Amen. Right, so Genesis chapter 40, and obviously, as is my way, I'm going to just remind you where we were last week in Genesis chapter 39,
because we went back into the story of Joseph and the events that took place at Potiphar's house, having had a break the chapter before.
And he was sold as a slave at 17 years old.
However, he then became the best worker in his master's house, being given loads of responsibility there,
and he's just such a great example, Joseph is, isn't he?
What a great man of God, gives us so many lessons we can just get and so much great examples in his life.
And it was ultimately because the Lord was with him, and that was because he was with the Lord.
Okay, that's how it works, doesn't it?
His master saw this, Joseph being a great testimony as a Christian, as a believer, as what is referred to as in Hebrew.
But unfortunately, it's often when things are going well that the wicked attack, isn't it?
Okay, and that's just a Christian life, that's the way it works.
And this came in the form of Potiphar's wife, who was a daily temptation to Joseph, asking him to lie with her.
Okay, so she just kept tempting him daily, daily it tells us.
Joseph refused, she persevered until there was no one else in the house, grabbing him by his clothing.
Joseph legged it, but she got hold of his garment and then used it to claim that he had tried to force himself on her.
So she used that, the fact that she got hold of something, and we looked at the examples of that,
where sometimes these wicked people are just trying to get hold of something,
to be able to then falsely accuse you with some something which makes that false accusation sound more believable.
You know, these people sometimes spend years just doing a diligent search for something on men and women of God.
Here she got a bit of his clothing.
And as we know, wicked people will boldly lie about God's people, openly, in plain sight.
Okay, that's just part and parcel of it.
You know, many of us will have experienced that, seen that happen.
The fools are the people that believe it, okay?
You've just got to be foolish to believe these lies, and they're all over the place.
You just see them all over the place as people just make you up lie after lie after lie.
And, you know, it's to the point where it's kind of, you get to the point where it starts to become water off a duck's back.
You're foolish if you believe it, that's the issue, okay?
Because these people, they just have no qualms about it.
And here we see this example with this wicked woman here.
She used the lie to slander God's people as well, the Hebrews, and even her husband for hiring Joseph.
Okay, so she even goes as far as trying to blame her husband for this as well.
I mean, this is a pure wicked woman.
Again, it's just another real life example in the Bible of the things we're warned about.
For example, we go through the Book of Proverbs with a strange woman, and we just see a real example of how wicked these people really are.
He got angry, the husband, and had Joseph thrown into prison.
And you could have forgiven Joseph for giving up here, couldn't you?
I mean, like we just said, he was basically stolen at 17 years old.
It was men stealing, that's what it is.
Turned into a slave, sold as a slave, he's taken into some, he's bought as a slave,
and then suddenly he rises up to being basically the second most important person in the house.
Beneath Potiphar, everything's just put into his hands.
And then it's all going, well, next thing you know, he's thrown into prison on false charges.
A lot of people would just be like, what on earth?
But not Joseph, not Joseph.
Instead, he basically becomes sort of, I'm kind of joking, but the daddy in prison, doesn't he?
He's a man, everything has to go through him.
But it's kind of not so much like that, he's kind of really serving.
But still, he's a man, he's running things in prison.
He just, again, just rises up to a position of importance, even as basically a jailbird.
He's still the top jailbird in there, okay?
And again, just a great example in whatever circumstances Joseph's put into,
he's just diligent and just rises up in everyone's eyes and ultimately in God's eyes as well.
It's God that's blessing him through it.
It says in verse 21 of Genesis 39, it said,
But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy,
and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison,
and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand,
because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
And now we're going into Genesis 40, it says in verse 1,
And it came to pass after these things,
that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their LORD, the king of Egypt.
I'm going to pray and then we're going to continue with chapter 40.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for this great chapter and the many lessons we can get out of it.
Lord, help me to preach those accurately and boldly and clearly in the full of your spirit, Lord.
And we want to just really pay attention and to take from this,
what you'd want them to take from it.
Please guard my words, Lord, as well.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
OK, so Pharaoh is another name for the king of Egypt, it said.
And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt,
this is Pharaoh, and his baker had offended their LORD, the king of Egypt.
And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers,
against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers.
And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison,
the place where Joseph was bound.
So he's got angry with these two of his officers,
the chief of the butlers, the chief of the bakers,
and he throws them in prison.
And of course, it's the same prison where Joseph is.
OK, it says in verse four,
and the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them,
and he served them and continued the season in ward.
So Joseph is looking after them, and this wasn't a quick visit.
They were there a season, which is just a period of time.
OK, it's not a very long period of time,
but it's also not just like a brief moment.
OK, it's just a period of time.
Ward is like saying in custody, in case anyone is wondering,
he's put in ward, he's basically put into custody.
And it seems here that, you know, it's kind of like the captain of the guard.
It's called his house.
I'd imagine he has his living quarters there as well.
But obviously, you know, they're secure in custody there.
It says in verse five,
and they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream,
the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
And Joseph came in unto them in the morning,
and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad.
And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house,
saying, Wherefore, look ye so sadly today?
You can imagine that both of them having these weird, vivid,
clearly symbolic dreams, they're going to want them interpreted, aren't they?
You can imagine them just being like, what on earth?
Because they would have, I'm sure, compared them and saying,
like, what are these dreams?
Why have we both had these dreams?
They want to know what's going on.
It says, And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream,
and there is no interpreter of it.
And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me them, I pray you.
And I like that answer.
He said, It's God that will properly interpret a dream.
He gives God the credit, doesn't he?
Now, we know that he's able to interpret dreams,
but he's only able to interpret dreams because of God.
And straight away, he's not going, Well, come to me because I'm the man.
Yeah, I know it all.
You know, he's saying, No, look, he said, Do not interpretations belong to God.
Tell me, I pray you.
Then having said, basically, it's all of God,
he says to tell him because he's God's man, isn't he?
He's the man of God. He's God's man.
He knows that God will relate to him.
So he's saying, Look, they belong to God, so tell me.
OK, because he's confident.
He knows being close to God, like we talked about.
He's close to God and he knows that God's going to give him the answers to it.
And here's the thing.
You're going to get questions sometimes in life, counsel, difficult problems.
And ultimately, what do we need to do is give God's answer to it, don't we?
OK, we need to be able to give the answer that God would want to give,
not our own reasoning and rationalising and everything else.
What's God's answer and how do we do that?
Well, we need to go to the word, don't we?
So with everything, we need to just be able to go to the word
and be able to relay what God would say, because God answers these questions.
God can fill in the blanks.
God can help you understand things.
It all comes from God and to help people, therefore, in life,
because, yeah, look, there's salvation, we want to get people saved.
But there's much we want to do as well.
We want to be able to help people, don't we?
We want to be able for people to come for advice, whether they're saved or not,
and just be able to give the answer God would want to give to people in life.
But to be able to do that, we need to be able to say,
God has the answer, so ask me.
That's what we're seeing here.
He's saying, God has the answer.
God interprets dreams here, so come to me and ask me.
And we want to all be able to say that, don't we?
Yeah, look, God has the answer to your problems.
Come to me and I'm going to tell you God's answer.
And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me them, I pray you.
And it's no good telling someone to come back in a year
once you've read it through, is there?
It's no good saying, God has the answers, come to me and then go, yeah,
but however, it's going to take me a year to get back to that bit of the Bible.
I don't really know. I've seen it some way.
I'm not really sure. I don't really know.
I'm sure he said something. Give me a bit of time.
You know, I haven't read the Bible through yet.
Give me another year and I might be able to get through it
if I can kind of, you know, come off my phone enough,
stop scrolling through social media or whatever it is.
You know, come to me then.
No, we need to know where to look.
We need to know what God's saying.
Basically, like Joseph, we need to be close to God, don't we?
And that's what it comes to.
You need to be close to God
to be able to give the answers that God wants to give to people,
to be able to interpret people's dreams in inverted commas,
to be able to tell them what it is that they feel
that they need understanding, that they need explaining to them.
And look, sometimes, yeah, there's nothing wrong with going away
and thinking and praying before you answer a matter.
We shouldn't be hasty, OK?
And just a caveat there.
Don't think, OK, yeah, I've got to be able to answer someone straight away.
Shouldn't be hasty.
You don't have to turn to Proverbs 29, 20 says,
See us our man that is hasty in his words.
There is more hope of a fool than of him.
We don't want to be hasty in our words,
but we need to be able to know what God's answer is.
And that comes from learning all about him, doesn't it?
From being close to him through his word.
That's how we answer things according to how God would want them answered.
You don't have to turn to either.
Psalm 119, verse one, five, one says,
Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are true.
So the psalmist is basically saying it's because he's near to God
that he knows he's able to say all thy commandments are true.
And we want to be close to God like the psalmist here
and to be able to then relay his commandments.
Joseph had access to God.
And so do we, don't we?
Every person has access to God through your King James Bible.
You have access, but you've got to read it.
And you might be like, why is he talking about reading the Bible again?
Because we all need to.
We all need a reminder to read the Bible.
OK, you need to, because look, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands.
There'll be people in here that did not read their Bible today.
That's just the reality of it.
That's the truth.
You go, what, really?
In the Strongtown Baptist Church, soul winning Bible reading?
Yeah. Do you know why?
Because the flesh gets in the way,
because we don't always win that battle with the flesh.
And you need to make that a sure part of your routine.
Reading the Bible, so you are able to help people.
You are able to guide people.
I mean, I'm sure many of you could tell of times and think back to times
where there's something you've literally just read maybe that day,
that week, that helps you with a problem or someone else with a problem.
And someone says, you know, I was wondering about this.
Funny, I just read that, actually.
I know that passage.
I've just thought about that.
I just looked at that.
I just studied that.
I just preached a sermon on that.
But if you're not in the Bible, you can't do that, can you?
You can't answer.
You can't give the counsel that God wants you to give.
Joseph, though, had access to God.
It says in verse nine,
And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said to him,
In my dream, behold, a vine was before me.
And in the vine there were three branches,
and it was as though it budded and a blossom shot forth.
And the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes.
And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
Now, I'm going to go off on a tangent briefly here,
because before we continue with the interpretation of the dream,
I'd like to point something out here.
That the drunkards and pro-booze camp
can't understand when viewing the Bible through their beer goggles.
OK, they just can't understand this through their wino spectacles,
you know, because, you know,
a wino is usually a bit more classy and a bit more intellectual, right?
Verse 11, it said,
And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
Now, in his dream, he was taking grapes and pressing them into Pharaoh's cup.
And let me tell you what we call that nowadays, freshly squeezed juice.
OK, freshly squeezed juice.
This is what this was, yeah?
The stuff that kings drink.
Freshly squeezed juice where it's literally the grape pressed into his cup.
That's some good stuff, right?
Do you know what the Bible calls that, though?
It doesn't call it freshly squeezed juice.
It calls it wine.
The Bible calls this wine.
Now, sometimes wine is referring to alcoholic wine,
and sometimes it's referring to this freshly squeezed juice.
Squeezed straight into the cup.
Again, you don't have to turn there, but in Isaiah 65.8,
it's referring to this freshly squeezed non-alcoholic juice where it says,
Thus saith the Lord, as a new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, destroy it, not for a blessing is in it,
so will I do for my servant's sake, so I may not destroy them all.
It said, as a new wine is found in the cluster.
A cluster is a group of grapes.
Wine juice is found in the cluster.
And thousands of years ago, long before industrial farming,
mechanical pressing, refrigeration, et cetera, that was a luxury.
That was the stuff that kings drunk.
Freshly squeezed, freshly pressed grape juice in kind of vineyard country, right?
In a place where grapes thrive, yeah?
And let's be honest, freshly pressed grape juice straight into the cup
is pretty luxurious even now, isn't it?
I mean, I've never had someone literally press a grape into a cup.
I'd love to, so if anyone fancies to get some fresh grapes and presses them for me,
I'm all for that.
I'm all for a tiny bit of gift-giving when it's stuff like that, OK?
But, OK, but that's pretty luxurious, and that's why it's fit for a king here.
This is something that a king was drinking.
He had his butler, the king of Egypt, had his chief butler, the chief guy.
So eat like there's a top dog doing this job,
because this was such an important job, just pressing grapes into a cup.
Now, turn to Proverbs 23.
My point is, OK, don't get your Bible doctrine
from a load of drunkards that want to justify getting drunk.
Don't get your Bible doctrine from there.
There's a lot of drunkards out there that want to justify drinking,
because what do people generally do?
They want to justify their sin.
That's just life. That's what people do when they're in sin.
They try and justify it, and a lot of drunkards try and justify drinking.
So what they do is they go as far as trying to corrupt and change
and add and take up from the Word of God
and read things into the Word of God that aren't there
to justify being a boozer.
But what we should do is get our doctrine from the Bible,
which has clear verses.
Just clear verses such as here in Proverbs 23, where it says,
who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions,
who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause,
who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine.
This is not a good advertisement for alcohol, is it?
That's what they should have on the TV ads
in between the different sports games,
where they're just trying to throw advertisement after advertisement
for alcoholic drinks at people, as if somehow top sportsmen
are just getting smashed every night.
I mean, it's ridiculous, isn't it?
A lot of the time they have these kind of muscly, fit guys
standing there with their beer, and it's like,
that ain't the reality, this is the reality, isn't it?
People with woe, with sorrow, with contentions,
with babbling, with wounds without cause,
redness of eyes.
It says in verse 31,
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red.
When it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
Is white wine OK? Is that what it's talking about here?
Just stay off that red wine.
The white wine's much better. No, it's not.
It's talking about fermentation.
It's talking about fermented alcohol.
When it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
OK, this is fermenting that movement of a fermenting juice.
It says to not even look upon it.
Don't look at it.
I mean, forget your boozers trying to justify drinking it.
The Bible says don't even look upon it.
So if you're just looking at alcohol,
if you're hanging around people drinking and just looking at it,
you're disobeying God, who said through Solomon,
in Proverbs 23, Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
He's saying don't look at fermented alcohol.
Don't even look at it. Why?
Because so many people, it starts with a look, it starts with looking at it,
and next thing you know, when time goes by,
they're the people that have wove, sorrow, contentions, babbling, wounds
without cause of redness of eyes.
We shouldn't even look upon it.
And why not? Because at the last it biteth like a serpent.
Anyone want to get bit by a serpent?
And stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women,
and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be, as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,
or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick.
They have beat me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake?
I will seek it yet again.
Definitely not something you want to be getting involved with.
Did you look at that and go, yeah, well, you'd get away with a couple.
I'll just have one of those.
I'll just have one or two because I'm very cultured.
It tastes nice. I don't care what it tastes like.
It doesn't, by the way. It tastes like poison.
Tastes like just some nice juice mixed with poison, basically.
Oh, but the health benefits. Yeah, get the health benefits from the juice.
The alcohol ain't healthy. It's poison.
Drink 100% alcohol, you'll kill yourself.
What's 50% alcohol do? Kills you 50%.
That's the reality, isn't it?
And all of this, and then people look at this stuff.
They read these, and then they go, oh, yeah, but, you know, but Jesus.
Jesus, turn water into wine.
If you look at that, if you hear any preaching like this,
if you clearly, if you claim to be someone teaching the Bible
and you're teaching that, you're either completely stupid
or you're wicked as hell.
How did you teach that Jesus Christ's first recorded miracle
was organising a massive drink up when they had already well drunken?
I mean, what on earth? It's just unbelievable, right?
They'd already well drunk, they'd already had a lot to drink,
not talking about getting boozed up, yeah?
But if that's what they read it as, then they're going, right,
they're already pretty drunk, so then he just...
furkins and furkins of it. Gallons of the stuff.
Because he was like, they're not sozzled enough yet.
Ready for the first miracle, boys?
Right, come on, lads. Get them down, yeah.
I mean, it's nuts. But where does that come from?
I'll tell you where it comes from, from people trying to justify their boozing.
And that verse is pretty clear. Turn to Isaiah 5.
Because there are stern warnings for those who would twist God's word
that would teach falsehoods to justify their own wickedness.
And these people are all over the place, right?
You said in verse 20 of Isaiah 5,
Isaiah 5 and verse 20 says this...
It's like it's a mockery as well, isn't it?
That woe unto those that are so mighty that they drink wine.
That, oh, the men of strength to mingle strong drink.
It's like nothing's strong about it, is it?
In fact, a lot of people that, you know, I've seen around alcohol and boozers
and stuff like that, half the time they're sobbing at the end of the night.
Seriously, right? And just acting like absolute clowns.
Nothing's strong about it.
He said...
Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff,
so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust,
because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts
and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
They're pretty stern warnings, aren't they?
Stern warnings for trying to twist the Bible,
for trying to teach wickedness, to try to justify wickedness.
Now, it's not that everyone who sees the word one in the Bible
imagines alcohol is wicked, OK, just to make that clear.
They're certainly not wise, OK, but it's not that they're wicked,
because, like, look, there are just people that are new believers
that have been influenced by, like, just, like, booze, nation,
and pretty much, you know, that's most of the Western world at least,
if not other areas.
But they're not wise, because Proverbs 20 and verse 1 says,
wine is a mock, a strong drink is raging,
and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
And talking about wisdom, Proverbs 4-7 says,
wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom,
with all thy get and get understanding.
So you're not going to get that if you've been deceived by alcohol.
But what they are is people that should not be teaching the Bible.
How do you teach the Bible if you have no wisdom?
And you ain't wise if you're deceived by alcohol.
And here's a way to get wise, stop trying to justify poison,
that, by the way, kills your brain cells.
That is a way to be wise, stop drinking alcohol.
It pickles your liver and turns you into a moron.
I mean, it's just so wicked, isn't it?
The more, like, the more you think, how do you drink this?
No, many people have just been so influenced by this,
and many other nations of alcoholics are the same, OK?
And that they look at things like this,
and not the passage we're on, but many passages in the Bible,
and they just can't imagine someone drinking juice.
They just can't imagine it.
Because they're looking at it, just going,
what, drinking fruit juice when they could be getting drunk?
That's what they honestly believe, don't they?
What, Jesus, what, a wedding party, and he just made juice?
It's not the old, oh, I wouldn't even bother with that wedding.
That's honestly what their wicked heart is saying, isn't it?
But you know what, I wouldn't bother with the other wedding.
Because what do you want to go and be around a load of drunkards for?
Anyway, the king of Egypt here clearly did appreciate fresh juice, didn't he?
So back in Genesis chapter 40, Pharaoh here, it says in verse 11,
it said, talking about the dream here, he said,
And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup,
and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
Now verse 21, by the way, shows that this wasn't just some symbolism.
He really did give Pharaoh the cup.
It says in verse 21,
He restored the chief butler onto his butler-ship again,
and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
And he's like, I just can't work out why I was pressing grapes
and not just pouring the strong stuff in.
That's not the point.
He's clearly showing what he usually does, you know,
because he's just back to giving the cup in his hand.
What the dream was about, though,
and specifically the first part of the dream was a vine.
Okay, that's the key part of the dream.
This bit is just kind of like he's back to normality
and squeezing fresh grape juices, freshly squeezed juice into Pharaoh's cup.
But verse 19,
Because I'm sure they weren't bringing the vine to him as usual.
He was just squeezing grapes, right?
He said,
So it's like it's budding as he's holding it,
and a blossom shot forth.
So that's a weird dream, isn't it?
To be holding a vine, it's budding.
And he says,
And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup,
and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
And Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation of it,
The three branches are three days,
yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head
and restore thee unto thy place,
and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand
after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
So he's not talking, by the way, about decapitating him.
It's bringing him back up from prison.
And there's this similar phrase he's used a few times
referring to people coming out of prison.
Like, for example, Jeremiah, we see the same,
talking about his head being brought up.
But verse 14 says,
But think on me when it shall be well with thee,
and show kindness I pray thee unto me,
and make mention of me unto Pharaoh,
and bring me out of this house.
For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews,
and here also have I done nothing
that they should put me into the dungeon.
So he interprets his dream.
It's great news.
He offered it freely,
having been a great help in the prison as well.
He was a victim of men stealing.
He was enslaved and then imprisoned for nothing.
And he appeals to this guy
that's about to be very close to Pharaoh again,
one of his chief officers.
What's the result?
Well, jump forward to verse 23.
It says,
Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph,
but forgot him.
Now, although this is surprising,
this is a common occurrence in life.
It really is.
You can bend over backwards for people.
Seriously, you know,
you can do all sorts of people,
just put yourself out for people,
do many things to just try and maybe just help people.
And I'm not just talking from my own experience,
just everyone here.
You've done things for people, okay?
Many people have done things for people over time.
Give them your time freely.
You know, just want to help people in one way or another.
And so often they do just forget it all, don't they?
People just do that.
You could do all sorts.
And I think in your mind,
often you're thinking,
well, surely they'll remember that.
And when weird stuff happens in the future,
thinking like,
have you forgotten everything that I did
or that this person did or that's happened?
You could forgive much.
You could show mercy when it's not deserved as well,
can't you?
You can do things where you're thinking like,
I've really put myself on the line here,
really put myself out for this person.
And it's like they just throw it back in your face almost.
And it can be a bit gutting, can't it, sometimes.
It really can.
Yet people do just turn around
and happily leave you rotting in a dungeon like this.
I mean, this is unbelievable, isn't it?
I mean, we're not talking about three years down the line.
We're talking about three days.
Three days later,
everything that he said would happen, happened.
He said, please just remember me.
And he just leaves him, he just forgets him
and leaves him rotting in a dungeon.
What's the answer?
Well, turn to Matthew chapter five.
You're thinking like, what'd you do about this?
The answer is, don't expect things in return.
Just don't expect it and you won't be disappointed.
When you do things for people, you just got to understand,
you've got to just get your heart right with it
and just be like, I'm just doing this freely.
I'm doing this, I've heard advice before that,
for example, if you lend to someone,
just expect not to get it back.
Only lend what you can afford to lose, for example.
And you could say that in many areas as well,
just when you do something,
just don't expect to get anything back from it.
And you won't be disappointed.
I think, had Joseph expected help,
and I don't think he did, possibly,
then the next two years would have been even harder for him
because it is two years that he's left languishing in prison.
And I reckon had he been thinking, yeah, any day now,
that would have been an even tougher two years, wouldn't it?
Imagine that, you're thinking, I've just helped this guy out.
I knew what the interpretation was, thanks to God.
Surely any day now, every time the key's going in the door,
you're thinking, I'm about to be released.
That'd be a pretty disappointing two years.
And hopefully he didn't think that, we don't really know,
but in Matthew 5, we're reminded what our mentality
should be and where the reward comes from.
It says in Matthew 5 and verse 43,
"'Ye have heard that it hath been said,
"'Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy.
"'But I say unto you, love your enemies.'"
And by the way, he didn't talk about enemies of God,
this is your enemies.
"'Bless them that curse you,
"'do good to them that hate you,
"'and pray for them which despitefully use you,
"'and persecute you.'"
So it's not talking about God's enemies,
because a lot of people look at this,
go, see, you've got to just bless them,
bless the sodomites, bless the false prophets,
bless the wicked people,
bless all those different various forms of God haters,
bless the Jews, bless every, well,
you don't have to turn it,
but Jehu said to Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 19,
"'Shouldest thou help the ungodly
"'and love them that hate the Lord?
"'Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.'"
Okay, so no, when you compare scripture with scripture,
you realise, no, it's not talking about helping God hate,
it's talking about your own personal enemies,
but our enemies that despitefully use us,
we are told to love, we're told to bless, okay?
That's to kind of give good things,
to make them happy in one way or another.
He said in verse 45, where you are, in Matthew 5,
"'That ye may be the children of your father,
"'which is in heaven, for he maketh his son
"'to rise on the evil and on the good,
"'and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
"'For if ye love them which love you,
"'what reward have ye?
"'Do not even the publicans the same.'"
The implication is that we're rewarded for loving those
that don't love us, isn't it?
Because he just said,
"'For if ye love them which love you,'"
talking about kind of not loving those that don't love you,
what reward have ye?
So the implication is that we will get rewarded
for loving those that don't love us,
which is a good thing to remember, isn't it?
When you're doing things and you're trying to help people
and everything else, forget what they might do in return,
forget that, because you'll probably be disappointed
nine times out of 10 anyway a lot of the time.
But think about, it's God that's pleased with you.
It's God that's going to reward you,
and you will get a reward whether this life
or the life to come from God.
Verse 47,
"'And if ye salute your brethren only,
"'what do ye more than others?
"'Do not even the publicans so?
"'Be ye therefore perfect,
"'even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.'"
And obviously not talking about sinless
and obviously the Father in heaven is,
but ourselves, it's just talking about being complete,
trying to do things right.
And then he continues into the next chapter saying,
in Matthew 6 and verse one,
"'Take heed that ye do not your arms before men
"'to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward
"'of your Father which is in heaven.
"'Therefore when thou doest sign arms,
"'do not sound a trumpet before thee
"'as the hypocrites there in the synagogues
"'and in the streets, they may have glory of men.
"'Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.'"
So when we do things for others,
we shouldn't be looking for what we can get in return,
should we?
When we're helping people and doing stuff
and putting ourselves out,
if you're thinking, well, you know,
that person should sort me out in the future.
That person should at least do this
and I can't believe that they're not thinking about it.
Well, then we're really missing out
on the rewards from God, aren't we?
Because that's not what we're doing it for.
We're doing it, we're not doing it before men
to be seen of them.
We're doing it so we actually get reward
of our Father which is in heaven.
So my challenge to people is to try not to say
either openly or in your heart,
will they return the favour, even after the fact?
And that's a challenge, isn't it?
Because sometimes you do, you do a lot of stuff with people
and then you're sitting there, you know,
and you're thinking like, after all I've done,
I can't believe I did this, I did this, I did this
and they won't even do that or they won't even,
or they'll treat me like that or they'll...
But really, you ain't happy, are you?
Doesn't really help you.
Yeah, great if you can get something in return,
great if you don't get treated like a doormat
and just completely walked all over and just,
you could do stuff for people then,
just completely just mistreat you and act like
you're just some scum, some sort of off scouring
of the world like we are.
Ultimately, aren't we treated?
But really, if you could get that out of your head,
if you could not think like that,
I think you're just gonna be happier.
You're gonna be happier.
You're not gonna be constantly disappointed
and you're gonna be more rewarded by your Father
which is in heaven, unless you don't trust what God says.
Look, I'm not trying to knock people here
because we all can have faith,
look, times when our faith is lacking in various areas.
What we should just understand is, look,
when you just say, look, I'm just doing this for God,
I'm just gonna help people, I'm not tallying up the favours
and wondering when am I gonna get a return
and are they gonna appreciate it,
then ultimately, we're gonna be much happier for it,
aren't we?
Which, I don't think Joseph is doing that, by the way.
I think he was just trying to get out of prison.
Understood, right?
I don't think when he interpreted the dream,
he was thinking, right, this will get me out of prison.
I think he's already serving people who's a good guy
but I think he then thought afterwards,
okay, well, while I'm at it, I might as well give this a go.
Look, please remember me, though.
He wanted to get out of prison.
And here's another truth here.
God through Joseph reveals a future to the butler.
He receives a blessing as per God's word, okay?
The butler does here.
It's pretty dramatic, too, when it's all fulfilled, okay?
Verse 23, though, says,
yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph but forgot it.
So this guy's,
because it's not just that this guy comes out of,
not only just comes out of prison,
not only receives his job back and everything's all right,
but the baker ends up getting killed.
Okay, so it's a dramatic conclusion,
everything's fulfilled, which Joseph said.
And so often we see God's word fulfilled in our lives,
but with us it's not long before we forget as well,
isn't it?
So often God's word is fulfilled
because ultimately the dream was from God.
It's fulfilled, the prophecy is coming from God
through Joseph, and then we forget.
How often has asking ye shall receive
been fulfilled in your life?
I bet for everyone here it's been fulfilled
many times in your life,
yet how often have you then forgotten
that it was fulfilled in your life?
You forgot that he fulfilled your desire,
your prayer, your petition.
How often have,
how many here maybe have seen their lives improve,
have seen the blessings of meditating
on his word day and night,
have seen relationships improve
by following the instructions of God's word,
and then just followed, and then just forgotten about it,
and not given God the credit,
forgotten that when you're doing things God's way
you are getting those blessings.
We forget it, and then we either take the credit ourselves,
that's what we often do,
or it's because I did this, or because I changed that,
or because this happened, or it's because of happened,
you know, just a random coincidence or something else,
or we complain when things aren't going our way soon after.
It's like he's blessed you in a hundred different ways.
He's done this, he's answered this prayer, he's done that,
your life's improved in this area, that area,
and then it's like,
oh, I can't believe this didn't happen though.
And really, we're just forgetting all of that,
all of that, those blessings,
all those things that come from God,
we're constantly just forgetting it.
So we can look at this, and look,
there are people here that will,
sure, all of us, and probably within three days
of a blessing of God, just forgotten it, many times.
When a blessing's come, something's happened,
and then soon after you're forgetting it,
the butler saw God's word fulfilled in a great way,
but very soon forget it all.
It said in verse 16,
then the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good.
He said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream,
and behold, I had three white baskets on my head.
And in the uppermost basket,
there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh,
and the birds that eat them out of the basket upon my head.
And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation thereof,
the three baskets are three days,
yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head
from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree,
and the bird shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
I bet the baker wasn't expecting that.
Wow, that's a hard truth, isn't it?
Verse 16 said that it was when the chief baker
saw the interpretation was good
that he told Joseph the dream.
It said in verse 16, when the chief baker, when.
He said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream,
and behold, I had three white baskets, et cetera.
And of course, there are those that want the positive
from God's word, okay?
But understandably here, I'm sure he wasn't,
you know, wanting this negative, right?
But it's not always positive, is it?
But here's the thing, is to get the positives,
you need to accept the negatives.
Now, you might look at that and go,
well, yeah, but what could the baker have done here?
He's just told he's going to die in three days.
What could he have done?
Do you know what he could have done?
He could have got saved.
Could have fallen before Joseph said,
sir, what must I do to be saved?
And here's the thing, who's to say he didn't?
He's just been told you're going to die in three days.
And I'll tell you what, what he should have done
at that point was said, what do I have to do to be saved?
I don't want to go to hell.
What do I have to do?
What's the way to get out of this physical death?
And if not, what's the way out of the spiritual death?
The spiritual death that deep down we recognise, don't we?
Deep down we know about.
And like I said, he says he didn't.
Because you got the butler,
he received the positive message and the blessings,
didn't he?
He got the positive message, he got the,
you're going to be, it's all going to be fine
and everything else.
And what was the result?
He forgot Joseph.
And by the way, that means he forgot God really as well.
Because Joseph was relaying God's message.
So he forgot all of that,
which is the stumbling block for so many, isn't it?
It's the blessings.
It's things going well.
It's the comfort in life.
It's the no fear of death.
They forget God.
That's what happens, isn't it?
And that can happen in a Christian's life as well.
When things are going well,
that's often when we pull away from God.
And we stop, the praying gets a bit less,
the Bible reading gets a bit less,
church gets a bit less
when we feel like things are going well.
And it's often when things are going badly
that we start drawing closer to God.
And here we see a guy that gets the blessings
and soon after, within three days, he forgot Joseph.
Then you've got the baker,
told sure as anything that he's going to die in three days.
Maybe the baker ended up being the blessed one.
Never wondered that.
Maybe the baker ended up getting saved.
Maybe the baker's in heaven right now.
And I say maybe, okay?
So it's like, okay, he's got this weird doctrine here.
Okay, I'm just saying, you don't know, do you?
Maybe he did get blessed from the negative preaching.
Maybe he got blessed by the warning, right?
Because as preachers of God's word,
we have to relay the hard truths, don't we?
We have to relay the hard truths.
Verse 18 says,
And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation thereof,
the three baskets are three days,
yet within three days shall Pharaoh
lift up thy head from off thee.
Didn't just say he's going to lift him up
as in out of prison from off thee
and shall hang thee on a tree
and the bird shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Joseph didn't mince his words here, did he?
I mean, wow, he said it straight.
And of course, look,
we have to preach the certainty of death
when we preach the gospel, okay?
You have to preach that.
You have to preach a certainty
of physical and spiritual death.
And if you ain't preaching that,
if you're trying to, and I say, look,
I know we've got some thorough gospel preachers
at this church, but you'd be surprised.
There are men of God out there
in probably pretty weak churches especially
who don't even want to talk about hell.
They try and take hell out of the Bible, don't they?
Who want to just minimalise hell, not really talk.
In fact, you guys preached about that on Sunday,
that they don't really want to acknowledge hell.
But without hell, you don't need a saviour.
That's the whole point, really.
It's an attack on the gospel.
We have to preach the certainty of death
when we preach the gospel.
And that's an uncomfortable bit sometimes, isn't it?
When you're preaching the gospel is to preach
that they are on their way.
And they have to accept that as well.
So sometimes, and I know there can be a fleshly temptation
to kind of speed up a bit and gloss over the first bit
because it's a bit uncomfortable at the beginning
explaining to someone that they're on the way to hell.
But they have to accept that.
And I know like, I think everyone's well aware here
of something that I'd like everyone to do
is just you have, they have to accept
that they are on the way to hell
before they call the name of the Lord.
And it's not they just have to accept
that the Bible said that at the beginning
because often when you ask that person,
so what would have happened if we never spoke and you die?
Oh, I still think I would have gone to heaven.
And they've literally just gone through revelation with you.
They've just gone through Romans 6, 23,
Revelation 20, verse 14, Revelation 21.
They've gone through it and they've agreed with it all.
And then they go, yeah, I still think
I would have gone to heaven, no.
That person ain't getting saved.
If they don't accept that they were on their way to hell
until this point in time, they ain't saved
because that's what a saviour's for.
He's saving you from hell, not saving you
for something you don't even agree with
because, well, yeah, I'm not that bad.
Well, I still can't, I believed in Jesus
in some form, you know, I went to church.
I read a Bible, a few verses once, you know.
So that's something obviously we have to preach.
But also when we preach behind a pulpit,
sometimes you just have to preach hard truths, don't you?
Okay, sometimes behind a pulpit
you've got to preach some hard truths
and you've got to preach truths
that sometimes people don't like, right?
And sometimes it winds people up, it angers them,
it hurts them and you've got to be tough
to be able to sit in a hard preaching church, don't you?
You really do, but it's what God,
it's what he prescribes for his children.
Hard preaching, yeah, it's not every week
that you're just getting roasted from behind the pulpit.
Sometimes it might feel like that.
And if it does, amen, great,
because that means you've got stuff
that you need to sort out.
But we have to do that.
We have to preach hard truths.
I mean, Joseph, he just said, you're going to die.
And not only are you going to die,
but the birds are going to eat your flesh as well.
Just rubbing salt into the wound as well.
Because here's the thing is that Joseph wasn't worried
about being popular with the baker, was he?
He wasn't like, well, yeah,
I mean, I don't want to preach it too hard
because then he's not really going to like me.
I'll just kind of gloss over it a little bit.
Oh yeah, don't worry about your dream.
Come on, yeah.
Death.
Anyway, so, oh, gods, what's that?
Oh, I've got to go.
You know, no, seriously, right?
But Joseph didn't do that, did he?
He just said it how it is.
Because a lot of the word of God is negative, isn't it?
Look, it is.
Like, you read through the Bible
and you're not just going, wow,
you know, it's all love and skipping around.
It's negative.
It's negative books.
I mean, when you go through like Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and obviously Lamentations and Ezekiel,
just one after another in your Bible reading,
if you're just reading cover to cover,
it's like, ooh,
that can be some negative reading sometimes, can't it?
It's just chastisement coming, chastisement coming,
whooping coming, whooping coming.
And you're just, wow, like this is negative.
But that's just the Bible, isn't it?
And the chastisement, the judgment, all that stuff,
it's for our own good.
It's for our own good because without that,
we ain't going to grow.
We're not going to respond because we're carnal.
We need a whooping.
Just like our kids do, we need it.
We need the threat of a whooping,
just like a child needs the threat of a whooping.
It's what we need.
Otherwise, we are just going to be more carnal.
It's for our own good.
Life isn't a bed of roses, is it?
Maybe some of you today, it's Valentine's Day.
I don't know what you guys do with the roses, okay?
But usually it's not a bed of roses, okay?
It's not.
We need heart preaching.
And for a preacher, here's the thing, by the way.
Did you turn to Ezekiel 33?
Turn to Ezekiel 33.
For a preacher, it's more serious.
It really is.
Ezekiel was warned in Ezekiel 33 and verse six.
He said it like this.
He said, but if the watchman, Ezekiel 33, six,
but if the watchman, and by the way,
Ezekiel is being told, you're the watchman, by the way.
He said, but if the watchman see the sword come
and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned,
if the sword come and take any person from among them,
he is taken away in his iniquity,
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
Translation, when you're responsible
for preaching the word of God, you're responsible, really,
if you're seeing stuff going on in church,
you're in the wrong if you ain't preaching about that stuff.
When God just, and sometimes it's not that you see stuff,
because sometimes people think,
oh, he's been like watching, he's been talking about me,
or maybe our wives have been talking,
or something, you know, man, like, it's got back to,
a lot of the time, it's just,
God gives you a little kind of clue,
he kind of gives you a little nudge,
and you kind of think about a sin,
and you're like, oh, I don't know,
like, forget a feeling about something,
I don't want to get too spooky with it,
but it just, the Holy Spirit does the things
on a preacher's heart,
and sometimes you get something and you preach it,
but if you don't, and you know,
and you start to feel convicted,
you're like, I don't want to preach that,
that's going to be unpopular,
brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so,
they're not going to like me,
they're going to give me the dagger eyes while I'm preaching,
you know, they're going to like,
give me the cold shoulder for a couple of weeks,
better not preach that.
That's wicked.
And he said here,
he said his blood will be on the watchman's hand.
You're going to, translation,
you're going to get the whooping instead.
Spiritual life is serious business.
Why is it serious business?
Because it results in salvations.
Getting people right in a church
is a difference between someone else's eternity
in heaven or hell,
because ultimately that's what we're trying to do,
is keep everyone on track to keep preaching the gospel.
And we go, oh, it's so mean,
he preached on this sin and that sin.
Good.
Because we need to get sin out of our lives
because it will distract us,
it will pull us out of the things of God.
And relaying God's word to others is serious business.
See it in verse 20,
and it came to pass the third day,
but it's back in, sorry, back in Genesis 40, it says,
and it came to pass the third day,
which was Pharaoh's birthday,
that he made a feast unto all his servants,
and he lifted up the head of the chief butler,
and of the chief baker among his servants,
and he restored the chief butler
unto his butlership again,
and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand,
but he hanged the chief baker
as Joseph had interpreted to them,
yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph,
but forget him.
Now, as with the previous chapter,
for me, there are also some Christ pictures
in this chapter as well, okay?
I believe, and again, some of it,
look, you can't be dogmatic about this stuff.
Some is just like obvious,
like we saw in previous chapters.
This is not so clear,
but this is what I believe, okay, looking through this.
And it's not too like,
oh, well, I found something really spooky,
like, oh, man, this is like a real hidden meaning.
This is just what I believe, having read through this.
This is what was jumping out to me, okay?
And if you don't agree,
it's not the end of the world, okay?
But I believe that the butler and the baker
represent the thieves on the cross.
Okay, first off,
I think they represent the thieves on the cross,
condemned along with Joseph representing Christ,
he's constantly representing Christ,
with the thieves on the cross being a contrast
between each other, between those that are saved,
obviously the thief that gets saved,
and those that reject the gospel,
being the thief that doesn't get saved.
The prison representing the bondage of sin
with Joseph there wrongfully
and serving others by being there, yeah?
Said in verse four,
and the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them
and he served them and they continued a season in war.
And that's ultimately what Jesus Christ was doing,
wasn't he, by becoming sin for us, yeah?
Now, there's a season, a period of time,
because it said they continued a season in war.
And there is that season, that period of time,
where everyone is in that bondage, isn't there?
Everyone for some point,
now, for a young child, it might be a very small period,
a very small period of time when they're in that bondage,
with some being saved and others being condemned.
That's life, isn't it?
Some, when they have that season in war,
some will end up getting saved
and the majority will be condemned.
The dreams are the revelation from God,
I believe, that we all receive.
Romans 1.20, that fraternity says,
for the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen
being understood by the things that are made
even his eternal power in Godhead,
so that they are without excuse.
People are without excuse.
We all have some knowledge of God,
enough knowledge to be able to seek him and get saved.
Now, don't get me wrong,
not everyone, a lot of people get saved that don't seek.
So you've got to be careful with this,
because there's a lot of Calvinist false doctrine
and stuff like that.
If they're going to get saved, they're going to get saved.
No, we need to go out and preach the gospel.
See Jamie's sermon on Sunday to understand that.
We have to go out and preach the gospel
because if our gospel is hid, it's always at a loss, Joe.
But I believe that that's what the dreams represent here.
Joseph clearly represents Christ, the word of God.
Look at verse eight, it says,
and they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream
and there is no interpreter of it.
And Joseph said unto them,
do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me them, I pray you.
Clearly a representation of Christ, right?
And he said, do they not belong to God?
Tell me them, because he is picturing Christ.
He just made it very clear again here.
Now the three days is the time until the resurrection.
Remember they both, it's a three day thing here,
which was an essential part of the atonement.
Okay, don't forget that.
The resurrection is essential.
Without the resurrection, there ain't no atonement.
It all goes on there.
It's all the whole, it all plays a part.
People always like to like pull out something, don't they?
To be like, you know, for example,
like Huna preached on Sunday evening.
You know, there are these that just try and attack
Jesus Christ going to hell.
It's all part and parcel of the atonement.
Oh, it's just, he said it was finished on the cross.
Well, what about the resurrection then?
Because, was it the resurrection part of it as well?
Oh, but you know, but it's the blood of Christ.
Yeah, it's the blood of Christ.
And it all goes hand in hand with his death, his burial,
his soul going to hell and his resurrection.
And the three days is the time
until the resurrection, obviously.
And 1 Corinthians 15, 17 says,
And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is in vain yet in your sins.
Okay, it's all part and parcel of it.
Now, yes, in Luke 23, 43,
because I was thinking about the thief on the cross as well,
says, And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee,
two days shalt thou be with me in paradise.
But it was due to the resurrection on the third day.
He would never have been today with Jesus Christ in paradise
had Jesus Christ not resurrected on the third day.
The cup being given to Pharaoh represents
the blood of Christ being offered as payment for his sin.
That's what I believe.
It says in verse 14,
But think on me when it shall be well with thee
and show kindness, I pray thee unto me and make mention
of me unto Pharaoh and bring me out of this house.
Now, this isn't, this isn't what Jesus Christ wants.
Sorry, this is what Jesus Christ wants for all of us, okay?
To think on things when things are well with us,
to think on him, sorry.
So it said, sorry, I did jump forward quickly.
The blood of Christ, okay, that was offered.
We see him giving it, offering it to Pharaoh.
For me, that represents,
Pharaoh's representing God the Father.
The cup is representing the offering of Jesus Christ's blood
as being atonement for our sin.
But then in verse 14, when he says this,
this is the representation of Jesus Christ
wanting us to think on him, to show kindness unto him,
make mention of him ultimately to God the Father,
because really everything we do is in the name of Christ
and bring him out of this house.
And what's that, basically to bring Christ to the world.
To bring Christ to the world,
we're bringing him out of the house.
Remember the house is representing,
really for me is bringing him out of the house.
And you could say the house of God
to preach a resurrection to all.
We should be bringing it to all.
He says, bring me out of this house.
That's what we should be doing.
Once you're saved, you should be bringing him to all.
But the majority of people don't do that.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't do that.
Doesn't mean Jesus Christ doesn't want us to do that.
Once you're saved, he wants you to go and spread it forth.
He wants us to show kindness.
I pray unto the end to me and make mention of me
unto Pharaoh and bring me out of this house,
yet so many don't.
Then verse 16 says,
when the chief baker saw the interpretation was good,
he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream
and behold, I had three white baskets on my head.
In the uppermost basket,
there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh
and the birds that eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Now this represents instead of the offering of the blood,
so this is in contrast, our own offering.
All manner of baked meats,
and I believe that's picturing various works salvation.
All manner of baked meats, it's an offering,
it's all different, various forms of it.
The birds eating flesh being what happens
as the Christ rejects it at the end of God's wrath.
Revelation 19, 21 says the remnant was slain
with the sword of him that sat upon the horse,
which saw proceeded out of his mouth
and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
Okay, that's ultimately what happens to the God rejecters
at the end of at least the world as we know it,
before we then get onto the millennial reign of Christ.
Then turn to Luke 23,
because for me, the point being
we're seeing the contrast
between the Christ acceptors and the rejectors
represented by the thieves on the cross.
And that's what this is a picture of,
the contrast between Christ acceptors and Christ rejectors.
And I believe that's why these vivid dreams,
it could have just been them going,
yeah, well, you know, I had a dream.
I had a dream that I was restored to my butlership
and I had a dream that something happened
and I wasn't restored to something.
These for me are pictures of that
with the blood of Christ being the picture,
with the offering of the baskets being the offering,
the works of men's hands being the other picture.
And in Luke 23, it says from verse 39,
and this is what I believe
we're seeing ultimately a picture of,
and one of the malefactors which were hanged
railed on him saying,
if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
And that's rejection of Jesus Christ in the gospel,
isn't it?
That's just pure rejection.
If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
And he's talked about from physical death
and so many of the Jews, that's what they did.
They just rejected him
because they wanted some sort of physical salvation
rather than spiritual salvation.
But the other's answering, sorry,
the other answering rebuked him saying,
does not thou fear God,
seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly, that's accepting he's a sinner,
for we receive the due reward of our deeds,
that's accepting that you're a sinner,
but this man has done nothing amiss
and that's also accepting Christ's sinlessness.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom.
He's accepting Jesus' deity and he's able to save
and he called upon him for salvation.
Okay, clearly just lovely,
just short, just gospel there, isn't it?
In those few verses.
And in verse 43, and Jesus said unto him,
verily I say unto thee,
today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
And I believe that's what the picture
in Genesis 40 of, that's what I believe.
Again, I'm not dogmatic,
that's what I believe reading through that.
If you agree or disagree,
I'll be interested to hear afterwards
and I'm gonna finish up in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for, well, the many lessons we get from Joseph,
again there, Lord, just the way that being close to you,
he's able to relay what you're here,
it's the interpretation of dreams
and ultimately he's relaying the word of God.
And he also does that with the hard truths as well
and help us to just understand
that there's a time and a place for that, Lord.
When it comes to preach the gospel
to someone that wants to hear the gospel,
they need to understand they're on the way to hell.
And when it comes to preaching the word of God
from behind this pulpit, Lord,
sometimes we need to preach some hard truths,
we need to preach some hard messages,
but help everyone here to just understand
that it's for the ratification,
that it's what God prescribes us as believers, Lord,
to hear hard preaching and that's where, you know,
he wants to see a response from that as well.
Help us to also just, you know,
appreciate just so many other things we've learned today,
just, or at least being reminded of,
and just, you know, the luxuries in life that,
for example, the fresh juice that the King was drinking
there and help us to look at the Bible in its clear context
and not just read alcohol into it like so many do.
Help us to just get our doctrine from clear verses, Lord,
help us to also just apply these things into our life, Lord,
to just be reminded about some of those warnings
in the word of God there today, Lord,
and help us to get home safe and sound this evening
and to return on Sunday.
Jesus, amen.
Amen.