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, 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 chapter 50 it says that.

Or Genesis chapter 48, it says they, 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.

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.

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.