We'd like to turn this morning
to Genesis chapter 39. Genesis chapter 39. This is right
in the middle of the story of Joseph. And as I instantly correct
myself by saying it's not a story, it's an account. A story can
be fact or fiction. Nothing in the Scripture is a
story. Everything has been given by inspiration of the Spirit,
and it's a factual occurrence that we're seeing right here,
something that happened. So this account of Joseph is one you
can see throughout that parallels Christ in so many ways and we
can see our substitute in it. And I hope this morning that
we can see Joseph as Christ fulfilling the law and offering himself
up to the Father and setting the king's prisoners, his elect,
free. I also want to see Potiphar's wife this morning, and that's
what I've titled this message is Potiphar's wife. Never saw
the gospel in this chapter before, but the Lord's give me a message
about Potiphar's wife and she represents the religious. She
represents the world. She represents Satan and she
represents our flesh and what we would do with Christ if we
were left to ourself. My hope is that we are able to
behold Christ this morning and see him, to see Christ as our
Joseph, to see Joseph as the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, up until
this point, we have to begin telling about Joseph by going
all the way back to Jacob, his father. And Jacob had fled from
Esau and he found himself at his uncle's house, Laban. Laban
was Rebecca, Jacob's mother's brother. Jacob goes to Laban's
house, and he falls in love with his daughter named Rachel. He
loved Rachel dearly, and he said, give Rachel unto me that I may
marry her. Laban said, well, you have to work for her for
seven years. And so Jacob agreed to that, and he began working
for her, for him, for seven years. When the night came for them
to be wed, the next morning, as it were by custom, they would
go into the tent the next morning you were married. And you can
understand what that means. The next morning, whenever he
woke up, he was not laying there with Rachel. It was Leah. And
Laban had tricked the trickster. Jacob was known as the supplanter,
the trickster. And it was all by the Lord's providence. Nothing
happens by accident. Nothing takes God by surprise.
This is all according to his providence, his mercy, his purpose.
So we see that he had to work seven more years for Rachel and
he was able to marry finally Rachel and ended up working another
six years for Laban before he was able to take cattle and flocks
with him to depart. So for 20 years, he's with Laban
and then he finally gets to go back to his homeland. During
that time, he had many sons and daughters. And he ended up having
11 sons total. Rachel was unable to have children.
The Lord had shut up her womb until they are on their way.
They're traveling back. They're on their way to his homeland. And the Lord allows her to have
a child named Joseph. Now, Jacob, you can imagine being
the son of the woman that he loved so dearly, he put Joseph
above all the other sons. He tended to Joseph more, was
more careful with Joseph, and even made him a coat of many
colors, the Scripture said. So he was exalted above his brothers,
physically speaking. His brothers were very jealous,
and the Scripture says they hated Joseph. That's the word he used.
In the fullness of time, one day Joseph was told by his father
to go and check on his brothers. They were tending to the flocks
and the herds, and he does so, but he doesn't find them where
they're supposed to be. And a servant tells Joseph, well, they went
down to this certain city, and that's where they are. They saw
Joseph coming, the brothers saw Joseph coming from a distance
when he went down to that city. And they begin to devise a plan
to get rid of it. Now, we're going to start right
there by saying that's what men want to do with Christ. As soon
as they start seeing anything about election that they have
no control over their salvation, men want to get rid of Christ
immediately. They take Joseph and they cast him into a pit
and they take his garment away from him, his coat of many colors,
what had been given to him by his father, which was his glory.
He would no doubt have wore that everywhere. This came from my
father. And that's exactly what men want to do to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The father has highly exalted him and given him a name,
which is above every name. And we're going to see the same
similarities through Potiphar's wife, how she handles Joseph
later on. They cast him into a pit and
they decide instead of killing him, thankfully, Reuben spoke
up and said, don't kill the lad. Let's just wait. It wouldn't
do any good to kill him. And while Reuben's gone, Judah
says, well, here comes the Midianites. Why don't we sell them to them?
And so they do. They sell Joseph into slavery for 20 pieces of
silver. Now, I'll remind us this morning that Christ was sold
for 30 pieces of silver and many different biblical scholars and
things. Well, maybe it was the price
of inflation as things went up. It went from 20 pieces. They
sold the Moabites to 30 pieces with the Lord. And all we know
is that he was sold for this amount of silver. And that is
paralleled to Christ. He was sold for less than what
would be the amount paid for a slave, 30 pieces of silver.
So he finds himself after he sold into slavery from his brothers. They take his garment at that
time and they kill a goat and they put the blood upon that
and they bring it back to his father, Jacob. And they say,
he's fallen, been attacked by wolves. He was killed. And Jacob
is in mourning. Jacob's heart is crushed. Jacob
is grieved by this. He loved this son more than any
of his other son, because it was the son of the woman that
he loved dearly. And the scripture is very clear
that Jacob did not love Leah. I mean, it's very, very clear
on those things, but the Lord purposed all of that because
Leah was the one that had Judah and Christ came from Judah. So
even though it didn't go the way Jacob thought it would, the
Lord used this circumstance in order to bring forth his word
and allow his gospel to come to pass by the birth of Christ
through Judah. Joseph finds himself in Potiphar's
house after he is sold. And he is falsely accused by
Potiphar's wife of trying to take advantage of her, which
actually we'll find out it's exactly the opposite of that.
It was Potiphar's wife that was interested in trying to come
after Joseph. He was numbered with the transgressors,
Joseph was. He was cast into prison and he
was asked to interpret a dream of Pharaoh because of the dreams
that he had interpreted for the butler and the baker of Pharaoh.
And I'm trying to get through this story in order to get to
the point of all of this, but you'll just have to bear with
me a moment. They bring him up from the prison
house unto Pharaoh, and he interprets the dream, and he tells him there's
going to be seven years of plenty, and then there's going to be
seven years of famine that's going to follow. And so Pharaoh, by the Lord's
preeminence, by the Lord's counsel, had predetermined for Pharaoh
to lay eyes upon Joseph and say, okay, well, you're going to be
second in all of Egypt. No matter what happens, it's
going to come through you and I'm the only one that's going to
be in more power than you are. And that's exactly what happened.
And so Joseph laid up during the seven years of plenty. And
so in the seven years of famine, they were the only ones that
had grain. They were the only ones that had food during the famine. You probably
know the rest of the story. The brothers of Joseph get word
that there's food down in Egypt and they come and they buy the
grain, they take it back to their father. And then the second time
they come, he holds one of his brothers in prison and says,
I believe you're lying to me about having that other brother
because he thinks he's talking about Joseph himself. But really
Benjamin had been born by this time, which was the 12th of the
12 sons of Jacob. The story comes to an end whenever
Joseph reveals himself to his brethren, and that is necessary
for salvation for us, is that the Lord would reveal himself.
Up until this point, they didn't know who he was, and it's amazing.
Even the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. Men were talking to
God. They were touching God and they
did not know they were touching God. His brethren did not know
that he was Joseph. They just thought he was another
Egyptian. So we can see the salvation that was wrought by bringing
all of the nation Israel into Egypt at that time, into the
land of Goshen, and that's where they stayed. Jacob died there,
and so did Joseph. And later on, it talks about
Joseph's bones being taken up and brought back to their homeland
after 400 years of slavery, as we know. So what is all this? Is this just a story or a fairy
tale? Certainly not. This is a account of God's gospel
through the life of a man named Joseph. And with reading all
of this though, if without faith, it would just be a story. And
I remember I was talking to Kylie just this week about how all
the stories that we used to have in religion, how they were just
stories and how we were supposed to have more faith like Joseph
had, or we were supposed to have more faith like Moses had or
this and that. These are not stories that give us examples
of how we should live our life and be. These are accounts given
of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. And that's what I
want us to see this morning in Joseph. So here in Genesis chapter
39, and now let's look at verse 1. We're right in the middle
of this account. And it says, And Joseph was brought
down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain
of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him in the hands of the Ishmaelites.
And I may have misspoken earlier on the tribe there, so I do apologize. But it was 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 the Lord made all that he did to prosper in
his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight and served him,
and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had
he put unto his hand. It came to pass from the time
that he had made him overseer of the 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, Potiphar left, all that he had in Joseph's hand. And he knew not aught he had,
save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person
and well favored. Now this passage begins with
Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ, condescended. He came down as a man. He became a man in order to save
his people. He came to a place of foreign
tongue. There's nobody on the earth that
praises the Lord by nature. He was in the presence of God.
He is God, but the presence of God had the worship taking place
all the time. That's what heaven is, is constant
admiration, constant focus on the Lord, constant worship of
Him. When the Lord condescended down
to this earth, There is there is no worship that men can achieve
in and of themselves. Worship is something that he
has to give. So we see that he's in a strange land. And he made
he made this statement. My kingdom is not of this world.
The Lord did. And he said, Galatians 4, 4 and 5. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoptions of sons. So the Lord Jesus Christ
had to become a man in order to successfully redeem his people,
in order to fulfill the covenant that was given him by his father,
the covenant of grace before time ever again, Christ became
a man. Notice that Potiphar left all
that he had in Joseph's hand. That's the same thing with the
father. The father committed all things unto Christ, everything
unto his hand. And he kept and fulfilled everything
necessary for the salvation of his elect people. This was all
ordained before time ever began. Peter mentions it like this in
Acts chapter 2 verse 23, Christ being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Who does God take counsel
with? Himself. He does not ask man their opinion.
The Lord takes counsel with himself. By his determinate counsel, his
foreknowledge, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain him, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the
pains of death, because it was not possible that he should behold
another. It was not possible for death
to hold our Savior because he successfully redeemed his people.
Peter calls these men's hands wicked that crucified and slain
the Lord. And if you'll notice, In verse
12 right here, the wicked men that he's referring to is the
same as Potiphar of wife. She had tried to seduce him often,
and this is what happens when she couldn't have her way in
verse 12. She caught him by his garment saying, lie with me.
And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out.
And it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garment
in her hand, and was fled forth, that she called unto the men
of her house and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought
in Hebrew unto us to mock us. He came in unto me to lie with
me, and I cried with a loud voice." Potiphar's wife wanted Joseph
just like every man wants Jesus Christ. She wanted him her way. She wanted him her way. It was
not lawful. It was not lawful for her to
pursue Joseph. And Joseph knew this. And Joseph's
confession was, it would be against God. I cannot do this thing. But yet she kept asking him and
kept asking him. And what the son had to do was
honor the father with every word and every deed. It was not possible
for the Lord Jesus Christ to sin. Did you know that? If it
was possible for him to sin, he would not have been immutable. But our God cannot change. He
cannot sin. He cannot lie. It was not possible
that God could sin. If you notice in verse six, it
calls Joseph a goodly person and well-favored. He was handsome.
He was appealing to the eye. He was appealing to the eye of
Potiphar's wife. The Lord Jesus Christ, now understand
what I'm trying to say this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
appealing when they see him as he is. He's appealing to the
flesh if he's preached the way that he's preached today in false
religion as giving you what you need in order to have a happy
life. In order for you to have health, in order for you to have
wealth, in order for you to have happiness and prosperity. That's
not what God came to do. He came to save his people from
their sin. He did not come to give us a
good life of just peace and happiness, physically speaking. He didn't
come to give us health. The wages of sin is death, and
we are nothing but sin, and we are going to die because of the
sin that is in our body. But he came to save his people,
not to give us health, not to give us wealth, but to give us
life, give us life everlasting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
as soon as men hear that, well, if he can't offer to me what
I want in my lust, in my position, if he can't elevate my position
or my popularity away with this man, let his blood be upon us
and on our children. Is that not what they do? They
don't want to hear that they don't have anything to do with
salvation. Man wants something to do in
order to have their own righteousness merited by their actions. That's
what this woman represents here is men wanting to obligate God
to bless them because of their actions. I'm going to do this. I'm going to please you by my
actions. She was offering herself up unto Joseph, was she not?
And as soon as Joseph said, no, I will not have you. I cannot
do this thing. She said, well, I'm going to
take your garment from you. In fact, I'm not gonna allow you
to have the glory. That's what men do. That's what
this story is all about. Men by nature want to take the
glory of God unto themselves. Just as Joseph's brethren took
his garment because of his position, this woman is now taking his
garment again. He's being stripped of his clothes, which represents
his righteousness or his glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ, laid down
this robe of righteousness for you and I that we could pick
that we would be robed in his righteousness. He became a man.
God became a man condescended to become a man lower than the
angels. Think about the humility that
the Lord Jesus Christ exhibited by becoming a man, becoming a
worm. Psalm chapter 22 calls it a worm,
and it's not a good worm. That word means a maggot. The
Lord Jesus Christ had to lay down that glory in order for
you and I to be made into His likeness, for us to be under
the shadow of His wing, to be under His glory, to receive,
to be offered up unto the Father and presented as perfectly righteous.
That's what the Lord did for His people. Somebody recently asked me, What
kind of programs does your church have to offer? I wasn't even
in town, but like 24 hours and somebody asked me that they knew
I was a pastor. It's like, well, what kind of programs do you have
for your kids? And what kind of programs do you have for the adults? And
I said, we preach Christ crucified. Come see a man that showed me
all things I ever did. Is this not Christ? That's all
we have to offer. You guys don't do this and that. No, we don't
have recreational. gatherings where we play basketball,
you know, during services. No, we preach Christ. Now, certainly
we can get together and enjoy time together. But when we come
here, we come here for one purpose, to see our Lord and Savior, to
see our Joseph, the one that was made sin for us, the one
that had to become a man and die and to be put into prison
and then ascended on high and led captivity captive that set
us free. That's what we want to hear about. As soon as Potiphar's wife, Saul,
Joseph, would not conform to what she wanted him to be and
what she wanted him to do, and he had nothing else to offer
her, all that lust was changed to hatred. All of that desire
was changed to fury and rage, and that is what men do. As soon
as they say, well, you don't have anything to offer the children,
we'll just go somewhere else. But this is life and death, what
we're talking about. We need Christ. That's the most important
thing. God's Gospel is our only hope.
Our only hope is that Christ is all. That He is perfect. And men want to strip Him of
His perfection. Men want to strip Him of His
righteousness. Of His glory. They want glory
for themselves. Just as Pottersburg's wife did
here. Satan thought that he could cause
the Lord to sin, didn't he? He tried. He tempted Him, did
he not? Why would he try if he didn't think it was possible?
Maybe he's arrogance. I don't know. But he brought,
he went before the Lord. The Lord had been fasting for
40 days and comes off the mountain. And Satan appears into him right
then. If you're fasting 40 days, he's got to be hungry, famished.
We would call it starving, but we don't know anything about
that truly. But you get what I'm saying. And he said, if you
be who you say you are. So we called into question Christ
right then and there. He said, if you're God, prove
it. If you're God, prove it. Command these stones that they
be made bread. And how did the Lord answer him? He answered him by the word of
God. Men shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. He takes him up to another place
and he says, well, if you are who you say you are, cast yourself
from off this, this tower, cast yourself forth and call upon
the angels. and have them come and rescue you. Because in any
use of scripture, and he says, because the Lord says that he'll
send his angels. If you do it, the Lord is obligated
to do something for you. Is that not what religion is?
If I do this and God said this, that means this. That's not how
it works at all. God said it, that finishes it. The believer
just believes it. And the Lord answered Satan again.
He resisted him again. The last place he took to him,
he looked on a mountain. He saw the city there and he
said, He said to him, all you need to do is bow down and worship
me and I'll give you all this. I'll give you everything you
desire. So he was, Christ was tempted with pleasure. He was
tempted with popularity and was tempted with power. And he already
had everything that he ever needed in his father. And his faith
failed not. Christ answered Satan. The only
thing that we have brethren is the same authority that Christ
answered the devil with. The only authority we have is
God's word. We cannot look at our self And think that we have
any type of authority in and of ourself. That's not true. The only authority that we have
is the word of God and Satan tempting the Lord. The Lord looked
at him. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and only him shall
you worship. The Lord's faith did not fail
because it could not fail. It did not fail for his people,
for his people, and that is the faith that as we've heard in
the last few messages, that's the faith he's given unto us. The Lord later on goes to the
Garden of Gethsemane and he sees the cup that he has to drink.
He sees in agony. He sees the sin that he will
have to become for his people. And he drinks of that cup. He
drinks all the bitter dregs of it. Every last drop for his people. He who knew no sin became sin. He was made to be sin for his
people. He successfully put away their
sin by the death of Himself on the cross. His blood redeemed
His people. Scripture says in Isaiah 53,
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Why did He open
not His mouth, brethren? When they begin to accuse Him,
when Pilate began to say things against him. The only time that
Christ spoke up there, if you remember, Pilate began speaking
up and he said, Do you not know that I have power to crucify
you or to set you free? Every time that they had accused
Christ of being a liar, of being a thief, of being whatever they
accused him of, he didn't open up his mouth because he had already
drank that cup. He had already been made sin
for his people. He was carrying our sin at that
time, so he could not open his mouth. Think about that. But
when Pilate said, I have power, his response did not bring the
finger back to Christ. He pointed to the father and
said, you have no power. You have no power at all, lest
it be given of my father. His confession was always that
the father was right and just and good, and his faith did not
fail in looking into his father. They took the Lord's garment
because they did not want him to have the glory so we could
be robed in his righteousness. In Psalm 22, it says they part
my garment among them. They cast lots upon my vesture. Naked and alone, bearing the
sin of God's elect, he goes to hell for his people. He goes
down to the pit for his people. Scripture says, as Jonah was
in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, so shall
the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three
nights. On the cross is where the Lord went to hell for his
people, enduring the eternal wrath of God for his elect. He endured all of the wrath.
Isaiah 53 10 says he was taken from prison and from judgment
and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off of the land
of the living for the transgression of my people. That's us for our
transgression was he stricken and he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death because he had no violence. Neither was any deceit in his
mouth. He made his grave with the wicked. Because he had done
no violence, neither was deceit in his mouth. You and I cannot
make our grave. Did you know that? It's appointed
unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. We're going
to die. He had to make his grave with
the wicked. How could he do that? Because no deceit was in his
mouth. Because he had done no violence, he was innocent. He
had to make his grave with the wicked in order to redeem the
wicked, us, his people. And he did. As our Substitute
dies, we have the eternal confirmation, eternal affirmation. It is finished. Everything that He was doing
was accomplished. He was not trying to save anyone.
He was not trying to make an offering for sin. He was offered
up as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and
He successfully saved His people. Our Joseph here, the Lord Jesus
Christ being represented. Look at verse 20. What happened
when the master came back and found out this false accusation,
just as they offered up Christ on the cross, it says in Joseph,
master took him verse 20 and put him in the prison, a place
where the King's prisoners get that they put Joseph in the place
where the King's prisoners are. Is that not where Christ went,
where we were bound? And he was in there in the prison,
but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave
him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Brethren,
there was no mercy for the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross so
that you and I could be given mercy. The father had to turn
away from his son and leave him alone. And I do not know, and
we do not know, nor do we speculate on what transpired at that moment,
but we know that He put away our sin in that moment. When
God executed His judgment upon His Son, and the sword of justice
pierced His heart, when He said, it is finished, you and I are
perfectly righteous in the person of Jesus Christ. Verse 22 says the keeper, now
the keeper represents the father here. He's the keeper of the
prison. He 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 into anything that was under his hand because the Lord was
with him and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.
All those who are under the Lord, Under the Lord Jesus Christ,
the shadow of his wing, his work is what he's representing here
by saying, under his hand, the father does not see them, he
sees Christ. He sees only the Lord Jesus Christ
when he looks into his people. Surely whatsoever pertaineth
to life and salvation, he is the doer of it. Just as Joseph
here was the doer of everything that was going on in that prison.
John 335 says, the father loveth the son and hath given all things
into his hand. God is pleased with Christ. The father is pleased with Christ
and hath committed all of the King's prisoners to his hand. The King's prisoners represent
the elect here. Do we see that? Men take one
look at this gospel and they cry, crucify him, but God hath
highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name. Our Joseph redeemed all of those that he loves, his bride,
his elect. In Ephesians 4, 8 it says, wherefore
he saith when he ascended upon high and led captivity captive. When he brought back all of those,
all of the king's prisoners, theirs was the one held in captive
by their own sin, He gave gifts unto men. Now he ascended, what
is it? But that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might feel
all things. He ascended above the heavens
that he might feel all things. Whatever requirement was necessary,
the Lord fulfilled it and brought his people already back into
the presence of the Father. As far as God's concerned, and
that's the way that things really are, we've already been glorified,
but we must go through the motions of the life here that we have.
The scripture says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
word shall not pass away. That is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Word of God. Everything he accomplished will
not pass away. Whatever we are hoping in will
pass away unless it is the finished work of Christ. I hope that this
hour the Lord showed us that Joseph is Christ fulfilling the
law. They offering himself up unto the father, setting the
king's prisoners free the elect. From the law, he set us free
from the law of sin and death. He set us free from our sin and
he set us free from ourself. We're our own worst enemy, aren't
we? But he set us free, saved us from ourself. Potiphar's wife
represents the religious, the world, Satan, and our flesh that
is enmity against God. John said it like this, behold,
what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Because of our Joseph, because
of what he endured for his people, we are called the sons of God.
And then he says, brethren. Now, right now, are we the sons
of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is robed in his glory, robed in his righteousness. We're going to see him made like
unto him. That is our hope this morning,
isn't it? Father, thank you for your word. We ask that you would
cause us to see only the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for salvation. We ask that you would allow us
to worship you this morning. It's in Christ and we pray.