In this Lord's Day morning, I'd like to speak to you about Joseph, and then next week, God willing, I'd like to speak to you about Mary. So please turn to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. We read most of the section that we'll be talking about, although we'll be also looking at a few verses in the latter part of chapter two. So we already had this passage read to us this morning. And so let us pray as we begin to consider this wonderful man of God named Joseph. Dear God, we We truly thank you for the lives of those saints of old in whose hearts you worked and whom you called and whom you used. Lord, we're thankful and we thank you for Joseph and pray that especially the men here in this congregation to whom this message is really directed will be strengthened that we all may see how you work and how how true believers respond to your work. And so strengthen us as men and use us, Father, and encourage all of our hearts, man or woman, boy or girl, with the great work that you did through these very ordinary saints, Mary and Joseph. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. This is really a sketch, just a sketch of the life of Joseph from the Gospel of Matthew. And not much is told to us about Joseph, but there's plenty enough there to have a sketch. And I hope that and I think that it will be an encouragement to you as you think about Joseph with me today. And I'd like to make four points about Joseph, and I'll tell you the four points up front so you know where we're headed, and then we'll look at them one by one. I'd like to talk about how Joseph was a hardworking man. He was a hardworking man. Secondly, he was a righteous man. Thirdly, he was a point man. And fourthly, he was a happy man. Joseph was a hardworking man. He was a carpenter. This is actually stated in Matthew 13, 55. It's not stated here. He was a worker in wood. Some think maybe also wood and stone. It doesn't really matter, but that's possible. He was a builder. You know how builders are. They have to work hard. Not to say that only builders work hard, but it's hard work. He's a builder. He's in construction. He's a tradesman. He gets jobs. He gets contracts. He has to build things. He has to build things on time to meet needs of agriculture and other things that people need to live their lives in their homes. He works with his hands. And that doesn't just happen. You know, that tradesman who work in craft, well, just like any other industry, you have to work, you have to train for it. That's true. And so, training himself for this work when he was younger, just as you can assume from the biblical text that Jesus did the same thing when he was living under Joseph's roof. Because he also worked in wood, he was a carpenter also. And we have, and I thought of quoting from some of the Jewish writers, it's fascinating if you have ever read any of the works of Alfred Edersheim, well you know that in the 19th century Alfred Edersheim was a converted Jew, so he had a great love of Jewish antiquities and so he did a lot of research and he He read the Jewish writings very, very carefully. And so then he wrote The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. I'm sure you're familiar with that work. He wrote sketches of Jewish social life in the days of Jesus. He wrote a book on the temple. And so Alfred Edersheim, although sometimes it's a challenge to read read, he has a lot of helpful information. And I was just reading over quotes this week from the Mishnah, the Jewish writings, about what the rabbi said about working, how important work was, and how important it was to teach your son a trade. And all of these things are just so fascinating. And so It doesn't tell you here in Matthew 1 that Joseph was a hard worker, does it? You say, Pastor, give me the passage in verse, chapter and verse. Well, I'm saying, sometimes in Scripture you have a window, a window into a whole world. And when you read in Matthew 13, 55 that Joseph was a carpenter, And you see how he trained his son to be a carpenter that opens up a window into that whole world in Judaism of work and trade. And so it is right for us to conclude that Joseph was a hardworking man. And so let me point out three things about this. First, as I already hinted at, Jewish fathers believed that they should teach their son a trade. And there are many really fascinating quotes, as I said, from the rabbis, how important it was. If you don't teach your son a trade, he may be a villain. He may go out and do harm. He will have no solid foundation. And although we might not be teaching our sons a particular trade, we certainly are preparing them to work and to go out into the world of business and how to function there and how to succeed there. And every one of you parents has this concern, and it's related to this. But in Judaism, the father believed that they should teach their son a particular trade. And I was reading about all the different rabbis and how the different trades that they had. So that's the first observation. Second observation is that this is consistent with the work ethic that is taught in the Old Testament. It's consistent with the work ethic that is taught in the Old Testament. You say, where do you find a biblical work ethic in the Old Testament? Well, a biblical work ethic in the Old Testament begins with the Decalogue, with the Ten Commandments. And woven into the whole unbreakable fabric of the Ten Commandments is the fourth commandment, which teaches not only a work ethic, six days you shall work. There's the basis of it. Six days you shall work. So you have the work ethic and what I also call the rest ethic. The work ethic goes with the rest ethic. Sometimes people have a good work ethic but they have a horrible rest ethic. And their lives are just centered around their work. And they don't have a rest ethic. They don't have a worship ethic. But the fourth commandment puts the two together as a basic foundation for living life in this world. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, for his good, for his well-being. And that's part of that ethic, that ethical system. But the work ethic that is found in the Old Testament is not just in the Decalogue and the Fourth Commandment and that whole worldview that is presented in the Ten Commandments, but also in the wisdom literature of the Proverbs, for example. And this is our most most broad and profound expression of what a biblical work ethic is. The work ethic is developed in the book of Proverbs, where important principles are set forth in very memorable ways, and sometimes in funny ways, or ways that you just laugh and you say, well, I would never want to be that way. Where we are taught the principles of working hard, working with honesty, working ethically, And all these principles and more are laid out. And then you have, in addition to that, in the work ethic of the Old Testament, you have another contribution, which is also extremely important, and that is the contribution that the book of Ecclesiastes makes to a biblical work ethic. And there, and I'm just really breezing over these or the sermon would take too long, is in the biblical ethic of the book of Ecclesiastes, we learn the principle of not allowing our work to be a vain pursuit. And what Ecclesiastes is saying is that without God, work is vain. Because a man works, and he works, and he works, and he works, and he doesn't have God in his life, and therefore his work is meaningless. All that he works for, eventually he loses, he goes away, and he departs from this life. And Ecclesiastes is dealing with the principle of vanity. When man is at his worst, when he has shut out God, when he has ignored God, he finds himself lamenting and saying, vanity, of vanities, all is vanity. I'm just on a roller coaster. I'm just doing the same thing over and over again. I don't see any real purpose in my life. And so all these things contribute to the biblical work ethic. And what all I'm saying here this morning is that Joseph was a hard-working man because he had a biblical work ethic. And thirdly, third observation under this point is that we see that Jesus, the son of Joseph, followed, the son of this Joseph, followed in this work. We also see that other men of God whom he used to build his kingdom when Christ came into the world also were men who were hard-working men. Take the disciples, for example. A number of them were fishermen. And we'll just focus on those, and we won't wanna talk about the hardworking Matthew out there collecting the taxes. That's not a very popular subject. And not really a great occupation to get into. Anyway, the ladies in the tax office at Hainesport, I mean, they're really nice ladies, and when I go to pay the tax, I smile, and they smile back. But anyway. Several of the disciples were fishermen. Now, think about this. Jesus chooses these fishermen. You think, well, oh, these guys are just fishermen. Well, from all that we can glean from historical studies, these men were businessmen. These weren't just guys who went out every day to catch a few fish or maybe one net of fish. These were guys who were involved in industry. They were supplying fish to the Roman world. There was a great trade up there from the Sea of Galilee. These were hardworking businessmen. Jesus chose men who worked hard in their work. They, too, had a biblical work ethic. And then take the other example of Paul, the apostle. who had a right not to work. And Paul establishes this principle in Corinthians, and he establishes it for the church in all ages, that if you want the church to grow, then ministers have to be set aside and compensated for their work. In some unusual cases, a man has to be what we call a tent-making pastor, but it's not ideal. You say, well, why did Paul do it? Well, Paul did it because he had a unique situation, because people were accusing him of being in this work for the money. And also Paul was trying to teach people to work hard because he was working in churches where you had raw converted Gentiles who just spent their lives on pleasure and on themselves and lascivious kind of living. And so Paul had to teach them to work hard. And he said many important things in the letters to the Thessalonians about this point. So here you see that Joseph is seen in his place with other hard-working men in the Old Testament and even in the Gospel period. Now when you think about this, Joseph being a hard-working man, and teaching this trade to his son, the Lord Jesus, we see that Joseph was a true Jew. Remember how Paul talks about Jews and then real Jews or true Jews, a true Jew. He talks about that in Romans, the end of Romans chapter two. You have in the birth narratives, Mary. You have Joseph. You have Zacharias. Elizabeth, Luke chapter 1, verse 6, they were both righteous, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. So they were all blameless. Luke 1, 6, you have Anna, you have Simeon, and you have these vignettes of these faithful people, and you look at the six of them and you say, well, what do these six people represent? Well, they represent the best of Israel. And it shows us that when God brought His Son into the world, He used the very best of Israel, the best people. They were righteous. And they were righteous even in this regard, as Joseph was here, a hard-working man. And in this sense, I almost call this point, Joseph was an ordinary man. But I thought it sounded too vague and just sounded too ordinary. And it just didn't seem to do credit to what kind of man Joseph was. So instead of saying Joseph was an ordinary man, I say he was a hardworking man. But on the other hand, he was an ordinary person. Maybe you think that about yourself. You know, I'm a hardworking man. I just work and I provide for my family. And there's nothing special about me. And OK. That's a good, humble approach to life and yourself. That's the way Joseph was. And it's good to provide for your own. And it's good to work hard. And it's good to make sure that not only you hold down a job, but that you do well in your work, and you prosper, and you succeed, and you advance where you can. But I think that the study of Joseph will help all of us men to see that that's not all there is. to living and glorifying God. So Joseph was a hard-working man. Secondly, Joseph was a righteous man. Now here, the text explicitly says this in verse 19. And notice how it's worded, being a righteous man. Notice the word being, being a righteous man. Now after saying this, he begins to describe the situation in which Joseph found himself, a very troubling situation, about his wife or wife-to-be, Mary. But notice how it's stated, being a righteous man, this is how he responded to that particular circumstance. So it's not saying that he was righteous only in this response. It's saying that he was righteous in every area of his life, and being that kind of man, this is how he responded to this, which to him was a crisis. And that's where we say, why we said first, he was a hard-working man. That was part of his righteousness. His biblical work ethic that he had was one part of the many facets of Joseph's righteous character. But here, he was righteous in every respect, being a righteous man. And now, in this particular matter, he also shows or demonstrates or applies his righteous character to the way that he responds to this situation. Verse 19, Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. Now, In verse 18, it says that he had been betrothed to, she had been betrothed to Joseph. The word betrothed there means pledged in marriage. So she was pledged to marry Joseph. And before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And that word she was found to be means that it became public. It became known to Joseph and maybe to some others, maybe close family, but not public. Now the betrothal, as you know, is more than our engagement, because an engagement can be broken. But a betrothal was basically a marriage without the consummation of the marriage, and the only way to break the betrothal commitment was to actually divorce. And that's what he considered doing, as we shall see. And this takes you back to Deuteronomy chapter 24, where God did give a provision or make a provision for divorce in Deuteronomy chapter 24. And that's an interesting passage, a unique passage, and we obviously, it would not be necessary for us to go into that passage this morning, or we would really be taking somewhat of a tangent. But God did make a provision, that's the first thing. He did make a provision, and Joseph considered that this provision could be used in this case based on what he perceived to be her infidelity. So, betrothal was a legally binding contract, was signed by witnesses, we are told, And if the betrothed husband were to die before the marriage was consummated, she would be considered a widow. That's the evidence of the binding nature of this relationship. Now Grant Osborne in his commentary notes, and I quote, that the term righteous has both a spiritual and legal connotation. And I think he's right there. The term righteous here has both a spiritual, that is righteous, and legal, that is just, the word just. Joseph is righteous and he's just. And Osborne says, probably both are intended here. He says, as a person, he was faithful to God and His laws, and as a husband, he acted with justice toward Mary. See that, as a man before God, he kept God and His laws, but in relationship to Mary, he acted with justice toward Mary. Another writer says that Matthew invites his audience to learn from Joseph's character about fidelity, discipline, and preferring God's honor above one's own. And surely, as we read this narrative, we feel for Joseph, don't we? He's surprised, he's shocked, based on what he knows at that point. He's shocked, he's surprised, he's disappointed. But notice also in verse 19, it says, he did not want to disgrace her. So I would say he's also compassionate. He feels compassion. He feels pity for her. How do we feel when someone, someone that we know, or maybe even someone we love, sins grievously? How should we feel? What should be our first gut response to that? Well, what was Joseph's? Compassion. Justice and compassion. Because he's a righteous man, he knows that he needs to do something that is righteous, that is just, the right thing to do. And based on what he knows, and his betrothed Mary has sinned, she has been unfaithful, she has committed infidelity. Based on that, he must take action. But he's also compassionate. And as he does not want to disgrace her, so he plans to send her away privately. According to Jewish tradition, This would be done by giving her a writ or a certificate of divorce, the same one required in Deuteronomy 24, privately in front of two witnesses, rather than in front of the whole town. That's what I think is meant here, to do it privately. Two witnesses were required, but not before the whole town, to shame her. Remember the story of the adulterous woman in John chapter seven? And it was very public, and they were gonna stone her, and it was a public scene. She was to be shamed for her infidelity. Well, Joseph does not want that to happen to her. And it's a special mark of Joseph's character, which a lesser man may not have been able to do. Because when you have personal hurt or disappointment, or if you emphasize justice to such an extreme, you might say, well, this is what this person deserves, justice, ultimate justice, or justice to the max. which for her would have meant some kind of public shaming. But being a righteous man, he does not want to shame her or disgrace her, because he still loves her. He cares for her. He's now clearly sympathetic toward her. But this is what he must do. So he doesn't give her, he doesn't fully give her what she deserves. He shows grace and compassion to her. So Joseph was a righteous man. Thirdly, Joseph was a point man. He was a point man. He was God's point man. Now, I looked up the definition of a point man. I've heard that term many times and I think I know what it means, but I always try to look at the definition to see if I'm missing something or if there's something more I can add. But a point man is a person who at the forefront of an activity or an endeavor. In business, you want to accomplish some task, you look for a point man, a lead person. Because that person, you need that person to move forward. That's all we mean. So Joseph is a point man in a sense that he has such an important role in the virgin conception. Obviously, he's a point man because he's the father, he's to be the father of the child. So far, he doesn't have the knowledge that he needs to proceed in the right direction, but God has to deal with him. Because that's what you do with the point man. You deal with the point man. You equip the point man. You give direction to the point man. You share the vision with the point man. So the point man can take the work further and make the vision a reality. And so in this sense, Joseph is the most important person here because he's to be the husband of Mary and she's to have a virgin conception, which creates numerous difficulties here in this proposed ordinary marriage of these two young Jewish people, man and woman. As I said, he's a point man because he has such an important role in the virgin conceptions, particularly because the virgin conception is the, you might say, the practical problem for Joseph and Mary, as we shall see next week. That's a practical problem for her. You know, how can this be? And she's thinking about how people are going, what people are going to say. And she's thinking of all these different things that are going to happen to her as a result of this virgin conception. The problem is for both of them. He's also the point man, because God has revealed to Joseph what's happening, the process, and how he fits into the process, especially in light of what he is considering. Without this revelation, Joseph would have been justified to put her away with a private divorce or a not so private divorce. And that would not be right, that would not accomplish the purposes of God. So, in Joseph's case, the Spirit comes to him, with counsel and direction and encouragement by removing the darkness of the situation and shedding light on the wonderful thing that is actually happening and of which he has such a strategic and important part. And there are four dreams. Let's just go over those real quickly here. There are four dreams that Joseph receives. The first one is found in verse 20. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Now, there's a lot of content in this dream, and we'll talk a little bit about some of that this evening. But, you know, once Joseph woke up from the dream and he said, wow, what happened? You know how you have a dream and you try to remember what? What did I dream about? I had some last night dreams and I got up this morning and sometimes I try to remember them. Because they go away so fast, don't they? They just go out like vapors. So you wake up, Joseph wakes up and says, what was that dream all about? Very simple, Joseph, marry her. That's what the dream was all about, marry her. That's what the Spirit was telling him. It's okay to marry her. Mary is a virgin still, so you can go ahead and marry her without any problem of conscience. You don't need to act out any justice, just marry her. That's the first dream. The second dream comes in chapter 2 and verse 13. After he has married her, and he was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, and you have that whole story there from verses 1 through 12 of chapter 2, we find the second dream, when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, this is the second time, and said, get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him." So once again you see that Joseph is the point man. Joseph has to be the leader and he gets up and takes the child and his mother at night, verse 14, and left for Egypt. It tells us how dangerous the situation was. He has to do it at night. He has to get out of there at night so that he will not be seen. So courage is necessary in addition to obedience. And the essence of this dream is flee. flee, go, get going, flee in safety, flee at night, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. And that's the way, that's what a point man, a point man gets this direction. What's the next thing? What's the next thing to keep this thing going in the right direction? Now, we learn that Egypt was the perfect place for sanctuary. We're told from studies, historical studies that Egypt had a large Jewish population at this time. According to Philo, who was an Alexandrian Jew, he estimates that there were a million Jews in Egypt at that time. And that's no doubt an accurate number. Egypt was the closest center of the dispersion Jews for the fleeing family to go to. So the spirit is actually directing Joseph to take his son and the son of God to a safe place. So he'll be safe there, because there are lots of Jews there. And there are synagogues there. And we also told that since the Ptolemaic period, which was before the Roman period, that Egypt had been friendly toward Jewish people. Flee to Egypt. Egypt is a refuge. Egypt is a safe place. Joseph doesn't need to have any concerns about what the direction is telling him or what the Spirit is telling him to do. The third dream is found in chapter 2 and verse 19. Once in Egypt, After Herod dies, verse 19, the angel of the Lord appears in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and says, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. Now this is an interesting direction here because Joseph and Mary were from Bethlehem, as you know. And so Joseph, no doubt, wished to go back to Bethlehem and resume his work and continue his life there. It's just what he expected to do. So here is a change in the direction for him. It's not just bringing his son into safety, but it's changing his location. So he receives this word that the wrong son of Herod was in charge of Judea, for notice what it says, he took the child and came into the land of Israel, but when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And so then, and he was warned by God in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee, and that's the fourth dream that we'll talk about in a minute. So Joseph wished to go back to Bethlehem, but he came to learn that Archelaus was reigning over that territory, and we know that's what happened. It was split up. Herod's sons split up the rule in different territories of Galilee at the time. And it was divided between his three sons. Antipas was named Tetrarch over Galilee and Perea. His half-brother, Philip II, was named Tetrarch over Eteria and Trachonitis, the territory north and east of the Sea of Galilee. And Archelaus was named the Ethnarch, which was the higher title, over Judea, Samaria, and Edomia. The Jews didn't like Archelaus. You know, sometimes you don't like your ruler. That's just a fact of life. And they didn't like Archelaus because he was so cruel. And so, once again, they feared for the child's life. He was cruel. The Jews sent a delegation to Rome at that time complaining that Archelaus had massacred 3,000 shortly before or near the temple. And this we learn from Josephus. We wouldn't have some of this knowledge without these men, Philo and Josephus. And in 6 AD, he was exiled to Gaul, we are told. So the fourth dream is found in verses 22 and 23. He was warned by God in a dream. He left instead of Judea for the regions of Galilee, and he came and lived in a city called Nazareth. So there was the fourth dream. So what you see then is Joseph is the point man. He must make certain decisions according to revelation, not how he feels, not what he may, his preferences, just follow direction. He's the point man. And if the point man does the right thing, then things will go well. And that's true of us as men. We're point men. You guys are point men. You're point men in your family, and you're point men in the church. Well, we'll talk more about that when we conclude. But the fourth thing is that Joseph was a happy man. And once again, I can't give you a text, right, that says he was a happy man. I always say, stick to the text, right? But now I'm telling you that the text indicates that he was a happy man. You know, when you study the Bible and you exegete these sacred texts, which is a great responsibility for all of us, when you read the Bible, it's our responsibility to interpret what we read accurately. And that's why every Christian should know some basic principles of how to interpret the Bible. Because truth is only truth when it's accurately gleaned from the text. But Bible study is a very fascinating work. Not only does truth come out of explicit statements in the Word of God, where you examine words and paragraphs and narratives, whole sections, but you also look for the implications of what is being taught. And you look at the bigger picture. You look at the context of human life, which is what we've been doing with Joseph. Not a whole lot of information is given about Joseph's life, but a lot of information can be learned from history about what life was like for these Jews and for a man like Joseph. And when you read a statement that Joseph was a carpenter, you can see, as we did earlier, that this all involves his work ethic. When you read in verse 23 that he came and lived in a city called Nazareth, there are legitimate assumptions that need to be made, legitimate deductions from that statement and from the whole picture when you see Joseph going through all of these changes. When you see God directing him in so clear a way, when you look at him as a Bethlehemite, now he lives in Nazareth, and then you learn that for 30 years, Jesus grew up in Nazareth. And so it is proper for us to conclude that Joseph was a happy man. Let me tell you why I believe Joseph was a happy man. One, because Nazareth was a beautiful, peaceful place to raise a family. A beautiful, peaceful place. Nazareth has been compared, I mean, sorry, Galilee, the upper region, upper Galilee is compared to a place like Scotland, right? And Scotland is absolutely beautiful. I've had the privilege of going there very briefly on a couple of occasions, but I see the pictures and it has this renowned beauty to it. And of course, the land of Palestine could be compared to a small place like the United Kingdom. But Nazareth was a beautiful, peaceful place to raise a family. In Jacob's prophecies about his son, his sons, in Genesis 49, it speaks about that part of the territory of Naphtali, that was the inheritance of the particular tribes up in the north there, where the Do would just skip freely and gracefully. And you get the sense, even in the Old Testament, that this portion of the land of Israel was a beautiful, lush, Garden. So Nazareth was a beautiful, peaceful place to raise a family. Two, Joseph could now pursue his life work uninterrupted. And that's clearly what he did. He pursued his life work, his calling, you might say, his trade. He loved helping people, making things that they need for home and farming. and whatever else, whatever other kinds of things they constructed in that wood shop. Thirdly, Joseph was a happy man because Joseph and Mary undoubtedly found exceedingly great, exceeding great joy in raising the Lord Jesus. We raise, many of us have raised children, and we love our children, but they're sinners, you know, and we have a lot of child training to do. Now, it's not that Jesus didn't get any training. He certainly did. He certainly did receive it and grew under that training. Jesus grew up as a Hebrew youth, young man, who was subjected to all the disciplines of Hebrew training, Torah, scripture memorization, and temple worship. In other words, his parents took him to church because they saw that that was part of his overall training. But he was sinless. And I'll tell you, if you really think of a hypothetical case that will really blow your mind, imagine raising a sinless child. Well, Mary and Joseph had that privilege of raising a sinless child. They found exceedingly great joy in that. He never sinned, never needed to be corrected, never needed to be disciplined. Well, formative discipline. There's a difference between corrective discipline and formative discipline, as you know, and we use both with our children. Formative discipline Our children don't rule our lives. Our children fit into the life that we believe God is calling us to live. And we fit them into that schedule and we're not ruled by that schedule. That's what we call formative discipline. And it's a sad thing when God brings a child into a Christian family and the child rules the family and disrupts the schedule of things that are necessary to glorify God. The child continued to grow. Luke tells us in several places in his gospel account about the wonderful trajectory of his perfect life. Luke chapter 2 in verse 40. The child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. That's a trajectory. You know what a trajectory is? It's just a smooth, like this, you know, instead of like this, you know, like this kind of thing, like bumps and all this. Now, we don't expect a perfectly smooth trajectory with our children, but Jesus had that, and that's all I'm pointing out here, and that surely brought great joy. Luke 2.52, Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2.52, all of these things contributed to their happiness. And finally, I just have to note this, that apparently Joseph died before Jesus began his ministry because he's not mentioned anywhere in the Gospels and that is a significant silence. You can't always make a firm conclusion based on silence, but most students of Scripture recognize that that is such a huge silence that it can only mean that Joseph must have died. And at some point before Jesus began his ministry and maybe then Jesus took over for his father at whatever point that happened. So Psalm 116 and verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints. So Joseph was fourthly and finally a happy man. So, we've seen that Joseph was a hard-working man, Joseph was a righteous man, Joseph was a point man, and Joseph was a happy man. Now, I'd like to close with a couple of points of application to men, that we might be like Joseph. So first of all, I'd like to set before us as men that we should be hard-working men. We all need to be hard-working men. Hard-working with a biblical work ethic. Now there's a difference. You might be a hard-working man, but your hard work may not be totally under the control of a biblical work and rest ethic. So that's something you have to think about. But a hard-working man, as Joseph was, he was also a man who was available in the service of the Lord. And you see the disruptions that he went through? Well, we may call them disruptions. They were like blessed disruptions. But still, they were disruptions, they were changes that Joseph had to make for the service of the kingdom of God. And that's what we need to be, guys. We need to be men who are hard-working, with a biblical work and rest ethic, yet available in the service of the Lord and building his church and his kingdom. It's as simple as that. Otherwise, our work is vain. It is keeping us from, in the language of Ecclesiastes, from glorifying God and bringing the kind of fulfillment that work is intended to bring. Work only brings fulfillment when it is done in the context of glorifying God. I'm sure you know that. God called Joseph to be the legal adoptive father of Jesus. He called him to great self-control and self-denial with respect to his young bride. The disappointment, the shock initially, with the immediate kind of Joseph gut response of compassion, not vindication, not shaming her. That's just the way Joseph was. He had a very soft and kind heart. So Joseph has self-control and self-denial, keeping her even a virgin until she gives birth to her son, as Matthew says in chapter 1 and verse 25. He calls Joseph to go down to Egypt for a time, disrupt his routine in life. You know, Joseph was a hometown man, and that was his place, Bethlehem. And even though there are a million Jews in Egypt, you know, would this hometown Bethlehemite really want to live in Egypt? And all the memories of God's people going down to Egypt, which always had the sense in the Old Testament that they were straying away from the Lord, like Abraham, taking a by-path, going down to Egypt, and then having to come back and be set on the right course again. And does Joseph want to consider himself as one of the dispersion? The dispersion, for that's what those Jews were doing down there. They were part of the earlier dispersions. in the sixth century and following, when millions of Jews were dispersed all over the empire. Joseph isn't ready for that. He's not ready to live down there. There's a certain stigma attached to being a dispersed Jew. And he really doesn't know exactly what's going to happen to him, but through these revelatory dreams, he submits his mind and heart to God's will and direction. It's exactly the same thing that we do. You know, we plan our steps, but God orders, we plan our way, God orders our steps, men. And even we have to be careful of just setting the direction for our life in every respect and not considering what God is calling us to do as point men in His kingdom and in the family. So when God showed Joseph something, what did he do? He obeyed it. That much is clear. In each of these four dreams, at different times, in different places, when God showed Joseph, we might say just from his word, he obeyed it. And that's the kind of man I want to be. When God shows me something in his word, I want to do it. If a preacher preaches a sermon and shows me something I've never seen before and points out something I need to change, I want to change. So I ask God to help me to change. I want to be a dynamic person who is always realigning myself with the will of God. Let's face it, we all go astray. We're like sheep who go astray. Maybe the lives that you're living right now isn't what it was five years ago, 10 years ago. So we try to look at ourselves and see, where are we? in our lives. Don't just assume. We don't just assume that what we're doing is the right thing to do. That the way we're living is the right way to live. We live based on revelation from the Word of God. So that's the first point of application I would give and offer. The second application I would, and final, I would offer this morning based on the life of Joseph is that we too should need to trust God in every disappointing or dangerous situation. Joseph was a real leader. He was a real compassionate man, gracious, but he was also very courageous. When you see him there going at night down to Egypt, that's courage. And also, courage comes from trusting in God in every disappointing, difficult, or dangerous situation. He trusted God first when he learned that his betrothed, Mary, was pregnant. Having no bitterness toward her, he remained a compassionate man. And you know, by the way, these virtues of compassion and pity that we have toward other people, or the fruits of patience and kindness and gentleness, even in the presence of wrongdoing, come from trusting in God. Maybe you say, well, I have this temper. I'm always dealing with this temper of mine. People say that sometimes. I have this temper. Please pray for me, Pastor. I have this temper. I just kind of fly off the handle. Well, where does victory for that come from? Well, one place is trusting in God. You trust in God and we don't respond in that kind of way. Anger does not work the righteousness of God, James says. Joseph also trusted God in these dangerous situations. He found his family and his baby in, as I just mentioned, in the flight from Egypt. And so Joseph was compassionate, courageous, and confident. And that's essentially what trust is. It's confidence in God. May the Lord help all of us to be the kind of man that Joseph was. Let's pray. Dear God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for the saints of old, for these precious saints, Joseph, Mary, Zacharias, Elizabeth, Anna, Simeon, and so many others as we see the gospel story unfold and we're thankful for all the practical lessons that we learn from them. So send us forth, especially as men, thanking you for this great example and helping to equip us to be the kind of men that we need to be in home and in church and in the world and in our work. In Jesus name we pray, amen.