doubly good to be here this morning, maybe even triply good. I really enjoyed that meeting, the first meeting this morning. I tell you that was a great time. I really appreciated our brother's words this morning about the privilege that we had to come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. For the first time in about ten years, I found myself missing two Lord's days with the Lord's people due to a back injury. And I just realized again this morning how much I did miss it. It's so good to be with God's people and remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is. Let's turn to Genesis chapter thirty-seven. We want to talk about Joseph. We're going to speak about him this morning. We're going to speak again this evening. And I hope to bring out this morning something of type of our Lord Jesus Christ and His suffering. And then tonight, something of the glory of the Lord Jesus, especially in the prophetic application that we find in the type that Joseph presents to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph, from the pit to the palace. Now, one-fourth of the book of Genesis is dedicated to the man, Joseph, and to the events surrounding him. That's a significant portion of any book. And about one quarter of Genesis is given to unfolding the story of Joseph and the events that surround him and his brethren. And I believe the reason for that is because Joseph represents to us as perhaps no other individual in the Word of God or Jesus Christ, in his person, in his work, in his dealings with his brethren. And I hope that we can see some of these things as we look this morning and this evening into the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter thirty-seven verse one. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being seventeen years old was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of me colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him, yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheath arose and also stood upright and behold your sheaths stood round about and made obeisance to my sheath and his brethren said to him shalt thou indeed reign over us or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more. Behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. Now I want you to notice, first of all, something about Joseph's person. In verse three, we read that Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. Joseph found a favored position with his father. And this didn't go unnoticed by the brothers. In verse four, we read that when his brethren saw that their father loved him more, than all his brethren. They hated him. Israel, Jacob, loved Joseph more than all his children. And he showed his favor. And he made Joseph, it says in verse three, a coat or robe of many colors. And that robe spoke of the position that Joseph held in his father's sight. It spoke of the privilege that was Joseph's as his father's favorite son. It spoke of the place of priority that Joseph held in the family, the robe or the coat of many colors. And then we read in verse five that Joseph dreamed a dream. And the first dream that he dreamed, he told to his brethren of how they were binding sheaves in the field and his sheaf arose, stood upright, and their sheaves bowed down to Joseph. And the scripture says once again in this chapter that they hated them. They hated him for this. And he dreamed it another dream, and he told it of how the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to him. And he told it to his father and his brethren. And they said, Shall I and thy mother, thy brethren, indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? And it says that his brethren envied him. his brethren envied him. This enraged the brothers. These two dreams speak and spoke of his prominence, of the place that God would one day bring him to. And they speak also of his power, of the sun and the moon and the eleven stars one day. bowing down to him. And as Joseph spoke these words, it says they hated him for his dreams, and they hated him for his words. The dreams that spoke of his position and the dreams that spoke of his power. The Jews in the days of the Lord Jesus hated him for the same thing. Turn with me for a moment to John's Gospel in chapter five. And here we have a discourse on the position of the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter five and verse seventeen, it says that Jesus answered them My father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. Here the Lord Jesus tells of his position. that he was equal with God. And the Jews absolutely understood him without any doubt in their mind. They knew what he was saying. And the Lord Jesus follows, beginning in verse nineteen, to unfold these seven different equalities that he has with the Father. The position that he shares with the Father. In verse nineteen, the equality in working What things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. In verse twenty, the equality in knowing, the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that himself doeth. In verse twenty-one, they are equal in resurrecting. As the Father raises up the dead, so the Son quickeneth whom he will. In verse twenty-two, there is an equality in their judgment. The Father has committed all judgment unto his Son. In verse twenty-four, there is an equality in regenerating. He that hears my word and believes on him that set me hath everlasting life. For perhaps the crowning one is found in verse twenty-three, that all men should honor the Son. even as they honor the Father. Any system today that does not honor the Lord Jesus Christ in his rightful place of deity is contrary to the scripture and the teaching of the Word of God. All men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. And the Jews hated the Lord Jesus because of the words that he spoke that told of his position. And you cannot deny what the Bible says about the Lord Jesus Christ. You can deny the truth, but you can't deny the fact that the Bible presents the Lord Jesus Christ in this way. It's very clear. And then in John chapter eleven, As the Lord Jesus displayed his power, this too enraged the Jews, his brethren. In John chapter eleven, after the raising of Lazarus, in verse forty-six, it says, some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. Verse forty seven, then gathered the chief priest and the Pharisees a counsel and said, What do we do? For this man doeth many miracles. Down in verse fifty six, it says, Then sought they for Jesus and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple. What think ye that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priest and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were, he should show it. that they might take him. And then down in chapter twelve and verse ten, but the chief priest consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. This crowning miracle in the Gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, was the last straw with the Jews. As he displayed his power as the Son of God with the power of life and the power over the grave, it enraged the Jews, his position and his power. Back in the book of Genesis in chapter thirty-seven. They hated him because of his person as represented in his coat. They hated him because of his words that told of his position and his power and his authority. In verse twelve we see something of Joseph's mission. In verse twelve it says his brethren went to feed their father's flock and shake them. And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock and shake them. Come and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go. The mission of Joseph. We are reminded by these words that Joseph speaks in verse thirteen. Here am I of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and his willingness to come. His willingness to please the Father as he came into this world. In Hebrews in the tenth chapter, it says, Lo, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. And the Lord Jesus, when he was here in this world, came to please the Father. He came willingly into this world to do the Father's will. And then, There was the willingness of the Father to send. In verse fourteen, Jacob says, Go. Go. Not only was the Lord Jesus willing to come into the world, but the Father was willing to send him into the world. In John chapter three, it says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. God was willing to send his Son into the world. And Joseph was willing to go to please the Father. In verse fourteen, Joseph, Jacob says, I pray thee, see where it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron, and he came to Shekel. And a certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. Now I believe that the wording of the scripture here is specific and intentional. Joseph comes seeking his brethren. And when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he came first of all seeking his brethren. There's no mistake about that. John tells us in his gospel that he came unto his own, and his own received him not. In Matthew's gospel, in chapter ten we read these words. Matthew chapter ten and verse five. After the calling of the twelve disciples, in Matthew ten and five, We read, These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he had a specific mission. And of course, this side of the cross and this side of the descent of the Holy Spirit, we understand that there came the time, and we'll see more of this tonight, when the blindness happened to Israel and when God in mercy turned to the Gentiles and the gospel of the grace of God was revealed through the Apostle Paul. and the other apostles and prophets of the New Testament. But in the early days, when the Lord Jesus was here on the earth, very specifically the scripture says, don't go to the Gentiles, don't go to the Samaritans, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And the first mission of the Lord Jesus was to go to Israel, to go to his own people, and to proclaim the kingdom of heaven was at hand in the person of the king the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Joseph goes to his brethren back in the book of Genesis, and then we see the plot begin to unfold. In Genesis chapter thirty-seven in verse eighteen, verse seventeen it says, The man said, They are departed hence, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, Even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Now there might have been many things that divided the brethren. But there was one thing they were united in, and that was in their purpose to get rid, to get rid of Joseph. to rid themselves of this dreamer. They were united in their enmity against him. In verse twenty, they say, Come now, therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit. And we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him. and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. And it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty, and there was no water in it. As Joseph comes to his brethren, the first thing we note is that they stripped him of his coat. They stripped him of his coat. That coat that spoke of his position. That coat that spoke of the Father's favor upon this son. They stripped him of his coat. They hated his position with the Father. Do you know that Sinners, those outside of Christ, they don't want to be confronted with the Christ of the Bible. There's an enmity of man against God, and he does not want the Christ of the Bible. There are many religions which preach a Christ, but it's not the Jesus Christ of the Word of God. The Christ of the Bible is someone that those outside of him do not want to be confronted with. Man cannot stand the thought of one day having to stand before a sinless, perfect man who has never committed a sin, never sinned, absolutely perfect and holy, and be judged. And be judged. And yet the very thing we must do when we are preaching the gospel is to preach Christ, preach him in all his fullness, in all of his glory, and confront sinners with Christ. I might mention I'd like for you to pray for someone. I'm meeting on Monday nights with an unsaved man. For years, we prayed that this man would be saved. His wife comes to our meeting in Jacksonville, and we haven't made much headway. Finally, about three weeks ago, he agreed to meet with me and met with me last Monday night for the first time to go through the Gospel of John verse by verse. And we opened chapter one. And we went through, why did we choose John's gospel, or why did I choose John's gospel? Because it's the simplest, because it's the most profound, but mainly because of the way it presents the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not going to be able to get through that gospel without being confronted with who Jesus Christ is. That's the question, isn't it? What think he of Christ? What think he of Christ? That's the question today. That's the determining factor. Who is Jesus Christ? We see in this account the story of the cross. Joseph's brethren rejected his claims. They conspired against him. They sought to see him punished and suffer. And then finally they concocted a lie about what was done. And you can't help but note the striking similarity between this experience Joseph and that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the closing moments I want to concentrate on something and focus our attention on one word that we find in this chapter mentioned seven times and that is the pit. Seven times in this chapter we have the pit. And in verse twenty-four, very clearly we have presented to us, they took him and they cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, and there was no water in it. I think that pit speaks of the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ in his suffering. And I want to turn to a few scriptures that point out some of those experiences, or rather that experience of the Lord Jesus. as he suffered as the great sin bear, as he was made sin for us. Three psalms I'd like to look at beginning at Psalm forty. Psalm forty. Psalm forty in the first verse. Psalm forty is a messianic psalm. It is one that is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews. And it's one that speaks very clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm forty in verse one. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit out of the myry clay and set my feet upon a rock and establish my goings. And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. I am sure that there are many of you here, and myself included, who could claim These verses of this song as our testimony, and perhaps we have many times, and rightfully so, if you're saved this morning and you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, you can say, He inclined unto me, and He heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit and the clay that speaks of sin. And we can accurately appropriate these verses as testimony. And yet, I believe in their fullest sense, they speak of the Lord Jesus himself. For this is a psalm of the Messiah. In verses six and seven and eight, we have those verses that are quoted for us in the tenth of Hebrews. And this pit experience speaks of the depths and of the place the Lord Jesus went for us. when he was made sin for us. That pit is the place that he went for me in all of his suffering, in all of his death. And then in Psalm sixty-nine, Psalm sixty-nine, another messianic Psalm, one that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and speaks of his reproach and the reproach that he bore. Psalm sixty-nine and verse fifteen. Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Notice in the first verse, Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dry. Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. I guess one of the reasons why I love the Psalms is because in the Psalms we get a view of the cross that is different from any other view that the Scripture presents. In the Gospels, we get the view of the cross that the disciples present to us. And we get that view that the Spirit of God would have us know as they looked upon him on the cross. But in the Psalms, we get the view of the cross as the Lord Jesus himself experienced it. Psalm twenty-two is a classic example. And here we have a description of a dam breaking. The waters are come in unto my soul. In verse two, we have a picture of one who is sinking in quick sand, one who is drowning, one who is overwhelmed. I think it speaks of that which the Lord Jesus called his baptism. The suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those dark hours on the cross when God dealt with his Son. When he made him to be sinned for us. In verse twenty-six it says, For they persecute him whom thou has smitten. And they talk to the grief of those whom thou has wounded. And though man might have treated him as he did and shamefully treated the Lord Jesus Christ, all the physical sufferings that he experienced are nothing compared to what he experienced at the hands of the Father. As God made him sin for us. And verse twenty nine says, I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. One last Psalm, Psalm eighty eight. Psalm eighty eight. In verse six we read, Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Say, La. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me. thou has made me an abomination unto them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine I mourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon thee, and I have stretched out my hands unto thee. Now it's true that this psalm speaks of the experience of David, undoubtedly, And it's also true, I believe, that saints of all ages can claim some of the things that this song presents to us. And I believe that in a coming day, the Psalms, as I've said many times before, will be the prayer book of the nation of Israel in the coming time of tribulation. And they'll be the praise book of the nation of Israel. in the coming millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. But all the suffering of all the saints in the ages, down to the ages, cannot compare with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how this Psalm speaks of him, Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy ways. Suffering of the Lord Jesus. One of the most Tragic verses to me in the entire scripture, tragic in what it expresses, was read this morning. They crucified him, and they sat down, and they watched him there. Of Joseph's brethren in Genesis thirty-seven, we read there that it says that as they cast him into this pit, they sat down to eat, bread. They sat down to eat bread. When the Lord Jesus was crucified, they sat down and watched him there. The indifference of man towards what took place on that cross of Calvary had marked the difference. May it never be true in our lives. May we always be moved with the story of the cross. And of course, The other aspect of these Psalms that we saw this morning, we will see tonight, and that is the exaltation. For he brought him up out of that pit. He didn't stay there. He's not on the cross. I've always appreciated one of the hymns we sang this morning. Behold, behold the Lamb. AP Gibbs added the fifth verse to that hymn, if you'll notice in your hymnal. Behold the Lamb on the throne. no longer on the cross. And the story of Joseph doesn't end here. The rest of the book of Genesis is taken up with how God exalts the man that was in the pit. How he exalts him from the pit to the palace, to be a savior of all the earth, and to be Lord of all. And Lord willing, we'll look at that tonight. Let's look to the Lord in a word of prayer. Our Father, we're thankful for what the Lord Jesus experienced for us. We realize that across that scene on Calvary you drew a dark curtain and the sun hit its face from what took place as the Lord Jesus became sin for us. And our hearts are not indifferent. Oh, we hear and we sing hallelujah for the cross. And we might add hallelujah for the resurrection as well. Our Father, we pray that if there would be one in this room who has never realized that what took place on Calvary took place for them, that they might even now, this very moment, turn to the Lord Jesus and realize that when he died on the cross, that it was for their sin. It was for them. That they receive him as Savior, believe on him, and be saved. And we give you thanks in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen.