Joseph in his Parents' house

This is the official opening of the ministry at Western Avenue Gospel Hall. This will be our second annual mini-conference. Thank you for being with us.

Cold, but a lovely morning. Appreciate your time. Now, we're going to take time to read in Genesis and Chapter 37 and to actually read the entire chapter.

Genesis and Chapter 37. Verse number one, And Joseph dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren. The lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zelphah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. He made him a coat of many colors, and when his brethren saw their father, loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.

And he said unto them, Here, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf.

And his brethren said unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren.

And his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them.

And he said unto him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, well with thy flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent out of the vale of Hebron and came to Shechem. And a certain man found him.

Behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.

And the man said, They are departed hence. For I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan.

And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Behold, come now, therefore, let us slay him and cast him into some pit.

And we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him. And we will see what will become of his dreams. Reuben heard it.

He delivered him out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him. Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness. And lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their hands and deliver him to his father again.

And it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty.

There was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread and lifted up their eyes and looked. And behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it that we slay our brethren and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh. And his brethren were content.

And then there passed by Midianites merchantmen. And they drew up and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt.

Reuben returned unto the pit. And behold, Joseph was not in the pit. He ran his clothes and returned unto his brethren and said, The child is not an eye.

Whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in blood. And sent the coat of many colors and brought it to their father and said, This have we found. Know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.

And he knew it. Just interesting to stop there that Jacob had deceived his father with a coat. And now in the government of God, Jacob is deceived with a coat as well.

And he knew it and said, It is my son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

And Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted.

And he said, I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of pharaohs and captain of the guard.

Now, I trust that God will add his rich blessing to the reading of the word of God today. Now, I'm faced with a couple of difficulties at the very outset. And so maybe I'm saying it to get your pity.

But number one, it is so customary to turn to Joseph and to look at Joseph as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while that is certainly delightful and so profitable, our main emphasis will not be Joseph as a type of Christ, but Joseph as giving illustrations for lessons for life for for believers. Now, you won't fault me if at times our comments and your mind spring back to the Lord Jesus as we look at things concerning Joseph.

But for the most part, the emphasis in our ministry will be on Joseph as a picture, as a lesson book for believers today. Second difficulty is that I'm faced with is there are probably few lives with which we are so familiar as the life of Joseph. So if you've come looking for new thoughts and new ideas, you're going to be disappointed because we live too late in the dispensation to find something new in the life of Joseph.

It is fertile field and a fertile area for ministry and for teaching that we have all listened to for years. And so to be fresh and to rather to to be novel will be difficult. But I trust with God's help will at least be fresh and be able to give some helpful lessons and some helpful things.

You will, of course, know, especially older ones, that the book of Genesis is divided into two. It begins with four great events and is followed with four great lives. The four great events, the formation of the world, the creation, the fall of man, the flood and then the folly at Babel.

Those four great events highlight the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis. And then, of course, we're brought the four great lives, aren't we? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. In Abraham, there is the principle of faith, which is being taught by the spirit of God.

Abraham is seen as the saint who moves in the pathway of faith to the revelation of God. When you come to Isaac, it's not so much faith, but the New Testament itself emphasizes that when you come to Isaac, it's freedom, isn't it? The freedom of sonship that is being stressed when you come to the life of a man named Isaac. When you come to Joseph, what you are confronted with is now, if you'll allow me just to call him a sinner and you'll understand what I mean by that.

It's someone in whom we see the flesh and how God deals with it in his life to bring him to where God wishes him to be. So it's the principle of the flesh and how God deals with that in Jacob. When we come to Joseph, it is fruitfulness.

Joseph is a fruitful bough. You recall the name of Joseph means that he will add. He will add.

Now, we don't want to develop that right now. You can come to Second Peter, chapter one, where Peter says, add to your faith. And I think that it would be a profitable exercise to look at all of those virtues that Peter emphasizes to be added.

And to look at them developed in the life of Joseph as a result of God's dealings with him in the furnace of affliction. So it is a life, then, that is growing. A life of fruitfulness as a result of being in the furnace of affliction in the life of this man that we are looking at here.

In the life of Joseph. So before us, then, in the way I have outlined it, just for the sake of organization and for the sake of being able maybe to collect our thoughts. We looked at Joseph in his parents' house and his conduct as a teenager.

And next to that, you could write the word fidelity. He is faithful in his father's house. So Joseph as a teenager and Joseph in his parents' house.

When you come to Joseph in Potiphar's house, it's not so much now his conduct as a teenager, but it's his conduct under temptation. He's going to be tempted in Potiphar's house. And it's not now fidelity, but it's purity, isn't it, that we're going to emphasize when we come to that particular house.

But from Potiphar's house, it's into the prison house or the round house, as your margin probably says. And now he's being tested. Tested by the iron that enters into his soul, as we're told in the book of Psalms.

And as you see him in the prison house, what you're impressed with is his humility. His humility, as we'll see him there. When you come to Pharaoh's house, it's his conduct now when he is put in trust.

Here's a man now that is put in authority. He has a trust committed to his hands. How will he respond to that? How will he handle success? How will he handle authority? How will he handle the power that suddenly is given to him? And we will see a man who deals in dignity.

As we look at him in his own home in the land of Egypt, we will see him now at a moment of triumph. And we will notice there his mercy towards his brethren. And finally, in his movements in God's house, as we gather together some references to Joseph outside of the book of Genesis, we will see his prosperity, his testimony that he has left.

So let me then come to the chapter before us. And while I was told the times are only approximate times, I assure you we won't keep you longer. You'll leave when the meetings are done at the end of the day.

Even if we take five minutes from one meeting and add five minutes to another, we'll try to respect your time and hopefully still be profitable. So looking then at chapter 37 of Genesis that we have just read together, I want you just to consider three things. Joseph and his father.

Joseph and his brethren. Joseph and God. Three very simple things that will bring before some very, very valuable teaching.

Now, the first thing I want to set before you, though, first of all, is this. The events of chapter 37 occur when Joseph was a teenager. OK? A teenager.

So stop making excuses that, you know, you're 15, 16, 17, and this is the time when you're allowed to... Now, Joseph was a teenager. And the word of God would bring before us teenagers who change the world. Now, I'm not on a youth kick.

This is not a youth mission or this is not a meeting to pat young people on the back. But I just want to impress on you that there are teenagers in the Bible who change the world. Joseph is one of them.

Charting the course of a nation yet to come, Joseph was a teenager who literally changed the world. Think of a Daniel as a teenager. And the effect Daniel had upon the entire nation of Babylon as a teenager, taken away to a foreign land as a captive.

It is very likely that Daniel began as a teenager. Rather, I'm sorry, that David began. And his early years that we are introduced to him may well have been as a teen, as a young person.

And some have suggested, and I would tend to agree with them, that Mary, when the angel Gabriel came to her, was just a teenage girl. Teenagers that changed the world. So the time to begin thinking about your life for God is not when university is done or the family has grown or things are just now settled and life is more... No, teenage years.

But I want to impress upon you as well that in teenage years, here was a young man subject to peer pressure within his own family, to envy, to jealousy, to hatred, to ostracism, to being misunderstood, to being abused. All in teenage years. And yet, he is going to make his mark for God.

So, that's the background of this chapter. It's real. This isn't just a fairy tale about some individual who is put upon the page of Scripture as a nice romantic example of, you know, happily ever after.

A story that ends well. Real life story here of a teenager who began living for God as a teenager. And we'll see some other things that are very vital to appreciate in his teen years.

But come then with me first of all to Joseph and his father. When I think of this teenager in his father's house, and I think of his relationship with his father, it is marked by respect and reverence. A young person growing at home marked by respect.

You cannot help but notice the contrast, can you, in character between Joseph and his brothers. Every other brother, now some may say, how did Joseph get the birthright? He was not the first. How did Joseph come into the good of the birthright? Well, you remember Reuben, don't you? And as you look at Reuben, what happened with Reuben was he defiled his father's bed.

And when you come to the next two, Simeon and Levi, what happened with them? Just turn back a few chapters. They dishonored their father's name. You have made me to stink before the inhabitants of the land, is what Jacob says.

And when you come to Judah, you know what happens to Judah as well. Judah dishonored as well by his behavior in the next chapter. And as you look at all of these boys, every one of them distressed their father's heart.

Who stood out? Who was it that was marked by an interest and care for his father who was it that was marked by character and by consistency? Joseph. And so as a result of this, Joseph stands in contrast. He is the son of his father's love, the son of his old age, the son upon whom he confers a coat of many colors.

It was not favoritism. It was not a father's petty bias. It was a father who recognized here is a son who has been consistent in his character.

Unlike a Reuben, unlike a Simeon and Levi, unlike a Judah, he's so different from all the others, he stands out. He's marked by character and by consistency. But you will notice also his concerns, not just merely his character, but here was a young man that had concerns.

Note his submission when his father says, go now and see your brethren and see how they fare and so on. Do not thy brethren feed the flock and shechem. Come and I'll send you to them.

What does Joseph say? Here am I sending. He's willing to go. He's got a concern for carrying out his father's will.

Danger? I don't think Joseph was ignorant of the feeling that was there. But you will remember that Joseph had such a care for his father's name and his father's honor that he, at the risk of the hatred of his brethren, brought back to his father their evil reports. You may say he was just a little tattletale, just a spoiled little child who ran to his father.

That's not the idea here at all. It's interesting that the word that is used in verse two, he brought back to his father their evil report. That is the exact same word that is used in the book of Numbers concerning the children of Israel murmuring against God, their evil report.

Those ten spies that brought back, you know what they brought back? They brought back an evil report. They were slandering. They were slandering their father.

And Joseph had such a care for his father's name, such a care for his father's honor that he made a choice. Will I bow to peer pressure and go along with my brothers or is the honor of my father what really concerns me after all? We will see when we come to how Joseph deals with his brothers to bring about restoration that his father's honor is what is paramount, paramount in his thinking. Not that he get his pound of flesh, not that men come groveling to him, but that they recognize their father's honor.

Now every Christian should have this in view, father's honor. Every young person in a home should have this in view, the honor of their parents. That's what the word of God says, isn't it? Beyond obedience there is lifelong honor for parents.

But also again, you cannot help but think that the ultimate desire of the perfect son was to bring honor to his father at whatever cost it was. The hatred of men, the bitterness of men, the spittle, the scorn, honor for the father. So that here we have again Joseph in regard to seeking to honor his father.

He was conscientious. He could be trusted. He wouldn't turn aside.

He went to Shechem, went to Dotham. It's interesting to me. Now again here we're left reading between the lines, but I hope you'll allow that.

You would think Jacob would be a little bit concerned that sending his son far off and brothers that hated him. Jacob knew human nature. If anyone knew human nature, Jacob did.

So it makes you wonder, did Joseph never tell his father how his brothers felt about him? Did Joseph never tell his father how his brothers felt? And so that while there was hatred between the brothers and Joseph, Jacob never knew it. And so Joseph is sent to find his brethren and to seek to minister to them. I seek my brethren.

But let me just mention one other thing about Joseph and his father's house. Joseph did not succumb to the peer pressure that was around him, did he? Now peer pressure is something that we all live with. We all have to face.

Not something just for teen years or college years or early years. Peer pressure is something that every one of us deals with. So when your neighbor gets his new Mercedes and your 85 Ford is sitting in the driveway and you begin to feel a little bit of, wish I had that.

And when everybody else around you is getting something new and you don't have something new. And when everybody else is going on their cruises and their vacations and you want to be like them. And so peer pressure for adults is very real.

But especially in youth, peer pressure is a tremendous, tremendous temptation. Because there's no time that we want to be accepted and be valued as those early years when our identity and our sense of self-worth is so fragile. And so looking different, acting different, talking about different things makes you stand out.

It is especially our sisters that bear that burden of difference in appearance. I can go to a meeting and most of you men here can go to a business meeting or to a convention that you have to go to as a result of your work. And you and I can move in and out and no one would know anything different about us by appearance.

We don't have earrings hopefully or nose rings. But you know, not everyone has those either. And so we can move in and out of our work environment, in and out of our neighborhoods, and as males we would not look very different.

But our sisters in the workplace, in the community, at the store, wherever they are, they stand out. So they're feeling peer pressure every single moment. Very real for them.

And young people, high school, college, at work, the peer pressure of, what did you do this weekend? Everybody else in the office went to a game, went to a movie, went on a date. And what did you do this weekend? Went to a Bible conference. Oh, the subject quickly changes.

And you begin to feel so out of place. And so different. Joseph must have felt that too.

Joseph began with just the sons of the handmaidens, Zilpah and Bilhah, hating him. It moves then to all of his brothers hating him. It moves then to even his father rebuking him.

Think of how lonely he begins to feel. Just for a little while, six, then 11. Then 11 plus his father.

He's left all alone because of his faithfulness. So he knew peer pressure. And so we begin to make compromises.

We begin to make compromises in our appearance. Begin to make compromises in our attitudes. Begin to make compromises in our speech.

Begin to make compromises in different spheres of life because we worship at the idol of acceptance. Now, I'm the same as you. I don't like being, you know, a square peg in a round hole.

I don't like standing out. I don't like somehow being singled out and feeling uncomfortable. But we worship at the idol of acceptance.

We want to be accepted. Joseph stood out against peer pressure. I was thinking of this and unfortunately didn't have time to check my details.

So what I may be, and it's always dangerous when you're being taped, what I may be saying may be somewhat inaccurate, but the end of the story is accurate. There was a man in Scotland by the name of Isaac Ewan and he was conscripted into the military. This goes back a generation.

The older men in Scotland, and I mean the older men in Scotland, would remember Isaac Ewan. He was never a full-time worker, but he was, according to many, one of the most able, if not the most able, minister of the Word of God in Scotland in his day. He was conscripted into the military and at one of the reviews the colonel said, now it is the custom of different men to pay for drinks for the entire company.

And he singled out Isaac Ewan and he said, you are going to pay for drinks for the entire company tonight. And Isaac Ewan said, no, he would not. And the pressure kept up and the embarrassment kept up and the intimidation kept up.

And finally when the colonel realized he could not break the man, he said to him admiringly, he said, I wish I had your courage. To which Isaac Ewan said, if you had my convictions, you would have my courage. If you had my convictions, you would have my courage.

Courage is not something that we muster up for an occasion. Courage is not something that as young Christians in school or in the workplace that somehow we grit our teeth and call upon every strength of fiber we have. Courage results from convictions that you develop in the presence of God.

Okay? It's not some law that you live by because if you don't, what will the Christians say? What will the brethren say? Now I am not in any way minimizing the value of being sensitive and having a sensitive conscience. But what I am saying is, what held Joseph, what will hold you, is going to be convictions in the presence of God. So here then is this man marked by courage, marked by convictions, not succumbing to the peer pressure of his day.

But let me talk about Joseph and his brethren. We could talk about the hatred that they bore him, and the hostility they showed him, and the harm that they did to him, and the hazards that he avoided in his dealings with them. Let me just talk to you about their attitude towards him.

They began by hating him because his father loved him. Then they hated him because of his faithfulness in reporting the account of their evil report. Then they hated him because of the dreams that he interpreted, and they envied him.

They envied his position. The idea of envy is a burning jealousy. A burning jealousy.

It's amazing to me, amazing to me, because you will understand virtually everywhere else in the book of Genesis, everywhere else in the book of Genesis where someone has a dream, there needs to be an interpreter. But when it comes to these dreams, the boys need no interpreter, do they? They see right away what Joseph is at. They see right away what has been revealed to Joseph in a dream.

No need for an interpreter here. Instinctively they realize, you mean you are going to be over us? No way. We're never going to bow down to you.

Who do you think you are? And so they are filled with envy and filled with jealousy at the idea that someone should be over them. How do you deal with how do you deal with envy? Oh, you say, I never envy anyone. God bless you.

Never envy. It's instinctive in our hearts as humans, isn't it? The works of the flesh are these. Envy being one of them.

Part of our flesh. How do you deal with envy? It's interesting, isn't it, how in a local assembly context how Paul deals with it in 1 Corinthians. Isn't it? He speaks about the danger of a competitive spirit or the danger of envy between different members in an assembly.

The ear saying, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body. And the foot saying, because I'm not a hand, I'm not part of the body. The one envying the other.

Now it's interesting, isn't it, just to think of the particular things that Paul is drawing our attention to. The ear says, because I'm not the eye, I'm not part of the body. Now, interesting why he makes that comparison.

Now, just stop a moment. Let's interview Mr. Ear for a moment and see what his problem is. The ear would say, you know, the eyes have that intelligent look.

Nobody says to me, looking at the ears, my, what intelligent looking ears you have. You know, ears aren't marked by intelligence. And the people look at the eyes and, you know, they're right out front there.

You can't miss them. And they give such expression. Ears? I'm just back here doing my job.

Nobody ever looks at me. Unless your ears happen to stick out or something, you know. Nobody really looks at ears.

He gets all the attention. He gets all the input. And I'm just back here doing my job and nobody appreciates me.

Think of the foot. My, the foot could say, I wish I were dexterous like the hand. Look at all the hand can accomplish.

And all I do is plot on. All I do is just, you know, whoever looks and says, what beautiful feet. What skillful feet you have.

And you can imagine the, uh, Paul is drawing our attention to the fact that some are more prominent than others. Some are more skillful than others. But my hand would be a little value without my feet to take me where they have to go to do what the hand accomplishes.

And the ears and the eyes work together in a wonderful, cooperative manner. But there is always that danger that some are more prominent than others. Some more skillful than others.

Some more in the forefront than others. And the result is that one can envy another. What's Paul's remedy for that in a local company? What does Paul do? What medicine does he apply to the disease of envy? Well, you know, as you read those chapters 12 and 13 and 14, he brings before us a wonderful unity.

To see the unity, to see the body-like character of a local testimony and to realize, it's not about me. It's not about whether people see me. It's not about whether I am appreciated.

We are working together. Because what we are seeking to do is to have men see not me, but Christ. To see not what I do, but to see the result of that is the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus.

It's not about me. And so here then you have someone who has to deal with envy and hatred from others in his everyday life. It's interesting that the word in our Hebrew Bible in verses 4, 5, and 8 for his brethren hated him and so on, it really means a word that is cold and is coldness.

You know, you can get the idea, can't you? They gave him the cold shoulder, as we would say. They basically wanted nothing to do with him. They were cold towards him.

But if we were to turn to chapter 49 when Jacob upon his deathbed is dealing with his sons, he says about the brethren towards Joseph, the archers have hated him. He uses a totally different word. It's not now the word for coldness.

Not now the word for shunning. It's a word that means a burning malice. A burning malice.

They burned in their hearts against him. Jacob came to realize that eventually. And he realized that it was an implacable malice they had towards Joseph.

You will notice the likewise, despite the fact that he shows a genuine care for them. I seek my brethren, he says. And he sought out their peace, their shalom, if you will.

But his brethren, it says, could not speak peaceably to him. So different. Their hatred, their animosity.

Hostility all around. How does Joseph deal with that? How are you going to deal with hostility at school? How are you going to deal with hostility at work? How does Joseph deal with it here? It's very real for many Christians. It's not that we go out of our way to make people dislike us.

It's not that we go out of our way to be awkward and to be and to become antagonistic to people. But there are believers in the right set of circumstances, with the right mix of people around them. And they will know hostility.

The constant jibes. The constant innuendos. The constant reminder that there's something wrong with them.

And so here, Joseph has to deal with that. But you will notice the harm that they sought to do to him. Heartless, hard-hearted.

Their intent really was to kill him. The only thing is they finally decided he was worth more dead than alive. I'm sorry, he was worth more alive than dead.

They could get more and still be rid of him. And so for a mere 20 shekels of silver they sold him. Let me just read the verse.

I was going to quote it. I think I'm going to be wrong in my quoting. So let me just read it to you.

You don't have to turn to it. Proverbs 25 and verse 18 speaks of a man harming his neighbor. A maul, a sword, and a sharp arrow.

A maul, a sword, and a sharp arrow. Three ways that an individual can harm another believer, his neighbor. Now you can think of that, can't you? A maul, a sword, and a sharp arrow.

Why those three? Well, just take the arrow first of all. That's at a distance, isn't it? At a distance. You just let the arrow fly from a distance.

The sword's a bit closer, but yet not necessarily hand-to-hand. A maul is you bash the guy over the head with. You know, you got your hammer.

The danger of how people can treat each other. So, here these brothers are dealing with him, and we are reminded from Proverbs that in our dealing with one another, there's the danger of harming. Some will harm with an arrow.

Just a rumor, let fly. To try to mar someone else's testimony. Just let the rumor fly.

You don't have to get very close. You can stay at a safe distance, as we would think. You know, just kind of maintain your security, but yet let the thing go.

See if it brings someone down. The sword, you know, backstabbing. The maul, sometimes we take the maul and crush other believers by what we say to them directly.

Sometimes we think we're being very subtle. You know those people. They think they're being very subtle.

Just a little comment. Just a little word. And we crush them with our mauls.

Here were men bent on destroying their brother. The harm they did to him. But, how does Joseph respond to all this? How does Joseph respond to their hatred, to their hostility, to all they sought to do to him? The word that is used by Jacob is most helpful.

The archers have hated him, shot at him, and sorely grieved him. In our authorized version it says, but his bow abode in strength. I'm not sure if it's the revised version or a different version, but I think the rendering is much better.

Instead of his bow abode in strength, it says he never shot back. He never shot back. His bow abode in strength.

He was able to control it. He never shot back. Whatever they did, he never shot back at them.

Hostility, he maintained his faithfulness. Hatred, he never returned it. He never shot back.

But not only didn't he shoot back, but he never became proud. He never became self-righteous. He never developed a sense of superiority.

He never developed a spirit of self-righteousness against them, despite how they were treating him. He is marked constantly by this same attitude that we will see throughout the chapter. Let me come in closing to Joseph and God.

If I think of respect and reverence in his father's house with his father, when I come to Joseph and his relationship with God, I am reminded of Joseph and how he regarded revelations from God. Why did Joseph recount to his brothers and then to his father the dreams that he received? Was it a spoiled child? Was it innocence? I'm going to suggest it was something more than that. I'm going to suggest it was faithfulness with divine revelation.

God was giving Joseph divine revelations. And Joseph was faithful with what God gave him. As a result of being faithful with the first dream, God gave him a second dream.

That reinforces for me that what is happening here is here is someone receiving truth from God. He acts upon it. God gives more.

So let me just stop there for just a moment. What are you as a young believer doing with the truth of God that has been revealed to you? Are you moving on it? What about your associations? Your friendships? Your courtships? Being faithful with the truth of God that has been revealed to you so far? What about baptism? Oh, you say, I want to hold off baptism for a little while because I'm just not sure I'm ready and I'm afraid if I get baptized I've got to live a different way and I'm not... Humbug! You are to live a baptized life from the day of conversion. There's no two standards that somehow once you get wet, you now live a different life.

All you're professing in baptism is what occurred at conversion. That you are now walking in newness of life. There's no two standards.

There's no double standard for Christianity. That once you come into the assembly, you know, you've got to live a little better now because God intends holiness from day one. Were we dealing with the Feasts of Jehovah, you would find the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

There was no time gap. They began simultaneously. God intended conversion to begin a life of holiness.

So make no excuses for baptism or reception to the assembly on the basis, I'm just not quite ready to live that kind of life. If you are genuinely saved, God expects you to be ready for that kind of life the day you got saved. Now I'm not saying that it's that obvious to all of us when we get saved, but I'm just saying don't hide behind the excuse that I cannot obey this scripture because I'm just not quite ready.

If God has revealed truth to you, you have a moral, spiritual obligation to obey that truth in your life. Baptism, if you have seen the assembly as the right place, you have an obligation to obey that. And relative to your associations, relative to your life, relative to things that you do with your life, if God has put his finger upon something in your life, you've got to obey it.

Joseph got further revelations when he moved, when he acted upon the revelations that God had given him. Same thing could be seen so clearly in the life of a Samuel. Can't.

There was no open vision. The word of the Lord was precious in those days. What happens? Samuel gets a dream.

And in respect for Eli, he is very, very hesitant to tell Eli the dream. Eli almost twists his arm, tell me everything. And notice what it says.

Samuel told him every word. You know what follows upon that? It says that God did let none of his words fall to the ground. And God revealed himself to Samuel and Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

The man who was careful for every word God gave him to speak. God said, I'm going to be careful for every word of Samuel's now. And I will give him further unfoldings of my truth.

And so Joseph here is moving upon the basis of truth and upon the basis of the revelation God gave him. Truth is not always popular. In fact, maybe I should say truth is hardly ever popular.

Remember a man that begins our Bible virtually, a man named Enoch. Enoch was subjected to many tests. There was the test of the times in which he lived.

Remember how it's referred to? Ungodly. Ungodly. Ungodly.

Ungodly speech. Ungodly men. Ungodly ways and so on.

The test of the times. He was subject to the test of time as well. Because for 300 years he walked with God.

Not just a flash in the pan. Not just a one day, a one week, a one month. Good conference.

I'm really going to be better this week. And so for a week, no, 300 years, he walked with God. He was subject to the test of family ties also.

He had children. Real life man. Raised children.

Raised a family in a wicked world. He was subject to that. He was subject to the test of the treatment he received from men because they doubtless hated him and I think actually pursued him to kill him.

But he was also tested by the truth. Because when you come to Jude, you find that he was the first prophet. The Jude prophesied, Behold the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints.

Can you imagine in that pre-flood age, can you imagine a man like Enoch getting up and preaching before the men of his day? In all their wickedness. In all their evil. Behold the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment and men would mock him and scorn him and laugh at him.

Little wonder that they would seek to kill him. And I'll just tell you just as an aside, I think when it says that he was not found, what that means is that men were trying to, seeking him to kill him. God prevented it.

I don't think it meant they were looking for his body after he was, I think it meant they were looking for him to kill him. They hated him. He was faithful with the truth of God.

The test of truth. Throughout the word of God, men are tested by faithfulness with the truth of God. Joseph here is faithful with the truth of God.

But I want you to think also that he was, his life was marked by fruitfulness here in communion. Did you notice the order in which events occur? Now I would hope young Christians would really get this and have it as an established thing in life. It began with his brothers hating him, not for his dreams.

It began with his brothers hating him because of the place he occupied in his father's affections. And so he is dealing day by day with brothers hating him. What happens? God gives him a dream.

God gives him a revelation. Joseph, don't worry about the hatred. A day is coming.

A day is going to come when those same brothers that hate you will bow before you. And they hate him yet the more, and what happens? God gives him another dream. Joseph, don't be afraid.

I'm confirming it to you by telling it to you twice. So what do I learn? I learn that God is able through his word to meet your need wherever you are, whatever circumstance you're in. As a young man, as a young teenager, Joseph was having fellowship with God and God was pouring into this young man's soul all he would need to strengthen him as he had to face hostility and hatred and the shunning of his brothers day by day.

God was comforting him in those circumstances. So you see, your Bible is not just a rule book that you have to go to. Your Bible is not just five chapters a day, close the Bible, spend ten minutes praying and you've done your duty.

The Bible you hold in your hand, the Bible that you hold on your knee or have on your desk when you sit in the morning or in the evening to read is God's way of communicating with you and strengthening you for what you face out there. What you have to deal with day by day. Because I want to come especially to this, because to me it is most encouraging and also very, very sobering.

There is a huge contrast between Joseph and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The contrast is this. Joseph received dreams in his father's house as a teenager and as far as I can see, that is the last time God revealed himself through his word to Joseph.

Abraham gets seven different revelations from God, doesn't he? Seven different times the Lord appears to Abraham to confirm promises, to give encouragement. Isaac, God appears to Isaac. Jacob begins down there in Bethel and it moves on to Jabok and down in Laban's house and again before he goes up to Egypt.

God revealing himself time and again to Jacob. But what happens with Joseph? Joseph was sustained throughout his life by a word he received from God as a teenager. Man, that's something.

That as a teenager he received the word of God and that carried him through every trial of life. Every single trial. Every time he was buffeted, he had one thing to go back to.

God's promise. As a teenager in my father's house that's what steadied him. That's what enabled him to endure.

That's what enabled him to move through every difficulty of life. What he got as a teenager. I was not saved until I was 21, so I can't talk about teenage years.

But I do know that early Christian years were the most important. In terms of convictions. In terms of the word of God pouring into me.

In terms of steadying me. And in terms of establishing a course for my life. So if you're a teenager here today, it is very possible the word of God could set the course for your life if you'll allow it even now as a teenager.

That's what it did with Joseph. He got no further revelations. I know it tells us the Lord was with him, the Lord was with him, the Lord was with him.

Tremendous thing we'll look at as time allows. But as far as divine revelations directly to his soul, this is it in chapter 37. Two dreams.

Two dreams from God to assure him of what the future held. Willing now. Are you willing now today to chart the course of your life on the promises that God has already given you in His word? That's what kept this young man in all of life's circumstances.

Because you will remember what seems to mark this young man as a result of the word of God, as a result of all of his dealings with God. I think it's epitomized or at least summarized so well when you come to his interview with his brethren before they knew who he was. And he says very simply, I fear God.

I fear God. That's what seemed to be the guiding principle of Joseph's life. Not a slavish fear.

Not a dread of judgment and punishment coming because of failure or because of inconsistency. But the fear of God really is a longing to please God above everything else. Began in his father's house.

Began there as he learned and experienced all those circumstances there with his brethren. He displayed it amidst all of the difficulties, their hatred, their hostility towards him. And what seems to have developed in this young man as a teenager was this.

A deep sense of the fear of God. A desire to please God. I think I've said it before in this area.

So if it's repetitious, you'll forgive me. As a young believer, I used to think that the fear of God meant that if I did something wrong, I could expect God to come in and discipline in judgment. And many times as a young believer, I have to confess, when I knew I was maybe going astray, I almost wondered, when is it going to happen? When is the big baseball bat going to come down on my head and something horrible is going to happen? And when it didn't happen, you began to wonder what's wrong.

That's not the fear of God. The fear of God is not a concern that when I move out of the mind of God, God will do something to me. It's more a concern that when I have moved out of the mind of God, what I have done to him.

What I have done to him. That I want to please him. That's the goal of my life.

That's the ultimate thing in my life, is to please him. Not to merely look right and to have an outward conformity and to say the right things and everybody think of me as a right, nice boy, but that really the goal of my life, above all else, I would long to please his heart. May the Lord help us then as well to be marked by a deep reverential sense of the fear of God.

To move, whether as teenagers with respect and honor in our homes for our parents, whether facing hostility and hatred from those around us, to move and never shoot back. And to appreciate the value of divine revelation. To allow it to form our thinking, to set our course, to chart our way in this world.

And to be willing to move upon the basis of the word of God received in teen years, in early years, forming my life and charting my way so that I can bring pleasure to God. Shall we pray?