt? Because there's a famine in the
land. There's a famine in the land. Now, God told Isaac, you
stay here, you stay put. I'll take care of you in the
famine. Do you know how to do that, child of God? Do you know
how to trust Christ in the midst of the famine? Do you know how
to stay on the true and the living God when times get difficult?
Now, see, let these things sink home because I see that there's
nothing new under the sun, that which has been is and that which
is to be. Even that has already been nothing
new under the sun. You and I are tempted with the same temptations.
You and I are tempted to go to Egypt. You know why? Because
in Egypt, there are some attractive things. First of all, Egypt is
a place of wealth. In the days of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, Egypt was the predominant, premier nation of the world. They were the leading nation
in the world concerning everything. They were the beginning of education
and wisdom and technology and power. So going down to Egypt
was a humanly logical thing to do, but according to God, it
was an act of unbelief. But they went down. And I think
you and I do, too, because in Egypt, Egypt is that place. If
you look in your outline, what's what's about Egypt? It says the
attractions of Egypt are wealth. Affluence. False security. It is the arm of the flesh, human
wisdom. That's where Egypt is. And you
and I are always tempted with Egypt. You do know that. But
I want you to see now what the detractions are, because this
is going to build on our account. Now, remember that. I just want
that to sink in. Why do I always go back to Egypt?
Because Egypt promises you security. Egypt will promise you a job.
It'll promise you prosperity. It'll promise you health. It'll
promise you, you look good. You get your makeover in Egypt. You get your makeover in Egypt.
They doing it free. Now in Egypt, if you hit the
lottery right, you'll be a millionaire. That's in Egypt. But what are the detractions
of Egypt? You see your outline? Watch it now. Bondage. Bondage. Slavery. Affliction. suffering, cruel
and hateful oppression. Do you believe that? Cruel and
hateful oppression. What did God do? He set up the
nation of Israel as a paradigm, a prototype of the condition
of the whole world before he saves a sinner. So then we read
in Exodus chapter one, that the Pharaoh that rose up after Joseph,
that did not know the God of Joseph nor Joseph himself, he
put Israel under difficult trial. Great affliction. They were slaves,
slaves, slaves in Egypt. And what that depicts children
of God is our status before redemption. I'm always amazed at people who
tell me they're free. I have yet to meet a free person.
Oh, I'm free. I have the freedom to do this
and the freedom to do that. I have the freedom to choose
this and the freedom to do that. You know, the word of God doesn't
say that. The word of God says you and I are slaves. Do you
know that? Jesus says, whosoever commits
sin is a servant of sin. That's John chapter eight. Paul
said the same thing in Romans chapter six. Do you know prior
to our salvation, you and I are slaves to sin. Will somebody
tell the truth? Weren't you a slave to sin? You
loved it. You pursued it. It almost killed
you, but you did it anyway, because you're a slave. You're in bondage
to sin. You're captivated by Romans chapter
seven, verse 14. Remember what Paul says? The
law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. sold under sin. Listen to me,
that's your state if you don't know the Lord Jesus. If you think
you're running around free on this globe, you're deluded. Every
passion, every desire, every action, every impulse, every
compulsion that drives you is driven by a force beyond your
comprehension. Either you are governed by the
spirit of God or the spirit of this world, one of the two. And even when you become a child
of the living God, you're not free. You are led by the spirit
of God. There is a spiritual force affecting
your affections and your inclinations and your desires. Your choices
are voluntary, but they're influenced. Are you following what I'm saying?
We're led by one of the two. Don't be deluded. You're not
free. The Bible never depicts man as totally free. He's a slave. He's a slave. You remember the
account in Exodus chapter, Leviticus chapter 25, verses 47 through
49. Let me share it with you. Because those Old Testament accounts,
again, were teaching us spiritual realities. God said, when you
go into the land, you are to have what is called a Jubilee
year. You know what a Jubilee year is? In the 50th year, everyone
that was in debt was to have their debt set free. You could
go back to your land, I don't care how indebted you were, God
says, let them go. I like that, don't you? I like
that. I like that. Let the man go back. He had it
hard enough. And what it says in Genesis chapter,
Leviticus 25 verse 47, if it comes to pass because of a lack
of wisdom on your part, that you find that yourself have waxed
so poor that you sell yourself. We're going to see this in the
account. If you bear with me, if you sell yourself, sell yourself
to a stranger, That's Leviticus 25 verses 47, 49. God's already
seen what Israel's gonna do. When you wax super poor because
you have lack wisdom, because you did not trust in the Lord,
because you did not acknowledge him in all your ways, because
you leaned on your own understanding. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Because you decided to do it your way, and God decided to
close the heavens. and close the bank and close
all the blessings to let you know to go your way will bring
you into poverty because you decided to do that. You sold
yourself to strangers. Now, there was one law to sell
yourself to the brethren in Israel. But then there was another law
that if you sold yourself to strangers, you know what that
means? That God allows strangers to come into the Commonwealth
of Israel. That is aliens, foreigners. And he allowed those foreigners
to come in. And if those foreigners obey God, they would be blessed.
And once they were blessed, if you disobeyed God, though you
were so-called a covenant child of God, then you would find yourself
selling yourself to the stranger. Listen to me now. It says in
that law, the only way that you could be redeemed is if you were
able to buy yourself back. Or if there were another, a brother,
a cousin or an uncle who could redeem you, who had the power
to redeem you, let him redeem you. I want you to understand
you can't buy your way back. Do you understand what I'm saying?
See, when we sold ourselves unto sin, Romans 7, 14, we also sold
ourselves unto Satan and we sold ourselves to the world and the
debt we owe, we can't pay. But there was another who became
our kinsmen redeemer. His name is Jesus Christ, and
he paid the debt to set us free. You got that? So when you get
set free, it's because someone paid the debt. It's not because
you voluntarily chose to come out of prison. You know, you
in prison because you've done something wrong. Well, you know,
I think I want to leave today. No, you can't leave until you
pay the debt. You're locked up. And that's
what a sinner has to understand. You're locked up until the Redeemer
comes along and says, be free. So when Jesus says, whomsoever
the son shall set free, he shall what? Be free indeed. Free indeed. Here is the thing about our account
that I want you to see. Our affinity towards Egypt brings
us into bondage, but it is that very bondage that God uses in
order to get glory to himself by delivering his people. The
attractions of Egypt are wealth, affluence, material blessings.
The detractions, it's a house of bondage. What is the comfort
of Egypt? Here it is. The comfort of Egypt
is that Joseph went there first. I'll take about 15 more minutes.
Listen to me. The comfort of Egypt is that
Joseph went there first. The boys would come later. Dad
would come later, but Joseph went first. Now, who is Joseph?
He's a type of Christ, which means our savior had to go to
Egypt in order to deliver his brother in as well. Do you know
that? See, the scripture tells us in
Matthew chapter two, verse 15, I have called my son out of Egypt. You remember when the other Joseph,
brother Joseph, who married sister Mary, who was the mother of our
Savior? He had a dream, too. You remember
that? Matthew chapter two. And the Lord came to him and
said, Herod, that one in whom the dragon was working to kill
the man child is seeking to kill Jesus. So you take the boy and
you go down to where? Egypt. and you stay in Egypt
until I kill Herod. So God sent Jesus to Egypt, he
killed Herod and then he allowed Jesus to come back. Listen to
me, our comfort is that Jesus has already gone to Egypt before
us. Do you hear me? See, that's the
gospel here. Now he goes to Egypt on two charters. One, God the father sends him.
The other charter is our sins sent him to Egypt. You remember
we learned last week the enmity and the envy and the hatred of
his brothers took little Joseph and cast him into that pit. And
then he was sold to the Ishmaelites who sold him to the Egyptians.
Remember that? See, here's what I'm trying to
get you to understand, that if you can acknowledge your slavery
to sin, your comfort is that Christ was a slave too. Do you
hear me? Christ was a slave too. If you
can acknowledge that you are bound up in Egypt, here's our
comfort. Christ has been to Egypt too. In fact, he was there first.
See, that's real good news to me. And I want you to see how
that in Egypt, there are three experiences that Joseph has,
which are to our edification and exhortation as we see Joseph,
a type of our savior, who is our forerunner. The first is
even as a slave, Joseph triumphed. Isn't that what the text says?
Look at verses one through four. Genesis 39, one through four.
And Joseph was brought down in Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the
hands of the Ishmaelites, which had bought him down thither.
Do you see that? The brother, his course is a
course of bondage and slavery. He's sold. But verse two tells
us the Lord was with Joseph. I like that, don't you? The Lord
was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man. What that means was that
he was successful. Now, listen to me, child of God,
you can be a successful slave. Do you hear me? If you look to
Christ, you can be a successful slave. But if you don't look
to Christ, all you're going to be is a miserable slave. So Joseph was successful in that
the Lord was with him. And even as a slave, he prospered. Notice what it goes on to say,
verse three, and his master saw that the Lord was with him and
that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And
Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him. And he made
him overseer over his house and all that he had, he put into
his hands. Do you see that? What I love
about the account is it's depicting Joseph as this impeccable individual
who does everything right. Now we learned this last week
in typology, God will set up people to be foreshadows and
types of Jesus in certain attributes and characteristics. Now don't
fall into the trap of thinking that if you can be like Joseph,
impeccable, perfect in every way, then God will bless you.
Because once you do that, you have fallen under the doctrine
of legalism and works religion. The account is not teaching that
if you are impeccable and perfectly obedient and do everything right,
God's gonna bless you. The account is teaching us that
Jesus was impeccable and perfectly obedient and because of him,
God blesses us. Did you get that? Did you get
that? See, this is the gospel. This is how you understand the
scriptures. Remember what the Ethiopian eunuch said in Acts
chapter 8? He's reading the book of Isaiah. He's coming back from
Pentecost. He's still miffed as to what
the text is talking about. He was as a lamb led to the slaughter
and as a sheep before his shearers was dumb, so open did he not
his mouth. And the eunuch was saying, of
whom are the scriptures speaking? of himself or of another? Do
you know the answer? Of another. And beginning at
the same scripture, what did Philip do? He preached unto him,
who? Jesus. I want you to know that
in order to understand the scriptures are right, you've got to see
Christ coming in the volume of the book. Now here's how you
derive the blessing. Are you ready? Here's how you
derive the blessing. This is very important. Everything
Jesus did, Everything that was typologically done by Jesus,
as you see him coming through the volume of the book, first
was meritorious. I said this last week. I want
to drive this home. When you see these redemptive stories
in the Old Testament, when you see these acts of righteousness
and obedience in the Old Testament, Take the Old Testament, bring
it to the new, sum it up in Christ and understand that everything
he did, he did in a meritorious way. In other words, it accrued
righteousness before God. Now, you probably don't grasp
the importance of that, but I do. See, your obedience and mine
will never obtain righteousness. It will never accrue any merit
to get us to God or obtain favor with God. You got that? But everything
Jesus did accrued righteousness. Here's the other thing, that
righteousness was transferable. It was transferable. In fact,
it had to be transferable because he didn't need it. So what he
did, he obeyed God perfectly, accrued righteousness, and he's
looking for sinners to give righteousness to. So I'm happy because there's
someone who has already walked through the pages of scripture,
walked the course of human history, obeyed God perfectly, pleased
God with all of his might, obtained a righteousness that is irrevocable,
irrevocable, unchangeable, by which I'm accepted in the beloved
completely. And that was Jesus Christ. And
you know what? He gave me that righteousness. So as I watch
Joseph living this life, which seems to be without flaw, what
I understand is he is depicting my Savior who did it not for
himself, but for me. You got it? But for me. Now,
I want you to see how this works. Now, I'm not going to stay in
Genesis 39 except to skip over this big temptation that seems
to be in Joseph's life with this woman. It's not because I don't
understand the account. The temptation with Potiphar's
wife. But we understand the account. We understand the account. We
understand that Joseph was a handsome brother and that Potiphar's wife
was an odious woman. We understand that Potiphar's
wife was a harlot. We understand that she was an
adulterous woman. We know this from the proverb.
I want you to hear me now. This might hurt, but this is
true. She was a scandalous woman. She was the woman that God says
to all women don't be. Do you hear me? She is the woman
that is anti-typical of God's bride, the church. So I'm bringing
it home now. She is the woman who is scurrilous
and scandalous, and she falsely accused our savior. You gotta think about that. Do
you get it? See, the brethren sold him, but
she accused him falsely. And by accusing him falsely,
she got him put in prison. Now that's all right. That's
all right. Because when you read the account,
Joseph did pretty good in prison too, didn't he? Let's look at
that for a moment. Cause there's something there.
And I won't develop this whole exchange before between Potiphar's
wife and Joseph, because that's another message. But here's what
is being said over in verse 18. It came to pass as she lifted
up her voice and cried that he left his garment with her and
he fled. Joseph ran. And this is what
Paul tells all of us to do. Flee. youthful lust, flee worldliness,
flee fornication. And he's talking both physically
and spiritually. Do you hear me? Verse 19, it
came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife,
which he spake unto him saying, after this manner did your servant
to me and his wrath was kindled. Verse 20, and Joseph's master
took him and put him into the prison. All right, brothers,
he was first a slave. Now he's cast into prison. This
is all a consequence of the dream coming to pass. Isn't that right?
You remember that dream he had? He sat down around the campfire
and said, hey, boys, I want to holler at you. His brothers.
God gave me a dream. And in my dream, my sheep stands
up and all of yours bow down to me. I like that. And they
were getting all upset. They said, no, I got another
dream. Let me share with you the other dream. The sun and the moon and
the 11 stars, they all bow down and worship me. Now, Joseph couldn't
help the dream he had. Because that was God's dream.
Remember we learned last week, pay little attention to your
dreams. They're not worth a grain of salt. I want you to know that.
I know you hear folks say, you know, chase after your dreams,
chase after your dreams. You hear this stuff all the time.
This is your neo paganism that has entered into the Christian
world, which has made you the arbiter of your salvation and
your pleasure. You know that chase after your dreams. Listen
to me. Chase after God's dream. Do you hear me? Chase after God's
dream. You know what God's dream is?
His word. Everything he said in this book that he has done
is doing and will do is God's dream. Do you hear me? And see,
Jacob, our Joseph chased after God's dream. He told it to his
brother and God actually started to enact it, didn't he? So Joseph
is in the midst of the dream. Joseph never knew the dream would
lead him into bondage and into prison. But see, everywhere Joseph
went, the Lord was with him. Let me share with you something.
And this is so beautiful. Look, look, look at the text.
Verse 20 says, and I looked at both all of these verses, particularly
21 through 23 in their original Hebrew, and the construction
is marvelous. There is a faithful translation
here, so you need not worry. Joseph's master took and put
him in the prison, watch this now, a place where the king's
prisoners were bound. I love it. I see I pay attention
to the Word of God. Do you now Joseph was cast into
prison his master took him and put him to prison a place where
the Kings prisoners were bound and he was there in the prison
now. What do you think happened in
that prison? Did Joseph go over into the corner and sulk and
whine and cry and wonder whether or not God had left him or forsook
him? I can't understand. I know I'm
supposed to be ruling, but here I am in a prison. And do you
know that in that culture, when a man was put into prison by
the king, there was an indefinite sentence? That means, you know,
you didn't do six months. There were no plea bargains.
You didn't do a year, two years, three years. When you got stuck
in there, buddy, you were left there. That was it. If the king
didn't arbitrarily see fit to have mercy on you, you were gone.
You lived there until you rotted and died. Know what did Joseph
do? He made the best of it. You know why? Because the Lord
was with him in the prison. Now, I want you to remember now
the master put him in prison. Point number one. The second
point is he was in there with the king's prisoners and they
were bound together. Look at verse 21. But the Lord
was with Joseph, showed him mercy, gave him favor in the sight of
the keeper of the prison. And I love this next verse. You
got to get a hold of this. And the keeper of the prison
prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners. Isn't that good? All the prisoners. that were in the prison. I love
it. All the king's prisoners were
committed to Joseph. See now, if you worry about the
infamy and the shame of being a slave, Christ was a slave. You have a little bit of concern
about being a prisoner. I want you to know Christ was
a prisoner. You believe that? Now, what's the difference between
being a slave and being a prisoner? I want you to think about that
for a moment, because there is a slight difference. The difference
between being a slave and being a prisoner, first of all, is
being a slave is personal. You got that? A slave is personal
bondage to a personal master. Now, being a prisoner is social. because as a prisoner, you are
bound with other prisoners to a leading master. And what our
text is teaching us is the work of Christ personally as a slave,
for me personally as a slave. And now it's teaching us of the
work of Christ collectively as a prisoner for those who collectively
are prisoners too. See, all of God's people are
prisoners. Do you believe that? See, I told
you earlier, you're not free. You never were. You've always
been a prisoner. You've always been bound. You've
always been under lock and key of some system. In God's eternal
purpose in Christ, you and I were prisoners to God. You believe
that? See, this is the beauty of the
account. Joseph is in the prison, favored of God, And the favor
of God is not only on Joseph, but it's on the folks who are
in prison with Joseph. Now, listen to me. I don't mind
being in prison with Joseph. How about you? There is a sense,
children of God, that you and I are in prison right now. Do
you know that? See, because you and I have not
entered into our full inheritance. You and I have not experienced
the full freedom that's in Christ. We're kind of shut up a little
bit, aren't we? I mean, there's some things that still need to
be accomplished. We're still bound by the laws of physics,
bound by the laws of this world, bound by the law of God, bound
by the curse of sin. Isn't that true? We're still
sinners. We're sinners still. We're still in a world that's
fallen. This is a prison house. It's not that big, is it? And
we're prisoners, but it's all right because Joseph is in prison
with us. Now, remember what I said to you. that Joseph stands as
a type of our forerunner. And the Lord Jesus Christ, being
our forerunner, went to prison for us. Do you remember Isaiah
chapter 53 verse 8? Listen to what it says. Isaiah
chapter 53 verse 8. It speaks concerning our Lord's
suffering on Calvary Street. And this is what God the Father
says. In verse eight, the Lord Jesus was taken from prison. Do you see that? And he was taken
from judgment. Now watch this. And who shall
declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of
the living for the transgression of my people? Was he stricken?
He made his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death. Now,
I want you to see this last clause. Because this last clause applies
to Joseph. Because he had done no violence,
neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Do you see that?
Listen to me now. God put Christ in prison precisely
because he was without fault. God put Christ in prison precisely
because there was no guile in his mouth. Joseph was put in
prison precisely because there was no guile in his mouth. You
got it? Listen to me now, this woman tempting him represents
sin. And Joseph flees from that sin. And because he flees from that
sin, he's put in prison. Now listen to me, if the Lord
didn't enter into prison with me, I'd be in trouble. I'd be
in trouble. Now he's in prison and there
is a wonderful construction that takes place at the end of this
verse that I want you to see. And we're gonna wrap this up
here. Listen to what it says in verse 22 of Genesis 39. And
the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners
that were in the prison. Are you ready for this? And whatsoever
they did there, he was the doer of it. Who is the he? Who is
the he? Joseph, do you get it? Now I
went back and I looked at the original language because I know
folks who would look at this text and say, you know what?
We got to retranslate this because it's not good language. Because
what it sounds like it's saying is this, that everything that
the prisoners did in prison, Joseph did it. But that's what
it's saying. No, no, no, don't miss this.
That's exactly what it's saying. The Hebrew construction says
that Joseph was the doer thereof. All right. In your rational mind,
you know what that means is that Joseph was the supervisor and
he was the one who dictated what the prisoners would do. But I
want you to know that the Lord Jesus was the doer of everything
that his people did. Do you hear me? See, I told you
earlier as a forerunner for us, he ran the race. Do you hear
me? As a slave, he suffered bondage. As a prisoner, He bore my wrath
and judgment. Everything that I do, he's the
doer thereof. Now, I want you to see the passages
that underscore this, because again, if you don't grasp this,
here's the trap that you'll fall into. You'll think that everything
that you do that's right and good. You were the doer thereof. I want you to know that grace
never depicts our obedience that way. The first passage I want
you to go to with me is in the New Testament, Philippians chapter
one, verse six. We're going to go to seven passages
and I'm going to close Philippians chapter one, verse six. This
message is designed to destroy the false notion of a false grace
that leaves room for you to boast in anything that you do. I want
you to understand that grace is accomplished in your life
by one who is the doer thereof. In Philippians chapter one, the
apostle Paul speaking to the one church that continued with
him in the gospel, the one church, no other church, just one church
that continued with him in the gospel. Listen to what he says
in verse four and five. Always in every prayer of mine
for you all, I make requests with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now. Paul loved the
Philippians. Now notice what he says. I am
very confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good
work in you watch this now will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. Do you see that who will perform
the work? You see it? Who performs the work? All right,
good, because I want you to understand that you can trust the scriptures
now. Go with me to another text here in our Bibles in first Thessalonians,
Philippians chapter two. Still, there's another text here
in Philippians chapter two, verse 12 and 13. We quote this one
often, too. but it needs to be read once
again. Paul speaking to the church of Philippi, he says this over
in verse 12, after he establishes the principle that God hath highly
exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and in
things of earth and in things under the earth. We learned last
week that Joseph portrayed that Jesus, correct? Now notice what
it says over in verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, Not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. Do you see that? Have you ever
heard that passage before? And if you leave it right there,
I'd be scared to death. Work out your own salvation,
fear and trembling. But will you read the next verse?
Watch this now. For it is God. Do you see it? For it is God which worketh in
you. both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. See the correspondence and everything
that they did there. He was the doer of it. I'm not through. Go with me to
first Thessalonians chapter five, because I want you to see how
God uses this in the scriptures unashamedly. In 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5, which is after the book of Colossians, which is
after Philippians in chapter 5, this is what it says. You
can mark these down. These are passages to help underscore the
nature of grace as it works effectively in our lives. I'm in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. I'm going to read verse 23 and
24. and the very God of peace. This is a benediction sanctify
you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
is where we get the doctrine of the trichotomy of man spirit
soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Watch this now verse 24 faithful is he that calleth
you got it. Who also will what? Do you see it? Do you see it?
I want you to go with me another place now. Keep your hand out.
Are you bored? Cause I'll stop right now. A couple more passages. Psalm 57. I remember reading
this a while back. This is so glorious. I'm in Psalm
57. I'm going to read verses one,
two, and three. Because Psalm 57 is David speaking
about his need for God's grace. And here's what he says, be merciful
to me. I'm at verse one, Psalm 57. Be merciful unto me, O God,
be merciful unto me because my soul trusted in you. Isn't that
good? Yea, in the shadow of your wings
will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. We
talked about it in the Friday night study. The thing that the
Christian is called to do is to hide himself in Christ. Did you get that? Rock of ages
cleft for me. Let me hide myself in the high. You got it. Until all the calamities
be overpassed. That's called wisdom. That's
called. Now watch what the text says. Until all these calamities
be overpassed, I will cry unto God most high unto God that perform
it all things for me. Isn't that good? Now watch this. The Old Testament anticipated
God performing all things. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 says
this. Go with me there. I want you
to see that. I want you to get this wrong. The Hebrew writer
declares that God hath performed these things. Hebrews chapter
10. It's in the New Testament after the book of Thessalonians
chapter 10. Only a couple more verses and
we'll close. I want you to see how thoroughly sufficient the
grace of God is in the life of God's people. Hebrews chapter
10, verse 10 says this, by the which will you and I are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. And every
priest ended daily ministering and offering off times, the same
sacrifice, which can never be taken away or never can take
away sins. Verse 12. But this man, who is
it talking about? Jesus Christ. Watch this saint. Listen to this. After he had
offered one sacrifice for sins. One sacrifice. You got it. One
sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God,
the father. You know what that means? He's never getting up
again. It means the work is done. It means not only is the father
satisfied, so is the son. Now, in the Genesis account,
God labored for six days and on the seventh day, what did
he do from all his works? Now, what's the next verse? I
want you to see that. Are you there from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool? Verse 14,
for by one offering he hath perfected. You got it forever. Them that
are sanctified. See, this is so very important.
Your perfection and my perfection is in what Christ did. It's in
what Christ did. It's not in what we do. It's in what he did. And as we
go through the Old Testament, our objective is to see how God
accomplishes these things for his people. I want to ask you
in closing, how does that make you feel? Brother Ron said, good. How does that make you feel?
Do you, are you under some compulsion that you have to do something
now that you are saved? Are you under that compulsion?
No, be honest now. Have you not heard the gospel
enough to know that what God has called us to is to rest in
him? Have you heard it enough to know
that now? See, because that's the reason this book was written.
Let me close with these words. Jesus stood in the midst of a
whole bunch of people one day, and he looked around and he saw
a whole bunch of weary sinners, worn out sinners, burdened sinners,
troubled sinners. And here's what he said, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. and I will give
you rest. Isn't that good? Amen.