I wonder if any of you thought
what I thought while I was reading that passage of scripture and
the first time that I read it. I must admit that the first reading
of this passage bothered me just a little bit. It almost seems
that Joseph was opportunistic in taking a bad situation, famine,
and using it to make Pharaoh rich. That is what happened. And he turned Egypt into a nation
of slaves. They had to sell everything that
they had, their lands, their bodies, and they became a nation
of slaves. I've entitled this message, A
Nation Now here's what happened. You'll remember that God told
Pharaoh in a dream that there would be seven years of plenty
when the earth would bring forth by the handful grain and food. And it would be the best seven
years that they ever had. And that would be followed by
seven years of famine. The worst famine that the earth
had ever seen. that would cover the entire earth. God made that known to Pharaoh
in a dream that Joseph interpreted. You probably remember that. And
Joseph let Pharaoh know about what was going to take place.
And so Pharaoh appointed Joseph to be the head of Egypt during
these seven years of plenty. And he was going to manage the
affairs of the land and make sure that they saved up enough
to help them during these years of famine. From what I can understand,
he bought grain from people at fair market value. Twenty percent
of the grain went to Pharaoh. He bought it and stored it up,
and that way they had all this grain when the famine came. So
now the famine comes, and they come to Pharaoh to buy food,
and they spend all their money on food. They run out of money.
Then they give him their cattle. Then they give him their lands
for food. Then a few years later, remember
this thing lasted seven years, they give him their bodies. They
become slaves to Pharaoh. And Joseph was very kind in the
way he treated them during this. Look in verse 23. Then Joseph said unto the people,
Behold, I have bought you this day in your land for Pharaoh.
You now are slaves to Pharaoh. He owns everything. Lo, here
is seed for you, and you shall sow the land, and it shall come
to pass in the increase that you will give the fifth part
unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own. for the seed
of the field. Now, before I go on reading with
this, would you have any problem with a flat 20% tax? I bet it's
doing better than you're doing right now, is it? I'd say it
is. So that's really, I mean, we
think that's good. It was actually very kind to
them. And he said, I'm giving you four
fish. It's yours for your little ones,
for your cattle and so on. He was actually very kind in
all this. Now, as always is the case, we have a gospel message
in this story, and it's a very powerful gospel message. Verse
13. And there was no bread in all
the land. Now, I want you to think about
this situation. You didn't have any way of getting anything to
eat. Now, I've said this several times
in the past several weeks. I can't tell you how irritated
I get every time I go by a gas station right now. I'm spending
over $50 to fill up my tank. You're doing the same thing,
and it's just bugging me. I bet it is you, too. You think,
why is all this? We think things like this, but
you know that's nothing. Okay, gas prices have gone up. I mean,
that's nothing compared to this trial. They didn't have anything
to eat. They didn't have any way of getting
anything to eat. The one thing that was necessary
for life, bread. The one thing that they had to
have, they didn't have, and didn't have any way of producing it. That famine had covered the land
and there was no way they could get food. Now, you put yourself
in their position, that would be a terrible, terrible place
to be. What does it mirror? What's the one thing we need
for life? Righteousness. Perfection before
God. perfect standing before His holy
law. That's the one thing we need
for life. You will not be saved without
a perfect standing before God's holy law. Do you have any way
of coming up with it? Do you have any way of producing
this? Can you get it? And this famine, no bread in
all the land, It pictures the state you and I are in by nature,
that which we need for life, we can't come up with. We cannot
produce. That's the problem. Have you
ever seen personally that this is your problem? Righteousness is not something
you can come up with. It's not something you can produce.
It is beyond you. There was no righteousness in
all the land, just like there was no bread in the land, there
was no righteousness in all the land. All you have is sin, what
you need, you really do not have, and you have no way of getting
it. Verse 14, 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. Now, during this time, they still
had what they thought was the solution to their problem. They
had some money. Well, we'll buy some food. And
they bought food. So Joseph gathered up all the
money that was in the land. Pharaoh became very rich and
everybody else became broke. He took all the money that was
in the land. So verse 15, And when money failed in the land of Egypt, there wasn't
any left. And in the land of Canaan, all
the Egyptians came unto Joseph and said, Not sell us bread,
but give us bread. We don't have anything to pay
for with. We don't have a dime. There's no way we can come up
with this. Would you be pleased to give us bread? Now, when you're
broke, when you're bankrupt before God, this is the way you come
into His presence. Give me bread. I don't have anything
to pay. I'm totally dependent upon you
to give me that which I need. And if you don't give it to me,
I mean, give it to me freely. If you don't give it to me, I'm
not going to have it. You ever come to the Lord like
that? Lord, give me that which I need. Give it to me, because
I can't pay for it. I'm totally dependent upon you.
I'm in your hands. It's up to you as to whether
or not I'm going to have it. But I'm asking you that you would
give me that which I need. Have you ever asked the Lord
to give you, to freely give you that which you need that you
won't live unless you have it? That's the way we ask the Lord. We ask Him to give. Well, what I need for life, if
He doesn't give me, I'm in trouble. Verse 16 and 17, it says, Give
us bread, verse 15, for why should we die and buy presents? For
the money faileth. We don't have anything, verse
16. And Joseph said, Give your cattle, and I will give you for
your cattle if money fail." Well, they found out they had something
after all. And they brought their cattle
unto Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses,
and for flocks, and the cattle of the herds, and for the asses,
and he fed them with bread for all the cattle for that year. Now, they said, Give me this
bread. And Joseph said, Hand over your
cattle. They're going to become more
broke than they thought they could be. Now, I want to ask a question. What does Christ require for
you to pay? What does Christ require of you? Now listen to me. This is very
important. What does He require of you?
Nothing from you. What could you give? What could you give? You don't
have anything to give Him. I'm going to give this to the
Lord. He don't want it. I'll assure you. What would He do
with it? Nothing from you. But all of
you. Now let that sink in. What does
the Lord require of you? Not a thing from you. You don't
have anything you can give Him. But he requires all of you. And this thing of being saved,
having him give you his salvation, is not like he gives it to you
and you say, thanks, I sure appreciate it, see you in heaven. I've got
a lot to live, though, right now, but I'll see you in heaven.
No, although he requires nothing from you, he does require all
of you. What did that man do who found
that treasure hidden afield? Do you remember? He went, and Scripture says,
with joy. He wasn't upset about this. He
wasn't saying, oh, I've got to lose everything for this. This
is going to drain my bank account to get this. No, Scripture doesn't
say he did. Scripture says, with joy. With joy, he went and sold
all he had to get that field. Remember the pearl of great price?
The man was searching for pearls. But when he found the one pearl,
of great price. He went and sold all that he
had to have that one pearl. Now, if you really value that
which you need for life, you will joyfully, listen to me,
this is important, you will joyfully lose all in order to have that. And if you have a problem with
losing all for it, you prove it really is not that important
to you. I'm called upon to lose all,
to forsake all, and to follow Him." Now would you turn with
me to Luke chapter 14. Hold your finger there, Genesis
47, and turn to Luke 14. And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto them. He had a big crowd
following him. They were impressed with the
things that they'd seen him do. And he says, If any man come
to me, and hate not his father and mother and his wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of
you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Lest, haply, after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all good things unlock him, saying, This man began to build, and
he was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth,
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him, that cometh to him
with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadge, and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh
not all that he hath." He cannot be my disciple. Those are sobering words. Those
are true words. If I don't forsake all that I
have, whatever that means, ask the Lord to teach you. If I don't
forsake all that I have, I can't be His disciple. Back to Genesis
47. They gave their horses and their
flocks and their cattle of their herds and their asses, and He
fed them with bread for all the cattle for that year. When that year was ended, they had plenty to eat that year.
When that year was ended, they came unto Him the second year. And there's six to go. And said
unto Him, we're not going to hide it from my Lord. Now 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
land. Now they came to him, I think
this is interesting, the second year, with the same need they
came in the first year. They didn't come saying we're
a little bit better off. If anything, they came with a
greater need. And they came honestly. They
said, we're not going to hide it from you. We don't have a thing. We're bankrupt. They didn't come
saying, well, we've traded. We've improved a little bit.
We've done a little bit better. Our need's not quite as great
as it was last year. No, they come in honesty. We're not going to hide this
from you. Our need is just as great as it ever was. I'm not
pretending to be what I'm not. I'm bankrupt. I have nothing
to pay. Now, they come the second time
like this. You know, when we come to Christ, We always come as needy, needy,
bankrupt sinners. And there's no other way to come
to Christ. That's the only way you come.
And if I don't come that way, I don't come at all. They said, we're not pretending.
We're not going to pretend something and hide. We're not hiding this
from you. We still don't have a thing. Now, don't you find
that's the truth regarding you? I don't, I'm speaking honestly
right now, as honest as I'm before him, I do not have a thing. There's not all left in the sight
of our Lord, but our bodies and our lands, verse 19, Wherefore
shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us.
Now, notice they didn't say we're going to sell ourselves. They
said buy us. That's our only hope is for you
to buy us. And that word is quite often translated. Redeem us. That's the only hope I have.
Is if you redeem me, if you buy me, I don't have anything to
pay. Here, this is it. My only hope is for you to buy
me. Buy 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, redeem us. Give us bread
that we may live and not die. Now, don't you feel a continual
need of a fresh application of His redeeming blood to you. You come to Him the way you came
the very first time with nothing. And all you ask for is, God be
propitious, be a redeemer to me. Right now, do you need the blood
of Christ? I love that hymn, I need thee,
precious Jesus, for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need that cleansing fountain
where I can always flee, the blood of Christ most precious,
the sinner's perfect flee." Bias. Redeem us. You know, as long as I sin, How I need his precious blood. But you know, we sing a hymn.
Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power
till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.
You know, that doesn't quite get it for me. I'll need his
precious blood when I stand before him in glory. And that's my only
standing at all times. That's my only security, His
precious blood. Now, once I'm in glory, it's
not like I'm not going to need His blood anymore at all times,
now and then. His precious blood is my cleansing
before God. Nothing else. He says, buy us,
redeem us. That's our only hope, redeem
us. We don't have anything to pay. Verse 20, And Joseph, But,
redeemed, all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians,
sold every man's field. Every single one of them had
to do this because of the famine prevailed over them. It defeated
them. It whipped them. So the land
became Pharaoh's. And you know, they weren't upset
about this. They weren't upset that, oh, I'm losing all my land
and I'm losing everything. But they knew the one thing they
needed was bread. And they were mighty grateful
they had the bread they had. They didn't say, Joseph is wrong
about this. He's taking advantage of this situation. They were
thankful for the bread they got. Joseph bought it all. And it
all became Pharaoh's. Nobody owned a thing. Only Pharaoh. Now, child of God, is it not
true that you don't own the thing? And it all belongs to him. Do
you have any problem with that? You like it that way, don't you? That's the only way you feel
comfortable. It all belongs to him. Verse 21, And as for the
people, he removed them to cities from one end of the border of
Egypt, even to the other end thereof. That's interesting.
This is the way he fed them. He moved them into definite cities,
definite places, and that's where they got their food. That's where
they got their nourishment, in these cities. Now, I'll tell
you what I thought right off the bat when I thought about
this. It's the church. The church. He moves us into
the churches. That's where we fit. You know,
right now, this is eating time. This is meal time. This is where
I'm fed. I'm fed with the Word of God.
He moves us into cities. Verse 22. Only the land of the
priests, I think this is interesting.
The Holy Spirit has this pointed out for a particular reason.
Only the land of the priests bought he not, Egyptian religion. He didn't buy that. He didn't
buy it. But the priest had a portion
assigned him to Pharaoh, and he'd eat their portion with Pharaoh,
and therefore they sold off their lands, and that's pointed out.
He didn't buy the priests of Egypt's land. You know, Lord, the Lord God doesn't want to
have anything to do with the religion. He's not going to buy
it. Why should he? It's evil. It's evil. Human religion, the
stuff that goes on under the name of Christianity, it's evil.
It's ungodly. Why? He's not buying that. He's
just not going to do it. He just left that alone. And
you know, I was thinking. The religion of salvation by
works. Man's religion. You can have it. I don't want
it. I really do. I don't want it.
I'm perfectly satisfied with the religion of this book, the
religion of Jesus Christ, the Lord, and his complete salvation.
He didn't buy the priest land. Now, look what he says in to
the verse 23. Then Joseph said unto the people. Behold. I have bought you. I have redeemed you this very
day. We have been bought in a day. And I don't have any doubt what
that's talking about. Redeemed? What day is that talking
about? You know, that's talking about the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, at that time, I was bought. Now, what does it mean
to be bought? Does that mean, oh, now I'm a
slave? We're going to get to that in a minute. But when I
was bought, you know what that means? He said, I bought you this day.
You're mine. You're not your own. When I was bought, all my
sin was canceled. It was put away. Put away to
this point. I don't have any sin. Now, you
chew on that for a moment. If you're a child of God, right
now before God, you do not have any sin. It is not And let me
underline that not. It is not just as if you don't
have any sin. You don't have any sin. Is that wonderful or what? That's
the gospel. Christ purges it away. Where
is it? It's God. He put it away. I don't
have any sin. That's what happens when He buys
you. Now, I've been bought, and I'm not my own. I am not my own. I'm redeemed,
I'm bought with the price, the price of his precious blood. You know, everybody he bought,
they were bought. You know, I love, you can call it definite atonement,
you can call it limited atonement, you can call it particular redemption.
I don't care what you call it, it's just the gospel. If he bought
you, your sins are paid for. They're gone. That's wonderful. He said, I bought you this day.
And what does he do upon buying us? I think this is interesting,
because if you're like me, when you read this passage of Scripture,
you almost felt bad for the Egyptians. It almost seems like an opportunistic
situation where he did that, you know, he took this bad situation
of famine and used it to buy them and end up being slaves.
But how did they respond to this? First of all, what Joseph says
to them, he says, behold, I bought you this day in your land for
Pharaoh. Lo, now I'm going to take everything you got. Now what does he say? Lo, here is seed for you, and
you shall sow the land. He bought you, and He gives to
you. He gives you that which you need. Seed to sow the land. Verse 24, And it shall come to
pass in the increase And there will be an increase, that ye
shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall
be your own for the seed of the field, and for your food, and
for them of your households, and for the food of your little
ones." You know, when I read that passage of Scripture, I'm
made to think no slaves ever had it so good. No slaves ever had it so good. Now, when God saves a man or
a woman, and you listen to this real carefully. This is an important
part of this message. This is pointed out. You know,
they gave the fifth part back to Pharaoh. When God saves an
individual, He saves you to be a giver. Love gives. How do you define love? God so
loved the world. What? That He gave. Love gives. You love to give to the object
of your love, and if you don't love to give, it's because you
do not love. Period. Love loves to give. Love finds it a privilege to
give. Now remember, when you give,
You're not given to pay the bills. You're not given to help pay
the preacher's salary. You're given to the Lord. You're
giving back a portion of that which he has so freely bestowed
upon you. And when you look at it that
way, it's easy to give, isn't it? You know, the scripture says,
God loveth a cheerful giver. One who delights in giving. And
if God saves me or you, you know what we're going to want to do?
We're going to want to be giving people in every respect. Now, let's read their response.
Verse 25. And they said, Thou hast saved our lives. They weren't
mad. They weren't upset. They didn't
think this was an unjust thing. They said, Thou hast saved our
lives. We'd be dead if you didn't do
everything you did. You saved our lives. And you
know, isn't that what the Lord has done? He saved me. He saved
me from my sin. He saved me from the penalty
of my sin. He justified me. He saved me from the power of
my sin by giving me a new nature, a holy nature that can believe,
that can repeat. Didn't used to be able to do
that. Can now. Didn't used to be able to love God, can't now.
Didn't used to be able to believe God, I do now. He saved me from
the power of sin in one of these blessed days. I'm going to enter
into the experience of being saved from the very presence
of sin, perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. He
said, Thou hast saved us. I don't see any disgruntled Egyptians
here for being slaves. Thou hast saved us. And what do they ask next? You
saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight
of my Lord. Grace. I was talking to a fellow. He
was telling me, I understand grace, what I need. Talking to
Bill this week troubled me. He said, I understand grace.
I see grace. He said, I need to be taught
how to live. That's what I'm needing right now in my life.
Well, I want to know how to live too. I'm not sure. I understand. I want to glorify Christ in my
life. You know, at all times, I never
get past this. Let me find grace. In your sight
unmerited favor, I need continuous grace. And we don't want to turn
over to Genesis chapter six so we can see exactly what this
grace means. Verse five. This is a. This is a passage of Scripture
that every one of us ought to commit to memory. If you want to understand
what man is by nature, this is what God sees. Verse 5, And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination, not even talking about the worst now, he's talking
about the imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only
evil continually. Would that be you? Would that be you? Well, God says it is. Let's talk
about every man. Now, was Noah included in that
bunch? Everybody but Noah? No, Noah was described right
there, too. Look what verse 8 says. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. No, it wasn't that group described
in verse 5, but he found grace, unmerited favor in the eyes of
the Lord. So that's our continual cry,
verse 25, and they said, Thou hast saved our lives. Let us
find grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's
servants. We want grace so that we can
be servants. Now, here's a place where it's
good to be a nation of slaves. Let me say this, and I'm saying
this as honestly as I know how. I mean this from the very depths
of my heart. The greatest freedom that I can have is to be a slave
of Jesus Christ. That's the greatest freedom I
could have. You know, I've had people, I've
talked to them about what we believe regarding the gospel,
and they say, well, you make men into robots. You know, believe
in sovereign grace and God's in control of everything. That
makes men into robots. And you know, I thought before, I'm not
so sure that's a bad thing. Would you like to be a robot
programmed to do His will? I'm not going to apologize for
that. But we're doing what we want to, aren't we? We want to
be His servants. He says, Oh, let me find grace
in your sight that we might be Pharaoh's servants. Now, a nation
of slaves, this is a good thing, isn't it? Not a bad thing. It's
a good thing. Let's pray together.