Sovereignty, Grace, and the Heart of Man
Genesis 40 takes place in an unlikely setting: an Egyptian prison. Joseph has been falsely accused, forgotten, and left to suffer despite his faithfulness to God. Yet even in prison, God is at work. Through the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker, God reveals His sovereign control over future events and demonstrates that nothing happens outside His purposes. The chapter also raises profound questions about grace, justice, and mercy. Why is one man restored while another is condemned? What does this teach us about what we deserve before a holy God? Finally, the cupbearer's response exposes the condition of the human heart. Even after witnessing God's power and receiving mercy, he quickly forgets the one who helped him. This sermon explores God's sovereignty over all things, the undeserved nature of grace, and humanity's tendency to suppress the truth and live for self. Above all, it points us to Jesus Christ, whose saving work alone transforms sinners into children of God.
Genesis chapter 40. Sometime after this, the cup bearer of the King of Egypt and his baker committed an offence against their lord, the King of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cup bearer and the chief baker. And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. And one night they both dreamed, the cup bearer and the baker of the King of Egypt who were confined in the prison, each his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, we have had dreams and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God. Please tell them to me. So the chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream there was a vine before me and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said to him, this is its interpretation. The three branches are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cup bearer. Only remember me when it's well with you. and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh. So get me out of this house, for I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into this pit. When the chief baker saw that the interpretations were favourable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream and there were three cake baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket there were all sorts of food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating out of the basket on my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker amongst his servants. He restored the chief cup bearer to his position and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Well, good morning. As he said, my name is Isaac. My wife Olivia is not here because she's at the sticks camp, which I'm going to give a little bit of a report on, I guess, before I start. For those of you who don't know, it's basically a camp that's being held out at Burncluth Hall this weekend, for the long weekend. And I think it's graded like nine, I don't I don't really know the details that well, to be honest. I just rocked up and am helping out. yeah, I just wanted to report, really one main thing that's been really encouraging for me to see from the camp is we are starting off most of the days with like a worship session and a devotional time, small group time, all that. classic camp stuff. And we're going through the Gospel of Mark in our small groups, just talking about what's standing out to the kids and stuff like that. But yeah, one thing that's been really encouraging for me is even walking around at the meal times and stuff like that, I'm hearing the kids talking about Jesus, what he's doing in their life, talking about what they've learned from Mark. Like, it's actually amazing. You don't often walk around when they're talking about whatever they want to talk about in here. stuff like that. It's incredible to hear. So that's really all I really wanted to report. The rest is classic camp stuff, but praise the Lord for that. So Genesis chapter 40 is what I'm preaching on today. So as we've heard, I'll do a quick recap just in case you haven't been listening until now. I doubt it. So We'll start actually in chapter 39. So Potiphar's wife tried to sleep with Joseph, but she then told Potiphar that he actually tried to sleep with her when he refused to sleep with her. Of course, Potiphar believed his wife and Joseph was thrown into prison. Poor bloke. It is here in prison that Joseph meets Pharaoh's chief cup bearer and baker after they've somehow angered him. The men both have a dream, each dream's having its own meaning. Joseph interprets these dreams for them and then the interpretations of course come true. The cup bearer is restored and the baker has his head pulled off. Poor dude again. Spoilers, but it does come true. So we're going to explore three points this morning relating to the passage and I've given them punchy, rememberable names but you'll probably forget them all. That's okay. So the first point is sovereignty, not this or that. The second is God's grace, not deserved. And the third is evidence, not all that's required. So I'm going to start with sovereignty, not this or that. OK, so when I was a little kid, we had this dog and his name was Henry, a little black dog. was very cute. I liked him a lot. And I distinctly remember having a dream about him, I'm pretty sure more than once. And in the dream, I was at school, because, you know, I don't know, dreams, you know how they are. I was at school and our dog Henry came up to me and viciously attacked me, like jumped at my face. And right as he jumped at my face, I woke up. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty certain that dream meant nothing at all. I think that had some sort of meaning. I reckon it was probably just kids having nightmares. Although I will say that later on he was actually put down for being aggressive towards some of my friends. So maybe I'm a prophet. I don't think so. But you know what I'm getting at? We all have dreams all the time. And according to modern scientists, we're going to get scientific for a second, we actually have a dream every time we go to sleep, whether we remember it or not. There is actually a fair bit of science around dreams, what they could possibly mean or what the purpose of them could be. But by and large, according to my admittedly brief research, a few websites, we don't actually really know why they even happen, apart from like mental processing reasons. And we apparently don't yet have a good way to study dreams in people. However, what modern secular science will not admit is that dreams can have meaning and purpose beyond some sort of mental processing. Joseph's whole thing was dreams and interpretation of dreams given to him by God enough to earn the nickname the dreamer in Christian world. and there are countless other biblical examples of dreams that had meaning. So obviously we've got our baker and cup bearer in the story. Obviously Joseph early in his life. Then we've got Jacob, Jacob's ladder. We've got Abimelek, Daniel, even Paul had a dream. That's recorded in Acts chapter 16 verse 9. And they actually concluded his dream to mean that God was calling them to preach the gospel in Macedonia. So they did that. So yeah, there are a whole lot, there's more. There's lots more actually in the Bible that we won't get into. But the point is the Bible clearly teaches that dreams can have meaning, or at least they have before. And my goal is not to get us to waste our time thinking about that random dream you had that apparently everyone seems to have when you were like 15 of rocking up to school in your undies and you're really embarrassed and stuff. I'm not trying to get you to think about that and be like, what could it possibly mean? Honestly, I really don't. know anything about dreams beyond what I've just said, because the Bible is not super clear about if we should, and if so how we should, go about interpreting our dreams if they need an interpretation at all. And for that reason, it's important to never put too much emphasis or importance on dreams. Even ones that seemingly do have a meaning behind them, like the cup bearers and the bakers, which we'll get into. Obviously, scripture should always be our primary authority, the measuring rod against which we test everything. Anyway, I just thought the topic warranted a little bit of thought. I just found it interesting. But this leads us to the big question regarding all of this. What was the purpose behind the cup bearers and bakers' dreams? So Joseph notices they look sad in verse seven because they do not have an interpretation for their dreams. Now obviously, I don't really know again, but there was something about these dreams that was significant enough to them to convince them that these dreams actually demanded an interpretation, some description. So Joseph then gives his interpretations from God to the two men. One, the cup bearer. would be restored, the other, the baker, would be killed. By the end of the chapter, of course, these things all happen. So what does this teach us about God? It reveals a very well-known fact about God, that he is sovereign. But how many of us, I wonder, have believed that for a long time but never actually considered the nuance that goes along with it, or maybe just not given it too much thought because it's too hard to understand. But to understand what I'm getting at here, let me present you with some questions to get us thinking. Did God plan for them all to be in jail together? Did God plan for one to be killed and for one to be restored? I hope your answer was yes and yes, because it's It is yes and yes. There was a purpose in it all. As we find out in the next chapter, obviously the cup bearer eventually remembers Joseph and that's the reason Joseph's brought out of prison and put in charge of heaps of stuff and went out. But did God make them anger the king? Who's responsible for that? The baker and the cup bearer are responsible for that. Now look, if you're expecting me to get up here and tell you how somehow how God's sovereignty and free will work together, whatever you want to call it, how God can orchestrate history while each person is making genuine choices. Well, you're asking too much of me. I'm sorry. All I know is that the Bible teaches this very clearly, that both things exist. Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9 says, in their hearts, humans plan their course. but the Lord establishes their steps. So humans are planning, it's a genuine choice made by the human, planning, but the Lord is establishing their steps. Romans 8.28. And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So is that just some things? Is that like everything except the things we do and think and say? No. It's all things, which includes the things we do and think and say. Isaiah 45, 7, I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster. I the Lord do all these things. This one's a pretty tough one. And then actually, we're going to sing a song called Indescribable at the end of the service. And there's one line in there that I just added in just before because I think it fits well with this. Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow? That's God. He is sovereign, he's in charge of lightning, so he's definitely in charge of you. And yet, we are called to action and held responsible all the time. Romans chapter 12 verse one, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Is God offering your bodies? No, you're offering your bodies. Ephesians chapter four verse one, live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Mark 115, repent and believe the good news. These are all commands, calls to action to us. So how do these things coexist? Again, don't know. But this is basically because it's a very lofty concept. It can't really fit in our minds. It just can't fit. And I know it sounds like a cop out to say that, but it's not. I mean, you really think that God, the creator of everything, the source of all knowledge and wisdom, the king of the universe, could fit into our finite, small human minds. Sorry to call your mind small, but it is compared to God's, okay? And like, I'm not a very bright guy, okay? So I definitely, it's definitely not fitting in my mind. But if you still don't like this idea, well, let me ask you a question. Do you believe that God is good? Do you believe that he made you and me? Do you think he ever does anything badly or makes mistakes? Hopefully, I think you know the right answers to those questions. Then why, when it comes to this, God being sovereign, do we suddenly think that we are wiser than God? How arrogant is it to think that the way God wants to run his universe is not how I would have done it? He is good. He is kind. He is loving. Trust that he's running things exactly the right way. He's running them the fairest way, the most loving way, and the most just and righteous way. But anyway, we'll move on to the next point now. So that's God's grace not deserved. So the cup bearer receives his interpretation. It's a good one. He's going to get restored. He's cheering. And he thinks, the God of Joseph is right, He's going to be restored. Now the baker, he wants a piece of the action now. He hears that the cup bearer's interpretation was good. He's like, sweet, how good is this going to be? So he wants a piece of the action. But unfortunately for him, his is quite upsetting. He's going to have his head lifted off. Ow. I just, the Bible is so funny sometimes. so now we get presented with a new conundrum, or at least I did. I'm going to bring it into your minds too. Why would God show grace to one and not the other? Why would he let the cup bearer live but the baker die? Now, was there something about the cup bearer that meant he deserved to be restored to his position and something about the baker that meant he deserved to die? Well, actually not really. mean, they were both pretty dodgy characters. mean, the cup bearer, first of all, they did something to anger the Pharaoh and get thrown into jail. The cup bearer forgets Joseph immediately and the baker only wants to hear his interpretation because it's going to scratch his itching ears, right? It's going to hopefully be good. Well, and we know from Romans chapter two, verse 11, that there is no partiality with God. He does not think of some people as more or less deserving than others. So he doesn't play favourites. Then what's going on here? Why not let both live? We know the cup bearer has to live to continue Joseph's story, right? The cup bearer eventually remembers Joseph, and because of that Joseph's brought out of prison and stuff. But why not let the baker live too? It wouldn't have affected Joseph's life in any way, probably, right? Well... I will try and answer that question with a question. Get used to this. This morning I'm giving you more questions than answers. But firstly, we know that as sinners, we all deserve to die. We also know that both of these men clearly, like I said, committed some offence against the Pharaohs, so it's likely they deserve their punishment anyway. But more importantly, we all deserve God's wrath. So the real question is, why didn't God also plan for the cup bearer to be killed? Or why doesn't he have all of us sinners killed? Now, this is all talking about deserved. If we talked about deserved, it'd be pretty grim. So you see, sometimes we get it twisted, and we think that somehow we deserve the love of God. And we get this idea in our head that we have done this or that to earn our forgiveness. But we know this cannot be further from the truth. You may not think you struggle with the temptation to think you deserve God's grace and love, but you just might not even realise it. Does it bother you that God would show mercy to the cut-bearer and not to the baker? Perhaps you just don't understand what they, and consequently we all, deserve. Does God, by showing mercy to one, somehow now owe mercy to someone else? Does he by saving one person's life now owe everyone else their life? Absolutely not. God created you, which means whether you accept it or not, he has all authority over you and what happens to you. In Romans chapter 9, 15 it says, will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So again, the real question is, Why does he sustain our life every second of every day? Why does he even give us our next breath? Why wouldn't he just wipe us all out in the floods, everyone, all at once, and send us all to hell where we deserve to go? because God loves you and I so strongly in the strongest form that love could possibly take that he had Jesus killed for us. For those of us this morning who have put our faith in Christ, he delights to sustain our lives because he took his son's life instead. He delights to give us a next breath because he let his son take his last breath on the cross in our place. He has saved us from hell and lifted us up to be with him in heaven. The amazing thing though, well that's also amazing, but another amazing thing is that while God does not owe us a thing, and it is important to remember that, he doesn't, he's also not some distant out there kind of God either, just being like, you deserve, you know. He owes us nothing and yet he's given us everything. Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 to 8 says, talking about Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. So he made himself nothing, which by the way, another one of those concepts that doesn't fit in here. He made himself nothing, became a man and he laid himself down for us. So what greater gift could we ask for? What more blessing could we possibly need but this? Remember Romans 9.15, he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, compassion on whom he will have compassion. Well guess what? He wills to have mercy and compassion on you, on all of us. Now don't get it wrong, God may not save us from death now here on earth at times. There's plenty of times where, let's say there's two people in a car, they have a car accident, one dies and the other doesn't, and we're left wondering why on earth would that happen? And again, I don't know, but he's shown us all the mercy by offering salvation from death forever. So yes, he may not save us from death now, but he saved us from death forever. And all you have to do is accept that. All you have to do is put your faith in him to receive that. So now I want to talk about one more thing that stands out from this passage. And this is a little bit of a pivot from what we've been talking about so far, but it just jumped out at me. And so I thought I'd bring it to you. So I want you to notice something about the cup bearer in particular in this story. Joseph, after giving him his interpretation, asked him to do something in return for him. He asked the cup bearer to remember me and show me kindness, mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. Not a very hard task, I don't think. But the very last verse of the chapter says, the chief cup bearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him. Now I don't think this is an insignificant detail. It's kind of a random thing to add right at end of the chapter. I mean obviously when they were writing it there was no chapters and verses, but you know what I mean. It's a random little detail to add, but I think it actually is significant. I think it teaches us something about people. You see the cup bearer received a dream from God, something that's never happened to me as far as I'm aware. He received a prophetic interpretation from one of God's people, again, something that's never happened to me. And then he actually saw it all come true, all within a few days. Again, something that's never happened to me either. And Joseph asked this man to do one thing for him in return, but what did he do? He forgot him. He immediately, as soon as things were back to normal, just, oop, I'll just forget about God, I'll forget about Joseph, it's back to me, me, me, you know? So what does this reveal about the cupbearer's heart? It is cold. It is not compassionate. It is clearly hateful toward God. And most of all, it is self-centered. How is this miracle not enough for him to see that Yahweh is the true God? And I think the cup bearer is unfortunately exactly like the people all around us in the world today. How many times have you heard people say something like, well, if God would just come down and show himself to me, and went, you know, Isaac, I'm real and you need to follow me. I would believe it. You just need to give me some proof. Right? How many times have you heard that? I've heard it a lot. But the truth is, unfortunately, These people are not looking for some sort of divine experience or proof of God. They're not. I mean, after all, if they were truly seeking after God, they would find Him. In Matthew, Jesus says, seek and you will find. So no, these people are not looking for God. because they know he already exists. And the reason I can say that confidently is because it's in my Bible, and my Bible told me so. Romans chapter one, verse 18 to 20 says, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. So what are these people doing? They're not looking for evidence. Romans chapter 1, 18 to 20 says the evidence is all there. They're looking for an excuse to suppress the truth. The end of the verse here, so that people are without excuse. They're looking for that excuse. And what is suppressing the truth mean? It means they know it, it's there, but you're suppressing it, you're pushing it down, you're not acknowledging it. So, if you don't believe me, if you don't believe that I'm describing every human being on the planet, consider the essence of the first ever sin. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit and disobeyed God, What actually convinced them in the end to do it? What did the serpent tell them? He said, you will be like God. This is all it took, really. And unfortunately, every time we sin, we echo this very thought. Every time we lust after a man or a woman, we decide that what God has to say about lust is not as important as how we feel about lust. Every time we dishonor our spouse or become impatient and snappy with them, call them names or something, and we fail to love them in any way, we decide that what God has to say about loving our wives and respecting our husbands is not as important as how much they annoyed me and how much we feel like we have to just say something to them, you know? Every time we gossip about that one thing or that one person, We decide that what God has to say about gossip doesn't matter because I just need to get this on my chest. We're just talking. You're not talking. You're gossiping. This is for Christians and non-Christians alike. The difference, of course, is that the Christian, hopefully, actually cares about what God has to say about it, even though we often mess up and disregard it. The non-Christian person To be honest, couldn't care less what God has to say about it unless it suits them. It doesn't move them. They are their own God and that's how they like it and that's how they want it to stay. See, the world is not looking for God. The world hates God. John chapter 15 verse 18. This is Jesus talking to his disciples. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. What does that say? The world hates Jesus Christ. People of the world They just want to be the god of their own lives. And now I have some bad news, okay? We were these people. Some of you right now, unfortunately, might be this person. We are not above the world. Okay? Because the only reason we're not just like them is because of Jesus Christ. It's not like God, Christians, and then non-Christians. It's like God and then everything and everyone else over here. Nothing we've done in our own efforts has ever separated us from the world. Only the work Christ has done and the work the Spirit is doing in you can separate us from the world. We are not above these people because we were once lovers of the world. We were once lovers of self and haters of God. 1 Corinthians 6 11 after listing a big long list of sins and types of sin, says, and that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God, not by you. Christ took us in. He washed us clean. He made us new. We are new men and women in Christ, set apart from the world for his use and his special care. Why then do we still look to take the throne of God for ourselves? Why do we still sometimes refuse to bow the knee to Christ in areas of our lives? Why on earth, after this beautiful act of love from God, especially for us, would we spit on Him and mock Him with our actions, like they did on the cross? Why? Because, again, we were once these haters of God. Our heart was once turned so far away from Him that it takes a miracle from God to turn it back around to face Him. I mean, it's not easy to turn. It needs a lot of WD-40 to turn, okay? When we fail to live up to the standard that God has set for us, sure, we must grieve. But then, we must get up and rejoice. For the standard has been fulfilled by our Lord Jesus. The standard we could never meet has been met by the Son of God himself. Jesus Christ came to earth as a man to save you and me. He did it because we desperately needed it. We needed saving. And until you can see that, you cannot understand what Jesus actually did for you. So to wrap up, when you go out into your workplace and homes and wherever you go in a week, remember what 1 Corinthians 6 11 says, that is what some of you were. We were haters of God, but now only by the blood of Christ and His grace on you received by faith, we are sons and daughters of God. We are co-heirs with Christ. Let's pray. Lord, just thank you so much for who you are. I thank you, Lord, for giving us your word, for giving us Genesis chapter 40 to read and learn about you. Lord, I thank you, Lord, that even though we were once haters of you, that you died while we were still sinners for us. Lord, that you, in spite of our mocking and our hatred towards you, you showed the ultimate act of love towards us. Because of that we can place our faith in you and be brought into relationship with you Lord. Lord we just confess to you today that because of that we love you and we thank you. Yeah Lord, I just pray that if there are people in the room this morning Lord, who don't know you, who are lovers of the world and haters of God, Lord may you open their eyes to help them see that they hate God. But Lord, open their eyes to help them see they need you. Lord, open their eyes to help them see that simply by putting their faith in you, they can come into your family. They can love you, and you will love them more than they've ever been loved. And ultimately Lord, that you would save them from hell. You would save them from their sin. Help them to see that they need saving. And in Jesus name I pray, amen.