If you have your Bibles with you, I
hope you do have them, turn with me
to Genesis chapter 39.
Remember in Genesis chapter 37, the story of
Joseph, really it's the continuation of the story
of Jacob, but Joseph is the character around
whom most of the story from now on
gathers.
That began in chapter 37, there was the
interruption of the story of Judah and Tamar
in chapter 38 and now the story concerning
Joseph is picked up again by Moses and
we read in verse 1 of Genesis chapter
39, now Joseph had been taken down to
Egypt and Potiphar an Egyptian officer, Pharaoh, the
captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the
Ishmaelites who had taken him down there and
the Lord was with Joseph, so he became
a successful man and he was in the
house of his master, the Egyptian.
Now his master saw that the Lord was
with him and how the Lord caused all
that he did to prosper in his hand,
so Joseph found favor in his sight and
became his personal servant and he made him
overseer over his house and all that he
owned he put in his charge.
And it came about that from the time
he made him overseer in his house and
over all that he owned, the Lord blessed
the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph, thus
the Lord's blessing was upon all that he
owned in the house and in the field.
So he left everything he owned in Joseph's
charge and with him, with him around he
did not concern himself with anything except the
food which he ate.
Some have thought that that last statement except
the food which he ate is a statement
that had to do with certain ceremonies that
the Egyptians observed with reference to food, certain
food laws and requirements.
Others have said that simply everything was put
in the hand of Joseph and the only
thing that Potiphar was concerned with was the
food that he ate in the house.
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance
and it came about after these events that
his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph
and said, lie with me.
But he refused and said to his master's
wife, behold with me around my master does
not concern himself with anything in the house
and he has put all that he owns
in my charge.
There is no one greater than, greater in
the house than I and he has withheld
nothing from me except you because you are
his wife.
How then could I do this great evil
and sin against God?
And it came about as she spoke to
Joseph day after day that he did not
listen to her to lie beside her or
be with her.
Now it happened one day that he went
into the house to do his work and
none of the men of the household was
there inside and she caught him by his
garment saying, lie with me and he left
his garment in her hand and fled and
went outside.
When she saw that he had left his
garment in her hand and had fled outside
she called to the men of her household
and said to them, see he has brought
in a Hebrew to us to make sport
of us.
He came into me to lie with me
and I screamed.
And it came about when he heard that
I raised my voice and screamed that he
left his garment beside me and fled and
went outside.
So she left his garment beside her until
his master came home.
Then she spoke to him with these words,
the Hebrew slave whom you brought to us
came into me to make sport of me
and it happened as I raised my voice
and screamed that he left his garment beside
me and fled outside.
Now it came about when his master heard
the words of his wife, which she spoke
to him saying, this is what your slave
did to me, that his anger burned.
So Joseph's master took him and put him
into the jail, the place where the King's
prisoners were confined and he was there in
the jail.
From all that we can learn, it would
seem that under certain circumstance, under similar circumstances,
Joseph would have been put to death.
There may be some indication by this that
Potiphar was not completely certain of the testimony
of his own wife.
Now verse 21, but the Lord was with
Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave
him favor in the sight of the chief
jailer.
And the chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge,
all the prisoners who were in the jail,
so that whatever was done there, he was
responsible for it.
The chief jailer did not supervise anything under
Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him
and whatever he did, the Lord made to
prosper.
The subject for this morning in our study
of Genesis chapter 39 is Joseph tested and
triumphant.
When we think of Genesis chapter 39, most
of us who are familiar to some extent
with the book of Genesis think of this
as one of the truly great chapters on
the subject of how to overcome temptation.
And we think also of temptation as one
of the tests, one of the great tests
of life and character.
Oscar Wilde once said that he could resist
anything but temptation.
This past few weeks, I've been looking over
a book that was written, I believe last
year entitled Unhappy Secrets of the Christian Life
by two young men, Philip Yancey and Tim
Stafford.
And in this book, as you might expect
from the title, there is a chapter on
temptation.
It is entitled, I think very aptly, The
Squeeze.
And in the course of the discussion, this
chapter is written by Mr. Stafford.
He says that temptation can be a physical
object that you encounter.
Temptation is a beautiful woman.
You can easily turn into an object instead
of a person by letting her body preoccupy
your thoughts.
Temptation is a piece of pie when you're
trying to lose weight.
Temptation is a pornographic magazine.
Temptation is too much change returned by a
cashier.
And then temptation is a pressure situation.
And he speaks about certain pressure situations as
being illustrations.
Temptation is when your boss jumps on your
back and you feel like lashing out at
him or her.
Temptation is when you're in a group of
strangers who are laughing and having a good
time among themselves and you feel like creeping
away and feeling sorry for yourself.
Well, that's no particular temptation for me, but
it is evidently for him.
Temptation comes with pressure situations.
Temptation, again, under another subject is a voice
in your head suggesting you're worthless.
Why try?
Temptation says if they treat you like that,
you ought to treat them the same way.
They deserve it.
Temptation says what difference does it make if
you foul things one more time?
And so on.
Now, many of you are not troubled by
these forms of temptation, but nevertheless in life
you are tempted.
There are different sources of temptation, if not
different kinds of temptation, and there are different
methods of meeting temptation.
Donald Gray Barnhouse in a sermon that he
preached many years ago that I heard and
which he has incorporated into many of his
works has suggested that since temptation comes from
the world, the flesh, and the devil, we
ought to listen to what the Bible has
to say about how to meet the struggles
that come to us from the world, the
flesh, and the devil.
And if we do, then we'll understand how
to meet temptation.
And he says that so far as the
tests that come from the world are concerned,
well, Paul in Romans chapter 12 and verse
2 has a word for that, because Paul
says, Be not conformed to this world, but
by the renewing of your mind be transformed,
so that the way to meet the tests
that come to us from the world is
nonconformity to the world.
And then he also speaks of tests that
come from the source of the devil, and
that's suggested to him the text resists the
devil and he will flee from you, so
that tests that come to us from the
devil are to be met by resistance.
But when we come to tests from the
flesh, Paul has several words on this.
He says, flee youthful lusts, and even more
directly, flee fornication, so that tests that come
from the lusts of the flesh are to
be met by flight.
And so if we can think of nonconformity
with reference to the world, resistance with reference
to the devil, and flight with reference to
the lusts of the flesh, we will have
the divine solutions to temptation.
Sometimes we fail to realize that temptation is
not only necessary, but it is desirable.
Now, of course, no one wants to be
tested at points of weakness, but nevertheless, it
is a necessary thing and it's a desirable
thing.
We read in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and
verse 12, that if we expect to live
godly in Jesus Christ, we shall experience persecution.
But we also know that it is a
desirable thing.
James says, blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he has tried, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him.
So that the blessings of life flow out
of experiences of temptation when we endure.
In fact, James has another word in the
opening part of that chapter, that was about
verse 12, but he has a word in
verse 2 that pertains very directly to this
as well.
He says, consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials.
So temptation is not something that we should
look at as being a useless kind of
thing that we must endure, but it is
an experience from which we are to grow.
One thing you learn from reading literature is
that dramatists and novelists who make it their
business to give accurate representations of human life,
proceed from the understanding that there is a
kind of plot in the human life.
And they have learned that in order to
make a plot interesting, to make a life
interesting, one must expect that life to encounter
certain situations in which in the situation there
is possibility for the true nature of that
being to be revealed, about whom the story
is concocted.
And the same is true in life.
If we lived through our lives without any
tests, without any temptations, without any struggles, without
any types of situation that enable us to
really see what we are deep down within,
life would be a very dull and insipid
thing.
And this is one of the reasons why
we face temptation, why we face trials.
It's God's way of letting us see truly
who we are and also the stuff of
which we are made.
So we want to look at temptation in
the light of the divine word.
Blessed is the man who falls into various
trials, and blessed is the man that endures
temptation, for when he has tried, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord
promises to those that love him.
Therefore, we look at the trials that face
us as things that are desirable insofar as
they are means by which we may grow,
by which we may learn ourselves, and by
which we may, as James says, be prepared
for receiving the crown of life which the
Lord promises to them that love him.
So we counted all joy when we fall
into various trials and tests.
Now, nevertheless, in spite of all of that,
the trials and tests are not very nice
when we're in the midst of them.
And, of course, in Joseph's case, that surely
was the situation.
The opening six verses of chapter 39 of
the book of Genesis detail for us the
picture of Joseph as the trusted slave.
This chapter, incidentally, as the commentators have pointed
out, is a rather symmetrical chapter, and it's
designed to stress, as we've said in our
initial study of Joseph, the sovereignty of God
in the life of a man.
Because you can see that when Joseph is
sold into captivity in Egypt, it is the
sovereign Lord that brings him to the place
of responsibility in the house of Potiphar, the
captain of the bodyguard.
And then later on, when Joseph is thrown
into jail, it is the sovereignty of God
that so works in Joseph's life that he
becomes the one who has the supreme responsibility
in the jail.
And being under the chief jailer, Joseph, by
the sovereignty of God, becomes his right-hand
man.
So it's a chapter in which we have
a very symmetrical presentation of things in such
a way that when we get through, we
realize that God is sovereign in the affairs
of men, and He works constantly in the
lives of His saints.
Now, I gather that that means that we
are to look at our lives in that
way, too.
And if we do not look at them
in that way, we shall miss some of
the exciting things in the Christian life.
So, Christians, you're to look at your life
as a life that is guided and directed
by the sovereign control of our triune God.
Now, that ought to make all of our
lives different.
Now, Joseph's situation is described in the first
verse.
Now, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt.
The Hebrew text says, As for Joseph.
He's just been talking about Judah and Tamar.
And so now he returns to the subject
of chapter 37 and verse 36 by saying,
Now, as for Joseph, he had been taken
down to Egypt and parted for an Egyptian
officer of Pharaoh.
The word translated officer in verse 1 is
an interesting word.
It is the Hebrew word saris, which originally
meant a eunuch.
And many feel it means that here.
That is, he was a eunuch of Pharaoh.
It was the custom, incidentally, for men who
were in positions of authority in lands like
kings and princes to have men who had
been castrated as their right-hand men because
they would not have the temptation to steal
their position by means of a military coup
like others.
And so they had these men, these eunuchs,
around them for their own personal protection.
Now, Potiphar is described as an Egyptian officer.
That word means eunuch.
It is possible, philologically, that the word came
to mean simply an officer.
That is, the idea of the eunuch, the
one who had been castrated, may have been
lost from it.
Because we know that Potiphar was a married
man.
However, it is a very debatable thing, but
it is possible that he still was because
it is possible that he was married because
this woman liked the position and the authority
and also the financial position that he undoubtedly
enjoyed as the head of the KGB of
Egypt because it says that he was the
captain of the bodyguard, which means the captain
of the executioners.
So he was a man who had a
very responsible position, the right-hand man of
Pharaoh, and you can understand how a woman
who wanted position and money might be willing
to marry a man who was a eunuch.
And that may throw some light on the
temptation that she posed to Joseph later on.
She may have been more inclined toward adultery
by virtue of the situation in which she
was living.
We cannot be certain of that, however, and
that is pure speculation.
The Bible, unfortunately, does not give us a
precise word on the point, but that is
the meaning of that word originally.
An Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, that is a
eunuch, the captain of the executioners, who had
brought him from the Ishmaelites and who had
taken him into his house.
Now the success of Joseph is described in
verse 2, and the Lord was with Joseph,
so he became a successful man.
Wycliffe, in his old English version, says, for
he became a successful man, now he was
a lucky fellow.
I just wonder, if we were suddenly transported
back into the days of Wycliffe, would we
even understand what people were talking about when
they were using the English language?
He was a lucky fellow, but the force
is not what we would think of by
lucky fellow.
It means that he was prosperous.
He was a successful man.
He was a man who had some...
made some achievement, humanly speaking, in his position
as the personal servant of Potiphar.
It's not status so much as it is
achievement that is meant by, so he became
a successful man.
It was the Lord who was responsible ultimately,
but Joseph was a successful man.
Now the cause of this is obviously the
character of Joseph, and also his work.
For we read in verse 3, now his
master saw that the Lord was with him,
and how the Lord caused all that he
did to prosper in his hand.
So here is a young man, and he
is a young man, he's a young man
who has been living in the presence of
God, and he's been carrying on his activity
as unto the Lord.
It's an illustration of the fact that a
young man can be an unusual man.
This past week, since I have my office,
the only office I have down here at
the church now, occasionally if I have nothing
to do, I walk in the church library
and pull out a book I haven't looked
at, and I did see one this week
that I had not read.
It was some proverbial sayings of Mr. Spurgeon.
It's a big book.
There's a lot of interesting things in it.
The sad thing about the book is it
does not have any table of contents or
index, and you cannot look up things that
you're interested in.
So I just thumbed through it reading a
few little things here and there in it.
And I noticed a little paragraph that said,
chins without beards are better than heads without
brains.
And then it went on to say, Mr.
Spurgeon went on to say, young men when
wise are to be preferred to those without
sense, who've not even youth to have as
an excuse for their folly.
When Queen Elizabeth had sent a somewhat young
ambassador to a foreign court and the king
complained of it, the ambassador replied, if Her
Majesty had known that you measure wisdom by
beards, she would have sent you a goat.
Well, it is an illustration of the fact
that a young man can be a sensible
man.
And it's true, chins without beards are better
than heads without brains.
Joseph was an intelligent young man, but most
of all the Lord was with him, and
he did his work as unto the Lord.
That's a word to servants of all kinds,
household servants, if you should happen to be
that.
And it's also a word to anyone who
works for anyone else, that includes most of
us.
We should do our work as unto the
Lord.
And when Potiphar saw that the Lord was
with him and that the Lord caused all
that he did to prosper in his hand,
he rewarded Joseph by giving him more and
more responsibility.
I could not, I'm sure, find a better
illustration of how we are as Christians to
adorn the doctrine to which we hold.
Paul says, whatever you do, do your work
heartily as for the Lord rather than for
men, knowing that from the Lord you will
receive the reward of the inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
And so you men who are in business,
most of you are bound to have some
kind of boss.
There are a few of you that are
your own boss, of course, but not too
many of even our most successful men usually
have some kind of board that is over
them unto whom they serve.
And we are to do our work as
Christians heartily as unto the Lord, realizing that
it is the Lord Christ whom we serve,
not the chairman of the board, not the
president of the company, not the head of
the department.
It is the Lord Christ that we serve
in our business, in our employment.
Joseph is a beautiful illustration, it seems to
me, of what it means to adorn the
doctrine which we as Christians are supposed to
hold.
Now, the success that Joseph had was observed
and rewarded by Potiphar.
There's a kind of progression in these verses,
as you notice, and verse 6 is the
climax, it's the pinnacle.
And the words of verse 6, particularly the
last sentence, prepare for the attack that he
almost invites by his outward appearance and also
by his inward character and appeal.
Isn't it interesting, incidentally, in comparison with Genesis
chapter 12 that we have here already an
illustration of some of the fulfillment of the
Abrahamic blessing.
Remember in the promises that were given to
Abraham, the Lord said, now Abraham, those that
bless you I will bless, and those that
curse you I will curse.
Now here is Potiphar and he is blessing
Joseph.
He sees Joseph, he sees the Lord is
blessing what he is doing, and so he
makes him his personal servant.
He gives him the oversight of his house
and everything that he owns he puts under
his hand.
The only thing that he concerns himself with
is the food that he eats in the
house.
Everything now has been put in the hands
of Joseph.
It's an illustration of the fact that when
we bless, for Joseph was of the chosen
family, when we bless those of the Abrahamic
line we shall expect to receive blessing.
And so Potiphar attracts Abrahamic blessing by the
way that he treats Joseph.
Or we can put it the other way
around, Joseph attracts Abrahamic blessing to his boss
because his boss treats him in blessing.
And as a matter of fact it was
God paying this pagan handsomely for his servant's
keep.
And so he was blessed because he took
care of Joseph and took care of him
well.
Donald Gray Barnhouse in his little meditations on
the book of Genesis has an interesting little
paragraph in which he speaks about an unsaved
boss who fired his secretary because she refused
to type letters saying the goods had been
shipped when they had not.
So he fired her.
She wanted to stand for principal.
But later he called the secretary back and
gave her the job as cashier because it
was a post that demanded high trust.
And in that business the cashier could steal
without much fear of detection.
And so he was smart he realized that
this young lady was just the kind of
person for that so she got a better
job by sticking to her Christian convictions.
Well the next verses come to the heart
of the chapter and here Joseph is presented
as the tempted slave.
Our society sanctions a great deal of the
types of sexual sins that are reflected here
in this section.
We tend to think of sexual sin as
a kind of indiscretion or as a man
who is sowing wild oats or something like
that.
But the Bible does not look at these
sexual deviations in that way nor did Joseph
as we shall see.
And isn't it interesting too that the temptation
comes just as Joseph having been humiliated by
the slavery now has reached the place of
prosperity and ease because it's just at that
point in spiritual things that we usually are
exposed to temptation.
So when things now finally have become good
for Joseph again in the land of Egypt
it's then that he is attacked.
And the first approach that the woman made
was a vehement assault on his chastity.
It came about after these events that his
master's wife looked with desire at Joseph.
It's just said he was handsome of form
and appearance.
Those words incidentally are the same words that
were used to describe Rachel.
And so Joseph is a young man who
has Rachel's good looks.
Only two of the men in scripture are
said to be beautiful that is in the
Old Testament Absalom and David.
And here is the third Joseph a handsome
young man in form and appearance a pure
young man a noble young man a spiritual
young man but here is the test.
Beware of sudden squalls one of the commentators
says.
Usually when storms come on the sea or
on the lake you have warning of them.
It's the sudden squalls in which you don't
have adequate warning that there is extreme danger.
And this was one in which Joseph is
thrown and by which he's thrown into extreme
danger.
Egyptian females at this time had a great
deal of freedom.
In fact one of the commentators says that
Egyptian females had as much freedom at this
time as females in our society.
So here is an ancient Cleopatra in the
home of unchastity for Egypt was the home
of unchastity.
All kinds of marital infidelity characterized the Egyptians
at this time.
So here is a woman with great experience
in immorality who makes her tempting approach to
Joseph with lie with me.
And now policy and conscience are at war.
Policy well it would have been wise for
Joseph humanly speaking to have good relations with
the wife of his boss because she would
stand for him in cases of difficulty.
But on the other hand it was the
conviction of his conscience that this was not
only wrong but it was a sin against
God.
His reasons for refusing to have any relationship
with her are another man's reasons for yielding.
In fact the very way that he puts
it almost seems as if it's like Eve
in the Garden of Eden.
She says of all the trees of the
garden we may freely eat but we cannot
eat of that one tree nor can we
touch it.
One almost gets the idea that Eve was
frustrated by this one thing.
He allowed her everything but one and it's
the one thing that is disturbing her.
Like a little child who has a big
pile of toys and another child comes in
the room and there's one toy that he
has and this child cannot cannot keep his
mind on anything until he has that toy
that other child has.
And so here Joseph says to Potiphar's wife
while your master or your husband has given
me everything my master has given me everything
and the only thing that he's withheld from
me is you because you are his wife.
But in Joseph's in Joseph's case conscience overcomes
policy and he gives the proposition its right
name.
He says it's a great evil and when
a person gives that its right name he
makes truth his ally and so truth is
the ally of Joseph and therefore firmly promptly
bravely and yet in a kindly manner he
refuses.
F.B. Meyer has a remarkable paragraph I
think in his exposition of this when he
speaks about verse 9 and the words that
Joseph speaks how then could I do this
great evil and sin against God he's unfolded
all of the blessings that have been given
to him and now he says in the
light of all that my master has done
for me how then can I do this
great evil and sin against God and Mr.
Meyer says how then can I I for
whom Christ died and we should make the
application there when testing and the temptation to
sin comes how can I the object of
the electing grace of God the object of
the work of the Holy Spirit and efficacious
grace who has sought the elected one and
brought me to the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ how can I who have come
to understand that salvation is by the grace
of God and I've been led to entrust
my life into the hands of the one
who bled for my sins how can I
and then how can I do this great
evil it's a wickedness it's an evil some
people might call it gaiety some people might
call it just being a little fast or
sowing some wild oats but scripture calls it
an evil and not only that but it's
a great wickedness many might wink at a
little bit of indulgence in immorality but it's
a great sin and finally Joseph says how
can I do this great evil and sin
against God it's not simply a sin against
me for it is against me adultery is
a sin against the body but it's also
a sin against the other person but primarily
it is a sin against God so how
then can I do this great evil and
sin against God it's a magnificent position well
he won the first of the encounters but
it was not the first and so we
read it came about as she spoke to
Joseph day by day that he did not
listen to her to lie beside her or
to be with her so there was constant
pressure implied it was profound it was searching
it was persistent and incidentally was also flexible
she was a very very capable adulteress notice
the expansion of words in verse 10 he
did not listen to her to lie beside
her or be with her and you can
just imagine the words that she uttered day
after day come on Joseph lie with me
come on to the bedroom with me and
then as Joseph continued to refuse she said
well Joseph just be with me just spend
some time with me because if he cannot
be won by storming perhaps he can be
won by coaxing and so all of her
feminine wiles were used and Joseph was the
object of them some of the men of
God fail right at this point and it
is Samson who most readily comes to mind
because it was the persistent coaxing which Samson
could not stand or withstand in the book
of the proverbs in chapter 5 God has
a word to say about adulteresses listen to
these words which open the fifth chapter my
son give attention to my wisdom incline your
ear to my understanding that you may observe
discretion and your lips may reserve knowledge for
the lips of an adulteress drip honey and
smoother than oil is her speech but in
the end she is bitter as wormwood sharp
as a two-edged sword her feet go
down to death her steps lay hold of
she oh she does not ponder the path
of life her ways are unstable she does
not know it now then my son listen
to me and do not depart from the
words of my mouth keep your way far
from her and do not go near the
door of her house that's the proverbs way
of saying flee fornication it is Paul's expression
in first Corinthians chapter 6 now she flattered
Joseph she no doubt commented on how handsome
he was she had startled him at the
beginning but she continues now with the flattering
and hoping through attrition to win the battle
but there comes one final as one of
the commentators has described it one final ambush
now it happened one day that he went
into the house to do his work and
none of the men of the household was
there inside and she caught him by his
garment she took hold of his long cloak
and she said lie with me and there
was something in Joseph's mind and heart that
said it's better to lose your coat than
your conscience there was something inside Joseph that
said Joseph fly fly out of this house
and he fled because he realized that this
sin was a defense of the authority of
God of the goodness of God of the
justice of God of all of the attributes
of our great God it was a denial
and he fled out of the house now
someone has said hell hath no fury like
a woman scorned it's often a matter of
pride when she was unable to seduce him
her pride had been affected or when a
man is unable to subdue a woman his
own ego is affected and often one discovers
that it's not really so much the physical
gratification that is a part of adultery but
it is the more fundamental pride and ego
that are involved so she thrusts out in
pride against this person she begins to call
the Hebrew and also she you can see
that she sort of now wants to attack
her husband it's her husband who has brought
the Hebrew in and she mentions that see
he she doesn't even name him she says
he has brought this Hebrew in to make
us to make sport of us in verse
17 the Hebrew slave whom you brought to
us came into me to make sport of
me and so she poses there as a
victim with the corpus delecta of the cloak
by the side of her and she hopes
to persuade her husband and of course her
husband it says his anger burned within him
because he did think there might be something
to it but the fact that he didn't
put Joseph to death is evidence that he
wasn't completely sure about her and no doubt
she had given many reasons previous to this
to make him think that she might have
been lying well the last of the chapter
is the story of Joseph the trusted prisoner
and the humiliation that has already been experienced
by Joseph is reenacted again he had been
humiliated a member of the chosen family sold
into slavery down into Egypt and so the
pattern of humiliation has been seen in his
life already but now it's seen again and
Joseph the member of the chosen family the
choice son of Jacob is now not only
humiliated by having been sold into slavery in
Egypt but he now is put into jail
but the same or the same other pattern
is also found here the pattern of exaltation
and just as he was exalted in his
slavery to become the personal servant of Potiphar
the captain of the bodyguards so here he
becomes the chief man in the jail itself
under the chief jailer and so the pattern
of humiliation and then exaltation is found in
Joseph's life and this is one of the
reasons why Joseph is an illustration of our
Lord Jesus Christ because the pattern of humiliation
and then exaltation is the pattern of the
life of our Lord and this is why
Stephen in his great sermon in Acts chapter
7 lays hold of Joseph among others and
draws out this pattern of humiliation and exaltation
as he seeks to show those that were
listening to him that that pattern of humiliation
was seen in our Lord Jesus Christ the
Messiah and the pattern of exaltation is seen
in him and the same attitude of Israel
toward the men of the Old Testament the
prophets and the kings has been shown by
them toward our Lord Jesus Christ he received
no gentle reception in prison the psalmist says
that he was in fetters there but God
was with him and it wasn't long before
the chief jailer noted the success of Joseph
observed it and rewarded it and the abilities
and the integrity of this man were crowned
with the touch of God and the chapter
concludes with the chief jailer did not supervise
anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was
with him and whatever he did the Lord
made to prosper it's important when we think
about temptation to distinguish between those appetites that
are natural to us and the appetites that
are acquired by our evil habits there are
certain appetites that are natural to us as
men they are not wrong there is no
sin in having the tendency to to eat
but there is a great deal of difference
between the natural appetites and those that are
acquired by evil habit there is nothing wrong
in being tempted as a matter of fact
we've seen from James that it is the
occasion by which God brings us to an
understanding of ourselves and also to a new
plane in our Christian life our Lord Jesus
Christ was tested it's not a sin to
be tempted it's a sin to yield to
temptation a mob may batter at the palace
gates but if the mob is unable to
enter in there is no damage done to
the kingdom and in the case of an
individual it is the kingdom of the inner
man that is the important thing controlled by
the Lord God there is nothing wrong in
temptation the sin consists in the yielding to
temptation you note from this also that sinning
is no necessity Joseph is a proof that
a man can resist he's proof that a
man can overcome he is proof that a
man can be pure one of course wants
to ask naturally how can we overcome well
look at Joseph's success and ask yourself why
is it that Joseph managed to overcome well
surely in reading this chapter there stands out
the truth of the Lord's presence with Joseph
now the Lord was with Joseph where he
read now his master saw that the Lord
was with him verse 21 the Lord was
with Joseph verse 23 because the Lord was
with him so there is of course from
the standpoint of God that initiative on the
part of the Lord God who supported his
servant upheld him that's what the Bible says
the Lord God does for us he upholds
us he supports us he stands with us
he is with us and on the other
hand the other side is true too Joseph
lived in the presence of God that's very
clear he conceived of his life as a
life lived in the presence of God he
recognized that when he sinned it would be
a sin against the Lord God and so
the first thing that stands out with me
is the fact that here is a man
who by the grace of God walked in
the presence of God he thought of his
life as a life lived in the presence
of God that's really what it is you
may not have any conception of it as
a believer but nevertheless it's true and the
things that characterize your life are things done
in the presence of the Lord God if
you're a believer in Jesus Christ and then
of course he fought his weapons if he
fought with the weapons that come from the
word of God he recognized what was evil
and what was not evil in other words
he was true to the truth of God
now in the new testament when the apostle
Paul is describing the warfare of the believer
he speaks of this very thing in Ephesians
chapter 6 and verse 17 he says take
the sword of the spirit which is the
word of God and incidentally that expression is
such an expression that by the original text
there is stress upon the precise application of
specific scriptures in other words if we are
to be successful in fighting temptation we must
know the teaching of the word of God
the specific teaching of the word of God
when the Lord Jesus met his temptation with
Satan he did not meet it in general
he met it in particular with citations from
three texts from the book of Deuteronomy how
many of you could stand up and cite
three texts from the book of Deuteronomy don't
bother to raise your hand well it's no
wonder then that we are so such easy
marks in temptation we do not understand the
word of God we do not know the
word of God as we should if we're
going to succeed in temptation we must fight
our struggles with the sword of the spirit
the word of God and then of course
Joseph fled he avoided the occasion of the
sin it's much better to lose your dress
than it is to lose your conscience and
your honor and so if you put it
together you can see that here is a
man who walked with the sense of the
presence of God girding him and surrounding him
and he fought with the weapons of the
word of God and when specific temptation came
he fled there are many of you who
face similar tests there are many businessmen who
face tests because the Lord has made it
that way when I was in the insurance
business I remember specifically some of the tests
that we would have we would be we
were members of a certain board and we
had as an insurance agency committed ourselves to
certain principles we could not cut rates for
example and occasionally a large policy would depend
upon your ability to cut a rate what
shall you do if you're going to make
success in the business world are you going
to argue well I've got to live my
family has got to live or are you
rather going to say well the word of
God says this and I will stand by
that there are some people you see who
meet every test in life by saying in
situations like this but we must live but
a Christian doesn't meet it with that he
meets it with but we must die and
one day stand before our Lord in judgment
for we must all stand before the judgment
seat of Jesus Christ and to him it's
far more significant to arrange his life in
such a way that when he stands before
the great white throne when he stands before
the judgment seat of Jesus Christ he will
be able to stand there with a conscience
that is clean may God help us to
learn the lesson of Joseph most of us
face tests just like this may the Lord
help us like Joseph to say how can
I for whom Christ died how can I
commit this great evil and sin against the
Lord God let's stand for the benediction we
are grateful to thee Lord for the lessons
of life that come to us from this
ancient book so modern may the lessons from
Joseph's life grip us and may those who
attend believers chapel be known as men and
women who have truth as their ally deliver
us from the great evil of sinning against
thee if there are some here Lord who
do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and
his saving and atoning work who are still
perhaps trusting in their own good works which
are not good in their sight give them
no peace nor rest until they see themselves
as wicked sinners under divine judgment may they
flee to the place of refuge the cross
of Jesus Christ to receive as a free
gift everlasting life may the grace of our
great triune God go with us for Jesus
sake amen