Lord, as we come to Thee this morning, we are thankful that we can sing this song: “You are Lord, and I know it in my spirit, and I know it in my heart.” Lord Jesus, what a tremendous difference You have made in our hearts and lives because You are there on the inside.
Lord, we thank You for that great price of Calvary. Resurrection presupposes this great death at Calvary, and we thank You, Lord Jesus. We thank You today that we can rejoice in Your resurrection because, Lord Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration, You made a choice. You decided that You would exit through Calvary, and not from the top of that mountain.
Lord, we know You today because You made that choice. Oh Lord, we can touch resurrection because You made that choice. We thank You for it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, may the Lord bless His Word this morning to our hearts. Of course, this is the time when we talk about Easter.
I remember when I was a child. We went to church—not so much a part of it; we went occasionally, very occasionally. But I always remembered there was one thing that my dad always insisted on: going to a sunrise service.
Now, my dad—I even questioned how much he really knew the Lord. I do think he was saved. I think he came to that point in his life where he did accept the Lord as his Savior. But that was one day that, for some reason, meant a lot to him, and he would always insist on the sunrise service.
Well, you know, brothers and sisters, we do tend to cling to days. But resurrection is not really a day. Resurrection is a person. It is our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He made it very clear: “I am the resurrection.”
You will not be resurrected one day because you kept a day, but because you cling to a person. You have a person. You have resurrection itself residing within you. And it is a great day, and we thank the Lord for it.
Now, as we have been sharing, and as we will see in this life of Joseph, resurrection life is tremendously important this morning.
Now, I have been sharing on the life of Joseph, and this morning, as they always ask me about a title, I have three titles you can pick: “Destined to the Throne,” “The Making of an Overcomer,” and “From the Pit to the Throne.” So, whichever one seems to best fit this morning.
But in Revelation 3:21, the Lord said:
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne.
We need to know that, as children of God, as those born again in Christ, we have a birthright. And that birthright is, one day, to reign and rule with Christ in the millennium. What a glorious birthright we have in Christ.
Now, I am not talking about our salvation. Our salvation is secure. But it is interesting about this matter of our birthright—of sitting with Christ on the throne. There is a condition to it. He says, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne.”
So, overcoming is a tremendous issue in the Christian life. Often, we find ourselves more overcome than overcoming. But, brothers and sisters, overcoming is the condition.
Now, I want to say that overcoming is not works. A lot of times, when we talk on these matters, they say, “Well, Jerry, you are going back to the law.” Well, I am not. Overcoming is a matter of grace. It is a matter of taking the grace of God. He says, “My grace is sufficient.”
And so, overcoming is really a matter of appropriating the grace of God. It is a life of faith and believing that what God has said, He will do.
Now, in the life of Joseph, we see an overcomer—one who overcame evil, rejection, misunderstanding, and unjust imprisonment. Yet we find him, in the end, reigning in Egypt, second only to the king of Egypt, ruling over all the affairs of Egypt.
In my first message, I spoke on the types of Christ that we see in Joseph. I wanted to do that because we need to understand that Joseph’s life was a testimony to the life of Christ and to the ways of God.
Not only was Joseph unjustly dealt with, put in a pit, made a slave, imprisoned, and finally brought to the throne, but our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself and came as a man. It says He came as a bondservant, a slave, and humbled Himself even to the death of the cross. And God has highly exalted Him.
So we see this great testimony of the life of Christ in Joseph. Secondly, we looked at the childhood of Joseph—how a young man of seventeen could have such great faith to overcome all these things, particularly to be so tested at the age of seventeen. Just a teenager, he was greatly tested by the Lord.
I looked at a few things from his childhood and the development of his faith in the Lord. There were three things, I think, that stood out in his life.
When he was six years old, he was at his father’s—Laban’s—sheep ranch, cattle ranch. They were not in the land of Canaan. His dad had gone down to Uncle Laban. Remember, one day he told his family that they were going to move back to Bethel.
I can imagine this six-year-old son, because kids, you know, when you talk about moving to a different place, it is quite upsetting to them. They do not quite understand. I can imagine Joseph going to his dad and saying, “Dad, why are we going to Bethel?”
“Well, son, God told me to go back to Bethel.”
Can you imagine the impact? This young man realized that God was in charge of his dad’s life and their life. He said, “But Dad, what is so special about Bethel?”
“Well, son, Bethel is where God really spoke to me.”
“Really, Dad? What did He say?”
“Well, you know, I had this dream, and God was in heaven, but there was a ladder between heaven and earth, and there were angels going up and down with messages from God. And I heard from God, and God met me there.”
“It was God’s house, and I told God that if He would keep me in the way that I was going, one day I would return. And God promised me that He would. Not only that, but He said our family would become a great nation and a testimony to God on this earth.”
“Wow. That is why Bethel is so important, huh, Dad?”
“Yeah. That is why, son.”
Then, on the way back, we remember how Jacob came to Peniel. His brother Esau was on the way, and he heard Esau was coming with four hundred men. Well, that shocked him. That really troubled him, of course, and he made all these elaborate plans to present his family and all that he had to Esau in order to appease Esau.
That night, however, he went away by himself. The next morning, when he came back, his son noticed something very strange, and it concerned him very much. Joseph was concerned because his dad was limping. His dad was hobbling along. This strong man that his dad had been had been weakened.
“Dad, what happened to you?”
“Son, I wrestled with God last night. I saw Him face to face. As we wrestled in the night, I would not let Him go until He would promise to bless me and deliver us from this trouble.”
“And He did bless me. It is going to be all right, son. But as I was wrestling, my hip came out of joint.”
For the rest of his life—at least until Joseph was seventeen—every time Joseph saw his dad, there was that limp, reminding him that his dad had wrestled with God. That made a tremendous impression on this young man. He believed in God. He knew God was real, and God was real to him. And he stood in faith.
Then, somewhere around the age of seventeen, God gave him a dream—a dream that concerned God’s purpose for him, his family, and the nation of Israel: that they would be the family on earth through which the testimony of God would be shown forth; that God was going to take care of them; and that, in the process, Joseph himself would have a great part in God’s purpose.
God would have to raise up Joseph, and Joseph, at some point, would actually be reigning and ruling over his brothers. It was a dream from God. Tremendous impact.
But with great revelation, brothers and sisters, comes great responsibility. And with great responsibility usually comes great testing. Our Joseph was tested to the ultimate, I think.
We find that because of his dreams, he was greatly hated by his brothers. That hatred had begun earlier on when the birthright was transferred to him because of the failure of his older brother. His brothers hated him.
Our Lord had to put Joseph through some deep trials to prepare him to be the king. But the foundation of his faith was the faith which, I think, he gained from his father, and probably his mother, who shared with him about the Lord. Now, they were not perfect parents by any means, but these things made great impressions on this young man.
Also, there was the revelation of God Himself to Joseph. Faith and revelation are the foundation of an overcoming life.
But now God would really have to develop this young man into an overcomer. First, there was the pit that he had to go into. The self-life had to be totally dealt with. Secondly, he would have to become a slave. He would have to learn what the life of a slave—the life of a bondman—really is. In order to rule, he had first to learn how to submit.
He would also have to become a prisoner, a total prisoner without any rights or privileges. He had to be dealt with deep in his soul, so that nothing would hinder the relationship between him and God and the life of the Lord in him.
Well, let us go now and read Genesis 37:3-5.
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 many 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.
Verse 8:
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.
Then Genesis 37:23-24:
And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him;
and they took him, and cast him into the pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
Now go to Genesis 42:21. This is the confession of his brothers later on:
And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Joseph, the righteous one—the one who was in fellowship with God, the one who had faith and revelation—is the one who is thrown into the pit: the pit of despair and anguish of soul, the place of darkness, a place of death.
A pit. I thought about pits as I was considering this. You know, we find ourselves in pits in our spiritual life. But sometimes these pits are different. The reasons we find ourselves in pits are different.
One reason is that often we are in a pit because of our sins. You know, as we sin, if we sin before God and do not get it right with Him, we begin to go into darkness. We begin not to listen to Him anymore, and sinning becomes easier and easier. The pit gets deeper and deeper until, finally, one day, you may just decide to walk away from the Lord.
That does not mean you are not saved, but you may make that decision just because you are in a pit and you refuse to turn back to the Lord.
There is only one way out of that pit, and that is through repentance—a repentant heart. Finally, hopefully, one day you awaken and say, “I have gotten into this mess because of my sin. I cannot continue this way. Lord, I need to turn about. I need a change of heart and mind. Lord, give me a repentant heart.”
And ask the Lord to forgive you. Now, the Word is very clear:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Because the Son has paid the price for that sin, on the basis of what Christ has done, God can forgive you. He can pull you out of that pit, and you can be restored. Hallelujah.
There is another pit, I think, that we sometimes find ourselves in that is of our own doing. It is when we choose to take control of our own lives, when we really do not consult the Lord, when we are going along making our decisions based on our best reasoning power or our emotional bent.
We take control. Our hands are on the wheel of our life, and we are moving along. But as we do this, the more we reject the voice of God, the softer it becomes.
We begin to shun communion with the Lord. We begin to shun fellowship with others. We begin to shun being around the Lord’s people. We start down another road. We are on our own path, on our own road.
God just backs off. He says, “If you want to take the wheel of your life, okay.”
Somewhere on that road, we discover that we are in deep trouble. We have gotten on the wrong path. We have gotten on that broad road that looks so good, and it leads to destruction.
You know, as I thought about this pit, I thought about country music. I am a little bit into country music—not much, but a little. I am more country than anything else. But country music, if you think about it, most of the time it is a story, isn’t it? Country music is mostly a story about something that has happened or somebody’s life.
Well, there is a song that came out, I guess it has been over a year ago, that was very popular. The song was “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” I thought about that as I thought about this pit, and I said, “Yeah, that is the way we are, Lord.”
You remember the story in this song? There was a young woman; she had her baby in the back seat, and she was on the way to her parents. It was a cold winter night, and she hit some black ice, and her life started spinning out of control.
These are the verses in the song:
She threw her hands in the air and said, “Jesus, take the wheel.
Take it from my hands, because I cannot do it on my own.
I am letting go, so give me one more chance.
Save me from this road I am on.
Jesus, take the wheel.”
Who is in control of your life? I do not know where you are, but if you are on that other road, has it gotten to the point where you are spinning out of control?
Have you gotten to the place where you realize that you cannot do it on your own? Have you gotten to the place where you have said, “Jesus, I take my hands off the wheel. You take it. You take control. Save me from this road I am on. Deliver me.”
You know, the Lord is so merciful. In the song, of course, she is safe. It is all right, and the baby is okay because the baby is asleep.
But I thought about it and said, “That is so much the story of so many of our lives.” We find ourselves in this pit, the self-made pit, because we have our hands on the wheel instead of the Lord. So we have to learn: the Lord is in control, and we need to let Him be so.
But there is another pit that we get into in our Christian walk that the Lord allows for a reason. It is not our own doing, but the Lord does allow it.
It is a pit designed to bring us into the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might experience His life—a pit designed to bring us into the death of our Lord Jesus, that we might experience the resurrection life of our Lord.
There is a spiritual principle in Romans 6:5:
For if we have become united with Him by the likeness of His death, we shall be also by the likeness of His resurrection.
Now, brothers and sisters, often it is the enemy that becomes the instrument to plant us in this place of death, deeply into this place of death. He assaults us, attacks us, and accuses us. In this case, the Lord has allowed it. Why? Why?
It was certainly true of Joseph, was it not? The hatred of his brothers got stronger and stronger until they were prepared to kill him. They became instruments in the enemy’s hands to destroy Joseph.
So it was with our Lord. The Pharisees became instruments in the enemy’s hands to cry out, “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” and the crowd joined in. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. They cried out, “Crucify Him.”
It happened to our Lord. The enemy was the instrument that put our Lord Jesus in that great pit we call Calvary, that great pit of death.
Now, in these kinds of dealings, there are some things that we need to remember. We need to look at 1 Peter 5:8-9:
Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
whom withstand steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world.
Your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour—whom you must resist. Often we stop there. But listen to the next verse, 1 Peter 5:10:
And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
But the God of all grace, who has called us to eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, will make you mature, establish you, and strengthen you. That is the two sides of this work.
The enemy, on the one hand, is the instrument of planting you into this death. But it has a great purpose: to know the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus Christ, to mature you, to establish you, to strengthen you. That is the purpose of the pit. It brings us into union in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The pit—I want to say this, brother and sister. I do not want to be too discouraging this morning, but this is the way that God has called us to. The pit is necessary.
If you want to experience the resurrection life of our Lord, the pit is necessary. Paul said in Philippians 3:10:
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death.
This is the process. The deeper the death, the greater the fruit. The deeper the death, the more powerful the resurrection life.
I thought of the blossoms that have been so prevalent this spring. It seems like every tree out there blossomed with double blossoms. Springtime is a glorious time.
In the spiritual life, blossoms are evidence of resurrection life. They are beautiful. It is glory. I think it is a glorious time of year. It is the evidence of resurrection life.
But it is not an end in itself. The blossom soon fades, does it not? That does not mean the resurrection life is gone. But the heat of summer, the testings and the trials, bring forth fruit—sweet fruit, fruit for nourishment, fruit for the nourishment of the Body of Christ.
That resurrection life is to bring forth the fruit of Christ in our lives. So the end is not the blossom; the end is the fruit.
But then there is the winter of death. The leaves fall off. Everything is bare. Everything is silent. It appears that nothing positive is happening at all. It is the time of death.
But out of that time of winter, spring will come again. There will be blossoms again—blossoms of resurrection life—and much more fruit than the year before, and sweeter fruit than before. The cycle goes on and on.
It is interesting about this pit, though: you can avoid it, because the pit truly is the cross working in your life. And you can avoid it.
If you choose to avoid the dealings of the Lord in your life and are not willing to go this way, there will be blossoms. But that blossom is your natural life coming forth. And you know what the fruit is? Thorns.
Thorns do have blossoms, but it is the life of the thorn, not the life of the Lord Jesus.
Joseph is in the pit. We see from Genesis 42 that there was anguish in his soul. He cried out to his brothers. He was overwhelmed, brothers and sisters. He did not understand what was going on in his life.
I am sure he realized his brothers did not particularly like him, but I am sure he had no idea that it was in their hearts to kill him—to be the object of someone wanting to kill you. And it was overwhelming. He cried out, but there was no response.
The hatred of his brothers was the instrument that the enemy used to put him in that pit, but the Lord allowed it.
Now, when I say the Lord allowed it, I think there were a couple of hints here. First of all, the Holy Spirit is very clear that the pit was empty and there was no water in it. Why would He even bother to say such a thing?
It meant God was in control. No water. God was going to test this young man, but His heart was not to kill him physically. But something did need to be dealt with.
It is also interesting that, as they were considering leaving him there in the pit to die, the Midianites came along. One of the brothers who was reluctant to do this said, “Hey, maybe we should just sell him to the Midianites.” And everybody agreed.
The Lord was with Joseph in the pit. I do not know if Joseph realized it, but the Lord was with him in that pit. That pit was the Lord’s doing in his life.
Well, now let us turn to Genesis 37:28. He has been sold to the Midianites:
Then there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Now go to Genesis 39:1-6:
And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down thither.
And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he ministered unto him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had, in the house and in the field.
And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not aught that he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was comely, and well-favored.
Joseph becomes a slave. If we are going to reign and rule with Christ, we need to know what it is to be a slave—to be a bondman, to know the life of a bondman.
The Lord Himself, it says in Philippians 2:7, came in the form of a bondman and humbled Himself and became obedient, even to death, the death of the cross. Christ gave up all His rights. He humbled Himself. He became a bondman to God.
He said, “I can do nothing of Myself; only what My Father says to do, I do it.” That is the life of a bondman. The Lord took up that life, and Joseph would have to take up that life.
In Matthew 20:28, it says:
The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
He did not come to be served, as we think of most kings, but He came to serve. This is necessary in the life of an overcomer.
I could not help but think of that time when our Lord Jesus, after supper, took the towel and began to wash the disciples’ feet. He took the place of a slave at their feet and washed their feet because He loved them and wanted to be an example to them—a living example.
You know, they say men might listen to what you say, but they always listen to what you do. Our Lord Jesus was a living example. From His heart and His life, He washed the disciples’ feet.
Joseph had been given great revelation by the Lord. The pit was designed to humble Joseph and to take the self-life to its knees. If there was any selfish desire that he got from those dreams, if there was any ambition in his heart, any self-importance, it had to be destroyed.
It took the pit to do it. The self-life had to go. It is so prevalent in much of what we call God’s work today, and it had to be dealt with. That is the purpose of the pit. Any pride has to be dealt with.
There are a number of things that a bondman, or a slave, must learn and must do. One: obedience.
It says Christ learned obedience through the things that He suffered. Christ learned obedience. As God, He did not have to obey anyone. But He submitted Himself and humbled Himself under the hand of His Father and became absolutely obedient in all things that the Father asked Him to do.
Brothers and sisters, we have been called to be slaves in this life, bondmen of the Lord Jesus Christ. Obedience is critical.
Submission. There is a difference between obedience and submission.
You can obey and grit your teeth. You can obey because you have to, or suffer the consequences. But submission is a willing heart, a heart to submit. I call it obedience with a heart. Obedience with a heart: submission.
Joseph, we can see, certainly was that way. As he looked after the affairs of his master, Potiphar, he was very faithful.
Another critical aspect that a slave has to learn is faithfulness. If they are not faithful, they are sold to another or they are killed. They have to be faithful.
Not only that, but we see Joseph was not only faithful but diligent. God favored him, and everything he did prospered, and Potiphar recognized that. He recognized his obedience and submission. He recognized his faithfulness and diligence, and he put him over all the affairs of his house. He trusted Joseph. Joseph was favored.
There was one other thought about a slave that is important. Joseph had no rights as a slave. But in this case, he was given many privileges because he was found to be a faithful servant, a submissive servant, a diligent servant. He was given many privileges, but he had no rights.
This is a great lesson that we all have to learn. He was purchased with a price. He had been purchased. He was not his own. He had to learn that lesson: he was purchased, and he was not his own.
First Corinthians 6:19-20—I forgot the chapter—says:
Ye are not your own;
for ye were bought with a price.
That is what the Lord tells us. We are not our own. We have been purchased with a price. We are slaves. We are bondmen.
I wanted to say one other thing about being faithful and diligent. That is so important to the Lord. Often, we get excited about our gift in the Lord, serving the Lord. We want to do everything for the Lord.
But what lesson do we learn in the book of Samuel? Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Faithfulness and diligence are to anticipate what the master wants. If you are a diligent slave, you are able to anticipate what the master wants. Joseph excelled in all of these qualities and was greatly favored. And the Lord was with Joseph.
He received great rewards and privileges. That reminded me of the parable of our Lord Jesus in Luke 19:17, about the minas. The master said, “I am going away for a while,” and he gave his servants—one ten, one five, and one one.
When he came back and asked how they had done, the one who had been given ten said, “Look, master, I have made ten more.” And he said:
Well done, thou good servant: because thou wast found faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
Faithful in little, but a great reward. That looks forward to the millennium, brothers and sisters. Being faithful is so important.
Faithfulness is far greater than gifts. I want to say that. Faithfulness is far greater than our work for the Lord. Now, they should be the same, but they are not always.
Next, we find Joseph in prison. Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph and asked Joseph to commit sin with her. And Joseph said, “No, I cannot commit such a great sin before God.”
I thought that was so interesting. Joseph saw this as a great sin. Today, it is not considered very sinful. But he said, “It is a great sin,” and he would not do it. He said, “I will not do it. I am devoted to my master. I will not offend him either. Nor will I offend God.”
What was his reward? You remember: when the master came home, his wife told the lie, and Joseph was put in prison. I think it is interesting. His faithfulness put him in prison.
If he had been unfaithful, he would have been safe. He chose prison. He chose faithfulness, even when the master misunderstood. Of course, our Master never misunderstands.
But we find Joseph in prison—another critical issue in the life of a Christian, the life of those destined to the throne and to be overcomers.
I think the important thing we need to learn from Joseph’s life in prison is that Joseph was a prisoner of the Lord, not a prisoner of man. Yes, he was in prison. He suffered the horrors of prison. I am sure those prisons were not very nice in those days.
They did not have televisions and recreation yards. You know, they did not have rights like our prisoners have today.
It was really the work of the enemy that got Joseph there. Once again, the enemy drove Joseph deeper into this death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy was the instrument, but the Lord was with him.
Now, for most of us, to be rewarded in such a way for being faithful, we would at least say it is very unfair.
When we get in situations like this, we say, “Lord, how can You be so unfair?” You can become bitter if you look at it that way, if you do not understand what the Lord is trying to do. He is after something in your life—something deep.
If you are not willing to submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God, you will not be exalted. The Scripture says that if you do, in due time, He will exalt you.
Not only as a prisoner did he have no rights, he did not have any privileges. He was stripped.
What about those dreams that God had given him? It was impossible in prison. He was not reigning and ruling over anything. He was in prison with no rights.
Now think about this, brothers and sisters. This is ten years after the pit. Ten years. He had gone in the pit, then he had been a slave, and now he was in prison. This is ten years later.
What about those dreams God had given him? What about what he had seen, what the Lord had shown him? Was it beginning to fade in his heart? Were his circumstances beginning to overwhelm him?
Well, it is obvious he had a glimmer of hope. The cupbearer and the baker—the king’s cupbearer and baker—had been put into prison with him. They had offended the king in some way. They had dreams that disturbed them.
Joseph noticed they were disturbed and asked them what was going on. They shared their dreams with him, and Joseph said, “Well, God can interpret these dreams,” and He did.
He told the cupbearer that in three days he would be restored back to the king and would once again serve the king as cupbearer. To the baker, he said, “In three days, your head will be lifted, and you will die.”
Joseph went to the cupbearer. This is the glimmer of hope. You see, when we are in these situations, we have this hope of deliverance. He went to the cupbearer and said, “Remember me before the king.”
He knew the cupbearer was at the king’s right hand. He said, “Remember me.” He was thinking, “Oh, this must be the Lord’s way of deliverance.” He had a glimmer of hope.
But the Word says the cupbearer forgot Joseph. It was two more years of prison.
During those two years—we do not have time this morning, but if you read in Psalm 105—it says his soul entered into the iron fetters, the chains that had him bound. His soul entered the iron, became one with the iron.
Even that natural hope, if I can put it that way, was crushed. All he had now, the only thing that he had, was the Lord Himself. Nothing else. He had been stripped of everything, even his hope. But he did still have the Lord.
But the Lord was doing something.
Our soul has to be—I do not know how to say it—reconstituted to the life which it now contains as a Christian.
Our soul has been dominated by the self-life. Our soul has been dominated by the natural life of the soul—its reasoning, its emotions, its will. It has all been expressed through our soul. Our soul represents that natural life, who we are, and it expresses that life of who we are.
Now, that is not what the soul was designed for. Your soul and my soul were designed to express the life of Christ—His life.
But it has been so dominated by the natural life that it does not respond very well to the spirit that is within—the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5, it says, “Christ is in you.” Christ is in you.
Christ needs to be released. Christ needs to be able to have a way to express Himself through your soul, and your soul has to go through a deep adjustment and a deep work. That is what happens in prison.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7, it says:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
Earthen vessel. Our soul contains Christ. In order for Christ to be released, the soul has to be dealt with. In other words, the earthen vessel has to be cracked.
Now let me tell you a story, and this, I think, will help explain where I am trying to get at. You remember Mary brought the alabaster bottle to our Lord Jesus. This is a story that the Lord said needs to be told everywhere the gospel is shared.
She took the alabaster bottle—not the box, but the bottle—and broke it, and poured what was inside, the ointment, over His head. It was a precious ointment, expensive.
Now, we know that in those days that was most likely the dowry she was going to use for her marriage. In other words, in those days, women gave dowries to the man when they got married.
That alabaster bottle, with that precious ointment inside, represented her soul. It represented her very life because she was willing to give it all up for the Lord Jesus and to pour it out on Him.
A soul totally freed, dealt with. Out of love for the Lord Jesus, she poured out her entire life upon Him when she broke that bottle. But for the ointment to come out, it had to be broken.
That is true of our own soul. It is like a hard shell around our spirit, and until it is broken, the life within cannot come forth. It is the same principle with the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying.
As a child, I remember in science class, we used to take some felt and some beans—butter beans, I think is what we used—and a couple of pieces of glass. You would put them on there and keep them moist, and finally you would see the sprout breaking through the shell of the bean, with a little root and a little sprout. That is it.
Christ is imprisoned in your soul. That soul has to be broken into for the life of Christ to be released. It is a deep work, a deep work of the soul.
But when it is over, it is glorious because you are finally free. You are finally free. Just like Mary, when she broke that bottle, she was totally free. It was all the Lord. It was only the Lord.
Now let us read Genesis 41:38-44, and we will close.
This is after Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and gave Pharaoh some advice. Pharaoh said to his servants:
Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?
And Pharaoh said to Joseph:
Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is 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 have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold 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 set him over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.
The pit, the slave, the prisoner, and now a ruler. It was the work of the Lord. It was the Lord’s hand. It was God’s grace that brought him through.
He received the reward of submitting to God. Today, we need to respond to the Lord as He works in our lives. The birthright is ours, but we need to overcome.
I thought of this: now let me ask you very plainly. Do you think you can overcome? Are you going to go out and say, “Well, I am going to overcome. I am going to do this thing”?
Well, it might be good to try to learn. Let me say it this way: the Overcomer is in you.
He just needs to be released. He is the Overcomer. Yes, there is the pit. Yes, there is the life of a bondman. Yes, there is the prison life. But Christ is in you, and He overcame.
He overcame the pit of the cross. He came as a bondman. He overcame, and God exalted Him to the throne. He was a prisoner, and now He is exalted.
Lord, we just come to You today. I have to say, I think the bottom line is that, Lord, there is only One who can truly overcome, and that is You.
But Lord, we thank You that You have dedicated us to bringing us into this life—this life of faith, this life that overcomes.
Lord, I just have to say, I pray that we will have our eyes open to see the great Overcomer. Lord, I hope we will have our eyes open to see what great treasure there is within this earthen vessel.
Lord, I pray that we will allow ourselves to be dealt with and humble ourselves unto Thee, that, Lord, You can do the work. Lord, that there can be blossoms, that there can be fruit, and Lord, that we can enter into the fullness of all that Your death means, that we can come into the fullness of all Your life means.
Now, Lord, we just ask You to work in our hearts. Lord, a little at a time—that is all we can usually take. We just pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.