Would you turn back to Genesis
39? I have entitled this message. What is faith? What is faith? Now, I have two goals in bringing
this message. The first goal is I want everybody,
by God's grace, in this room to understand what faith is.
That's my first goal. And the second goal is that every
one of us, men, women, boys and girls, young people, old people,
it's my prayer that every one of us believe. this morning. And if you have
not believed before, it's my prayer that you will believe
today. Believe the gospel. What is faith? Hebrews 11, six
says, without faith, it is impossible. to please God, not improbable,
not very difficult. It is impossible to please God
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I hope that describes
me and you this morning. People who diligently seek Him. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for by
grace are you saved through faith. There is no salvation apart from
faith. Me and you actually believing
the gospel. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that faith, it's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. So every
one of us ought to be encouraged. Faith is a gift. He can give
this gift to me. I want it. Four times we read
in the scripture, the just shall live by faith. The Lord several times said to
people, Thy faith hath saved thee. Thy faith, not somebody else's
faith. Thy faith, the faith that you've
exercised. Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. Now with these scriptures in
mind, what is faith? I believe that we have it set
before us in the most simple terms that you're gonna find
in the scripture, in this passage of scripture we just read from
Genesis chapter 39. Now I love biblical illustrations. When I try to come up with illustrations,
they always seem to fall flat. And men's illustrations aren't
that good in the first place. It comes right down to it. The
Bible illustrations are so much better. This is an illustration
of faith given us by God, the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I'm excited
about this illustration that God gives us. In Genesis chapter 37, turn back
there for a moment. We read of Joseph being the favorite
of his father. Look in verse three. Now Israel,
or Jacob, loved Joseph more than all of his children. The other
11 took a back seat to Joseph. He was special to his father.
And he made him a coat of many collars to represent to all of
his brothers. He's my favorite. You can imagine
what issues these fellows had as a result of this. Now, Israel loved Joseph more
than his children because he was the son of his old age and
he made him a coat of many colors. When his brethren saw that their
father loved him more than all of his brethren, they hated him
and they could not speak peaceably to him. They despised him. They
got irritated every time they saw him. And then you're familiar
with his dreams, and Joseph, verse five, dreamed a dream,
and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.
And he said unto them, here I pray you this dream which I have dreamed.
For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf
arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaf stood round
about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said
to him, shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shall thou indeed
have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and his words. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it to his brethren and said, behold, I've dreamed a
dream more. And behold the sun and the moon and the 11 stars.
made obeisance to me, the whole created universe worshiped me. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him and said unto
him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and
thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee in the earth? Are we gonna lay on our face
in the dirt before you? Yeah, they will. Yeah, they will. Well, you know
the story of when he's going to his brethren, verse 18, And
when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them,
they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to
another, behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore and
let us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we'll say
some evil beast hath fired him and we'll see what will become
of his dreams. We'll take care of him. Well, you know that Joseph
intervened and had him sold as a slave rather than being killed. And this 17-year-old boy, I was
a senior in high school when I was 17, this 17-year-old boy
is brought into a country where he doesn't know the language
and he's sold as a slave. And what I think is so beautiful
about this story is we don't read of him complaining about
his circumstances. He knew who sent him there. He
might not have known why. As a matter of fact, I feel sure
he didn't know why at this time. He'd come to find out why, but
he knew who sent him there. And he was there according to
his father's appointment, his heavenly father. And this period,
as I said, covers 11 years in his life because he was only
17 when he went into Egypt. And by the time he was 30, he
was made the head man in Egypt. And if you were going to have
food, you had to go to him for it. And that was after he spent
two years in prison. So this covers an 11 year period
in his life. life and we're given something
of the beauty of this man's character here. Look in verse one of chapter
39, and Joseph was brought down to
Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, he was a very high
ranking official of Pharaoh. He was somebody in Egypt. He
bought him. of the hands of the Ishmaelites,
which had brought him down thither. He bought this young man. He
didn't know the language of the Israelite at this time, different
languages, but he bought him, I suppose, to work and feed. Somebody could teach him how
to work. And that's what he intended for this man to do. And then
we read in verse two, these beautiful words, and this is the key to
Joseph and everybody else. And the Lord was with Joseph. Oh, I covet this. I want the
Lord to be with me, don't you? The Lord was with Joseph. Joseph was in this stranger's
house. He didn't know the language.
The Lord was with Joseph. And he was a prosperous man.
And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now the Lord was with him. And
because of that, he was a prosperous man. What that means is everything
that he touched turned to gold. Everything he did succeeded. The Lord was with him and the
Lord caused everything he did to prosper. Now you can be sure
that Potiphar observed that. Everything he does is a success.
He's the best at everything he does. He is benefiting me. This man is benefiting me. He
felt very good about having Joseph. He saw his hard work. He saw
his diligence. He saw his success at what he
did. Joseph made the best of a very
difficult situation and his master observed this. He was watching
his every move. Verse three, and his master saw
that the Lord was with him. Now this man was a heathen. He
didn't know God. He didn't know the God of Israel.
He was an Egyptian. They worshiped the sun. This
man was a heathen. Yet he saw that Jehovah was with
Joseph. And it was the Lord who prospered
everything Joseph did. How did he know? Joseph told
him. You can be sure of that. Joseph
told him. I'm sure that Potiphar came up
to Joseph and he complimented him. He thought, everything that
you do is prosperous. And Joseph said, let me tell
you why. The Lord's with me. And I have no doubt that he told
Potiphar who Jehovah is. He's the creator. Potiphar, you're
in his hands. He's God. He controls everybody
and everything. And I have no doubt that he told
him something of the way of salvation. You see, he had the same faith
that Abel did. He talked about how Abel could
only approach God through a blood sacrifice. I can only approach
God through a blood sacrifice. He preached the gospel of Potiphar.
That's how Potiphar knew. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. Potiphar heard something and
he saw that everything that he touched turned to gold and he
knew why Jehovah was with him. And his master saw that the Lord
was with him and that the Lord Jehovah made all that he did
to prosper in his hand and Joseph found grace or favor in his side.
I suppose he did. I'm making all kinds of money
off this guy. Everything that he does turns out being for my
benefit. I'm sure he did find favor in
Potiphar's sight. And you know, just on the side,
your boss ought to be glad he has you working for him because
you're doing such a good job. Because you're working so hard
and you're benefiting him. Your boss ought to be thankful
that he's got you working for him. Now that's the way Potiphar
felt about Joseph. This man is benefiting me. Everything he does. Now Joseph found grace in his
sight and he served him all how Joseph served him. And look what
Potiphar did. In verse four, he made him overseer. And that means the word means
he entrusted him. He entrusted him. He made him
overseer. He entrusted to Joseph all that
he owned. He put in his hand. Now that's the trust he had for
this man, Joseph. He saw that everything he does
prospers. The Lord's with him. And he put
everything that he owned and deposited it all into Joseph's
hand. Verse five, and it came to pass
from the time that he made him oversee over in his house at
that very time. And overall that he had that
the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake. The very moment he entrusted
everything he had to Joseph, that is when the Lord blessed
everything the Egyptian had for Joseph's sake. Not because of
his act of entrusting, but for Joseph's sake. Everything God
did, he did for Potiphar for Joseph's sake. And Potiphar knew that, and he
was very thankful for Joseph. Verse six. And he left all that he had in
Joseph's hand. And he knew not all that he had.
He didn't even know what he had. It was all in Joseph's hand. What do you have? Asked Joseph.
Asked Joseph. All he had was the food he ate
that Joseph gave him. Every day, all he knew, Joseph
has everything. And all he knew was the food
that Joseph gave him that very day to eat. And it's pointed out, and Joseph
was a goodly person. and well favored. That's only
said of David also and Absalom. The Bible never makes an issue
of someone's looks the way it did Joseph. He was a very good
looking man, well favored, and that's going to play on into
the latter part of the chapter as we see when he resists the
temptation of Potiphar's wife. But he's got a beautiful character,
doesn't he? And we can benefit, oh, we would
all do well to imitate this man in all of his ways. But if all
we see is the beauty of his character, we don't really see the meaning
of this passage of scripture. This passage of scripture is
given to teach us what it is to trust Jesus Christ. Now, like I said, it's my prayer
that every one of us, without exception, will trust Jesus Christ
today, right now, the way Potiphar trusted Joseph. Now remember the title, What
is Faith? Potiphar is a type of the believer,
and Joseph is a type of Christ And Potiphar trust Joseph with
all he had. And that tells us what faith
is. I don't believe there's a clear
picture of what faith is and all the word of God in this story
before us. Now, the first thing that I would
say concerning faith, and this is very important, faith cometh
by hearing. That's what the Bible teaches.
Faith comes through the ears. It doesn't come from what you
see. It comes from what you hear. Turn to Romans 10. Hold your
finger there and turn to Romans 10. You can't believe something you've
never heard. Now when you hear it, if it's true, you know it's
so as soon as you hear it. But you can't believe something you've
never heard. Romans 10. Verse 13. For whosoever Are you whosoever? Are you? Yeah, you are. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. I love the way it says, how beautiful
are the feet. You know, if you see a picture of a bunch of feet,
you won't even know who the person is, will you? Just a bunch of
feet. How beautiful are the feet? I
want to be a foot, don't you? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel, preach and bring glad tidings
of good things, but they've not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah,
saith the Lord, who had believed our report. So then faith cometh
by what? Hearing. What mean you're doing
right now? Hearing the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing by the
Word of God. Now Potiphar heard about the
Lord. You can be sure of this. Joseph told him in no uncertain
terms why he was a prosperous man. The Lord made me this. The
Lord was with Joseph. Do you think Joseph hid that?
You can bet he didn't. He gloried in the Lord. The Lord
was with Joseph. You know, Joseph is actually
mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. You know
what it says? Hebrews 11, 22, by faith Joseph,
when he made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones. Now that comes from Genesis
chapter 15, when God appeared to Abraham and said, your seed
is going to go into a strange land and it did through Joseph
and you're going to be there for 400 years and you're going
to be turned into a nation of slaves. And then I'm gonna judge
them, and they're gonna be brought out. Joseph knew that. He heard,
and he believed. He said, when God brings you
guys out, take my bones with you and bring them back to the
promised land. He knew it was going to happen. You see, Joseph
was a man of faith. He believed God. He believed
the Word of God. Do you believe the Word of God?
You know, I believe the Bible's the Word of God. I know it is. I know it is. This is the word
of God. He believed God. Now, I think of 1 Peter 3, 15. Be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. Now, I have a hope. Let me give
you the reason. I'm gonna pretend like you asked
me. Give me a reason for the hope that's in you. Well, here's
what it is. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son. Here's my hope. God didn't spare his son. He
that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not? What could possibly prevent him
from freely giving us all things? Here's my hope. Here it is. Who
is he that condemneth? Nobody can condemn me. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God justified them. That's what Christ accomplished
on Calvary's tree, my justification. My sin was put away. Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died, put away
all my sin. You wanna know what my hope is?
Jesus Christ, the Lord, who he is and what he did, what he accomplished
in my behalf. Do you look into your works in
any way? No, I'm not. No, I'm not. All my eggs are
in this basket. What he did is enough. I don't
need anything else. That's my hope. That was Joseph's
hope. Look at verse three of Genesis
39. And his master saw that the Lord
was with him. Now notice the master saw something. He saw that the Lord was with
him. Now there is a type of faith
that could be called blind faith. Saving faith is not blind faith.
Blind faith is the faith of the atheist. He believes something.
He takes a leap into the dark and says, there must not be a
God. Obviously there is a God. When an atheist takes this leap
of blind faith, There's no light with it. I mean, everybody is
born knowing God is somebody created the universe and nobody
created him. He's all powerful. I mean, people
are born and in order to not believe that you got to take
a leap into the dark, don't you? Now, Potiphar didn't take a leap
into the dark. There's something he saw. He
saw that the Lord prospered Joseph. and that everything that he did
was successful. Now you can only have faith,
true faith, in a Christ who is utterly successful. Isn't that
so? He looked at Joseph. God made everything he did to
prosper. You see, he must be successful,
the Lord Jesus Christ, because of who he is. He shall not fail
nor be discouraged. If you believe in a Christ whose
intentions can be thwarted, whose will can be thwarted, If you
believe in a Christ that desires to save somebody and died for
their sins and yet that person may end up in hell anyway because
he didn't do the thing he needed to do to make what Christ work,
you believe in a non-existent Christ. You might as well believe
in Easter Bunny or Peter Rabbit or somebody like that. They can
do you just as much good. There's no such thing as a Christ
who is not utterly successful in whatever he intends to do. He was utterly successful. Before we go any farther, let
me remind you, he by himself, he by himself, that means with
no contributions from me or you, no help from me or you. He by
himself purged our sins. That means they're gone. They
are no more. Hebrews 10, 14, by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's Christ
we believe. Someone who cannot fail. When he said, it is finished,
my salvation was accomplished. Now, do you believe on a Christ
who can save with no contribution from you? That's what Potiphar
saw. He saw someone who was prosperous,
someone who could not fail. Do you believe on that Christ?
The one who cannot fail because of who he is. Verse four, and Joseph found
grace in his sight, favor in his sight, and he served him. I think of, uh, uh, I find favor. I favor Christ. I want to be
saved by him. Don't you? He can't fail. He
can't be discouraged. I favor him. I want to, what
do you want to be saved by your works or by what he did? That's
a no brainer, isn't it? Uh, I favor him and you know,
it says Joseph served him. Christ serves me. The son of
man came not to be ministered to, but to minister. and to give
his life a ransom for many, he washed my feet. He washes my
feet. And Joseph found grace in his
sight, and he served him. And you know what Potiphar did?
He made him overseer, and that means he entrusted. That's what
the word means. He entrusted. over his house and all that he
had, he put in his hand. Would you give me every dime
you've got and trust me to take care of it? If you would, you're a fool. I may have the integrity to never
use any of it for myself, but I guarantee you, I don't have
the wisdom to make sure you don't lose it. If you gave it all to
me, you'd probably end up losing it all. And you'd be a fool if
you did it. You wouldn't entrust everything
you had with anybody but someone who you knew was completely trustworthy. Will you entrust all the salvation
of your soul, all of your spiritual interests to him? Is he trustworthy? Yes, he is. This is what Potiphar
did. He saw, I can't go wrong entrusting
everything to him. Everything's just going to be
better. Now that is a sinner trusting Christ. 2 Timothy 1,
12, Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I've committed to him. I have committed the entire salvation
of my soul to Jesus Christ, the Lord. And I don't have a plan
B. I don't have something else. If who he is
and what he did is not enough to save me without any contribution
from me, I won't be saved. I've committed. I have right
now. I've committed the entire salvation
of my soul to him. How about you? Are you trusting
him only to do everything in your salvation? You're not looking
anywhere else. You're not looking to any experience
you've had. You're not looking to any intentions
you have. You're not looking to any resolution
you make. You look to him alone. Listen,
faith, faith is, if you put an and to faith, trust Christ and
you messed it up. It's no good. It's not real.
Trust Christ and I don't care what it is. It ain't faith. Faith
is in Christ alone. All your eggs are in that basket.
You don't have any other hope but in him. That's what Potiphar did. He made him overseer over all
his house and all that he had he put in his hand. And it came
to pass from the time, verse five, and it came to pass from
the time, that very time that he made him overseer in his house,
that he entrusted everything to him. Now this is what faith
is. You don't have a plan B. You
don't have any, any additions. I think of what the Lord said
in John chapter six, verse 29, when he said, this is the work
of God. that you believe on him whom
he hath sent, period. Nothing else. You trust Christ
only to save you. Listen, if I'm gonna be saved,
I'm to trust Christ myself. My parents can't do it for me,
my preacher can't do it for me, I trust Christ myself. I entrust the entire salvation
of my soul to him. Are you doing that right now? Are you? Well, if you're not, I hope you
do right now, right now. Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait till tomorrow. You don't even know if you have
tomorrow. And as far as waiting, that's thinking about something
you're gonna do rather than what he's done. Don't look back to
yesterday's experience. You don't even know if it was
real. Trust Christ right now like he did and trust the salvation
of your soul to him. Notice, he saw And he put, he saw and he put
everything into his hand. And it came to pass from the
time that he 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. Now here's the gospel. The Lord blessed old Potiphar's
house for Joseph's sake. And if I'm a believer, if the
Lord saves me, he's blessed me for Christ's sake. Ephesians 4.32, be kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. You know why I'm one of God's
elect for Christ's sake. You know why I've been redeemed. He shed his blood for me. You
know why I'm justified. He put away my sins and gave
me his righteousness. You know why I'm redeemed for
Christ's sake, not because of something I've done, but for
Christ's sake. You know why I'm regenerated for Christ's sake. You know why I'm preserved? For
Christ's sake. You know why I'll be glorified?
Why I ain't glorified? For Christ's sake. Everything
old Potiphar had, he had for Joseph's sake and everything
the believer has, God gives it to him for Christ's sake. It's
not a response to you. It's a response to his son. It's
a response to what his son has done. And what did he do, verse six? He left all that he had in Joseph's
hand. All. All he had, he left in Joseph's
hand. To this extent, he knew not what
that he had, save the bread which he did eat. What do you have? Well, whatever Joseph has. I
might not know all the particulars, but I know Joseph has it. And
whatever I have is what he's in control of. And I look only
to him. And all I have, that I know that
I have, is the meal I'm eating today. That reminds me of manna. That manna that came down. You
couldn't eat yesterday's manna. It would breed worms and stink.
You couldn't save the manna for tomorrow. It would breed worms
and stink. The meal you have, you look to Christ right now.
Right now. Right now, God commands all men
everywhere to repent. Please don't try to figure out
if you're one of the elect. Please don't try to figure out
if Jesus Christ died for you. The command of God is for you
to believe the gospel. To entrust the entire salvation
of your soul into Christ's hand, knowing that you need nothing
else. That is the evidence that God has done something for you
when you believe the gospel and you believe right now. And I love the way it's pointed
out that Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. Jesus Christ is a goodly person. He's well favored. He's the fairest
of 10,000. There's nobody like him. And you know what? As he is, so are we in this world. You know what that means? That means I'm a goodly person.
and well favored in Christ Jesus, because he is my Savior. And as he is, 1 John 4, 17, this
is why we can have boldness on the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. Oh, may God give each of us,
if we never have before, grace to be just like Potiphar, and
entrust everything into his hands. He is worthy of complete trust. Nobody else is, but he is. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would enable all of us, for Christ's sake, to be
like Potiphar and entrust all into the hand of thy blessed
son who is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto
you by him. Lord, create saving faith for
Christ's sake by your spirit, by your grace, for your glory.
In Christ's name we pray.