Will you turn with me to Genesis chapter
40 for our scripture reading.
Genesis chapter 40.
Now you may remember the story to this
point.
Joseph has been sold into captivity and as
a result of the incident in Potiphar's house,
in connection with Potiphar's wife, Joseph has now
been put in jail.
So we pick up the account in verse
1 of chapter 40.
Then it came about after these things, the
cupbearer and the baker of the king of
Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
And Pharaoh was furious with his two officials,
the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.
So he put them in confinement in the
house of the captain of the bodyguard, that's
Potiphar, in the jail, the same place where
Joseph was imprisoned.
And the captain of the bodyguard put Joseph
in charge of them and he took care
of them.
And they were in confinement for some time.
Then the cupbearer and the baker of the
king of Egypt, who were confined in jail,
they both had a dream the same night,
each man with his own dream and each
dream with its own interpretation.
When Joseph came to them in the morning
and observed them, behold they were dejected.
And he asked Pharaoh's officials who were with
him in confinement in his master's house, why
are your faces so sad today?
Then they said to him, we have had
a dream and there is no one to
interpret it.
Now, that likely is a reference to the
fact that the interpretation of dreams was practically
a profession in Egypt as well as in
Babylon at this time.
And there were magicians and sorcerers and soothsayers
and others who were generally called upon to
interpret dreams.
For example, in the very next chapter, when
Pharaoh has his dream, we read in the
eighth verse of chapter 41, now it came
about in the morning that his spirit was
troubled, so he sent and called for all
the magicians of Egypt and all its wise
men.
And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there
was no one who could interpret them to
Pharaoh.
So whether this was that there were no
interpreters in prison at that particular time or
whether there were just no interpreters who could
interpret this dream or not, it does not
say.
Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong
to God?
Tell it to me, please.
So the chief cup bearer told his dream
to Joseph and said to him in my
dream, behold, there was a vine in front
of me and on the vine were three
branches.
And as it was budding, its blossoms came
out and its clusters produced ripe grapes.
Now Pharaoh's cup was in my hand.
So I took the grapes and squeezed them
into Pharaoh's cup and I put the cup
into Pharaoh's hands.
Then Joseph said to him, this is the
interpretation of it.
The three branches are three days.
Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up
your head and restore you to your office.
And you will put Pharaoh's cup into his
hand according to your former custom when you
were his cup bearer.
Now, three days from this time was the
birthday of Pharaoh and he had a feast
as was the custom and here the servants
were going to be mentioned.
And so they were thinking about this and
they were dreaming about the things that they
were thinking, which is not uncommon as we
all know.
Only keep me in mind, Joseph says, when
it goes well with you and please do
me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh
and get me out of this house.
For I was in fact kidnapped from the
land of the Hebrews.
He doesn't say by his brothers in that
sense.
He's courteous and thoughtful and considerate of them.
And even here I have done nothing that
they should have put me into the dungeon
or into the hole, literally.
The Hebrew word is bore.
It means a hole.
When the chief baker saw that he had
interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph, I also
saw in my dream and behold, there were
three baskets of white bread on my head.
And in the top basket, there were some
of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh
and the birds were eating them out of
the basket on my head.
Then Joseph adds and said, and said, this
is its interpretation.
The three baskets are three days within three
more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head
from you.
You'll notice that from you and we'll hang
you on a tree and the birds will
eat your flesh off you.
Those were vigorous days.
Thus, it came about on the third day,
which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a
feast for all his servants and he lifted
up the head of the chief cup bearer
and the head of the chief baker among
his servants.
And he restored the chief cup bearer to
his office and he put the cup into
Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker
just as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Yet the chief cup bearer did not remember
Joseph, but forgot him.
The subject for the ministry of the word
this morning is Joseph prepared by providence in
Pharaoh's prison.
The Westminster larger catechism defines providence in this
way.
God's works of providence are his most holy,
wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his
creatures and all their actions.
As you can tell from this, the characteristic
and the important words are the words preserving
and governing all his creatures and all their
actions.
The providence of God is something that governs
all of the actions of men, even their
thoughts.
The immediate operation of God and his providence
is taught in passages such as Acts chapter
17 and verse 18.
In him we live and move and have
our being.
And this providential agency of God relates to
the physical nature generally.
He causeth the grass to grow, the psalmist
writes.
It has to do also with the animal
creation.
Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without
your father.
It has to do with the events of
human history so that all of the events
of human history are governed by the providential
hand of God.
It has to do with our individual life.
And it has to do with so-called
fortuitous events, even those that we think are
accidental or chance events.
The lot is cast into the lap, but
the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord,
the writer of the Proverbs says.
And it also has to do with the
particulars as well as the universals.
We are inclined because we are naturally pagan
to think of God as being operative perhaps
in the big events of history, but in
the little things, no.
But the scriptures say the hairs of all,
of all, all your hairs or the hairs
of your head are all numbered.
And I want you to know that's very
particular for some of us.
I know it's not a great job for
the Lord to count mine, but for some
others it is a great job, and God
knows all of the hairs upon the head
of all of us, and that's very particular.
I say the pagans thought of providence as
the work of God in the big matters,
but in the little matters, well, he's not
concerned about those things.
They had an expression magna dei curant parwa
negligunt.
That is, the gods care for the great
things, but they neglect the little things.
But scripture puts it another way.
Scripture says he worketh all things according to
the counsel of his own will, so that
all of the events of life, even those
things that we call little things, are things
that are of great concern to the Lord
God.
And in fact, the Bible says, and we
do follow the Bible, do we not?
The Bible says that even the sinful actions
of men are the result of the providential,
sovereign, governing hand of God.
Listen to scripture.
I'll just take one preeminent illustration.
For truly in this city there were gathered
together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou
didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose
predestined to occur.
Acts chapter 4, verse 27 and verse 28.
So the providence of God, it is that
work of God in which he preserves and
governs.
Now this chapter before us is one of
the most beautiful illustrations of the providence of
God.
Looked at in the light of the total
story of Joseph, it is a remarkable chapter.
And two well-known sentences written by men
find beautiful illustration here.
William Cooper's famous hymn has the stanza, it
is William Cooper, not Cowper.
The Scots informed me about that when I
was in Scotland.
God moves in a mysterious way his wonders
to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea and
rides upon the storm.
And then someone else has said, the Lord
finds a thousand ways where reason sees not
even one.
The offenses of the cup bearer and the
baker were committed in the ordinary course of
life, but ultimately the scriptures say they were
planned by God.
Now they were planned by God for the
welfare of his servant Joseph.
That's why the cup bearer ultimately offended Pharaoh
and that's why the baker did too.
Because it was by this that ultimately Joseph
came to the attention of Pharaoh.
It was by this that he was ultimately
made second in the land, right behind Pharaoh.
It was by this that all of the
Egyptians were made to bow before Joseph.
And Pharaoh later said to Joseph, we read
of this in the next chapter, that a
man should not even lift his hand or
his feet without Joseph's permission in the land
of Egypt.
And it's all because of the offense of
the cup bearer and the baker.
And of course the reason for this is
that Joseph might be the deliverer of the
chosen family when they came down from Egypt
from the famine and also from the pollution
that was facing them in the land of
Palestine.
So God works in the small things of
life as well as in the great things.
As the writer of the Proverbs puts it
in verse 1 of chapter 21, the king's
heart is like channels of water in the
hand of the Lord.
He turns it, that is the king's heart,
he turns it wherever he wills.
So the clock of divine providence keeps strict
time and it never varies from one to
the other.
Now in chapter 40 we also read of
Joseph's continuing preparation, looked at from the standpoint
of Joseph.
Consider he is now in the jail and
two important officials are in the jail with
him.
It's by them that he comes to know
a great deal of the life of the
court.
He learns about the crimes committed in Pharaoh's
court.
He learns about the cabals, the intrigues that
go on there.
And soon Joseph is going to be a
man of that court and so consequently it's
not surprising that God should be preparing him
for the work that he should do when
he should become the Lord of the land
of Egypt.
We've had a lot of books written in
recent years by people who lived in the
White House.
Not the important figures but the maids and
the cooks and the secretaries all wanted to
get in on the act and tell us
about the things that happen in the White
House.
Well Joseph was learning about the things that
were happening in the Egyptian White House from
officials who were very important officials for the
cupbearer and the baker were both important officials.
He was also disciplined by his experiences.
He had lived as a slave of Potiphar
and then now he's in jail and he
is under the jailer so he's being trained
by God.
Now whether Joseph understood this or not we
don't know.
He doesn't say anything about it.
He doesn't say I knew the Lord put
me through these things because he wanted to
train me.
But he was being trained and as a
result of it he came to be the
kind of ruler that God wanted Egypt to
have at that particular time.
And he learned that it's better to wear
a shabby coat than to lose your conscience
so that God was working in his inmost
being as well as preparing him for wider
service in the days to come.
I would imagine that Joseph if he were
here to talk to us would say some
of the greatest days of training for me
were spent in that jail.
And when the psalmist says that I was
laid in irons.
Now I know that is very difficult for
a southerner to say irons for you Yankees
who are in the audience.
Irons.
We just say irons you know.
Well when he was laid in irons if
that's the way you pronounce it we'll get
back at you one of these days don't
worry just keep coming.
What happened really was he was in those
irons in the jail but the iron was
beginning to enter into Joseph's soul and he
became the kind of iron saint that God
wanted to have.
Joseph you see had been a something of
a spoiled brat it would appear.
He was a person who was rather proud
of those dreams that God had given him
in which God said to him that the
other brothers were going to bow down to
him and not only that but his father
and his mother were going to bow down
to him too according to his second dream.
And then in addition Jacob had unwisely perhaps
given him that coat of many colors whatever
kind of coat it was we talked about
that.
It nevertheless was a coat that marked out
Joseph's position among his older brothers as unique
and as a brother who was going to
have authority over them.
And so he loved to talk about his
dreams it would appear and he was if
anything perhaps a little proud but God was
going to take a great deal of that
away from him.
The thing that Moses learned when he was
made a shepherd of the sheep in Midian
for so many years is the thing that
Joseph was to learn in prison.
The thing that Daniel was to learn in
exile is the thing that Joseph is to
learn in his incarceration.
The thing that Bunyan learned the thing that
Baxter learned when they were put in prison
and out of whom came those marvelous works.
Well this is the thing that Joseph learned
and from Joseph came some works that were
even more remarkable.
Well let's look now at chapter 40 and
we'll seek to in the time that we
have go through it and draw a few
lessons at the conclusion.
Now first of all in the first few
verses Moses writes of the imprisonment of the
court offices.
Let's not forget that the cupbearer and the
baker were rather dignified offices.
They were in other words important offices.
They were not the kinds of offices that
we might think of a cupbearer and a
baker.
They were important because they had particular responsibilities
that affected very much the physical well-being
of Pharaoh.
It was not uncommon for rulers to be
poisoned by their cupbearers or poisoned by their
bakers and so they were important officials and
it was important that a man very loyal
stand in that particular place.
Some of the things that have been discovered
through research and archaeology are rather amusing and
one of the statements concerning bakers is rather
interesting.
The baker's task was widely regarded in Egypt
as well because Egypt was famous for the
pastries and cakes and fruit breads of all
sizes and shapes that were produced there.
But there is a humorous comment in some
of the literature and I'll read it to
you.
When the baker standeth and baketh and layeth
bread on the fire his head is inside
the oven and his son holdeth fast his
feet.
That should be holdeth fast his feet.
Cometh it to pass that he slippeth from
his son's hands he falleth into the blaze.
So you can see one had to be
rather careful if he was a baker.
They were important officials.
Now what they did the Bible does not
say.
These offenses are unknown.
But the rabbis are individuals who often pretend
to know everything about which the scriptures are
silent and so they say that the trouble
with the cupbearer was that he permitted a
fly to drop into the king's cup and
the baker's fault was that he allowed a
grain of sand to be found in the
king's bread.
Others have suggested perhaps with a little more
plausibility that the two had conspired to assassinate
the king and that the baker was more
guilty than the cupbearer.
Solomon says the king's wrath is like the
roaring of a lion and that's what we
read about here.
So they are thrown into custody because Pharaoh
we read was furious at what had taken
place.
Now Joseph is in prison as well.
He had gained higher ground finally but now
he's at the bottom again and now he
is going to be made the slave of
these two officials.
Evidently Potiphar trusted him a little bit because
he did assign him to take care of
these two important officials and so he's either
made his way back into the favor of
Potiphar or as we suggested last Sunday Potiphar
did not believe everything that his wife said.
Isn't it interesting that the world often trusts
the Christian more than they do worldlings even
though they don't like to treat them very
well.
The world often if there is a position
of trust that must be filled will turn
to a Christian to fill it because the
world recognizes that the Christian has some principles
and consequently they are desirable of having men
with principle in positions of authority.
So Joseph is a man who is put
in charge in the prison and now he
is put in charge of these two men
in so far as service of them is
concerned.
Well one morning Joseph comes in and he
notices that the face of the cupbearer and
the baker are quite different from their normal
faces.
Incidentally they're different kinds of dreams.
There are divine dreams that is dreams that
God gives in order to teach us something.
There are diabolical dreams.
These are the dreams of the false prophets
who tell us they have dreamed something when
they really not dreamed anything from God.
And then there are the natural dreams that
we all have.
It's rather interesting to me that in Israel
there was no office of interpreter of dreams.
It was a big business with the Babylonians
and with the Egyptians.
So they had their magicians and their interpreters
of dreams and they were notably unsuccessful in
both the book of Daniel in the Babylonians
and also in the Egyptians here in the
time of Joseph.
And I think it's rather interesting that the
scripture has only two Israelites who interpreted dreams.
One was Daniel and he was in Babylonia
and the other is Joseph and he is
in Egypt.
And so what we read in the Bible
is in harmony with what we know about
the ancient world.
Now the dreams of these two men were
dreams that they recognized were significant dreams and
needed interpretation but no interpreter was there.
So Joseph came in.
He evidently stayed in the pit or the
hole and then as the morning came he
was then in the presence of these two
important officials in order to serve them.
He came in, he noticed that their faces
were very sad and dejected and so he
speaks to them and says, why are your
faces so sad today?
And they say, we've had a dream and
there's no one to interpret it.
Now if you'll remember Joseph's situation, you might
be surprised at what Joseph says.
I think that I might just as well
have heard Joseph say something like this.
Now listen, let me give you a word
of advice.
Don't pay any attention to dreams because I
had a dream back when I was in
the land of the Hebrews and my dream
back there was that my brothers were going
to bow down before me and then I
had another one in order to confirm it
and not only my brothers but my father
and mother were going to bow down before
me and the next thing I know my
brother sold me into captivity and then the
next thing I know I found myself in
jail.
So I'd suggest to you forget all about
the dream and don't let anybody interpret it
and if anybody does interpret it to you,
do just the opposite.
But now you can see that as far
as Joseph is concerned, he doesn't take that
attitude and the very fact that he doesn't
take that attitude and interprets it for them,
well that's evidence that in spite of what
has happened to him, he still believes in
his own dreams.
He believes that dreams do have their interpretation
from the Lord and he has faith in
his own dreams because he is anxious to
see that an interpretation from God comes to
these men.
And what is most interesting about it to
me is that Joseph, in this exercise of
faith, in the fact that these men do
have a dream from God, becomes the fulfiller
of his own dream.
That's precisely what happens.
Because when he interprets the dream for the
cup bearer and the baker, it's by virtue
of the accuracy of his interpretation that later
on when Pharaoh has his dream, the cup
bearer finally remembers that Hebrew back in the
jail who does a pretty good job of
interpreting dreams.
And it's by virtue of the fact that
he does interpret these dreams that he becomes
the fulfiller of his own dream because Pharaoh
remembers him and takes him and exalts him
to be the head under him over all
the land of Egypt.
Oh, the power of faith in the Word
of God.
And Joseph is an individual who believes in
the truths of Holy Scripture as they have
been unfolded to him.
Now the dream is a rather uninteresting dream.
It's one that relates to the office of
the cup bearer.
There were three branches.
It was budding.
There were blossoms.
The clusters produced grapes.
Pharaoh's cup he saw in his hand, so
he took the grapes and squeezed them into
the cup and he put the cup to
Pharaoh's hand.
And Joseph says this is the interpretation.
In three days, that's Pharaoh's birthday, when they
have the feast and they're going to have
the feast for the servants.
And they're going to go down the road
and name all the servants and give them
rewards or otherwise.
Well, Pharaoh's going to lift up your head
and he's going to restore you to your
office.
And you'll put Pharaoh's cup again in his
hand and serve as his cup bearer.
Now at the conclusion of that, he makes
an interesting request which has been misunderstood by
or rather understood in different ways by biblical
interpreters.
He says only keep me in mind when
it goes well with you.
Now some like to think of Joseph as
an individual whose life is presented as a
sinless life here in the book of Genesis.
They like to say you cannot find anything
in the life of Joseph that is contrary
to the will of God and thus he
serves as a most fitting type of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we have already talked about this and
so you know that I do think that
Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ.
But it's rather questionable, it seems to me,
to affirm that he's a type of the
sinless Christ.
That's not necessary.
Others say that this is an indication of
some lack of trust on Joseph's part.
I have a good friend, he's a very
fine Bible teacher, he likes to say ah,
this is the one sin in Joseph's life.
You see, he asked that the cup bearer
would remember him and that was lack of
trust in the Lord God.
Other interpreters say that's an exquisite, an exquisite
human touch to the narrative.
So we probably cannot say anything very dogmatic
or worthwhile about it.
It may be an evidence of a lack
of trust.
On the other hand, it may simply be
the kind of request that would normally be
made.
At any rate, God does not allow Joseph
to play the angles.
He does not even allow this scheme to
produce fruit.
He is going to have Jacob, he's going
to have Joseph exalted in his own way.
Not because the cup bearer goes out and
seeks to gain the position for him.
Now the baker, listening, I'm sure, very intently
to the interpretation that was given of the
dream of the cup bearer, thinks, well, perhaps
now I'm going to get a favorable one
too.
This fellow seems to be a fairly good
interpreter of dreams.
He says, take your dreams to God and
now he has been able to interpret the
dream very well.
Incidentally, Joseph's confidence is probably due to an
impulse from the Lord God.
But he is confident.
He says, dreams belong to the Lord, bring
them to me.
Now he doesn't mean, of course, he's the
Lord.
He means simply that he knows that from
the Lord comes the interpretation and he thinks
he has a pretty good idea about how
to get that interpretation from the Lord.
Reminds me of two little boys who were
talking and one of them said, my father
and I know everything.
The other little boy decided he would test
that.
So he posed a rather difficult question to
his friend.
And his friend said, that's one for my
father.
So Joseph, when he says, dreams belong to
the Lord God, he's not suggesting that he's
the Lord God.
He means that God's the one who gives
the interpretations and that's what he does.
But the baker is looking for a favorable
solution and so he asks him about his
dream.
It's very similar to the other.
It has threes in it which represent the
three days to Pharaoh's birthday, but like the
dream of the cupbearer it's related to his
occupation.
It has to do with bread.
Now he should have noticed, I guess, that
the birds that were eating out of the
basket were eating unmolested.
And so Joseph has to tell him that
he's going to be lifted up too, but
in quite a different way.
In fact, he's going to be lifted up
after having his head decapitated and the birds
are going to come and eat him.
I say these were vigorous days.
And this is what, of course, transpired.
I rather think that we should pay attention
to Joseph's methodology here.
Now he doesn't say, I'm sorry, Mr. Baker,
but I don't think that I can interpret
your dream.
I'd rather you get someone else to do
that.
I interpret dreams only if the outcome is
good.
If the outcome is bad, well then I
don't like to do that because that's not
really the way to do your dreams.
You should do the positive, not the negative.
Preach positively, not the negative.
Give the good things, not the bad things.
Don't be disagreeable.
So you can imagine that Joseph might not
have wanted to say what he said and
furthermore, that he might just have been a
spiritual coward because there are lots of spiritual
cowards standing behind the pulpit who know that
certain truths are in the Word of God
and who do not preach those truths because
they think, well, it might be divisive.
As if, like Mr. Calvin said, God has
let slip something harmful to the church.
It's, you know, an attack on the wisdom
of God not to preach the things that
are in the Bible.
If it's in the Scripture, we should proclaim
it.
If we're going to preach heaven, we do
have to preach hell.
If we're going to be faithful and if
we're going to be fruitful.
So Joseph has the courage of his convictions
and he has the courage that the Lord
God will be with him and so he
tells the baker the bad news.
And the bad news is the ultimate news.
You're going to get your head cut off
and the birds are going to eat you.
Not a very good dream, I'm sure.
Well, the remainder of the chapter tells us
that the dream was fulfilled just as it
had been anticipated.
There was the birthday feast.
The names of the servants were read out
and when it came to the cupbearer, Pharaoh
noticed him.
He lifted him up and gave him his
job back again.
But when the name of the baker came
up, he lifted him up too.
But his body didn't go with his head.
And so he lost his head and his
body was hung and the birds came and
ate just as they did from the bread
that was on his head in his dream.
And the chapter ends with the laconic comment,
yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph
but forgot him.
Well, you can see this story as a
marvel of the intricate perfection of divine providence.
Quietly, secretly, a most insignificant thing serves the
divine will.
Joseph has come down to Egypt.
He's been put in prison.
Now he's serving these two officials and he
comes in that morning and he notices a
look on their face.
What an insignificant thing that the servant of
the Lord God should come in that day
and should see that those two officials are
looking sad.
But it was that little thing that was
the key to the fulfillment of the word
of God in respect to Joseph because it
was that that started the conversation that led
to the interpretation of the dream.
You see, the exaltation of Joseph, the ongoing
of the whole program of God depended upon
being sold into slavery, the incident with Potiphar's
wife which landed him in the jail, and
then the observance of the look on the
faces of the two men and the whole
history of Israel and the whole history of
the Hals Geschichte of the word of God
depends upon that simple insignificant look that that
morning he saw on the faces of those
two men.
We like to think, we like to say
like the heathen do, God's interested in the
big things.
He's not interested in the little things.
We say surely he does operate in the
great affairs, but as for working all things
according to the counsel of his own will,
why doesn't work all things, not everything, just
the big things?
There are people who say yes it was
foreordained that Jesus Christ should come and should
die making it possible for us to have
the forgiveness of sins, but all things being
determined by the will of God, no not
all things, just the big things.
Now of course that's scientifically impossible because all
of the events of our human life are
intertwined.
Even if you looked at it scientifically you
would have to say that everything must be
bound together and everything does depend on everything
else.
But the scriptures are very plain.
Now as far as big things and little
things are concerned, it's true the pagans do
say God's, the gods care for the big
things and they neglect the little things, but
they're pagans.
They're not believers in Holy Scripture.
Scripture is different.
And as a matter of fact if you
will think about it for just a moment,
what is big and what is little in
the mind of God?
Why the thing that we've, the very expression
that we use, things great or small, that
exists, that particular distinction exists only for finite
intelligences.
We think things are big and we think
things are small, but we have no indication
whatsoever that God regards the things that we
think are big as big or the things
that we think are small as small.
This distinction exists for men, it does not
exist for God.
Just like mathematics, the smallest and the greatest
quantity are equal in nothing when compared with
infinity, and so things great or things small,
these are distinctions that men talk about, not
God.
Those little things often are the big things
with God, and I'm sure that it was
in the sight of God a very big
thing when Joseph came in that morning and
took a glance at the faces of those
two men and said, look, you're looking dejected
this morning, what's the matter?
That was the big thing.
That was the great thing.
That was the thing that really counted.
So when the Scriptures say that God works
all things according to the counsel of his
own will, you can be sure, my dear
friends, that all things do work according to
the counsel of his own will.
They do.
Now, it may be divisive to say that,
it may dishearten some of you to say
that, it may make you angry to say,
to hear that, but it is in the
Bible.
And your conflict is not with the preacher.
It's with the Lord God.
In fact, the Scriptures say to us that
those who teach the Word of God are
ambassadors.
Ambassadors are not supposed to say anything but
what their chiefs say.
Now, we have ambassadors who sometimes say things
that their chief disclaims later on or did
not order.
Who knows?
I don't and care a lot less.
But nevertheless, ambassadors are supposed to say what
their chiefs say.
Ambassadors for Jesus Christ are supposed to say
what their chief says in Holy Scripture.
Joseph did that.
I respect him for it.
He was a man who taught the truth.
Someone has said ministers should be stars to
give light, not clouds to obscure.
In some cases the text is as clear
as a mirror till the preacher's breath bedims
it.
We ought to pick out all hard words
from our speech.
Good cooks stone the plums.
Now, you can see that's a Puritan speaking.
It's true.
And taking out all of the hard words,
we still have the basic truth that God
works all things according to the counsel of
his own will.
And William Cooper was right.
God moves in a mysterious way his wonders
to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea and
rides upon the storm.
And even in the little events, God is
sovereign and carries out his will.
Now, Joseph's sufferings in prison worked beneficially for
his future leadership.
They put his soul in irons, but the
iron entered into his soul.
And Joseph became the kind of iron saint
that might be useful to the Lord God.
He had a lot of reason for complaints.
He could have said, Lord, you gave me
an indication I was going to be over
my brothers and over my father, and everything
has been downhill since that time.
But God showed him great mercy in the
darkness that he experienced.
Sometimes the dark things of life are necessary
for us.
You know, if someone were to bring in
a moving picture camera and throw a moving
picture on the wall here, you wouldn't see
much of it because of the light.
But in the darkness, well, you would see
a great deal.
In the experiences of our lives, we wouldn't
see a great deal of the hand of
God in them.
If everything that we had was prosperity and
everything was sweet and nice, it's when we
have the experiences that are not so good
that God speaks to us and in which
we learn the things that he wants to
teach us.
Unbroken sunshine would matten our brains, Mr. Meyer
says.
How true that is.
We don't like to think of the difficulties
of life, but the difficulties of life are
often the only means by which God gets
our attention.
So may the Lord help us to profit
from Joseph's experience of the divine providence and
help us, and may God help us to
remember that even the little tiny affairs of
our lives are affairs under his sovereign control.
And it's in them that he wants to
teach us the things that make for our
spiritual well-being.
If you're here this morning and you've never
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, it may
well be you've come into this meeting by
the sovereign providence of God to hear me
say to you, you are a sinner.
You are under divine condemnation.
You are headed for a Christless eternity.
You are without hope and without God in
this world.
You are ultimately destined to spend eternity in
the lake of fire, where it grows hotter
and hotter and hotter.
Yes, I know, hell, fire, and damnation preaching,
but the Bible invented it.
You are destined to be in the place
of the blackness of darkness forever, in which
it gets darker and darker and darker.
These are the words of Holy Scripture.
I am the Lord's ambassador.
I do not add anything to his message,
but give you plainly his message.
But at the same time, the Scriptures also
have a message of mercy.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second
person of the Trinity, took it upon himself
to carry out the intention of the Father
to provide an atonement for sinners.
And he suffered and bled and died on
the cross at Calvary, crying out, it is
finished, the work of atonement accomplished, and the
blood was shed.
And now, by virtue of the preaching of
the gospel, salvation is offered to sinners.
And if God, through the Holy Spirit, has
brought you to the conviction that you are
a sinner, this salvation is for you.
Flee to the cross.
Acknowledge your sin and your iniquity before the
Lord God.
Receive as a free gift, not by joining
the church, not by praying through, not by
doing good works, even religious works, but in
simple faith, receive.
God wants to give you something.
Receive the Lord Jesus as your own Savior,
and rest for eternity in the forgiveness that
God offers.
May God help you to come.
Put your trust in the Lord Jesus.
Believe in him.
Receive as a free gift his salvation.
For by grace are you saved through faith,
that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast.
Let's stand for the benediction.
We are grateful to thee, Lord, for these
wonderful words of Holy Scripture, which are so
significant and meaningful to us.
We thank thee for the providence that guides
and guards our steps.
And we thank thee for the greatness of
the sacrifice of the Son of God.
And, Lord, if there should be some here
who do not believe in Jesus Christ, give
them no rest till they come to him.
At this very moment, O God, bring them
to a conviction of their sin and urge
them to flee to the cross, bringing them
there through the efficacious working of the Holy
Spirit.
May grace, mercy, and peace go with us
as we leave this auditorium.
For Jesus' sake, amen.