Joseph No.7 The Witness of the Spirit

The Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. And he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it.

And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me. God should give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river, and behold, there came up out of the river seven kind, fat-fleshed, well-favoured, and they fed in a meadow. And behold, seven other kind came up after them, poor, very ill-favoured, and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in the land of Egypt for badness. And the lean and the ill-favoured kind did eat up the first seven fat kind.

And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them. But they were still ill-favoured as at the beginning. And so I awoke, and I saw in my dream, behold, seven ears come up in one stalk, full and good.

And behold, seven ears, withered and thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprang up after them. And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears. And I told this unto the magicians, and there was none that could declare it to me.

And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one. God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. And the seven good kind are seven ears, and the seven good ears are seven ears.

The dream is one. And the seven thin and ill-favoured kind that came up after them are seven ears. And the seven empty ears, blasted with the east wind, shall be seven ears of famine.

This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh. What God is about to do, he showeth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven ears of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.

And there shall arise after them seven ears of famine. And all of the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt. And famine shall consume the land.

And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following, for it shall be very grievous. And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. It is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

Now therefore, let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.

And that food shall be a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt. And the land shall not perish through the famine. And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.

And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is? A man in whom the Spirit of God is. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, For as much as God hath shown thee all this, there is none so discreet or wise as thou art. Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word, all my people be ruled.

Only in the throne shall I be greater than thou. Amen. Let's now sing unaccompanied.

And have your Bibles open. Now the passage read to us so beautifully by our good friend, Mrs. Jeffrey. Genesis chapter 41.

And I'll be homing in, especially on verse 38, which reads in the NIV as indicated on notes and news. So Pharaoh asked them, Can we find anyone like this man? One in whom is the Spirit of God. It's always a pleasure to minister from the Old Testament.

It's always a privilege to minister in any case. But I love the Old Testament. I live very much in its chapters.

I have gleaned a great deal in my own personal life, positively and negatively, from biblical characters. You can identify yourselves, can't you, with individuals. And I love, therefore, to teach from the Old Testament and the narrative passage of Old Testament scriptures.

So we're back again, as we have been for a number of weeks, to this ever new story of Joseph. Always something fresh to break out from considering these chapters. And I said last Sunday that there were two things especially that I believe God wanted to say to us as a church family from the passage that we looked at then.

I affirmed that God wants from you your absolute confidence. And secondly, I argued that God can be trusted entirely. Now I want to put two other propositions to you from this latter passage.

I draw my propositions, my conclusions, this latter passage of Genesis 41. And they are these. God wants you to know that you belong to him.

God wants you to know that you belong to him. Knowledge in the Hebrew language is not just cerebral. That means it doesn't just affect the mind.

God says to Amos, of the Jewish people, of all the families of the earth, they alone have known me. He doesn't mean he gave them a bag of theological presuppositions and that enriched them above every other nation. The word know affects the mind and the heart.

And you'll never understand biblical Christianity unless you see it through Jewish eyes. Our Lord was a Jew, you remember. God wants you to know that you are his without a shadow of doubt.

And the second proposition is this. God wants other people to know that you know you're his without a shadow of doubt. If I unwrap that and put it in a theological expression, I would say God wants you to have the inner witness of the Spirit and the inner witness of the Spirit is going to make an impact upon the society where you spend, where you live out your life.

Now both those propositions, I argue, I take clearly from the way the narrative leads me in this exciting story of Joseph. There are two words perhaps which help us to get the atmosphere. Pharaoh and Joseph are together.

Joseph has just been released from prison. You remember he spent some years there, a trumped up charge. It looked as though God had forgotten him.

Certainly the butler did for quite a long time. You recall the butler was one of his companions in jail at least for a period. But in the grace of God, Joseph is sprung from prison and he has an audience with Pharaoh.

And as the conversation continues, two words it seems to me summarize the main impact of this particular incident on those who were looking on the attendance in Pharaoh's court. The first word would be confidence and the second word would be consequence. Did you have a dream last night? I told you I often dream.

Sometimes they're utterly nonsensical. But in Old Testament days when men didn't have the Scriptures, you have the Scriptures. God sometimes used dreams to convey what he wanted to say, not just to Jewish people but also to non-Jews.

And Pharaoh had had a broken night. He'd been on both channels, BBC and ITV, two dreams and they both converged to say the same thing. But he wasn't sure at the point of receiving the dreams and waking up just what the impact was.

But that's where the confidence comes in. Joseph speaks with an authority that is not evident anywhere else amongst the courtiers of Pharaoh. And the consequence of what Joseph has to say to Pharaoh is this, that the most rapid promotion in history takes place.

The prisoner becomes a prime minister. But the whole thing, it seems to me, spins around that verse that I've read to you when we discover Pharaoh putting up the question, not expecting an answer, a rhetorical question, can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God? Now get the scenario. A pagan king, albeit the most influential man in the whole world in those days.

And he's brought face to face with this impoverished Jew who's only just been released from this dungeon. And the encounter has been fairly limited. But Pharaoh has been driven to this understanding in regard to the Hebrew.

The Spirit of the gods is in him in a way that I have not known that spirit in anyone else. If you were to start to study the Bible in terms of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, to where would you go? The problem is with some of us, we've got isolated chapters that we feel have boxed in the whole doctrine of the Spirit. Those chapters are very important.

Acts chapter 2, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14. And the chapters in John's Gospel where our Lord Jesus teaches especially about the coming paraclete. But the Holy Spirit gives testimony to the inspiration of Scripture throughout the whole of Scripture.

And you will never get a clear doctrine if you just come down to specific chapters and rule out others. The doctrine of the Spirit commences in Genesis chapter 1. And it builds up throughout the whole pages of the Old Testament and the New Testament. And you could do worse than start with Genesis 41 for some understanding of the impact that the Spirit of God makes upon the life of an individual.

For men in the Old Testament and women too knew what it was in some way to be filled and used by the Holy Ghost. Here is a man who I believe knows the inner witness of the Spirit. Here is a man who is utterly convinced that he belongs to God.

And the consequence of that conviction is seen in the reaction of an unbeliever when he's in his presence. Remember my prime presuppositions? God wants you to know that you are His. And my second, God wants other people to know that you are His by the way that you live your life and the way that you react.

There's a cause and a consequence. So if you want to learn a little about the inner witness of the Spirit then I give you Joseph as a marvelous example from the Old Testament to help trim your theology or quicken your understanding in the first instance. The man who has the inner witness of the Spirit, number one, does not lack assurance.

He does not lack assurance. When Joseph is in the presence of Pharaoh after appreciating the king's dilemma, he immediately says in the 16th verse in regard to the dreams, I can't interpret them but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. He's so sure.

Verse 28, it is just as I said to Pharaoh, God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. The man who has been in company with God and speaking on behalf of God doesn't suggest, he declares. Tim Buckley reminded us on Wednesday, Moses didn't come down Sinai with the ten suggestions, he came down with the ten commandments.

Suggestion is the language of debate and dialogue. I do not debate from this pulpit, that's what annoys a lot of people. I pontificate, I declare, I pronounce because what I have to say is not what I am saying but what is based on Scripture and Scripture has as its authority God.

The man who knows the inner witness of the Spirit is a man who does not lack assurance. Assurance of his own salvation, assurance of what God is about in his affairs and in the affairs of other people. What's more, the man who knows the inner witness of the Spirit often stands out over against the cluelessness of other people.

Now the government's got a job retraining scheme, have they not? For the debate at the TUC conference you remember, where did they have it, Bournemouth this last week? They weren't as happy about the idea as Neil Kinnock apparently was. Now if anyone qualified for a job retraining scheme in the days of Pharaoh, the time of Joseph, it was these magicians and wise men. After all they'd had a crack at the dreams and the prizes really went to those who were greatly ignorant because they hadn't got an idea.

And here is this man, Joseph, and he comes along and you can imagine the tension that there is in the court. Do you ever read Scripture with imagination? All the others have tried to help Pharaoh and you did your best to help Pharaoh if you liked your own life and well-being. They got nowhere.

But Joseph, over against the cluelessness of the courtiers and wise men, he's able to help. He can tell Pharaoh. Quite frankly at the logical level I don't understand the dullness of the Egyptian courtiers.

I mean it seems to me that you only needed a little bit of ingenuity to work out these dreams without divine intervention. It doesn't seem to me a great puzzle to work it through. Maybe that's an immodest comment but I've got to come from where I am.

It's a position of honest conviction. But then you see I have a great problem with the dullness of people today. I don't understand why Worthingtown, 100,000 people, don't to a man, to a woman, bow the knee to Jesus Christ.

Seems to me perfectly logical that when you read the Gospels in the New Testament, when you analyze your own heart's condition, that the latter indicates that you need God and the Gospels tell you that God is prepared to meet you at the point of your need. I don't understand the dullness of people in regard to delaying response to the Gospel. Do you? But when I look into Scripture I do discover that there are times when it seems as though God in His sovereignty that I don't understand allows the eyes of people to be be clouded.

After all when Jesus the Son of God came on earth the Jews missed Him completely. Not so. At least the vast majority.

Just as though darkness had covered their understanding. And yet the man who walks with God in the counsels of God, he has this understanding granted to him at a much higher level than those who just rely on sheer ingenuity. And Joseph who has been in the presence of the Lord, albeit in a dungeon for some while, can come into the presence of Pharaoh and over against the cluelessness of Pharaoh's advisers, Joseph giving evidence of the inner witness of the Spirit unravels Pharaoh's dreams and indicates to him just what God is saying.

You see there is an inadequacy in human natural understanding. This is why very often in counseling I have problems with Freudian psychology. I very often have problems with psychologists per se.

Because it seems to me that you can't understand man apart from the Bible's teaching as to who man is and what his problems are. When you start with that then you can go on and counsel. But if you don't understand the biblical teaching in regard to man it's very difficult to help man in his personal need.

Now here is an illustration you see of cluelessness, not on the part of Joseph regarding the psyche of Pharaoh, but cluelessness on the part of those advisers of Pharaoh who just cannot understand what is happening. And Joseph who is filled with the Spirit, he can help Pharaoh out of his dilemma. The third thing about the spirit filled man or the man who knows something of the inner witness is that he recognizes, and I've almost hinted at this fully so I don't need to extend on the point, but he recognizes that there is a wisdom that comes from God alone.

Listen to Paul writing to the Corinthians in the second chapter of the first letter. He says in the sixth verse, we do however speak a message of wisdom among the mature, not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

He goes on to teach us more about the inner witness of the spirit. Verse 10, the spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Who gave Pharaoh the dreams? God did. Then obviously the courtiers in the palace cannot help Pharaoh with his dilemma because they don't know the source of the wisdom. Joseph knows the source of the wisdom.

He has entertained the presence of God, entered into the presence of God, even during his stay in prison. And when he comes before Pharaoh, he shows that assurance and that confidence that only men who take counsel with God can display. So what are the practical consequences of the inner witness? Let's say that you yourself, the vast majority of you are, so it's not a grand assumption, know the Lord.

You've felt the impulse of the Spirit in your heart. It's not just because the Bible says so, that's one level of assurance. And it's the greatest level of assurance, but there are other levels.

There is this inner assurance that comes as a result of a man taking counsel with the Lord. Now when a man is absolutely sure of the gospel, when a man has been quickened by the Holy Ghost, what is the consequence of that ministry, of his ministry in present society? Well I'm arguing you've got an illustration from Joseph here. The practical consequences of knowing the inner Spirit, the witness of the Spirit, is that you can reorder perplexed minds.

You can reorder perplexed minds. You see here is Pharaoh, verse 7, and he's troubled about these dreams. Then Pharaoh woke up.

It had been a dream. Verse 8, in the morning his mind was troubled. Now God doesn't want people to be troubled.

Whether they're Jew or Gentile, God is a God of peace. And here is this man, he's agitated. There are many agitated people in Worthing, not so? You go down your road.

You'll soon discover, I hope that you have relationships with your neighbours. I hope you don't live in a sort of spiritual cocoon and the only sort of interaction you get at the human level is among Christian people, God forbid. We're to be soaked in our neighbourhood, getting to know our neighbours.

Now isn't your neighbourhood, the block of flats in which you live, even the college to which you go, or the school that you're in attendance of, isn't it replete with examples of those who are troubled? Now the heart of God is such that he doesn't want people to be troubled. He's a God of peace. And so Joseph's comments to Pharaoh in the 16th verse comes out better in the authorised version of the scriptures.

So I was glad that we had that facet read to us this morning. God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. God will give Pharaoh the message of peace.

He doesn't want you like this Pharaoh. This God that I serve wants you to be relaxed. The practical consequences of knowing the inner witness of the spirit is that you can help a person who's troubled to reorder their perplexed mind.

What's more, when you know the inner witness of the spirit and you're dealing with someone, you can inspire their confidence, can't you? The Billy Graham meetings in 1954, and yes I think that was the year, they really were remarkably blessed. Perhaps more so than any other of his evangelistic campaigns in this country. Now I was a modest youth at that time, went along and listened.

I'd heard better preachers. But there was something about the sincerity with which Dr. Graham spoke. Something in terms of authority that was behind his words that really wrapped what he had to say into the minds, into the understandings of people.

And when later on, a little more mature, I was in London Bible College, our college body was tested as to how many people had found Jesus Christ as Savior as a result of those Haringey meetings. And about a third of the college stood up. It's quite incredible.

And yet Billy Graham didn't come really as a philosopher. He didn't come as a mighty theologian. I don't speak with disrespect there.

He just came to Haringey and he declared passionately and sincerely what he believed of God's Word. And there was such a confidence that was generated in that auditorium that many, many people came to Christ. And it wasn't just an emotional thing, thus the number of students who found Christ and were at London Bible College in my day from those meetings.

Pharaoh didn't become the greatest man in the whole of the world in those days without having much shrewdness and human ability. And yet when Joseph is in front of him and he interprets these dreams, he instills such confidence into Pharaoh that immediately Pharaoh promotes him, lifts him to the position of the second most powerful man in the Egyptian Empire. Now Joseph could not at that moment have proven that his interpretation of the dreams is correct.

It would take at least 14 years, not so. But there is that about Joseph that is utterly convincing to the extent that this shrewd Egyptian sees that he has a man of outstanding ability of whom there is no other to match him in his court. And he says, Joseph, you are going to be my man.

I have utter confidence in you. To quote R.T. Kendall, I put all my eggs in your basket. You see, there is that witness of the spirit not only within the life of the person who is committed to God, but sometimes as a knock-on effect on the part of the hearer.

Some people come to Jesus as Lord and Savior as a result of our gospel preaching here in the tab, and they haven't really been given a very good apologetic as to why they should believe in Jesus. We haven't gone into all the historical proofs. We haven't tried to demonstrate the inerrancy of Scripture.

They've listened to a clear-cut gospel message. God loves them. They're a sinner, and they're in need, and they respond.

What's the reason? Not that the Word of God has bypassed the mind. It has enlarged the mind. It has stimulated the mind.

But it's also gone to the heart of an individual because we're not brains on legs. We're people with emotions. We're people with feelings, and the Word of God is directed to the whole man, not just to the mind, or else only the philosophers would make heaven, God forbid.

Here is this man Joseph. It's a wonderful thing. He preaches the Word of God, explains the Word of God to Pharaoh, and there is such confidence generated in the heart of Pharaoh that he promotes Joseph there and then.

Joseph is able to bring together that which seems disjointed in Pharaoh's understanding. Two dreams? No, there aren't two dreams, Pharaoh. The dream is one.

God is reaffirming, reinforcing what is about to happen. The man who has a mind that's filled with the Spirit can bring things together. He can show how there is cohesion in the Word of God, not two testaments that are completely disjointed, one over against the other.

The testaments were written, caused to be written by the Holy Spirit. There is one Bible, one Word of God. The Old Testament illustrates the new.

The New Testament illustrates the old. Now, if you only have the wisdom of this world, you don't understand that. This is why it's so important that in our pulpits in our country, we have men and women declaring God's Word who know God.

Not just the Word of God, but the God of the Word. Not just hitting the mind, but hitting the heart. This is clearly what Joseph is able to do.

He shows that there's cohesion in this dream. He shows that God has spoken to Pharaoh. As we try, those of us who are entrusted with a preaching ministry, try to demonstrate to people that there is cohesion in the Word of God.

And there should be cohesion in the human personality. So many people are a walking wall. They're not at peace within themselves.

Their hearts are disturbed. And the Word of God, the message of the Evangelist, it wants to affect the whole nature of a man, of a woman, so that they can enter into that blissful state of peace. Whether they're in the Costa Geriatrica in the south of England, they are to know God's perfect rest within their hearts and lives, because He loves them and has a purpose for them.

The man who knows the inner witness of the Spirit is able to sow faith. This is what Joseph did, not so? The most unlikely candidate for conversion was Pharaoh. But the most wonderful power in the world was on the side of Joseph, the power of God.

And so Pharaoh is impressed by what Joseph is, by what he says, by what he represents. Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God? Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. Game, set and match.

Pharaoh has acknowledged who Joseph is and where he's from. I remember my first opening propositions for this address. God wants you to know Him, assuredly, not just in your mind, but in your heart.

And the internal witness of the Spirit, that's what John Calvin would have used to describe what I'm affirming. And because you have an internal witness of the Spirit, it will be evident to other people. It was for Potiphar, it was for Pharaoh, on the part of Joseph.

Have you ever thought who must have been the most disturbed person in Egypt at that time? I wouldn't have liked to have been in Potiphar's wife's shoes, would you? I mean, she got him in jail, Joseph, in the first instance, not so? And now, not only is he released from prison, but he's superior in authority to her husband. But there's no vindictiveness in Joseph. There's no vengeance spirit in the heart of a man who's been filled with a spirit.

Even at this stage, Joseph doesn't justify himself. He lets the course of events justify him, and you should do that also. He's armed with the gift of the Spirit.

And if you've got the Word of God in your hand today, and the Spirit of God in your heart, you've really got all that you need to be able to cope. God wants you to know Him in a way that leaves all doubts to one side. And God wants that knowledge that you have of Him to have a consequence in the society where you live out your life.

May God do for you what He did for Joseph, so that people perhaps not in the same articulation would say, can we find anyone like this person in whom is the Spirit of God? Let's sing. And let's sing the hymn that we skipped, 2-5-8. Almighty God, thy Word is cast like seed into the ground.

Now, Father, we too want that assurance continually in our hearts that we are yours. We want to be able to live out lives that affect others. We thank you for the capitulation of Pharaoh to the simple declaration of the dreams and their meaning on the part of Joseph.

It helps us to believe that as we simply declare your truth, not coming with a bunch of commentaries under our arms, but simply telling others about you and your purposes in their lives, that that by the power of the Spirit may be sufficient for their salvation. So we pray, give us the inner witness, and may the effect of that inner witness make an impact upon the lives of those with whom we have to deal. Prepare our hearts as we come around this table and make this bread and wine precious to us as we remember again the nucleus of the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ, him crucified and resurrected, our Saviour and your Son.

Amen.