Ingredients: Part 2d
Then there’s that classic example in Genesis 39. And this is so relevant, living as we do in this day of Sodom-like debauchery, filth, and preoccupation, not only with legitimate flesh but with strange flesh. The pattern of any society is to move from its sexual pattern simply being one part of the whole of society to where it begins to be the focal point. Then it moves into sophisticated sex; then it moves into perversion, and then it moves into judgment. And I believe we’re somewhere between the last two.
Joseph lived in a day where the Pharaohs of Egypt were known for their preoccupation with flesh: legitimate and strange flesh as well. And here’s this handsome young man down in the court seeing all of this moral filth on every side; being a normal human being–unlike some of the radical scholars who try to show that he was a homosexual and had no normal heterosexual desires and all this kind of foolishness. In the midst of all that–and I’m only describing that, not to go into gory details but to show some of the relevance of this matter of the fear of God to the whole pull that you feel as young men and women living in our day (and some of us who are not so young)– here Joseph receives overtures from Potiphar’s wife, and he refuses.
That doesn’t tell us too much about him, for a man may say no the first time for a lot of reasons. Any temptation that simply comes by once and flirts with us is relatively easy to deal with. It’s when there is persistent temptation in the area of natural weakness that the real test comes. And so day after day, Scripture tells us, she comes and puts out her overtures, and Joseph says, “No,” until one day in absolute frustration, seeing everyone out of the house, she actually lays hold upon Joseph physically.
But before that hour of his greatest testing, Joseph says, “There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he [Potiphar] kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” What kind of God? A God who was out there somewhere. No, the moment a man begins to think of God in that distant relationship, then he can very conveniently cauterize his conscience and insulate his present circumstance from the eye and the control of God. And when he’s done that, then he’s given himself up to the sin in principle already.
“How can I do this wickedness and sin against God?” What God? The God who has set me behind and before and laid His hand upon me, the God who saw me and was with me in that pit when my brothers thought to kill me, the God who brought me out of that pit and put me here in Egypt, the God who has brought me to a place of exaltation before your very husband. How can I do this and fly into the face of this God?”
You know as well as I do that the first step to any sin where there is definite inducement to sin is, we must negate any sense of the immediate presence of God. Right? Because many of the things you and I do, if we started to do them and just a fellow human being were to walk in on us, that’s all the check we need–we’d stop immediately. If you’re having a spat with your wife, just let a person whose not even a Christian come to the door, and just the presence of another human being is enough to check your words, and suddenly you can become so sweet. If you’re cheating at school and all of a sudden the teacher looks over your shoulder, you hide your cheat sheet.
O, dear ones, what would it do to us if we had this all-pervasive sense of the presence of God. Look what it did for Joseph. It kept him, and that’s the only thing that will keep you from the human standpoint. Now, I know there is the in-working of God’s Spirit, but this is how He works, for His says in the new covenant, “I will put my fear into their hearts.” He doesn’t keep us automatically, but by putting within and preserving in us this fear of God, which has as an essential ingredient this all-pervasive sense of the presence of God. That’s why Scripture says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” But His working in does not bypass the cultivation of the fear of God nor the natural activity of this fear.
This is why when we turn to the New Testament, we have that command dealing with this same matter of ethical and moral purity. In 2 Corinthians 6, the Apostle is asking some questions to show these Corinthians the stupidity, the moral folly of being sinfully involved with unregenerate people in unnecessary alliances that would try to mix light and darkness, God and the devil. And he would ask all these questions:
“What concord hath Christ with belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God. [All that I am, I will be, not in a distant far off way but in intimate personal relationship with My people.] Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God [carrying our holiness to perfection in the climate in the fear of God, which has as one of its indispensable elements, this all-pervasive sense of the presence of God].”
Why should I work on this area of defilement of the spirit? Because God is here. He sees and knows and is grieved with that which is unlike Him and a contradiction of His holy character. He is not out there somewhere, but “I will dwell in them and be their God.” And He says, in that light of that promise, “Let us carry our holiness, carry our sanctification onto perfection in the climate of the fear of God.”
Now I hope this opens up a text like Proverbs 23:17: “Be thou in the fear of God all the day long.” Carry with you into every circumstance, not only right views of the character of God but this pervasive sense of the presence of God. You see what a difference it will make in a time like this when we’re gathered to worship. The preacher’s going to be here–fine. My fellow believer’s are going to be here–fine. But above all of that, God is here. How dare I dishonor Him with half-hearted mumbling the words of a song of praise–unthinkable. So I stir myself up to praise Him with full heart and full voice.
How dare I dishonor Him by allowing distracting thoughts when the Word of God is being opened, and allowing my mind to run off about work tomorrow and the problems of yesterday and my new suit next week and my boyfriend or girlfriend. How dare I? I’m in the presence of God. God is speaking through His Word by His Spirit. O, you can carry this out. And the implications are infinite, because the God in whose presence we live is the infinite God. Does this help? I hope it does–to understand a little more about what the fear of God is. That’s the chief part of knowledge. That fear founded upon right views of God’s character and constructed of this all-pervasive sense of His presence.
The Lord willing, next week we’ll take up the third element: what I’m calling a constraining awareness of my obligations to Him, that in every situation and circumstance, the only thing that really matters is what God requires of me and the obedience that I ought to render unto Him. Do you know something of this fear that I’ve been speaking of today? If you’re a Christian, I’m sure your heart has cried out as mine has, “O, Lord, I thank you for the little I know. But O how precious little it is.” And isn’t this the explanation of so much of our shoddy living and so much of the areas of weakness? We have conveniently learned to push the Grand Canyon out to Arizona instead of standing in the midst of it. May God help us that we shall walk in His fear.