Does God Intend Evil for Our Good? Providential Peril for Joseph, Jesus, and You

let's pray together father as i unite my heart with these bible study fellowship leaders from around the world what a privilege and i thank you for it and i ask that you would come upon me now as i speak and upon them as they listen so that the transaction would be built on truth that the name of jesus would be magnified that your word would be honored that we would rely upon the holy spirit and not upon ourselves and that your mission through bsf would advance globally for the great glory of your name this is what we long for lord we exist to spread a passion for your supremacy in all things for the joy of all people so come cause that to happen now i pray in jesus name amen the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the testimonies of the lord are sure making wise the simple the commandment of the lord is pure enduring forever the precepts of the lord are right rejoicing the heart the fear of the lord is clean enduring forever the rules of the lord are true and righteous all together more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb moreover by them is your servant warned and in keeping them there is great reward who can discern his errors declare me innocent of hidden faults keep back your servant from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then i will be blameless and innocent of great transgression let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my rock and my redeemer the reason i start with psalm 19 is because i want you bsf leaders to feel your heart and my heart knit together in the preciousness and the deliciousness of god's word this is what you're about what i'm about more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb i don't think it's an overstatement to say there may be nothing that i love to do more than to open god's word exalt over it in the presence of people who share my estimate of this book that it is more valuable and more sweet than anything this world can offer it's like the puritans used to say take my house take my books take my job take my health take my life but don't take my bible oh what a great puritan sentiment and i pray that it it's embraced by thousands of you who teach people how to see glories in god's word when i think of bible study fellowship and the many people i have known over the last 40 years who have taught in bible study fellowship i think of people who live and die by what the bible teaches that's what i think of people who see and write on on their website this god's truth to be studied savored and lived out that's the bible and when i read that i said that's my word savored no it's not my word it's god's word right sweeter than honey or psalm 119 103 how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth savor that's the right word when you come to the bible if your heart is in tune with the worth of scriptures so i say all of that to let you know that i love what you do i love what bsf is about and i counted a huge privilege to have a few minutes to encourage you to press on and to give yourself unstintingly to the glorious calling of teaching other people not just what the bible says but how to see it right for themselves so what i've been asked to do now in this message is to focus on the story of joseph in the book of genesis which is what bsf is or will be studying along with other things and i'm supposed to draw out of this story truths that will establish you and motivate you in your task of leading people into the discovery of god's word and i i have in my mind a particular result that i want i want you to grow in your capacity to lead others into truth with the very joy and strength you have received from the truth so that you're not just mechanically telling them how to go about this but you've done it yourself and out of the overflow you are now leading them into the very skills that will enable them to have the same overflow that's the result i would love to see happen there's no way that i could have survived let alone flourished in this pulpit i'm i'm in the pulpit right now that i i preached in for what 33 years of my ministry there's no way that i could have flourished in those 33 years if i had not been eating the bread that i was serving and that's what i want for you i've said this before and i'll say it again it sounds like an overstatement maybe it is i'm not aware of it being an overstatement but my memory is fallible i do not recall in 40 years stepping behind a pulpit to preach the word of god i don't recall a single time when i was not thrilled with what i had to say even when they were hard things god has been so good to me to grant me to find strength for my soul joy for my soul in preparing the meal for other people and that's what i hope happens for you i want you to experience the answer to the prayer in psalm 119 verse 18. open my eyes that i may behold wondrous things out of your law so you pray and i pray god open our eyes that when we look at the story of joseph we would see wonders that are really there we don't make them up we don't bring them from outside the story we find them there these treasures these wonders that's what we do that's our job so we want to be strengthened by what we find so that we can see and savor and then live out and show what we have seen and how to find it so let's take a moment and just situate the story of joseph that's chapters 37 to 50 the story of joseph about a third of the book of genesis almost situated in the flow of the book here's the way i would do that i pray that we will never become numb or insensitive or unamazed by the fact that the bible begins with the staggering reality that once there was only god and nothing else nothing but god that's the reality that was always was and then he spoke and there was god plus universe that's a staggering way for a book to begin and then god permitted and his permissions are always done with foresight and wisdom and planning he permitted his most amazing of all creatures human beings to become idiots foolish wicked by elevating their own brains their own wisdom above gods and making him look stupid that's treason and god permitted it in chapter three and we have been living with the consequences ever since and that's the third step god subjects the entire creation to futility and corruption spiritual deadness and every single human being that has come into being except one has been a child of corruption a child of misery a child of death a child of wrath then comes the story of the flood the tower of babel both of which are designed to show the incorrigible depth of the sinfulness of the human heart and then in chapter 12 god reaches down in sovereign grace and he freely chooses a man abram a pagan a moon worshiper with no merit of his own at all to warrant this election god chooses him and makes him a promise in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed a blessing a blessing is going to come to this race of rebels yes it is it's going to come through abraham and his seed in chapter 15 says he believed god and god counted that faith to him as righteousness chapter 15 verse 6 which according to the apostle paul lays the foundation for the way of salvation called justification by faith on the basis of a redeemer who would come 2000 years later after abraham and then the rest of the book of genesis is the story of god making clear again and again and again that his true children true israelites his elect chosen ones come into being and are sustained in faithful being by a sovereign miraculous work of god for example abraham's son isaac not ishmael why not ishmael because he's born of the flesh he's born of human effort i'm going to get hagar pregnant that's the way we can get an heir that's the way we can fulfill the promise no it isn't the promise of god having a seed will happen by miracle or not at all and so you get two people who are too old to have babies one of them's barren and they have the baby and that's the way it's been happening ever since that's how children of god come into being so it is with isaac's son jacob surely esau is going to be the seed right he's the older no he's not god is always going against the human odds the elder will serve the younger jacob will be the seed and then jacob has 12 sons the 12 tribes of israel who are they paul says they are israelites to whom belong the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law the worship the promises the patriarchs the christ who is over all blessed god blessed forever amen romans 9 4 and 5. in other words through this people jacob's 12 tribes especially the tribe of judah through this people a divine messiah would come bear the sins of god's people it would break over the boundaries of jewishness and israel to all the nations of the world god would gather a people from every people and they would be a new kind of race and they would be the bride of the son of god and to them would be given a new creation and they would be with god forever and ever in his presence where there's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore which means that jacob's 12 sons those 12 tribes if they were destroyed god's purpose for the universe would fail and the story of joseph is a story to show how god did not and never will let that happen ever that's the point it's the story of how god himself and this is what makes it so provocative it's not just the story of how god rescues a people from famine it's a story of how god himself brings his own people into life-threatening extinction he brings them in to life threatening extinction all the while planning an unimaginable rescue from his own calamity that's the story of joseph he brings his own promise to the brink of failure he brings his own promise to the brink of failure only to show he's been in charge all along and he's been planning a god exalting deliverance so let's trace the story and see if i can show you these things so that you can see them for yourself and not just take my word for it the story begins in chapter 37. joseph is 17 years old he's a son one of the 12 sons of jacob he's 17 years old his father loves him better not a good idea for dads to play favorite like that that's what he does therefore his 11 brothers hate him they hate him it says because of this verse 4 all his brothers hated him and could not speak peacefully to him then on top of everything joseph has a dream that sometime in the distant future we know now it's 22 years all those brothers and mom and dad are going to bow down to him that did not endear him to his brothers at all and it says in verse 5 they hated him all the more so one day they're out hitting the flock they see him coming and their hatred and jealousy boils over they resolve to kill him they throw him in a pit reuben tries to save him while reuben is missing they sell him to the midianites into slavery in egypt joseph is bought there by potiphar and when his success as a faithful follower of yahweh when his success is at its peak and his righteousness is at its most faithful potiphar's wife slanders him as a rapist and potiphar in fury throws him unjustly into jail and again his success the blessing of god on him his righteousness flourishes his power to interpret dreams is exercised for the baker and the cup bearer of pharaoh the cup bearer goes back to pharaoh just like joseph predicted and he totally forgets joseph for two more years two years he waits and now 13 years has gone by he's 30 years old every time he thought he was under the blessing of god doing what god wanted him to do things got worse not better pharaoh has a dream the cup bearer remembers there's a man in prison who can interpret dreams he interpreted mine go get him joseph says to pharaoh it is not in me god will give pharaoh a favorable answer chapter 41 verse 16. the dream is this there's going to be seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine pharaoh is so impressed by joseph's wisdom that he makes him what vice president in charge of making sure that during those seven prosperous years there's enough grain for the seven lean years and the writer of this story moses makes very clear three times that this prosperity and this famine are the work of god let me read those to you genesis 41 25 god has revealed to pharaoh joseph says what he is about to do verse 28 of chapter 41 god has shown to pharaoh what he is about to do verse 32 joseph to pharaoh the doubling of pharaoh's dream means the thing is fixed by god and god will shortly shortly bring it about so god is bringing on egypt and the entire region including where joseph's brothers live he's bringing a famine which is going to threaten the existence of god's chosen people all the while laying a 22-year plan to rescue those people through the very sin of selling joseph into slavery the reason i say 22 years is this it's pretty easy to compute 13 years have gone by when he is since he sold into slavery when he enters into pharaoh's service it says he was 30 years old 17 30 13 years have gone by when he enters as prime minister seven years of prosperity is now 20 years have gone by and then it says in chapter 45 verse 6 that two years into the famine the brothers come seeking rescue from the famine 22 years now leaving out the details that you'll certainly deal with in your bsf study of how he was revealed to his brothers just leaving them out he reveals himself to the brothers they send for their father and the 12 tribes of israel that god had chosen and they all moved 70 plus people to egypt it's been 22 years and now only now think of it only now can joseph see what in the world god was doing for 22 years the loss the slander the loneliness the affliction the injustice the seemingly pointless righteousness now he sees what that was about that's a long time to keep your faithful servant in the dark isn't it i don't doubt that many of you are somewhere in that 22-year spectrum hated by a family member or members thrown into a pit sold into slavery accused of what you did not do thrown into prison forgotten by the very ones you blessed keeping your integrity the whole time never becoming embittered against god or throwing away his word and you i would guess just like joseph are at times utterly perplexed you may be about to discover what god's been up to for the last 22 years or the last year you may be in the middle 11 years into the 22 years and not know for another 11 years what god's doing in your life you may never know until heaven which is why we live by faith we don't get the details of the explanation always in this life one of the main points therefore of this story is this god brings his people into life-threatening peril all the while preparing in and through that peril a god-glorifying deliverance from the peril now i want to make sure that you see that because this rider is at pains that we see it three times number one in genesis 37 5-11 joseph has a dream the dream is that his brothers and his parents are going to bow down to him that's going to happen in 22 years we know from the way this story reads god uses dreams to declare what god is about to do that's a plan 22 years before it happened this is the plan number two joseph reveals himself to his brothers and when he does this is now 22 years later after the dream when he does reveal himself to his brothers he says this in genesis 45 7-8 god sent me before you let that sink in god sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth and to keep alive for you many survivors so it was not you who sent me here that's amazing it was not you who sent me here what can that mean it was god it can mean this who was decisive god was decisive this is stunning so what he's saying is this the brother's sinful hateful jealous selling of joseph into slavery was in fact god's sending of joseph to rescue the very brothers who sold him into peril that god was designing that that would be a great god-glorifying deliverance how high are his ways unsearchable his judgments it's unmistakable that this inspired author wants us to see this god is sovereign over dreams god is sovereign over sinful actions of brothers god is sovereign over prosperous years god is sovereign over destructive famines god is sovereign over slanderous enemies like potiphar's wife god is sovereign over forgetful butlers nothing is happening randomly in this story number three third evidence in this story that the author wants us to see this that god brings people his own people into life-threatening peril all the while preparing through that very peril to deliver them from the peril that's what he wants us to see this is the most famous verse in the story and i would dare say that genesis 50 verse 20 is one of the most important verses in the bible if you understand how it relates to all of sinful human activity from the fall to the consummation joseph says to his brothers after his father's death and they're terrified that he's now going to wreak vengeance on them he says this in verse 20 of chapter 50 do not fear for am i in the place of god as for you you meant evil against me but god meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today now don't make the mistake that i have heard made so many times by translating it differently or paraphrasing it differently than what actually stands in the text it does not say you meant evil against me and god used it for good it's not what it says and it's not what it means it says you meant evil against me and god meant it for good and the word meant is exactly the same hebrew word in both cases as in the word it the same reality you meant it you intended it you planned it namely my being sold to the midianites which was evil of you that's what you meant that's what you intended that's what you plan that's what you did and it was evil and god meant it intended it planned it my being sold to the midianites four hour hour good god doesn't get surprised by the sins of his people scratching his head oh no i didn't see that coming that makes a muck of my plan what am i going to do now i'll use it i'll figure out a way to use it that never is the way god thinks and this story is designed to get that thought out of our heads he was in charge of everything in this story from the beginning planning it way before he gave the dream 22 years earlier he planned it he predicted it he superintended he finished the rescue of his people glorious salvation glorious sovereignty and lest we think that the other writers of the bible somehow missed the point of this story listen to psalm 105 verse 16. when god summoned the famine when god summoned famine come when god summoned a famine on the land and broke all the supply of bread he had sent a man ahead of them joseph who was sold as a slave his feet were in fetters his neck was put in a collar of iron until what he had said came to pass the word of the lord tested him so the suffering of joseph being sent from his family as a slave was god's doing sold into slavery the regional suffering of the entire area seven years of famine god's doing he summoned that famine that imperiled his own people's existence and so the general point of the story god brings his people into life-threatening peril tests them and plans and performs their salvation through the very peril that he brings that's the story of joseph that's the story of the bible that's the story of every child of god so let me try to illustrate when i say every child of god that's our story we'll use my experience and then we'll close with the experience of jesus which is a million times more important than mine when i say that the story of joseph is the story of your life as a christian what i mean is something like this it comes in answering the question why do we so often pray say at the beginning of the day that such and such won't happen breakdown of a car getting sick with the disease that some bad thing won't happen why do we so often pray that some bad thing won't happen and then in the afternoon it happens and as it happens we see that in the very way it is happening the hand of god the good hand of god in other words it seems to me that pretty normal christian experience is that god answers prayers inside non-answers that makes sense here's here's the big non-answer i didn't want this to happen this afternoon i asked you that it would not happen it happened and as it happens i see your hand all over it for good and for grace how many times have you heard people talk like this maybe it's just because i'm a pastor that i've heard it so often pray for safety in the morning i pray that some terrible accident won't happen well the accident happens in the afternoon and as i hear them telling me this story they say things like if if his head had been a millimeter to the right he'd be dead and god didn't let it happen the woman walking by on the sidewalk was a nurse the ambulance came just like that it was like three minutes in the hospital they had an ample supply of his unusual blood type never before would they have such a supply you hear that right what in the world what in the world is that because if i didn't know the story of joseph i would be inclined to say if god's sovereign hand is all over this why didn't he just prevent it why the big non-answer and then inside the non-answer all these glorious answers why didn't god prevent joseph from being sold into egypt why didn't he prevent the slander of potiphar's wife why didn't he prevent the cop-bearer from forgetting joseph for two more years answer this is the bible's answer because god's way is to bring his people into peril for his wise purposes all the while planning through the peril their god-exalting rescue so about 30 years ago i had four kids at that time i have five now one of them was nine years old we were hurrying to make a very special occasion in south carolina with my father driving between minneapolis and south carolina about 1100 miles and uh on the freeway on sunday morning my car dies with four kids and a wife it's hot and it's sunday nothing's open i look under the hood like every man does like what do i know at all about these tangle of wires nothing i'm just looking at it i've got four kids and i don't know what to do this is before cell phones and those of you who are old enough know the humiliating feeling that i don't think anybody's going to stop unless i get on my knees or wave a flag or look desperate they think we're just doing a bathroom break for these four boys my son the nine-year-old says after my pacing back and forth and doing nothing helpful daddy maybe we should pray my first thought was i did pray we prayed as a family this morning that this wouldn't happen of course i didn't say that i said you're right what am i thinking he and i this nine-year-old he and i go behind the car we bow our heads and we ask god to put it in somebody's heart to help us when we lift up our eyes a pickup truck has stopped in front of us the driver of the pickup truck i kid you not is a mechanic he looks under the hood and diagnoses that our water pump needs to be replaced he says he lives down the freeway has a shop and would i like to drive with him to town get a water pump and he would put it in the car for us right there on the side of the freeway and as i drive with him i tell him about what just happened with the prayer and i share the gospel with him what do you make of that what do you make of that i had prayed in the morning that god would protect us from horror and trouble and the car died in the middle of nowhere as far as i could tell my interpretation is that this is a parable of the story of joseph god did not answer my prayer that we would not have trouble what what did he do he humbled a proud father number one he showed his prayer answering power to a nine-year-old in an absolutely stunning way he got the gospel into the mind and heart of a mechanic and we were on our way in i don't know four or five hours with a new water pump without having to go to a store this is the way god works he brings his people into trouble while planning for their good suppose satan was involved in our little event he broke he broke the water pump which he can do i think because he meant to make us miserable and he meant that we would lose faith in the goodness of god in his prayer answering power if that were true which it may well have been what would you say to satan if you know the story of joseph what would you say i know what you would say this is what you want your students to say when you're done with the story satan you meant it for evil my god who loves me meant it for good that's what you'd say which is why i say that sentence chapter 50 verse 20 is like a banner over the entire history of redemption and at any given point where evil strikes god's people you can say that sentence truly you meant it for evil god meant it for good so let me end with the experience of jesus which is vastly more important than mine i think the life of joseph is the life of jesus or the life of jesus is the life of joseph in a very profound sense let me tell you why this is important for me to say right now as we close ubc bsf your bsf leaders are going to discover that there are thousands of people around the world who do not want to hear what i have just said they don't like it they don't want to believe that god governs the actions of sinful men like the brothers jealousy and hatred god governs the actions of sinful men they're not going to want to hear this that the bible teaches that the sinful selling of joseph into slavery was the sending by god of joseph into saving work so what you're going to need to show them to help them because not everybody submits to the bible you're going to have to help them see that if they follow the logic of rejecting the sovereignty of god over the sinful actions of humans they are going to reject the saving work of god in jesus that's what you have to show them that's pretty serious they're not going to want to go there probably that's true you know if god does not cannot govern the sinful actions of people in crucifying his son there is no gospel let me read you the key text this is acts chapter 4 verses 27 to 28. the saints are praying truly in this city jerusalem they were gathered together against your holy servant jesus whom you anointed herod pontius pilate along with the gentiles and the peoples of israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place herod's mockery the purple robe pilots cowing to the crowds gentile soldiers pushing a crown of thorns down on jesus head and smacking him and mocking him the crowds crying crucifying crucifying all of it doing what god had planned and predestined for your salvation the gospel of our salvation was accomplished through the evil of sinful men as they killed the son of god random evil saves nobody are you with me sinful men killed jesus random evil saves nobody this was not random 700 years before isaiah 700 years before jesus isaiah said it was the will of the lord to crush him he has put him to grief isaiah 53 verse 10 this is not random evil this is planned otherwise we wouldn't be saved there's no gospel there's no salvation if god cannot in perfect holiness govern the acts of sinful brothers of joseph or herod or pilate or the gentile soldiers or the crowds crying crucify him crucify him the message of genesis the whole book and the message of the story of joseph and the message of the whole bible is that god reigns in sovereign love over his people bringing us into peril again and again and again all the while turning that peril into the means by which he will save us to be with him forever acts chapter 14 verse 22 through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of god but take heart from psalm 34 19 many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord brings him out of them all forever you meant it for evil satan brothers of joseph you meant it for evil my god my loving kind purposeful wise sovereign god meant it for good let's pray father these bsf leaders have a great calling oh that the world would see what you have put in your word that they would see it for themselves not just have information move from one head to another head but skills imparted for seeing glory truth that is totally revolutionary to the way we live i pray this in jesus name amen

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 34,479

Rating: 4.9100642 out of 5

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Evil, Sin, Will, Monergism, Sermon, Joseph, Genesis, Causality, Providence, Peril, Bible Study Fellowship

Id: 6alhX2mgBjo

Length: 51min 30sec (3090 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 14 2020