May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7, and we'll read verse
9. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter
7, and reading verse 9. And the patriarchs moved with
envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. but God was with him. So really, the words I desire
to speak from this morning are the last clause really, but God
was with him. You know, is that true of God's
servant Joseph all those years ago? The reality is that that
statement is true of every believer and true throughout our life. We may not always feel, perhaps,
the effect of it. We may not always desire to have
that realization. But you see, the truth is that
we're told that God never leaves his people, nor forsakes them. He watches over us. And when
you think of that and go back in our lives, even from the time
we were born, God was with us. God watched over us. God preserved
us. God instructed us. God guided
us. What a blessing it is to have
such a God. And it's a wonderful consideration
as we have some understanding that this great God, the one
who indeed controls all things in this world, every single detail. And it's good for us to realize,
the new young people, to realize the word of God tells us that
the hairs of our head are all numbered. Now when you think
of that, how many hairs have you got on your head? Well, very
many. One doesn't fall to the ground
without the knowledge of Almighty God. So as we may realise, God
is in control of what we might think such a very, very minor
thing. How wonderful it is to realize,
therefore, that God is in control of all our lives and everything
that occurs. Yes, God has a perfect timetable
for you and me. Usually, God's timetable doesn't
correlate with our timetable. But what we know is God's way
is best. God's way is best. And it's good,
therefore, if we are conscious that we have such a God and that
we might realize more and more what a great God we do have.
And to think that that God is a prayer hearing and a prayer
answering God. So, my friends, never, never
weary in praying to God. Never weary. in committing all
your way unto the Lord, trusting in him. Because God has ordained
that you and I should live on this earth at this time today. God knew the very second you
and I will be born. God knows the very second when
you and I will die. He knows our every thought throughout
our life. He knows our every desire. He also knows our every lack
of desire. He knows all the evil thoughts.
He knows all the wickedness. He also knows all the things
that He will do in our souls for our eternal good and for
His honour if we are indeed one of his children. Now what a blessing therefore
is to be able to trace out in the Word of God the promises of God and those
things which God has done and those things that God will do. Joseph's life was a very peculiar
one in one sense It's a very blessed one in another sense.
And again and again, he was to prove that God was with him. No doubt many times he would
have wondered whether it was so. Well, we know that the Lord
was with Joseph in the household of Potiphar, the Lord ordained
that Joseph should be sold to those merchants and then those
merchants should sell him to Potiphar and there he should
be. You see, our lives, the minutest
circumstance in our life is ordained by God. Never think that we come
into a place where things are haphazard, where things just
seem to occur by chants, then I realized they're ordained by
Almighty God. And so it was with Joseph. Joseph, as you know, I hope you
know, had those dreams, wonderful dreams that God gave him, telling
him what would occur in his life. And sometimes God does perhaps
show us things that will occur in our lives and perhaps we don't
believe it perhaps we don't want to believe it but you see what God says comes
to pass some things that you and I say don't come to pass
but that which God says does come to pass. And that should
be an encouragement to us. So what God said to Joseph in
those dreams, which would have appeared very strange and no
doubt to Joseph, indeed very strange and very annoying to
his brothers and mystifying to his father. And yet you see,
in God's time, it came to pass. But it was many years before
it did come to pass. Many years, you see, before it
did come to pass. But it did. And we should be
encouraged, therefore, in our lives to realize that words,
perhaps, which God has spoken to us, and we may think, well,
I don't think this will ever come to pass. And no doubt that
was like Joseph, and we're told, aren't we, when he was in prison,
yes, the king's prison, he was put there by Potiphar for no
sin that he did himself, wrongly judged, wrongly placed there,
all in God's providence, all in God's plan, and in that prison
house. We're told the word of the Lord
tried him. That means the word of the Lord
tested him. That means the dreams he'd had
were tested. No doubt he there he was in that
prison house thinking, well, I must have been mistaken. Sure,
those those dreams can never be fulfilled. Here I am in this
prison house. But we see how God had a wonderful
plan for Joseph. And so we can understand God
was with him. God was with him in Potiphar's
house. God was with him in prison. Yes, he found favor in the jailers
in prison. God was with him. And then we
can move on, can't we, to think of that occasion when God was
with him, enabling him to give the interpretation
of those two dreams to the butler and the baker. He wouldn't have
been able to have done that himself. God was with him. And God gave
him the interpretation. And because God gave him that
interpretation, and because that which he had been given came
to pass, we see then, after a further two years, when he came before
Pharaoh, that he was invited to come before Pharaoh because
of what God had done those two years Again, it's good sometimes
to just meditate upon these occurrences. Because Joseph, you may remember,
said to the butler, look, remember me when you come before the king. And you would have thought, having
had such a wonderful deliverance, the butler would no way forget.
But we're told he forgot him. Poor Joseph. Well, it wasn't
poor Joseph, but Joseph's obviously was being tested in his faith,
tested in his religion. You see, the Lord does bring
us into pathways so that our religion is tested. Our faith
is tested. And the Lord does it for divine
purpose. To bless us, to encourage us,
and to praise and glorify his great and glorious name. We must always realize that we
live on this earth. If we are the children of God
for one purpose, And that's to bring praise and honor and glory
to our God. You know, it's really important
that all of us recognize that your life and my life, you children,
your life, those are older and those are old. All of us, we
should recognize that if we are the children of God, our lives
are for the honor and glory of God. And therefore, we mustn't
complain. We mustn't say, well, why has
this come into my life? Why has the Lord allowed this? Remember, God was with Joseph. Remember, he perhaps wondered
why it was, but God was with him. And so today, in our lives,
we may perhaps think, why has God allowed this to come into
my life? Well, what a blessing then if
we are under the mighty hand of God and that God is dealing
with us as sons and daughters of the Most High God and we are
being dealt with to bring honour and glory to
God. What a wonderful privilege that
is. It's an amazing favour. If you and I are shown how we
really are, or at least perhaps never will be, but in some measure,
what we are before a holy God, how sinful we are. Yes, how evil we are. And yet
you see, God is still merciful. And we form part of God's wondrous
plan. It's very humbling and it's good
that you and I are aware of it. And surely we want to observe
God's work in our lives and that we may see that which God enables
us to do and to say in our lives for his honour and for his glory. The Lord Jesus tells us in that
glorious sermon on the Mount, We're not to hide our light. That light which God has shone
into our hearts. We're not to hide it. It's to
be placed so that people can see it. For his honor and glory. To realize that by the grace
of God, we are, the word of God tells us, a vessel of mercy. to think that God hasn't cast
us off. And why hasn't he cast us off?
Well, it's two reasons really, isn't it? To show us his wonderful love to unworthy sinners. And then you and I may be able,
through his grace, to exalt his name. But God was with him. Well, I hope we do have some
evidence in our lives that God is with us. He saw us ruined in the fall,
but loved us. notwithstanding all. Indeed, His loving kindness,
oh, how great. It's wonderful when the Spirit
of God shows us His divine will and purpose for us to realize
that we're on this world, in this world, to show forth His
praise for what He's done for us in delivering us from the
wrath to come, but God was with him. And so he was with Joseph,
gloriously. He came, you see, before Pharaoh.
It was then that the butler had remembered his faults and told
the king, I remember my faults this day. There was this man,
this chap in prison, who was the man who interpreted my dream
and it came to pass. And he was therefore called in
haste to come before Pharaoh. And you see, sometimes it's just
like that. There we are, we might seem to
be not noticed, seem as though God's forgotten us. But then,
there may be that time when there is haste in our life. God moves. wondrously quickly. Sometimes we always think things
are going to be slow, my friends. God has a perfect pace. Sometimes it's very slow. Sometimes it's very fast. God was with him. And so he was
with Joseph. And of course, Always remember
that in these situations we are to give glory to God. Joseph told Pharaoh it wasn't
in him that could discern dreams. It was God that gave him the
information. Let us never take credit to ourselves. Let us always give glory to God
and be able to say, it is, it was the Lord who has done this. It is the Lord who has helped
me. It is the Lord who has gone before
me. It is the Lord who has encouraged
me. One of the great temptations
we have today is that the devil wants us to be silent. The devil never wants any acknowledgement of the work
of the Spirit of God. But it's a great blessing when
The Spirit moves us like it was in Joseph. He could have just
gone before Pharaoh and taken all the credit himself. No, he
didn't. He gave honor and glory to his
God. And so we can truly acknowledge
and recognize, but God was with him. And as God was with him, Surely you and I should desire
that we have the evidence that God is with us. We don't want to travel through
life with just a vain religion, with just some vague idea of
the blessing of God. We should desire and pray that
we may have the evidence Indeed, that God is with us. And therefore,
if I was to come and ask you this morning, well, can you say
God has been with you? What are you gonna say? I hope you won't have to say, well,
I don't think so. I've never known any help or
presence or blessing or word from God. I hope you can say, By God's
grace, God has been with me. And indeed, by God's grace, God
is with me. You see, the apostle tells us,
Paul, he said, I can do all things by himself, no. I can do all
things through Christ. strengthens me. That was true
in Paul's life and it's true today in the life of the true believer. We by God's grace can do all
things through Christ and don't forget what did it do when Paul
spoke those words? It brought glory to God and that's
the important thing And I hope today all of us can really recognise
the relevance of such a great truth, that indeed God is with
us and God is with us for this very great reason, so that our
lives may show forth his praise, the work of God, in our soul. That's the most important thing
in our lives. By far, by far, by far. The most
important thing to have the evidence of the grace of God within us. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Romans, he said, if God before us, who can be against
us? You see, if God's on our side,
Doesn't matter who would want to be against us, who would pretend
to be against us, who tries to be against us, they will not
prevail. Because we have the almighty God on our side. It's good, isn't it? If God before
us and God will be for us, if we have the wonderful evidence
in our souls, like it was in the case of Joseph, But God was
with him. Well, I do hope this morning
that you may be able to trace out in your little life the evidence
that God has been with you. God has been with you. To trace
it out, because God was with Joseph and we know how wonderfully
he was raised up, wasn't he? To be next to Pharaoh in that
place of Egypt. I'm sure when he had that dream,
those dreams back in his place where he was living, you know,
with his father and the family, in tents, in a very humble way,
he was a shepherd with sheep. He could never have his visit.
He would have been raised up to be what we might term, perhaps
in common parlance, the prime minister in that country of Egypt. But you see, God was with him.
And that's the important thing for us today, to realise that
we have a God who is the same today. Now, the great blessing
is this. If God is with us, he will lead
us into all truth as it is in Jesus. You and I won't be left
without the evidence that the blessed Saviour has died for
us on the cross at Calvary. to take away all our sins. Because if God is with us, he
will show us our need of him. He will show us our sinful condition.
And that may not be very happy and a very pleasant experience. And we may fear perhaps that
we're lost. We may fear perhaps there's no
hope for us. Well, you can trace out the blessed
work of the Spirit in the life of God's saints and see how God
did indeed bless them. Just take the Apostle Paul's
life, for instance. Yes, he was a sinner indeed,
but God was with him. God was watching over him. In
all those days when he was evil and wrong and hated the Christian
religion, hated Christ, the appointed time came in his life. What a blessing when it comes
in our lives. And Himmler has it, not to propose, but called
by grace. You see, God doesn't come to
us and make a proposition that we can ignore. When God comes, and if he comes
to us, it'll be to call us to view ourselves and to show us
the way of salvation. And this will be a terrific and
wonderful evidence that God is with us. God was with Joseph. And so can you and I look back
in our lives and be able to trace out, yes, God has been with me. You know, there may be long periods
where it doesn't seem that anything particular is happening. You
take the life of Moses, you might say, well, was God with him?
Yes, he was. But just think about Moses' life. 40 years in Pharaoh's palace,
in a place of comfort and ease, everything he wanted. But you
see, God was preparing him in that place. God was preparing
him. God was with him. And then 40
years in the wilderness. And remember that we read in
this account, he thought that Israel would know that God had
called him to lead them. But at that time they didn't.
Yes. There were 40 years had to elapse
before God's time came when he was to be brought back to Israel
to lead them out of Egypt. And so we can think there were
80 years of his life and then 40 years of his life when he
was employed solely really in doing God's will to be with Israel
and to bring them out of Egypt and be with them in the wilderness
for almost all the time until they were brought into Canaan. You see, we have to say God was
with him. God was with him. But no doubt
if you'd been there and said to him when he was in the wilderness,
well, what do you think now? of your ideas or plans? Well, it would have seemed all
dark, wouldn't it? And you might have wondered how
ever it could come to pass that God would appear for him.
Well, God did appear for him in a very wonderful way. There
was that burning bush which wasn't consumed It was an outstanding
occurrence. God had ordained that Moses would
enter into that experience to realize there was no doubt, no
doubt, that God was indeed with him. No doubt all his evidences,
we're not told of all the evidences in Moses' life, would have come
back probably to him and reinforced to realize now after all these
years And it's very interesting to realise this, and it's important,
a picture really. After 40 years of Moses' life,
he thought he was equipped to bring Israel out of Egypt. He had another 40 years before
he was equipped to bring Israel out of Egypt. And in order for
that to be accomplished, He had to spend 40 years in the wilderness. Brings me to that thought. Your
time is always. But my time is not yet. But God was with him. That's the relevant statement,
isn't it? But God was with him. And so
in your life, perhaps you wonder what's happening? Nothing seems
to be working. Everything seems to be going
the wrong way, almost. The opposite way. It probably
was with Joseph, wasn't it? In prison? This is not what I
expected. The very opposite way. God was with him. Don't forget
that. Be encouraged by it. Because,
you see, Moses had to learn a lot. Joseph had to learn a lot. You
and I have to learn a lot. And my friends, it's a blessing
when God teaches us. And as I quoted in prayer, it's
good you see when the Holy Spirit brings us in that position to
come and we confess. We're not a great person. We
thought we were. Paul, very able person, very
skilled person, tells us, He was, in his own eyes, less than
the least of all saints. What do we see? The grace of God. Because what
did it do in the Apostle Paul's life? I'll tell you what it did.
It exalted the Saviour. And that's what it does. By the
grace of God in our life. The Saviour is exalted. These things don't just happen
overnight as it were. What a mercy it is to have the
evidence that God is dealing with us as sons and daughters
of the Most High God. What a blessing it is then to
have the evidence that God is with us. David had the experience that
God was with him, didn't he? You know, we have some very interesting
details of David's life. We have the wonderful details,
don't we, of when he fought Goliath. We might say, well, that's obvious.
God was with him. He was in a most remarkable way. But there were the occasions
in his life when David fled away from Saul. He was frightened
of what Saul might do. Still true. God was with him. God was with him. See, it's good
to weigh up scripture. That's why we have such a glorious
word of God to encourage us in our little lives. Because as
true as that, to encourage us to realize, yes, God is with
us. We haven't time this morning,
but you might go home and think about the life of Daniel. Yeah, Daniel, chucked into the
lion's den, but God was with him. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in the burning, fiery furnace, but God was with them. We might think, well, surely
the God of love and wonder wouldn't do that. God did these things. Come back to what I said, for
his honor and for his glory. So, my friends, it's very good
for us that we had a trace out in our lives the hand of God
upon us to realize we haven't been left to our own devices. If we were, my friends, we'd
end up in hell. But bless God for his love and
to realize the truth of those words. He led them forth by the
right way that they might go to a city of habitation. Always have that in view. The end of the journey. The end
of the journey. Our life is to prepare us for
the end of our journey. What a mercy it is then to have
a God who knows the end from the beginning and He knows what
He will do and He never makes any mistakes. He never made a
mistake in the life of Joseph. He doesn't make a mistake in
your life and my life. Let us be encouraged this morning
by this very simple statement, but God was with him and humbly
realised by the grace of God that God is with us.