Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord with
me abide. fail and comforts flee. Lord, I am helpless, O, abide
with me. Swift to its close ebbs Out life's
little day Earth's joys grow dim It's glories
pass away Change and decay In, all around O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. Help me believe, Lord, Every
passing hour Warm my cold heart Just as you warm the flowers
Sin and its lies cast doubts and fears on me. Break through like sunshine,
Lord, abide with me. Lift up the cross, God's remedy
for sin Fix my poor heart on Christ and only Him He shed His blood and by it set
me free Now and forever He'll abide with
me will abide with me. Verse 45 of Genesis 41, And Pharaoh called Joseph's name
Zaphnath-pe-ah-nia. That's what entitled this message. It's a hard word to pronounce,
but this is the special name given to Joseph by Pharaoh. I've had this passage of scripture
on my mind for probably a month now and haven't been able to
get it off. And so I trust the Lord is going
to bless this message. I read as much as I could about
this name, and I've been given three different meanings of the
name, and all of them sound very agreeable to me. First, it means
the revealer of secrets. And Joseph certainly was that,
and the Lord Jesus certainly is that, the revealer of secrets. Brian was praying how it's amazing
how the Lord can look at us as lovely and beautiful and comely
and without fault where the Lord Jesus Christ is the revealer
of how that is. This name also means the man
of food during famine. If you were going to have food,
the only place you were going to get it was from him. Nowhere
else. One other man called this name
the savior of the world. And I like all three of those
names. And you can certainly see how this Joseph is such a
glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Joseph was his father,
Jacob's favorite. I love to look in Genesis chapter
36, when you read about all the different descendants of Esau,
and there's hundreds named there. It's a real long chapter and
the names of many people, but look in chapter 37. We see the
gospel here so clearly. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. And these
are the generations of Jacob, Joseph. Joseph. That's a whole story. Joseph. That's my history. Joseph. Now, Joseph was his father's
favorite. And his father made a difference between him and
his other sons. He made him a coat of many colors. And his brothers were very envious
of him. And you can understand that.
If I was one of his brothers, I probably would have been envious
of him too. And he was just special to his dad. And he had these
dreams that his brothers were going to have to bow the knee
to him. And that made him mad. That even made Jacob mad. But
his brothers moved with envy, sold him into slavery, and he
prospered as a slave. As a matter of fact, the fellow
that he worked for, He made him ruler over all of his farm or
whatever it was that he did. And then he was accused of a
crime that he did not commit. And he was thrown into prison
and sat there for years. Now he prospered as a prisoner.
The prison guard made him keeper over all the prisoners, whatever
he did, it seemed like the Lord prospered it. And then there
were two men, a butler and baker, that had two different dreams. And they didn't know what those
dreams meant. And Joseph said he could interpret them. In fact,
he did. He interpreted that the butler would be restored back
to his position of honor and the baker would be put to death.
And that's exactly what happened. So the butler is released from
prison and he forgets all about Joseph. He didn't tell anybody
about Joseph. And then Pharaoh has this dream that he can't
understand and he's very troubled by. And then the butler who was
The butler to Pharaoh said, I remember my faults, and he told him about
Joseph. And let's begin reading in Genesis
41 verse 25. And Joseph said unto Pharaoh,
the dream of Pharaoh is one. God hath showed Pharaoh what
he's about to do. The seven good kind are seven
years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream is
one. And the seven thin and ill-favored kind that came up after them
are seven years, and the seven empty ears blasted with the east
wind shall be seven years of famine. This is the thing which
I have spoken unto Pharaoh. What God is about to do, he showeth
unto Pharaoh. What a mercy! Behold, there come
seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and there
shall rise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty
shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall
consume the land, and the plenty shall not be known in the land
by reason of that famine following, for it shall be very grievous.
And for the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it's because
the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it
to pass. Now therefore let Pharaoh look
at a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt,
Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the
land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven
plenteous years. And let them gather all the food
of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand
of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. And that
food shall be for a store to the land against the seven years
of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land
perish not through the famine. And the thing was good in the
eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants, And Pharaoh
said unto his servants, can we find such a one as this, a man
in whom the spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
for as much as God has showed thee all this, there's none so
discreet and wise as thou art. Thou shalt be over my house,
and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. Only
in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, see, I've set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh
took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand,
and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a golden
chain about his neck. And he made him to ride in the
second chariot which he had, and they cried before him, bow
the knee. And he made him ruler over all
the land of Egypt. And I was thinking about this
thing of bowing the knee. Can't you willingly bow your
knee before the Lord Jesus Christ, and worship him as the God of
glory? Oh, you know, bowing the knee
to a man. I don't know about that, but
here's one man, the God man. How, how all we want to bow the
knee before him and worship him in spirit and truth. But wherever
Joseph went, they cried out, bow the knee. And people were
made to bow the knee to him. Verse 44. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, I am Pharaoh. And without thee shall no man
lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And this speaks
of his complete and utter sovereignty. No one could make a move without
Joseph. They couldn't lift up their hand. They couldn't lift
up their foot without his permission. And you know, that's the way
it is right now, even though the vast majority is not cognizant
of this. Still the way it is. I love thinking about that. You
know, I don't understand this, but I believe it. We act freely. We do what we want to do, and
everything we do is under the direct sovereign control of Christ. Isn't that great? I mean, I'm
glad it's that way. We act freely, uncoerced. We do what we want to do, and
everything we do is neither more nor less than the will of Christ
being done. He determined it. Now, how both
of those are so, I don't know, but they are, and I like it that
way. I want to act freely, but you know what? I want him to
cause me to do his will, don't you? I want him to cause me.
I've heard people say before, when they hear what we do, they
say, well, you make robots out of people. And I actually thought, I'm not
so sure that's a bad thing. I'd like to be his robot, wouldn't
you? Programmed to do his will. I like the thought of that, but
that's the power of Joseph at this time. Verse 45, and Pharaoh
called Joseph's name Zaphnath-peh-ah-nia. What a name. I like to think
about that. The revealer of secrets. He's the revealer, and he's the
one revealed. Isn't that glorious? He's the revealer. Anything you
know of God is what he has made known, and he is the one revealed. I understand how God can look
at me. and say you're altogether lovely
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He reveals that secret, but not
only is he the revealer of secrets, he's the man of bread in famine. Oh, a famine where there's nothing
to eat. There's only one place to get
food. There's only one place to get mercy. There's only one
place to get God's favor, and that's Christ. Truly, he is the
savior of the world. If you're saved, it's because
he saved you. Now, Joseph, verse 46, 45, and he gave him to wife Asenath,
the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On, and Joseph went all over
the land of Egypt. And Joseph was 30 years old when
he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And you know who you
think about there. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He was 30
years old when he began his public ministry. And when I read here
of Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout
all the land of Egypt, I know who I think of. I think of the
Lord Jesus Christ going out from the presence of the father in
the incarnation to save his people from their sins. Verse 47. And
in the seven plenteous years, the earth brought forth handfuls. And he gathered up all the food
of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid
up the food in the cities. And the food of the field, which
was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph
gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he
left numbering, for it was without number. There was no limit, there
was no measure to his grace, to his resources. He quit numbering
it. I love things, you can't be too
bad. There's no limit to his grace. Verse 50, And unto Joseph were
born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asernath,
the daughter of Potiphar's priest, of own barren to him. And here's
their names. And Joseph called the name of
the firstborn Manasseh, for God said he hath made me forget all
my toil and all my father's house. And he named the second called
Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land
of my affliction. forgetting and fruitful. Now remember, Joseph is such
a beautiful type of Christ. And think of these names with
our Lord Jesus Christ. You think of what all he went
through, looking unto Jesus who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame. He counted it something
to forget for the joy that was set before him. the joy of doing
his father's will, the joy of saving me. The Lord got such
joy out of putting away my sin and making me perfectly accepted
before God. He forgot what all He went through
for the joy that was set before Him. And you look at the fruit
that came from what He did, the complete salvation of all the
elect, everybody He died for. They're completely saved, perfect
in Christ Jesus, all together in love. What fruit! And then
I think of Him forgetting my sins. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when I'm in heaven, I don't know how this is so, but he's not
going to remember that I was ever a sinner. You know why? Because there's nothing there
to remember. He put away the sin. The sin is gone. It's non-existent. And I'm never going to be treated
as a sinner. He's never going to hold me off.
He's never going to treat me with suspicion. He's going to
say, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. He forgot all my sin. It's no more. And he made me
Fruitful, the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Every believer possesses
that. The Lord said, you didn't choose
me, but I chose you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit. Aren't those two names glorious,
Ephraim and Manasseh? Manasseh, forgetting, Ephraim,
fruitful. And this is so true with regard
to us. Paul said, forgetting those things
that are behind. Oh, would to God that we would
do that. forgetting those things that are behind, whatever they
are, and reaching forth unto those things that are before,
I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. And oh, our great desire is to
bear fruit unto God. Now, verse 53. And the seven years of plentifulness
that was in the land of Egypt were ended, And the seven years of Darth
began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the Darth was in
all lands. This was a worldwide famine.
But in all the land of Egypt, there was bread. And when all
the land of Egypt was famished, when they were all hungry, the
people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said unto the Egyptians,
go unto Joseph. What he saith to you, do. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth. And Joseph opened up all the
storehouses and sold into the Egyptians. And the famine waxed
sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn, because this famine was so sore in the
land. If you were to have food, There
was only one place to get it, Joseph. And if you're to have
mercy, there's only one place to get it, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, jump over to chapter 47. This famine has been going on
for years now. Verse 13. And there was no bread in all
the land, For the famine was very sore, so that the land of
Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the
money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan
for the corn which they bought. And Joseph brought the money
into Pharaoh's house. And when money failed, people
spent every dime they had in the land of Egypt and in the
land of Canaan. All the Egyptians came unto Joseph and said, give
us bread. They don't start asking to buy
it anymore. They said, give it to us. For why should we die
in thy presence? For the money failed. We don't
have anything to pay for it. Would you be pleased to give
it to us? And Joseph said, give your cattle and I'll give for
your cattle if money failed. And they brought their cattle
unto Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses
and for flocks and for the cattle of the herds and for the asses.
And he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
And when that year was ended, they came unto him the second
time and said, we will not hide it from my Lord, how that our
money is spent, my Lord also hath our herds of cattle. We
don't have anything. There's not left in the sight
of our Lord, but our bodies and our lands. Wherefore shall we
die before thine eyes, both we and our land by us? Bias. You know that's what I say to
the Lord. Buy me. Redeem me. I don't have anything. Redeem
me and give me. Give me. Redeem me and give me. I have nothing left. It's kind
of interesting. I read everything I could on
this passage of scripture and people were saying, well, Joseph
was kind of being opportunistic here. I mean, he's putting, making
them lose everything in order to pad Pharaoh's coffers and
to make it to where he owned everything. And no, he was bringing
them, as we're going to see, to the very best place they could
possibly be in doing this. Now let's go on reading. Verse
18, once again, when the year was ended, they came unto him
the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from
my lord, how that our money is spent. My lord, also hath our
herds of cattle. There's not aught left in the
sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands. Wherefore shall
we die before thine eyes? Both we and our land, buy us.
And that word is actually translated, redeem us. and our land for bread. And we and our land will be servants
unto Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may
live and not die, that the land be not desolate. Buy us and give
us." Isn't that what the Lord does? He redeems me, He buys
me, and He gives me. Verse 20, And Joseph bought all
the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, For the Egyptians sold every
man his field, because the famine prevailed over them. So the land
became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed
them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to
the other thereof. That's like the church. Only
the land of the priests bought he not, for the priests had a
portion assigned them to Pharaoh and did eat. Their portion, what
Pharaoh gave them, wherefore they sold not their lands. Joseph
didn't buy their religion. I think that's interesting. He
wasn't interested in that. Then Joseph said unto the people,
Behold, I have bought you this day in your land for Pharaoh.
Lo, here is seed for you, and you'll sow the land. And it shall
come to pass in the increase, you'll give the fifth part unto
Pharaoh, and four parts will be for your own, for the seed
of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households,
and for food for your little ones. He saved them. And how
did they respond? And they said, Thou hast saved
our lives. They didn't say you made us a
nation of slaves. You know, the greatest freedom
a believer can have is to be a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be a servant. That's what we want, isn't it?
I want to be his servant, the servant of the Lord. Thou has
saved our lives. That's our confession. He saved
us. That's everything we believe.
He saved us. Thou hast saved our lives. And
look what it says next. Let us find grace in the sight
of my Lord. Isn't that what you want? I want
to find favor. I want to find grace. All I want
is grace. All I want is the freeness of
His favor. Let me find grace in your sight.
That's the same thing. Moses asked for, let me find
grace in your sight. That's what every believer wants.
I want to find unmerited favor, for God to have favor toward
me. Let us find grace in the sight
of my Lord and we'll be Pharaoh's servants. Now, you remember Joseph's brothers? They were hungry too. They were
in the land of Canaan during this time. Look back at chapter
42. Evidently, news traveled. Now,
when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to
his sons, why do you look one upon the other? Now here is the
proclamation of the gospel. There's corn in Egypt. You say, how's that the gospel?
Well, what you need, what I need, corn, grace, food, acceptance,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All you need is in Christ and
he has unlimited stores. There's grace in Christ. There's
acceptance in Christ. There's forgiveness in Christ.
You need these things? There's righteousness in Christ.
All of God's love is in Christ. All of God's mercy is in Christ. There's free justification in
Christ. There's preservation in Christ.
The gospel of Christ is the great need. And we say to anybody to
listen, there's salvation in Christ. Salvation in every sense of the
word. Are you hungry? Are you guilty? Do you need mercy? Do you need forgiveness? Do you
need a new heart? Do you need a right spirit? Do you need hearing ears? Do you need a broken heart? Do
you need repentance? He says, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He
tells you to do it, and he's got the willingness and the ability
to give you rest. There's corn in Egypt. Now, when
we preach the gospel, We don't tell men that God loves
them and Christ died for them. Now, here's what you need to
do to make that work for you. That salvation by works is all
it is. We don't say anything like that.
We do say that all God has for the sinner is in, through, by,
and because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do say that. And I love Jacob's question to
his boys. Look in chapter 42, verse one.
Now when Jacob saw that there was one source of food, there's
corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do you look upon
one another as if you could come up with
corn? As if there's anywhere else you
could go or if there's anything else you could do about your
hunger, what are you waiting on? You waiting to get better?
Are you waiting for some kind of experience? Are you waiting
for something to happen? Are you waiting to change? There's
corn in Egypt. Why do you look one another?
And he said, behold, I've heard that there's corn in Egypt. Get
you down thither and buy for us from this that we may live
and not die. You know, the way to get that
corn is always in the downward direction. Always. You get down
there and bring us that corn. Now turn to chapter 45. Now this is when Joseph makes
himself known to his brethren. You're familiar with the story
how they came a couple of times to get food. And we read in chapter
45. Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause
every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept
aloud, and the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard, and Joseph
said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Now what do you think
they were thinking about? I know what they were thinking
about. They were thinking about betraying him. They were thinking
about fooling his father, taking his coat of many colors and dipping
it in blood and saying, is this your, how cruel they were to
their father, how cruel they were to Joseph. That's exactly
what they were thinking about when he said, I am Joseph. They
were thinking, Oh, Oh. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. They were terrified. They were
scared to death. They thought it's over for us now. Our sins
found us out. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me. I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your
brother. whom you sold into Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life." What they did was evil. What
they did was wicked. What they did was heartless and
cruel. But God did it. And he did it to preserve life. Verse 6, For these two years
hath the famine been in the land, and there are yet five years
in the which shall neither be earing nor harvest. But God sent
me before you. to preserve you a posterity in
the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. You know, when you and I were
nailing Christ to a cross, it was an evil, wicked thing. Can't
even be described. It was God's great deliverance. Verse seven, God sent me before
you to preserve you a prosperity in the earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. That was not you that sent me
hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go ye up to my
father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God. hath made me Lord of all Egypt.
Come down unto me, tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land
of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children,
and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds,
and all that thou hast, and there will I nourish thee. For there
are yet five years of famine, lest thou and thy household,
and all that thou hast, come to poverty. And behold your eyes,
and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that's my mouth that speaketh
unto you, and you shall tell my father of all my glory, in
Egypt and of all that you've seen and you shall hasten bring
my father hither and he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck
and wept and Benjamin wept upon his neck moreover he kissed all
his brethren and wept upon them and after that his brethren talked
with him." Now go back to Genesis 41. Verse 45, And Pharaoh called
Joseph's name Zaphnath-Pegonia. You see what that means now,
don't you? He's the revealer of secrets.
He reveals the secret of how God can look at this defiled
sinner and see nothing but that which is pure and holy and conform
to the image of His Son. He's the revealer of that secret.
He's the revealer of the secret of who God is. God makes known
His very heart in the person of His Son. If you want to know
who God is, the only way you'll know is as He's revealed in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the revealer of secret. To know how truly He is the man
of food and famine. Are you hungry? You know, it's a blessing to
be hungry. It's a gift of God's grace. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Whatever it is you hunger for,
He is the man of food and famine. He's the Savior of the world.
You know, all the countries came to Him, didn't they? It wasn't
just Egypt. The only place in the world for
food was right there. He's the Savior of the world.
And I love that title of our Lord. He's called that in the
New Testament. The Savior of the world. I love that. Joseph, that... And can you see
why, once again, chapter 37, Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. These are
the generations of Jacob. Joseph. That's the whole story. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for him
who is the revealer of secrets. How we thank you for the man
of food and famine for Lord. We live in a land of famine and
we have a famine in our heart and the only way that we can
have food is from him. And Lord, how we thank you that
he's the savior of the world. Lord, how we thank you for your
word where you give us this beautiful type of your blessed son and
the salvation that's in him. Lord, give us the grace to know
that all of our history is Joseph, Jesus, thy son, the
fruitful bow, Bless us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. What page you got, Paul? 223.
223. We'll stand and sit.