Genesis 39. Joseph. Joseph is a remarkable example of an Old Testament saint. Realize that as you read the life of Joseph, there is no clear record of sins or failures upon his part, unlike other great saints of the Bible. Abraham, each of these, we have clear records of their failings, makes them very human in our minds. Moses, David, but for Joseph, no such failure is recorded. In fact, in Genesis 49, 22 through 26, in Jacob's blessing upon his sons at the end of his life, His blessing upon Joseph. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. Its branches run over a wall and it speaks of his fruitfulness and his usefulness and his productivity. And it's like a vine that just, you know, vines just grow like crazy. You get one in your garden or in your flower bed or under a your shrub, and it just pops up all over. There's just no stopping it. Well, Joseph, his fruitfulness was like that, and you read his life and think about it. Very true. But he faced great opposition. The next verse, the archers bitterly attacked him and shot at him and harassed him, and you think his brothers and being sold as a slave and being The whole situation in Potiphar's house, the injustice, he ends up in prison, and yet in each case, verse 24, but his bow remained firm and his arms were agile. He did his part, but God helped him from the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, from the God of your Father who helps you and by the Almighty who blesses you." Well, that's the story of Joseph's life. Great productivity, great opposition, great effort, and great grace of God. Well, Genesis 39 is one incident in his life, and you have to realize, as you read about Joseph, that Joseph unlike ourselves. Joseph didn't have a Bible. Joseph didn't have a church. Joseph didn't have Christian brothers or friends. He had no accountability partner. He had no wife at this point in his life. He was alone in a godless culture. And to boot, He was a successful man. We will read this here. And he was surrounded by the temptations of success and prosperity. The downside of the upside is that you think life just goes on like this. You know what it's like. If you're in tribulation and suffering, you're looking to God, hopefully. But when times are good and things are rolling, much greater occasion for sin, especially for sexual temptation. But Joseph remained pure against all odds. As we've just recounted, Joseph shows us the way. Let's read Genesis 39. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, brought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. And the Lord was with Joseph. So he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now, his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant. And he made him overseer over his house. And all that he owned, he put in his charge. And it came about From the time he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house on account of Joseph. Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field. So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge, and with him around he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate." Now, Joseph was handsome in form and appearance, and it came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, Lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, with me around my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I. And he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil in sin against God?" And it came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day. that he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household were there inside. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called to the men of the household and said to them, See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us. He came in to me. to lie with me and I screamed and it came about when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside. So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with these words, The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came into me to make sport of me and it happened as I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled outside. Now it came about when his master heard the words of his wife which she spoke to him saying, This is what your slave did to me that his anger burned. So Joseph's master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in the jail. But the Lord was with Joseph, and on it goes. Well, Joseph had experienced success. He had been exalted through his own initiative, but more importantly, through the blessing of God. Verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph. so that he became a successful man. Where did your success come from, Joseph? Well, I did a lot of stuff. I did a lot of stuff right, but the Lord was with Joseph. Verse 3, the Lord caused all that he did to prosper. It didn't just happen. He wasn't just smart. He wasn't just diligent. The Lord caused all that he did to prosper. Verse 4, so, as a result, Joseph found favor in Potiphar's sight. The result was, verses 4-6, that he was entrusted with everything. Verse 6, now, Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. So you've got a guy who's highly successful. And then we find out that he was successful, he was an in-charge, and he was handsome in form and appearance. He was physically attractive, he was built, and this made him the target of desire for Potiphar's wife. And consider that Joseph's situation made him particularly vulnerable. Think of the anonymity of the situation. We feel, I think I speak for you, We feel greater temptation in anonymous situations, when you're traveling, when you're somewhere where nobody knows you, far from friends and family. Your reputation is not at stake. Who would know? Joseph's off in Egypt. So he's particularly vulnerable. And then it's his boss's wife. I mean, that has all kinds of dynamics. And she's coming on. How do you refuse that? Joseph was in a tough situation, but Joseph was successful not just in the management of Potiphar's household, but in the management of his own purity and desires. Unlike Cain, remember Cain? Genesis 4, verse 7, and Cain became very angry and his countenance fell, and the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door like a tiger ready to spring upon you. Sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. So we face that. Joseph faced that sin, was crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it. Cain failed utterly. Joseph did not. So Joseph has much to teach us about maintaining purity in hostile circumstances. Do we live in circumstances that are hostile to purity? Yeah. I mean, this isn't the first time in the world. There was Rome. There was all these other situations. You know, America in the 21st century is right down there. It's smelling like it's at the bottom. And that's, so that's what we face. But Joseph, Joseph has some things to teach us. Well, what were Joseph's, oops, what were Joseph's strategies against sexual temptation? The first one. refused. Genesis 39, verses 7 and 8. It came about after these events, successful, in charge, handsome in form and appearance, after these events, that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph. She takes initiative and she said, lie with me. So what is Joseph's response to her coming on? But he refused. But he refused. First strategy against temptation? Just say no. And the whole matter really is less complicated than we often make it. We often create our own problems. But we don't just say no. And we think about it, and we argue about it, and we fill the poll, and therefore we enter the discussion. Should we? Shouldn't we? Why shouldn't we? This blah, blah, blah. And we justify engaging with the culture and getting involved with stuff and situations that we have no business doing. and temptation allures and beckons. Oh yeah, it's the nature of the thing. Beauty is real, sex is real, sexual desire is real, and it's good in its place. The thing growing in the garden is good, but when it's growing somewhere else, it's a weed. So temptation allures, and we dally with temptation, and we consider it, and we engage in dialogue with it, and we ponder the pros and cons, and that's when we suffer harm. We must not start the conversation. What did Joseph do? But he refused. No. No discussion. No talking about it. Consideration, just say no. Rapidly, instantly, decisively, many difficult and ensnaring temptations would be avoided if we would just instantly and decisively and instinctively say no. Proverbs 6, 27 and 28. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? If you play with fire, you will be burned. You bring the concept, you bring the thought, you take the situation, you get close to it, you bring a fire in your bosom, and you will be burned. I don't care what you decide not to do, but messing around Playing with temptation, thinking about it, engaging with it. Take fire in your bosom, you will be burned. Take your tennis shoes off and you walk on hot coals, you will have your feet scorched. If you keep your hand on a hot stove, well, the stove is hot. Get your hand off right now. It will hurt. The stove will burn your hand. You might even be scarred for life from that moment. Turn your eyes away. Remove yourself. Take a clear stand. 1 Peter 5, 8 and 9. Read this to you. The sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So quite an adversary. Prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith. So what do you do? What do you do when you're facing a lion? who's hungry, seeking someone to devour. It says, but resist him, firm in your faith. What's the implications? It means that can be done. Firm in your faith, believing that God will deliver you. But he's a lion. No, no, no, no. Firm in your faith. Resist him, despite the strength, the threatening, the risk, but resist him firm in your faith. And the same word is used in James with reference to the devil. James 4 in verse 7. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Firm in your faith, believing God's promises. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. I don't care if he's a roaring lion. I don't care if he's a man-eating lion. I don't care if he's right there coming at you. You can smell his breath and see the saliva dripping. Don't move. It's too close for comfort. Resist him. And he will flee from you. That's what God says. That's what we're saying. Refuse. Say no. Second strategy against temptation is reason. Back to Genesis 39. But he refused and said to his master's wife, He not only said no, but he has something to say. See, the problem is that lust is essentially irrational. It's a non-thinking desire. We want, even though we know the consequences, the risks, what's at stake, but we still want. We want, even though we know lust and reason. Lust is an eager desire and it has nothing to do with what makes sense. It springs forth from your pleasures, James 4, 1 and 2. Where does conflict and so on come from? It springs from your pleasures. And you've got the whole business in James 1. Sin comes from temptation. Temptation comes from your desires. And so it all comes from what pleases me, what I want. Now, pleasure may unavoidably lead to pain, and I may know that, but the deal is I still want it. The consequences may be short, not just long term, but the consequences may be short term. Like, I know what's going to happen, but I still want it. The risk is great, but I still want it. Your pleasures makes no sense. Makes no sense. And Samson's the great example here. Remember Judges 14, 1-3. So Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines, and I'll therefore get her for me as a wife. His father and mother argue, and he said to his father, get her for me, for she looks good to me. New King James says, for she pleases me. Well, like I want her. That's what he's saying. Now here's a guy with a heavenly calling. He's going to be a judge. supposed to deliver the people, and God triumphs over his failures and does use him to deliver, but it was quite irrational. And the story goes on. You go into the whole Delilah thing, and he loved a woman, this Delilah, and even though, and I can see we have time problems here, so I'll give you the highlights. Go read Judges 16, verses 4, 9, 12 and 14. He loved a woman and she's like trying to destroy him. And throughout the period of this temptation, you can see it. It's obvious to him. You know, she calls the Philistines. Dude, what are you doing? You are destroying yourself. But he still wants her. And he keeps on going down the path. What are you doing? Or is it so foreign to our experience? Well, Joseph shows us the way, but he refused and said. Joseph had reasons for saying no to his own desires, but he refused and said. Joseph countered the pull of selfish pleasure with substantial and solid reasons. And notice that he refused first and reasoned second. That's very different from reasoning first and refusing second, because once you start arguing, you lose too many of the arguments, especially when you're arguing with lust. It leaves us vulnerable to false arguments prompted by our pleasures, but he refused and said. Joseph had trained his mind and heart to react to temptation in ways that makes sense. So he may have been in Potiphar's house for up to 10 years, and I was going to show this to you from the text, but we'll skip that. Could have been less. It's hard to know. Could have been five years. But he was there for a while. How long was he exposed to powder for his wife? We don't know. But it was not a short amount of time. Genesis 39.10, day after day, she spoke to Joseph day after day. He had to deal with this on a sustained basis. So what happens? He resists her during the day, and at night he goes to his apartment and he still has to combat the memories and the images. What does he do? He rehearses in his mind why this pleasure makes no sense, why it is destructive. He meditates upon it until it becomes part of him. And again, Joseph didn't have a Bible. Moses, who writes the book of Genesis, doesn't appear on the scene for 400 years yet. Now, if he had a Bible, he would have had an inspired source of arguments and reasons against temptations and sin. This is the sword of the Spirit, the only offensive weapon in the Christian's set of resources, his armor. Psalm 119, how can a young man keep his way pure? How do you do it? By keeping it according to thy words. So I need God's word to lay it out for me. What to do every step of the way. Keep my life according to your word. How do I think? What do I do in this situation? How do I regard that? I take the word of God as my instruction for the next inch of my journey. But Joseph didn't have a Bible. We have a Bible. We need to use it. So we should primarily, though not exclusively, go to the Bible for our reasoning with pleasure. As we imitate Joseph and as we absorb the texts of Scripture and they become part of us, we can quote them to the devil as we are tempted by him on a daily basis. Well, how did Joseph reason with himself first and with Potiphar's wife second? The first argument is the argument of trust, verse 8. He refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, with me around, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. He has entrusted it all to me. My master trusts me. How can I betray him?" This would be the ultimate betrayal of Potiphar, wouldn't it? Trust is a major argument in the battle for purity. Who trusts you? Who counts on you? Who believes in you? Who looks to you? Who needs you? Your parents? Your friends? Your brothers and sisters in Christ? Unbelievers? What's a Christian? I know this guy. Your wife, to whom you have vowed who counts on you to listen to her and to support her and to be faithful to her and who gives of herself physically, freely to you. She's entrusted herself to you. Your children, they look to you. They follow you. When they're young and very vivid and compelling sorts of ways, they imitate how you walk or how you talk. They're watching you. They're building their lives based on their trust in you. They're going to follow you wherever you go, whatever you do. They trust you. You can't betray them. A big reason for purity. Second reason. Whoa, how did that happen? Well, there you go. That'll help us go faster. Privilege. The second reason. Verse 9. There is no one greater in this house than I. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. I've been given such privilege, like I was a slave coming into Egypt, and here I am. A big guy like Potiphar, I'm in charge of his house. I have such privilege. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, remember Genesis 2.16 and 17. from any tree of the garden you may eat freely." So many things in life to enjoy. Here was Adam and Eve. And the garden is filled with trees. Trees, trees, trees. Filled with trees. Every good thing that God has created is theirs to enjoy. I mean, you want fruit, you can have a whatever. And then along comes Satan. And he says, hey, so I heard you can't eat of the fruit of this tree. The one that God had said no. Like the world is filled with good things. And they say, oh yeah, oh man, we can't even touch it, you know, which was a lie. Well, so in temptation we focus on the forbidden fruit. And God has given us a life full of things to enjoy. But all those skies will become gray the day we taste the forbidden fruit. Everything changes. Everything crumbles. privilege, or Nathan coming to David and gives him the parable after his sin in order to expose his sin, 2 Samuel 12. There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, and the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom. It was like a daughter to him. traveler came to the rich man, and he has flocks and herds, but no, he comes and takes the little ewe lamb of the poor man. And so, that's a picture of what God had done in David's life. I gave you your master's house, your master's wives, I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. If that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these. But we focus on the forbidden fruit, what we don't have. You see, much is lost when we sin. Not only a clear conscience, but respect and reputation and public profile and usefulness to God. We lose our focus in life. We're so distracted because the forbidden fruit has a bewitching appeal, a tug at my heart. Privilege. Trust. Privilege. Third argument. I should just stop there. The sacredness of marriage. There is no one greater in this house than I. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. We need to understand what marriage is. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Matthew 19.6, From the beginning it was not so. What God has joined together, let no man separate. God made marriage, and God created this bond. It is a covenant. There is a relationship of intimacy and trust. And God did something there in terms of the chemistry and the physics and the karma. What's going on? Sacredness of marriage, because you are his wife. I don't think we really think about the sacredness of marriage like God does. God talks about two kinds of sexual sins, two categories. One's fornication and the other's adultery. And the difference is adultery is the breaking of a marriage bond. It's totally, it's its own category. Why? Because it breaks the marriage bond. It's a sacred thing. Because you are his wife. And of course, you are her husband. Fourth reason, sin is evil. How then could I do this great evil? And so we must ignore the fact that sin is evil in order to sin. We must deceive ourselves and pretend, well, evil is good, or sin doesn't matter, or there is no evil or good. We won't really sin, and we're not going to really go ahead. We'll just play around. We'll just flirt with the temptation. No one will really know. God won't know. He doesn't even seem real in this moment. Well, God won't punish. All kinds of lies, Satan's lies, lies accepted by our culture. If we are to resist temptation, we must keep before us the fact that sin is evil. This is sin. We must call it sin no matter what our generation says, no matter what the devil may whisper, no matter what our desires for pleasure may insinuate. Sin is evil. 51-4. How can I do this great evil if we had time? 1 Corinthians 6, 12-20. Five ways in which sexual immorality is a great evil. Well then, sin is against God. Messed up on PowerPoint, sorry. How then can I do this great evil and sin against God. Well, this is the best way to keep perspective, because our man-word and self-word perspectives become very confused and muddled, especially in the intense heat of temptation. And, you know, you think about sin as evil, okay, so here I am, and I may sin against another person, or various other people. And there is clearly a horizontal aspect to sin, and we may say the Ten Commandments, you know, thou shalt not, so I would, so sin is evil, but when we, if we realize the presence of the great God in our sphere of existence, and that this, it's not only that sin is evil, and sin is injurious, The sin has consequences, but the sin is against God. That's a whole different dimension. God defines himself as I am. And the fact that God is, the fact that God is, is a life-changing perspective. You view everything differently. And I would view every temptation differently if I remember that God is right when He says, I am, rather than He disappears when I feel like I want something. How can I do this great evil and sin against God? God sees. God knows. God's law governs. God cares about what I do. Not just in general. God cares about what I do. And God will judge. I will have to face Him someday for this moment. To sin against man, Joseph himself, Potiphar's wife. To sin against God. This is what matters most. What is it to sin against God? Look at the cross. That defines it. If sin wasn't against God, Jesus would never have come to earth. He would have never suffered for you and for me. There would have been no cross, but sin is against God, and the cross is the evidence of it. Psalm 51, 4, "...against thee, the only, have I sinned." So all of those were Joseph's reasons. So Joseph's strategies, refuse reason and then resist. Genesis 39.10, it came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day that he did not listen to her, to lie beside her or be with her. And so there were two crisis events in this whole situation. In the first place, she came on, I think it was verse 7, lie this, come lie with me. Then later on, there's this business, the final thing, the mountain peak of, you know, they're alone in the house. You know, God often gives us grace in a crisis, right? So there were these two crises, but life consists of the plane between the mountains, the valley. He had to, day by day, day by day, day by day, she spoke to him. Day by day, she came on to him. Day by day, she was available and beckoning. And life is in the valley. There's a limited number of mountain peaks, but life is on the plane. the Chinese water torture of repeated suggestions and seductions. And it's not only the overt and blatant temptations, but the persistent daily invitations are what can wear us down, catch us with our guard down, and be predictive of how we'll handle the big ones when they do come, day after day. What was Joseph's response? He did not listen. It's not that he manfully overcame, but his commitment to purity manifested himself that he didn't even switch the radio on. He wasn't in touch. He didn't listen. He wasn't on that wavelength. Resist. and then avoid opportunities for temptation. He did not listen to her, to lie beside her or be with her. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust. Making provision for the flesh is not necessarily a sinful choice. But it creates an opportunity. You've got to eliminate the options. They can't be on the menu. It can't be available. Make some other choices. Go someplace else. Do something else. Get out of there. Avoid opportunities for temptation. Not just opportunities for sin. Avoid opportunities for temptation. Different ones will make different choices. There are areas for liberty here. We'll give up our liberty to avoid sin. Proverbs 5.8, very important verse, keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house. If she lives over there, you ain't going to go on that street. It's not just I'm not going to drive by and not slow down. Keep your way far from her. I'm going to go that way. Don't even go near the door of her house. You will never be in her bed. If you never enter her house, if you never go near the door of her house, avoid opportunities. And then finally, run. Okay, we got that. Genesis 39, 12. We've read that already. Secrecy and solitude are favorable to temptation. So get out of there. 2 Timothy 2.22. Now flee from youthful lust. This is a strategy. Run. We're not talking about being strong. Getting out of there. Could be physically. Might not be. Because in sexual temptation, there's this mesmerization. You get under the spell, and reason flees, and you get in the zone of fantasy where all the rules change, and you need to break the spell. It could be a phone call to your brother. Here's the deal. and you talk, and within 30 seconds, you return to reality. That's fleeing. That's fleeing. You need to have those relationships set up so that you've got somebody to call. Who are you going to call? Because not all opportunities can be avoided, and not all is going to happen. flee. Just get out of there. Well, here we go. Another summer. Guys, how are you going to handle it? May God give us grace. May God give us grace to be like Joseph. Lord, we thank you that your word is true, that you have given us all that we need. We thank you for the Spirit of God. We thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for our brothers. We pray that you will help us to remain pure by your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.