Well dear, dearly beloved of the Lord and dear church family, this evening we continue with our final study series on today to be found with a great encouragement to us. We're now on our sixth Bible study for the series. In our last study, we saw a very clear and a shining theme, and that of course was that the Lord, the Lord Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God, the God who always keeps his promises, the true God, the Lord was Yes, in severe trials in life. Yes, in the pit. Yes, when sold as a slave, the Lord was with him. Yes, when brought into dark Egypt, spiritually speaking. Yes, when he was in that slave market, stripped of his coat that symbolized God's distinguishing grace upon him. Stripped and alone in this world, in all these severe, dark provinces of life. And friends, what a rebuke this is to prosperity, the prosperity gospel, and prosperity preachers, once again, who really say to you, well, you're only doing well with the Lord when things outwardly are doing well with you. When all is well, and financially you're doing well, or you're in good health, or all these things, what a rebuke. Because that is so far from the truth, as we just sung on that hymn. Often believers are cast out. Often there's a higher purpose in life. Often the Lord makes believers to go through very severe trials of faith for a higher purpose, which often is unbeknown to us. And so what a rebuke this is to the prosperity gospel, which is so prevalent in our day. Did Joseph wallow in self-pity? and become absorbed in the many troubles of life? Did He allow all these dark, severe provinces to crush Him and to get Him down? Well, of course, the answer is no. And the reason why, of course, is because the Lord, the Lord Jehovah, the true God, the God of Israel, all around us seemingly seems to go wrong, and when all comforters just fail us, and all just seems to be lost as it were, surely, surely for each and every one of us, not only through scripture, but through experience as believers, the Lord's felt presence will always be our sure step, like with Joseph. Everything, seemingly like Job and Joseph, everything around us the Lord's felt presence in a believer's life, knowing that I'm his, I belong to him, and that he's with me in these lives. He was with David when he was hunted down all those many years. And when they even mocked him, saying, these things are happening to you because you're an outcast. And friends, when all comforters fail, it's really, it's the Lord's That's what meant the most to Joseph, is knowing that the Lord is with me. And having short accounts with the Lord, felt communion every day with the Lord, that's what really meant to him. And it is such a great comfort to us, isn't it, friends? And this is what really cheers us along our way. And this is what made the Apostle Paul sing, did he not, in that Philippian prison cell? Now even in a cell, God can make a light for us, can't he? By just the joy of his salvation. And this is what made Joseph to prosper in Potiphar's house, that great noble. It wasn't by chance he ended up as a domestic slave in Potiphar's house. He could have ended up in hard labor in that very growing superpower of Egypt back in that day. He could have very well ended up in a blistering heat but it was in the sovereignty of God that the Lord put him into Potiphar's house. And under the good hand of the Lord upon him, everything he did over the space of 10 years just reverberated blessing. It just, everything, even, and all those things, the Lord blessed every part of his life, really. And it was just remarkable to see that. Now, friends, in today's study, verses seven through to the end, we really see a dramatic shift in the turn of events yet again. We see here, the Lord has really risen him up over the space of 10 years. Remember, he came into that house as a, you know, alone, bruised, stripped of his coat, heartbroken, no doubt, and the Lord made him navigate himself all the way up in that that great man, Potiphar's house, who the Lord gave him favour. He was a decent man, Potiphar. And the Lord made him navigate right through that house. And to a position, really, of overseer of the whole of Potiphar's estate. Right next to the king, the pharaoh of Egypt. A position of great influence and power. But now, we see from verse seven on, once again, a dramatic shift of events. In verse seven, we're told that Potiphar, Joseph's master's wife, cast her eyes on Joseph, and she said, lie with me. Remember, Joseph, at this point, dear friends, at around about 27, And Potiphar's wife, of course, sees him, that the man he is, he's a responsible, godly man. Of course, as we know from verse six, that he was easy to look upon, as it were. And she starts to cast her eyes upon him. And notice also the means in which Strange and ungodly women seek to entrap godly men with the eyes, with the lies. Potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and she said, lie with me. She gave that Joseph undue attention with her eyes. That's the way strange and ungodly women capture men. with their eyes, and entrap them, and entrap them, they take with their eyes. Proverbs 6.26 says, for by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. And that's exactly what we see, do we not, with this adulteress, who no doubt, well, maybe doubtful, but it's very possible that she would marry that house and used her position of power and wealth to abuse that. And we see here how this proverb is so true. It says again in Proverbs 23, 27, for a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit. Well, Joseph had already been in the pit, had he not? It doesn't want to, Another test, it says, she also life and wait as for a prey, and increasingly transgresses amongst men. This of course is a description really of Potter's wife. And all strange women, those who really are not governed by the word of God, and who seek with their eyes to, I mean, men are just as guilty, don't get me wrong, but to use what God has given them And dearly beloved, how we need to train our young men, our young Christian men, to be like Joseph. It's very important that we train our young men to be like Joseph. To be those who are pure in heart and chaste towards the Lord. And who shun undue attention from strange and ungodly women. And of course, the way to do this is to make sure that you have close, daily accounts with the Lord, and a real, felt presence of his daily communion. You can only do it if you're living with a clean conscience before the Lord, and you crave, more than anything, the felt presence of the Lord. It cannot be done by seeking to know more about reform theology. It cannot be done with all these things. It is done through having a very, very close accounts, daily accounts, and craving close accounts with the Lord, and a firm communion with the Lord. We must bring our children up differently, dear friends, from what our culture says. We must not go along with the crowd. We see that ungodly strange women, like Potiphar's wife, friends, have been the downfall of kings, haven't they? And kingdoms. They have been ruined. Think of Solomon. I mean, he says, very graphically, and we see right throughout the scriptures, it's always strange, ungodly women who have taken God's people. their eyes always upon the Lord, have daily close accounts with the Lord. And this goes for everyone, but especially our young people. Potiphar's wife's initial advancements on Joseph with her eyes did not work, did it? And Joseph shows him a righteous disinterest in strange women, ungodly women. He was living And he had very short accounts with the Lord. When her eye temptations on Joseph did not work, she persistently ratcheted up her devilish schemes by several years to openly make her intentions known. She said, lie with me, lie with me. She tried with her eyes. to give undue attention, perhaps looking at him in a way that she didn't before, giving him undue attention. This was shunned by godly Joseph. And then she ratcheted up and said, lie with me. And as previously mentioned, that Egyptian culture, of course, was an incredibly ungodly culture. And in fact, it has been noted by one commentator that the ancient Egyptian, by ancient Egyptian Egyptian women of that day were incredibly loose and very promiscuous and often intoxicated. And of course, the men weren't much different. The exception here was with Potiphar himself. But we know that from these engravings. Joseph's response to Potiphar's wife was a remarkable one, dear friends, when we consider that he had been single all these years, from right up to 27 years old, and had gone through so many dark provinces, so many discouragements, and it's remarkable, isn't it, when we consider the godliness of this young man. And his response is recorded in verses eight through nine of her Verse eight says, but he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master wanteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. And verse nine, there is none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? We see here, Joseph's got the higher principle here in his heart. How can I do this? How can I sin against my God? This, dear friends, we can see here, Joseph is quite clearly thinking spiritually and not according to the flesh. The wisdom in his refusal is really worthy of our study and our application. Firstly, because he recognises the temptation that is set before him. That is a very important thing that we must understand. We must recognise our enemy. If we do not recognise where our foes come from, we are so prone to fall. Firstly, he recognised the temptation set before him and the breaking of God's commandments and where that would lead. And in particular, the two greatest commandments, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. To not use what God has given you for the flesh. And of course, to love your neighbor. Well, we know that if he did that, he would not be showing love to his neighbor, nor to God, he would be dishonoring God and his neighbor. Because Joseph shows us that he knew from his heart who the Lord God was, personally. He had a real relationship with the Lord. Because he acknowledges that his earthly master may not know all of what his business affairs are, because remember he was put in charge of everything. But God sees everything. God knows everything. Even if there weren't any men around, weren't any people around, God sees like He saw Leah. And this was Joseph's overriding principle, friends. That yes, I may get away with this from other people, but not from God. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And that's what it must come down to. It's not, I don't want to avoid doing this because I don't think of me this way. And this must be our main aim. It's not about what that person thinks of me, it's what God thinks of me. We must get that principle, friends. Especially in this much outward Christianity, this phony Christianity. It must be a heart Christianity. And so we really do see this with Joseph. wickedness and sin against God. And let us again take note, dear brethren, that true spiritual character in Christ, in the Savior, is often proven when we are alone and in darkness. That's where true spiritual character comes forth, friends. It's not when we're around each other at church. It's not when, it's when we're alone, really. That's really where we're proven. And we see here a great example, do we not, of the Lord being with Joseph and Joseph desiring more than anything the felt presence and communion with the Lord. And that's what we should crave. If we don't have it, if we don't have it, we must get it. And that must be our main aim. Remember Job. He lost everything, didn't he? But what really broke Job's heart is not wanting, is not having that felt communion with the Lord again. That's what he craved more than anything. Oh, that you speak to me. I've lost my 10 children. I've lost my health. My friends are mocking me. These comforters. But what he really craved more than anything was the Lord's presence again. We must get back to that in Christianity nowadays. It's not about what other people think of me or that. What people, and even on breakfast, That's what's gonna matter when I stand before him one day. We must get back to that. As Joseph really rightly teaches us here. And we're told in verse 10 that she spoke to Joseph day by day to sleep with him. Day by day. Can you imagine that? Joseph's 27 years old now, gone through all those dark providences and severe trials in life. He's been alone, he's been separated from his dad, and no doubt he would want some sort of affection and love in a physical sense, of course. And there she is, as it were, as an instrument of the devil. Every day, speaking to him, enticing him, luring him like a bait, as it were. Luring him every day to this way, and this was a sore, sore daily temptation for us. This was a daily trial of faith, and we must take it every day by faith. Don't look at next week or next month. Day by day, step by step, this was a daily trial of faith and temptation, hellishly designed to wear Joseph down and grind him down. Just remember that. We need to remember that when we have trials in our life. They are often done to prove us, to grind us down, to make us relent and say, okay, that's enough, I'm giving up now. I'm just gonna do that. And the Lord says, resist, flee, resist the devil, resist these temptations. He can't make you to sin. He can tempt you, he can put people and things in your life And the Lord says, resist, resist with all your heart, and the devil will flee from you, he will see you through. And so we see here, we're told that really he shunned her, her wicked advancements, and no doubt her frustration, as a wealthy, powerful, and shameless adulteress who perhaps had been But her boldness here seems really quite astonishing. And no doubt she would have had a bitter resentment here of being rejected by Joseph's godly stand every day. And that was telling, wasn't it? That was very telling of her response. And that's why we're told in verses 11 through 13 that she had enough. of his godly integrity. You see, Joseph just, he had such a close walk with the Lord by faith, that he just would not give in to all these strong temptations, and that was enough for her. And this is true, there's a higher principle here, this is true of all our temptations, that to the Lord during these things. The Lord will see us through. And it's true when we're persecuted at times, that people, because we're not running to the same excess of worldlings in our culture, that people want us out of sight, out of mind. Well, I must get rid of that person now. And so God made check upon my behavior, my conversation, and my sin. And that's why true believers, who are true to the word of God and faithful, to the Lord and obedient to the Lord, they are often the biggest thorns in worldly insights. They don't want people to be in the high street or preaching, handing out tracts, or being a faithful witness. They do not want that. And that's why they are often maligned and sidelined and gossiped about, and false witnesses used any devilish tactic to get them out of mind and out of sight. And we see this higher principle here. Any opportunity to catch him out, and we see she took that opportunity and caught Joseph by his garment, and enticed him once again to lie with her. And Joseph did what every young person should do, and flee from lust and resist the devil. But let this be a lesson to us, dear friends, that we, all of us, but especially our young people, to flee from lust and every devilish temptation. And the Lord promises that the devil will flee from us. We must overcome sin in our life by doing good. That must be our overriding principle. It's such a wonderful passage that in Romans, overcomes sin by doing good. But like Joseph, live and be kept busy. Not only in our daily duties, but spiritually in the means of grace. Read your Bible. Have disciplines of prayer and time with the Lord in the morning. Be a Daniel, be a Joseph, be a Joe. Take, when God says, I'll set my eye upon no wicked thing, take that to heart. And if there's something on telly or some program, Don't put your eye on it. Switch it off. Take God's Word seriously. Put good things, wholesome things, spiritual disciplines in your life, and you'll see God's blessing. God hasn't made it hard for believers. We make it hard. And the words of Philippians 4.13 really do come to mind, do they not? I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Do we believe in that? Or is that just a saying that we're just so used to hearing that we actually don't think about it? Yes, I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me. These powerful temptations in my life, which have been the bane of my life, And friends, we all can fail the Lord in many areas of this life, but God does promise us, He does promise us that we can overcome the most powerful temptations, daily temptations, that the deadlock can be broken if we truly depend upon Him. And friends, when Plotivus' ungodly wife was constantly rejected by Joseph, and she saw that she would not prevail against against God's holy man. Well, she wanted to rid herself, didn't she, of that faithful witness to her sin. And so she devised a plan to use his newly promoted garments. And once again, that garment, that garment was like similar to the first garment. He came into that house wretched with his rags on, didn't he, and lonely. And he was then given these fabulous new garments. And he was stripped of his dad's colourful garments, his father's garments, which was a sign of God's covenant and promises upon him, and God's distinguishing grace upon him, that God always keeps his promises, and he believed in that. He listened to his granddad, he listened to his father, and he believed in the Lord Jehovah. And he was stripped of those things, just like every true believer. The devil wants to strip us of God's promises. Wants to strip us of our usefulness and our witness. That's what he wants to do. And that's what she was trying to do here. Trying to strip Joseph once again of his usefulness and his witness. And of course, in pointing to the greater Joseph, Christ. That's what she wanted to do. And we see this, don't we? This devised plan to use his newly promoted garment again in bearing false witness, verses 14 to 20. And we all know what happened, do we not? She fabricated a false account, a false witness of how Joseph attempted to be with her and rape her. But she cried aloud. And she cried out. And of course, this could not be further from the truth. The opposite, in fact, was true. It was Joseph who fled from her. She was the one pushing herself upon Joseph. And friends, once again, the word of God has many things to teach us from this account. Firstly, that at times Christians are called to suffer wrongfully. And yes, at times we are to suffer rightfully. But it is also true, like Joseph and many other saints of old, that true Christians at the time are called to suffer wrongfully, as Joseph did. What Peter 2.19-21 said comes to mind. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffer wrongfully, for what glory is it If when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently. But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently. This is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called. That's remarkable. You're called to endure suffering, to bear the cross of Calvary. If you are faithful to the Lord, in not only your words, enter into the kingdom of God. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. And so we are called to be lights in a dark world of sin, and to at times suffer for living and standing for the Lord, for even guaranteeing we're called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps. Dear friends, matters to the Lord. It matters to the Lord how we react to these things, how we go about responding to these things. There needs to be a great lesson to us to be, like Joseph, humbly enduring sufferings. Like Joseph and the greater Joseph, we are called at times to bear unjust reproach, witnessed patiently at times, which will be to the glory of God. I'm not a sovereign over these things. If people want to slaughter me behind my back, or say these truths, or make my faults, make a mountain out of my molehill sins, as it were, well, I'm just going to leave that to the Lord. I'm not going to gnash against Him and try to get my back against Him and do the same, use the same tactics. No. And if there are those, like Potiphar's wife, who will use dirty tactics to pull believers down from their witness and their profession, let us do as Joseph did, and trust in the Lord's sovereignty. For it is written in Romans 12, 19, that vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord. And I can honestly say, that the Lord is a revenger of those. If those who seek to gossip and bring people down, to do that, the Lord will recompense his people. And once again, in all Joseph's afflictions, he presents a very beautiful picture and a type of Christ to us. Not Christ, a type of Christ, a foreshadow of Christ, a picture, of Christ to us, the greater Joseph. Joseph was sorely tempted and severely tempted and did not sin and so the Lord Jesus too was tempted and had no sin. Joseph was falsely accused and so was Christ. Joseph attempted no defence and Christ gave who are falsely accused, but the way in which we do it is important. Joseph remarkably shows us a picture of Christ here. And finally, in the remaining verses of Genesis 39, we see Joseph cast into prison, though he was innocent. And Christ, of course, was also sentenced to death, though Pilate found no fault in him. No fault in the spotless lamb for us, and there's such a powerful thing, dear friends, in forgiveness. Forgiveness is such a powerful thing. Joseph, you see, he wasn't letting all those people who had just crushed him, and just cast him, he's going into the lowest of hell now, friends. You know, into the darkness of Egypt, been rejected, as it were, by his brethren, he's been rejected by And that Egyptian prison, that would have been hell, that Egyptian prison. The heat and the dust and the darkness and the stench, it would have been hell on earth. and what a wonderful saviour we have and what a wonderful picture Joseph presents of the saviour's love to us and through his sufferings that we may be forgiven of our sins. We're told once again in verses 21 that the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him fame in the sight of the keeper of the prison. The Lord once again in this lowest state prospered. All Joseph's work. Again, do you not hear one complaint from Joseph? Do you not hear one bitter word? Just absolute trust in the sovereignty of God. God knows what he's doing, and he knows that to be true. Of course, we realize those dreams that he had, they were prophetic, weren't they? And he knew God was sovereign over all the dealings of men. God made him go into that pit. God made him to be a slave. God had put him there. He knew it. We must understand these things. And friends, to date, Joseph had been separated from his brethren for over 10 years, his beloved father. He had been stripped of his distinguishing garments, first that beautiful robe of many colors and now the And unjustly again, dear friends, he had these things taken away from him. And dearly beloved of the Lord, when we make a stand for the Lord as Joseph did, it may cost something. It may cost something in varying degrees. I'm not saying that we all suffer these things, that's not true. Because sometimes God does give us favour and influence, like he did with Potiphar. But we will at times suffer. There is a cost of becoming a true Christian. It may cost you what people think of you and say about you. That you don't go along with the crowd, as it were. You're on the straight and narrow with the Lord. It may cost you the loss of friends and loved ones because you refuse to deny the Lord and go back into the world. It may even cost you your work It may even cost you promotion at times, because you will not run to the excesses and the vanities of this world. But friends, once again, this will never cost you. It will never cost you the felt presence of the Holy Spirit, dear friends, in light-darkest hours. It will never cost you your salvation. You'll never lose that. And Joseph really had in mind the bigger picture, didn't he, in all these things. we must too have in mind the bigger picture. There's a purpose why I'm going through these trials. There's a purpose why these things are happening in life. We must always have that heavenly perspective, like Joseph did. That's why these things are written down for our learning. If he had never been separated from his brethren and cast into that pit and sold as a slave, he would have never been put in front of his house. That would have never have happened. undergo all those years of suffering, and if he had never been cast into that dark Egyptian prison and falsely spoken about, he would have never come to be Prime Minister of the whole of Egypt, and to bring us God's sovereign plan here was working through all these wonderful things. This is what we must have in mind in all our trials in life. And much more than any of these things, if he had never gone through these humbling sufferings, he would cease to point us, of course, to the greater Joseph, to Christ. That was the most important thing, to point us to the Savior. Our Saviour is life. We see in Joseph, really, more than most of the patriarchs of the world, we see here Christ, don't we? We see here the greater Christ. We see the character, really, of Christ. Yes, Joseph was a sinner, he did have sin, but we see here, do we not, something of Christ in Joseph and what he did for us on the cross. And so, dear brethren, in our coming studies we'll see the Lord's, again, rising up and exalting of Joseph, once again to a position of power and influence and glory, to the blessing, of course, of countless souls, and to the glory of God. Amen. ♪ To think of all I know ♪ ♪ And I am glad ♪ ♪ If other men should walk that way ♪ ♪ Or if they should walk that way ♪ I might be sad. I might be sad. What if tomorrow's picture here without its rest? I'd rather be alone today And as we ask, we hope, and say, Thy will is best. Thy will is best. The very thinness of my sight makes me secure. For lo, within my destiny I feel his hand, I hear him say, my help is sure. My help is sure.