Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to Genesis chapter 38.
!
It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite, whose name was Hira.
There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua.
He took her and went into her, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er.
She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan.
Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah.
Judah was in Haseb when she bore him.
And Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan,
Go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother.
But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he went into his brother's wife,
he would waste the semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.
And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.
Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law,
Remain a widow in your father's house till Shelah, my son, grows up.
For he feared that he would die like his brothers.
So Tamar went and remained in her father's house.
In the course of time, the wife of Judah, she was daughter, died.
When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheep shearers,
he and his friend Hira, the Adulamite.
And when Tamar was told,
Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,
she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil,
wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Inam,
which is on the road to Timnah.
For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
He turned to her at the roadside and said,
Come, let me come into you.
For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.
She said, What will you give me that you may come into me?
He answered, I will send you a young goat from the flock.
And she said, If you give me a pledge until you send it.
He said, What pledge shall I give you?
She replied, Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.
So he gave them to her and went into her, and she conceived by him.
Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil,
she put on the garments of her widowhood.
When Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Adulamite,
to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her.
And he asked the men of the place,
Where is the cult prostitute who is at Inam on the roadside?
And they said, No cult prostitute has been here.
So he returned to Judah and said, I have not found her.
And also the men of the place said, No cult prostitute has been here.
And Judah replied, Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at.
You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.
About three months later, Judah was told,
Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has been immoral.
Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.
And Judah said, Bring her out and let her be burned.
As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law,
By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.
And she said, Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.
And then Judah identified them and said,
She is more righteous than I, since I did not give to her to my son Shelah.
And he did not know her again.
When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb.
And when she was in labor, one put out a hand,
And the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying,
This one came out first.
But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out.
And she said, What a breach you have made for yourself.
Therefore his name was called Perez.
Afterward, his brother came out with a scarlet thread on his hand,
and his name was called Zerah.
Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt,
and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian,
had bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there.
The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man,
and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.
His master saw that the Lord was with him,
and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him,
and he made him overseer of his house,
and put him in charge of all that he had.
From the time that he had made him overseer in his house,
and over all that he had,
the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.
The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had,
in house and in field.
So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge,
and because of him,
he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
And after a time,
his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said,
Lie with me.
But he refused and said to his master's wife,
Behold, because of me,
my master has no concern about anything in the house,
and he has put everything that he has in my charge.
He is not greater in this house than I am,
nor has he kept back anything from me except you,
because you are his wife.
How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
And as she spoke to Joseph day after day,
he would not listen to her,
to lie beside her,
or even to be with her.
But one day,
when he went into the house to do his work,
and none of the men of the house was there in the house,
she caught him by his garment,
saying,
Lie with me.
But he left his garment in her hand,
and fled,
and got out of the house.
And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand,
and had fled out of the house,
she called to the men of her household,
and said to them,
See,
He has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.
He came into me to lie with me,
and I cried out with a loud voice.
And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out,
he left his garment beside me and fled,
and got out of the house.
Then she laid up his garment by her,
until his master came home.
And she told him the same story,
saying,
The Hebrew servant,
whom you have brought among us,
came into me to laugh at me.
But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried,
he left his garment beside me,
and fled out of the house.
As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him,
This is the way your servant has treated me,
his anger was kindled.
And Joseph's master took him,
and put him into the prison,
the place where the king's prisoners were confined.
And he was there in prison.
But the Lord was with Joseph,
and showed him steadfast love,
and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge
of all the prisoners who were in the prison.
Whatever was done there,
he was the one who did it.
And the keeper of the prison paid no attention
to anything that was in Joseph's charge,
because the Lord was with him.
And whatever he did,
the Lord made it succeed.
The grass withers,
and the flower fades,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Father God,
we ask now your blessing on the preaching of the word.
Give us ears to hear,
and fertile hearts, Lord.
Fertile soil for the truth of the gospel.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
I hope you prayed for your pastor this week.
Preaching the way that we do,
working through books of the Bible,
does not give me the luxury of skipping over
difficult text or hard subject matters.
And it's sometimes shocking when we read passages like this,
because this is not G-rated material, is it?
This is an honest and raw, unfiltered look
at the ugliness of sin.
And the truth is,
even though we are far removed from the context of Genesis,
here are thousands of years removed,
in a different place,
in a different culture,
in a different continent,
not much really has changed at all, has it?
We live in the same sinful world
as Judah and Tamar and Joseph,
and just like them,
we live in a culture that openly celebrates
and embraces all sorts of wickedness,
especially sexual wickedness,
which seems to be right at the center
of our passage this morning.
And when you realize that,
it makes us ask,
well, what is the hope
for such a wicked and sinful people?
And for God's people,
the church,
who live right there in the middle
of such great wickedness,
well, what hope do we have
for resisting the temptations of the world?
The hope that we have,
and the hope for sinners of all kinds,
is the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ.
And so as we take a look here
at this difficult passage,
and my goal here this morning is simple,
is to help us see from these two ugly passages
the power of the grace of God.
And what we'll see as we look through this together
is two works of God's grace.
This will be our outline this morning.
If you're taking notes,
we'll see two works of God's grace.
One, God works grace from the wreckage of sin.
And two, God works grace for the war with sin.
First, let's take a look at chapter 38,
and we see here,
God works grace from the wreckage of sin.
And what I want you to notice here
as we work our way through this chapter
is the increasing wickedness of the people.
The increasing spiral downward into sin and wickedness.
And this has been the trajectory ever since the Garden of Eden,
Genesis chapter 3.
Mankind has multiplied,
and with it, sin has multiplied on the earth.
We're coming out of a story of great wickedness.
Joseph is just sold into slavery.
He was betrayed by his own brothers.
He's now in Egypt.
But that spiral, it doesn't stop there.
We get a little detour here,
and we visit Judah, one of the brothers.
Look there to verse 1, chapter 38.
It says,
Judah, one of Joseph's brothers,
he goes to Hira,
and he sees the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua.
And what does he do?
He takes her.
He is intimate with her.
She conceives.
She bears a son.
She names him Air.
And then again, she bears a son and names him Onan.
And again, she bears a son and names him Shelah.
This is the first offense here in the passage.
Judah is taking wives from the Canaanites.
And haven't we already seen?
That's a recipe for disaster.
Hasn't Esau already shown us
that that's a no-go here for the people of God?
But also just notice here the graphic way
that it describes how Judah goes about this.
He is taking what his flesh desires.
He's operating based on what the desires of his flesh are.
This is the same pattern that we've seen ever since the garden.
See, good, take.
And that's how the sinful flesh operates.
You see and you take whatever it is that you want
and then you figure out the rest later.
But it gets worse.
Fast forward some years later.
Now, Air, his oldest son, is old enough to marry.
And verse 6, it says,
Judah takes a wife for Air.
Her name was Tamar.
But verse 7, it says,
Air, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord.
And the Lord put him to death.
Now, what in the world was he up to?
Now, we're not told.
We don't know exactly what Air was up to.
But apparently, his wickedness was so great
that the Lord puts a stop to it right then and there.
And he puts him to death.
But it continues to spiral and get worse.
Verse 8,
Judah tells his second son, Onan,
to go and perform the duty of a brother-in-law
and raise up offspring for his brother.
But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his.
And so you can read the text.
Do you see what happens?
He refused to do what his father told him to do.
And verse 10 says,
What he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord.
And he put him to death also.
This is now two kids.
Struck down, put to death by the hand of the Lord
because of their wickedness.
And I wonder, are we surprised by this?
One of the kids came in to the grow class just a little bit ago
and they asked this question about Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.
If I lie, will I die?
If we're shocked by this sort of immediate judgment of the Lord,
I think one reason might be
maybe we've lost our sense of the seriousness of sin.
Maybe we've lost our sense of the holiness of our God.
Maybe we've grown so accustomed to the patience of God
that God's judgment and His wrath is what seems out of place.
But isn't this what God told Adam and Eve would be the consequence of their sin?
And the day you eat of it, you will surely, what?
You will die.
And doesn't Romans 6.23 say the wages of sin is what?
Is death.
Well, the fact is God takes sin infinitely more seriously than we do.
And the hard, unpopular truth is that, yes, we deserve death for our sin.
Will you die if you tell a lie?
I'm not sure.
But do you deserve to die?
Yes, you do.
We are guilty, all of us, every one of us,
are guilty of sin against a holy God.
We deserve hell for our sin.
And the only reason you are not there right now
is either because God has been gracious to you
in saving you and redeeming you in Christ,
or He is being patient with you
in delaying that judgment that we deserve
so that you might, by His grace, repent of your sin.
Now, we're often surprised by the judgments of God,
but the truth is we ought to be much more surprised
by the patience of God towards sinners like us.
And it still gets even worse.
The spiral continues.
Look to verse 11.
Judah was afraid that his youngest son, Shelah,
would grow up and die just like his brothers.
Seems like a valid concern at this point.
And so he tells Tamar to go back to her father's house
and wait until he grows up.
This is his last offspring.
This is one last chance to keep the family line going.
But look what happened starting in verse 12.
It says,
In the course of time, Judah's wife dies.
And so he goes up to Timnah with his buddy, Hira.
And when Tamar hears about it, she hatches a plan.
Look what she does.
And she takes off her widow's garments
and she covers herself with a veil.
No one can tell that it's her.
She sits at the entrance to a name on the road to Timnah.
And when Judah sees her,
she looks good to him.
And he goes and he wants to take what his flesh desires.
And so what does he do?
He goes and to put it politely,
he asks for some of her time.
And in response,
she says,
Well, what will you give to me?
He says,
I'll bring you a young goat from the flock.
But she says,
Well, if you give me a pledge,
you give me your signet
and give me your cord
and give me your staff
and then I'll take that as a guarantee,
a sort of down payment
that you're going to be acting good on your word.
And so he does.
Verse 18 says,
She conceived by him.
And now this messed up family
has just got even worse, hasn't it?
You have two sons dead because of their sin.
You have one son that's still single.
He's waiting on his dad to step up
and provide a wife for him.
You have one daughter-in-law
that's waiting on dad to keep his word.
And meanwhile,
dad just got the daughter-in-law pregnant
and doesn't even know him.
This is more dramatic
than any soap opera
you're going to find on TV.
Now, don't you love
how realistic the Bible is
in presenting the sin
and the mess of the world?
And when Judah does wind up
sending the goat
to pay what he thinks is the prostitute,
no one can find her.
She's not there.
And so Judah, verse 23,
says he just decides
to cut his losses.
He doesn't want to be embarrassed.
Just let her keep the stuff
and we'll just all move on, right?
Fast forward three months later
and now we have a problem.
About three months later,
Judah was told,
Tamar, your daughter-in-law,
has been immoral.
Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.
There's no hiding it at this point.
And all of a sudden,
all of his hidden secret sin
is all about to come out.
It says Judah is angry.
And his daughter-in-law
has done this unspeakable thing.
He recognizes that this is a great sin.
His daughter-in-law has been intimate
with someone outside
of God's ordained bounds of marriage.
And moreover, she's pregnant.
She's going to bring shame
on the whole family.
And so in what he thinks
is righteous anger,
he orders for her to be brought out
and burned.
He is about to judge her
for her wickedness.
But look what happens.
As she's being brought out,
she sends word to her father-in-law
and says,
By the man to whom these belong,
I am pregnant.
And what does she do?
She holds out the signet.
And she holds out the cord.
And she holds out the staff.
And she says,
Tell me who these belong to.
And Judah identifies them and says,
Surely she is more righteous than I am.
Because I did not give to her my son,
Sheila.
And he did not know her again.
You see, his sin found him out.
The bill eventually came due.
And church, it always does.
Sin has made a mess of this family,
hasn't it?
It is clear.
Even many years later,
after the Garden of Eden,
sin's curse still remains.
Sin's power still remains.
Sin's presence is there,
corrupting everything it touches.
Sin's consequences still remain.
It is wrecking this family.
And you look at this story,
and you just think,
Man, this all just seems so dark,
doesn't it?
But we should be reminded that
even in this darkness, church,
God's promise still remains.
Hasn't God promised blessing in place of curse?
Hasn't God promised all the way back in the garden
that He will send one
who's going to crush the serpent
and make all things right again?
And it's in moments like this
that make you ask,
Well, God, when are you going to do it?
Can't you come and act?
How are you going to do this?
This looks so bleak.
I mean, your own people
are no different than the world around them.
What hope is there?
What good could God possibly work
out of a mess like this?
Look there to verse 27.
The unfathomable mystery here
in this chapter
is that our God
has worked redemption.
Out of this mess.
Why is this story here?
Don't you wonder?
We're here in Joseph's story
and we take this little rabbit trail here
to just put Judah's sin
out in the forefront
and talk about him.
Why is this story here?
It's here to show us
where our Savior came from.
Look there to verse 27.
It says,
When the time of her labor came,
there were twins in her womb.
And when she was in labor,
one put out a hand.
The midwife takes it
and ties a scarlet thread
on his hand
and says,
This one came out first.
But he comes back
and his brother comes out
and they name him Perez.
And afterward,
the one with the scarlet thread
comes out
and they name him Zerah.
What is the point?
If you flip ahead
to Matthew chapter 1,
and I think you'll see it.
You know,
so often we just skip past
these genealogies
and I don't blame you.
There's a lot of names.
A lot of them are strange.
But pay attention
to what Matthew shows us
here in Matthew chapter 1.
He says,
This is the book
of the genealogy
of Jesus Christ.
The son of David.
The son of Abraham.
Why is he naming those figures?
He is anchoring
the promises
that God made to David.
The promises
that God made to Abraham.
And he's saying
this Jesus
is the heir
of all the promises
of God.
And then he traces
the family tree.
He says,
Abraham,
he was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father
of Jacob.
Jacob,
the father of Judah
and his brothers.
Judah,
the father of Perez
and Zerah
by Tamar.
And Perez,
the father of Hezron.
Hezron,
the father of Ram.
Ram,
the father of Aminadab.
On and on it goes
down to David,
the king.
And then from there
all the way from David
all the way to Jesus Christ.
Do you see what God has done?
Out of this incredibly ugly mess of sin
and brokenness
from this act of sexual immorality
and foolishness,
what has God done?
God has brought about
the birth of the Savior of sinners.
Out of the wreckage of sin
God has worked redemption
for sinners.
What man meant for evil,
God meant for good.
Jesus Christ is a descendant of Judah
from Tamar.
You see,
our Lord was born
into a line of sin.
Jesus came right into the experience
of our wicked world
yet without sin.
You see,
Jesus stepped right
into our mess.
No other religion
talks about their God
this way,
by the way.
Do you realize that?
No other religion
talks about their God
like this.
Every other religion
tells you to
clean yourself up,
make yourself better,
improve yourself
so that you might
inch your way
closer to God,
that you might
climb the ladder
and make your way
to God.
The good people
make it up top,
right?
That's how most world religions work.
Not the gospel of God's grace.
Undeserved blessing
to a sinful world.
Unmerited favor
to a sinful people.
Jesus comes from a long line
of messed up sinful people
just like us.
And when he came,
what did he do?
He went straight to the messed up
and straight to the broken
and straight to the sinners
and the tax collectors.
He ate and drank
with sinners
and he told everyone else,
don't you understand?
The healthy don't need
a physician.
The sick need a physician.
I came to save sinners.
This is grace
at work, Christian.
When we see the gross immorality
of the world
in which we live,
we see the way
that our culture
embraces all sorts
of wickedness
and when it seems dark
and bleak
and you just wonder
what in the world
can we do?
We should remember
our God
has already provided
the answer.
It's the gospel
of his grace
in Jesus Christ.
This passage is here
to show us
how God works grace
out of the wreckage
of sin
but that's not all.
Second,
we should also see
that God gives grace
for the war
with sin.
Here we look
to chapter 39
and now the attention
is shifting back
to Joseph.
We're veering back
on course here.
Look there
to chapter 39.
He reminds us
Joseph had been
brought down
to Egypt
and Potiphar
an officer of Pharaoh
the captain of the guard
he bought him
from the Ishmaelites
and he put him
in charge of everything.
Verse 2 says
the Lord was with Joseph
and even there
in captivity
he became
a successful man
and he was
in the house
of his Egyptian master.
Even in Egypt
the Lord is blessing
and prospering Joseph.
It says his master
sees that the Lord
was with him
and he understands
that the Lord
is causing all
that he does
to succeed
in his hands.
So Joseph
found favor
in his sight
and attended him
and he made him
overseer of his house.
He put him in charge
of all that he had
and the Lord
blessed the Egyptians
house for Joseph's sake.
You see
already through Joseph
God is already
making himself
known in Egypt.
You see how the nations
are already
getting a taste
of who this God is
and how he works
through his people.
We're already
seeing the blessing
of God
to the nations
through the people
of God.
It's all coming
to pass
but there's a problem
here.
It says Joseph
was handsome
in form
and appearance.
I've never really
had that problem.
Maybe you have.
But the reason
why that's a problem
is because Joseph
is living again
right here in the middle
of this sexually
confused
sinful
flesh driven
world
where people
act on their impulses
and ask questions
later.
So verse 7
it says that
after a time
his master's wife
cast her eyes
on Joseph
and invites him
to lie
with her.
Think about this
with me for a minute.
In theory
the setup
seems pretty simple
doesn't it?
She probably knew
the best times
to come and to go
and she knew
when that opportunity
would be right.
She knew
when her husband
would probably
have no idea
what was going on.
Potiphar
trusts him.
He has
no reason
to suspect
that Joseph
would be up
to anything
with his wife.
If Joseph
wanted to do this
he could do it.
The opportunity
is right there
in front of him
and he has a decision
to make
doesn't he?
Verse 8
look what he does.
Verse 8
says
he refused
and he says
listen
my master
trusts me.
He's put
everything
that he has
in my charge.
He's not
greater in his
own house
than I am
and in fact
the only thing
that he's kept
back from me
is you.
And look
what he says
he says
how then
can I do
this great
wickedness
and sin
against
God?
Joseph
in contrast
to Judah
is aware
of sin's
dangers
right away.
Right away
the temptation
comes
right away
he says
no
and why?
It's because
he's seeing
things rightly.
He's not acting
on impulse
he's not acting
on the desires
of his flesh
like Judah
he sees
the danger
here
that this
is a sin
against my
neighbor
my master
how could
I wrong
him
and more
importantly
than that
he sees
this ultimately
as a great
sin
against
the Lord.
As she spoke
to Joseph
day
after day
he would not
listen to her
to lie beside her
or even
to be with
her.
She continues
to present him
with the opportunity
to sin
day
after day
but day
after day
he does not
even listen
to her.
He won't
lie beside her
he will not
even be
with her
he gives
her no
opportunity
whatsoever
for her
to prevail
in her
temptations
to sin
against his
master
and ultimately
against the
Lord.
See this
persistent
temptation
is met
with
persistent
resistance
and I
wonder
church
do we
fight
temptation
like this?
Do you
flee
from temptation
like Joseph?
Or do you
follow
after the
desires
of your
flesh
like
Judah?
John
Owen
in his
work
overcoming
sin
and
temptation
which by
the way
if you
have
the time
that is
a worthy
read
overcoming
sin
and
temptation
he says
sin is
always
acting
always
conceiving
always
seducing
always
tempting
don't you
find that
to be
true?
Or
y'all just
more sanctified
than I am
maybe you
are
sin
never
lets
up
it
is
always
acting
and
it's
not
just
external
pressures
although
those
are
all
over
the
place
it
is
inside
of
us
we
wrestle
with
the
indwelling
sin
of our
own
hearts
and so
Owen
goes
on
he
says
when
we
realize
a
constant
enemy
of
the
soul
abides
within
us
what
diligence
and
watchfulness
we
should
have
how
woeful
is
the
sloth
and
negligence
then
of
so
many
who
live
blind
and
asleep
to
this
reality
of
sin
there
is
an
exceeding
efficacy
and
power
in
the
indwelling
sin
of
believers
for
it
constantly
inclines
itself
towards
evil
we
need
to
be
awake
then
if
our
hearts
would
know
the
ways
of
God
our
enemy
is
not
only
upon
us
as
it
was
with
Samson
but
it
is
also
within
us
church
we
have
to
constantly
be on
guard
against
the
temptations
of
the
enemy
yes
and
also
the
weakness
of
our
own
flesh
but
the
fact
is
none
of us
are
strong
enough
to
do
this
none
of us
are
strong
enough
to
resist
the
temptations
of
the
enemy
day
after
day
after
day
after
day
we
are
not
strong
enough
to
fight
against
all
that
the
world
and
the
flesh
and
the
devil
would
throw
at
us
if
you
go
into
this
battle
in
your
own
strength
you
will
fail
what
then
is
our
hope
again
it
is
not
try
harder
it
is
not
be
better
it
is
not
ten
steps
to
a
better
you
it
is
the
grace
of
God
at
work
for
those
who
believe
the
gospel
teaches
us
that
our
God
gives
grace
for
the
war
with
sin
this
is
what
the
gospel
has
purchased
for
all
who
believe
in
Christ
you
realize
that
when
you
put
your
faith
in
Christ
church
you
become
a
new
creation
and
a
new
creation
who
is
now
set
free
from
the
power
of
sin
over
you
so
yes
temptation
will
come
and
yes
indwelling
sin
remains
but
in
Christ
you
now
have
new
resurrection
power
by
his
grace
to
wage
war
against
sin
that's
power
you've
never
had
before
that's
new
spiritual
life
that you've
never
had
before
you
were
dead
in the
trespasses
and sins
in which
you once
walked
but
God
has
made
you
alive
together
with
Christ
you
have
the
power
of
his
spirit
in
you
it
is
God
who
works
in
you
to
will
and
to
work
for
his
good
pleasure
so
now
in
Christ
and
only
in
Christ
we
can
go
to
war
with
sin
and
temptation
knowing
that
our
God
by
his
grace
is
fighting
for
us
first
Corinthians
10
tells
us
no
temptation
has
overtaken
you
that
is
not
common
to
man
God
is
faithful
and
he
will
not
let
you
be
tempted
beyond
your
ability
but
with
the
temptation
he
will
also
provide
the
way
of
escape
but
we
should
also
know
church
that
if
we
do
by
his
grace
flee
from
temptation
as
Joseph
does
here
then
it
may
also
come
with
a
cost
look
there
to
verse
11
says
one
day
he
went
to
the
house
to
do
some
work
and
none
of
the
men
of
the
house
were
there
so
the
wife
catches
him
by
the
garment
and
again
says
lie
with
me
but
he
flees
away
and
he
leaves
his
garment
in
her
hand
he
fled
out
of
the
house
and
so
what
does
she
do
she
fabricates
this
lie
to
tell
all
the
men
of
the
house
to
tell
her
husband
that
this
Hebrew
has
come
in
here
to
laugh
at
me
and
humiliate
me
he's
trying
to
seduce
me
and
we
see
the
picture
here
this
is
all
a
lie
isn't
it
she
has
completely
made
up
this
story
and
now
once
again
this
is
the
second
time
now
Joseph
is
a
victim
of
a
great
injustice
and
the
master
hears
about
it
and
what
does
he
do
not
surprisingly
he
takes
him
and
he
throws
that
man
into
jail
Joseph's
there
in
prison
but
even
so
look
there
even
there
in
prison
it
says
the
Lord
was
with
Joseph
and
the
Lord
showed
him
steadfast
love
and
we're
right
back
to
where
we
started
aren't
we
the
Lord
his
presence
is
there
with
Joseph
and
even
in
prison
now
he's
causing
him
to
prosper
and
to
succeed
why
because
the
Lord
was
with
him
after
all
of
that
Joseph's
location
has
changed
his
circumstances
has
changed
but
look
what
hasn't
changed
the
Lord
was
with
him
and
the
Lord
prospered
him
four
times
in
this
chapter
that
phrase
keeps
coming
up
do
you
see
that
the
Lord
was
with
him
the
Lord
was
with
him
the
Lord
was
with
him
the
Lord
was
with
him
and
for
Joseph
the
Lord's
presence
with
him
is
worth
far
more
than
the
fleeting
pleasures
of
sin
and
I'm
certain
that
it's
the
Lord's
presence
with
him
that's
strengthened
him
to fight
the
temptation
to
sin
church
is
this
true
for
you
Christian
do you
realize
that you
have
the
same
presence
of
the
Lord
with
you
and when
the
enemy
would
tempt
you
to
sin
do you
remember
the
Lord
is
with
you
and when
you
suffer the
consequences
of living
faithfully
for the
Lord
and in a
wicked world
do you
remember
that the
Lord
is
with
you
God's
grace
is at
work
here
out
of
the
wreckage
of
sin
to
bring
about
the
great
hope
for
the
sinful
world
and
church
this
is
truly
this
is
the
story
of
every
Christian
in
the
room
and
every
Christian
in
the
world
Jesus
has
stepped
in
and
rescued
you
out
of
your
mess
out
of
the
wreckage
of
your
own
sin
God's
grace
has
burst
through
in
the
gospel
of
Christ
he's
taken
the
wrath
of
God
and
the
judgment
of
God
that
we
deserve
for
our
sin
he's
worked
unfathomable
grace
towards
you
who
believe
but
he
doesn't
stop
there
and
God's
grace
also
sustains
us
and
equips
us
for
the
battle
against
sin
you
are
not
alone
in
the
battle
you
see
Joseph
triumph
over
temptation
and
in
this
way
he
points
us
forwards
through
our
Lord
Jesus
Christ
do you
see the
picture of
Christ
here in
this
passage
our
Lord
Jesus
like
Joseph
in a
way
he
perfectly
resisted
sin's
temptation
he
himself
suffered
while
being
tempted
like
us
he
was
tempted
and
tried
in
every
way
as
we
are
yet
without
sin
Jesus
Christ
perfectly
resisted
temptation
not
just
for
a
moment
but
for
an
entire
33
year
lifetime
I
love
the way
C.S.
Lewis
puts it
in
mere
Christianity
he
says
only
those
who
try
to
resist
temptation
know
how
strong
it
is
after
all
you
find
out
the
strength
of
the
German
army
by
fighting
against
it
not
by
giving
in
you
find
out
the
strength
of
a
wind
by
trying
to
walk
against
it
not
by
lying
down
a
man
who
gives
in
to
temptation
after
five
minutes
simply
doesn't
know
what
it
would
have
been
like
an
hour
later
that's
why
bad
people
in
one
sense
know
very
little
about
badness
they've
lived
a
sheltered
life
by
always
giving
in
we
never
find
!
out
the
strength
of
the
evil
impulse
inside
us
until
we
try
to
fight
it
and
Christ
because
he
was
the
only
man
who
never
yielded
to
temptation
is
also
the
only
man
who
knows
to
the
full
what
temptation
means
friend
do you
know
the
depth
of
your
sin
do
you
know
the
grace
of
God
for
you
in
Christ
do
you
know
what
it
means
to
resist
temptation
not
in
your
own
strength
but
in
the
strength
of
the
Lord
at
work
in
you
do
you
know
the
power
of
the
gospel
of
God's
grace
let's
pray
father
we
praise
you
that
even
in
moments
when
it
seems
dark
and
hopeless
father
yet
there
is
hope
in
the
gospel
of
Christ
father
as we
look
at
our
fallen
world
and
see
the
wickedness
that
runs
rampant
father
we
pray
that
we
would
bring
this
world
the
solution
that
you
have
brought
the
world
it's
the
gospel
of
Jesus
and
God
as we
see
our
own
sin
and
our
own
inclination
to
wander
from
you
and
we
see
the
temptations
that
we
face
day
in
and
day
out
we
pray
!
of
your
grace
at
work
in
us
we
pray
this
in
Jesus
name
amen