How do we persevere in life and faith when we find ourselves facing trial after trial through no fault of our own? That was Joseph's experience in the Old Testament, and today on Truth for Life Alastair Begg explains what helped him press on. Alastair is teaching from Genesis 39, beginning with verse 16. Yeah. He was the subject of the accusations of his family, which were flat out untrue.
He was the subject of the accusations of Potiphar's wife, which were untrue. He was the product of undeserved hatred on the part of his brothers, and now on the part of Potiphar's wife. The bottom had dropped out of his world. And yet look at it.
Somehow he remains Patient. Enduring. At the beginning of the chapter, He's enslaved within the house. And he's a man of principle. At the end of the chapter, he's enslaved in the dungeon.
And he's a man of principle. Whether he's a governor or a prisoner. He's the same guy. He's not a chameleon. He's not playing it one way up here or another way down here.
He's core right through to the core, Joseph. Straight on.
Now, you notice that in the extremity, he becomes the object of God's favor. In these worst of circumstances, verse 21 says, That the Lord was with him in the jail. He showed him kindness and he granted him favour in the eyes of the prison warder. You see, from the most unlikely quarters, God is able to raise up friends for his servants. We've seen this through the journey of our lives, haven't we, in relocating.
In a change of job, in a change of school, in a change of circumstances, that lonely feeling of life as you have to stand by yourself, as you face the prospect of walking into that school classroom all on your own, as there's not an eye that you can take on, there's no two eyes you can look at that betray anything that would be remotely guarded as friendship. As you stand in the middle of the break and you stand at the radiators by yourself, and everybody talks to one another and goes about their business, and there you stand. I'm talking out of personal experience here, I'm not making this up. I've been there. And in the middle of all of that, you say, I wonder if I'll ever have another friend again.
And out of the most unlikely quarters. God raises up friends. for his servants and he does so in Joseph's life. The prison warden didn't get the job because he was a nice guy. You can be guaranteed of that.
You know, when they interviewed him, they weren't checking his fingernails, you know, to see if they were clean and whether he was a good people person. Wanted prison warder, good people's skills, you know, that kind of thing. No, they wanted to know how do you do with a hatchet, you know. How are you with the screws? You know, can you take somebody and just crush their cranium?
Guys is not a problem. One before breakfast and one after breakfast. Part of her said, You're my main man, step up. Because there was a brutality about those days. There was no finesse.
There was no no would you like a lethal injection? There was no discussion, just like kachung, gone. And if I had been the prison warder and living in this environment and little. Shiny drawers, Joseph shows up. I wouldn't have been too excited about him.
After all, I've been here a lot longer than him, and how did he get to be in charge of the whole operation? I would have instinctively disliked Joseph. I know it. And I would have been delighted as the prison warder to fasten those little ankle things on myself nice and tight. And so, as Joseph looks around for friends, he's not going to expect that the prison warder is going to become anything close to his friend, and yet, God has other ideas.
When a man's ways, says Solomon, Proverbs 16:7, are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies. to live at peace with him.
Now, loved ones, this morning, it's important that we say this over and over again. This Romans eight twenty-eight Kitchen verse theology will not do.
Now let me explain what I mean by that. Taking Romans 8:28 and sticking it above the kitchen sink. As a sort of Christian mantra. Which, if you say it over and over and over again, it'll somehow kick in for you, you know. Oh, goodness gracious, I forgot bread, but nevertheless, all things work together for good to them who love God.
Oh, jam my fingers in the door. Yes, but Romans 8:28, all things work together for good, you know. Oh, he's home late for dinner. Oh, yes, but all things that. We're missing the point there.
That's not it. All of those things are true. All things God works in. Even the inconsequential details. But here's the thing.
90% of the people I hear using Romans 8.28 have it as a theology of triumphalism. They only use it to explain how the sun is shining and how everything's going good. But they don't know what to do with it when the clouds come down, the wheels fall off, and they're in the absolute pits.
Now, if it doesn't work in that situation, if it doesn't mean something there, then frankly, I couldn't be bothered with it. And we know that in all things God works. The NIV is a much better translation. The King James Version is not so good. Because it has things working.
All things work together for good. No. In all things God works. Things don't work. Things happen.
God works in things. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. Not just in the triumph. Not just in the success. Not just in the victory.
But in the dungeon. And indeed, if it doesn't work in the dungeon, then it doesn't work at all. We need to understand this morning, dear folks, that when God in His providence shines light into our darkness, as He did in the circumstances here of the dungeon, when He chooses to lift up our fallen spirits, He's not doing it because we have merited his favor. You see, some of us have got it okay about the doctrine of justification. We know that you cannot earn your salvation.
We are very clear on that in our theology. And we tell people that all the time. Oh, no, no, no, no. Your works are like filthy rags. Oh, no, you can't, by being religious, gain God's favor.
Oh, no, you must come and commit and trust unreservedly in His mercy. Very, very good. But that's true not only in coming to Christ, that's true in living for Christ. We don't merit his favor. He doesn't repay us for good stuff by making the sun shine on us.
If Joseph had anticipated that, how does he explain what happens? He has the opportunity to sin his soul. He responds in absolute integrity and purity. And what does he get rewarded with? A dungeon.
Manacles round his ankles and a chain around his neck. And then suddenly, in the midst of that experience, the clouds part and the sun shines in upon him. Why? Because he merited it? No.
Because God chose to do it out of His own goodness. Motivated by nothing in Joseph. Driven by nothing in the circumstances, emerging only from the plan and purpose of God.
Now, when we begin to get to grips with that, as Calvin says, since we are unworthy that He should grant us His help, the cause of its communication must be in Himself seeing that He is merciful. And some of us When it comes to the level of working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we are still living with an incipient form. Cause and effect Christianity. And you only need to think about the way you love your children in our flawedness. Realize how we say no to our children in certain things.
They don't understand. They belly ache. But we do it for their good. And when they are least deserving, sometimes we lavish our love upon them.
So, as to crush their hearts in repentance at the awareness of our unconditional favor. But I didn't do anything. But I didn't bring my report card home. Or, I did bring my report card home and it stunk. How come I got this new pen?
How come we had this meal? Because I love you. with a passion. Not because you're doing so well. It emerges From my own motivation as a father for you, my child.
And if we being earthly, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him? God is far more willing to bless us than we are to take the time to even ask Him. And when He shines the Son of His providence into the life of His servant, it is not because He has merited His favor, it is induced by nothing other than His goodness.
So you see, when we sing, God is so good, He's so good to me. We have to acknowledge the fact that that remains true even in the dungeon. Because a good God Is working all things out in conformity with the purpose of his will. In a magazine which I take on a monthly basis, a gentleman always writes an editorial, and this week this fellow, turns out he's from Scotland, wrote a wrote a piece on the posthumous joys of the Christian. I open my magazine, and the very first page it says: the post-humous joys of the Christian.
I said to myself, the post, even the word post-humus gives you a kind of funny feeling, you know. And then I began to read it, and what a wonderful article it is. As he points out, that in seeking to have all of our joys now, All of our cookies now, all of our rewards now, all of our healing now, all of our success now, all of our answers in the immediate. We miss what's going to happen in heaven. And I won't give you the whole article, but he describes this lady in the 14th century praying that somehow or another God would liberate the church from its darkness.
Praying that God would somehow or another shine the truth of his word into all the rigmarole and the bells and smells of middle-aged dark religion. And how she prayed all of her life for that, and was laid in the grave with no answer to her prayer. And says Roberts, can you imagine what she's going to feel like in heaven when she gets introduced to Martin Luther? When she meets Wycliffe, And when she finds out that God answered the prayers of her life, moms and dads that have gone to their grave with no assurance that their boy or their girl has turned in repentance to Christ, and then suddenly in heaven to meet them there, that is going to be unbelievable. You see, we're all caught up in, oh, I don't think I should be in this little dungeon, you know.
Oh, I don't think this should be happening to me. Oh, God's not playing the game, you know. This isn't fair. That's not. Cut it out.
I say to myself, That's why you need a theology. You can't live life without biblical doctrine. You can only live as a silly person. But once you begin to understand these great truths which underpin our lives. Then we can say with Wesley, Commit thy ways to Him, thy works into His hands, and rest in His unchanging word, who heaven and earth commands.
Through waves and clouds and storms, His power will clear thy way. Wait thou His time, the darkest night Shall end in brightest day. Leave to his sovereign sway to choose and to command.
So shalt thou. Wondering. Own his way. How wise? How strong.
His hand. See, and it's one thing to say that when we have the prospect of getting a wee bit of it now, but when we have no prospect of having it now, then that's a different framework, and that is spiritual geography. into which I have never entered. I have only read of it and observed it. Joseph Had no prospect.
of coming out of the dungeon. But he showed patient endurance and quiet confidence. In the midst of it all.
Now there's two folks left. One is the warder. And the other is the Lord Himself, in terms of the five characters in this story. Let me just say a word about this warder. If we'd gone and interviewed the warder, And said to him, What do you make of all of this?
He would have said, like, you know, in all of my time. I never met anybody like Joseph. In all of my time, I never experienced anything like this. In all of my time, I never saw Potiphar soften the way he softened in relationship to this character. And frankly, I can't even explain the change in my heart.
Towards This Joseph. And the answer is That the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, and the heart of the warder is in the hand of the Lord, too. And there is nothing in here that suggests that Joseph tried to manipulate the circumstances to his own end. But that God shone his love upon it.
Now, the key to it all is in, of course, the Lord's activity, and I just want to finish this up for you here. Because in the midst of all of this, Potiphar's wife, Potiphar Joseph, a prison warder, the key to it all. Is the Lord's presence with him in verse 21, showing him his kindness, granting him his favor. and watching out for him. As I thought about this, My mind went immediately to Psalm 139.
As I thought in terms of what was the Lord's perspective towards his servant Joseph in the midst of all of these things, what would God be saying to him? to Joseph. What more can he say than to you he hath said? Says the hymn writer, to you and to Jesus for refuge, Hephret. What more can he say than what he said?
He's not going to say more than what he said. What has he said? He said it in his word. What does he say in his word? If you take the 139th Psalm and you turn it around the other way, And you put it in the voice of the Lord rather than in the voice of the psalmist.
and you think of it in relationship to Joseph, it reads like this. Oh Joseph. I've searched you. And I know you. I know when you sit And when you stand up, I know your thoughts from afar.
I discern your going out and your lying down. I'm familiar with all your ways. Before you say anything, Joseph, I know it completely. Joseph, I hammed you in behind and before. I've laid my hand on you.
Where do you think you can go from my spirit? Where do you think you can flee from my presence? If you go up to the heavens, Joseph, I'm there. If you make your bed in the depths, I'm there. If you rise on the wings of the dawn, if you settle on the far side of the sea, even there my hand will guide you, my right hand will hold you fast.
If you say, Joseph, surely the darkness will hide me. The light will become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day. Joseph, I created you.
I knit you together in your mother's womb. You have every reason to praise me, Joseph, because you're fearfully and wonderfully made. Your frame wasn't hidden from me when I made you in the secret place. I wove you together in the depths of the earth. My eyes saw your unformed body.
Listen to this. All the days ordained for you were written in my book before one of them came to be. You want to know how much I'm looking after you, Joseph? I am absolutely upfront. Behind, on top, below, in it, through it, I am consumed with you, Joseph.
He who touches my servant. Touches, says the Lord, the apple of my eye, so sensitive is my care towards you. And loved ones this morning. If that's true of Joseph. It's true of you in Christ.
I don't know your circumstances. What's going on? In most lives, You may feel yourself to have hit the dungeon this week. You may feel yourself to be confined. You may feel that you have been the recipient of Unfounded allegations, or you may be about to become the recipient of unfounded allegations.
You may be living with mistreatment from everybody around you. And the Lord knows. He's not taken by surprise. And he loves you. with an everlasting love.
In the mid-sixties, as some of you will recall, There was in what was then the Belgian Congo an unbelievable uprising of um rebel troops, which eventually ended in the independence of the Belgian Congo and its renaming. as uh Zaire. Right. In the eye of that storm. We're a group of medical missionaries.
One of those girls visited the chapel in the past. and has spoken here, Dr. Helen Roseveer. She went to Cambridge University as a young girl. and graduated successfully.
took her medical capabilities and offer them up to the Lord in His service. Said that she wanted to serve Christ no matter where, no matter what, and no matter what cost. And in the course of that, she shipped off to the Belgian Congo, only to find herself in the midst of unbelievable chaos.
Some of her colleagues in the midst of the uprising were before her very eyes shot through the temple and dropped into an open grave, and the grave was covered over, and then they marched further on. She and other young women were brutalized at the hands of these rebel troops. Tremendous story of her life is in a book entitled, Give Me This Mountain. And in a letter which I received from her, dated the 22nd of February. She's talking about various things and challenges and struggles along the journey of life.
And she talks about how It is important for us To allow God to use the hurts in our lives. to mold us to be more like Jesus. to draw us closer to himself, Not to seek to avoid the hurts, but to realize that our reactions to them can bring him joy and pleasure as we trust him. even in the darkest dark. And then she says this.
The phrase he gave me years ago. During the 1964 rebellion in Congo, in the night of my own greatest need, Was this? Can you thank me? For trusting you with this experience. Even If I never Tell you.
Why? You see, we have no right to demand of God an explanation. He has every right. to ask of us. Genuine consecration.
And as in Joseph? And in others, And in Helen, So in Jesus himself. When, says Peter, they hurled their insults against Jesus. He did not retaliate. When he suffered, he He made no threats.
Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. May we then follow the example of Joseph. and the example of Jesus. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. Maybe you found yourself gripped by the brief story Alistair shared about Dr.
Helen Rosevere's mission to the Congo. You might like listening to a fascinating interview Alastair did with this inspiring, faith filled woman years ago. You'll find the interview on our website, truthforlife dot org slash HELEN. You know, the better you know the Bible, the easier it is to trust God. and as we begin a new year together, why not consider starting each day reflecting on God's Word?
Subscribing to the Truth for Life Daily Devotional is a great way for you to do just that. Each day you'll consider a short passage of Scripture, then learn from Alistair's insight about the passage, what it means, and how it applies to your everyday life. You can subscribe to the daily devotional audio podcast by searching Truth for Life in popular podcast channels like Apple, Spotify, or Amazon. You can also listen on the Truth for Life app or on our website under the Today tab. Or you can have the written devotional delivered right to your email inbox when you sign up at truthforlife.org/slash lists.
or you can call eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. Thanks for listening today. Does unjust suffering take you by surprise? Does it seem contrary to the Christian life? Tomorrow, we'll take a close look at the reality of following Jesus.
The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
