Alright, Genesis chapter 39.
Now we saw, as I read that text to you, we saw that Potiphar's
wife and Joseph ended up in a room alone. It resulted in a great
temptation for Joseph. It resulted in a false accusation
by Potiphar's wife. And in the end, Joseph ended
up in prison. Now there's a great moral lesson
there. We ought to be careful not to be alone with the opposite
sex. It has the appearance of evil
and the scripture says to believers that we should avoid even the
appearance of evil. Those are things a believer is
to avoid. But we need more than a moral
lesson if we're going to be saved. If we're going to be saved, we
need to hear of our sin and we need to hear of our need. We
need to hear of Christ, the faithfulness and righteousness and holiness
of Christ, the only salvation for sinners. And we have that
here in this text. The Lord Jesus Christ was tempted
in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. He was proven
to be thoroughly faithful through and through. And every charge
that was laid against Him was proven to be false. And yet,
the Lord Jesus fulfilled the will of His Father. He saved
His people from our sins. And to do that, Christ was willingly
charged, and he was willingly numbered with the transgressors.
He was willingly shamed, and willingly bore reproach. That's
what it took to redeem his people from our sins. And yet, he remained
faithful the whole time, he was holy in his heart, and he bore
our sins. Even while he bore our sins in
his body on the tree, he remained holy and faithful to God. And
now every believer is redeemed from the curse of the law and
united in Christ forever through Christ dwelling in us and teaching
us what He's done for us. Now, I want to look at this passage
and just go through it verse by verse. And the first thing
I want you to see is Joseph is a type of Christ in His power
and in His beauty. But Joseph's a type of Christ
in his power and in his beauty. We see verse 6, it says, Potiphar
left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and Potiphar knew not all
he had save the bread which he did eat, and Joseph was a goodly
person and well favored. Potiphar left all the government
of his house in Joseph's hand. All the government was in Joseph's
hand. And the picture we have here
is from eternity, God trusted all the government of His house
into Christ's hand. Now listen to Isaiah 9. I won't
have you turn there because you're very familiar with this passage.
You hear it a lot around Christmas. Isaiah 9 verse 6 says, unto us
a child is born. Unto us a son is given, the government. whose government, the government
of God's house, of God's universe, of God's world, the government,
shall be on his shoulder, on Christ's shoulder. And his name
should be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government
and peace. The increase and the peace of
his government, there shall be no end. upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. All the government of God's house
was in Christ's hand. And He's going to establish this
house in justice. In justice. In righteousness.
And then it says there in our text, Joseph was a goodly person
and well favored. It means in appearance, Joseph
was a well-built, very handsome man. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
altogether lovely. Altogether lovely. A goodly person
and well favored. There's only, now listen carefully,
there is only that which is to be admired in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's holy, He's righteous, He
does that which is holy and righteous and good. There's nothing but
that which is to be admired in the Lord Jesus. There's no reason
to be against Christ. There's no reason to find fault
with Him whatsoever. He's right. He's good. The Scripture
says, such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Peter
said he received from God. Peter was there. He was there
in the Mount of Transfiguration. And Peter said he received from
God the Father, honor and glory. When we heard a voice from the
excellent glory, from God, from the excellent glory, and that
voice said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So the first thing we see here,
Joseph is a type of Christ. And he's a type of Christ in
that he's got all the government over the house, and he's altogether
lovely. He's a well-built, handsome redeemer. Everything about him is lovely.
All powerful and all lovely. That's Christ. Now, in Potiphar's
wife, we see a picture of our lust. This is our lust. This is every sinner's lust by
nature. Now especially, this is the lust
of the unregenerate, falsely religious sinner. This is a picture of the lust
of our flesh, of the unregenerate religious sinner. Now look at
verse 7. And it came to pass after these
things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and
she said, lie with me. Now Joseph appealed to Potiphar's
wife simply in the lust of her flesh. That was it. She cast her eyes upon Joseph. Now, you take an unregenerate
sinner. We're religious by nature. We're
religious by nature. We know there's a God, and we
know we've offended Him, and we know something's got to be
done. We know these things by nature. Men know these things
by nature. And there is something in Christ that appeals even to
an unregenerate sinner. If it wasn't so, the Scripture
wouldn't tell us over and over and over about religious folks who even called on His name and
said, Lord, Lord, hadn't we done many wonderful works in Your
name? There's something appealing about Him to the flesh. But it's only to the flesh. It's
only in the unregenerate, sinful nature of a sinner And so it's
just the lust of the eyes, and it's the lust of the flesh, and
it's the pride of life. That's all it is. How so? She
wanted Joseph, but she wanted Joseph on her terms. Look, she
commanded Joseph, lie with me. This is the Potiphar's wife. This is that The queen of Potiphar's
house, this is the one who has servants, and she's somebody. And she comes to Joseph and says,
lie with me. She wanted Joseph, but only on
her terms. Only on her terms. Unregenerate
sinners, and especially false religion, would have received
Christ when He walked this earth. They would have received Christ,
but only on their terms. only on their terms. If Christ
would have let them make Him a king, they would have received
Him. If Christ would have obeyed man's
command, we would receive Him. We would receive Him. And that's
the same is true of you and me by nature. We come into this
world and by nature we would receive Christ, but only on our
terms. And here's our lust. Our lust
is to have the rule over God and to command Christ. You see,
we were tempted in the garden. Just like we see here a picture
of Christ being tempted. We were tempted in the garden
in our first representative, Adam. But we failed. We failed. We committed adultery, spiritual
adultery, in Adam. So then when sin entered us,
you know what we are? Remember Lucifer was cast out
from heaven and Isaiah? Why? He said, I'll be as the
Most High. I'll be like unto God. I'll ascend
into heaven. God said, no, you'll be cast
down to hell. But ever since sin entered into
us, we think we can be as God. We ought to be doing the commanding.
We ought to be doing the demanding. We ought to have Christ bowing
to us. He ought to be serving and bowing
down to us. But the law here forbid Potiphar's
wife. The law did. The law forbid Potiphar's
wife because she's married to Potiphar. So she cannot have
her way with Joseph. She's married to another man. And if she does this, it's going
to be adultery. By nature, sinners are married. We come into this world married.
Did you know that? We come into this world married
to the law. And we can't have Christ until
that husband's dead. Because if we do, it's adultery.
We can't have two husbands. We can't have the law and Christ.
That's to have the lust of our flesh. And the lust of our flesh
is, we'll have Christ, but we'll have that other husband too.
We'll have Christ's works, but we'll have our works. We'll have
grace, as long as we can have works and law. And that's spiritual
adultery. We can't have that. Turn to Romans
chapter 7. Christ is the only one who can
deliver us from that first husband. He came to do so. He came to
fulfill the law. He came to fulfill righteousness.
He came to deliver His people from that first husband. And
only then, once He's delivered us, can we be married to Christ. But that law's got to be fulfilled.
That first husband's got to die, and we got to die to that first
husband. Then we can be married to Christ. Only then. Now look
here. Romans 7, 1. Know ye not, brethren,
for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he lives. Now the whole point
leading up to this has been to teach us in Romans 6 that Christ
is the end of the law, that Christ fulfilled the law and delivered
His people from the law so that His people are dead to the law
and we're alive unto God in Christ. Now look what He says here. He
gives an illustration of this. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband.
So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she's
free from that law, so that she's no adulteress, though she be
married to another man." Is Paul bringing believers back under
the law? No, he's teaching us how Christ has delivered us from
that husband. Christ has delivered us from
that husband. Now watch, look at the next verse.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to that husband,
to the law. How? By the body of Christ. That you should be married to
another, to another. Now it's lawful. even to him
who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins
which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that
being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness
of spirit, not in the oldness of the latter." Now listen carefully,
I want you to get this point. The lust of the flesh in unregenerate
sinners, The lust of the flesh in unregenerate sinners is to
unlawfully have both Christ and the law as our husband. I don't
care what religion it is. They got their God, but they
got to do something. And that's false religion that
calls itself Christianity too. They've got their God, call Him
Jesus, but He don't do it all. They got to do something to help
Him. And now brethren, that's the reason Christ was crucified
when He walked this earth. He was crucified because when
He came into our midst, we said, lie with us. That's what we commanded
Him. But Christ wouldn't do it. Christ
wouldn't do it. It wouldn't be lawful. It would
not be lawful for Him to receive us on our terms. The law's got
to be fulfilled. The law's got to be satisfied.
If Joseph would have given in to Potiphar's wife, physically,
that would have been what it would have been spiritually if
Christ would have given in to us. It would have been adultery. Spiritual adultery. So, first
of all, this union between our old husband, the law, and us
has got to be taken care of. Christ's got to fulfill the law.
It can't be just swept away. Christ's got to fulfill that
law, perfectly fulfill that law, die under that law's curse in
the place of His people, so that the law now is like a dead husband. It says, I don't have anything
to say to them. They're righteous and holy. So that in Christ,
we're dead to that law. That's got to take place. So
we see in Potiphar's wife a picture of our lust. We would have Christ,
but on our terms. She would have Joseph, but on
her terms. Lie with me. I want my other
husband too, but I'll have you, but I want my other husband too.
It can't be works and grace. It can't be law and grace. It's
got to be Christ only. Christ only. Now thirdly, we
see in Joseph a picture of Christ's faithfulness. while he redeemed
us from that first husband, while he redeemed us from the curse
of the Lord. Now look at verse 8. It says, But he refused. But he refused. And he said unto
his master's wife, Behold, my master werth not what is with
me in the house. In other words, my master has
trusted me with this house. That's true of Christ. God trusted
his son with the whole house. Look, and he hath committed all
that he hath to my hand. And that's true with Christ.
There's none greater in this house than I. That means Joseph
was equal with Potiphar in faithfulness in that house. Because all the
law of that house was Potiphar's law. And Joseph was equal with
Him. There was nobody else as great
as Joseph in that house. Him and Potiphar were equal.
Well, Christ came into this world and He's equal with the Father.
He is the righteousness of God. There was none greater than Christ
in the house. Christ entered this house. God
trusted this whole work into His hand. Look at this. Neither
hath He kept back anything from Me, but Thee, but Thee, because
Thou art His wife. There's a law between me and
you. There's a law between Joseph and Potiphar's wife. The law
of marriage. The only way Joseph could have
Potiphar's wife is if Potiphar died. And the only way Christ
could have his bride is if that law died. That law had to be
fulfilled. That law had to be fulfilled.
That's the point of the law being spoken of as a husband that's
dead. Not that the law is dead. The law is fulfilled. Christ
fulfilled it. He fulfilled it. Look at this. Verse 9, How then can I do this
great wickedness and sin against God? He's trusted me with this
whole work. There's nobody higher in this
house than me. And there's a law between me and thee. How then
can I sin against God and do this great wickedness?" And it
came to pass as she spoke to Joseph day by day, she kept on
and kept on. It says that he hearkened not
unto her to lie by her to be with her. Joseph refused because
he was under the law of Potiphar. He was under the law of Potiphar
and he was under the law of God. Christ Jesus came into this world
made of a woman, made under the law, made under God to serve God for His people to
take us out from under that first husband, the law. That's what
Christ came for. And the law of Potiphar's house
was in Joseph's hand to fulfill. That's what Potiphar trusted
him to do. That's what God trusted Christ
to do. Fulfill his will. Fulfill his law. That's what
Christ was doing. Potiphar's wife was lawfully
Potiphar's wife. So she's kept back from Joseph. It wouldn't be lawful. The only
one who could put an end to us being married to the law is Christ.
And to do so, now watch this, Christ had to be made flesh,
Christ had to be made under the law, and Christ had to obey the
law for his people. And that meant when he was tempted
day in and day out, just like his people are, Christ had to
be faithful to God and to his law. He could not disobey any
in thought, word, or deed. There could be no disobedience.
Now, the devil was allowed. You know, Adam's in a garden
that's sinless, and the devil was allowed to enter the garden
and tempt a perfect man in a sinless environment. Well, the devil
was allowed to tempt Christ by God as well. But it was in a
sinful world, surrounded by sinful people, and everything pushing
towards Christ being unfaithful. But Christ was faithful. He was
faithful. Now, we know about the devil's
tempting in the wilderness. We know about that, how that
he came to him and he tempted him in the wilderness. And that
was a great temptation. But this is something we probably
don't think about. every day that Christ walked among religious
sinners in this world, and they kept coming to Him, kept coming
to Him, and they would have made Him king, they would have crowned
Him, He could have been the king over Israel, He could have had
everything in this world, if He would have just let them have
Him on their terms. And that was a tempting of Christ
every day, every day, every day. There's not another man that
ever served God that served him without sin like Christ did.
Moses finally got to a point and just spoke the rock the second
time and said, I'd just like to cry fire down on all of you. Committed adultery when he did
it. Every servant that came along
sinned but Christ. Christ was tempted day after
day after day. And tempted most by religious
folks. Folks who came, butter, sugar
would melt in their mouth when they came to Him, talking to
Him at the first. Oh, they would have Him. All He had to do was
just bow down to Satan and bow down to them, to man. and let
man rule over him. Let man have his way. Lie down
to man. And they had received him. Christ
would not do that. Now you think about this. Remember
when Satan said he would make Christ king over all the kingdoms,
over all time, over all the earth? He would make him an earthy king.
You know how he would do that? All Christ had to do, all our
Lord had to do was but let us, let sinful man, make him a king.
Remember when it says they would have taken him and made him a
king? You know what we were doing? We were saying, lie with us. Let's be united on our terms. Oh, we're going to still have
that old husband-in-law. We're going to still have our
works, but you lie with us on our terms. That's all Christ
had to do, and He could have been the King of the world, And you think about how powerful
Potiphar's wife was. Put yourself in Joseph's shoes. Here's Potiphar's wife. She's
got servants. I mean, she's a powerful woman. She has the ability to speak
and she's going to influence everybody in that house and their
opinion of Joseph, including Potiphar, by what she says. And she's sitting here now, so
sweet to Joseph, begging him, all you've got to do, let me
have you on my terms. And not only that, think about
how powerful Potiphar was. Potiphar is Pharaoh's right hand
man. Potiphar can do with Joseph whatever
he wants to do with Joseph. Well, you think about that, and
you think about that pressure for Joseph to say no, knowing
there's no telling what this woman's going to do. Well, now
you apply that to Christ. Christ knew how powerful all
those religious rulers were in Israel. He knew the power they
had. He knew how powerful all those
civil rulers were in Rome. He knew that when He was made
sin for His people, He knew the power the Law of God would have
toward Him. And yet Christ would not break
the Law of God. He would not turn. And here's
why. He said, My Master has trusted
Me with everything in this house. He's put everything in My hand.
There's none greater in this house than I. And the only thing
He's kept back from me is that pride. And the only way that
Christ is going to satisfy that law and fulfill the will of God
and fulfill the will of His Master and fulfill the law of God is
to be obedient to God. He's going to have to be made
sin. He's going to have to be made guilty. He's going to have
to be counted with the transgressors. He's going to have to stand and
bear the shame that us adulterers deserve. And he's going to have
to be faithful while he does it. He's going to be holy to
God while he does it to fulfill this law. You see, we have not
a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Without sin. Alright, here's
the fourth thing. We see the enmity of that natural
self-righteous heart. Now, at first, she's being very
sweet to Joseph. But then look what happened.
Verse 11, And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went
into the house to do his business. And Christ was in this house
doing His business. And there was none of the men
of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment.
Now I want you to pay close attention to this phrase, his garment.
It keeps showing up in this passage. When you see something show up
like this in a passage, it would be good to hone in on it because
it means something. Now watch this, "...she caught
him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment
in her hand, and fled and got him out. And it came to pass,
when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and
was fled forth, that she called unto the men of her house, and
spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto
us to mock us." He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried
with a loud voice. And it came to pass, when he
heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment
with me, and fled, and got him out. And she laid up his garment
by her until his Lord came home. And she spake unto him according
to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant which thou hast brought
unto us came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass, as I
lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with
me, and he fled out." Just keep saying, he left his garment,
he left his garment, he left his garment. Potiphar's wife
made this last attempt. But Joseph would not. Joseph
refused her. And he left his garment in her
hand when he fled out of there. And over and over we read, he
left his garment, he left his garment, he left his garment.
Now Christ would not receive us on our terms. Now, we would
have Christ on our terms, and we wanted Him on our terms, but
then when He would not give Himself to us on our terms, the enmity
of our heart came out. Now Christ is the garment of
righteousness. Christ is the garment of righteousness
that we must have to be accepted of God. But the very garment
of Christ is the garment that sinful men use to accuse Christ. This garment was the thing she
used to accuse Joseph. And this garment of Christ is
the very thing, when men can't have Him on their terms, it's
the very thing sinners will use to accuse Christ. Listen to this,
Christ took the garment of our flesh. He came down, the Son
of God, and took the garment of our flesh. And because He
did that, when we wouldn't let Him have us on our terms, you
know what we said? He being a man makes Himself God. We took that
garment of flesh and used it to accuse Him, because He wouldn't
let us have Him on His terms. He took the garment of a servant
made under the law to fulfill the law. And when He wouldn't
let us have Him and the Law, Him and our works, we said, well,
He's come to destroy the Law. We took that very garment that
He came, took upon Himself to fulfill and said, He came to
destroy the Law. Christ took the garment of sin
when He was made sin for His people. You know what we said
when He wouldn't let us have Him on our terms? You know what
we said? God is smiting Him. God smited
him for something he did. Well, God was smiting him, but
it wasn't for something he did. Christ took the garment of victory
when he finished that work and was raised from the dead. And
when we wouldn't let him have him on our terms, you know what
we said? Somebody came and stole his body. Every garment Christ left to
show us He's the true and living God, the Redeemer of His people,
Sinful religious man takes it and he uses it to accuse him.
Christ is the garment God's provided for His people. He's the righteousness
of God and the holiness of God. He's that garment. And when men
hear that He alone is that garment, men say, They take that very
thing that Christ said that He came to fulfill, and they say,
but He said He didn't come to destroy it. That means we got
to be perfected by our works under the law. Man's always taking
the garment that Christ is declaring, this is who I am, the Redeemer,
and men are using it to accuse Him and reject Him. And it's
just because we won't let Him have, He won't let us have Him
on our terms. And yet Joseph's garment was
there before Potiphar's wife. There it was. There it was. What's she going to do with it?
There's Christ, the garment of righteousness. There's Christ,
the righteousness of God, near you and me. What are you going
to do? What am I going to do? When Joseph wouldn't receive
her, the enmity of her heart was exposed, and she took that
garment and laid it beside her. She said, I'll use this to justify
myself. I'll use this to accuse him,
justify myself. Sinners act as if they're willing
to receive Christ. That's what sinners do. Oh, I
receive Christ. I love Christ. I love Jesus.
But then they hear about who Jesus is. that he's God, that
he's the sovereign God, that he's the only righteousness of
his people, that he came to fulfill a law that you and I can't ever
and have never fulfilled, that he put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, that he's at the right hand of God ruling and
reigning, that he sends his gospel and he gives life and he gives
faith and he gives repentance and he works works in us, that
he will accept. He does it all, author and finisher
of our faith, and men take that very garment then and try to
throw it back and accuse him so that they can justify their
own rebellion and justify their own adultery and their own whoredom.
That's the whoredom Art read about in Hosea. You've forgotten
my law, God said. What was that law given for?
Paul said in Romans, he was given to teach us that we can't come
to God by the law. He was given to shut our mouths.
That's what he was given for. And it was given, in Hebrews
it says, the law was given to show us the very image of good
things to come. Christ, who is that very image.
It was a shout out. But left to ourselves, you know
what will happen? This enmity of our heart will come out and
we will reject Christ, we will reject Him, and we'll take that
very garment and falsely accuse Him. That's what we did when
he walked this earth. Now lastly, we seek Christ's
faithfulness even unto the death of the cross. Look at verse 19.
And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his
wife, when she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did
thy servant to me, Potiphar's wrath was kindled. And Joseph's
master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where
the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in the prison.
Now, whenever false religion couldn't have Christ on our terms,
we nailed Christ to a cross. And the way we got Christ to
that cross was we falsely accused Him. We couldn't find anything
to accuse Him of, just like she didn't have anything to accuse
Joseph of. But we took that garment and we used it to accuse Christ. And we accused Him. And it was because he wouldn't
receive us on our terms. I just was preparing this, finishing
up this message yesterday and I saw on the news about Pope
Francis coming and it said he's the people's pope. And it reminded
me there's a church where I, me and Melinda used to live called
the people's church. And what that means is he gives the people
what they want. And they like him. They like
him. The people can have Him on their terms. Well, Christ
is not the people's Christ. Christ is God's Christ. And we
can't have Him on our terms. We're going to have to have Him
on God's terms. That's the only way. We've got to bow to Him
and confess we can't save ourselves. We're the adulterer. We're the
adulterer. Now, do you believe God? Joseph
here, he was faithful. Joseph was falsely accused. Joseph
was thrown in prison. He was numbered with guilty transgressors. And yet, notice this. Joseph
never opened his mouth. Do we believe God is sovereign? Do we believe God's ruling, glorifying
His name, saving His people from their sins, everything from the
least to the greatest in this earth, If we do, you know what
we can do? Keep our mouth shut. Well, my honor was trampled upon. There's only one person that
ever had honor that could have defended his honor. It ain't
you and it ain't me. But you know that One who had
honor? That One who was righteous? That One who could have opened
His mouth and revealed the sin of those who were shaming Him?
That One who could have spoken and sent the whole world to hell
in an instant and meant just to do it? You know what He did?
He opened not His mouth. If you want to serve God, and
you want to be useful in Christ's cause, Don't try to defend yourself
and don't try to make something happen in your brethren. Wait
on God. Man will say he's a worm. You
let him get offended and you'll find out how wormy he is. He
turns into a rhinoceros all of a sudden. Christ opened not his
mouth. He opened not his mouth. So we
read in verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph. Joseph knew
this. Joseph knew the Lord was with
him. Joseph knew the Lord was working His will, and the Lord
was going to save His people, and the Lord was going to provide
bread for His brethren. And you know what Psalms 105
tells us? Joseph was being tried by the
Word of the Lord. And Joseph here was being used
by God as a picture of Christ, and he passed the trial. He passed
the test. How? He kept his mouth shut.
and depended on God to work God's will. And it says, the Lord was
with Joseph and He showed him mercy and He gave him favor in
the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the
prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were
in the prison. Who's the keeper of the prison?
God is. And He committed to Christ all
His chosen prisoners. They're all committed to Christ.
And look at this, and whatsoever they did there, He was the doer. What have you done? I haven't
done anything to commend me to God. Christ is the doer. Christ is the doer. Look at this.
And the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was
under his hand. The same one that was ruling
Potiphar's house was ruling the prison. God. And he gave it all
into Joseph's hand. And he didn't look at him. That's
the picture of Christ. That's what God did. Wherever
Christ was, he was serving God, and God had committed it all
to him. When he walked this earth, the same as when he went to the
cross. He was serving God, and it was all in His hand. Look
at this. And the Lord was with him, and
that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. He made it to
prosper. Now when I look there, and I
see Potiphar's wife, and I see what Potiphar's wife did, you
know who I see? Me. The adulterer. And I see Potiphar's wife should
have been the one thrown into prison. And I should have been
the one thrown into prison. I should have been the one to
suffer under the wrath of God. But Christ, in order to suffer
in my room instead, kept his mouth shut. If he'd have opened his mouth
and made them affectionately know who he was, Paul said they
wouldn't have crucified him. But then he wouldn't have saved
his people. And God wouldn't have been glorified, so he kept
his mouth shut. If we're going to serve him,
I'm telling you this, Everybody that serves Him is going to be
made, not to the degree Christ was made, but to a little bit
of that degree. You're going to be made to be
a person despised of men and rejected of men. And the only thing you can do
when it's happening is to keep your mouth shut. Don't defend
yourself. You believe God? You believe
He can defend you? Trust Him then. Trust Him then. That's what Christ did. That's
the fulfillment of the law. That's what He did on the cross.
That's how He fulfilled it. Look over to Isaiah 53. Isaiah
53 and verse 6. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned every one to his own way, to our lust. To our lust. We wanted God on
our terms. Look at this. And the Lord has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. All His people. Look at
this. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Think Joseph went through something.
Nothing like what Christ went through. Oppressed and afflicted. Like, you ever been offended? You haven't, have you? Not when
you look at that. I've got no honor to offend. He was offended, he was oppressed,
but look at this, yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as
a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers
is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment, but what they did to me is not just. Did what we did to Christ, was
that just? We took judgment away from Christ. We falsely accused
Him. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. Who should declare His generation?
For He was cut off out of the land of the living. But here's
why. For the transgression of my people
was He stricken. And He made His grave with the
wicked and with the rich in His death, because He had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. The Lord was with
Christ and God committed it all to His hand and committed all
the prisoners to His hand and He laid on Christ all the iniquity
of all His chosen prisoners. You talk about shame. Two things are the reason I keep
insisting Christ was made sin for His people. Number one, the
righteousness of God and being just. If He ever punished one
man unjustly, He can do it again. And God's judged. Christ came
to declare the righteousness of God. And number two, because
He despised the shame He had to bear for us. And He bore our
shame. And yet He kept His mouth shut.
Everything we needed done for us, Christ was the doer of it.
And that which He did, the Lord made to prosper. Look at Isaiah
53.10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand." That's what it said about Joseph. Everything
he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Everything Christ did, the Lord
made it to prosper. What did he do? He shall see
of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore, God said, I'll divide
him a portion with the great and he'll divide the spoils with
the strong. I'm going to set Him on my right hand. I'm going
to give Him everything in heaven and earth. And He's going to
divide it with all those that He spoiled from Satan. He's going
to divide it with all those He stole from Satan. He's going
to do it for all those He delivered and redeemed from the curse of
the law. He's going to give them His righteousness and His holiness
and His redemption. And He's going to make them His
now. It's lawful for them to be married to Him. But He's going
to do this. A few passages later, we're going
to see Joseph raised to the head of Egypt. And we're going to
see his brothers come into a great famine, and they're going to
come to Joseph, who's going to open a storehouse to them and
feed them and save them. Christ right now is at the right
hand of the Father, and He's sending this gospel forth to
that bride that He's redeemed, and He's given her life and faith
in a new heart to show her, now you can have me, but it's going
to be on my terms. It's going to be on my terms.
And He makes her to bow to Him. and love Him. And she's constrained
from then on by His love for her because He was so faithful
to serve for her and redeem her and do everything for her. And
she says this when she's tempted now. When you're tempted and
I'm tempted. Remember what it was that made Joseph say, I can't
do this? He said this, I owe God and my
Master because of what they've done for me. He said, how then
can I? How then can you, a child of
God's grace? He said, how then can I do this
great wickedness after what it took to redeem me from this great
wickedness? By Christ my Redeemer, how can
I do this great wickedness? And how then can I sin so against
my God? You see, that's fruit Christ
produces in His bride. We didn't produce that fruit
when we was in Potiphar's house. When we was Potiphar's bride,
you know what we did? We played the harlot. We wanted to be under the law,
be married to the law, but we wanted Christ too. Can't have
that. But now that Christ delivered us out, this is the fruit He
produces in us. Constrained by His love, not
by law. That old husband don't have a
thing to say to us now. Christ is our husband and He's
so good. He's such a good husband and
such a faithful husband. He makes you just say, I want
to do whatever He wants me to do. My wife will tell you, I'm
such a good husband. She just wants to do everything
I do, everything I want her to do because I'm just such a good
husband. Not really, not hardly. But Christ is that kind of husband.
And He's so good, we just want to do everything He wants us
to do because He's a good husband. faithful. Amen.