Would you open your Bibles to
the 39th chapter of Genesis? This is what Stephen was referring
to. I'd like to read these first six
verses while you're turning there. I'm going to speak this evening
upon this subject, the evidence of salvation. the scriptural
evidence of salvation. Genesis 39, verse one. This is after Joseph's brethren
had sold him and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and Potiphar An
officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought
him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. 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 and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in
his hand. And Joseph found grace in his
sight and he served him. And he 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 all he
had save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly
person and well favored. Now, the writer to the Hebrews
made this statement in Hebrews chapter 11, verse six, without
faith, it is impossible to please God. Now, do you hear those words? Under no circumstances will I
ever be pleasing to God without faith. What is faith? That's a good question. And I
hope you'll listen carefully to this message. Because in this
passage of scripture that I just read, we have as clear an illustration
of faith as you're going to find anywhere in the Bible. And if
you want to understand what faith is, what scriptural faith is,
listen to this message very carefully. Ask God to help me. Ask God to
help you. Help me in the preaching. Help
you in the hearing. I've entitled this message, Faith
Illustrated. And it's my prayer that God will
give us all this precious gift of faith. I like what Peter called
it, like precious faith. Faith's the same in every believer,
some stronger than others, I realize that, but it's the same object.
May the Lord be our teacher. Now, we read in verse one, chapter
39, And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the
Ishmaelites, which had brought him down hither. Now these Ishmaelites
who had brought David down to Egypt were instruments in God's
hand performing God's purpose. And that's true of everything. You remember in Genesis chapter
15, as a matter of fact, turn back to Genesis 15, this vision
given to Abraham. Verse 13, and he said unto Abram,
know of a surety, Genesis 15, 13, And he said unto Abram, know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that's
not theirs. And this is what he's talking
about when Joseph is sent down to Egypt. And shall serve them, and they
shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge, and afterwards they shall come out
with great substance. God told Abraham, Joseph's great-grandfather,
that they would be going down to Egypt. And everything that
takes place in this story is neither more nor less than God's
will being done. And we can look at this act of
envy on the brother's part and the Ishmaelites wickedly selling
Joseph, but all this was Everything was God's will being done. Turn to Genesis 45 and you'll
see this. Verse four, and Joseph said unto
his brethren, this is after he has been made the prime minister
of Egypt and the only place where you could get food. And they,
he's made himself known to them. And Joseph said to his brethren,
come near to me, and I pray you. And they came near and he said,
I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither,
for God did send me before you to preserve life. In these two
years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five
years in which there shall neither be earing nor harvest, and God
sent me before you preserve you a posterity in the earth and
to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not
you that sent me either, but God." Now, God controls everything,
whether you know it or not. God controls everything. I am
so thankful. God sent Joseph. And him being the cause of everything
has something to do with the glory and the exaltation of his
son. See, God's got a purpose. God's
got an agenda. It's to glorify his son. And we're going to see that so
clearly in this passage of scripture. You see the story of faith always
begins with God. God made the universe so that
the slam slain before the foundation of the world could be slain in
time. Everything God does, he does
for this. You see, the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ is about the glory of Jesus Christ. It's about the
glory of God. And God made this universe for
this one purpose, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two, Genesis 39. And the Lord was with Joseph. And he was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of his
master, the Egyptian. Now, if you and I ever do have
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have this gift of saving
faith, we're going to have the same view of Christ that Potiphar
had of Joseph. While Joseph was in the house
of Potiphar serving him, remember Christ became a servant, the
Lord was with him and everything he did prospered. It was successful,
everything, because the Lord was with him. Verse three. And his master Potiphar saw that
the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did
to prosper in his hand. Now, Potiphar saw this. He saw this. He looked at everything
that Joseph touched turning to gold. He saw how he was benefiting
by it. He saw that the Lord was with
him. Somebody says, how could he see that the Lord was with
him when he didn't even know the Lord? He was a heathen. I
don't know, but he did. He did. The scripture says he saw that
the Lord was with him. You see, faith has first to do
not with what you think about yourself, but what you think
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, in all things, Christ
has the preeminence. And he saw, did he know he was
the type of Christ? I doubt it, but we do. He saw
that the Lord was with Joseph in a supernatural way in all
that he did. And how I think of the father's
love for the son. The Father's respect for the
Son. The Father's esteem of the Son
of God. God the Father said to God the
Son, thy throne, O God, is forever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou,
Lord, in the beginning hath laid the foundations of the world,
and the heavens are the work of thy hand. That's what the
Father says to the Son. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
one for a moment. We're going to be getting back
to Genesis 39, but what Potiphar saw was the glory
of Joseph. have God was with him and made
everything he did to prosper. Now look at this passage of scripture
in Colossians chapter one. Speaking of Christ, who is, verse
15, who is the image of the invisible God. Now God's invisible, he's
a spirit. All you and I will ever see of
God is Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
All things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things. I love that statement. Whatever
it is, he's before it. He's the cause of it. He's in
control of it. And by him, All things consist. Now that breath you just took,
you know why you took it? He willed it. And if your breath
is withheld, it's because he willed it. Everything that takes
place, he's in control of. By him, all things consist. And
he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. Now remember, when we're talking
about faith, We're talking about, first of all, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith begins with high and exalted
views of the person of Christ. And all you can say with regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ is God was with him. God was with him. Everything he did was prosperous. Look in verse three of Genesis
39 again. Verse 3, And his master Potiphar
saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that
he did to prosper in his hand. Now, the word prosperous means
successful. This is so important. Whatever he did, whether in the
house or the field, was a success. There was a 0% failure rate,
a 100% success rate. Everything he did prospered. Now, if you and I ever have true
saving faith in Christ, this is what we shall see. He's
successful. He is incapable of failure. Any other view of Christ is a
wrong and a blasphemous view. Whatever he does is prosperous. Whatever he does is successful. Isaiah 42, 4 says he shall not
fail nor be discouraged. I think it's interesting the
way preachers kind of present him as wanting certain things
to happen. No, he's not gonna be discouraged. Somebody said, well, they didn't
believe he's in control of that. He controls everything. He's
not gonna fail nor be discouraged. Isaiah 53 10 says, the pleasure,
excuse me, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now, what was it that Jesus Christ
prospered in? Well, whatever it was the Father
sent him to do. Turn to Matthew chapter one,
very familiar scripture. I hope we've all committed this
scripture to memory. Verse 21, and she shall bring forth a son
and thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. And that's what he was sent by
the father to do, to save his people from their sins. Now understand,
I want you to hear this. He didn't come to save all men. He came to save his people, his
elect. In John chapter 17, verse nine,
he says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. The
Lord points this out. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you have given me, for they are thine. Now, question, was he successful? He came to save his people from
their sins. Was he successful? Did the pleasure or the will
of the Lord in him coming to save his people from their sins,
did it prosper in his hand? I love John chapter 17, verse
four, when he said, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work thou gavest me to do. I prospered. I did what you sent
me to do. I saved my people, the ones you
gave me from their sins. When he said it is finished,
the salvation of all of the elect was accomplished. He prospered. Hebrews 10, 14
says, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Now any preaching that does not
present him as successful in all he did is blasphemy. The idea of universal redemption,
that he shed his precious blood for all men to make salvation
possible, is blasphemy. Somebody that believes that does
not believe the gospel. They've never bowed the knee
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the pleasure, the will
of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Now, in this thing
of faith, it first has to do with what you believe regarding
Christ. Just forget yourself right now. Forget about whether
or not you're saved. Do you believe that he must be
prosperous because of who he is? You believe that? I do. I do. So does everybody else
that believes the gospel. Now, Potiphar perceived this
It was not blind faith on Potiphar's part. He just saw everything
Joseph touched turn to gold. I mean, he became a wealthy man. He saw how he was advantaged
by Joseph. Everything Joseph did was prosperous. It wasn't an act of blind faith
on his part. Not at all. He saw what the Lord
did with Joseph. And I want to say this reverently,
faith in Christ is a no risk proposition. He must save. Verse four of Genesis 39. And Joseph found grace. in his sight. Now that doesn't
mean he found unmerited favor in his sight. I mean, the Lord
Jesus Christ is filled with merit. Here's what that means. Joseph
saw how, I mean, Potiphar saw how beautiful he was. He saw
how glorious he was. He saw how prosperous he was.
He saw that he could not fail. That's what he saw. And he found
grace in his eyes. Joseph found grace in his sight
and he served him. And here's what he did. He made
him overseer over his house and all that he had, he put into
his hand. He looked favorably at Joseph. He esteemed him, he admired him.
There will be no faith in Christ where there's not lofty, high
and exalted views of Christ. There's no way we can preach
him too high. And Potiphar entrusted all that
he had to Joseph. He didn't keep anything back.
Look in verse 21 of this same chapter. This is when he's brought
into the prison. Same principle. You remember how Joseph is falsely
accused. We're gonna consider that next
week. But he's brought into prison. But here we have those words
again in verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph.
Even when he was in prison, the Lord was with Joseph and showed
him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of
the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's
hand all the prisoners that were in the prison and whatsoever
they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison
looked not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord
was with him and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Now here's this prisoner. He's
got the charge of all these This prison keeper's got the charge
of all these prisoners. He doesn't look to them in any
way. He looks to Joseph to take care
of all of his responsibilities. Isn't that what faith in Christ
is? Whatever is done, he is the doer
of it. And you look to him wholly, just
like the keeper of the prison did, just like Potiphar did,
What this means is you commit the salvation of your soul to
Him. Have you ever done that? If you
haven't, I pray God will cause you to do it right now. To be
just like Potiphar, just like this prison keeper, you commit
the entire everything to His hands. Just like God looks to
Christ for everything, you look to Christ for everything. Another way this is expressed
is by David in 2 Samuel 23 5. I'm going to quote this. I'm
going to ask you to turn to the next scripture, but in 2 Samuel
23 5, David's dying words, he said, although my house be not
so with God. I know what David meant. You
know, his house was a house of dysfunction. Everybody was a
mess, but he wasn't simply talking about his house. He was more,
I really believe this is mainly what he's talking about in this
house. Although this house be not so with God yet. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. It's the one he made with Christ
and everybody in Christ. Ordered in all things and sure,
and this is all my salvation and all my desire. Now those
two statements, first it's all my salvation, not 99% of it,
all of it in this covenant ordered in all things and sure. And not
only is it all my salvation, it's all my desire. It's all
I want. You know, regarding this thing of Christ and salvation
that's in him. I woke up thinking about this
this morning. Think that I wish I could say
this the way I want to say it, but the Lord Jesus Christ in
my case and everybody else who's a believer's case, he's all I
have. I don't have anything else. He's all I need. I don't need
anything else. And he's all I want. I do not
want anything else. Just being in this prosperous
man's hand and entrusting all of my salvation to him. Turn with me for a moment to
2 Timothy. We're going to get back to Genesis 39 in a minute,
but 2 Timothy 1. Verse 12, for the which cause
I also suffer these things, because I preach the gospel. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. I know he's
a prosperous man, that whatever he does must be successful. I know that he's God. I know
that he's man. Do you know that? Do you know
whom you have believed? And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have, here's the word, committed to him. What did Potiphar
do? He committed everything into
Joseph's hands. What did the prison keeper do?
He committed everything into Joseph's hands. Hand off, I'm
not looking for a thing out of myself. I'm not looking for a
thing out of myself. I'm looking to him only as able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Now the only way a man will do
this, or a woman will do this, is if they really believe they
are a sinner. And if you really believe you
are a sinner, This is not a choice you're making. You don't really
have any other options. You don't have any other options.
You're not choosing to put everything into his hand. There's nothing
else to do. The only time you choose to believe
is when you choose that which is false. You don't choose to
believe the truth. You believe the truth because
there's anything else to believe. Back to our text in Genesis 39. Verse five. Now he put everything
in his hand. Verse five. 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 Egyptians house. Why? Because that Egyptian had
such great faith and because he was smart enough to put it
all in Joseph's hand. Doesn't say that, does it? It
says he did it for Joseph's sake, for Joseph's sake. What is the
one reason for the Lord's blessing on the Egyptian's house? Someone
will say, well, maybe it was because Potiphar demonstrated
such faith. Not everybody had faith like
him. He had such a high view of, no, it says there's one reason
given in the scripture for Joseph's sake. Why does God save any sinner? For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. Turn with me to Psalm 106 for
a moment. Beginning in verse six, the psalmist
says, And I hope the Lord gives me and you the grace to say this
from our heart. We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red
Sea. Nevertheless, He saved them for
His namesake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. Why did He save them? For His
namesake. Now, creation. Creation. this universe, the
star, the sun, the moon, this planet, the beauty of this creation. You look at this creation and
there's two questions that come to mind. Who made this? And why did he do it? Who made
this? You know, there's nothing more
irrational and illogical and intellectually indefensible than
atheism. It takes a blind stretch of blind
faith to land in that place. Atheism. Now I realize some very
intelligent people, people that are a lot smarter than I am,
have a much higher IQ than I do. They're atheists. I realize that,
but that is intellectually indefensible. Everybody knows there's got to
be a cause. Who made all this? God did. Deep
down, everybody knows that. But the next question we would
ask is, why did he do this? Well, he didn't do it for us. We weren't around when he did
it. He did it for his own glory. That's why he created the universe.
Now the same thing with salvation. Who saved us? He did. Without our help. God the Father
in eternal election. God the Son in redemption. God
the Spirit in regeneration. He did this. And why did he do
it? Is it because of how much you
could help him and how much you could help spread the gospel
and what kind of example you could? He did it for his own
glory. Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
You look at these people he saved for his name's sake, that he
might make his mighty power known. They were a sinful people. They
were a provoking people. They were an ungrateful people.
I mean, what a description of these people. Nevertheless, and
I love this word nevertheless, nevertheless, this presupposes
that there must have been some kind of difficulty behind all
this. Nevertheless, in spite of, He
saved them for His name's sake. Now, I want you to think about
this. Salvation and me. I'm a sinful man. If God said, can you give me
any reason why this man should not be saved? I can see the law coming and
saying, I can. He's broken every commandment,
every second of his life. He's a thief. He's a liar. He's a murderer. He's covetous. He's an adulterer. He's put everything
before you. He's not kept your name holy. He's taken, just go on down the
line. I can bring objections. This
man is a lawbreaker. He ought to die. And God says, I grant you that. But here's what Christ has the
authority to do. I took his law breaking and put
it on myself and I died in his place. His sin became my sin. What do you got to say, Law?
Nothing. I'm satisfied. Bring on conscience, and my conscience
always has a cloud over it for some reason. What about conscience? The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And do you know that satisfies
my conscience? Nothing else does. But that does. What about the devil? He could
bring up all kinds of things about me. He could even say,
well, he made a league with me. He made a covenant with me that
if I would give him all the pleasures of sin, he'd be my servant forever.
He made that promise. You know, the Lord would say he wasn't his own. He was already
mine. That promise isn't valid because he belongs to me. He
can't make a promise about himself. Who is he that condemneth, it
is Christ that died, yea rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God. Now, back to our text in Genesis
39. Verse six. And he left, hands off, He left
all that he had in Joseph's hand. Now all the concerns of the salvation
of my soul, I leave in Christ's hand. That's what saving faith is. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever trusted Christ alone? And all you look for is Christ
to feed you. That's it. He didn't even know
what he had save the bread that Joseph gave him. You look to
Christ alone. If I never had before, I am now. I look to Christ alone. And the story doesn't end with
a commendation of Potiphar for having such great faith. I love
the way it ends. And Joseph was a goodly person
and well favored. Now the story of faith begins
with God. And where's it end? With the
beauty and the glory and the excellency of the person of Jesus
Christ, the Lord. Let me tell you something about
faith. You can't believe unless God gives it to you. I realize
that. Faith is the gift of God, but you're commanded to believe
the gospel. And the ability to believe comes with the command.
God says, believe. And you know what? There's really
nothing to commend you about believing. It's crazy not to.
I mean, the only place of salvation and safety and security and God's
pleasure is in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. We commit
all the salvation of our soul into his hand. You might as well, it's all in
his hand anyway. May God give every one of us
this same faith. Let's pray. Lord, I ask in Christ's name.
That you would unite our hearts in this prayer. And that this
might be the prayer of every man, woman, boy and girl in this
room. I ask in Christ's name that you
would give us the grace to put all things in the hand of thy
son and look to him only as everything in our salvation. Lord, deliver
us from looking to ourselves. Lord, that's what we will do
if you don't keep us from it. Lord, how we thank you for the
prosperity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he shall not fail
nor be discouraged. that your will will prosper in
his hand. Lord, teach us what it is to rest in thy son, trusting
him only. In Christ's name we pray, amen.