gathered together by thy providential
hand." Oh Lord, you've taken us out. from the people of this
world you've you've called us with an effectual call and we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God and Lord we we desire
to hear the gospel of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ preach
and proclaim and we know that our salvation is all of you the
only reason that that we are to differ from anyone else that
we know we know it's not anything we do but it's all in you Lord
and all what you've done for us we glorify your name and praise
your name in Jesus name. Okay, let's go to Genesis chapter
39. The name of the message is fleeing
temptation. Fleeing temptation. Genesis chapter
39. Last week, or two weeks ago in
our study, we looked at verses 1 to 6, actually three weeks
ago, because we had a power outage. We looked at the verses 1 to
6, and we saw that the Lord was with Joseph. And always remember,
you who are the children of God, always remember that the Lord
is ever with us, ever with us. He'll never leave us nor forsake
us, no matter what the circumstances we find ourselves in. Sometimes
we find ourselves just in the midst of a massive storm of life,
but he'll never leave us. He's ever with us, ever with
us. And we looked at how Joseph is
a picture of Christ, in the fact that Potiphar placed all the
affairs of his house into Joseph's hands. And he was the great overseer. And we know who the great overseer
is of all the world and of all things. It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
So it just pictured Joseph as the overseer, and Potiphar's
house pictured the great overseer, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose
hands, whose sovereign, almighty hands all things have been placed. Let's read Genesis chapter 39,
verses one to six. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt, again, all by God's divine providence, and Potiphar, an
officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, An Egyptian bought
him out of the hands of the Israelites, which had brought him down thither.
So again, all this is occurring according to God's divine sovereign
plan, all of it. And the Lord was with Joseph,
and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master,
the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord
was with him, that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in
his hands. And Joseph found grace in his
sight. Every believer finds grace in
the sight of God. Every believer. And he served
him and he made him an overseer over his house and all that he
had put into his hands. And it came to pass from the
time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that
he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's
sake. Now we're forgiven of all our
sins for Christ's sake, beloved, for Christ's sake. And the blessing
of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the
field. And he left all that he had in
Joseph's hands, and he knew not aught he had, save the bread
which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person
and well favored." Now we see in the latter part of verse six
that Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. John Gill believes
that these words are spoken of Joseph in light of what will
follow next in the text. In light of what will follow
next in the text. It shows Joseph's character. So Joseph's character
is being brought forth here. And then we'll see why he reacted
to the advancements of Potiphar's wife due to his character, due
to his character, which we'll see in the text. Now let's read
verses seven to 10. And it came to pass after these
things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. And
she said, lie with me. But he refused. And said unto
his master's wife, behold my master, what if not what is with
me in the house? hath committed all that he hath
to my hand. There is none greater in this
house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything
from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great
wickedness in sin against God? And it came to pass, as she spake
to Joseph, day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie
by her, or to be with her." Now remember, I brought forth a few
studies ago that Joseph was bought by the Israelites and sold to
Potiphar and then made overseer of Potiphar's house, and all
this took time. All this took time, remember
that. He was 17 when he was taken from his family. And all that
we see here has taken time. And now he's a man. Now he's
a man. He came in as a lowly servant,
and he performed the duties of a new slave. He would have done
his work unto the Lord, just as every believer does, doing
the work unto the Lord. And over time, again, it took
time. It didn't happen instantaneously. We read these narratives, and
we think, oh. For us, we see it all happening, but it took
time, beloved. It took time. It took time. But over time, Potiphar put him
in charge of everything in his home, and he was overseer over
all the affairs of Potiphar. Note the words of verse seven,
and it came to pass after these things. Some time again had passed. Some time had passed. Now we
see that his master's wife now cast her eyes upon Joseph. And Joseph was a young man, he
was probably well-built, probably a good-looking man, probably.
He'd been a slave for years, he'd been doing manual labor. So the scriptures don't really
tell us, but obviously in her eyes, she desired him. She desired
him. But we see in verse six that
it's declared that he was a goodly and well-favored. We don't know
how long Potiphar's wife had been casting her sinful eyes
upon Joseph. We don't know how long she'd
been lusting after him. But the scriptures tell us that
she'd been lusting with him. And then she finally says in
verse 7, lie with me. Lie with me. Listen to this warning. Turn if you would to Proverbs
chapter 6 and listen to this warning. in Proverbs chapter
six for the believer. Proverbs chapter six, verses
23 to 26. Proverbs chapter 23. Or Proverbs chapter six, I'm
sorry. Proverbs chapter six. Sorry about that. Proverbs chapter 6 verses 23
to 26. For the commandment is a lamp,
and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of
life. To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the
tongue of a strange woman, lust not after her beauty in thine
heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means
of a whorish woman, a man is bought to a piece of bread, and
the adulteress will hunt for that precious life. So there's
a warning there in Proverbs. There's a warning in Proverbs.
Now we know that Joseph was a man. He was human. And he had natural
desires, and we know he's single. So this temptation is put before
him, and it would be very difficult for him to say no to. But beloved of God, our great
God has sent his spirit into the heart of Joseph, and we know
that he loved righteousness and that he hated evil. We know that,
because the text tells us that. And by the grace of God, we see
that Joseph did not yield to the temptation that was set before
him. Let's go back to Genesis chapter
39. Joseph did not yield to the temptation that was set before
him. And we see that in his answer
to Potiphar's wife. Look at Genesis chapter 39 verses
8 to 9. But he refused, and said unto
his master's wife, Behold, my master wroughteth not what is
with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath
to my hand. There is none greater in this
house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but
thee. So he said, I have everything
in this house but you, because you're his wife. You're his wife. How then can I do this great
wickedness, now look at this, and sin against God? Note that Joseph knew that if
he laid with Potiphar's wife, that he'd be sinning against
his master, but more so, he'd be sinning against God. How can I, look at verse nine,
how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Against
God. So Joseph knew, he knew that
his sin was against God. Beloved, our sin is against God.
And our Savior went to the cross to reconcile us to God. to pay for our sin. And praise God, he did it, didn't
he? He did it. It is finished. But notice how Joseph was taking
ownership that if he lays with her, that he's sinning against
God. People don't want to own their
sin. We as humans have a habit of
passing the blame on. Well, it's not my fault. This circumstance made me do
that. What did Adam say? To the Lord, it's the woman you
gave me. See, it's been happening for
thousands of years, beloved. But notice, notice Joseph takes
ownership and he says, if I lay with you, I'm gonna sin against
my God. I'm gonna sin against my God. He's taking ownership of how
this would be him sinning against God if he did that. Notice he's
not even mentioning that she would be sinning against her
husband. He's not even mentioning that. All he's thinking about
is, if I do this, I'm sinning against my great God. And he
says, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So who did Joseph fear over man?
It's obvious in the text, isn't it? Joseph feared God over man. Joseph feared God over man. And he knew that things would
go bad for him if he refused her, and yet he knew that. He
knew. He knew if he refused her, it wasn't going to go over well. And yet he fled this temptation
knowing that he would be sinning against God if he followed through
with it. So think of this, it was a sin
against himself, it was a sin against his mistress, it was
a sin against his kind master, but Joseph passed by all those
of lesser consideration. Didn't he? It would have been
a sin against all three of them. but he passed by all of lesser
consideration to argue the abominable nature of sin against our great
God. And he's an Israelite. Remember,
he's in covenant with God. So marvel at the fact that our
Lord Jesus Christ, who's our great high priest, is the one
who can be touched with our infirmities because he was in all points
tempted as we are. yet without sin. Listen to what
the scripture says about our Lord. Seeing then that we have
a great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. He's bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. He's God incarnated in the flesh
and yet He's fully man too. And the scripture says in Hebrews
4.15 that He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without
sin. Let us therefore come boldly,
because of this, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. time of need and we do find grace
to help in time of need don't we when we flee when we flee
to the throne of grace Christ is God and yet man and
he's totally without sin totally without sin he is able to sympathize
with his people but when he came to this earth he was tempted
and tried in all points as we are yet without sin Beloved when
he offered himself up. He offered himself up without
sin And he rose from that without
sin He's the perfect substitute. Oh He's our great Savior beloved
The Lord understands our weakness and our affirmities, our pains,
our tears, our temptations from Satan. And this union with Christ
not only brings His pity and sympathy, but also His divine
assurance, beloved. His divine assurance, His support,
and His deliverance. We have a great high priest,
listen to this, my little children, these things write I unto you,
believers, write I unto you, that you sin not, right? Do you
sin more than you want to? I do. Yeah, we do, don't we? Oh my, we hate sin now. We can't
wait till the day when we have no sin. But listen to this, write
I unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin, we have an
advocate. We have a mediator, beloved,
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, the one who never
sinned. See, all we are is sinners. The
scripture says he was touched with our infirmities, yet without
sin. Jesus Christ, the righteous,
note that singularity, the righteous, the only one who's righteous.
And he is the propitiation for our sins. He's the sacrifice
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world, for the sins of all the ages that would believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look in verse 10, we see
that, you know, oftentimes we read this and we think, well,
she just asked him the one time. Look in verse 10, she kept hounding
him. Look at this. Now we see in verse
10 that she continued to ask him day by day, and we do not
know, the scriptures do not tell us how much time has passed by,
but we see it was some time, beloved. Look at verse 10. And
it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he
hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. She
didn't just say it one time, she kept at him. She kept at
him. And remember that Joseph had
God's Spirit dwelling in him. And he, like any other believer
under temptation, what would he have done? Like any believer
under temptation, he'd cry out to God, wouldn't he? Just like
we do. He'd cry out to God. God help
me not to yield to this temptation. Always remember that we as the
born-again bloodthirsty saints can find can come to that throne
of grace that we heard about in Hebrews chapter 4. We can
come to that throne of grace where we obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And we are such a needy people.
I'm a needy person. Oh, we just keep going to Christ,
don't we? Before the Lord saved us, we
used to think we could do everything on our own. Oh, no. We take everything to the Lord
in prayer, don't we? Lord, help me. Help me to bear
this. Deliver me, we often say. You've heard me say this time
and time again, that we who are the people of God, we know by
experience that one of the worst problems of all God's children
is trying to handle things in our own strength. We're all prone
to that. We try to fix the situation before
we go to the Lord. It's natural. And we are being
taught, as we journey through this world, that we're just to
rest in Christ. Just trust in Christ. Sister
Nancy, when you hit that fracture, you said, I'm just trusting the
Lord. It happened for a reason. I'm just going to trust Him. Well,
that's the kind of attitude we should have. OK. Lord, it's in your hands. It's
in your hands. Just going to trust you. Just
going to trust you. When we try to fix things in
our own strength, we run into serious trouble, don't we? We
do. We do, every time. And the Lord's teaching us, isn't
He? He teaches us to rely upon Him more and more and more. May
we keep fresh in our hearts and our minds that we can do absolutely
nothing without the Lord. He told us that in John 15. In
John 15, he told us this, I am the vine and you are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and that's in Christ, born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. That's John 15, five. And then
Paul writes this in Philippians chapter four, he says, I can
do all things through Christ which strengthen me. He's my
strength. He's my refuge. He's my deliverer. Is it so for you? Yes. Oh Lord,
teach us just to rest in you, Lord. Teach us just to trust
in you. So all through this life, think
of this, all through this life, the child of God is being taught
not to rest in our own strength. We're being taught that. All
through this life. and let us cry out to our great
God for help, for strength, and let us rest in His providence.
When we find ourselves in a trial and tribulation and affliction,
know that it come from God and we are to cry out to Him. We
are to cry out to Him. I know it's not easy for us when
we're in the midst of a trial or tribulations. It's not easy
for us. It's not. And things come up,
we don't even expect them to come up. But the Lord knows,
doesn't he? He knows what's coming up. He
knows because he's ordained the situation to come. And we rest
in him. And like, I love what Joe said
years ago to me, the hardest thing for a believer to do is
just to rest in Christ. It's hard for us to do that.
But he is our rest, beloved. He is our rest. May God give
us grace to do so. So this wicked woman was persistent.
Day after day, she tried to tempt Joseph into this sinful affair
with her. But we see that by God's grace,
and we know it's only by God's grace, no strength in Joseph. Left to himself, Joseph with
a headlong. But no, it's by God's grace that he's kept from this
temptation, beloved. Look at verse 11, and it came
to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to
do business, and there was none of the men of the house there
within. So now take note of verse 11. Again, some time had passed
by again. Scripture doesn't tell us how
long, but we see that time had passed by. How long, how many
weeks, how many months, We don't know. Can you imagine Joseph
getting up every morning and having to face that every morning?
Her constant. That's what the scripture says.
That it was constant day by day. Day by day. Look at verse 10.
Day by day. She spake to Joseph day by day
and he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. We don't know how long passed.
have been weeks, it could have been months, but we see in verse 11 and it
came to pass, so here now Joseph was alone in the house and verse
11 declares that Joseph went in the house to do business and
there was none of the men of the house there within. So we
see then that Potiphar's wife now tries to take advantage of
the situation that's out of hand. Look at verse 12, and she caught
him by his garment saying lie with me And he left his garment
in her hand and fled and got him out. So Joseph, think upon this, Joseph
is a slave in the house of Potiphar. He cannot just quit his job.
He can't just say, well, I'm out of here. Can't do that. He's a slave. He's been purchased
by Potiphar. He can't just say, well, I'm
done. No, he's owned by Potiphar. So he can't just quit his job
and not be around Potiphar's wife. No. He cannot avoid that
wicked woman. And she's not just asking Joseph
anymore. Now she's forcing her hand. Before she's just asking
him. Now she's forcing his hand. And
she had a hold of Joseph's garment. And what was our dear brother
going to do? What was our dear brother going
to do? Well, we see in the text that he did the only thing that
he could do. He left his garment in her hand and fled out of the
room. Remember what the Word of God
instructs believers. In 2 Timothy 2.22 it says this,
flee also youthful lusts. That's what Joseph was doing.
Flee also youthful lusts. but for all righteousness, faith,
charity, peace, and with them that call on the Lord out of
a pure heart. He fled. He did what the scriptures say. He fled the situation. Now let's
read verses 13 to 20 in which we see that Potiphar's wife finally
realized, she finally realized that she's never going to be
able to break Joseph down. She finally realized that. She's
not going to be able to break down Joseph's wall of resistance.
And we know it's the protecting sovereign hand of God. And we
see that her sinful desire now will turn to hate as she makes
a false report. A false report against Joseph. Which we will see has him cast
into prison. Look at verses 13 to 16. And
it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garments
in her hand and was fled forth. that she called unto the man
of the house, man of her house, and spake unto them, saying,
See, being part of her, he hath bought in in Hebrew unto us to
mock us. He came in unto me to lie with
me, and I cried with a loud voice. So she's saying that Joseph tried
to take advantage of her. Well, we know the real story.
He fled. And it came to pass, when he had 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." So observe in verse 14 the contempt
on the religion of Joseph. Look at that. Take note, she
brings forth that her husband's bought into this Hebrew. That's
contempt for Joseph's religion. And she says, Again, she did this in order
to heighten the offense that she charged Joseph with. And
is this not still true today with the Lord's people? Are not the blemishes or the
supposed blemishes of the Lord's people always magnified in the
carnal world? Yeah. Yes, the people of God are treated
the same way today as they were in the days of Joseph, of Paul
and Peter, and the people of God are treated with contempt
by the world. Contempt by the world for what
we believe. Now let's read verses 17 to 20.
And she spake unto him according to these words, saying again,
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
fled out. And it came to pass, when his
master heard the words of his wife, which he spake unto him,
saying, After this manner did thy servant to me, that his wrath
was kindled." He's mad. And Joseph's master took him
and put him into prison, the place where the king's prisoners
were bound, and he was there in prison. So we see that Joseph
is sent to prison based upon the wicked lies of Potiphar's
wife. And again, we see that Joseph typifies the Lord Jesus
Christ as the wicked, unbelieving Jews could find nothing, nothing
that they could accuse our Lord of. So what did they do? They bought in false witnesses.
And Potiphar's wife is nothing but a false witness. She's speaking false things. And so the Jews, they bought
in people that made false accusations against our Lord, made up lies,
which resulted in our Lord being bought before Pontius Pilate
and eventually led to our Lord's death on the cross. And we know
this was all by the sovereignty of God. Everything that's happening
to Joseph here, remember this, always remember this as we go
through the life of Joseph, is all happening according to God's
sovereignty. Turn if you would to Acts chapter
4, or Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2. Look at this in Acts chapter
2, verses 22 to 24. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words, Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain." Now remember, how he
was put into their hands was by false accusations, false witnesses. But we see here that that all
happened according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Ye have taken in by wicked hands,
have crucified and slain, whom God has raised up, raised for
our justification, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holding of it. So let us never
forget that our great God It was purposed that his son would
die on the cross for his people. It was purposed by God that he
would be the propitiation for the sins of all of God's elect
of all the ages. And what we see happening to
Joseph again was purposed by God. It was purposed by God to
take place where he would eventually become, and we will see this
later in studies, where he will eventually become prime minister
over all of Egypt. over all of Egypt. We will see
the great sovereign hand of our Lord upon our dear brother Joseph
as we study the life of Joseph. We will see our great God working
out His sovereign purpose in leading Joseph to the eventual
exalted position in Egypt that He had appointed for him to be
at. And we will see that position
is a fulfillment of the very dream that we looked at, those
two dreams that we looked at, in the start of this study. All these things concerning Joseph
that are happening before us is happening to fulfill God's
eternal purpose. How do you think Joseph felt?
He's probably wondering what in the world's going on. But
he's trusting God, isn't he? Because he's a believer. He's
trusting the Lord through all the midst of all this stuff going
on. He's trusting the Lord. Always
remember that the purpose of God is eternal. What God does,
He's always purposed to do. The purpose of God includes all
things. He's sovereign over all things. The purpose of God has
the benefit of His elect for its particular design. It's everything
that God has purposed for the ultimate spiritual and eternal
benefit of His covenant people. Also, the purpose of God is immutable.
It cannot change. And it's sure beloved. Oh, what
comfort that can bring us who are saved in Christ. My counsel
shall stand forever, shall stand and I will do all my pleasure,
Isaiah 46, 10. And the ultimate end of God's
purpose will accomplish the eternal salvation of all his people who
were purchased by Christ at Calvary's cross. Listen to these words.
We'll close with these words. Listen to this. Remember the
former things of old for I am God. And there is none else, I am
God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning.
And from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling the
ravenous bird from the east and the man that executed my counsel
from a far country. Yeah, I've spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass. What the Lord has spoken will
always come to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness,
which is Christ. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion. That's in the church. Salvation's
in Christ. In Zion, for Israel, my glory. That's Isaiah 46, verses 9 to
13. All praise, glory, and honor
to our great God and King. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for allowing us to look into your word. O Lord, as we see
our dear brother Joseph going through these temptations and
trials, we know that it is only by thy grace and only by thy
restraining hand that he was able to continue, Lord. Oh, we
pray that you give your people grace and strength. Strengthen
us, Lord, in our time of need. Strengthen us in trials and tribulations. And just, we take great comfort,
Lord, knowing that you're ever with us, that you'll never leave
us nor forsake us, because you have loved us with an everlasting
love. Glory to your name, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.