If you want to climb a mountain, It's smart to seek advice from those who have already reached the summit, but it's important to hear what they learned at the base, long before they began their climb. Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg considers a man who rose to great heights, but he begins with some important lessons learned in the dungeon. You will recall that we left Joseph in the dungeon. We learned a number of lessons from his response to his circumstances. and finalized our study last time by paying attention to the fact that he seized the opportunity, even though his own predicament was grave, to look out for the well-being of others.
And he did not miss the chance to help others. He could so easily have done so as a result of some selfish preoccupation. but he exercised his responsibilities and his privileges with great care and compassion. and particularly as we're told here in the lives of two individuals. Individuals who are identified as being a cup bearer and a chief baker.
And we should not somehow denigrate their role as a result of that, but recognize that within the framework of Pharaoh's government, these were strategic responsibilities. As we said before, anything to do with the provision of food and the infrastructure that related to that, particularly anything that the Pharaoh would be eating, was a matter of great concern. And so only a certain group of people would be appointed to that kind of task.
Now these two chaps found themselves in the jail, indeed, they were in the same dungeon as the one in which we discover Joseph. And in the course of time, we're told that they had these dreams. And in the course of Joseph's response to these dreams, we are going to discover a number of lessons. We should note just in passing that by means of these dreams, we are reminded of the fact that God is able to impress upon the hearts of men and women, even of those who do not know Him, An awareness of his presence. He is able to impress upon the hearts of men and women, even those who do not know him, an awareness of his presence.
By your own testimony, and I speak with some of you, you would be honest enough to say that you have not come to a personal living faith in Jesus Christ, but for some reason you are here. And you have begun to conclude That somehow or another, God is impressing an awareness of Himself upon you. And now, your conviction is that perhaps God will speak to you through the word, as indeed we hope He will.
Now, what I'd like to do is go through a number of these lessons with you. And first of all, to notice lesson number one: living life with a God-centered focus. Here he is in the dungeon. What are the lessons we might learn? Incidentally, this is not the only place we can learn lessons from a dungeon.
Paul was in a dungeon probably in Rome and he wrote the book of Philippians. Tremendous godly insights. First lesson is living life with a God-centered focus. What does that mean?
Well, let's consider it here as we see Joseph's response. It comes forcibly in verse eight, when these two characters come to him and say, We both had dreams. But there is no one to interpret them.
Now, notice Joseph's response there in the second half of verse 8. He says, Do not interpretations belong to God? Do not interpretations belong to God? He is about to offer an explanation as to what has taken place, but before he steps to the fore with this explanation, with this interpretation, he explains the fact that his perspective is very clear. It is God who is able to do what is about to happen.
He doesn't boast of his own quickness, he doesn't boast of his own clear-sightedness, he doesn't seek the opportunity to draw attention to himself, he merely wishes to be known as a servant of God.
Now, there is an obvious and immediate lesson in this, especially for those who have been given unique gifts from God. Those who, by dint of God's gracious provision, have been made able in some facility or area of life, and it becomes immediately apparent to all who are around. It may be in the realm of art, it may be in the realm of care, it may be in the realm of ministry, whatever it might be. Such individuals need to make sure that since they have become excellent by God's hand, They better not ascribe too much attention to themselves. For in doing so, they may well obscure the grace of God.
Now, this principle is not a principle that is earthed simply in Genesis 40. It runs the whole way through the Bible, and there is perhaps no more classic statement of it than is made by Jesus in John chapter 15. I'd like for you to turn there, if you would, just to see that to which I'm referring. John chapter 15. And Jesus makes it clear to his followers.
I am the true vine. And my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes.
so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine. You are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, He will bear much fruit.
Now here's the crucial phrase. apart from me. You can do Nothing.
Now Jesus means exactly what he says there. If we understand the statement in Colossians 1.17 as being an all-encompassing statement where it says of Jesus that in him all things hold together, the fact is that none of us can even breathe. without his enabling. We are absolutely impoverished. without the divine help.
And when a man or a woman begins to live life with that kind of focus, they are no longer living with a self-centered focus or with a circumstance-centered focus, but they are beginning to live with a God-centered focus. And the way in which we react to circumstances reveals our focus. And Joseph from the many-colored coat. to the pit, to the back of the camel. To Potiphar's home, to the dungeon, is completely God-centered in his focus.
You don't have a litany here of Joseph feeling sorry for himself. No. Why? Because he has a God-centered focus in his life. Isn't that what we saw in Genesis 39?
Verse 9, how does he respond to the temptation when Potiphar's wife comes at him? In a God-centered way. He doesn't respond by saying, I don't think this is an expedient. thing to do. He doesn't respond by saying, oh, I think we may get caught.
He does not respond in any of the ways. He responds by immediately introducing God. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? Chapter 41, when Pharaoh dreams his dream. And he comes to Joseph and he says, verse 15 of 41, I had a dream, no one can interpret it.
But I have heard it said of you. That when you hear a dream, You can interpret it. Put your finger on the next verse. Don't look at it yet. Don't look at it yet.
I have heard it said of you: when you have a dream, you can interpret it. Great opportunity for Joseph to say, oh. Glad you heard, Pharaoh. Yes, I am quite an interpreter of dreams, I must say. Yes, I interpret my own dreams.
I've interpreted the cupbearer's dream, Baker's dream, and. I'm really a dream machine, all round dream machine.
Now, what would you like me to do for you, Pharaoh? No, that's not what he says. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Look at the next four words. I cannot do it.
That's the first thing you have to know. I cannot do it. If you think you can, Step aside. If you think you should, sit down. If you think everyone's waiting to hear from you, take a hike.
But if you think you can't do it, You may just be the person God is about to lay his hand on. All the way through the Bible. Moses, I'd like you to go to Pharaoh. I'm sorry, I can't do it. You're just my man.
Amos, give us your credentials for your prophetic ministry.
Well, I have fig trees in my yard and I look after them and no, Amos, excuse me, we're asking for your credentials, son. Not a lecture in horticulture. Your credent I'm giving you my credentials. You can't call these credentials, Amos.
Well, they're all I've got. The only thing I can add to it is, I not only keep sycamore trees, fig trees, but I also look after sheep.
Well, I'll tell you what, Amos, then why don't you go and be my prophet? Yeah. What a strange way of operation. I can't do it, Joseph replied.
Now, notice the next two words. These are the next two crucial words. But God. I can't, but God. That's what Jesus is saying to his disciples.
He says, Guys, I want you to understand, apart from me, you can do nothing. Your need of me is not partial, your need of me is total. You flat out can't do it.
Now, when you're prepared to understand that, then we can talk from there and move forward. That's what it means to have a God-centered focus. And it is all about motivation of heart. For God, who tests and knows the motives of our hearts, deals with us according to the motivation of our hearts, and He will reward us according to the motivation of our hearts. And yet, still, we continue to judge people on the external activities.
and even may try to judge one another on the basis of the motives of our hearts. Time will reveal all. As it did here. in the dungeon. with Joseph.
He doesn't draw attention to himself. He says, I can't do it, but God will give the answer he desires. Later on in the chapter, in verse 51, when his two children are born to him. His first son is named Manasseh. And Joseph gives the explanation as to why he called them Manasseh.
He said, It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and my father's household. And when his second boy was born Ephraim, he said, it's because God has made me fruitful.
So whether it is facing the temptation of partipher, Whether it is in his experience of being dumped in the pit, whether it is in the interpretation of dreams, or whether it is in the fathering of his children, at every point along the journey, his center is God. God-centered. He realized that God's not going to share his glory with anybody else. And indeed, in the apex of it all, to which we will come one day, in Genesis 45, when his brothers show up and he's reunited with them later on in the story. And they're distressed when they realize what has taken place.
He says in verse 6 of Genesis 45: For two years now there has been famine in the land. And for the next five years, there will not be plowing and reaping.
Now, here come the two words again: but God. But God sent me ahead of you. Send me ahead of you. Isn't that an interesting perspective? That phrase, God sent me ahead of you, is Joseph's description.
of the day when they took his coat ripped it off his back. Beat him up. Threw him in a pit. And sat and ate their lunch, considering whether they should kill him, let him starve to death, or sell him into slavery. And they finally sold him into slavery.
He was strapped into the bondage of these captors, taken into the ignominy of the slave market in Egypt, stripped stark naked, poked around at by people, and finally taken into the bondage of Potiphar's home. And how does he describe it? God sent me ahead of you. I tell you, there's a lesson from the dungeon here, loved ones. And to see the whole issue is that he looks at life from the bigger picture.
He looks at life from the scheme of eternity. He looks at his unfolding circumstances in the light of history. And he knows that he is simply a blip on the horizon. That his day will end and he also will be a figure of history. But while life's little day ebbs its way out, he says, I will live to the honor and praise of God.
I will live my life with a God-centered focus. How about you? How about me? How about Parkside? You want to live with an us-centered focus?
Disappointment. You want to live with a circumstance-centered focus? Confusion. The only way to live is with a God-centered focus. For that is the only time We can be sure.
We're all looking in the same direction. And where do we see God? in Christ. And how do we have him described in Hebrews 12? The author and the finisher of our faith.
And what are we to do? We are to run the race that is set out before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
Now, there's another element to this beyond the matter of the purely devotional. Because a God-centered focus in our lives this morning. cuts across the view of our contemporaries. Men and women throughout all of time have Have wrestled with the question posed in the psalmist's words in Psalm 8. What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that you should visit him?
What is man? That is the great question. Where did he come from? Where is he going? And does it matter?
And any of you who have taken anthropology at college or university know that there is a tremendous amount of ink that has been spilled on trying to answer the question about our humanity. Who are we and why do we exist? And all of those anthropologies end in confusion. And that's why, in our university campuses today, Across some of the great campuses brim full of young human potential, there is a dust of death which settles over scientific investigation and between the production of great literature and great art. And the absence of great art and great literature is directly related to getting the wrong answer to the question: what is man?
And that is why so much contemporary art, when you see it, It's so confusing to understand. You don't know whether to stand on your head or lie on your side or whatever to do. What in the wide world is this? And some curator will tell you, sir, it is whatever you would like it to be, you know. Yeah.
It sounds really sort of trendy, but it's just bogus. And that's why you have to keep going back to a different-centered perspective before you can get order and structure in art, and before you can get order and structure in literature, because the people wrote from a different focus.
Now, I'm speaking to some young people who are going to go off into university. I'm speaking to others who are here, and you are reading books all the time. You go for those mochas over there in Pavilion Mall, and you sit down there and you're getting these books from the self-help section, and you're trying to find yourself. You're looking for yourself. I want to say you're there.
You know. You're behind the table. But no, I'm looking for myself. I keep having these conversations about people who are looking for themselves, and I understand why. Because they don't have a God-centered focus.
And I have to tell him you're not going to find yourself. Till you meet God. They don't know whether to view themselves in terms of spirituality, in terms of rationality. As has been taught in classical philosophy and in Eastern thought, or whether they should view themselves as a great combination of physicality and materialism, as Marx taught. And all materialists since him?
And as they try and read this literature and find out who they are and what they are, they don't know whether to be pessimists with all the existentialists or whether to be optimists with all the hedonists. And so they're like the guy who fell out the thirty-five story Window of a building 35 stories up, and as he passed the 20th floor, somebody heard him shouting, So far, so good. And that's largely the way many people are living their lives. They're living from Friday to Friday to Friday. And it's so far, so good.
Turn up the music. Give me another shot of courage. They check into the Hotel California and they know they aren't checking out.
Now, you see, the only answer is the answer that is provided here in the lesson from the dungeon from Joseph. It is a God-centered focus. The Christian view is the only answer. Listen to John Calvin years and years ago at the time of the Reformation. He says this: man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself.
He can never know who he is. Unless he has first looked upon God's face. and then descends from contemplating him. Just scrutinizing himself. You see the vital importance of a God-centered focus in life.
Without it, everything is turned on its head. Everything is upside down. The Bible is absolutely clear. It's unashamed. Oh, I know it cuts across contemporary thought, but nevertheless, It is clear.
Genesis chapter 1, just turn to it and look at it. It rings out with striking. Emphasis. in the contrast to what's going on around us. Then God said, Genesis 1:26, let us make man in our image.
in our likeness. And let them rule over the Fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. What does the Bible say this morning? Listen, this is fabulous.
The average teenager thinks that he emerged from a pile of sludge. where his DNA introduced itself to itself. And he set on a course from there. And he doesn't like his school and he doesn't love his friends, and he can't stand his parents. And since he was born without reason, prolongs himself with chance and will die in oblivion, he says to himself, why don't I just check out right now?
Well, I want to say, hey. Let me tell you something. Young man. You exist because God made you. He made you purposefully.
He made you with dignity. And he made you in order that you might glorify him. And at creation, God has vested man with the ability to rule over his world, to possess it, and subject it to the rule.
So that other creatures would serve Him. That doesn't mean we abuse creatures. It doesn't mean we abuse our world. It doesn't mean we abuse the beauty of what God has provided for us. We are to be the stewards of His creation.
But we understand clearly that the bumper sticker that is increasingly flying around on the back of cars is absolutely wrong. It says The earth Does not belong to us. We Belong. to the earth. As with every error, There is just that element of Rightness about it to cause manifold confusion.
But here's the deal, loved ones. That is pantheism. And the Bible says, sorry. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. And we are the stewards of God's creation.
And the reason that we exist is because God has purposely fashioned us and made us for His pleasure. And Joseph understood that. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. We'll hear more lessons from the Dungeon on Monday. If you enjoy studying the Bible with Alastair, you can do that in person while you vacation by joining him on the Deeper Faith Cruise next fall.
This is a week-long cruise that departs from Amsterdam on September 5th. Alastair will be teaching from the Bible throughout the journey that will take you through the beautiful landscapes and fjords of Norway. Book your cabin and learn more about the trip at DeeperFaithCruise.com.
Now we have another way you can learn alongside Alastair. He's recently released a brand new verse by verse study guide titled Ecclesiastes Chasing the Wind.
Well, this new study guide from Alastair is a companion to the Biblical text. It will walk you through Ecclesiastes with insights from Alastair that explain the main themes and lessons found in this ancient book. you'll find them remarkably relevant to our contemporary world. Ask for the study guide when you donate to Truth for Life today. Go to truthforlife.
org slash donate, or you can call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. Thanks for joining us this week. On Monday, we'll learn why you never know how to live. until you're prepared to die. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life.
Where the Learning is for Living.
