The title of our sermon is as you, siguro, you’ve seen it and um it’s the title is Joseph He Loved, Joseph They Hated. For obvious reasons in this chapter you would see the love that Jacob has for his son and the hatred that the rest of his brothers have towards Joseph. So let us read Genesis chapter 37. I’ll be reading from ESV.
Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colours. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colours that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colours and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our Lord will stand forever.
Joseph, the good son, when he was asked to pasture the flock together with his brothers, he found something that his brothers were doing. Something bad, probably sinful. And so Joseph, according to verse 2, brought a bad report of them to their father. Nagsumbong si Joseph. Whatever that was, kasumbong- sumbong sya, sobrang bad niya, okay. And also because he was the son of his old age and also the son of his beloved wife, Rachel, late wife rather, he was loved more by Israel or by Jacob. That love manifested all the more of course. Kumbaga, talagang gustung-gusto sya ni Jacob. Nagsumbong sa kanya si Joseph about anything bad that they were doing while pasturing the flock. And then to manifest such love, that yung kagustuhan ni Jacob sa anak nyang si Joseph over the others, it was manifested by the giving of the robe of many colours. And then Joseph, not only that, Joseph was the recipient of not one, but two dreams coming from God Himself which tells them that they will bow down to Joseph. Of course as we know this was not received well by Joseph’s brothers. They were in opposition. In fact Jacob opposed as well, but he, it says there he kept it in mind, believing that, that may be the word of God. And so this led to what? The almost murder of Joseph. It led to him being put into the pit and eventually being sold to Egypt. You’re, you just brought a bad report. If you’re Joseph, what would you do? Something bad happened while pasturing the flock. Tatahimik ka lang ba o magsasabi ka sa iyong ama? Ikaw na naka-receive ng panaginip mula sa Diyos mismo, isasarili mo lang ba, o ire-reveal mo sa iyong pamilya na dapat nilang maintindihan at dapat nilang marinig? We know Joseph indeed relay and revealed the dream even the interpretation probably of the dream his brothers and father. He was obedient. Not only that, he maintained such good testimony by bringing a bad report to his father. And you know what the response? They hated him even more.. they hated him even more. It says in verse 4 they hated him even more, they could not even speak peacefully to him. So Joseph had an idea that he was being hated, okay. He was being hated, he knows. He could not speak, they could not speak peacefully to him, that means they cannot even speak Shalom to him. They were Jewish, they were Israelites, they greet Shalom to one another, that’s what it means when you translate it. And so it was obvious and yet when asked by his father again to go and find your brothers, did he say “ah, they will oppose me, they hate me.. why, why, why would I go there?” What did he do? He still looked for his brothers, right. He still went. So you see Joseph was a lover of what is good, of what is right. You see, and we can say that because if we go move forward Genesis chapter 39, we can really see the character of this man. Genesis chapter 39 when he was um put in charge by Potiphar. You know the story probably, the wife of Potiphar was what? Tempting him. What did he say? Genesis chapter 39 verse 9 Joseph said …”how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God. That is the kind of man Joseph was, right. When he saw something bad happening, ‘oh I will tell our father; or even though people hate me, my brothers hate me, I’ll still go, my father says so.’ He maintains such good testimony despite the oppositions. Isn’t this something that can happen to us brethren, friends In fact when we do something that is good, we can definitely if not immediate experience the opposition in any way, shape or form. Maybe in your family, maybe in your job, maybe outside, maybe with your friends, oh you will sense it.. maybe online and that happens why? Because we’re all sinners. We still live in the sinful world, we live with fellow sinners, so there will be oppositions to what is good.
And so this is an important truth that we always need to understand and this is my message this afternoon that Our Christian Testimony Simply Will Be Met With Opposition. Your calling is to be faithful in that testimony, to persevere in doing good.. that is your calling. The oppositions will not, should not stop you from persevering in doing good for Christ, for God. That’s what Joseph did. He maintained such good and Christian testimony despite the opposition. Now what should motivate us to continue persevering in our good testimony? Let’s see that in the life of Joseph and his father in my first point, His Father Loved Him More and then let’s look at the sins of his brothers as well in my last point, His Brothers Hated Him Even More.
Let’s consider the first point His Father Loved Him More. We can see what kind of person this Joseph was. He saw something probably bad while he was pasturing the flock with his brothers. As a result, as a result of that, he was given this robe of many colours. Now, this was a big robe by the way. It extended to the wrist, it extended to the ankles. Hindi ito yung parang robe na ano ba, pagka naligo ka, no; ito ay umaabot sa paa, umaabot sa dulo, sa wrist; ganito kahaba ito. This is not a robe that was just a gift because you are my favourite, no. Well, that’s true, Joseph was his favourite. It was a robe of management. Someone got promoted here for being a good employee., for being a good son. Authority was given to Joseph to manage the flocks and become in charge of his brothers. That’s what happened here. I mean you don’t give to anyone such robe for doing manual labor. This was because he was trustworthy, because he was good, he was likeable. That’s what we can see again in Genesis chapter 39, right.
He maintained such good testimony despite of the temptation that he faced in Potiphar’s wife. So we have, here Joseph was a faithful man of God. In fact, his goodness was worthy of such paternal favour from his father, Israel. But yes, we can say that there was favouritism here and that is bad for every parent. Mali po yun; that ultimately we can say it was Jacob’s fault why everything here, bakit ganito nangyayari sa pamilya niya. But we cannot hide the fact that Joseph indeed has been good and he was liked because of his great testimony, of his Christian testimony. And as he was loved by his father, we know that there were oppositions primarily coming from his brothers. He was hated. His brothers wanted to be in Joseph’s shoes or in Joseph’s robes. They wanted to be recipients of that love. It should have been us! In fact, why are you receiving the dream? Why Joseph, right. And we’re sometimes, sometimes we’re like Joseph’s brothers. We yearn for such love from a father. And yes, mahal siya, mas mahal siya ng kanyang ama kasi sobrang buti talaga ni Joseph, right. Pero hindi natin maikakaila na para talaga tayong yung mga kapatid ni Joseph din that we yearn for such kind of love, don’t we?
Brethren, let me share to you and you may be struggling for years because you have been yearning such love from a parent or from your father, earthly father. We may have all struggled in this area. But let me share to you, yes, we are like Joseph’s brothers in a sense that gusto natin maging katulad tayo ni Joseph kung gaano siya kamahal ng kanyang ama, kung gaano siya binigyan ng authority, kung gaano sya sobrang pinagkakatiwalaan ng kanyang ama, ‘oh, I want to be like that; gusto ko yun!’ Well let me share to you, let me share to you a better love than the one that Jacob can give. This love is perfect and it’s not sinful, by the way compared to the favouritism kind of love that Jacob had toward Joseph. If you’re yearning for such kind of love, let me share to you there exists, in fact a better kind of love. And you and I, again, may have struggled with this but there is that available, offered, graciously given kind of love, a better one that exists! In fact, it existed in eternity. There is that kind of love. John chapter 3 verse 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Better than any human father can give, is God the Father’s love for God, the Son. God the Father is a better Father than Jacob. And His love is a better love than what Jacob can give. The Father God so loves the Son, God the son in eternity. If Joseph was appointed to have authority over his brothers, appointed to be keepers of the flock, a keeper of the flock, God the Father appointed the Son to be the Saviour of the flock and to have all authority in heaven and on Earth. Yes, it is a kind of love that is ineffable, inexpressible because we’re talking about the relationship of a better father-son relationship. Better because we’re talking about the Persons of the Trinity. We can only comprehend the kind of love that we can give to one another but the love that the Triune God for Himself specifically the love of the Father to the Son, well it is a love that exists eternally. That there was never a time it did not exist. That the kind of law we can only know is incomparable to the endless depth, breadth, height, width of the love of the Father to the Son.
And again, if there is something we should yearn for, it’s not ‘I hope I am receiving such a love the same kind that Jacob gives to Joseph. I hope I’m receiving that same kind of love.’ Kapatid, kaibigan, if there is something that we should yearn for, we must yearn for the kind of love that the Father gives to the Son. “Oh, I hope I can share in that kind of love that God the Father has for God the Son.” Well here’s the good news: when Christ was praying to the Father in John chapter 17, He said this in verse 22 to 23. Christ said The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, so that the world may know that you loved, Father that you You loved them even as you loved me. Which simply means, if you are in Christ, the same kind of love the Father has for the Son, is the same kind of love the Father has for us. God the Father loves us the same way as He loves the Son. I mean how can you comprehend such? And yet we know it is incomprehensible, it is deep, so deep that we can’t even describe it with words. And yet the Bible says it is true. I mean God’s love, for the Father, an infinite one, perfect one, eternal, it existed in eternity. You can’t even quantify it. Hindi mo nga ma-describe kung papaano ito…sobrang lalim nito. But it is true, the love of the Father that he has for the Son.. wait, is the same love that He has for you and I?! That’s what the Bible says. It is only by the virtue of the death on the cross of Christ and in His resurrection, it is only by that virtue of His death, resurrection that we have become recipients of such love. Now we have become the children of God. Hence, the same love that He gives to the Son, He also gives. Hindi just a portion, hindi kakapiranggot lang.. the same kind of intensity and fervour that He gives to the Son, He gives to us.
So don’t be like Joseph’s brothers and yearn sinfully, commit sin because you’re not receiving such kind of love. If you are in Christ, you have it! He gives to you graciously. And you know what kind of love it is? The same intensity, same amount… if I can just speak in measures, amount, same fervour, same love He gives to the Son, it’s yours. He gives to you. That is the good news. The bad news is if you’re not in Christ, then you only have a picture of the general love of God towards all His creation, through His provisions, but it is not the kind of special love that saves your soul. If you’re not in Christ, repent now of your sins and have faith in His provision, God the Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross for the sins of men. Believe that it’s supposed to be us who are recipients of the wrath of God and yet Christ became the substitute the sacrificial Lamb and God the Father accepted that sacrifice. He showed is acceptance of it by raising Christ from the dead. Believe, repent of your sins and believe In Christ, have faith in Him. But if you are in Christ, the Father loves you the same way He loves the Son and He gives you not a robe of many colours, but a better clothing — the robe of the righteousness of Christ. That’s what you have and no one can tear that apart by the way. No enemy, not even Satan can grab that garment from you and tell you oh he can accuse you, oh you don’t wear; you don’t have a robe, you don’t have the righteousness of Christ. He can accuse you, yes, but that’s falsehood. No, I can’t take that away from you. You have the robe, the righteousness of Christ.
You know, Earthly fathers love their children and they can definitely say that they love their children, and they can definitely show it. But being Earthly means kung ikaw ay Earthly father, you may not forever show your love to your children. There will be times that you will be aggravated in fact, yung gugustuhin mo nga, wag nga rito. Kanina nga binigay na example yun sa sermon. Parang ganun din.
May mga times as a father, you’re not really loving because we’re sinners, yes. There’s a certain time of a day when a father doesn’t really show his love for his children. But here’s the thing, compare that to the kind of love of the Father, that kind of love does not stop. It doesn’t have any ‘turn off’ and then ‘turn on’ later. Turn off muna ngayon huh, maiinis muna ako huh. Walang ganun sa Diyos Ama! In fact everything God does, it’s always turned on. That you may have situations in your life that you would question whether okay, does God love me? And those situations may blur your sight of the love of God. But the truth is, it never ceases! The love of God never ceases, why? Because His love for the Son never ceases.
And challenge ko sa bawat isa, meditate on it, meditate on the intensity and fervour of the Father’s love for us. There are times when the difficulties of the world wearies you out that in times of hardship, that the love of God for us is not even in our minds. Most of the time, the trials and tribulations of life made the love of God blurry for us. Well let me assure you that even in times of hardship, during those times when you think, when you say in your mind this does God love me? well the answer to that is yes. But during those times, it doesn’t mean that God loves you because even such hardships, God uses for His purpose to all the more tell you I love you, I want you to be conformed to My Son. Therefore, hear our hearts, eto yung mga difficulties in life. Now you run to My Son. And even in difficulties, kita natin doon pagmamahal ng Panginoon. Hebrews chapter 12 when someone is being disciplined by the Lord, and sabi dun, there will be pain in discipline. But God says don’t lose sight, don’t lose sight in the fact that I love you, that you are loved by the Father. Just imagine, just imagine the love of the Father to the Son and that we share in that kind of love, the same perfect love. Imagine how imperfect the love we can give, we can receive. How imperfect that is! And then imagine also the unending love of God that nothing can separate us from His love.
Do you struggle with the idea that God doesn’t love you? That there are times there you are in a situation too bad, so bad that the love of God becomes blurry in your eyes? If you struggle with this, your reminder is a cross of Christ where the Father’s love is ultimately communicated to us also. Because it is on that cross where the Son of God accomplished His work so you and I can be sons, can be His children. If you struggle with this, look always to Christ your cross, the cross is your hope, the cross is your reminder — God loves me. When sins so weary your souls, and you think why is this happening to me? Why do I have a lot of enemies? Why are people opposing me because of my Christian testimony? Hindi ba ako mahal ng Diyos? Look to the cross and be reminded that yes, God loves you; yes you’re going through this and I love you. It doesn’t mean that you are not loved. There’s no turning off in the love of God. In fact, all the more that you’re experiencing this, it means that you are loved by God. It is on that cross where we see Christ’s redemption of us and God’s adopting us to be His children.
My last point is His Brothers Hated Him Even More. Verse 4 it says But when his brothers saw, nakita nila, nag-manifest, it was visible that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Ano ang nakita nila, right. Of course yung pagmamahal ni Joseph, nakita pa nila yung robe of many colours. The love of Israel to his son, Joseph was so evident that his brothers knew the favouritism; it was so obvious. And that his brothers didn’t even greet him with shalom. Hindi siya binabati. Joseph was too favoured by his father by being given an authority, a visible one, a colourful one in fact. And then God also favoured Joseph by giving him the dreams. Verse 5, nag-iincrease. they hated him even more, right. Eh ano bang gagawin ni Joseph? Eh ginagawa lang naman niya yung tama. Nakatanggap lang naman siya ng panaginip. Eh ikaw ba, natulog ka lang, ta’s paggising mo, aba, lalo pang nagalit pa sa ‘yo yung mga..nagkukuwento ka lang naman ng panaginip mo, tapos nagalit pa sa iyo yung mga kapatid mo. And then when the first dream was interpreted, verse 8, they hated..ayan huh. Kita niyo yung , yung degrees, they hated him even more for his dreams, hindi lang sa panaginip, even salita niya. Umabot na sila sa point na ayaw na nilang marinig yung kapatid nila. There’s already resentment, right. It started with jealousy, with envy. Why does he have authority? Why does he have the robe of management, the robe of many colours? Why is he loved more than us? And then hatred.. resentment. I don’t want to hear you.
Now again, the foundation of it all ang sinasabi sa verse 11, this was the reason for the growing hatred. His brothers were jealous of him, or you can say envy. Usually, halos magkapareho ng term pero envy, pagkakainggit, jealousy, selos, parehong existing yun sa nangyayari sa kapatid ni…naiinggit sila, nagseselos din sila. And then we see resentment, nag-grow to resentment. They don’t want to hear him speak, they don’t even want to talk to him. And you know what else can we see here? Again, bitterness, hatred. Sabi, are you indeed to reign over us? And then afterwards the rest is history. When they saw him verse 18. They saw him from afar. Malayo pa lang, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. See it wasn’t even planned. They didn’t have a plan prior, bago nila makita si Joseph. They so hated their brother that the sight of him makes them really want to kill him. Oh it has been in their heart, the intent to murder was already there, but it was so easy to decide to just kill him. That’s the kind of hatred that already grew in their heart. In fact, it already grew to what we call covetousness, the tenth commandment. From I want what he has, I want what Joseph had, to I don’t want Joseph to have it. I want him gone. That’s what it led to. They wanted the authority, they wanted the love, they wanted a favour being given to Joseph. They don’t want Joseph to have that authority. They don’t want Joseph to have that love, have that favour, so they’re just gonna kill him.
And see how it opened up to more and more sins. Genesis chapter 42 verse 21 I want you to open your Bibles. Genesis chapter 42 verse 21. This is what’s happening to Joseph while he was being persecuted by his brothers. When they were being confronted by Joseph in Genesis chapter 42, the context here is that they’ve already met but they don’t know it was Joseph. Hindi pa nila alam. And so verse 21 Then they said to one another, yung mga brothers, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. Just imagine this: Joseph was begging them. When they were trying to tear the robe of many colours, Reuben, Napthali, Gad, maawa kayo, huwag niyo ito gawin. They saw the distress of his soul. Now go back to Genesis chapter 37. verse 25. then they sat down to eat. Imagine the hardness of the heart— hearing your brother in the pit, probably shouting, having a distressed soul and you guys are feasting, you’re eating. It’s as if..you know, may bukas pa. We’re not even thinking about what would what our father would think. Ganun na yung nangyari sa mga puso sa mga kapatid ni Joseph. They were eating together while their brother was pleading to them in the pit. Such hard heartedness. When your sins are unmortified, it can lead one, to such state and you know where it starts? The secret sin, the private sin of jealousy, the private sin of envy, and see how it grew. But you know it doesn’t end there. Hindi pa tapos ang Genesis chapter 37. They tried to cover it up, right by dipping the robe in the blood of the goat to make it look like he was killed by an animal. Of course the ending was Judah made a suggestion to just sell him to the Ishmaelites, pero kinover up pa rin nila. Verse 32 tells us they set the robe of many colours and brought it to their father. Here, gumawa sila ng cover up story. Hindi lang yun. The language tells us they sent the robe of many colours, the language there says that it wasn’t them who went there and handed it directly to their father. Probably, asked a servant and send it to their father. Yun yung nakalagay sa original language. Pinadala nila. And then this is worse.. verse 35. What’s worse? All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort Israel. They had to pretend, ‘dad, okay lang yan, ok lang yan, dad.’ But it it was them who almost murdered their brother. See the sin.
And see if you did not mortify, if you do not mortify a sin, you do everything to lie about it, to deceive people, to cover it up, to pretend. Unless you cut it, trace it back from the beginning and from there mortify it. That’s the effect of sin. That’s the sinfulness of sin. Ganyan yung gravity ng kasalanan. Envy, jealousy may grow into covetousness, murder in the heart if unmortified. In fact, sinasabi sa atin sa Proverbs chapter 27 verse 4. It says there wrath is cruel anger is overwhelming but here, who can but who can stand before jealousy. Wow! Solomon is trying to compare wrath and anger to jealousy because he knew what jealousy is capable of.
Brothers and sisters, this serves as a warning to us all. While we know our standing before God that we have been saved by Christ, we also know that we still have remaining sins. And yes we can struggle, we can still struggle with envy, jealousy, resentment. Pwede talagang mag-struggle kahit kristiyano. When we see that a person is more favoured over us, when we see that a person is smarter, more knowledgeable about something, prettier, richer, more gifted, I want to be like that! I want to be like him! I want to be like her! It starts from there brethren. And sometimes you know what? We think it is one of those respectable sins. Accepted, private naman yan. Ako lang naman ito whenever I browse my feed. I usually browse etong tao na ito kasi nakakainggit talaga heh. Sana ganyan ako. Sana ganyan na lang state ko, sana hindi na lang ako nandito sa trabahong ito. Mas maayos ang trabaho nitong taong ito. Sana hindi na lang ako dito lagi nasa bahay, nag-aalaga ng aking pamilya. Sana katulad ako nitong nakikita kong ito. Envy, jealousy, pwedeng magsimula diyan kapatid. And you know the problem why there is envy? Why there is jealousy? is the lack of trust in what God has already provided for you. That’s where the problem lies. You look for something else, somewhere else because you don’t trust what’s happening to you is God’s provision for you already. We don’t trust the sovereignty of God that much. That is, it is God who has given us what we have now and we’re not content with what we have so we want others. We want to have what others have. Kaya ang challenge sa atin: Do not allow envy or jealousy linger in your heart, rather trust God’s providence in your life.
See how such a sin grows into something worse. So if you are envious or jealous, mortify it and cultivate trust in what God has provided for you. Again this was the problem of the brothers of Joseph. If they could have trusted the purpose of the Lord and submitted to His will, in fact if they could have bowed down to whom God has delegated authority, at sinunod lang nila yun, sa tingin nyo ba mapapa..magiging worse ang kanilang buhay? Of course not! They will stay in the covenant family. They will they will be recipients of the blessings of God. Pero gusto nila, ‘ako yun, ako dapat yun nasa lugar ni Joseph. If they could have submitted to the purposes of God, it would become better for them. But they allow their jealousy to grow to sinful anger, to malice.
Brethren, sin in general, grows. In fact it produces more. When you committed a sin, you may lie about it, you may deceive someone into thinking you did not sin, and then hatred may grow. Do you struggle with this? Are you already caught in such a web that you think you can’t even let go. Nags-struggle ka ba? Wala na, nangyari na heh. Nangyari na, so ipagpapatuloy ko na lang pagsisinungaling. Nangyari na heh. Are you struggling with envy, with jealousy? Lumagpas ka na ba sa envy? Lumagpas ka na ba sa jealousy, nasa resentment ka na ba? Malice? Brethren, eto yung comfort natin: we always have hope. That’s the thing because of pride, you don’t just have an escape from that downward spiral because of Christ. In fact, you have been delivered from such downward spiral. Hindi lang simple escape, although that is..kumbaga meron escape, yes, pero hindi lang yun ang meron ka kung ikaw ay kay Kristo. Ang meron ka, you have been delivered from such downward spiral. You’re not condemned anymore. All you have to do is repent of that sin. Magtiwala ka sa probidensiya ng Panginoon, magtiwala ka dahil if you think you will suffer the sequences of your sins now, just trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. It is all because of Christ that you have been delivered from such downward spiral. That you are not a Romans 1 person, that you have not been delivered by God into debased mind. You have not been delivered by God into the passions of your flesh. You have been delivered from it because of Christ. It was Christ who have received the full wrath of God on the cross. It was not us. He has redeemed us, He has saved us from God’s wrath. Christ became the recipient of the punishment for sins on the cross where He died. And He rose again to show us how victorious He was over sin and that is your assurance that we can indeed, that we have indeed been delivered from sin and death, from sin rather. We’ll be delivered from death when we, when He comes. And if you are in Him just as Joseph was hated, Christ was hated, there will be oppositions. And as you persevere in your faithful Christian testimony just like Joseph, know that there will be temptations to be jealous, there will be temptations to be envious. But thanks to Christ we can instead rest in the providence of God and understand that your primary motivation is this— the Father loves us the same way He loves Christ. May the word of God enrich our knowledge of Him and may it stir us to live in light of these truths. Let us pray.
Our great God and gracious Father, thank You for loving us the way You love our Lord the Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, may Your love continue to help us in our sanctification, in our desire to worship You. May You continue to help us in order to also extend that same love to one another here in the church and in our family, friends. And Lord, allow us, give us strength to mortify our sins na hindi namin hahayaang mas maggrow itong kasalanan because we understand that You hate sin. And that it would destroy us. So Lord allow us to always look to Christ, our hope our comfort and our assurance that we have been delivered to such downward spiral of sin. So Lord, thank You. We praise You in His name, amen.