Learning from Joseph: Overcoming Temptation

He was our victory. Amen. What a great song. I have always loved

that song. If you win your Bibles this evening, turn To Genesis,

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

chapter 39, our study of the life of Joseph. And really the title

of the series is Lessons from the Life of Joseph. And so we're

taking a little more time than we have in the past and just picking

out life lessons from it. Biblical lessons from his life again.

The New Testament tells us that the Old Testament was written

for our example. The New Testament tells us that the Old Testament

was written for our learning. So the lives of these patriarchs,

lives of these Old Testament saints are given to us to help us

learn, to learn from their lives, to take examples from their

life, good and bad. I told you, one of the proofs that the Bible

is true, especially the Old Testament is true, is that as the

scribes and those who were copying the Bible and the Old Testament,

particularly as they were copying it from generation to generation,

that they didn't leave the bad stuff out. I mean, why would they

just not, you know, wipe out the bad stuff and leave the good

stuff? That's what most historians did, especially if they

were hired by the Roman government. You know, they're going

to say all the good stuff about Rome and Romans, the fights

of the Romans and the wars, but not the Old Testament. It gives

you the good and the bad. And so they're there for our learning.

And so we're life lessons from Joseph. So let's look at verse, let's

look at verse one and then we'll skip around a little bit. And

so that we going to continue the message from last Wednesday night.

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 to Joseph's hand. And he knew not aught he had save the

bread which he did eat. And Joseph was of a goodly person and

well favored. We talked about the integrity of Joseph. And it came

to pass after these things. That his master's wife cast his eye

upon Joseph. And she said, lie with me. And 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. 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 notice

this phrase and sin against God? And it came to pass that she

spake to Joseph. And again notice this day by day. That he hearkened

not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. And it came to pass

about this time. That Joseph went into the house to do his business.

And there was none of the men of the house there within. And 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 a Hebrew

unto us to mock us. He came in unto me to lie with me. And I cried

with a loud voice. And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted

up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled

and got him out. And she laid up his garment by her until his Lord

came home. Verse 17. And she spake unto him according to these

words, saying, the Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto

us. Came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass as I lifted

up my voice and cried. That he left his garment with me and fled

out. And it came to pass when his master heard the words of his

wife. Which he spake unto him, saying, after this manner did thy

servant to me. That his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master

took him and put him into prison. A place where the king's

prisoners were bound. And he was there in. In the prison. Let's

pray. Heavenly Father, again we ask for your help tonight. Lord

may you lead and direct and guide us. And, Lord, again I can

simply do the teaching. And I pray the Holy Spirit would give understanding

tonight. And may we, as children of God, rely upon you and

your grace. In the hour of temptation. Again, we love you and

we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. I don't want to repeat the

entire thing from last Wednesday, but again we talked about

the life lessons from Joseph in this particular chapter. I'm going

to skip the introduction from last week and talk about again him

being sold into slavery by his brothers. And he was sold to Potiphar.

Potiphar again was an Egyptian of the Egyptian guard. He was the

chief of the royal guard. And so he was a member of the aristocrats.

He was high in office, he was wealthy and had a vast palace. And

no doubt, and this was what Joseph was put into after coming

from a rural environment, coming from a place where he was

favored by his dad and on and on and on. I could go, I can't imagine

being a 17 year old and being thrust into that. Can't imagine being

a 17 year old and being sold into slavery by your brothers. And

we mention again, and this is my third time to mention it, in Genesis

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

chapter 50 it says that. Or Genesis chapter 48, it says they,

Genesis 48 · chapter mention

the brothers said this has happened to us because we did not

listen to the cries of our brother when we sold him. They did

not listen to him. Imagine the cries, imagine the wailing that Joseph,

you know, with his brothers trying to get to their heart, to

get them to stop, you know, again throwing him into the pit and

selling him. So the point is that Joseph was thrust into this.

He was sold as a common slave to there in Egypt. He would have

been put on a, you know, a platform and sold with hundreds of

other slaves. But God in his providence saw fit to put him in

Potiphar's house. And there in Potiphar's house, God blessed him.

Now I think again, as I said last week, we take for granted, we

take for granted that God just magically blessed him. That just,

you know, poof. No, that's not what happened here. And we went to

various scriptures in the Bible last Wednesday night to show

you. It says he was a prosperous man. Why was he prosperous?

Well, because he was a man of character. Talking about Joseph was

a man of character. It means he was diligent. It means he was

a hard worker. It means he was industrious. He had a good testimony

among the household. Amen. If he hadn't done all those things,

there's no way that Potiphar is going to put him, you know, over

his household. No, no, no, he worked hard at it. He submitted to

his boss, he submitted to his master. He worked hard for his boss.

He worked hard for his master and God blessed him for it. God blessed

him immensely. A common Hebrew slave rose in preeminence in this

house. A very wealthy, a very. A man with much authority. And here's

Joseph, late teenager, early 20s. Over his whole house. The Bible

says Potiphar didn't even know what was going to be on the table.

He said that he was not only over what he had in the house, he

was over what he had in the field. God blessed him immensely.

Remembering that it is character that God blesses. We mentioned

last week about again that word prosperous or what brings about

prosperity in our lives. Well, walking close with God, walking close

to God, which brings about good character in our own lives.

And then again being. Whatever you do, do heartily unto the Lord.

Do it with all your might as unto the Lord. And whether you're

working a secular job or whether you're working whatever it

is. We were talking with one of our men. Mike just got hired on

at Lockheed. I said, we're going to start a Lockheed Club. We

have like 27,000 members that work at Lockheed. 27,000. It's a

little. I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but there's

a bunch of you. So I think Reed will just start a club for you

guys. Is that all right? Yeah. Okay. But wherever you're working

at, whoever your employer is, or if you are an employer, we ought

to do everything to the glory of God. We ought to do everything

to the glory of God. Whatsoever you do, do heartily. As

to the Lord, do all for his glory. Our testimony at work is important.

And that's where we see that in Joseph's life. I just wanted to

make sure, because again, I've been in church all my life and I

just. I don't know why this time it just became a little more

real to me. This was not magic. Joseph wasn't blessed because

he just was blessed. No, no, no. There was effort on his part.

I used that little saying that, you know, we are to work as

if everything depends upon us and pray as if everything depends

upon God. And that's a true biblical principle. Why should God

bless you? And why should God prosper you if you're not working

at it? That's it. That's it. We'll do a conclusion here in a moment.

So this is where we stopped last week again, right there. And

so tonight is the temptation. And what a temptation it was. Boy,

Joseph handled it, handled it well, didn't he? How did he do that?

How could he do that? Let me give you several things about Joseph's

temptation. Number one. Temptations often come when life

is going good. You say, well, Joseph's life was going good. He

was. No, it was. Imagine being sold into slavery. But now you're

over the house of this wealthy man. I mean, you're directing other

slaves, employees. You're the one leading the house. And life was

a lot better than it was. It was going good. And many times temptations

come when life is going well. It's easy to wear a coat when it's

cold outside. I'm going to use Texas as my illustration. In Texas,

the weather can change in 30 seconds. One of the most memorable

things to me as a teenager is I had a job in the oil field. A daddy

got me job, right? Daddy got me that job. I'm thankful for those

in high school, right? Dad's mom. And it was a good job. I made

man money. But I would work after school and I was checking pump

jacks and, and you know, gauging tank batteries. In other

words, seeing how much oil was oil. I'll say it right for you guys

was in the tank battery. You go up the stairs, you open the lid

of the 300 barrel, whatever it is, tank, and you got a little thief

thing, measures. Anyway, I was on top of the tank battery and you

could see the clouds coming and it wasn't rain. And in like three

minutes it went from being 90 degrees to 40. And I'm exaggerating

only a tiny bit. It was the most extreme. And that's why I remember

it to this day. I can tell you I can go. I could actually take you

to that place now. It was that drastic of a difference. I'm on top

of the tank, I'm doing my job as I'm supposed to. And the temperature

changes from shorts and T shirts to you needing a coat like

that. It's easy to wear a coat when it's cold and you know it's

going to be cold or whatever the case is. But it's hard to wear

it when you know it might get cold. But you. It's hot right now,

so you got your shorts and T shirts on. That illustration is not

very good, is it? It's a good illustration. It's easy to put the

armor on when you're in the battle. When you're not in the battle,

it's hard to say, well, I got to get up this morning and everything's

going good. I don't know that I need my armor today. Right, right.

Don't know if I need my coat today. It's plenty, you know, warm

outside and then. But the weathermans kept saying, it's going

to be cold and rainy, you know, by three o'. Clock. You better

take your coat or umbrella with you. We need to be pretty. Be

prepared, watch and pray. The Bible. Jesus said to his disciples

that ye enter not into temptation. Number two. Again, temptation

often comes when life is going good. Number two. Temptation often

comes from unexpected places or people. Joseph's a slave. It's

Potiphar's wife, you know, she's here, Joseph's there. Many

times temptation comes from just unexpected places. I have no

doubt this startled Joseph. Wouldn't you think that. Why would

you want. I'm just a slave. I'm telling you. The temptation often

comes suddenly and appeals to our passions. Beware of the storm.

Beware of that sudden storm. And I got illustrations for that

too. But I'm going to move on. Beware. Number three. Temptations

often test our convictions versus the application or the living

of it. By that I mean, had Joseph gave into the temptation and

pleased her, he would have advanced in the house. Everybody

see that? I mean, it would have helped him. The here and now.

It would have helped him. How do you know that? Well, because she's

not going to tell nobody. She's not going to tell nobody. I

slept, you know, I. With the sl. You know, everybody. So it would

have advanced him maybe quicker or whatever the case is.

What I'm saying is to not do that, to not give into temptation.

He had to have known it was not going to go well. In other words,

that sudden appeal that to cross her would make her his enemy.

And that's exactly what happened. No one was in the house.

No one was around. It would have been much easier just to give

in. You could see the wheels turning in his brain going, reasoning

this out. If I don't give in to her, I'm going to lose my position.

I'm going to lose my ability to feed myself. You ever been there?

Maybe a boss tells you to do something you know is wrong and you

have to make a decision based upon conviction or maybe even in

your livelihood. I've had men and women come to me for advice concerning

that. Well, preacher, my boss asked me to do this. What should

I do? I'm telling you, it happens a lot. It may be you reason

it out that if I don't do this, then I might lose my home.

I've got to feed my kids, I have to provide shelter for my kids.

I got to have a job and you could just reason it out, the wheels

will start turning and you can all of a sudden find yourself justifying

doing what you know biblically by conviction is wrong in order to

whatever blank we need to be careful. There is no justification

for sin. There is no justification for doing wrong. Well

then what's the remedy? Well, faith is faith. Faith looks beyond

the here and now. It looks forward and says, you know what,

the here and now may satisfy my needs for now, but satisfying

my needs for now is going to hurt me in the future. Whereas I

know if I do the right thing now in the future, God will bless

me. God will take care of it. God will provide for me. He's promised

to provide for me. He's promised to supply all my needs.

He's promised that he will take care of me. I'm just going to

trust him. I'm going to put my faith in him and not in my circumstance.

I'm not going to justify in reason out that I can do this and

this and this. Because if I don't do it, bad things are going

to happen. I think you would agree had Joseph given in, he would

have never rose to power in Egypt. He would have never rose to

perimeter. He would have never saved his family. He would have never

saved the then known world from starvation had he given in to

the temptation. Doing right will always be blessed of God. Awful

quiet in here. Temptation often comes when life is going good.

Temptation often comes from unexpected places or people. Temptation

often tests our convictions versus the application of the living

out of it. Number four. Temptation appeals to our nature.

Pretty simple one. Here it's pretty simple. The strength of our

response to that temptation is the strength of our nature. In other

words, whatever is appealing to us, the Bible says, keep thy heart

with all diligence. Proverbs 4, 23, Jeremiah 17, 9 reminds us

that what our hearts are desperately wicked, who can know

it? We need to guard our hearts. We must keep watch and be

careful. We have, we are born with appetites and desires, appetites

and desires that come natural. There's no sin in having tendencies.

If we did not get hungry, we would not live. I mean, if you didn't

have a desire, a natural desire to eat, then, you know, some

of us probably would still eat anyway. But that's natural. Rubber

meets the road. The desire we have for intimacy of the opposite

sex is natural. If it was, if there was no tendency towards that,

there would be no kids. God gave us that. Hello everybody. Everybody's

looking down. It's not time to pray, you know. No, no, that's. That

was given to us and in the right place. It's honorable and godly.

And again, the Bible says the marriage bed is undefiled. So we

have these appetites and desires and many of them are given

to us by the Lord to keep the race going, the human race going,

to keep ourselves going, whatever the case may be. But many

times we allow these natural desires and natural appetites to

get out of control. One of the subjects that come up a lot is these

tendencies. Are there tendencies in a person's life that

may differ from somebody else's tendencies? The answer is

absolutely yes. Lay aside the weight. And the sin which so easily

besets you. When we talk about this a lot and we have from the pulpit

the besetting sin, and I believe everybody has a besetting

sin. The Bible proves that out. And everybody has tendencies.

One of the ones that has really come to prominence the last

few. Well, the last 10 or 20 years is. It's called SSA. It's same

sex attraction. I've been asked by multiple people in the congregation

as well as others, is that a real thing? Absolutely it is. You're

saying someone can be attracted to the same gender. I just

don't understand that, preacher. I don't get that. Well,

it is a real thing. There may be environmental things in that person's

life that has attributed to that. And I believe that nearly every

case I know of, I can tell you there was contributing factors in

that young person's life, whether it was pornography, an addiction

to pornography, or many other things that may have caused and again

influenced that same sex attraction. But it was there. There

are those who have a tendency to be alcoholics. There are those

who have a. And you can go through the entire thing where you

have this tendency. It's. You are prone to this more so than another

person. Everybody with me say amen. It's true. And you may not

understand it. I may not understand it, but we know it's true.

It's been proven scientifically. But it's also proven

in the Bible. The Bible makes that clear as well. In other words,

the devil knows what dart to throw at you. He's watching you.

And the point to that is, is same sex attraction wrong? Well,

that person may have it. What's wrong is giving into it, whether

you have that tendency or not. Amen. It's a sin to give in to that

tendency. It's a sin to give in. And I could go on and on and

on throughout the deal. But again, just because you say, well,

I was born that way, you weren't, number one. Number two,

all of us have tendencies. Yours happens to be that. That is

your besetting sin. It's your job by way of the Holy Spirit that

God gave you to not give in to that tendency. Joseph stood firm.

Joseph stood on faith. Joseph stood on grace. Whatever tendency

you may have, maybe it's your tongue and gossiping, or maybe it's

just your stinking attitude or whatever it may be, man, it's your

responsibility as a born again child of God to stand on the grace

of God to stand upon his unmerited favor and say, I know my

heavenly Father has given me victory over this and I stand firm

on faith that if I do the right thing right now that God's

going to bless that in the future. It may hurt me initially,

it may cause some damage in my own life, it may even cost me my

job. But I'm going to do the right thing no matter what. Because

I know God is going to bless that in the end. Our appetites and

desires will only get stronger if you give in to them. Man. Could

we use food as an example? I had this discussion with somebody

the other day. Do you still believe that gluttony is a sin? Absolutely,

yes. And this is why we need to be careful about pointing fingers

at people. Because again, man, we're all sinners saved by grace.

We need to be careful with the appetites and desires, even again

these that God had given us. And there is that appeal to pride,

and there is that appeal to finances. And it goes back to we

understand and know that the devil appears to us or appeals to

us through fun, fortune and fame. The lust of the eye, the pride

of life. Listen, we have to stand firm. We have to resist the

devil when we can only stand by the grace of God. I did mention

this last week. A healthy person is less likely to get sick.

I know that's profound and none of y' all would think of that

point. But a healthy person is less likely to get sick. Someone

who takes care of themselves, somebody who eats right and exercises

is less likely. I didn't say they wouldn't get sick. I said they're

less likely to get sick. And that same thing applies spiritually.

When we walk with the Lord, when we have that relationship with

him on a daily basis, when we we are less likely to give into temptation.

Number five. Temptation comes daily. The Bible says she pressed

on him daily. Every day she pressed him. Yet he stood firm in

verse 9, he responds to her and he says, there is no greater

house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee.

And because thou art his wife, how then can I do this great wickedness?

How can I cross my master? How can I betray my boss? And then again,

I love what he says next. And sin against God. So he recognizes

that it would be wrong because of his boss. But it also absolutely

ultimately is wrong because it's a sin against God. How can I

sin against God? By the way, this is the secret of victory. Understanding

that when we sin, and though we may be offending someone else

or maybe we're doing this or that, remember that ultimately that

sin is against God. It's rebellion against him. We must be

very careful. Sensual sins corrupt the heart. They weaken the

mind. I was doing a lot of reading on this. Sensual sins short

circuit your brain. And I won't go into. We actually preached

on this a couple years ago how the brain works when it comes to

especially sensual. Our sensual being. And I'm telling you,

the brain is an amazing, amazing thing. But it will short

circuit when it comes to these appetites again, that come natural.

But when we allow them and we feed them and we allow them to go

too far, the brain can short circuit. By the way, I don't want

to make that as an excuse. It's not an excuse because your brain

short circuited. It's short circuited because you gave in to

the sin. Somebody has said this. And by the way, the book I

got this out of was written in the middle 1800s. And the author

said this. The surest way to national ruin is sensual sins. How

would the author from the 1800s know that? Pretty easy. Go

back and read history, whether it's Rome or Greece. I mean, just

go back and we know America is headed that way. He also said it

this way. He said, a society, in not condemning this sin, talking

about sensual sin condemns itself. Society as a whole that does

not condemn sexual sins is condemning itself. Ultimately, a

nation who does not condemn sin will find itself in ruins. Because

it's happened every time in history. Not once, not twice, every

time, man, America. Once our politicians started condoning sin,

then our judges started backing them up. Pray for America.

Pray for America. I'm thankful for a little space of grace. We see

that now and again. When some politicians stand up for morality

and for Judeo Christian ethics, which our country was founded

upon. No matter what the liberals say, they try to rewrite

history. I'm telling you, that is not a conspiracy. Theory, that

is fact. The liberals love to rewrite history. We need to be careful.

Let me give you some application tonight. So what do we

do? Well, let's think about it. Second Timothy says, flee, also

youthful. Thus, what did Joseph do when he was tempted? He

fled. He ran. He ran so fast he came right out of his coat. That's

pretty fast. Romans tells us to make no provision for the flesh.

Don't even put yourself in that position. Be careful. Be careful.

And again, a lot of reading that I was doing, some commentaries

said, well, Joseph was wrong for going in the house because he

was by himself, alone with her. But if you're doing a job, sometimes

you're going to be put in that position. You may have no choice.

You're going to have to stand firm on the grace of God. Make no

provision for the flesh. Number two, remember that God is

omnipresent. He's everywhere. He sees everything. By the way, this

is not just a message for. We repeat that to kids all the time.

Hey, remember now, when mom and dad are not around, God is watching

you. Hey, adults, you know he's watching you, too. He's watching

us. He is there. No matter if it's dark or light, no matter if

you're in the depths of hell or the heights of heaven. The psalmist

says, he is there. Number four. With character comes prosperity.

You want to be a prosperous person, Be a person of character.

Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat

of the scornful. For his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And his law doth he meditate day and night, day and night. And

he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that

bringeth forth his fruit in his season. And whatsoever. And I'm

skipping a little bit. And whatsoever he doeth what shall prosper,

shall prosper. Walk with the Lord. Delight in the law of the Lord.

Be a person of integrity. I mentioned last week about every survey

still, every survey that's done with multinational or big corporations,

every one of them comes back with, we want employees with integrity.

It's usually number one on the list or number two every time. And

then there is no sin in being tempted. There is no sin in being.

Remember that. And then remember that God will not put you

in a position that is more than you can resist. That's a fact.

Because he says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, There hath no

1 Corinthians 10:13

temptation taken you, but Such as is common to man. But God will

by his grace. God is faithful, it says, to make a way for you to

escape again. It may get hot, but God has his ham on the thermostat.

He knows how much you can take. I still get a. I get a kick

out of people who have come to my office and. Preacher, I know you

preach this, but you don't understand my life. You don't understand

what I'm going through. You don't understand what I've been through

or what I'm facing. And then they tell me, and I go, and I'm kind.

I always am. And I would be kind to you, too, if you came in.

I said, you know what? I just counseled somebody about that last

week. Such as is common to man. I don't know. Rarely ever does

anything surprise me. I hardly ever, ever, ever get surprised. Because

most people. Problems in people's lives are the same. How

do we overcome those things? Submit yourself, therefore, unto

God. Resist the devil. And what? He will flee from you? Abide

in Christ. Be a healthy Christian. A healthy Christian is

less likely to fall into temptation. Walk with him. Galatians,

chapter five. And y' all know this verse, Walk in the Spirit. What?

And ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. A match. It's

a lot harder to get a fire going if you've got wet wood. A lot

harder to strike a match and light things if they're wet. It's

hard to get a big flame going. You might get a small one going for

a minute, but it's hard to get a big flame going if you've got wet

wood. Most of you see the illustration. I'm telling you, we

need to walk with the Lord. We're less likely to see a flame

get started in our life that shouldn't be there. It is the Lord

who keep the flame from burning a hole in our lives. Because

that's what happens when we give into temptation. It burns a

hole in our life many times that will affect you for years and

years and years. That's why God always has his best interest,

your best interest in mind. There's a reason why there's do's

and don'ts in the Bible. Because he put them there for our

good. I read that again the other day in the Old Testament. That

the laws he gave Israel, he said, were for their good. Every

one of them. I'm thankful one day that we'll receive a glorified

body. Aren't you? One day the trumpet will sound. One day the Bible

says that we will be changed in the moment of a twinkling of an

eye at the last trump when we see him, the Bible says we will be

like him. That glorified body that no longer has those natural

tendencies. That body that no longer craves to do things it should

not do. A spirit that no longer burns within us to do things

that are at enmity with God. It's going to be an amazing time,

isn't it? No longer that war within that Paul describes in Romans,

chapter seven. That war that struggles the spirit. The Bible.

I didn't finish the verse over. In Galatians 5. It says, for

the Spirit wareth against the flesh, there's a great struggle,

isn't there? I'm thankful for the grace of God. I'm thankful for

the grace of God that helps us to overcome sin. I'm also thankful

for the grace of God that allows our sins to be forgiven. And

as we said last Sunday, when it came to Joshua, what do you do

when you fail? He said to Joshua, get back up. Go forward.

They built an altar. God forgave them and he forgives us.

What a gracious God we have. Amen. Be careful. What an example

Joseph is for us in our lives. Let's all stand. We're going to sing

hymn 350. Where he leads, I will go after we pray. Heavenly Father,

we again thank you for the example that Joseph has set for us.

Lord, may we follow his example. May we flee the temptations

in which we can. And Lord, may we walk close to you in order that

we might have a healthy spiritual life and in order that

we might overcome those sins. Lord, you promised in your word that

you would save us from the power of sin. And we know you have.

And Lord, help us to reckon that. Help us to reckon that promise,

to accept that promise, to believe that promise. Lord, may we

have faith in you. In Jesus name, amen.