http://www.straitwaybaptist.org/
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00So the title of the sermon is when doing right doesn't seem right.
00:00:06When doing right doesn't seem right.
00:00:08So there's times when we're doing right and everything's right that we're doing and we're
00:00:12taking a look at ourself and that's an important thing.
00:00:16Is we're examining ourselves and we're saying Lord I'm doing everything right so why does
00:00:20it not seem right?
00:00:22Well there's a couple people in the Bible that we're going to look at today and then
00:00:26I'm going to give you a couple points.
00:00:27The first one is Joseph and I'm not talking about Jesus' stepfather, I'm talking about
00:00:33Joseph that was the guy with the mini coat.
00:00:38So if you go to Genesis 37.
00:00:40So we're going to see some situations with Joseph where he's doing everything right but
00:00:52things aren't going right.
00:00:54So look at Genesis 37, 36.
00:00:58We're going to skip around a little bit because if you know anything about the book of Genesis,
00:01:02the book of Genesis starts out with the whole world being created.
00:01:06You know everything you see, not just the world but the whole universe and then it goes
00:01:12down to Noah and then after Noah then you have the patriarch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
00:01:18then Jacob's, one of Jacob's children is Joseph where the rest of the book of Genesis
00:01:22is what?
00:01:23About Joseph and his exploits in Egypt.
00:01:28Genesis 37, 36.
00:01:33And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of pharaohs and captain
00:01:39of the guard.
00:01:40So give you a little back story, Joseph was hated by his brothers.
00:01:47So they basically put him in a pit and sold him unto the Midianites who then sold him
00:01:56as a slave to Egypt.
00:01:59Well they took his coat and they put blood on it and made it look like that an animal
00:02:05had killed him.
00:02:06So they did that and they deceived their father which is Jacob at the time and all these things
00:02:15happened.
00:02:17So what happens next?
00:02:18Well look at 39, skip over to chapter 39 verse 1.
00:02:22So this is while he's in jail, he's sold unto Potiphar, he's a slave basically, he's doing
00:02:31what Potiphar which is an officer of pharaoh, he's sold, he's a slave.
00:02:39And Joseph was brought down, this is verse 1 in 39, to Egypt and Potiphar and an officer
00:02:45of pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian brought him at the hands of the Ishmaelites
00:02:51which had brought him down hither.
00:02:55And the Lord was with Joseph.
00:02:56So the whole time he's with him, when he's with Potiphar as a slave or a servant, the
00:03:04Lord is with him.
00:03:06So that's the first thing I want you to notice.
00:03:08And he was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
00:03:13And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did
00:03:18to prosper in his hand.
00:03:22And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over
00:03:27all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake and the
00:03:32blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field and he left
00:03:37all that he had in Joseph's hand and he knew not all he had, save the bread which he did
00:03:44eat.
00:03:45And Joseph was a goodly person and well favored.
00:03:47So the Bible is recording two things, one he's a good person, Joseph is a good man and
00:03:54people liked him.
00:03:56And even though he's in a bad situation, he's a slave, he's a servant, the Lord is with
00:04:01him and he's allowing him to prosper.
00:04:04And this Egyptian named Potiphar, he sees that and he elevates him to the point that
00:04:10he's over every single thing in his house.
00:04:14So what went wrong?
00:04:15Look at verse 7.
00:04:16And it came to pass after these things, so the Bible didn't tell us how long it took
00:04:21for this to occur, but it didn't take long for him to realize that the Lord was with
00:04:26him and that everything that Joseph did prospered.
00:04:32And his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, lie with me.
00:04:37So now we see where Potiphar, he's off doing whatever and his wife is looking at Joseph
00:04:45and saying, hey, lie with me.
00:04:47Well, he's a servant and she's the boss's wife.
00:04:52Look at verse 8.
00:04:54But he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master wanteth not what is
00:05:01with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand.
00:05:05So he's saying, look, he doesn't want me to do that.
00:05:08I'm going to obey my master, which is Potiphar.
00:05:12And verse 9, there's none greater in this house than I, and neither hath he kept back
00:05:17anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife.
00:05:22How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
00:05:28So the whole time, Joseph knows what the punishment is.
00:05:32He knows that if he does that, he's going to commit adultery because she's married.
00:05:37And he's not saying, you know, she's probably telling him, hey, I'm the boss's wife.
00:05:43You need to do what I say.
00:05:45Don't you know I can elevate you to a higher status?
00:05:48Don't you know I can do all these things for you?
00:05:50Don't you know I can make life easier for you?
00:05:52But what is he saying?
00:05:53I'm not going to do that.
00:05:55He allowed me to have this position because he trusts me.
00:05:59He trusts me with everything in this house, even his wife.
00:06:03So because he trusts me, one, I don't want to ruin that trust between Potiphar and me.
00:06:10But the bigger thing is I don't want to sin against God.
00:06:13And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day.
00:06:18So this is just in one time, day by day.
00:06:21She's constantly saying, lie with me, lie with me, and he's resisting and resisting.
00:06:26And that he hearkened not unto her, and to lie by her, or to be with her.
00:06:31And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and
00:06:36there was none of the men of the house there within.
00:06:38So there's nobody there but him and her.
00:06:42So she's constantly telling him, and she caught him by his garment.
00:06:46So she grabs his clothes and says, lie with me, and he left his garment in her hand and
00:06:53fled and got him out.
00:06:54So she flees, he flees the temptation.
00:06:57He flees so fast that she's got a piece of his clothing in her hand, and he leaves, which
00:07:04is what we need to do.
00:07:05We get tempted with any kind of temptation, we should just flee and get out of that position.
00:07:11And that's what he did.
00:07:12Look at verse 13.
00:07:13And it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled
00:07:19forth, that she called unto the men of her house and spake unto them, saying, See, he
00:07:24hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us.
00:07:28He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
00:07:32And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, and that he left his
00:07:37garment with me and fled and got him out.
00:07:40And she laid up his garment by her until his Lord came home.
00:07:43So she's yelling all these things and look, he's here, he's mocking us.
00:07:47I've got a piece of his clothing.
00:07:49So now she sets up this trap.
00:07:51She sets up this trap for when Potiphar comes home.
00:07:54She says, Hey, this guy that you put in trust, guess what?
00:07:58You shouldn't trust him.
00:07:59He messed up.
00:08:00He lied.
00:08:01He laid with me in the bed and she laid his garment and she spake unto him according to
00:08:07these words, saying, The Hebrew servant was out, brought us unto us, came in unto me to
00:08:13mock me.
00:08:14And it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me
00:08:20and fled out.
00:08:21And it came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto
00:08:26him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me that his wrath was kindled.
00:08:31So what happened?
00:08:32Look at verse 20.
00:08:33And Joseph's master took him and put him into prison, a place where the king's prisoners
00:08:38were bound.
00:08:40And he was there in the prison.
00:08:43Look at verse 21.
00:08:45So what's happening?
00:08:46Joseph is doing everything right.
00:08:49He's not doing anything wrong with his brothers.
00:08:52Take him and make him a prisoner and sell him.
00:08:55He's not doing anything wrong when he's, he's resisting Potiphar.
00:08:59He gets elevated to a position where Potiphar trusts him.
00:09:03He could have told him, you know, the Bible never even says that Joseph comes up to Potiphar
00:09:07and says, Hey, your wife's a liar.
00:09:10Your wife's a liar.
00:09:11I didn't do that.
00:09:12You know, he never, the Bible never records that.
00:09:15So we don't know if that happened.
00:09:16But what we do know is, look, Joseph did right.
00:09:20And look at verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph.
00:09:24He never left him.
00:09:26He never said, OK, you're on your own, pal.
00:09:29You know, and showed him mercy and gave him favor and the sight of the keeper of prison.
00:09:35So not only did, did the Lord show that he was with Joseph and prove to he was with Joseph,
00:09:42but he also faith, the prison, the, the, the, the people in prison found favor with Joseph.
00:09:49Not only the people in prison, but the guardsmen, they found favor in Joseph.
00:09:54So even though we're in a bad situation, sometimes God is with us.
00:09:59The Lord is with us and he can show us that he's with us.
00:10:02And that's what he did with Joseph to show Joseph, Hey, you're doing right.
00:10:08We know you're doing right.
00:10:09And because you're doing right, we are, he's with you and the keeper of the prison committed
00:10:15to Joseph.
00:10:17So the guardsmen that is with Joseph and all the prisoners that were in the prison whatsoever,
00:10:23they did.
00:10:24He was the doer of it.
00:10:27Keeper of prison, look not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord was with
00:10:32him and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.
00:10:36So again, because Joseph was doing right, the Lord was loving that he was doing right
00:10:42and he had glory in it.
00:10:44Not only was he showing that he was with him the whole time, but he also, the keeper of
00:10:48prison, prisoner, uh, the prison guard, he showed him, Hey, I'm with this guy.
00:10:55This guy is my guy.
00:10:57You know, we talk about sometimes people getting the fear of God put in them, but that's what
00:11:01he did.
00:11:02The Lord put his fear in the guardsmen and said, this guy is my guy and he allowed him
00:11:09to be prosperous.
00:11:10Look at, uh, Genesis 40 verse four and the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them
00:11:20and he served them and they committed a season inward.
00:11:24So we don't know how long, uh, Joseph's in prison at this time, but we know he's there
00:11:29for a season.
00:11:30So what was that?
00:11:31Maybe three months, four months.
00:11:32We don't really know, but we know that it was, it wasn't just overnight.
00:11:37It wasn't just a week.
00:11:38It was a little bit of time.
00:11:40So fast forward, uh, I'm just going to briefly because I have more points.
00:11:46There's a butler and a baker in prison with him and while they're in prison with Joseph,
00:11:53they get to be buddies.
00:11:54You know, they're hanging out in prison or whatever.
00:11:56So the butler and the baker are wrongly accused as well, just like Joseph.
00:12:02So they're probably talking about that, but the whole time, uh, they have a dream.
00:12:06Each one of them has a dream and I'm not going to go in a dream.
00:12:09You can read it for yourself.
00:12:10It's in chapter 40, but basically how Joseph interprets the dream is that the butler is
00:12:17going to be restored and he's going to be back in his position serving the Pharaoh,
00:12:21the king with, uh, you know, serving him as a servant and he's going to be out of prison.
00:12:29But at the same time, the baker, he's going to be out of prison too, but he's going to
00:12:33be hanged.
00:12:35That's the, that's the interpretation and he talks about the dream and so that's what
00:12:41Joseph tells him.
00:12:42He says, hey, this is what's going to happen.
00:12:43The butler, he's going to be restored.
00:12:45He's going to be back.
00:12:46In fact, he's going to be elevated to the chief butlership, whatever that is, where
00:12:50he's the head guy.
00:12:53With the other guy, he's going to become chief baker, but three days later, he's going to
00:12:56be hanged.
00:12:57For what?
00:12:58We don't know.
00:12:59The Bible doesn't record that.
00:13:00So that's what he tells them.
00:13:02Well, when the butler leaves, uh, look at, uh, he tells him, remember me.
00:13:11He says, remember me that I'm here in prison.
00:13:16Well he doesn't.
00:13:17Um, look at, uh, Genesis 41 verse 1, and it came to pass at the end of two full years.
00:13:26So after all this has happened with a butler and a baker, guess what?
00:13:30Joseph is still in jail, in prison for two full years.
00:13:36Now don't you think at some point in time, Joseph is thinking, God, why?
00:13:40Why didn't I just lie with Potiphar?
00:13:43You know, I might've been having it pretty good.
00:13:45Well, again, the Lord never left him.
00:13:52And behold, there came out of the, uh, and he stood by the river, uh, I'm sorry, two
00:13:57full years that Pharaoh dreamed and behold, he stood by the river.
00:14:01So I'm not going to explain the whole dream.
00:14:03So Pharaoh, two years later, you know, the butler forgot about him.
00:14:08That's what verse 23, yet not the chief butler remembered Joseph, but forgot him.
00:14:12So the baker, he got hung, but the butler, he never comes and says, Hey, there's this
00:14:18guy in prison.
00:14:19He's wrongly accused too, his name's Joseph.
00:14:22He never told him that.
00:14:25He forgot about him.
00:14:26But after two full years, then Pharaoh has this dream about, uh, skinny cows eating fat
00:14:33cows just to put it plainly.
00:14:35And then that skinny, uh, ears of corn are eating fat ears of corn.
00:14:40And look at verse eight in chapter 41, and it came to pass in the morning that his spirit,
00:14:49this is Pharaoh, was troubled and he sent for all the magicians of Egypt and all the
00:14:54wise men thereof, and Pharaoh, Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none that can
00:15:00interpret them to Pharaoh.
00:15:02So he gets all these soothsayers, these fortune tellers, these tea readers, whatever, all
00:15:09these magicians of the devil to say, Hey, what is the dream mean?
00:15:15And they don't know.
00:15:17So what happens?
00:15:18Well, uh, look at verse nine, then spake the chief Butler into Pharaoh saying, I do
00:15:24remember my faults this day.
00:15:28Pharaoh was, Roth was a servant and put me inward the captain in the guard's hall house,
00:15:32both me and the chief Baker.
00:15:34And we dreamed a dream in one night, he, I, and he, we dreamed each man according to the
00:15:40interpretation of his dream.
00:15:42And there was with us a young man in Hebrew servant to the captain of the guard.
00:15:47And we told him, and he interpreted us to us, our dreams that each man according to
00:15:51his dream, he did interpret.
00:15:53And it came to pass as he interpreted to us, it was me.
00:15:58He restored in the mine office and him, he hanged.
00:16:01So what he's saying is, look, there's a guy in prison right now, but we had dreams just
00:16:06like you are Pharaoh.
00:16:08And he interpreted our dreams and they came true.
00:16:12And what he told us was that said was going to come true because I'm restored and you
00:16:17hung the Baker.
00:16:19And that's what he said would happen.
00:16:22So what happens?
00:16:23Well, he, uh, he remembers him at the right time.
00:16:28See, God's timing is always right.
00:16:31So two years ago, before Pharaoh had that dream, if the Butler said, Hey, uh, by the
00:16:38way, there's a guy in prison.
00:16:41He's wrongly accused to, you know what he was said, what good is he to me?
00:16:45You know, what good was he to them?
00:16:47So we see that Pharaoh is troubled at this time.
00:16:51Sometimes God calls us to be troubled to get our attention.
00:16:55And I'm not saying that Pharaoh saved or anything, but if Pharaoh had been troubled by this dream
00:17:02and the magicians had told him what the interpretation was, he would have never said that.
00:17:07But God reminded, but the Butler saying, Hey, do you remember this dream?
00:17:11You are two years later and you're restored and you know, he's doing well.
00:17:22So look at, uh, Genesis 41 verse 11.
00:17:28And we dreamed a dream in one night and he and I and he, we dreamed, I'm sorry, uh, go
00:17:33down to verse 14 and the first sin called Joseph and brought him hastily out of the
00:17:37dungeon and he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came into Pharaoh.
00:17:42And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream and there's none that can interpret
00:17:46it.
00:17:47And I've heard say of thee thou can't understand to interpret a dream to interpret it.
00:17:52And Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, it is not in me.
00:17:59God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.
00:18:03So guess what?
00:18:04He still gives God the credit.
00:18:05He still gives God the credit.
00:18:07He's saying, look, it's not me.
00:18:09It's not me that can interpret a dream.
00:18:11It's the Lord that can interpret the dream.
00:18:13Uh, look at Genesis 41, uh, verse 16 and Joseph answered Pharaoh saying it is, I'm sorry.
00:18:20And Pharaoh said unto Joseph in my dream behold, I stood upon the bank of the river, but all
00:18:24they came out, uh, the river seven kind, which is seven cattle, fat flesh and well favored
00:18:31and they fed in a meadow and behold, seven other kind came up after them poor and very,
00:18:36and very ill favored and lean flesh, just as I never saw in the land of Egypt for badness
00:18:42and the lean and the ill favored kind did eat up the first seven.
00:18:45So these skinny cows eat the fat cows is what he's saying.
00:18:49And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them, but
00:18:53they were still in favored as the beginning.
00:18:56So I woke and I saw my dream and behold, seven ears came up in one stock and fooling
00:19:02good.
00:19:03So these ears of corn are full and behold, seven years withered then and blasted with
00:19:09the east wind sprung after them and the thin ears devoured the seven good ears.
00:19:14And I told this unto the magician, but there's none that could declare it.
00:19:18And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh is one God has showed Pharaoh what
00:19:24he is about to do.
00:19:26So he explains to him that what there's going to be a famine, seven years of a feast that
00:19:32seven years, everything's going to be good.
00:19:34All the cattle are going to be good.
00:19:36All the, the, the, the crops are going to be good, but then there's seven years of a
00:19:41famine and the whole world is going to be in a famine.
00:19:45And what is he telling him this because he's telling him this because he wants to prepare
00:19:48him.
00:19:49Look at verse 28, this is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh.
00:19:53What God is about to do, he showeth unto Pharaoh.
00:19:59What God is about to do, behold, there comes seven years of great plenty through all the
00:20:05land of Egypt.
00:20:06There shall rise after them seven years of famine and all the plenty shall be forgotten
00:20:12in the land of Egypt and the famine shall consume the land.
00:20:16So what do we see?
00:20:17Well, if you read the whole story, you're going to find out what happens.
00:20:21It's not just in Egypt because, uh, Jacob, who is Joseph's father, where does he live?
00:20:29He don't live in Egypt, but there's a famine there.
00:20:32And what does he do when Joseph is elevated to another higher position?
00:20:38See Potiphar's right below, uh, Pharaoh, but guess what?
00:20:43Because Joseph did right and he did right the whole time, the whole time he's in prison
00:20:48for the two years.
00:20:49You know what he's probably thinking?
00:20:50Why?
00:20:51Why Lord?
00:20:52Why me?
00:20:53Why are you doing this to me?
00:20:55I'm doing everything right.
00:20:57I resisted the lady who was trying to lie with me because you're trying to make me commit
00:21:01adultery.
00:21:02I'm doing everything right.
00:21:03Why is this happening?
00:21:07But the Bible really didn't say that he did that.
00:21:09But you know, being a human, I'm sure he thought that in his mind.
00:21:12We all do.
00:21:13We all say, why Lord?
00:21:14Why me?
00:21:15But what I want you to understand is that God blessed Joseph so much more that he elevated
00:21:24him to number two position right below the Pharaoh, which means he was over Potiphar.
00:21:30I don't know what happened to Potiphar.
00:21:31The Bible doesn't record that, but not only that, see God's timing is always right because
00:21:39not only that, guess what happened?
00:21:42Jacob and his other sons, they're in a famine and Jacob does what?
00:21:49He has no idea that Joseph is still alive.
00:21:51He thinks Joseph is dead.
00:21:53He thinks he was killed by an animal.
00:21:55So what does he do?
00:21:56He tells his sons, hey, go pack up a mule, take your mule, go to Egypt because they got
00:22:03plenty of corn and he goes and he takes money and he goes and buys corn.
00:22:09And then what happens later on?
00:22:11Guess what?
00:22:12Joseph gets to see all his brethren and his father again and his father gets to see that
00:22:16Joseph hadn't died.
00:22:18See God's timing's right.
00:22:20He knew the beginning from the end.
00:22:22He knew what was going to happen.
00:22:23He knew that if Joseph would just continue on doing what he was supposed to do, doing
00:22:29right, folks, there's never any kind of problem with you doing right.
00:22:35You may think, in your mind, and that's what we got to do is saying, am I doing right?
00:22:39Am I doing right?
00:22:40Am I doing right?
00:22:42And it's time to evaluate yourself and realize I am doing right.
00:22:47The next person's Job.
00:22:49Go to Job 1.
00:22:56And I think about Job a lot because people talk about the patience of Job, but I don't
00:23:08think more about the patience.
00:23:09I think more about the faith that Job had.
00:23:14We're going to see what happened to Job.
00:23:17I mean, there's a lot of bad stuff that happened to him, but look at Job 1.
00:23:22So again, just like Joseph, Job is an upright, good man in the eyes of God.
00:23:28Not perfect, because we're all sinners, but in God's eyes, compared to all the people
00:23:34in the land, just like Joseph, Job is a good man.
00:23:37There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright.
00:23:43So the Holy Spirit is telling us that he is perfect and upright.
00:23:48Does not mean that he's sinless, because nobody's sinless.
00:23:51Means that he's complete.
00:23:53He's standing upright.
00:23:55Means that he's doing right.
00:23:57He's standing up and he's doing right.
00:24:00And one that feared God.
00:24:03So the first thing, he fears what God can do to him, just like Joseph.
00:24:07Why did Joseph resist Potiphar's wife?
00:24:09Because he feared God.
00:24:12And he said, chewed evil.
00:24:13What does that mean?
00:24:14He chews up evil and spits it out.
00:24:17When he sees sin, he resists it.
00:24:19Just like, guess who?
00:24:20Joseph.
00:24:21He did the same thing.
00:24:22And they were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
00:24:26His sons were also seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen,
00:24:33five hundred she-asses, and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the
00:24:38men of the east.
00:24:40So God has elevated him to a stature where he has ten kids.
00:24:45He has seven thousand sheep.
00:24:48That's a lot of sheep, folks.
00:24:50Three thousand camels.
00:24:53Five hundred yoke of oxen.
00:24:55So if you have one oxen and another oxen, because you don't put one oxen and a yoke,
00:24:59they're both together, that's a thousand oxen.
00:25:05Five hundred she-asses, which are female asses, and then a great household of servants to
00:25:10take care of.
00:25:11That takes a lot of people to take care of.
00:25:14Seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, a thousand oxen, and five hundred she-asses.
00:25:20That takes a lot of people.
00:25:22That's why I'm saying it's a great household.
00:25:25And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day, and sent and called for
00:25:30their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
00:25:34And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified
00:25:39them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number
00:25:44of them all.
00:25:46For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus
00:25:52did Job continually.
00:25:53So just to make sure, he wants to make sure that his kids are right.
00:25:58This is how righteous of a man Job is.
00:26:02So we see, this is a good man.
00:26:06He's doing things for other people.
00:26:10God's blessing him.
00:26:11But look at verse six.
00:26:15Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and
00:26:21Satan came also among them.
00:26:24So I just want to stop right there and tell you there's this goofball idea that people
00:26:28call the sons of God angels.
00:26:30I'm going to give you three verses that disprove that.
00:26:33Go to first John three.
00:26:35Give your finger there and go to first John three.
00:26:39No angel ever is in the Bible is called a son of God.
00:26:45Look at first John three.
00:26:51Behold, first John three one, I'm sorry.
00:27:02Verse one.
00:27:03What manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons
00:27:10of God.
00:27:11Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not beloved.
00:27:16Now are we the sons of God and it does not appear, not yet appear what we shall be, but
00:27:23we know that when he, talking about Jesus shall appear, we shall be like him for we
00:27:30shall see him as he is.
00:27:33And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
00:27:40Go to John one, John chapter one, keep your fingers still in Job.
00:27:47So the Bible says, what great thing God has bestowed upon us to become a son of God.
00:27:54Not the angels.
00:27:56Mind I remind you that the angels are ministering spirits.
00:28:03They help us through our path.
00:28:05Look at John one verse 11.
00:28:08He came unto his own, talking about Jesus and his own received him not, but as many
00:28:14as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
00:28:22on his name.
00:28:23So if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you put your trust in his righteousness and
00:28:28guess what?
00:28:29You are a son of God.
00:28:32Go to Hebrews one, one more place in the Bible.
00:28:38We're in the book of Hebrews now on Wednesday.
00:28:43We went through this several weeks ago.
00:28:45Look at Hebrews one four, being so much better than the angels, talking about Jesus as he
00:28:53hath by inheritance, a obtain a more excellent name than they for into which of the angels
00:29:00said him at that at any time, there are my son, he's saying, what time did God tell the
00:29:07angels?
00:29:08You're my son.
00:29:09No time.
00:29:10That's the answer.
00:29:11Have I begotten thee and again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.
00:29:16These are questions that are being asked and the answer is that no time was any angel ever
00:29:21called a son of God with that in mind, go back to Joe and he said, well, what's that
00:29:27important?
00:29:28Well, because people think there's this goofball idea that the sons of God are angels.
00:29:33If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are his son and the Lord said in the Satan
00:29:41winds, come as thou, then Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro in the
00:29:46earth and from walking up and down in it.
00:29:49So another thing we can take from this is that Satan's not in hell.
00:29:55I mean, Satan is not in hell.
00:29:57This idea that Satan's ruling hell.
00:29:59I'm sorry folks, but Jesus Christ is ruling heaven, hell and everything.
00:30:05Satan is going down, up and down.
00:30:07He's clearly telling us that he goes up from the earth up to heaven.
00:30:12So you say, well, where's Satan at now in heaven?
00:30:16And when you tell people, they're like, you're telling me the devil's in heaven.
00:30:20Well, what is it saying?
00:30:21He comes up to heaven to the Lord and says, and say, and I'm sorry, the Lord asked him,
00:30:27where are you coming from?
00:30:28He says, up and down from earth to heaven, earth to heaven.
00:30:32Why?
00:30:33And the Lord said unto Satan, as thou consider my servant, Job, that there is none like him
00:30:37in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and is true of evil.
00:30:42And Satan answered the Lord, remember it's L-O-R-D, capital L, capital O, capital R,
00:30:48capital D, and said to Job, fear God for naught.
00:30:52He's saying, look, have you considered Job my servant?
00:30:57Look at him.
00:30:58Look at the great guy he is.
00:31:00And he said, yeah, but God, guess what?
00:31:02He's not fearing you for anything.
00:31:04He's fearing you because you're giving him all these things.
00:31:07You're blessing him.
00:31:09That's why he's fearing you.
00:31:11That's why he loves you so much.
00:31:15Has not thou made a hedge about him?
00:31:18So he's put a hedge of protection and about his house and about all that he hath on every
00:31:23side that has blessed the work of his hands and his substance and increased in the land.
00:31:28So this is a good example that when you do right by the Lord, he will bless your hands.
00:31:37He'll put a hedge of protection around you until what?
00:31:41Until Satan comes up.
00:31:43Until Satan comes up and says, hey, look at this guy, but put forth thine hand now and
00:31:48touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face.
00:31:52So he's telling, he's accusing Job.
00:31:54He's accusing Job before the Lord and saying, if you take this away from my and your servant,
00:32:00he's going to curse you to his face and he's not going to serve you anymore.
00:32:03Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he is that he hath is in thy power.
00:32:10Only one exception, only upon himself, but not forth thine hand.
00:32:14So the thing I want you to see is even though Satan is going up and down from heaven to
00:32:20earth and he's accusing the brethren day and night, like the Bible says, and he's testing
00:32:25us and he's allowing God to do it.
00:32:28Nothing ever happens until what?
00:32:31God allows it.
00:32:32Nothing ever happens.
00:32:34God could have said, nah, you ain't messing with Job.
00:32:37I know his heart.
00:32:39I know who he is.
00:32:40Leave him alone.
00:32:41You can find somebody else.
00:32:43But he didn't.
00:32:44He said, but the only thing you can't do is you cannot lay a finger on Job.
00:32:49Take everything you got of his and take it away.
00:32:52Allow.
00:32:53He's allowing that.
00:32:56So he went forth the present and look at verse 13, what happened?
00:33:00There was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
00:33:04brother's house and there came a messenger in Job and the oxen were plowing, the asses
00:33:10feeding beside them and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away and they have slain
00:33:16the serfs with the edged sword and I am only escaped to tell thee.
00:33:19So Sabeans, whoever these people are, they went and took all the oxen and all the asses
00:33:26away.
00:33:27And they killed all the servants that were looking over them.
00:33:31Okay.
00:33:32And while he was yet speaking, so only one person escapes to tell Job what's going on.
00:33:38And then while he's still speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God
00:33:42is falling from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consume them.
00:33:48And I only am escaped alone to tell thee while he was yet speaking.
00:33:53There came also another and said that Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels
00:33:59and have carried away, yea, and slain the servants with the edged sword.
00:34:04And I'm only escaped alone to tell thee while he was yet speaking, there came also another
00:34:09and said that sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's
00:34:13house.
00:34:14And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smoked the four corners of
00:34:19the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone
00:34:24to tell thee.
00:34:25So what do we see?
00:34:27Every single animal, 7,000 sheep gone, 3,000 camels gone, 500 yucca oxen gone, 500 she
00:34:37asses gone, 10 kids dead.
00:34:43I mean, are you telling me that every single thing that Job had is gone?
00:34:50Yes.
00:34:52So what does he do?
00:34:53Does he just say, I ain't ever serve you again God, if you're this, if you're this
00:34:58kind of God, you know, you hear people say, if that's the kind of God we serve, I don't
00:35:03want to have nothing to do with Him.
00:35:04That's not what he said.
00:35:05Look at verse 20.
00:35:06And then Job arose and ran his mantle, talking about his clothes, shaved his head and fell
00:35:12down upon the ground and worshiped.
00:35:14So still Job is not blaming God.
00:35:18And what did he do?
00:35:19He shaved his head and shaved his beard and ripped his clothes because that's what they
00:35:22did to show that they were in mourning.
00:35:25And said, naked came out of my mother's womb.
00:35:28Folks, one thing that we all have in common is when you come out of your mother's womb,
00:35:33you got nothing on you.
00:35:34You got nothing to your name.
00:35:37And naked shall I return thither.
00:35:39And guess what?
00:35:40No, did you come out naked?
00:35:42You ain't taking nothing with you.
00:35:45You ain't taking the clothes.
00:35:46You know, you see these different groups of people, Indians and stuff, they'll leave food
00:35:51inside a casket or people will leave money or trinkets.
00:35:55They're not taking it with them, folks.
00:35:57They are not taking them to heaven or hell with them.
00:36:00They're not taking none of that.
00:36:02And the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
00:36:05So the whole time he's saying, look, I lost ten kids, folks.
00:36:09I mean, how long do you think it takes to procreate ten kids gone, dead, tornado, wind,
00:36:18whatever.
00:36:19All he had, all his money, everything gone, just him and his wife and maybe three servants.
00:36:26And look, in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God for it.
00:36:32He never said, God, why are you doing this to me?
00:36:35What is going on?
00:36:36Look over at number two, chapter two, I'm sorry.
00:36:44So we don't know how much time has gone by, you know, that he's in mourning for his ten
00:36:49children and he doesn't have anything, but guess what?
00:36:54Satan's not satisfied.
00:36:56Why?
00:36:57Because he didn't get what he wanted.
00:36:59He wanted Job to say, curse you, God, I'll go find some other God.
00:37:03I'll go wash a stick or a tree or whatever, but God, Job didn't do that.
00:37:09Look at verse one of chapter two.
00:37:12Then there was a day when the sons of God, again, not angels, but saved people in heaven
00:37:19came to present themselves before the Lord.
00:37:21And Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
00:37:26Lord said unto Satan, From where is comest thou?
00:37:28And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
00:37:32up and down in it.
00:37:34So again, that's what Satan's doing, he's just walking around trying to find who he
00:37:39can drop.
00:37:40And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him
00:37:44in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and is true of evil?
00:37:49And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him, to destroy him
00:37:57without cause.
00:37:58He's saying, even though you move me against him to try to destroy him, nothing happened.
00:38:05He's still true.
00:38:06He's still integrity.
00:38:07He still has integrity.
00:38:08He's still faithful to me.
00:38:10Have you considered him?
00:38:11Look at verse four.
00:38:12And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, in all that a man hath, will
00:38:17he give for his life?
00:38:19He's saying, look, your life, you'll give everything for it.
00:38:26But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee
00:38:31to thy faith.
00:38:32So a lot of people, if you ask them, what would you give for your health?
00:38:37They said, I'd give everything.
00:38:39You know, there's people in wheelchairs, there's people that are handicapped, and they can't
00:38:43do anything, or maybe they're in the hospital dying or whatever, and they would give everything
00:38:49for their health.
00:38:50Well, that's what Satan's saying, that anybody who's sick or has a problem, they will give
00:38:55anything.
00:38:56And he's saying, look, if you touch him, just because remember in chapter one, he said,
00:39:01you can do anything you want, but you can't touch him.
00:39:04He's saying, if you hurt him, he will curse you.
00:39:08And the Lord said unto Satan, again, God's saying, hey, you can do this, but he is in
00:39:15thine hand, but save his life.
00:39:16He said, you can't take his life.
00:39:19You can't kill him.
00:39:20Again, God puts restrictions.
00:39:23He's saying, you can take, you can put diseases on him, you can do whatever you want to, but
00:39:27you cannot kill him.
00:39:29Why?
00:39:30Because God just chose not to.
00:39:32He knew the end from the beginning.
00:39:33He knows what chapter 42 is going to bring.
00:39:38So when Satan fought from the presence of the Lord and smoked Job with bowls from the
00:39:45sole of his foot unto his crown.
00:39:48So what is a bowl?
00:39:49Well, it's a sore that is painful and it's itchy.
00:39:53And so what does he do?
00:39:54He takes a potsherd, a piece of metal, some kind of something, and he's scraping himself
00:40:00trying to scratch the whole time.
00:40:04Look at verse nine.
00:40:05There then said his wife unto him, is thou still to retain thine integrity?
00:40:11Curse God and die.
00:40:12He's saying, look, why are you still faithful to God when he keeps doing all these things
00:40:18to you?
00:40:19And we need to remember that, that when you think, why is God doing this to me?
00:40:24Why is all this things happening?
00:40:26Because that's what his wife is saying.
00:40:28Just curse God and die.
00:40:29She sees him with all these sores on his face and he's probably not nice to look at.
00:40:35He's scratching himself and look at what he says.
00:40:39But he said unto her, I speak as one of the foolish women speaketh, what?
00:40:45Shall we receive good at the hand of God?
00:40:49And shall we not receive evil?
00:40:52And all this did not Job sin with his lips.
00:40:57So the whole time he's not saying, God, you got me in this situation.
00:41:00You better get me out.
00:41:01He doesn't charge God with anything.
00:41:03But what he's telling us is this, hey, should we just receive all good things from God?
00:41:09He got it, folks.
00:41:10That's why he was the most upright man.
00:41:13He knew that God doesn't just rain on the just.
00:41:17He rains on the unjust.
00:41:19The fields of the people who hate God, they get rained on too.
00:41:23They get the same kind of rain.
00:41:26And he knew that, that we shouldn't just receive good things, but God will give us, we will
00:41:32receive evil.
00:41:33And that doesn't mean sinful things because there's no evil in the Lord.
00:41:37But as we can see, one thing you see, and this is not changed, is Satan constantly comes
00:41:43up there and he tries to make us fall.
00:41:46See, Satan has two jobs.
00:41:49One thing he wants to do is deceive us and send us to hell.
00:41:52Well, guess what?
00:41:53Don't you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
00:41:54That ain't happening.
00:41:55He's failed there.
00:41:56The next thing he wants you to do is make you fail where you don't raise your family
00:42:01like the Bible said.
00:42:02And you say, well, so-and-so is raising his family, he's doing real good.
00:42:05You see this guy over here?
00:42:07He don't take his family to church.
00:42:08He's doing pretty good.
00:42:09Why don't you do the same?
00:42:10And then you say, okay.
00:42:14And then he's won.
00:42:16Or he says, hey, this is going on, you know, this person's doing this illegal and they're
00:42:22doing pretty good.
00:42:23Why don't you do the same thing?
00:42:25He's constantly trying to make us fall, just like he did with Joe, just like he did with
00:42:31Joseph.
00:42:32He keeps tempting us and doing these things.
00:42:35So the things I want you to take from this, the points, number one, when things are good,
00:42:42we forget about the Lord.
00:42:44Think about it.
00:42:45When things are good in your life and your job's doing good, you just got to raise, hey
00:42:51man, I just got to raise, I'm doing good in my job, my people like me at work, I'm
00:42:56doing well, my hands are prospering.
00:43:00We forget about God.
00:43:01Now, Job and Joseph, they did not.
00:43:03In fact, we continue seeing where they keep remembering who the Lord is.
00:43:07But we as humans, you'll forget about God.
00:43:11It's just natural.
00:43:12You get busy in your life, busy with your family, busy doing your work, and you say,
00:43:17oh, okay, what happened?
00:43:20And then number two, trouble, tribulation, problems, whatever you want to call them,
00:43:26they come sometimes to remind us, to remind us.
00:43:32You know, Pharaoh was troubled, and when Pharaoh was troubled about his dream, the butler remembered
00:43:41Joseph.
00:43:42Sometimes God has to do that to get our attention.
00:43:46He causes problems.
00:43:47Now this didn't happen with Joseph or Job.
00:43:49I want you to understand that.
00:43:53It didn't happen.
00:43:54Joseph and Job, they were both good men.
00:43:57They were doing everything right.
00:43:59So God doesn't have to get their attention.
00:44:01But sometimes when we're not doing right, God does have to get our attention, and it's
00:44:05to humble us.
00:44:08Because when you're looking, when you're on the bottom rung, the only place for you to
00:44:13look is up, and that's to the Lord.
00:44:16So sometimes the problems come to remind us of who God is.
00:44:20Number three, God never reveals how we are doing.
00:44:24Go to Job 42.
00:44:28See, all throughout this, the one thing, I've read this many, many times, and the thing
00:44:33that always gets me is that Job is doing right the whole time.
00:44:40And between chapter 1 and 42, we just don't know how much time has gone through there.
00:44:45We don't know how much time Job is out there in the wilderness scraping himself with a
00:44:49potsherd.
00:44:50It doesn't tell us that.
00:44:52We don't know if it's weeks, months, whatever.
00:44:55We know it had to be quite a bit of time because his friends travel all the way to see him.
00:44:59They just didn't have cars and stuff like that.
00:45:00It took a while to travel.
00:45:01So we don't know what time frame has transpired between him losing every single thing he has
00:45:10and then having all these sores.
00:45:11I mean, don't you think if you were Job and you lost every single child in one thing and
00:45:18you lost everything you had, don't you think you'd be saying, God, have I not suffered
00:45:23enough that you're now going to put all these sores on me?
00:45:27And all throughout the Bible, you'll see his three friends are telling Job, there's something
00:45:33you've done wrong.
00:45:35There's something you've done wrong.
00:45:36You did this wrong.
00:45:37You did that wrong.
00:45:38You need to check your life because God's punishing you for the things you're doing.
00:45:43Well, guess what?
00:45:44God didn't like that.
00:45:45Look at chapter 42, verse 8.
00:45:52See, after all this, the Lord answers Job and at no time does the Lord tell Job, hey,
00:46:01you're right, your friends are wrong.
00:46:04He never tells him that.
00:46:06Even though the Bible tells us that, that Job was right, he never tells Job, you're
00:46:11doing right.
00:46:12Keep doing what you're doing.
00:46:14I got you.
00:46:15Look at verse 8.
00:46:16Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams and go to my servant Job.
00:46:21This is the three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Namathite.
00:46:30He tells him, hey, go get you these animals and let Job and you sacrifice him and Job
00:46:36shall pray for you.
00:46:39So apparently God's not accepting their prayers.
00:46:42He said, I'll only accept it from Job.
00:46:45For him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken
00:46:52of me, the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
00:46:56So the whole time, he never tells him, you're doing right.
00:47:00But I want you to keep looking.
00:47:06So his family members come to him, look at verse 12.
00:47:12This is how God tells us we're doing right sometimes.
00:47:15So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, for he had fourteen
00:47:20thousand sheep.
00:47:21So he had seven thousand, now he's got fourteen thousand.
00:47:26Six thousand camels, he doubled them, three thousand to six thousand.
00:47:30A thousand yoke of oxen, he went from five hundred to a thousand.
00:47:34A thousand she-asses, five hundred to a thousand.
00:47:37And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
00:47:40So he gets the ten kids back.
00:47:43Now this is obviously quite a long time spanning, because it takes a little bit of time to have
00:47:49ten kids.
00:47:52This is what's happening.
00:47:56He has ten more kids, he lost ten and he got ten more.
00:47:59In all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, and their father
00:48:04gave them inheritance among their brethren.
00:48:07After this lived Job a hundred and forty years, and saw sons and his sons' sons, even four
00:48:12generations.
00:48:13So Job died, being old and full of days.
00:48:17So it tells us that Job died, and he was full of life, because he did right.
00:48:24God rewarded him for doing right, for staying the course.
00:48:30He lost every single thing.
00:48:32He had sores from his head to his toes, and the whole time he never blamed God.
00:48:38And God said, you know what, I'm going to bless you.
00:48:42Now I've got a theory that a reason God doesn't tell us that we're doing right, because you
00:48:46may think in your mind, he doesn't give us a report card.
00:48:50You may be thinking, man, I'm doing everything right, I'm coming to church, I'm reading the
00:48:54Bible, what more do you want me to do?
00:48:55And God says, you're not doing good enough.
00:48:59There's something else you can be doing.
00:49:00And then you know what you're going to do?
00:49:01Oh, that's what God wants, and you're going to give up.
00:49:04You know, you go to work and your boss says, hey, you're not doing enough, and in your
00:49:08mind we always think we're doing more than the other person, but you're not.
00:49:14In their mind, you're not, you're doing less than the other person.
00:49:18The other thing is, is if you said, hey, how am I doing Lord, and he says, you're doing
00:49:23fine, keep on doing what you're doing, you know what you're going to do, slack off.
00:49:27We all do it.
00:49:28We think, oh, if I'm doing good, if I'm doing better than everybody else, I'm just going
00:49:32to coast, I'm going to slack off.
00:49:36That's my theory.
00:49:37I mean, I don't know, other than Job, there's nothing really to do.
00:49:40Number four, in your life, just like with Joseph and Job, you're either being tested
00:49:46or punished.
00:49:49Tested or punished.
00:49:50Now, Job and Joseph were being tested, and then God was waiting to see how they responded.
00:49:56Now, God knew how they were going to respond, because He knows the beginning from the end.
00:50:00But God gets credit.
00:50:03He got credit, Joseph gave him credit, Job gave God credit for doing the things that
00:50:08he was doing, because he feared God.
00:50:11Both of them feared God.
00:50:12They feared God to get into any kind of sin.
00:50:15It doesn't mean that they're sinless.
00:50:18So how do you know which one you're in?
00:50:20Well, you've just got to do a reflection of yourself.
00:50:23I'm coming to church, I'm reading the Bible, have you ever thought that, why do we come
00:50:28to church on Sunday?
00:50:29Well, there's two reasons I've come up.
00:50:31Number one is because Jesus Christ rose the first day of the week.
00:50:36It's not Monday, it's Sunday.
00:50:40That's what we do.
00:50:41We celebrate that.
00:50:42But the other thing is, is the Bible records so many times of us giving the first tenth
00:50:47of what we have.
00:50:49The first tenth of what we make, the ten percent of what we make.
00:50:54The first part.
00:50:55Not the end.
00:50:56Not, well, hey, I've got a little extra here, I'm going to give it.
00:50:58No, this is the first part.
00:50:59Well, that's part of the Sunday, the first day.
00:51:02Well, that's also your time.
00:51:06I mean, we get up Sunday morning, there's probably not a lot of stuff you do Sunday
00:51:10morning when you wake up other than get ready and come here.
00:51:13You're giving God your ten percent of your time when you come here.
00:51:19So you're being tested or punished.
00:51:21So you've got to think in your mind and you've got to do a real evaluation and get down on
00:51:25your hands and knees and say, God, why is this happening?
00:51:29Is it because of something I'm doing, is it some kind of sin I'm hiding in my heart, or
00:51:33am I doing everything right and I'm just being tested?
00:51:38Because everybody who's being tested, when they do right, they come out of the fire and
00:51:43they get more stuff.
00:51:45They get blessed by God with peace.
00:51:50Number five, punishment is not always immediate.
00:51:55You know, something I found out in my life when I was drinking and doing a bunch of stupid
00:51:59stuff, a bunch of selfish stuff, that, you know, the next day, when you're trying to
00:52:03get right, that's not when the punishment comes.
00:52:06You know, God's got to get our attention and we've got to understand God is long-suffering.
00:52:14What does that mean?
00:52:16Long-suffering means that he allows things for a long time.
00:52:19If, you know, if he treated us like your pet, your pet pees on the carpet and you stick
00:52:25your nose in it and you pop them, don't do that.
00:52:29That's not what God does, folks.
00:52:32He allows us to try to fix things ourselves.
00:52:35He allows people in our family, our parents, pastors, teachers to say, hey, you're doing
00:52:41wrong.
00:52:42You better get it right.
00:52:44And then he allows us.
00:52:45He's long-suffering.
00:52:46He allows things for a long time.
00:52:52It's like, you know, he wants us to try to figure it out on our own.
00:52:56In my own life, you know, driving a truck sometimes, you go to a new location and you
00:53:02say, hey, I'm just going to pull in straight.
00:53:04You pull in straight and there's nowhere for you to turn around.
00:53:07You're like, ah, man, I messed up now.
00:53:11Now you've got to back out into the street and get back out.
00:53:14So what do you learn?
00:53:15You learn these places that you've got to back into or you're not going to make it out.
00:53:21And when you sit there and struggle and struggle and struggle trying to get out and you turn
00:53:25around and try it this way and this way and that way in the trailer, this is my own life.
00:53:29It's the same thing with life.
00:53:32Then you'll remember, I ain't doing that again.
00:53:36And God wants us to think and say, I ain't doing that because last time I did that and
00:53:40that was wrong.
00:53:41I got beat down by God.
00:53:44And Joseph knew that, that if he did commit adultery, he wasn't scared of what happened
00:53:50to him with Potiphar.
00:53:51He was more scared what would happen to him from God.
00:53:55And we need to understand that no matter what the world does, you need to fear what God
00:54:00is going to do.
00:54:01When you get tempted with fornication, you need to say, hey, I know it's wrong.
00:54:06And you know what?
00:54:07I'm not going to do it.
00:54:08Not because of getting some kind of AIDS or some girl getting knocked up and she commits
00:54:13abortion or whatever, it just compounds.
00:54:15I'm not going to do it because God told me not to.
00:54:18And I'm more interested in being obedient to God.
00:54:24And when you have that, you know what?
00:54:26The devil is going to flee.
00:54:27He's going to flee when you realize to him that I'm not interested in you Satan.
00:54:32You go on and find somebody else.
00:54:34Just like Jesus three times, he used the Bible to make Satan go away.
00:54:39Well, that's what you need to do too.
00:54:41But if you haven't read this and you don't have it hidden in your heart, you can't do
00:54:47that.
00:54:48Number six is willful sinning yields harsher, more immediate punishment.
00:54:55Go to Hebrews 10.
00:55:00Willful sinning.
00:55:01What does that mean?
00:55:02Oh, I know fornication is wrong, which is the physical act between a man and a woman
00:55:07before they're married, that married people have, but I'm going to do it anyway because
00:55:14everybody else is doing it.
00:55:16Little Susie's over here doing it and ain't nothing happened to her.
00:55:20Everybody likes little Susie because she's doing all that stuff.
00:55:27And when you have that in your mind, that's willful sinning.
00:55:31Look at verse 26 in Hebrews 10.
00:55:33We're going to be talking about this a little bit on Wednesday.
00:55:37For if we sin willfully, what does that mean?
00:55:40I know it's wrong, but I don't care.
00:55:43After that, we have received the knowledge of the truth.
00:55:46So if somebody tells you, hey man, what you're doing is wrong, let me show you in the Bible.
00:55:51That's the knowledge of the truth.
00:55:52There remains no more sacrifice for sins.
00:55:55Does that mean that you're not forgiven for that?
00:55:57No, that's not what that means.
00:55:59It means that God's got his target on you.
00:56:04He's got his target on you.
00:56:06But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and firing the nation which shall devour the
00:56:13adversaries.
00:56:15He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
00:56:22What does it mean?
00:56:23People that hated the law that God created, the Ten Commandments, all the laws that Moses
00:56:28brought unto the people, the ones that says, hey, we're not going to do that.
00:56:33We hate that law.
00:56:36They died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
00:56:41You can go back to when the fiery serpent got them or whatever.
00:56:46There's just so many times when Moses was out there in the desert that they died.
00:56:53And that's what we need to understand.
00:56:54When you say in your mind, you don't even have to say it with your lips, but in your
00:56:57heart you say, well, I know that's wrong, but I ain't worried about it.
00:57:02God says, and he's long suffering.
00:57:06He may allow you to go for a long time.
00:57:10The last point is that he will never leave us.
00:57:16He will never leave us.
00:57:17The moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you put your trust in his righteousness
00:57:22and not your own righteousness or some other garbage, but you believe that Jesus' death,
00:57:27burial, and resurrection is your ticket to heaven, and you confess that with your mouth
00:57:31to the Lord Jesus, and you believe that, you have the Holy Spirit.
00:57:36And guess what?
00:57:37God is not going to leave the Holy Spirit.
00:57:41And you have him inside of you, the indwelling and Holy Spirit, until the day of redemption.
00:57:48The day that Jesus Christ comes in the clouds and reclaims your soul and meets with your
00:57:54body.
00:57:55That's the day of redemption.
00:57:57He's there the whole time until our body changes to the body like Christ, which is sinless,
00:58:04perfect body.
00:58:07What you need to know, the whole time, Joseph, the Lord is with him.
00:58:14He tells him, I'm with you, I'm with you, don't worry, you're in prison, I'm with you.
00:58:19We need to understand whatever we're going through, whether it's the punishment or the
00:58:24testing, whatever it is, God is there.
00:58:27But with the punishment, you've got to come first.
00:58:32You've got to come first and say, God, reveal to me what's going on.
00:58:37And that's the hard part.
00:58:39You know, sometimes God has to get our attention before we realize that we're messing up.
00:58:43But you've got to do a self-evaluation and say, God, is it something I'm doing?
00:58:49Is it because there's some kind of sin I'm hiding in my heart?
00:58:53Please reveal that to me so that I can confess it and we can move on.
00:58:57And then please help me to keep from doing that sin again.
00:59:01When the things are good, we forget about the Lord.
00:59:04When the problems remind us who God is sometimes.
00:59:08God never reveals how we are doing.
00:59:10He never gives a report card.
00:59:12You're either being tested or punished.
00:59:15Just know in your life, folks, there's always something messed up.
00:59:19In our life, there's always something messed up.
00:59:21You say, hey, my job's doing good, but then maybe your health is not.
00:59:25You say, hey, my health is doing good, but then maybe your job's not doing good.
00:59:29Or hey, my health and my job's doing good, but then maybe your relationships aren't good.
00:59:34There's always something that God's testing us and He's waiting for us to give it over to Him.
00:59:41When there's things that we can't deal with, and you say, God, I just can't deal with this anymore.
00:59:46That's when God says, well, bring it to me.
00:59:49Bring it to me.
00:59:50He wants us to use Him.
00:59:52But we have so much pride, all of us, and we think, hey, I'm going to try to fix this my own.
00:59:58And God says, all right, go ahead and try.
01:00:01And it don't get fixed.
01:00:03And you say, well, I'm going to try this way.
01:00:05It don't get fixed.
01:00:06And until we fall to our knees and say, God, I can't do this.
01:00:11He says, oh, I've been waiting months, weeks, years, days for you to say that.
01:00:17And He'll come in there and fix it.
01:00:18It may not be the way we want to fix it, but He'll fix it.
01:00:22And it may take time.
01:00:22It's in His timing.
01:00:24Just like with Joseph, it was not that Joseph wanted to get out of jail then,
01:00:27but that wasn't in his timing.
01:00:29Think about if he did get out of jail and he went back somewhere.
01:00:32All this famine, he wouldn't have been able to see his brothers.
01:00:35He wouldn't have been able to see his father.
01:00:37He wouldn't have been able to help all those people during that time of famine.
01:00:43With Job, you know, I don't really know about Job, but I'm sure it was in God's timing.
01:00:48I don't know why He chose to kill 10 kids, but that's what He chose to do.
01:00:56The other thing is, punishment is not always immediate.
01:00:59I remember my own life when I was doing stupid stuff.
01:01:03It was when I got everything right in my life and I was doing things.
01:01:07I was going back to church.
01:01:08I was trying to be the father and the husband that I needed to be.
01:01:12And I was trying to do everything right.
01:01:14That's when the punishment came.
01:01:16See, when God punishes you, when you're not thinking about Him, you know what?
01:01:20It don't stick.
01:01:23But when you're thinking, man, I'm doing everything right,
01:01:26but then you know what God wants you to do?
01:01:28He wants you to stay the course.
01:01:31You know what Satan wants you to do?
01:01:32He wants you to blame God.
01:01:35See, I can tell you, when I was drinking and being stupid, I wasn't getting punished, folks.
01:01:40Life was easier.
01:01:42Satan didn't have to have a target on my back.
01:01:46But when you're living right, that's how you know.
01:01:50When you're living right, that's when Satan's trying to target you to make you fall.
01:01:54So some other Christians say, I knew that guy was a liar.
01:01:58He ain't no different than me.
01:02:00He does the same thing I do.
01:02:02I don't care.
01:02:02I ain't going back to that church.
01:02:07Heard people say it.
01:02:10And then willful sinning yields harsher and more immediate punishment.
01:02:13He'll never leave us, never forsake us.
01:02:16Make sure you understand that.
01:02:17When times get hard, and they're going to get hard, and it's going to be worse,
01:02:21and people's going to blaspheme Jesus.
01:02:23They're already doing it with the Olympics.
01:02:25They're already making him out to be some kind of fat queer homo depicting the Lord's Supper.
01:02:31They hate Jesus.
01:02:33They hate Christ.
01:02:34They hate the fact that he gave his life that we may have life.
01:02:38And it's going to get worse.
01:02:39Bow our heads and have a word of prayer.