Now, if you'll open your Bibles
back to Genesis chapter 39 and just leave it open there. And I'm going to refer back to
those verses. And I'm going to kind of change
things up tonight just a little bit, if the Lord will be pleased
to help me. I want to use these first six
verses of this story as an introduction to what takes place at the end.
Now, all of these things, I know that most of you have been here
through this study, and you understand that these things stand in picture. Now, I know that they tell and
give a moral lesson, and the moral lesson's obvious here.
And the sin of this woman's obvious. And Joseph's faithfulness is
obvious. I shouldn't have to bring a message
on that. for itself and it's blank. But the overall thing
that's being pictured here is hidden from most people. They'll
read through this, they'll grasp the moral lesson of it, and they'll
go on. And they totally miss the message
of this book. The message of this book is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. The message of this book sets
forth our Savior. And all through the Old Testament
it sets Him out in type, in allegory, in picture. in pattern over and
over and over. Just about everything in the
Old Testament stands as a picture of Christ. And that's Paul's
whole reason for writing the book of Hebrews. That book was
written to Hebrew people who knew the Old Testament, who were
well acquainted with the traditions and all of those things. And
he tells them in there how these things were patterns and pictures
of Christ. And so that's what we've been
doing here going through this book of Genesis. So if you'll
look with me here, I'm just going to give you a brief commentary
and just run through these first six verses, and we'll use that
as an introduction, and then I'll make some comments on the
story at the end. It says in verse 1, And Joseph
was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him at the hand of the
Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. Now, I want
to point out to you several things here about these men and this
place where he was at so that we understand the setting, understand
what's going on here and how this thing is going to picture
Christ. Now, let's start with the first character who's Joseph.
Joseph here is a type of Christ. In Acts chapter 7, if you want
to, if you're taking notes, you can jot that down. I'm not going
to turn over there. But when Peter, I mean when Stephen
stood up to preach to Israel, he took them on a kind of a journey
through their past and he went all the way back to Abraham and
then he talked about Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. And he spent
quite a few verses there in Acts chapter 7 talking about Joseph
and how Joseph was a type of Christ. And when he finished
his story, he told them, he said, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised
of heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. What on
earth is he talking about? He's talking about the message
of the Holy Ghost, which was inspired in the writings of this
book. You do always reject that. You
resist that. You just cast it aside like it
wasn't even there. And it's the foremost thing in
this book. And he said, and you killed the
prophets who showed before the coming of the just one. Joseph
showed before the coming of the just one. Moses, when he came
down and delivered the people out of there and the Lord parted
that sea, he was showing before the coming of the just one. And
he went out in that wilderness and God gave him a pattern in
the mount to build a tabernacle of worship. And they went in
there and all their worship was around what? A lamb slain. A blood sacrifice. All the way
through the Old Testament. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sins. There's no talk about it. There
is no remission. There's nothing set forth about
remission. Except as it's set forth in the
substitute and the dying lamb. So he showed before. So this
is a picture. Joseph is a type of Christ. And
if I had time, I'd take you all the way through the Scriptures
and show you that, how the prophets spoke of Him that way. But He's
a type of Christ. And then secondly, it says that
He was brought down to Egypt. Now, Egypt is a picture of bondage
and sin. He calls it, going through the
Old Testament, He calls it the iron furnace, that place of oppression,
that place of bondage, that place of slavery. And the Lord came
in there and in power by His man Moses, delivered those people
out of Egypt and took them into Canaan, the Promised Land. It's
a place where the ruler pretends to be God. Pharaohs of Egypt,
if you studied your history at all, those pharaohs demanded
to be looked at and worshipped as God. They were considered
a god. They were considered a deity. And the place of bondage and
oppression and slavery was the place of this pretended God. And then the next figure you
have here is a man by the name of Potiphar. Now let me give
you a little English lesson here. Pot in the old ancient language
here, either Chaldean language, I'm supposing is what I'm talking
about here. I'm going by the historians now
and people who are supposed to know these things, but pot in
the ancient language is the same as Phut, P-H-U-T. Well, what's
that got to do with anything? He was the son of Ham. You remember Ham? The wicked
son of Noah? He's the son of Ham who pretended
to be a saved man and entered into the ark and escaped the
judgment of those around him and then exposed himself for
what he was while his father was asleep. And Potiphar, the
whole name means fruit of pot or fruit of the sons of ham. And so when you go through the
scriptures, and I'm going to give you two, Psalm 105 and Psalm
106. Psalm 105 states it twice. Talks about Egypt. He calls it
the land of ham. The land of ham. Now all these
men stood for things spiritually. They stood for characters in
the Bible and they symbolized evil. They symbolized fallen
man. So this place of Egypt down here
and this Potiphar, he was a son of Ham. That's what he was. And
he was proud of it. Ought to have been ashamed of
it, but they named their children after him. And here are generations
and generations. I mean, I'm going way back to
the flood now. So we're going back a long way.
And here these people are, they're still naming their children after
this man. And they've totally forgotten,
totally overlooked the wickedness of this man and this man's name. It shows the indignant pride
of evil men who steal glory in their shame. And then fourthly
here, he mentions these people called Ishmaelites. Now you ought
to know who Ishmael was. He was the son of Abraham in
the flesh. He and Sarah got together, and
Sarah said, now look, I'm getting old, and you ain't getting any
younger. And God promised us a son, and I can't give him to
you, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give my handmaid
to you to marry, and you go in with her and sleep with her,
and we'll get this son that God promised. But that ain't what
God said, and God wouldn't have it. Well, he will forever. And he tells us over in Galatians
this whole story and what he stood for. He was an allegory
standing for the covenant of works. So now we've got this
place of bondage. We've got these evil men who
are sons of Ham. We've got all this wickedness
here being shown about Egypt. So that this captivity is a captivity
of evil. That's what it stands for. It's
what it symbolizes. And here's Joseph down here into
this land. His brothers despised him and
sold him out. Now he's down here in the land
of Ham. And who brought him there? Ishmaelites. These people who are sons of
Ishmael, spiritually speaking. Now, I'm not talking about his
physical sons. But spiritually speaking, these sons of Ishmael,
these sons of the flesh, these sons of men These are men who
try to finagle and make things work on their own. They reason
things out in the flesh. One plus one is two. So whatever
this is saying in the Bible can't be when it starts talking about
being born again of the spirit and all these things. That's
a bunch of hogwash. This thing don't make sense.
Tell me something makes sense. Well, it has to be revealed to
you. It never will make any sense
to you. But these sons of Ishmael, they're natural men. They want
it naturally. They want to reason this thing
out. They want it to be logical. Give me an ABC. Give me something
to do. Walk down an aisle. Shake a hand.
I understand that. Yeah, but that doesn't have anything
to do with what's set forth in this book. These are Ishmaelites. Ishmaelites trade in Egypt. They
trade in Egypt. Because that's the only place
where their works have any value at all, down in this evil land
of Egypt. Now watch this, verse 2. And
the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and
he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. There's three things
here, three declarations that need our careful consideration.
First of all, he said, the Lord was with Joseph. He was hated
and despised of his brethren, thrown into a pit, sold into
the house of bondage, brought down to the land of captivity,
and sold to this man named Potiphar. But the Lord was with him. You
see, what makes the difference in a man? All men are the same. We're all born in sin. We're
all biased to sin. We're going to sin. That's all
we do is sin. That's all we can think about is sin. Coming here
to worship God, and what's on your mind? The racetrack? The
woods? What? Work? What else? All these things
flooding around in your head. Well, there ain't no thoughts
of God up there. It's flesh. That's all it is. It's flesh.
But the Lord was with him. And that's what makes the difference.
If the Lord doesn't intervene in a man's life, he's just going
to go on. He may go on into the road of
religion, or he may go on into the road of the world, but it
doesn't make any difference. Doesn't make any difference.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What makes
the difference is the grace of God when the Lord comes and intervenes
in his life. What makes the difference? And
the Lord was with Joseph. He was treated awful by his brothers,
and he was treated awful down in his house. But it didn't make
any difference. The Lord was with him. The Lord
was with him, going before him and arranging events and circumstances
and softening some hearts and hardening others. And the Lord
was with him, teaching him and preserving him and trying him.
What a pitiful life would have been the life of Joseph, except
the Lord was with him. Now, I suggest you read Psalm
105, because it tells a story in Psalm 106, and it tells the
story of Israel and how Joseph played such an important part
in it. But surely this is the story of every believer who'd
been reconciled to God out of spiritual Egypt. The Lord was
with him. The Lord went, how come you all
of a sudden begin to think on these things, begin to seek these
things, begin to read this book, and begin to have an appetite?
How come? Paul said, what have you gotten
that you haven't received? And if you received it, why do
you glory like you didn't? Try to glory in the flesh. It's
our story. And it's their story because
it's the story of Christ, our substitute and redeemer. He is Immanuel, God with us. And that's what Joseph is picturing
here. All right, here's the second
statement that I think deserves some attention. It says he was
a prosperous man. Now Wallace, I believe, has some
natural applications here, everything Joseph did for this man prospered. His house prospered, his wealth
prospered, everything prospered. But that's not what this is talking
about. This is talking about the same thing he talks about
over in Isaiah chapter 53, when the Lord looked on the prevailing
heart of his son, suffering in our stead. It says,
ìHe shall see his seed, prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hand.î What makes events of this
world prosperous to you is when the Lord intervenes in your life
and Heís doing these things to accomplish His will and His purpose. Then everything that comes your
way becomes a prosperous thing. Tommy Robbins died of cancer.
He didn't even know he had cancer until about two months ago. And
here he is. He's 62 years old. He's over
there. He's been pastoring that church.
They've got nobody else to pastor that church. And here it comes
along and he's got cancer. And then he dies. But he was rejoicing when Don
talked to him. He said, just a little while.
Just a little while. I'm going to be ushered into
the place where all my life, he said, I've rejoiced and looked
forward to be. That's where I'm headed. That's
where I'm going. And he was rejoicing. Well, cancer
to a natural man is a curse. But to a saved man, it's just
an open door into the place where he hopes to go. What makes that
money can be a prosperity to you. But if that money carries
you away from God, then it's a curse. You see what I'm saying?
Everything that comes your way, I don't care what it is, it's
prosperity to the believer. You know why? Because all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. Everything out there works together.
That's prosperous. God prospered him. He prospered
him because he was with him. It's a spiritual term. And nothing
apart from God's purpose of grace in Christ is prosperous. And
then here's the third thing. He said he was in the house of
his master, the Egyptian. I'll tell you this, it'll do
us good every day to remember whose house we're in. We need
to be reminded of it every day. The God of this world, he's called. The prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
But the Lord's prayer for His people was not to take them out
of this world. He said, I pray not that you
take them out of this world, but that you keep them from the
evil one. He's the God of this world. He's
the Prince of the Power of the Air. He's that Spirit. And this
flesh is flesh. It'll always be flesh. You'll
always desire the things of the flesh. And with the flesh, even
the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 7, with the flesh I serve
the law of sin. Why? Because that's all it'll
do. That's all it wants. That's all it craves. The only part of you that does
not serve sin is that new man of faith that God's created in
you. And so Paul said, with the mind I serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin. And our hope is not to be
found in this flesh, but our hope is that the Lord is with
us. He is with us. Verse 3, And his master saw that the Lord
was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper
in his hand. What on earth did this man potter
for? He knew nothing at all about
the God of the Bible. He knew nothing at all about
blood sacrifice. He knew nothing at all about
the redemption of Christ. He knew nothing at all about
saving grace. But it says he saw, he looked
at Joseph and saw that the Lord was with him. I tell you, I looked
at that today and I thought, boy, I'm interested in that. I'm interested in that because
my relatives can't see that. They don't see that. They don't
understand that the Lord is with me. They don't see that. Now
what's the problem? Why could Potiphar, this ungodly
man who had no hope, no intellect, no nothing concerning the things
of God, how could he know anything about Joseph that the Lord was
with him? How did he perceive that? Well,
it wasn't because Joseph prayed in public. That ain't what he
saw. He was a slave. It wasn't because
he carried his Bible to work with him every day and held it
in one hand while he tried to wait on Potiphar. That ain't
how he knew it. And it wasn't because he preached
at him all the time, telling him, I'm a Calvinist. What are
you? Huh? You an Armenian? You believe
in free will? That ain't what he saw either.
Let me tell you something. Boy, this got a hold of me. It
was by the only means a natural man can have to discern what
his conscience tells him is a godly man. It was the life Joseph led
before him. Now that's what he was. He was
gracious to him. My soul, think about this. His
own brothers hated him. Stripped him of his coat. He
was his father's beloved son. Wore that coat of many colors.
He was his father's favorite son. And his brothers hated him
for it. They were jealous of him. They
despised him. And they took the coat from him
and threw him in a pit and was going to kill him until one of
the other brothers interceded for him and said, let's don't
do that. We'll be guilty. We'll be guilty. Let's don't
do that. So they left him in the pit. And the Ishmaelites
come along and bought him. And they took him down there
to Egypt and sold him into slavery. And now he's down here in Egypt
in this godless land, this evil land of immorality and just dating
all the way back almost to the beginning of time, and he's sitting
down there, but he's gracious. He's gracious, because he knows
he's there by the hand of God. I don't care what men do to you,
if God's with you, they can do no more than God allows them
to do. You say, well, what about old Job? Smote him with balls
and he took away his children and he destroyed his family and
he caused his wife to come out there and said, won't you just
curse God and die? You know how come Satan did that?
God gave him permission. That's exactly right. Now here's
the son. Here's the most powerful man.
Here's the one. He said, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and earth. Now you go pray. Here is a man
with all authority, all love. There is no love outside of Christ.
We don't know anything about love except in Christ. And here
he is. Here he is. And these men are
going to take him out and nail him on the cross and kill him.
All he has to do is come down from the cross. All he has to
do is just think. Just think. He doesn't even have
to say the word. Just think. Just think to himself how he
needs to be delivered. And he said, my father will send
10,000 leagues of angels down here at the thought of it to
deliver me. But he didn't. You know why? Because he was there by the hand
of God. That's right. He was there to
do the, he said, I didn't come to do my own will. I come to
do the will of the father that sent me. I come on purpose. And my purpose is to redeem a
people." Joseph realized that he was there by the hand of God.
He was a godly man. The Lord was with him, speaking
to him, teaching him, maturing him, preserving him. So what
if I have to be a slave for a while? So what if I die of cancer if
the Lord is with me? You see how that turns that situation
around? The Lord was with him. He looked
at his life. He thought, man, this boy, think
about it. He had to learn their language.
He didn't grow up a butler. He didn't know anything about
being a valet to an aristocrat. He didn't know anything about
these things. He had to learn those things. He had to learn
their language. He had to learn the business. He had to learn
all these things about Potiphar's house. But he learned them as
a slave. and was obedient and gracious
to Potiphar, and called him Sir, and called him Master, and called
him Lord, and did everything in his power to prosper him,
and the Lord blessed it, and did prosper him for Joseph's
sake." Prosper him. The life story of every believer
is a story of grace, unmerited favor. Somebody said this one
time, grace is getting what you do not deserve and mercy is not
getting what you do deserve. And those who truly are recipients
of grace are gracious men and women. And those who truly know
the love of God as it was manifested to them while they were yet sinners,
he said, Christ died for you. That's how he set forth his love. And those who are truly recipients
of that love and understand that love, They love their enemies,
too. And they pray for them. I'm telling you right now, you
can't minister to people you don't love. You can't do it.
You just can't do it. You can't speak a word to them.
You walk up to them and everything on your mind, you despise them.
And they know it. They know it. But he didn't despise
Potiphar. He served him as the Lord. I'm not going to go into a long
thing on this, but I just want you to know that's exactly what
Paul tells us in the New Testament, that believers, when you're out
here and you're doing work for an employer, he's your Lord. He's your employer by God, and
you serve him. I don't care how wicked he is.
You're not serving him. You're serving him as the Lord.
And you do your work honestly, even if he's a cheat. And when
you do, when you do that, they're going to know that the Lord's
with you. I tried. Because there ain't nobody else
around doing that. Nobody else around doing that.
I'll never forget, down in Louisiana years ago, I went out to Ranch
Robertson. He had a big, he was a big sweet
potato farmer. Had two or three hundred acres
of sweet potatoes. And I went out there to meet
his family, and he had some business he had to go do, or a phone call
or something. He said, just wait here. When I get back, he said,
I want you to meet my son. And he was gone about 15 minutes,
and I was watching these boys pack these sweet potatoes around,
load this truck up. And he come back out, and he
said, come on. He said, I'm going to introduce you to my son. I
said, I've already met your son. He said, did he come over and
introduce himself? I said, oh, no. I said, ain't nobody said
nothing. We said, how do you know who's my son? I said, it's
that guy over there with two bags of potatoes. Everybody else
is carrying one. He's carrying two. I said, that's
the heir. That's the son. And that's how you know the Son.
That's right. He owns it all. Potiphar just
has it for a minute. This boy owned it all. Joseph
did. It's interesting to me, Peter
identified Christ to those he preached to in Acts chapter 10,
giving this declaration as the first evidence of Christ in this
world and God being in him. This is the first evidence he
gave He said, He went about doing good. That's right. He went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Listen now, for
God was with Him. That's what Peter told them.
What he told them. Verse 4, And Joseph found grace
in his sight. Grace begats grace. He was lifted
out of that pit unwanted, undesired, unloved
of his brethren. Sold into slavery, he was an
alien from the Commonwealth of Egypt. Yet he served Potiphar
and watched over all his affairs as if they were the Lord's. Because
in a sense, they were. Now, without going into a long
hoop-a-roo over these things, let me just say this. Take this
time for your relationship with your wife. with your children,
with your job, with your friends, and with your neighbors. It may be nobody will listen
to us talk about grace because they can't find any evidence
of it in our life. That might be the reason. It
just might be the reason. There's too much pride and too
much self-promotion in our conversation. Too much intellectualism, too
much egotism, and not enough grace. We need to be gracious
to people. Gracious. Just remember who you
are. Who you are. You're nothing.
I'm nothing. But by the grace of God. That's
what Paul said. I am what I am. Whatever that
is. I'm not what I want to be, but I'm not what I was. And I
am what I am by the grace of God. We need to remember that.
And just be gracious. When they detect a gracious life
in you, they want to know where you're going, where you go to
church. Where do you learn these things?
Then, now you can talk to them about grace. Now you can talk
to them about grace. If you just go in, I'll tell
you what came into my mind this afternoon when I was on this
text. I can see right now I'm not going to get through this.
What popped into my mind this afternoon was Peter with that
sword when the high priest come. He jerked that sword out. He
was trying to cut his head off. He missed his head and hit his
ear. He cut his ear off. The Lord picked that ear up and
put it back on. He put it back on. I think too often we just
go in, pull out that sword of Calvinism, and start cutting
off ears. I think that's what we do. Instead, we just need
to learn to be gracious, don't we? God bless Joseph, not because
he deserved it, but to glorify his grace. And that grace reflects
itself in everything the believer does and says. Now let me finish
up verse 4 and I'm going to read verse 5 and verse 6 to you also. Verse 4, And Joseph found grace
in his sight, and he served him. And he, that is Potiphar, made
him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into
his hand. 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 Egyptian's house for Joseph'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 hand, and he knew not aught he
had save the bread he did eat. And Joseph was a godly person
and well-faithful. Old Potiphar is a picture of
natural man down in this land of evil, down in this land of
ham, Old Potiphar. And here comes Joseph, a picture
of Christ coming into this world. And natural man looks at him,
and he watches him, and he sees what he did, and he sees what
he does, and his interest comes up. And he said, this is a gracious
man. They came out to Christ because
he was healing folks. He was feeding folks. He was
cleansing folks. They came out to Him because
He was gracious and good and kind and everywhere He went,
He did good. Everywhere. He didn't hold anything
back. He never had a piece of property.
He never had a house. He didn't have anything. Everywhere
He went, He did good. There's no denying the goodness
of Christ and it was His goodness. I'm trying to tell you something.
It's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. When you see that He came to
do good, you can't find an evil reason in Him. You can't find
an evil bone in His body. You can't find an evil word that
He said. Everything He said was for our
good. Everything. His very presence
in this world is a testimony of the goodness of God. And old
Potiphar, he began to watch old Joseph, and all he could see
in Joseph was grace, and goodness, and love, and sincerity. And
he was kind to him, and he wasn't trying to shove anything down
his throat, and he wasn't trying to take anything for himself.
He just served him graciously. And after a while, he raised
him up. He wasn't his butler or valet anymore. He raised him
up and set him over the affairs of his house. Finally, he raised
him up and it said Potiphar wasn't even... He didn't even worry
about what was going on anymore. Only thing he worried about was
what was set on the table before him. Huh? Now, let me tell you something.
When the man of faith perceives Christ, he'll trust him a little
bit. He'll trust him a little bit.
He won't trust him with everything, but he won't do it. He'll trust
him a little. And the more he watches him,
and the more he sees him, and the more he knows about him,
the more he commits to his hand. The more he commits to him. And
he commits everything. After a while, you know what
he worries about? Nothing. Nothing. What's he pray for? What'd Christ
tell him to pray for? Give us this day our daily bread.
That's the only thing he's gonna... He ain't... Are you worried about
Russia? Are you worried about Afghanistan? Are you worried about Iran? All power is in His hands. He's
seated, alive, a man in glory at the right hand of God. Ain't
nothing or nobody going to do anything apart from His permission. I'm not worried about it. I want
to hear about it. I want to hear what's going on. If they let me, I'd go fight.
This is my country. I enjoy these freedoms. I'm not
trying to be anti-anything in that respect. All my children
have gone into the military and served our country. But what
I'm telling you is this. Christ sits on the throne. He
sits on the throne. And once you know that, and once
you know what kind of powers in his hand,
what kind of rights and authority that he has, And what kind of
goodness is in his heart toward men? I don't worry about anything
except what we're doing right here tonight. Give us this day
our daily bread. That's where Potiphar was at. He sat there and watched Joseph.
And he didn't know anything about anything except that bread that
fell on his table. And you know who put it there?
Joseph. Joseph. That's right. He's a picture of natural man.
Christ comes into his life in mercy and grace and ministers
to him as the faithful servant of God. And God's with him. And grace and truth comes with
him. The better that man's acquainted with him, the more he trusts
him. Not all at once, but he grows in grace and knowledge
of Christ. And the Lord blessed old Potiphar's
house for Joseph's sake. Oh, I tell you, let my heart
and mind get submerged in that. God blessed us for Christ's sake.
Not for my sake. I can't even hope in mercy for
my sake. Boy, I can for his sake. He said,
be ye kind one to another. You find difficulty with that,
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God," now listen, "...for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." John
wrote to the Gentile churches across the land, and he said,
I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
you for His name's sake. It's for Christ's sake. Beloved of his father Joseph
was brought down to the land of bondage and oppression and
being found in fashion as a man. Isn't that what it says about
our Lord? He become obedient unto death and in spite of where
he was and who ruled the place, this faithful servant of God
brought honor and blessing to the house by his own wisdom and
righteousness. You think about that for Joseph's
sake. What blessings and honor and
rest and peace old Potiphar enjoyed for Joseph's sake. But let me
tell you something. Old Potiphar, the natural man,
he got an evil bride. He got an evil bride. You start
to get the picture. That's where religion comes in.
I'm talking about worldly religion. Natural man born into this Egyptian
world, Very soon he's espoused to an evil bride. And just as he's a natural man,
she's a natural woman. Worldly religion is an evil bride
to which all natural men are married. Even those who don't
attend church, they'll defend her. Go to a man. Here he is. He's a drunk out
in the bar. He's got no concern whatsoever with any church anywhere
in the country. You go in there and you say,
let me tell you something. You get involved in this conversation
and you start telling him about the self-righteousness in religion.
Now wait a minute. He'll start defending a church
that he don't know anything at all about. Huh? Starts defending his bride. She has his affection. She bears
his name. She lives in his house. She pretends
to be his faithful bride and outwardly looks and plays the
part. But in her heart and in her nature, she's an adulterous
woman. I'm talking about worldly religion.
This relationship, it came about before old Joseph appeared on
the scene. He was already married to her
before Joseph came. She's got the papers to prove
it. Go question her. You question our religion. You
question our denomination. You question our faith. We've
got papers. They'll drag them out. They've got catalogs of
them. Here it is right here. This is what we believe. And
you start reading it. Well, I don't believe that. I
don't believe that. Then why write it down? Most anybody in Egypt would confirm
this relationship, and all of her servants would attest to
it. But her heart is the heart of a fallen woman. And from the
very first time Potiphar's wife laid eyes on Joseph, she desired
him. She desired him, not as a friend
to help her, not as a basis of favor and blessing, and not as
a means of rest and peace, and not as an example of humility
and grace. to fornicate. That's what she
had in mind. To lie with him by her own desires,
to fulfill her own desire. Make him in secret and in shame
to be her husband. Maybe just in one encounter.
That's what I've heard a lot of testimonies talk about. This
one encounter, this one experience, this one whatever. without regard
to the law. You go into every church, and
you're just going to have to take me at my word, or just go
read what they publish, or listen to them on TV, or read what they
say in the papers, without regard, not one regard to the law of
God, not one regard to it, without regard to God and His character,
and without what this marriage truly represents. They talk about
being slaves. coming into a union with Christ. No regard to it whatsoever. Without
any thought to her own reputation or His. She wanted Him according to her
own desire. And she brazenly, openly solicited
Him. Isn't that what religion does?
That's why I don't have an altar call. Because I know what it
represents. That's why I don't stand here
after service and sing 59 verses just as I am. Because coming
down the aisle ain't going to do you any good, and it ain't
going to do me any good, and it's not going to glorify the
grace of God. God has to do a work in your
heart, and when he does, I won't have a bit of trouble learning
about it. You'll know it, and so will I. She came right up to Joseph,
and she said, lie with me. But he refused. And the story
says, day by day, she spoke to him. She was relentless. So is religion. I had to run
a bunch of seven-day Adventists off the other day, came up there
knocking on my door. I said, I ain't interested. I'm
not interested. Next week, they'll be back. Day
by day, she spoke to him, relentless in her quest. Parading around the house in
garments, unbecoming a wife, tempting him in circumstance
and taking advantage of every situation. The historical writers
say that when she caught him finally alone and grabbed his
garment that there was a festival going on and she knew everybody
was at the festival. So that's why I'm saying this.
She tempted him by circumstance and tried to take advantage of
every situation, an occasional brush up against him, an occasional
work. a wink, whatever it was. Everything
she did was done to lure him into her bed. But Joseph wouldn't
give in. He said, uh-uh. I'm not going
to do it. I'm not going to do it. And so
finally, she just grabs him. Ain't that what really? You go
in the back door, come in the back door of any evangelical
church in our country, Pentecostal, whatever it is. You come in the
back door and sit down and they'll do everything including grabbing
you to get you down the aisle. I'm telling you the truth and
you know it. That's what she did. She's a whore. She wanted
one thing. She wanted to lie with him. She
didn't care about God. She didn't care about the law. She didn't care about holiness.
She just wanted to lie with him. She wanted to have what was on
her heart. And she grabbed him. And he spun
away. And there she was with his robe.
Now what am I going to do? Joseph's gone, and here's his
robe, and I'm alone with him in the house. How am I going
to get out of this? Let me tell you something. Christ
came into this world, and this world's religion got rid of him,
didn't they? They got rid of him. Or did they? Huh? Did God deliver him out
of their hands? Huh? What'd they have when it
was all over? They're rolling dice for his
garments. Now how we gonna explain this? How we gonna explain this? The whole world believed on him.
The whole world thought he was a prophet. How we gonna explain
this? When this thing's all over and done. Now what? What we gonna say? They changed
their whole religion. Changed their whole religion.
They stand there with that garment. And here they are with it, and
they start testifying now. Now they go testify about this
garment. And they take the truth, the truth of God, and turn it
into a lie. Now that's what they do. She
started crying rape. He wasn't trying to rape her,
she was trying to rape him. That's the outcome she had to
God. He wasn't trying to do anything except serve Serve his master. There she is. She got the garment.
That's what religion does. Now the garment of Christ is
his righteousness. I don't have time to lay a foundation
for that, but the covering that he puts on the believer is his
righteousness. His righteousness. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everybody that believes. They
know they can't, I can't honor that law, I can't exalt that
law, I can't even keep the first commandment, let alone all ten.
But he kept them perfectly. And this was God in a man as
a representative for me. Only one reason why God would
come into the flesh and obey his own law. And that is as a
representative of those who couldn't obey it. To give them a righteousness. But religion grabs that righteousness.
And by that outward righteousness, they make his presence on this
earth to be fornication. That's what they turn it into.
They turn it into a dirty act. They take all that Joseph did
and turned it into an ill act. Now, that's what you do. That's
what you do. Now, keeping the law would be
a good thing if you could keep it. But you can't keep it. And when you attempt to keep
it and hold that up as a righteousness, you see what I'm saying? Isaiah
said, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We are all,
he said, as an unclean thing. And I tell you this, natural
religion from the beginning of this book all the way through
is represented as a prostitute, including the book of Revelation.
That woman that sat on that beast was the great whore of Babylon.
Babylon the Great. This woman's exposed. What will
she say? How will she explain it away?
How can she defend herself and gratify her evil heart that could
not win the affection of Christ? She'll turn it into a lie. Turn
it into a lie. The religion of this world did
all they could do to prove, to prove to men that Christ was
an imposter. That's what they said. Oh, he
casts out devils all right, but he does it by the spirit of Beelzebub. He does it by the spirit of the
devil. Why, he's not of God. This man made himself God. He
made himself equal to God. He said his father is God. He's an imposter. And even as
is preached today, His sovereign grace is defined as a violation
of man's will, ain't it? Ain't that what she cried? Ain't
that what she cried? They say the way of sovereign
grace takes the bride without her consent. I love the way Barnard said it.
He said, God saves a man against his will with his full consent.
He doesn't have any unwilling servants. These garments of his righteousness,
they represent him as the faithful prophet, priest, and king. Those
garments only give testimony to one man. Let me say this and I'll close. Years of faithful service. I
don't know how many years. I'm just going by what Josephus
and these historians say, but they said Joseph was there some
12 or 13 years serving in Potiphar's house. So let's just use that
as an example. 13 years this man served Potiphar. Potiphar watched him day and
night. In the beginning, he had every
servant in that house watching him, I guarantee it. You hire
a new man out on the job, you got everybody else on the job
watching him. See what he does. There he is. And he's honest.
And he's gracious. And he works. And when everybody
else quits working, he works. And everybody else goes home,
he's still working. And so this man, in 13 years,
he gains all this integrity and honor And Potiphar looks at him,
puts him in the highest position, sits back, and the only thing
he worries about with all of his investments and all the wars
and everything that's going on in the house, the only thing
he worries about is the bread coming out. He's got it made!
God blessed him for Joseph's sake. One testimony from this woman
destroyed 13 years of evidence. Huh? Now, I'm telling you what
I know. I stand up here and preach to
you, and I preach to you about Christ. Christ lived in this
world 33 and a half years. Everything that I preach to you,
I can open this book and show it to you in plain language.
If we had time tonight, I'd go into the New Testament, and I'd
lay this whole foundation. And I can show you where Jesus
Christ, beyond all doubt, if you'll use this book as the foundation,
is the Christ. He is the Christ. And I can show
you what this salvation is, and I can show you to what end you're
saved. But you go down here and in one testimony, huh? She can destroy everything that
I preached to you for years. One testimony. You know why? Because she's His bride. She's
the love of His heart. And you're not going to get her
away from Him. You're not going to get him away
from there? You ain't going to do it. Only God can savor that
union. Religion don't even have it.
He said if another shall come in his own name, he can come
just preaching anything. Look at Father Divine. Look at
all these idiots that have risen up and start talking about end
time prophecies and thousands of men and women follow him down
the road and follow him off the deep end If another come in his
own name, he said, dear hear him, I come in the Father's name. And I'm doing things that nobody
else in this world ever did to prove to you that I come in my
Father's name. My Father blessed me and with
miracles and wonders and signs which I did through Christ in
your midst as you yourselves also know. God verified who he
was. And then he raised him from the
dead. and let above 500 brethren see
him at one time. Witnesses, hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of witnesses saw him after his resurrection. His
disciples who wrote the New Testament sat and watched him ascend up
into glory. And religion stands up with no
foundation for what they say whatsoever. And they cry. And everybody runs to them and
says, you're right. And throw him in prison. Condemn him. Condemn
him. over the voice of this one woman.
That's why she's called a harlot. And that's why I tell you that
it's an evil thing. And if you don't think it is,
go down there and join up. You'll learn. Father, I thank
you for this opportunity to gather here in your name and open your
book, look into these wonderful pictures, types, Give us an appetite for Christ.
Cause us to open this book and look for Him and seek Him. Desire
to know. In Him is life. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Bless the words that I've spoken
tonight for Christ's sake. Amen.