Sunday 20th May, 2021

 

TOPIC: JOSEPH: STUDY ABOUT DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS

TEXT: Gen. 39: 7 - 12   

INTRODUCTION: Today we are using the life of Joseph as a case study about divine righteousness. Joseph is a one of the sons of Jacob. He was the 12th born of 13 children born by Jacob. He was loved by his father but hated by his brothers who sold him as a slave to Egypt.   

1.  ADULTERY AND FORNICATI ON: THE DEVI L'S NO.1 WEAPON

Joseph was tempted sexually, as it was then, so it is now Heb. 13: 4 “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge”.

Exo. 20: 14 “Thou shall not commit adultery”

To the youth I Thess. 4: 3 “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication”

To men Prov. 5: 3 – 5 “For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell”.

 Satan knows how much God hates adultery and fornication, that is why he uses them as his number one weapon against growing Christians.

Pro. 6: 27- 29 “Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Can one go down upon hot coals; and his feet not be burned?

So, he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent”  

Today, he has many “brothers” and “sisters” who are nothing but agents of the devil himself around.

ADULTERY IS A SIN AGAINST AT LEAST (3) THREE PARTIES: GOD, YOURSELF AND YOUR NEIGHBOUR.

Joseph realized that adultery is primarily a sin against God

I Cor. 6: 19- 20 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”.

 That is, why he said “No” to it. But adultery is more than that:  it is also a sin against yourself apart from being a sin against your neighbour.

I Cor. 6: 18 “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body”.

No one ever benefits from adultery and fornication.

Pro. 11: 29; Luke 17: 1- 2; Matt. 19: 19; II Cor. 11: 2.

THERE IS A WAY OUT OF EVERY PROBLEM

God always provides a way out of every trial and temptation. James 1: 12.  In the case of Joseph, the only way out was to flee when he was cornered by the enemy.

There is a time for prayers and there is a time for action, too. I Cor. 10: 13; I Cor. 6: 18; II Tim. 2: 22; Gen.  19: 15-22; I Cor. 3: 16- 17; Pro. 22: 14; Heb. 2: 18

KEEP YOURSELF PURE

Joseph refused to yield to the temptress Eph.  5: 27.  He refused to take the sugar-coated poison. Adultery and fornication are very potent poisons. Don't take them. Keep yourself pure and unspotted.  James 1: 15; I Pet.  2: 11; Matt. 5: 22; Ps. 24: 3- 4; James 1: 27

Further Readings: I Cor. 10: 13; I Cor. 6: 18.