This morning we turn in the Bible, first book of the Bible, to Genesis chapter 39. Genesis chapter 39, we're continuing our study through this book. And this morning we come to Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Since it's a brief meeting, I understand, with Sunday school, I guess it's my last chance to go a little long. Pastor Donovan won't appreciate that because he has to speak after. So I'm going to consider with you the entirety of the chapter. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him. And he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him, he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph, day after day he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to be with her. But one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house. She caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled out of the house she called to the men of her household and said to them see he has brought among us a hebrew to laugh at us he came into me to lie with me and i cried out with a loud voice and as soon as i heard that i lifted up my voice and cried out he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home and she told him the same story saying the hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to laugh at me but as soon as i lifted up my voice and cried he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him this is the way your servant treated me his anger was kindled and joseph's master took him and put him into the prison the place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in prison but the lord was with joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and the keeper of the prison put joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison whatever was done there he was the one who did it the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in joseph's charge because the lord was with him and whatever he did the lord made it succeed may the lord bless the hearing of his word back in genesis chapter 15 i want to begin with a reminder this morning of what uh the lord had said to abraham when he had outlined the whole plan that we see play out in the old testament when he gave abraham some insight into that and remember what he said know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted 400 years but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions plan was laid out wasn't it plan was laid out and one of the things that God was going to do to Israel is that God was going to test israel and we know this because it said over and over in the old testament that he was going to test them as to whether they would walk in his law or not israel we know as we already read failed in so many ways to keep to keep and honor the lord and his law and to pass these tests and the question that would have been asked by later generations of israel and those going through it is, well, what is God like to us in our failings? Will our failures annul what he promised to Abraham? Will our failures annul what he promised to Abraham? Will our sins and the announcement of the covenant of grace that he said what he would do to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15, when he'd make him a nation full of nations and peoples, on the mount, would he then, in our failures, turn from us and abandon us? And here's where I believe the story of Joseph was to be a great encouragement for Israel in their testing. In fact, there are two real blessings to this story, two real wonderful benefits of studying the life of Joseph that this would have had for Israel and it has for us. The first is this. Sometimes, I think we look at how bad things really are and we look at the Judah incident and we look at how evil things really are and we think there is just absolutely no potential in this life for any amount of holiness. I mean, I remember a study hearing a group of women who really wrestled with the question, can we even do anything good? And they struggled to believe that we could even do anything good in this life as believers. which showed how much of a problem this is in our thinking and that the Lord wants to instruct us in a certain way about how to think in the life of sanctification. With that in mind, Israel would have been able to see a vivid contrast. Israel would have been able to see a vivid contrast between Judah's choices and then Joseph's choices, right? I mean, this is a stark contrast between these two brothers, their choices. And they would have been able to draw the initial conclusion god gives grace to the humble he is their strength in overcoming sin in the covenant of grace i mean every regenerate life looks at judas choices and every regenerate life looks at joseph's choices and what do you say oh i want that one i want joseph's life i want to do what joseph did that's the desire of the christian's heart that's what everyone has now been bent and framed toward because of salvation this is the new desire of the christian's heart so the lord wants us to look at joseph and say look what an encouragement that when he's with us he gives grace and strength and there's help for those in need it's a great encouragement but the other is this and that's what makes this somewhat of a challenge is that we all know that even the most persistent and the holiest of this life make a constant mess of things, even in all of our strivings, even in all of our hard workings in sanctification. And here we can look back and see with Judah that even when we fall, even when Judah had trashed God's covenant, God didn't leave him either. God didn't leave him either. And he fulfilled the good purpose that he had for Judah and for Joseph. So Joseph then, in this case, becomes a sort of type for us of the Lord Jesus Christ and that God would answer us and that God would do for us what we could not do as Joseph speaks to the greater righteousness that we need that we could never attain to. And that's what his life displays before us. It displays before us, and you'll see it so clearly, the life of our Lord. So the story of Joseph then is meant to be an encouragement to you of God's presence to you in times of testing and in times of hardship that nothing can take it away. Judah and Joseph, nothing can take away what he's doing in saving a people to himself. I want you to remember that as we work through this, especially again as we look now and transition back to the story of Joseph out of the mess of last time. Remember last time? A great contrast in Judah's choices had been set up. He went down to Canaan. he married a canaanite girl he got caught up in horrible sexual sin and the lord wants us and our children to know this the lord wants us and our children to understand this god is wise god knows what we need and in contrast then to that mess he then notice in verse one switches back now to the story of joseph and that joseph in contrast to judah had been taken down to egypt remember his brothers were full of envy and hatred against him and they tore off his clothes and they threw him into a dungeon and a pit and they sold him to the ishmaelite traders who were going down to egypt and in verse one we read that potiphar an officer of pharaoh the captain of the of the guard an egyptian bought him he's a slave a slave sold in egypt now the abuse is really painful isn't it um beaten hated stripped lowered into a pit and for what what did he do it was sheer jealousy of him i mean and you would think you would think that if you were treated this way and spitefully treated this way, you would have some kind of anger in your heart, right? I mean, what kind of a brother has offended you and done something that you have a hard time with? It's never been this. Never been this. No anger in his heart. I don't see it. Not revealed. It's remarkable. Joseph's in about the worst position possible. None of it's fair. None of it's fair. What had he done to deserve this? And I think later generations must have read this and said, you know, this is a remarkable path of Joseph here of encouragement to us who when Israel was in bondage for 400 years with hard taskmasters and cruelly oppressed and beaten and whipped, can you imagine the cries day and night, Lord, why do you leave it like this? Why don't you intervene? Where are you? we struggle with that we struggle with seeing children murdered and abused in iraq where's god why doesn't he intervene what's he doing and i believe the first encouragement to the story of joseph is something that god wanted you to understand at the outset of the story it's something that god had told us from the outset of the story notice four times in the first verses here of genesis chapter 39 it says the lord was with joseph you see it verse 2 the lord was with joseph verse 3 his master saw the lord was with him verse 5 the blessing of the lord was on all that he that he had in fact if you have your bibles or you were able to go through a study and look at the way lord is used here you'll notice in these first verses it's all capitalized so all the way woven through chapter 39 is the holy name of the lord yahweh and it's all capitalized all the way to the end of chapter 39 and then it stops he doesn't use the name again until one more time in the book one more time chapter 39 uses the holy name all throughout and then it stops and then all the way at the very end of the book chapter 48 it says i've waited for your salvation oh lord 39 capital letters again the very end of the book and the lord had a strong intention here for israel they wanted israel the lord wanted israel to read this and and understand that what seemed like misfortune or what seemed like a situation that was spiraling out of control what seemed like the greatest tragedy in history none of those incredibly hard things meant that god had ever left them or was against them you know you always with you there are many here going through things and you struggle to sleep at night and stress is overcome in reality we're faced with things we don't control whatsoever even though all the stress and anxiety we go through is because we try to control it and offensive fences come and people hurt us and husbands and wives let each other down and anger resides in the heart and we despise the situations that we find ourselves in we're angry about the situations we find ourselves in and it consumes us and it dictates our actions and our attitudes and our hearts and we act irrationally and if anyone could have let that happen it was joseph that's not what we find in the utmost extreme of adversity patience and what a message I'm in control of your life imagine Israel reading this we're in bondage I'm in control we're being whipped I'm in control I'm orchestrating the events all the circumstances the things you don't understand, the great messes, no situation in life, no tragedy God is saying ever means that I'm absent from you. I mean, I just heard in my former church in Linden a three-and-a-half-year-old girl died this week of a rare case of E. coli. And it's painful. We've shown something here about Joseph. His character is before us as a faithful son. Potiphar sees that the Lord is with him. I mean, it's evident the Lord's with this man. So what does he do? He makes him a servant over all of his house. Verse 4, So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him and made him overseer of his house so that all that he had was put under his authority. And notice verse 6, Thus he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. this is a man who rose to the top. Ultimate trust. Now something's being set up here and we get an indication of what's going on in the life of Joseph from something later that the Psalms say about him. And in Psalm 105, there's a fascinating statement that's made about Joseph. This is verse 16. Moreover, Psalm 105, he called for a famine in the land. He destroyed all the provision of bread. God sent the famine. He destroyed the provision of bread. God did that. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters. He was laid in irons until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. Wow. Joseph is put under the test. And the last phrase, the word of the Lord was with him. We've seen this before. That last phrase, the word of the Lord tested him. That life is this testing ground. And none of what we're seeing here, now notice everything that we're seeing here is that this son was a faithful son over the house. And now that faithfulness is being tested. It's being tested. Israel would have read this. Israel would have read this and called God's son, they, like Joseph, would go down into bondage. They would be brought into Egypt and they would be able to see, well, this is what a faithful son looks like. This is what a faithful son looks like. Here comes the test. Verse 6. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge. And because of him, he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome, in form and appearance. And after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. He refused and he said to his master's wife, behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house and he's put everything that he has in my charge. He's not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself because you are his wife. How could I do this wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph day by day, he would not listen to her to lie with her or to be beside her or to be with her. Test. You understand a lot about testing and temptation here, don't you? Joseph was faced with the greatest test of his life. You understand how it works? I was thinking about this this week and thinking about the way that Satan was weighing on this man and how temptation works when the Lord taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, that we allow, what we do is we allow temptation to enter us and we enter into temptation. John Owen described it this way. When it knocks at the door, you're at liberty. But when any temptation comes in and parlays with the heart and reasons with the mind and entices and allures the affections, and you begin to take notice of it, you enter into temptation. And he goes on to describe that in all of your lives, there are seasons and then there's the hour when the temptation is coming for you. There's a specific appointed hour for the temptation. Owen talks about this. And Owen says, Every great and pressing temptation has its hour, a season where it grows to a head where it is most vigorous, active, operative, and prevalent. And that's what you see with Potiphar's wife. It keeps working on the mind and pressing on the mind to entertain it. It keeps working in you and the lust begins to grow and to build and you begin to dwell on it. And when you've acted on that lust and you begin to act on it, notice he says here, it comes to its first hour. At first you were appalled by what you were being persuaded to do. But the minute you no longer hate it, the minute you begin thinking about it and it becomes acceptable to you. You think, it's just a little one. It's okay. Let's not be so strict. Just a moment of pleasure. Owen says, the noon hour has come with the temptation. Lust has now been enticed and entangled and it's ready to conceive and give birth to sin as soon as you act on it. And now you understand why Christ says, You should pray, lead us not into temptation. You should pray that. You will face temptation. That's what's going to happen. But you're asking the Lord to help you. Never let that process take root in the heart and in the mind that leads us to act on it. You're never going to be taken up under it. You're asking him for that. How are you feeling right now? the basic message here in the first part of Joseph is it's only God who can keep you from this God was with him, God was with him, God was with him, God was with him and then you read four times again God was with us and you see the power here and think of the power that's put on display here he's 17 do you know what's going on in the body of a 17 year old and day by day she's doing this did you catch that day by day by day she's throwing herself at him the king's wife one of you walked up and said well last week well maybe she just wasn't that good looking i said i guarantee she had a lot of makeup on it's at these moments that satan strikes everything's just right and notice the circumstances you could have it on either end either when you think God's abandoned you or when life is great. Joseph's at the pinnacle right now. It was awful. It was terrible. And now he's swung back up into prosperity and at the top of the house, all over the house, risen to the height of it. And all of a sudden, here it comes. Here it comes right then. Right when you're at your lowest moment or at your highest moment, the devil kicks and he kicks hard. Day by day, day by day, day by day, she's pressing. Here's what I love. He beats it. He beats it. In the most beautiful way, he overcomes it. Listen to the concerns here. My master's been so good to me. He's committed everything that he has into my hands. My master has entrusted everything to me in his house. I have oversight in his house. How could I harm my... do you hear it? How could I harm my neighbor like that? How could I do that to the wife of another man? And he gave me all authority. Look what he's entrusted to my care. You know, I'm the one with authority in this house. He's not kept back anything for me. And then here it comes. How could I ever do this great wickedness and sin against God? How could I sin against God's word and taking this man's bread and you stop and you say wow if only I had that kind of concern every time temptation is set before me before I start entertaining it and thinking about it that I said whoa how could I do it against him when he's done all this for me how could I hurt my neighbor how could I sin against God you know how it goes you sin and then you feel that way. You sin and then you say, well, how could I have been so careless? And then you soak your face in the sorrow. What compelled Joseph? Fear of hell? It's the goodness of God. And you say, if I do this thing, I may go to hell or I may be hated by God. He says, look, notice the love for Him here. He's flourished me. God's never left me nor forsook me. God has filled my life with all kinds of good, and He's loved me, and He's saved me. How could I do this thing against a loving God like that? Day by day, she hits, seduces, hits. Come on. And one day, it's so bad. Remember Paul, 1 Corinthians 6, says, flee sexual immorality. You flee it with all. You don't just resist it. You bolt the other way. You book it out of there. That's what Joseph does. And one day, she grabs the hem of his garment and pulls it off. Hell has no, what is the saying? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And she enters into this awful lie about Joseph. Look at how you treated me. I mean, she pulls the lie off and she says he tried to come in and do this to me. This man had fought. He had fought. How's that for doing what's right, huh? And he fought and he did what's right and the master takes him and he puts him in prison. He's confined in prison. Verse 21, but the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him and showed him steadfast love. Isn't this beautiful? Verse 21. And gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. And that's the last time the capital letters are there till the end of the book. Remember that the next time you're falling apart because you think God's abandoned you. You're right. now i said the life of joseph was an encouragement of god's power to help you and prevail and that's the wonderful conclusion that i can draw here because joseph was a real person but there's something else that was much also as much encouraging for israel as that reality is is that we go through life and we're pretty dull as to how dependent we are upon the lord to uphold us that that's the reality you don't understand this i mean if you did understand this the first thing you do when you got out of bed in the morning as you dropped the knee and you'd say lord lead me not into temptation that'd be the first thing you do if you really understood how much you need him for this but the lack of that petition the lack of that prayer the lack of prayer in general in our lives means that we're often unconscious even to our own weaknesses and where power lies in the life, where we are kept in this life. I mean, think about it. The rain has been withheld in the West. There's no rain right now. And now what happens? You're beginning to think a lot about who has the power to send rain, haven't you? But you didn't before. You didn't at all. It just comes, it just comes, it just comes. And this is one of the reasons you're tested. And when something like sexual temptation comes from our own desires, and I say that from our own desires, especially for a man, we know when we're tempted and when we stumble and fall, how much then we need the Lord to uphold us. We ask the Lord more, lead us not into temptation. You learn quickly where your strength is in the face of these tests. And if you stand, you know it's all grace. And if you fall, you realize the mess you really are and you cry out all the more from the miry pit asking for deliverance. You need to be convinced of that. Israel was an example of what not to do. 1 Corinthians 10. They failed miserably under the test. They gave in to every kind of evil under the sun. The women of Moab seduced them. And then I'm reminded that God stopped the story of Joseph and then took us to Judah last week. But then you could say, well, who could forget David? You know, what a man, given all authority in the kingdom, given the kingdom in the midst of great success, in the midst of wars and succeeding over the kings of the world. What does he do? One day he rises from his bed and he looks out at a woman. And here's the test. Here's the noon hour. and he entertained it, and it drove him to take her, to lie with her, and to kill the husband. And I believe David would have looked back at the story of Joseph, and I submit that he would have studied it. And that might have been at first the worst story he ever read in his life. Really. Because it's directly paralleled to his life. Joseph was so much better of a man. and then he saw sitting there the story of judah and then i believe he saw something there must be a greater son than me how he must have needed the story of judah and joseph because what he saw there sure there was motivation for overcoming temptation there is a message of grace for the struggle but he knew the truth of his life he knew the truth of his life he knew the reality of his life he saw in joseph a faithful son coming and that's what god ultimately is describing for us through his life and this is why peter you know would say with all of his heart lord i will not deny you with all of the intention of his heart i will not deny you and jesus says shortly after what you couldn't watch with me for one hour not even for one you see we have no strengthen ourselves to overcome but ultimately who we see in joseph is somebody much greater than us consider the apostle and high priest of your confession christ jesus who was faithful listen to this to him who appointed him over all his house god put everything under him he's the living bread come down from heaven he's the son who never lifted up his soul to an idol or swore by what is false and from the beginning of his life he's down in egypt town in egypt out of egypt i've called my son and he goes down into the wilderness and the hour of his testing came and you think this one's bad at his weakest moment at 40 days of fasting the devil comes and offers him bread and you could substitute the words of joseph how could i ever do this great evil and sin against my god i live by every word that proceeds out of his mouth and then he takes them up to the holy city and sets them on the pinnacle of the temple if you're the son throw yourself down Demonstrate your authority. Demonstrate your authority over the house. For it's written, he'll give his angels charge over you. You have all authority. Take it. Don't tempt me. He's committed all that he has into my hand. How could I do that? He's committed everything into my hand. And you see it woven all the way through. And finally, Satan takes him up to a great mountain and shows him with his eyes all the kingdoms of the world. Listen, you all know, If Joseph entered into that temptation and done it, he would have aspired to the throne a lot quicker. He would have gotten to the throne a lot quicker. Secret of my success. Do it. Do it now. You could have the glory now, Jesus. Always a shortcut. Away with you. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. Spotless, pure life under the test and committed no sin. and then we falsely accused him and then we abused him and he was put on trial and lies came out about him even though they could find nothing wrong with him lies came out about him and they put him in prison from he was taken Isaiah 53 from prison and from judgment when the brothers would look at Joseph when Israel would look at Joseph when David would look at Joseph What did they see? Their victory over temptation? They saw what Joseph summarized the story about. What did Joseph summarize the story about? Joseph said, God sent a Savior before you to deliver you from the misery you chose. And walking ahead of you, He earned for you and He restored to you righteousness and life. That's what we see. And when we're discouraged to think that God is against us, when we stumble in sin, which is more often what we do than not, when we look to the righteous life of God's beloved Son, what we see is that the same God who never left Joseph never left Judah. Now that's a story. Because the Father's eye was on His beloved Son. And because of that, I close with this. He wants you to know this morning that He was tempted in all ways as we are but didn't sin. And because of that, He is able to sympathize with you. He knows how hard it is. He understands how hard it is and He loves to give aid to the children of Abraham. And so our two brothers who stood up this morning, when you're tested and tried, when your hour comes, think about it. The grace you receive today is no temptation has overtaken you except such as common demand, but God is faithful. God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. That's the grace you receive today. But with the temptation, He'll make up a way out of it to escape so that you may be able to bear it. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That's the story we celebrate. And now, that's the victory that we have in Him to overcome temptation by His power and by His Spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for instructing us and showing us what the entire Bible is ultimately about. And that there is strength. There is power to rise up when You're with us. But as we've prayed for rain these past months and we've asked you, we understand that as that rain has been withheld, it's your hand that must send it. And so we ask you for it. So in the same way, when we are tested and tried, we know that it's your hand that upholds us. For if you don't, we stumble and we fall coming back to the throne of grace. realizing the statement of our Lord without the Lord Jesus Christ, we can do nothing. May we dwell upon that today and realize that all of our strength, all of our power comes from you. And we're delighted to say that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.