I was listening to the Word of God today and the Lord impressed a truth
upon my heart. Joseph and Mary were engaged to be married. One day Joseph
found out that Mary was pregnant, but they had never had carnal knowledge
(intimacy) yet. The Bible says that Joseph “being
a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded
to put her away privily.” There is a
very important truth to be learned here for all of us, which is, not to
publicly broadcast the sins of others!
Neither Joseph nor Mary knew yet that God was working the miracle of Jesus' virgin birth through Mary's body. So in Joseph's mind, it was only logical and reasonable to conclude that Mary was 100% guilty of committing sexual immorality. Joseph could have publicly shamed Mary, and no one would have blamed him for it! America's newspapers are filled with manure, publicly attacking people who do wrong. The Word of God says that Joseph was “a just man.” Joseph was a righteous man! A righteous man is not willing to make a public example of those who sin. Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.”
Joseph was quite a fella. How would you respond if you found out that your fiancée was pregnant with some other guy's bastard child? I think Joseph deserves a lot of credit. The Bible says he was “a just man.” Joseph did the right thing. Proverbs 12:5, “The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.” The Bible says that a righteous person even cares about animals. Proverbs 12:10, “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” How much more ought we care about people? Joseph didn't want to publicly shame Mary, dragging her family's name through the mud. The great lesson that we should take away from this passage of Scripture, is that the proper way to respond when people in our life sin, and betray our trust, and let us down, and hurt us, is to deal with the matter without creating a public spectacle to destroy that person.
We all know of people close to us, whether a neighbour, family member, co-worker, church member, spouse or friend, who has gone into sin. I am not saying that we ought not report crimes to police. I am talking about the person them self. We are living in a wicked generation that loves to criticize, point fingers, blame and destroy others who do wrong. The Holy Bible calls Satan “the accuser of our brethren” in Revelation 12:10b). The Scriptures do not call Satan “the FALSE accuser of our brethren.” If Joseph had publicly accused Mary of becoming pregnant outside of wedlock, and that he was not the father, he would have been telling the 100% honest truth! But Joseph, “being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.” Joseph didn't want to draw any attention to the horrible sin Mary had done. That is my sermon.
Of course, we know that Mary
didn't sin, because we learn in Matthew 1:20, “But while he thought on
these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream,
saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” However, until
the angel informed Joseph of what was going on, the poor guy was
heartbroken, thinking that Mary had played the whore! The Bible says
concerning Joseph in Matthew 1:20a, “But while he thought on these
things.” Can you imagine how the poor guy felt? Joseph was no doubt
trying to figure out who the other man was. Was it the butcher? Could it be
the baker? Was it the guy at the synagogue? How could Mary do this to me?
She's not the good woman that I thought she was. Albeit, the angel told
Joseph in Matthew 1:20b, “fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife.”
Be Very Careful About Choosing Your Friends
When
I was a young boy, about 7 or 8 years old, my mother used to often send me
to the store to buy food items. We had a small grocery store, a couple
blocks over, in our neighborhood called Johnny Joes. I wasn't saved yet. I
got saved at age 12. I had a friend named Bobby, about the same age. Bobby
was the bully type, a big kid with a big mouth. I never really liked him
much, because of the way he behaved like a jerk. I was pretty much a good
kid, but I was a sinner like anybody else. One day Bobby dared me to steal a
pint of chocolate milk from Johnny Joes. The thought never would have
crossed my mind, if Bobby hadn't suggested it. So I bought something and the
owner of the store placed the items into a small paper bag. I walked to the
back of the store, opened the refrigerator door, and stole a pint of
chocolate milk, putting it into my bag. Well, Johnny caught me as I tried to
leave the store, and asked to look in the bag. He said, “Son, you are not
welcomed back into my store until I talk to your mother!” I was scared to
death!
What happened next has caused me much pain in my life when I think about it, but was one of the best things that ever could have happened to me. For some unknown reason (which I still don't understand to this day, except that he wanted to be mean), Bobby literally ran through our neighborhood yelling as loud as he could repeatedly to everyone, “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!,” “David got caught stealing from Johnny Joes!” I cried. My grandmother (my mother's mother, 1900-1977) cried (and that is something that hurt most of all). She died of Leukemia at age 77 when I was just 10 years old. I don't remember what my mother said to me, if anything. My mind is blank there and I don't see her in the memory at all. I do remember my grandmother crying. Wow, what a nightmare!
Despite being a rotten jerk, Bobby did me a big unintentional favor that horrible day. Bobby taught me a hard lesson that friends cannot always be trusted! Bobby taught me that friends may burn you! Bobby taught me that someone whom you completely trust, can quickly become your worst enemy! Bobby taught me that a bad friend can get into into a lot of trouble! Bobby taught me to watch my back Jack! Bobby taught me that a trusted friend can entice you to do evil. Proverbs 1:10-11, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause.” That Bible passage has Bobby's name written on it in my mind! I tell you, be VERY CAREFUL who you choose to have as friends, and then even when you make good friends, always be on guard against evil. We are all sinners, both by nature and by choice, and under the right circumstances anyone is capable of committing any sin or crime. People will entice you to sin, and then abandon you when things go wrong! There is no honor among thieves! Never, ever, do wrong for anyone, not for any reason, not for any price!!! I learned that the hard way on a dare! As Dr. Bob Jones Sr. wisely said, “DO RIGHT THOUGH THE STARS FALL! DO RIGHT!!!”
Whereas I had previously gone to the store hundreds of times, I was so embarrassed by the incident, that I never, not once, ever stepped foot into Johnny Joe's store again in my life. God used that painful experience to set me on a higher path in life. I have always be on guard around “friends.” I am not saying to be paranoid or refuse to trust anyone; but rather, we must always be resolved in our heart to do right, to please God, and never even consider doing something wrong, even if our friends do. I don't want friends like that!
Advice from bad friends can get you and your family killed! In the Bible story of Esther, we read that a man named Haman was resentful of a Jew named Mordecai, because Mordecai didn't stand up in honor of him. Look what Haman's rotten wife and friends advised him...
Esther 5:14, “Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.”
Can you believe how wicked these people are? Haman's wife and friends advised him to built a gallows 50 feet high to hang Mordecai on. What had Mordecai done to make Haman hate him so much? Haman was a sinfully proud man. When he passed by the way, people stood up to show respect for him, and moved out of his way, but not Mordecai! Mordecai stayed seated, nor did he move to make way for Haman, and it drove him nuts because he let it! If Haman had simply humbled himself, he would have let the matter go. Not being liked and respectful by everybody is simply a part of life. Most people are good people, as far as sinners go; but a minority of people are just plain ole rotten to the core! Haman's wife and friends were rotten people, giving evil advice to murder an innocent man, merely for refusing to stand up when Haman passed by. That is evil!
In a classic tale of poetic justice, Haman and his ten sons were all hanged on the gallows...
Esther 7:10, “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.”
Esther 9:13-14, “Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.”
Those gallows would never have been built had Haman's own “wife” and “all his friends” not put that evil idea into his head. I tell you, wrong friends will destroy! Even worse, they may get you and your family killed, as happened with Haman! Of course, Haman's so-called “friends” went their merry way after the damage they caused was done, like the serpent in Genesis. I wonder how Haman's wife felt after the damage was done! I wonder how Haman's wife felt when all ten of her precious boys—who came forth from her very womb, whom she went through the jaws of death ten times to deliver into the world, whom she loved and cared for and raised for decades—were all executed in ONE DAY, because she gave her husband some very bad advice. Shut your mouth ladies! Be very careful what advice you give to your husband, because it may come back to forever haunt you, as it did Haman's wife. That poor miserable foolish woman! TEN SONS, DEAD, AND IT WAS HER HATEFUL HEART AND BIG MOUTH THAT CAUSED IT!
The Holy Bible has much to say about bad friends. Here's a really great sermon preached by Pastor Steven L. Anderson called, “The Importance Of Our Friends.” Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Bobby was no friend to me. Bobby eventually moved away with his parents and I never saw him again, thankfully. The Bible says in 2nd Samuel 13:3, “Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man.” If you read the entire story, Jonadab enticed Amnon to rape his half-sister, Tamar, which he did, and it ruined her life and his. Tamar's brother Absalom murdered Jonadab for his evil. This is one of many examples in the Scriptures of how a bad friend can entice and embolden you to do evil. DO RIGHT THOUGH THE STARS FALL! DO RIGHT!!!
We
are taught in the Scriptures to PRAY for those who sin, that God will go
easy on them, and help restore them. 1st John 5:16, “If any man see his
brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask,
and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin
unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” Galatians 6:1-3,
“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also
be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil
the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something,
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” Here we learn that a proper
Christian attitude toward other believers who have sinned is “WE HAVE
SINNED!” The ungodly world says, “YOU HAVE SINNED!” The carnal man says,
“HE” or “SHE” has sinned! Psalms 106:6, “We have sinned
with our fathers, we have committed iniquity,
we have done wickedly.”
Satan
is a lying and thieving murderer, who comes only to kill, steal and destroy
(John 10:10). The Devil is a critic! In his classic MP3 sermon called, “
Psalms
119:139-140, “My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten
thy words. Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.”
I was
