Trial by the Word

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, February 6th, 1876, by

C.H. SPURGEON,

At the [7]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him."
Psalm 105:19

JOSEPH WAS ALTOGETHER an extraordinary personage. He was a young man of
great personal beauty, and he exhibited also a lovely character, full
of gentleness, kindness, and truth. The grace of God had made him as
beautiful in mind as nature had made him comely in person. He was also
exceedingly thoughtful; perhaps at first rather more thoughtful than
active, so that his brothers, not only because he had seen two
remarkable visions, but probably because of his contemplative habits,
said of him, "Behold, this dreamer cometh." He was the swan in the
duck's nest; his superior genius and character separated him from the
rest of the family, and none of them could understand him; he was,
therefore, the object of their envy and hatred, so that they even
proposed to murder him, and ultimately sold him for a slave. He was
destined, however, for a nobler lot than theirs; they were to feed
their flocks, but he was ordained to feed the world; they were to rule
their own families, but he to govern the most ancient of empires. From
the very beginning his supremacy in Israel had been foretold by a
double dream. Their sheaves were seen to pay homage to his sheaf, while
the sun and moon and eleven stars also made obeisance to him. This was
the light which shone upon Joseph's early days, the star of prophecy
which afterwards gilded his darkest moments and cheered him on while he
endured affliction. You may rest assured, brethren, that wherever God
gives extraordinary gifts or graces, and appoints an extraordinary
career, he also appoints unusual trial. There is a verse— I think it is
Cowper's— which says that

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown."

To eminence of any desirable kind there is no royal road, but we must
wade through tribulation to it. For Joseph to become prime minister of
Egypt the path lay through the prison-house: to all true honor the road
is difficult. Expect, then, dear friend, if God gifts thee, or if he
graces thee, that he intends to try thee. Such a reflection will tone
down thine exultation and prevent its degenerating into pride, and it
will aid thee to gird up the loins of thy mind and stand in all
sobriety, prepared for that which awaits thee. Look upon talents and
graces, and high hopes of eminent usefulness as signs of inevitable
tribulation. Do not congratulate yourself, and sing, "Soul, take thine
ease; thou art happy in possessing such special gifts," but prepare to
do the life-work to which thou art called. Thou art favored of the
Lord, but do not look for the happiness of ease, carnal enjoyment, and
human approval, for "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him."

Joseph's worst trial happened to him when he was accused of attempting
a foul assault upon his mistress. Who would not writhe under so
horrible a charge? When he was put in prison, and his feet were made
fast with fetters, he became exceedingly troubled, so that the iron
surrounded his soul. How long he was in "durance vile," as a chained
prisoner, we do not know, but it must have been some considerable
period; and during those dreary months thoughts of his father and his
fond love, memories of his cruel brothers, and reflections upon his sad
lot, must have keenly wounded him. He was pained to remember how much
his character had suffered from a woman's malicious falsehood, and most
of all how much blasphemy the heathen had poured upon the name of God,
whom he had represented in the house of Potiphar. Do you wonder that
the iron entered into his soul?

The word of the Lord tried him very severely. Alone, in darkness, in an
uncomfortable cell, his limbs fretted with chains, no one to speak to
him, every one condemning him as guilty of the basest treachery towards
the man who had made him his confidential and favored servant— he found
himself regarded as the offscouring of all things, and the object of
ridicule to all who were about him. "The archers sorely grieved him,
and shot at him, and hated him;" but, blessed be God, his bow abode in
strength, and he overcame at the last.

This morning we will commune together upon the trials of Joseph, and
our own afflictions. Our first reflections shall be spent upon the
importance of trial; secondly, we will consider the peculiarity of the
believer's trial for "the word of the Lord tried him;" and thirdly, we
will observe the continuance and the conclusion of the trial,— "until
the time that his word came." May the ever blessed Spirit direct our
meditations.

I. First, let us dwell upon THE IMPORTANCE OF TRIAL. The Lord might
easily have taken every one of us home to heaven the moment we were
converted. Certainly his omnipotence was equal to the task of our
immediate perfect sanctification. If the dying thief was rendered fit
to be in Paradise the same day on which he believed, so might each one
of us have been made ready to enter heaven; but it has not so pleased
God. We doubt not that there are myriads before the eternal throne who
have reached the abode of bliss without treading the winepress of
affliction.

"Babes hither caught from womb and breast,
Claim right to sing above the rest;
Because they found the happy shore,
They never saw nor sought before."

Theirs is a victory for which they never fought; they wear a crown
though they never bore a cross. To sovereign grace these blessed ones
will never cease to ascribe their bliss. But as for those of us who
live to riper years, it will be written concerning all of us as of
others who have gone before, "These are they who came out of great
tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb." But why is it so appointed? Is this discipline of
any use to us? The word here used is in itself a light upon the
question, "The word of the Lord assayed him"— that would be the correct
translation. The word of the Lord assayed Joseph as gold is assayed: it
is a term best understood at the Mint, and among refiners. Trial in the
Christian church is the Lord's fining pot, which is never off the fire.
It has this excellent effect, that it separates the precious from the
vile. As long as the church exists, I suppose she will have traitors
amongst her number, for if Judas intruded under the watchful eye of the
Chief Shepherd, we may be pretty sure that many a Judas will elude the
far less watchful eyes of the minor shepherds. Because trial and
persecution test men's professions, they are used as the winnowing fan
in the Lord's hand, as it is written, "He will thoroughly purge his
floor." In persecution, the mere professors, the camp-followers and
hangers-on, soon flee away, for they have no heart to true religion
when the profession of it involves the cross. They could walk with
Jesus in silver slippers, but they cannot travel with him when his
bleeding feet go barefoot over the world's rough ways, and therefore
they depart every man to his own, and we may say of them "They went out
from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they
might be made manifest that they were not all of us." So that trial as
a permanent institution is of much service to the church in promoting
her purity, and we are bound to praise the Lord whose fire is in Zion
and his furnace in Jerusalem.

A similar process goes on in the individual soul. No Christian man is
all that he thinks he is; our purest gold is alloyed. We have none of
us so much faith as we impute to ourselves, nor so much patience, or
humility, or meekness, or love to God, or love to men. Spurious coin
swells our apparent wealth. It is amazing how rich and increased in
goods we are till the Lord deals with us by a trial, and then full
often we discover that we are naked, and poor, and miserable in the
very respects in which we boasted ourselves. Oh, man, if thou be a
child of God thou art like a house which he is building with gold, and
silver, and precious stones; but by reason of thine old nature thou art
mixing up with the divine material much of thine own wood, and hay, and
stubble; therefore is it that the fire is made to rage around thee to
burn out this injurious stuff which mars the whole fabric. If the Holy
Spirit be pleased to bless thine afflictions to thee then wilt thou be
daily led to put away the materials of the old nature with deep
abhorrence and repentance, and thus shall the true work of God which he
has built upon the sure foundation, stand in its true beauty, and thou
shalt be builded for eternity.

Every good man is not only tested by trial, but is the better for it.
To the evil man affliction brings evil, he rebels against the Lord,
and, like Pharaoh, his heart is hardened. But to the Christian it is
good to be afflicted, for, when sanctified by the Spirit trial is a
means of instruction to him, second to none in value. The rod of God
teacheth us more than all the voices of his ministers. When the
Christian has been passed through the fire, the assaying, by removing
the dross, adds a new lustre to the gold. Brother, thou art not what
thou shalt be, nor canst thou be what thou shalt be except through a
measure of trial. Child, it is needful for thee to feel the weight of
thy Father's hand, or thou wilt never behave thyself as a man. Thou
must see his face veiled with frowns, and hear his voice in harshness
chiding thee for thy transgressions, otherwise thou wilt always retain
the follies of childhood. Our chastisements are our promotions. They
are privileges more precious than the rights of princes. "It is good
for me that I have been afflicted." Joseph could say this, and all the
Lord's Josephs either own it now or will have to own it hereafter.

Let us look a little more closely, and we shall see that trial did much
for Joseph. First, it corrected the juvenile errors of the past. Far be
it from me to find any fault with so admirable a youthful character;
but it was youthful, and needed maturing. As a simple-hearted, trustful
child, he certainly told his dreams quite as freely as it was wise to
have done. Perhaps he thought that his brothers and his father would
have been as gratified as himself, but even his father rebuked him, and
his brothers were indignant to the last degree. It was natural that a
boy of seventeen should be pleased with the thought of power and
eminence, but such a feeling might have gendered evil, and therefore it
needed to be toned down, and its eager expression kept within bounds.
We find Joseph more self-possessed and more reticent by-and-by, and we
read in after life that he restrained himself— ay, when the strongest
passions were at work within him, and his own brother Benjamin was
before him, he sacrificed his feelings to the dictates of prudence. We
see no more boyish exultation, no more telling of his dreams: in
quietness and confidence he found his strength. This he no doubt
learned amid the sorrows of his prison-house.

He was, perhaps, also in his early days too much in a hurry to realize
the promised blessing. He would see the sheaves do obeisance to his
sheaf at once, while he and his brethren were as yet but green corn,
and the harvest had not come: hence the pleasure he had in the coat of
many colors which his father's fondness put upon him. He thought the
dream was being realized, no doubt, when that princely garment was put
upon him, and he began in some measure to exercise the dignity which
the Lord had promised him by reporting his brethren to his father,
which action I do not condemn, but it, no doubt, made his brothers feel
that he took too much upon himself, since they were many of them old
enough to have been his father, and had families of their own. At any
rate, he had not learned then, as he had to learn afterwards, during
thirteen weary years, that visions tarry, and that we must wait for
them, since the promise is not for to-day nor for to morrow, but abides
until it reaches ripeness. God promiseth us great things which we see
not as yet, and therefore we must with patience wait for them— we must
not put on the coat of many colors yet, nor be hasty to rebuke our
elder brothers, for we are not yet set on high by the hand of the Lord.
Joseph had his royal coat in due time, and he had the fullest
conceivable opportunity for reproving his brothers when in after days
they went down into Egypt to buy corn, and their hearts smote them for
all the wrong that they had done to him. In prison Joseph learned to
wait: I do not know a harder or more valuable lesson. It is worth while
to suffer slander and to feel the fret of fetters to acquire the
patience which sits still and knows that Jehovah is God. To tarry
awhile and not to pluck our fruit while it is yet green and sour, this
is rare wisdom. To be instructed to leave the time as well as the form
of the blessing in the hands of God is to have been to school with the
best result.

Joseph also learned in his trial much that was good for present use.
For instance, he found by sweet experience that the divine presence can
cheer us anywhere. If he had always been at home with his father,
always his fathers darling, he would have known that the love of God is
sweet to a favored youth, but no one would have been astonished at
that. Even Satan would have said, "Well may he rejoice in thee, O Lord.
Hast thou not set a hedge about him and all that he hath?" But he
learned that God could be with him when he was sold for the price of a
slave: with him when led as a captive across the desert, when he walked
wearily by the camel's side with the Ishmaelites: with him in the slave
mart to find him a master who might appreciate him; with him when he
became a servant in the house, by blessing him, prospering him, and
causing him to find favor in the eyes of his master till he became
overseer of all that Potiphar had: and then, best of all, though some
would say worst of all, he learned that God could be with him in a
dungeon. He could not have known that if he had stopped at home, he
must be brought into the thick darkness, that the brightness of the
divine presence might be the more fully seen. There is nothing in this
world so delightful as the light of God's countenance when all around
is dark. You may tell me that the presence of Jesus is glorious upon
Tabor's glorious mount, and I will not contradict you, though I have
realized the poet's words—

"At the too transporting light
Darkness rushes o'er my sight."

but give me the soft subdued light of God's love in adversity; Christ
on the stormy waters for me: Christ in the midst of the furnace with
his persecuted ones. Never does the Lord's love taste so sweet as when
all the world is wormwood and gall. See how the mother presses her dear
babe to her bosom when it is sick, or has had a bone broken. The little
one may run about the house at other times, and the mother is pleased
with it and loves it, but if you want to see all her tenderness, if you
would read all her heart, you should see her when it scarcely breathes,
when she fears that every moment will be its last. Then all the mother
is revealed. How she fondles it, and what a store of sweet words she
brings forth. So, if you would see all of God, you must know what deeps
of trouble mean, for then the great heart, the glorious, infinite love
comes welling over, and the soul is filled with all the fullness of
God. It was worth while, I say, for Joseph to be falsely accused, and
to be laid in irons, to learn experimentally the supporting power of
the heavenly Father's smile.

There, too, Joseph learned that temporal things are not to be depended
upon. The indulgences of his father's house end in his being sold as a
slave, and the coat of many colors is dipped in blood. His prosperity
in the house of Potiphar also came to a sudden end, and from being an
overseer he became a prisoner in irons. Now he knew that earthly good
is not to be depended on, and therefore not worthy to be the object of
pursuit to an immortal soul: he sees that all things beneath the moon
change, waxing and waning as doth the moon herself, and he learns to
look to something higher and more stable than circumstances and
surroundings.

Here, too, he was instructed in one sad truth, which we are all so slow
to learn, namely, to "cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils,
for wherein is he to be accounted of?" I do not think Joseph had
learned that fully when he interpreted the dream of the butler. It was
very natural, and therefore not to be censured that he should say,
"Think of me when it shall be well with thee;" but when two whole years
had passed and all the while he was forgotten, Joseph must have felt
that, "Cursed is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm." He
ceased from man, and no longer looked for enlargement from that
quarter. Cost us what it may, we are great gainers by any process which
enables us to say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my
expectation is from him." It is a blessed thing when providence knocks
away all the dog-shores, and lets the vessel launch into her true
element. See how freely she floats upon the deep sea of God's
everlasting love and immutable faithfulness. She is no more liable to
decay from the dry rot of carnal confidence, but on the broad sea of
divine power "she walks the waters as a thing of life" in joyful
reliance upon the ever blessed God. Confidence in man seems bred in our
bone, but it must be taken out of us, and happy shall the day be which
sees us rid of all hope but that which stays itself upon the Lord
alone.

But, dear brethren, the chief use of trial to Joseph and to us is very
often seen in our future lives. While Joseph was tried in prison God's
great object was to prepare him for the government which awaited him.
It was designed first to give him power to bear power: a rare
acquirement. Solomon says, "As the fining pot to silver, and the
furnace to gold, so is a man to his praise." Many a man can bear
affliction, but few men can endure prosperity; and I have marked it,
and you must have marked it too, that the most perilous thing in all
the world is to step suddenly from obscurity into power. Have we not
seen men, illiterate and unknown, suddenly introduced to the Christian
pulpit, and made much of, and has it not frequently turned out that
their names have been by-and-by prudently forgotten, for they were
overthrown by the dizzy heights to which they were lifted? It is far
better that a man should fight his way up to his position, that he
should be assailed by enemies and distrusted by friends, and should
pass through a probationary career. Even then he can only stand as the
Lord holds him, but without it he is in especial peril. Hence the
apostle says, "not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall
into the condemnation of the devil." If I knew that some young man here
present would be greatly owned of God in the future, and become in
future a prince in our Israel, if by lifting up of this finger I could
screen him from fierce criticism, misrepresentation, and abuse, I would
not do it, because, severe as the ordeal might be to him, I am
persuaded it is needful that he should pass through it in order to make
him able to bear the giddy heights of the position for which God
intends him. Joseph on the throne of Egypt, I know not what he might
have been if first of all he had not been laid in the stocks. His feet
learned to stand fast on a throne through having been set fast in a
dungeon. His gold chain was worn without pride because he had worn a
chain of iron; and he was fit to be the ruler of princes because he had
himself been a servant among prisoners. Through his trial God gave him
power to bear power, and this is a far rarer gift than the power to
endure oppression and contempt.

Joseph was also trained to bear the other dangers of prosperity. These
are neither few nor small. Great riches and high positions are not to
be desired. Agur's prayer is a wise one: "Give me neither poverty nor
riches." Joseph was in great peril when he came to be lord over the
land of Egypt, but during his time in prison he had been learning to
spell out a mystery and answer a riddle. Practically, his
interpretation of Pharaoh's dream was what he had been learning in
prison, namely, that it is idle to boast of the fat kine, since the
lean kine can soon eat them up, and it is unwise to be proud of the
full ears, because the withered ears can soon devour them. Pharaoh saw
in the dream the lean devouring the full-fleshed, but Joseph alone
understood it. He saw his fat kine when he was in his father's house
eaten up when he was sold as a slave; he saw his full ears when he was
in Potiphar's house devoured by the withered ears when he was thrown
into prison, and he now knew that there was nothing here below worth
our relying upon, since on the chariot of all earthly good there rides
a Nemesis, and every day is followed by a night. He was tutored to be a
ruler for he had learned the prisoner's side of politics, and felt how
hard it was for men to be unjustly condemned without trial. He foresaw
that this could not be for ever endured, and that one day the
long-suffering lean kine would be goaded to fury, and would eat up the
fat ones that oppressed them. Hence Joseph's rule would be just and
generous, for in this he would see the elements which would preserve
law and order, and prevent the poorer sort from overturning everything.

In the prison, too, he had learned to speak out. His whole course had
been a rehearsal fitting him to be bravely truthful before the king.
What temptation was there to him when he stood before Pharaoh to
conceal his faith in God? To him, I say, who had risked life and lost
liberty for God's sake? It would have been a very great temptation to
an ordinary young man not to say anything about the one God in the
presence of the head of the Egyptian superstitions, but this did not
suggest itself to Joseph. Had he confessed his God in Potiphar's house?
Did he not say to Potiphar's wicked wife, "How can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God"? He had stood to his God in prison,
and told the butler and baker that "interpretations belong unto God":
and now he stands before Pharaoh he does not flinch for a moment, but
he says "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." Why, brethren,
have you ever thought of the moral courage of Joseph in interpreting
that dream? All the soothsayers there who had tried to interpret it and
could not— was it likely the heathen king would believe a youth who had
been a slave and was fresh brought from a dungeon? When he foretold
seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, it was a marvel that
Pharaoh believed him. If the narrative had gone on to say, "Then the
king said unto his servants, cast this man into prison and feed him
with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until we see
whether his word shall come to pass," we should not have been at all
surprised. The magicians naturally enough would be ready to say that he
was set on to give this preposterous interpretation by persons
interested in selling corn; or else they would urge that a man who
dared to foretell events so utterly improbable had better be sent back
to his prison house. But Joseph believed the word of the Lord, and he
spoke with the accent of conviction, and Pharaoh believed also. Whence
came this simple-minded courage? Whence this boldness? It was the right
royal velour which doth hedge about a virtuous soul— or rather the
fearlessness which follows from the fear of God. He stood forth and
delivered his message, and the Lord established his word. He had been
preparing for this in the day of his sorrow: like a good sword-blade,
he had been passed through the fire and through the fire again, that
now he might not fail in the day of battle. Oh, dear brothers and
sisters, may you gain as much from tribulation as Joseph did, and you
will do so if the Holy Spirit sanctifies them to you.

II. We must pass on secondly to notice THE PECULIARITY OF THE TRIAL.
According to the text, "the word of the Lord tried him." This might
have escaped our observation if the Spirit of God had not placed it
upon record. "The word of the Lord tried him." How was that? Potiphar
tried him, and the chains tried him, but did the word of the Lord try
him? Yes. But there is a previous question— how did he receive any word
of the Lord? There was no Bible then; Moses had not lived, there was
not even the book of Genesis,— what word of God had he? His dreams were
to him the word of God, for they were communications from heaven; the
instruction he received from his father was also the word of God to
him, his knowledge of the covenant which God had made with Abraham and
Isaac, and his father Jacob, was God's word to him. Moreover, the
secret teachings of the Holy Spirit quickened his conscience and
afforded him light on the way. When there was no written word the
divine Spirit spoke without words, impressing truth upon the heart
itself. All these were to Joseph the word of God. How did it try him?
It tried him thus,— the word said to him in his conscience, "Thou shalt
not commit adultery." Without that word he would not have been tried,
for nature suggested compliance with his mistress's desires. The
pleasure of ease, of wealth, of favor, were to be had through that
woman's smile, but the word of God came in and said, "Thou shalt not,"
and Joseph was tried. The test, however, he could bear: grace enabled
him to flee youthful lusts and to cry, "How can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God?"

The trial which arose out of his innocence must have again tested him
by the word of God. There he is in prison— for what? Why, for an action
so pure that had he been set on a throne for it he would have well
deserved it. Do you not think that many questions perplexed him while
he lay in prison? Would not the evil spirit say, "Were you not a fool
after all? Do you not think that your chastity was mere superstition?"
Thus would the purity of his heart be tried, and the word would search
him, and test his hatred of sin. Would not the word of God try his
constancy as it asked, "Do you now believe?" What problems were put
before him— Is there a moral governor of the universe? If so why does
he allow the innocent to suffer? Why am I in fetters, and the lewd
woman in favor? Could not an omnipotent God deliver me? Why then does
he leave me here? Could Joseph in the face of such questions still
cling to the faithful word? He could, and he did; but the word tried
him, and proved his constancy, his faith, and his integrity.

Then, too, the word of the Lord which he had heard many years before
would come to him and try him. His trembling heart would say, Has God
ever spoken to you at all? Those dreams, were they not childish? That
voice which you thought you heard in your heart was it not imagination?
This providence of God which has prospered you wherever you have gone
was it not after all good luck? Has the living God ever revealed
himself to one who at length became a slave? Look at your fetters, and
ask if you can be his child? And then I suspect that during the time in
which Joseph was fettered the word of God had ceased to speak to him as
of old: he did not dream nor interpret dreams, and that seems to have
been the especial way in which the Lord revealed himself to him.
Brother, do you know what it is to be tried by the cessation of
comfortable communications? Did you ever live for a time without
feeling any text of Scripture applied to your soul, without beholding
any vivid flashes of the divine light, or any in-streamings of the
Spirit's power through the word? If you have been so afflicted, you
have been tempted to enquire, did the Lord ever speak to me at all?
Have I been truly converted, or is it after all a myth? And these
things which I have looked upon as communications from heaven, have
they been after all nothing but the vapours of a heated brain? The word
of God tried him, and he had to weigh himself in the balances of the
sanctuary.

The bright promise of future good would also try him. His fears would
say "How is it possible that your brothers should pay homage to you?
You are far away from your family and cannot hope to see them again— as
for the sheaves that did obeisance to your sheaf, where are they? You
are shut up and cannot come forth. Within these walls the jealous
Potiphar has doomed you to die." The word of God would say to him then,
"Can you believe me? Can you trust the Lord to fulfill his promises?"
Oh, my brethren, it is easy for us to talk about this, but if we had to
pass through the same ordeal, lying friendless in a dungeon under an
accusation of guilt which we abhorred, far away from all we loved, we
might feel the word of God to be a very trying thing, and perhaps the
dark thought might even flit across our spirit, "Would God I had never
heard that word but could have lived as the Egyptians do, for then I
might have been dwelling in pleasure in Potiphar's house still. But
this word of God into what trials has it dragged me, into what
difficulties has it thrown me. Is it, after all, worth while to know
it?" I remember once being very, very ill, and a man who had no
godliness, but who was full of wicked wit, accosted me thus. "Ah, you
see, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." "Yes," I said, "I am
suffering greatly." "Well," said he with a sneer, "I can do very well
without such love, so long as I get off such chastening." I burst into
tears, and my very soul boiled over as I cried "If the Lord were to
grind me to powder, I would accept it at his hands, so that I might but
have his love. It is you who need to be pitied, for sound as your
health may be and merry as you look, you are a poor creature, since you
have missed the only thing worth living for." I let fly a volley at
him, I could not help it. I felt forced to stand up for my Master.
Joseph took the Lord's yoke upon him gladly, and found rest unto his
soul. He counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the
luxuries of Potiphar's house. Thus the word tried him and he was found
upright.

I have no doubt the word of the Lord tried Joseph in this way. That
word seemed to say, "You thought you loved your father's God, Joseph,
do you love him now? You have lost your father's house, you have
forfeited the ease of Potiphar's household, you have sacrificed your
liberty, and perhaps the next thing will be that you will be taken out
to die, can you still hold fast to the Lord?" Joseph was firm in his
allegiance, and prepared to follow the Lord at all hazards to the
death. The word had come to him, and it tried his steadfastness. Now I
may be addressing some young men who are getting into all sorts of
trouble through being Christians. I congratulate you! Thus does the
Lord train his bravest soldiers. I may be addressing some of you older
men who are passing through storms of trial mainly because you hold
fast your integrity. I congratulate you! Rejoice ye in this day and
leap for joy, for you are only enduring trials which have fallen to the
lot of better men than yourselves. Men do not put base metal into the
furnace, they spend their assaying upon precious gold. I see in the
fact of your trial some evidence of your value, and I congratulate you,
my brethren, and pray the Lord to bear you up and bear you through,
that like Joseph you may be of great service to Israel and bring glory
to God.

III. The last thought is THE CONTINUANCE AND THE CONCLUSION OF THE
TRIAL. Trial does not last for ever. Cheer up; the tide ebbs out, but
the flood will return again. Note the word "until." He who counts the
stars also numbers your sorrows, and if he ordains the number ten your
trials will never be eleven. The text says, "until"; for the Lord
appoints the bounds of the proud waters, and they shall no more go over
your soul when they reach the boundary of the divine "until." "Until
the time that his word came"— the same word which tried Joseph in due
time set him free. If the Lord gives the turnkey permission to keep us
in prison there we must remain, until he sends a warrant for our
liberation, and then all the devils in hell cannot hold us in bondage
for an instant longer. My dear brother, I want you in your trouble to
look entirely to God, whose word is a word of power. He speaks, and it
is done. He has spoken trouble to you, but he can just as readily speak
comfort to you. Never mind what the butler's word is. Do not entreat
him, saying, "When it is well with thee speak a word for me." The
butler's word will not avail, it is Jehovah's word you need, for "where
the word of a king is there is power." It is a blessed thing to know
that trouble comes direct from God, whatever the secondary agent may
be. You must not say, "I could have borne it if it had not been for
that wicked woman." Never mind the wicked woman, look to God as
overruling her malice and everything else. He sends the trial, and
therefore look to him to deliver you from it.

"'Tis he that lifts our comforts high,
Or sinks them in the grave."

He shuts us up in prison, and he brings us out again.

The time was in God's hands, and it was very wisely ordered. Suppose
that the butler had thought of Joseph, and had spoken to Pharaoh about
the interpretation of his dream, the probabilities are that when the
courtiers of Pharaoh's court heard it they would have made the halls of
the palace ring with laughter; and the magicians would especially have
poured scorn on the idea that a slave boy who had been imprisoned for
scandalous behavior knew more about interpreting dreams than the wise
men of Egypt who had been brought up to the art and had gained high
degrees in the profession. It would have been a theme of ridicule all
over the land. It was the wrong time, and God would not let the butler
recollect, because that recollection would have marred the plot and
spoiled the whole business: but God's "until" came at the nick of time
when Joseph was ready for court, and when Pharaoh was ready to
appreciate Joseph. The hour needed its man, and here was the hour for
the man. The straight way from the dungeon to the throne was not open
until Pharaoh dreamed his dream,— then must Joseph come forth and not
before. Oh, brother, sit still and wait. The deliverance you are
craving for is not ripe yet; wait while the word tries you, for that
same word will in due time set you free.

The word set him free in a way which cleared his character, for never a
whisper would be raised against him, and Potiphar would know the truth,
even if he had not already guessed it. It set him free in a way which
secured his eminence, and gave him the means of providing for his
father and his household. He might have been liberated from prison
before, and have remained only a common person, or gone back to be a
slave to some new master; but now his liberation secured his
emancipation from slavery and set him in the position which enabled him
to provide for his father and his family in the land of Goshen, and so
the sheaves did homage to his sheaf, and the sun and moon and eleven
stars fulfilled the vision which he had seen so many years before.

You see, brethren, there is a time of deliverance, and the time is
fixed of God, and it is a right time: therefore we have quietly to wait
for it. Doth not the husbandman wait for the precious fruits of the
earth, and will not you tarry for the fruits of the promise? Be not
impetuous. Hush those murmuring thoughts, never allow rash expressions
to escape your lips. Bear on, young man, bear on. Ay, and greyheaded
man, bear on, bear on. The anvil breaks the hammers in the long run;
bear on, bear on. The rock breaks the billows, and is not itself
broken. Bear the trials which come to you from God and from his word
with joy and patience, for the end is not yet, but when it cometh it
shall be everlasting joy.

I think I hear some saying all round the place, "Ah, I see these
believers are a very tried people, who would wish to be one of them?"
Hearken, friend, and I will tell thee something. Joseph was not the
only person in prison, and the righteous are not the only people who
are afflicted. The chief butler was in prison, and the chief baker,
too. I wonder whether the butler and baker are here, looking sadly
to-day. If so, there is this difference between them and Joseph, that
the Lord is not with them, but he is with Joseph, and that makes a vast
difference, for

"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage."

If God is in the prison with Joseph, Joseph is happy, but it is not so
with you tried worldlings. I wonder, O butler and baker, whether you
have had any dream; I wonder what has passed through your minds this
morning. Wherefore look you so sadly to-day? I am no interpreter of
dreams, but perhaps I can unriddle yours. Was a vine before you in your
dream? That true and living vine? Did it bud and blossom, and bring
forth fruit before your eyes, and did you take of its clusters, and
present its pure blood to the King? If so, you will be set free, your
dream means salvation: for there is a vine of the Lord's own planting
whose wine maketh glad the heart of man, and he who takes of its living
fruit is accepted. Dost thou know how to take those clusters and to
squeeze them out? If so, the King will rejoice in thee, for nothing is
so dear to him as the fruit of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

But hast thou dreamed of cakes which thou hast made by thine own skill?
Not fruits from a vine, living and full, but mere cakes, sweetened with
thine own self-righteousness, baked in the oven of thine own zeal and
industry, and dost thou hope to set these before the King? The birds of
the air already peck at them, thou beginnest now to feel that thy works
are not altogether what thou thoughtest them to be. Oh, if this be thy
dream I tremble for thee, for thou wilt come to an ill end. I pray the
Lord put that dream from thee, and teach thee something better.
Salvation is of the Lord; whether for butler, or baker, or Joseph,
redemption is by Jesus only. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the
Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength, and they that trust in him
shall never be ashamed or confounded, world without end. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON— Genesis 39:1-7, 21-23; 40:1-8,
23; 12:1-9.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"— 214, 750, 754.
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Reasons For Parting With Sin