Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them back up with me to Genesis chapter 50. Genesis chapter 50. We'll be looking tonight at the life of Joseph. Genesis 50, we'll read starting in verse 15. This is the Word of God. It says that when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, They said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. And his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus He comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Let's pray. Father, again, we are dealing with something that we cannot produce in and of ourselves, and we need Your help. And so I pray, Holy Spirit, that You would come tonight and illuminate Your Word that we might see Christ for who He really is. As the perfect Lawkeeper. The perfect One who bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might become more like Him for His glory. We pray all that in Jesus' name, Amen. We're talking tonight about the lost virtue, the neglected virtue of self-control. And self-control is largely a lost virtue in our day and age. I mean, think about it. Businesses have come up with schemes to cash in on people's lack of self-control. You know, I mean, there once was a time when if you wanted something, you saved up money over the months and over the years, and then you went and you bought a new car or you bought a furniture set. Nowadays, with credit, you can have just about whatever you want whenever you want it. You know, you think about the new iPhone that comes out every six months or whatever it is. Anybody can have that. You just have to go down there, sign up for a two-year contract, pay a bajillion dollars worth of interest, and you can have the phone that you want. Same thing goes with vehicles. They have these no-credit car dealerships where they'll get you in just about any car you want to drive out of that parking lot. Now, it's going to go badly when you get into debt and can't make that payment, and they know that, but they'll get you in the car that you want when you want it. Because these businesses have cashed in on people's lack of self-control. And this goes way beyond materials and economics. I mean, you think about just about any problem. Think about addictions, anger, obesity, laziness, paralyzing fear. You name it. People are given over to these things because they lack self-control. And so I just want to put a question before you all tonight to ponder. What sins continuously hamper you? What are those deviances that follow you around week after week, month after month, year after year that you cannot shake free from? For some, it could be an addiction. For some, it could be that we can't say no to a second plate or to a dessert that we shouldn't have. For some, it could be that we can't stop losing it with our spouse or our kids. And for some, it could be merely that we know we need to develop spiritual disciplines and we know that we need to wake up early to seek the Lord and His Word and in prayer before work, but the years have gone by and we still cannot get out of bed consistently to seek Him. Whatever answers we come up with, church, the antidote is self-control. Self-control. What is the antithesis of self-control? It's being ruled by your passions. It's being led by the cravings of your body and of your fallen man and obeying them and living in such a way that you give in to what your sinful nature craves and lusts for. And you live given over to those. Now, I want to be very clear That what I'm talking about when I say self-control is not merely physical discipline, right? It's not merely physical discipline. Joseph was not merely a disciplined person physically. He didn't just grit his teeth and work really hard to become the second in command in Egypt. Now, that's part of it at times, but here's the danger in a sermon like this. The danger is that we will begin to identify parts of our lives that we don't like, and we will leave this place tonight, and we'll be full of hope that we're going to implement this new strategy to maybe wake up earlier to not do this or to not do that, and we'll be fired up tomorrow, and we'll do pretty well tomorrow on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday we'll waver a little bit, and then what happens? Thursday and Friday roll around and we've given up. And we find ourselves back in the same sin and the same dysfunction. And this is just a repetitive cycle, isn't it? And maybe later on down the line, we'll hear something else and we'll read a new article and we'll get a new glimpse of hope to implement a new strategy. And the same thing just continues over and over and over. And what's the problem with that? As that happens, We're overcome by shame and guilt and disparity, and our doubt in the promises of God increase as we fail. And here's what I want to put before us today. The self-control that we see in the life of Joseph far exceeds personal discipline. And it is, in its very essence, supernatural. I'm arguing for something supernatural. Something transformative. And I say that because in Galatians 5.22, Paul says that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. He says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. So self-control is not merely for the athlete in training. Self-control is not merely for the engaged couple trying to remain pure for marriage. Self-control is not merely for someone trying to go on a diet. Self-control is for the Christian and for all Christians. It is a Christian virtue and it is a fruit of being indwelt by the Spirit of God. This is what we're talking about. And as a matter of fact, if you flip over very quickly to Titus, please go with there with me to Titus. In his epistle to Titus, Paul uses the word self-control five times in a very short letter. And he instructs Titus to exhort every category of believers in the church to be self-controlled. So he says in chapter 1 verse 8, he's talking to elders and overseers. And he says that they must not be arrogant, or quick-tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled. And then over in chapter 2 verse 2, He says older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled. And then down in verses 3-5, older women are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled. In verse 6, likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. And then lastly, in verses 11 and 12, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. So, in the context of this local church, elders, older men, younger men, older women, and younger women are exhorted to be self-controlled. Because that is the purpose of the grace of God revealing itself in the Gospel. That we would no longer be driven by worldly passions. That we would no longer conform to the lusts of our sinful nature. but that we would be self-controlled men and women of God. And here's the thing. Here's what's really interesting. The situation of the church at Crete, which is where Titus was the pastor, is very similar to the situation that we're in today. People were given over to gluttony. There was laziness in the church. They were indulging in partying and drinking. They were giving themselves over to speculations and long discourses about nothing that profited anything. Sounds pretty familiar with our current church context. And so Paul, understanding the specific temptations and the specific context of that church, he was emphasizing this is how the world functions. This is how all the people around you are functioning. Not you. You be self-controlled. You give yourself to the gospel. Give yourself to purity. Give yourself to working hard, to training, to keeping the home well in the midst of a perverse and wicked generation where people were doing whatever they felt like doing all the time. You be self-controlled. This is exhortation to them. And so it is necessary for us to pray for self-control, and it is necessary for us to have self-control, because it is a fruit of the Spirit. And so if the Spirit of God is in you, you will grow in self-control. That is a promise. Trees bear fruit. If you have the Spirit of God, you will be self-controlled. And you must be self-controlled. And so, on the flip side, I can imagine that most of us in here are not extremely happy with the lack of self-control that we see in our lives. And as a matter of fact, I don't know that I've ever felt more like I need to preach a message to myself than the one I'm preaching to you right now. We struggle with this. We have sins that we are dealing with. to hear the Word of God. And so I just want to encourage you that the Lord uses His Word, and He uses preaching, and He uses these types of things to sanctify us. That we can see the Word of God rightly, and that we can be changed. And so what I want to do over the next few minutes is to look at the life of Joseph. We're going to bounce around all over the Joseph narrative in Genesis. And I want to point out two broad areas that we can all identify with where we see Joseph exercising great self-control. And then I want to make some applications to us as Spirit-filled believers. So number one, Joseph demonstrated sexual self-control. He demonstrated sexual self-control. Look at Genesis 39 if you would. Genesis 39. starting in verse 6. It says, so he left all that he had in Joseph's charge. Talking about Potiphar. And because of him, he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great act of wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her. So, let me just pause right there for a moment and say, because of our overly sexual culture, and because of the explicit nature of our culture, it would be unwise pastorally for us in a series about Christian virtues not to talk about purity exhaustively. And so I'm going to get into some of this today, but we're going to return to this concept a few times in this series. You know, but here's the thing. Nothing, nothing about our culture is a secret to Christians. Right? This isn't hidden from anybody. Every Christian would agree. And every Christian understands how much sexual temptation there is in our culture. Every Christian gets this. They know how hard it is to be pure. Especially for young men. And I don't disagree with that. And I think we need to be aware of that. I think we need to know the culture in which we live. just so long as it doesn't become an excuse for us to remain in sexual immorality. Look at how tempting of a situation Joseph is in. Potiphar's wife is burning with lust for Joseph. She is burning with lust for him. And she is gladly willing to cheat on her husband to sleep with him. We need to see this. This isn't Joseph scrolling through his phone and he sees an advertisement that's explicit that leads him into temptation. This isn't Joseph walking into Target and seeing an explicit image on the wall and leads him into temptation. No, he is in a house with a woman who is pleading with him to lie with her. Begging him day after day to be with her. There's opportunity for Joseph. He's in the house day after day alone with this woman. And Potiphar, his master, is out doing other things because he trusts Joseph. He says, I don't even worry about anything because Joseph is such a blessing that I leave my whole house in his charge. Joseph has every opportunity to do this if he wants to. But what does he say in verse 8? It says that he refused. He refused. He wasn't saying, well, I want to, but what if we get caught? Then my career is over. Then I'm going back to the prison. He didn't just grit His teeth and close His eyes one night, one day to avoid falling. You know it says in verse 10 that as she spoke to Joseph day after day, He would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. This is an ongoing temptation. This is an assault that's coming at Joseph every single day for years. And he resists day after day. And let me just pause and say something to those who are struggling in the fight for lasting sexual purity. You may be in a place of hopelessness because you say, even if I abstain today, it's going to come back tomorrow. Even if I abstain and win a victory this week, next week will just be even harder. Even if I make it through a month, next month it's just going to keep coming after me. until you wear down and until you give in. But I just want to encourage you that there is a kind of self-control that is empowered by the Spirit of God that can grant you freedom from sexual bondage. and it is empowered by the Holy Spirit. And you as a Christian can grow in that and you have access to it because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is available to you. There is a self-control that is so marked by the grace of God, surrounded by forgiveness and mercy, that you can walk in this and experience true freedom from sexual sin. Day after day, you can refuse to listen to the voice of immorality, just as Joseph does here. You can be free. But you must understand that this self-control does not come from your own strength. It's not going to come from just gritting your teeth and saying, no. This self-control that I'm talking about has to come as you realize that Jesus hung on a tree for you and died in your place, shed His blood for your sins, took your wrath, all the sexual immorality, onto His own body and died for you. And He gives you in His place, His righteousness, His self-control, His purity. Gives that to you freely by faith. And that you have that right now if you're a Christian. It's yours. Perfect self-control. Perfect righteousness. And that out of that, out of that understanding, you can walk in empowered holiness regarding sexual sin. It says in Hebrews that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. And by union with Him, you are without sin. You have to get this. You have to understand that Jesus paid your penalty. And once you understand this, you can be free from sexual sin. You can have the self-control. over the lust of the flesh. Now, it's also worth pointing out that Joseph was not married at this point. He doesn't have a safe place to go home to, to be with his wife in the marriage bed. He's not married yet. He's single at this point. He's in a house. where he's in charge. He has power. He has money. He has influence. He's in charge. He's probably alone a lot. And evidently Potiphar's wife can come in there whenever she wants to and tempt him. I mean, Joseph is in a horrible situation. This situation is ripe in every regard for Joseph to fall. We can't miss this. This is the most important part. Look at the latter part of verse 9. What does he say to her? How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Joseph's self-control is not motivated by career success. not by being caught, not by being found out. His self-control is not motivated by climbing up the ladder in Egypt. It's not motivated by his own commitment to Potiphar for allowing him to have this opportunity. Joseph's self-control is first and foremost motivated by the fear of God and a love for God. He does not want to sin against his God. And in that, he finds power to resist. So, brother or sister struggling with sexual sin. And this goes for all of us. Men, women, single, married. Guys, we need to understand that none of us, none of us is above falling sexually. None of us is above this. And we need to understand that this isn't only applicable to sexual sin. Again, you know, we shouldn't say to ourselves, well, I don't struggle with that sin, so I'm I'm pretty good here. I can just kind of check out. I'm good with that one. No. What do you struggle with in the flesh? Again, it could be anger, could be eating. It could be sleeping too much. It could be overconsumption of media. What deviance of the flesh plagues you? This applies to every single one of us in this room, including myself. And this is the question we need to ask ourselves. Do we love God more than we love our sin? That is the basis of biblical sanctification as Christians. Not as non-Christians, but as Christians. Do we love God more than we love our sin? Do I fear God and the destructive consequences of my sin so much that I refuse to sin against Him? Does that power abstinence? Does that power control over your cravings? Accountability partners, books, accountability software, all these things are good and they are very useful. And we should use them. We should have accountability. We should remain in the light. We should put up every guard we can not to sin. But at the end of the day, if the human heart motivated by evil wants to sin, it will find a way to sin. But a biblical fear of God and a love for God will guard us in the day that temptation comes. And so, now, not only does Joseph demonstrate self-control sexually, which again, we can apply to any category, but he also demonstrates great self-control emotionally. He demonstrates great self-control emotionally. Because again, biblical self-control is not merely about keeping your body under control, but it's also, and maybe more so, about keeping your heart under control. It's about leading your heart Biblical self-control identifies when our feelings and emotions and affections and desires do not line up with God's feelings and emotions and affections and desires, as revealed in Scripture. And rather than being given over to these sinful, emotive responses to life circumstances, biblical self-control says, I can put those off. I can resist those. Like Paul says in Colossians 3, I can put off anger and malice and wrath. And I can put on compassionate hearts and love and peace. I can put on forgiveness for my brother or sister when they sin against me. And we see Joseph doing this, don't we? Joseph is elevated as second in command at age 30. He was sold by his brothers at age 17. That's 13 years. 13 years this man has been in prison, sold by his brothers into prison unjustly. Potiphar's wife, is trying to get him to lie with her. He refuses out of integrity. And when she grabs him and his coat comes off, she goes and lies on him, gets him thrown into prison where he's in prison unjustly. And then he has a dream where he tells the chief baker and the chief wine, the person who gives wine to Pharaoh, tells them their dreams. Rightly, the chief baker gets put back in his position and he forgets about Joseph. Doesn't tell Pharaoh about Joseph. So Joseph stays in prison. So 13 years of this, of being. Mistreated and most of us, if this were us, we would feel pretty justified about being upset, wouldn't we? We would feel pretty OK about being frustrated with life. I mean, put yourself in this position. If you were counseling someone who's been suffering for 13 years, constantly being wronged by their family, constantly being wronged at work by their employer, over and over and over again, for no reason. I mean, you would expect this person to be angry, wanting revenge, right? Maybe it may be doubting God and doubting God's plan or maybe maybe just living life like it doesn't matter. I'm just going to go out and eat and drink for tomorrow. We die and be merry. Right. Just kind of this forget about the future attitude. You might expect them to be anxious about the future. You might expect them to guard their hearts from everybody around them. So so nobody else can can hurt them. You would expect all these things. But Joseph doesn't respond like that, does he? No, because He has self-control over His emotions. Now let's look at one more passage in Genesis 45. This is utterly amazing. I believe that God wants to set people free. Hear this in verse 4. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near. And he said, I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me here before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. Listen to this. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. So instead of being given over to sinful emotions, Instead of being given over to anger, to wrath, Joseph has a God's eye view of the situation. Joseph has the ability to see what God is doing through him for good. He has such a conviction that God was working sovereignly through these situations so that He could bring about good for His people. That He's able to respond to those who have wronged Him. Not with anger. Not with payback. But with kindness. With compassion. With assurance. Rather than resentment. Brothers and sisters, we must see this. And you may say, well, that's Joseph. That's not me. Joseph could do this in the situation he's in. He could have that type of thinking, but not me. I'm in a situation where God can't be working. He can't be working. There's no way he's using this for good. There's no way that I can actually believe that God is using all the negativity in my life relationally and circumstantially for good. I cannot believe that. I refuse to believe that God is using this illness this tragedy, this sin, this relationship for good. And I would just respond to that by saying, yes, you do have a reason to believe that God is using it for good. You have every reason to believe that. You have apostolic authority to believe that you that all the circumstances in life are being used for good. What does Paul say in Romans 8.28? What does he say? And we know that God works all things together for good for those who love Him. All things. All things for good for those who love Him. What circumstances in your life are currently causing great emotional dysfunction? What is causing plaguing anxiety and fear? What wrongs have been committed against you that you feel bound to resentment What has gone so wrong about your life that you question God's movement in it? Is it a sickness? Is it that your young children consume every minute you have? Is it your situation at work makes you feel so purposeless that you don't even want to work anymore because you feel like you have no purpose there and you feel like God has abandoned you? Is it that your family or your friends have wronged you? unjustly over and over and over and you've just tried to love them and share eternal life with them in the hope of the gospel and they slander you and call you evil. What is it? Jesus sympathizes with you in your weakness. He cares for you. And because you belong to Him, you can have the utmost confidence that He is using every single difficulty in your life to bring about good for you and for His people. Ultimately, for His own glory. You can cling to that as a promise from God. And because this is true, you are free to control and put away every wrong emotion, every sinful reaction, you are free not to give in to that. You are free to put that off and to put on every single fruit of the Spirit and to forgive and to have joy and to have peace in this life despite the circumstances. That's for you in this room if you're a Christian. Believe that. Keep that in your heart. Know it. God loves you. And it was this God-centered conviction and thinking that ultimately empowered Joseph to forgive his brothers. Look at verse 9 in that same chapter. He says, Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me and do not tarry. Joseph has the power to do to his brothers whatever he wants. They're his. He could throw them in jail. He could kill them. He can do whatever he wants. He could pay them back day after day after day. I can imagine being in the dungeon in Egypt. You guys remember when you threw me in that pit? and sold me to the Ishmaelites and I begged for you to show me mercy and you threw me in anyway. Look now. You remember those dreams that you had? You were all bowing down before Me? Here it is. He doesn't do that. He shows them incredible kindness and mercy. And He saves them. He provides for them. He gives them land in Egypt to come and enjoy the land in the midst of a famine. And He keeps them alive. Because He has self-control. And He shows incredible kindness. And He offers them forgiveness and provides for them during the famine. And He says in verse 12, And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is My mouth that speaks to you. You must tell My Father of all My honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring My Father down here. And listen to this. Then He fell upon His brother Benjamin's neck and wept. And Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that, his brothers talked with him. This is a beautiful picture of what happens when a person responds to the evil and wicked acts of another with God-empowered forgiveness. Not sinful emotions, but God-empowered forgiveness. And we see here an incredible display of reconciliation and restoration. And it seems that this is where Joseph's brothers are converted. And so let me just end, brothers and sisters, by pointing to the Gospel. Because we can learn much about Joseph's life. We can strive to grow in self-control. And again, it's imperative that we do that. It's imperative that we grow in self-control. But first, we must confess that we will never have the self-control that we should. We will never have our bodies and our hearts under control the way that we should. And so before we look at Joseph's life as an illustration of self-control, we must first understand that Joseph is a picture of one who was to come. Who also demonstrated self-control. Perfect self-control. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was also rejected by His own people, just as Joseph was. Who was also scorned by His own. Who was also abandoned and thrown into the grave, metaphorically, and literally crucified. He was falsely accused. He was wrongly treated. And He was put to death. And just as God raised Joseph up out of that pit and raised him out of prison and exalted him to the second person in charge in Egypt, God has raised Christ from the grave and exalted Him. to the right hand of God. And He sits at the right hand of God and He mediates for you. He intercedes for you. And through His suffering, He has provided eternal life. See, just as Joseph was able to provide for Israel, to keep the offspring alive, And God used sin for Him to do that. God used the most evil act of treachery ever. The crucifixion of His own Son so that sinful people like you and me could be saved and reconciled to Him. And this is the Gospel. And this is the message we love. And this is the message we remember when we fall short and when we strive to grow in self-control or any Godly virtue. Amen. Let's pray. Father, Lord, I just thank You for the Gospel. Lord, we all sitting in this room could probably say a lot about ourselves. We could identify many ways where we are not as self-controlled as we need to be. We can identify ways where we fall very short And so, Lord, I pray that we would look to You, the One who bore our sins, that we would worship You, that we would cling to the Gospel, and that You would empower us as we know You, as we behold You, to change, to be self-controlled, to be able to put away wrong emotions, wrong thinking, wrong responses to life circumstances. And we pray that we could be the people who mediate blessing in the earth, because our God has mediated blessing in the earth. We thank You and we love You. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.