(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, well it's great to be here once again and God bless everybody for coming tonight. I'm starting a series tonight, as you know I'm on a road trip traveling to a whole bunch of different churches across America, this is actually my first stop, we left our house this morning, I preached at Faithful Word last night in Tempe and we drove all day to get here and I'm doing a series where I'm going to go through the sons of Jacob that make up the twelve tribes of Israel and so I'm going in birth order and tonight we're going to talk about Reuben which is the oldest son of Jacob. Now if you would flip over in your Bible to Genesis chapter 37 and Reuben is actually a really interesting character in the story about Joseph being kidnapped by his brethren and sold into slavery into Egypt. So just to give you a little bit of background, Jacob has multiple wives and obviously that's something that God never intended for us to do as men, but throughout the Bible people who had the power to do it would sometimes do it and in this situation Jacob is married to Rachel and Leah and then Rachel and Leah each also have handmaids that were given to them by their father and he ends up taking them as concubines as well. So in essence he ends up with pretty much four wives and children by these wives and so there are a lot of rivalries in this family because having multiple wives is not God's will and whenever we see it in the Bible it's always surrounded by problems and so the wives are kind of at each other's throats and there's problems with their various children. Well Joseph in particular ends up being hated by some of his brethren especially the sons of the two handmaidens, the sons of the concubines because they had been into some kind of trouble. The Bible doesn't really give us details but the Bible says that Joseph brought an evil report to his father about those sons of the concubines. So they had been into some kind of mischief or wickedness and he had told his dad about it and among other things this is why Joseph is hated of his brethren and so in Genesis chapter 37 his brethren conspire against him. Now look down if you would at your Bible there in Genesis chapter 37 verse 18. It says when they saw him afar off even before he came near unto them they conspired against him to slay him which that obviously means to kill him and they said one to another behold this dreamer cometh because earlier Joseph had had a dream where the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to him and they were offended by that that he would someday possibly rule over them or that he envisioned that. So it says in verse 20 come now therefore and let us slay him. The slay means kill so they're going to murder him and cast him into some pit and we will say some evil beast that devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dreams. Now look at verse 21 this is where Reuben becomes significant to the story and Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands. So they're about to kill him right then and there but Reuben actually successfully delivers him out of their hands and prevents him from being killed. And Reuben said unto them shed no blood but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. So Reuben talks them into it instead of actually physically killing him and shedding his blood Reuben suggests why not just throw him into a pit and then something bad is going to happen to him in that pit and so then you're not actually the one who killed him or laid a hand on him you can just kind of put him in a pit that he can't get out of I don't know maybe he'll just starve to death in there or maybe some other person will come along and hurt him or an animal will hurt him or whatever but really what Reuben intends is to actually sneak back there after the rest of the brethren are gone and he's planning on rescuing Joseph out of that pit so he's just pretending that yeah we're just gonna throw him in this pit we don't want to actually you know do the act of murdering him put him in the pit and and then let's just leave it at that but he intends to go back and secretly rescue him. And so it says in verse number 22 at the end there that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again so he intends to rescue him and get him back to the father okay look at verse 23 and it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat his coat of many colors that was on him and they took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty there was no water in it and they sat down to eat bread and they lifted up their eyes and looked and behold a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bringing spicery and balm and myrrh going to carry it down to Egypt and Judah said unto his brethren what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother in our flesh and his brethren were content so they put him in the pit and then they sit down to eat a meal well what we're going to find out in a few moments is that when they're sitting down and eating this meal and when this company of Ishmaelites comes Reuben is not around now the Bible hasn't told us that yet but we're going to find that out in a minute so Reuben's not around Reuben doesn't even know that this is happening because if we keep reading here we're going to see that Reuben is actually going back to the pit in order to rescue Joseph so presumably what he has done is maybe kind of circled around another way or something because remember he doesn't want his brethren to know that he's going to rescue Joseph okay so presumably he has kind of snuck off and gone somewhere else he left and he's planning on maybe approaching the pit from another angle when they're not around and rescuing Joseph but while he's gone they're sitting and eating and they get this idea Judah suggests hey let's sell Joseph instead of just killing him why don't we make some money let's sell him into slavery and so that's what ends up happening and it says they brought Joseph into Egypt they you know they sell him for 20 pieces of silver they brought Joseph into Egypt look at verse 29 and Reuben returned under the pit and behold Joseph was not in the pit so he clearly wasn't there when they sold him or he wouldn't go in the pit looking for him right so he then goes in the pit and he's looking for him like where is he what happened right so he comes back and he returns the pit Joseph's not in the pit he rent his clothes he's very upset because he was trying to rescue Joseph and Joseph's gone and he returned unto his brethren so the brethren aren't right at the pit of course he returns unto his brethren and said the child is not and I wither shall I go what does that mean when he says the child is not well throughout scripture this term so and so is not means that they're dead now here's the thing Reuben's brethren know that Joseph isn't dead because they just sold him alive into slavery right but Reuben wasn't there for that so Reuben actually thinks that Joseph is dead the rest of the brothers all know that he's alive and that he's been sold but Reuben actually thinks that he's dead because remember what did they plan on doing they planned on murdering their brother and concealing his blood and then he says oh just put him in this pit instead throw him in the pit instead then he leaves for a few hours or whatever planning to sneak back a few hours later and get him out of the pit he comes back hours and hours later and Joseph's gone so what does he assume happened he probably assumes that what they killed him or that something else bad happened to him but I'm pretty sure he assumes at this point that his brethren have killed him because that was their original intent he doesn't seem to know that Joseph has been sold so he just says Joseph is not Joseph doesn't exist Joseph is dead the rest of the brethren know that that isn't true okay so he says oh man the child is not and I wither shall I go he's saying you know I don't want to face dad with the news that his favorite son is dead that's part of the reason why they hated Joseph was because Joseph was the favorite he got the coat of many colors he had tattled on them at one point he had dreams about being the top dog and whatever and so the dad is going to be distraught Jacob is going to be distraught when he finds out Joseph's got Reuben is upset he doesn't want to face him so Reuben says oh man the child is not wither shall I go and they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood and they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to their father and said this have we found know now whether it be thy son's coat or no and he knew it and said it is my son's coat an evil beast that devoured him Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces so here's what we need to understand Jacob thinks that Joseph has been ripped apart by wild animals Reuben believes that Joseph is also dead probably because his brethren killed him and the rest of the brethren know the truth that Joseph has actually been sold into slavery in Egypt everybody follow the story so far okay flip over to chapter 42 because this this becomes significant with what we see in chapter 42 because in chapter 42 it's obvious that Reuben still believes that Joseph was killed and so it's like he never found out that they sold him into Egypt apparently because look at chapter 42 and look at verse number 21 it says in chapter 42 verse 21 this is when they go down to Egypt later on and they're trying to buy food and the governor of the country speaks roughly to them and says that they're spies well they don't realize it but that governor of the country is actually Joseph he's just a lot older he looks like an Egyptian he's talking in the language of the Egyptians and he speaks to them through an interpreter so they don't realize who they're dealing with but he recognizes them and he knows it's them so after he treats them poorly look what they say in verse 21 they said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of a soul when when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us notice they don't mention killing him because they didn't kill him but they're just saying you know he was begging for mercy we saw the anguish of his soul he was in distress we didn't listen we didn't harken we didn't show mercy and now our crime is coming back to get us all these years later it's coming back to haunt us but then look what Reuben says verse 22 and Reuben answered them saying spake I not unto you saying do not sin against the child and you would not hear therefore behold also his what his blood is required see Reuben still thinks that he was killed his blood is required so he wasn't there when Joseph was sold and so now we see that he thinks that Joseph said the other guys are just like oh man we didn't show mercy on him they just think that they sold him into slavery and that you know that was a horrible thing which it was but Reuben thinks it was even murder okay but here's what's interesting it says in verse 23 they knew that Joseph they knew not that Joseph understood them for he spake unto them by an interpreter so Joseph's hearing this so put yourself in Joseph's position right so he's hearing them say this where they're like oh man he was begging for mercy and we wouldn't help him and then Reuben says didn't I tell you guys not to harm him I'm the one who said it back then that you shouldn't hurt because he did say that that's true so Joseph is finding this out Joseph's kind of finding out okay you know what Reuben is not one of the people that was responsible for this like Reuben actually was trying to deliver me Reuben was saying not to harm me Reuben thinks I'm dead okay because when he says this Joseph's standing right there understanding every word they don't realize that he knows the language so watch how Joseph's actions are actually influenced by finding this out about Reuben because look at the next verse it says he turned himself from them and wept so he's he's really emotional hearing them talk about him in this way because he sees that they they feel guilty about it they have a conscience about it and it says he returned to them again and communed with them and took from them Simeon and bound him before their eyes why take Simeon you know sometimes when I've been reading this over the years I wondered like why Simeon Simeon just seems kind of a random guy to take because out of all the sons of Jacob he's not really super duper significant of a guy so like why pick Simeon and I always just kind of felt like oh maybe just kind of grab one at random but what you have to realize is when you read this Joseph story nothing Joseph does with his brother and his random because even when he sits them down for dinner he actually arranges them in birth order and that kind of blows their minds because they're all grown men so how can he know what order they're born in but he basically has them all arranged in place settings and they're just it's like Reuben Simeon Levi Judah and they're they're mind blown like how did he seat us in this order so these are all clues that should be kind of showing them what's going on but they never figure it out even when he tells them like I'm Joseph they're just like oh it's like I'm Joseph excuse me you know they don't they don't see the clues because they don't expect this right but so why Simeon here's why because Reuben is the oldest son so he's going to take a hostage he's going to hold somebody hostage until Benjamin is brought back so he's going to put one of them in prison so the natural choice would be okay he's going to start with the oldest put the oldest guy in prison like let's put Reuben in prison but because Reuben went to bat for him he skips Reuben and goes to the second oldest so then it makes sense like why is Simeon significant because Simeon is the oldest besides Reuben and he just heard one verse earlier that Reuben went to bat for him and that Reuben is not one of the ones who did wrong to him and so he basically says okay let's put Simeon in prison because he's the oldest guy the most responsible guy put him in prison and then Reuben gets passed so it's kind of interesting now here's the thing if you would flip over to Genesis 49 the reason that I showed you that story starting out here talking about Reuben is I want you to understand that Reuben is not a horrible guy is he he's not a super mean spirited guy that just wants to hurt people he doesn't love violence he's not just some vindictive evil wicked person I mean there are some really wicked evil people in the bible but we don't really see Reuben just having that malicious horrible character do we you know when we read this story Reuben actually comes off as the most merciful the kindest he's not a bad guy he's not a horrible guy he actually comes off as a pretty good guy pretty decent guy right but here's the thing about Reuben Reuben basically commits one action in his life even though he's a good guy even though he's a nice guy he's in a good family he's being brought up serving the lord he makes one stupid decision that just ruins his entire life and makes him lose everything okay and I wanted to show you that story about Joseph just to show you that it's not that he's just a rotten person it's not that he's a horrible person no it's that he did something horrible one time he did something stupid one time and just ruined his life and let me tell you something there are things that you can do that could just completely ruin your life even if you're a pretty good guy even if your heart's in the right place even if you're a nice person you know you can commit certain sins that could just change your life forever just in a moment in one day in one evening in one hour you can just destroy your life and just mess up your life just change the whole course of your life and that's what happened in the life of Reuben even though he's not intrinsically a bad horrible person to the bone or something I mean but what he did is wicked now look at Genesis chapter 49 in Genesis chapter 49 this is when Jacob is at his deathbed and he's blessing his sons and he says in verse one Jacob called unto his sons and said gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days so he's going to prophesy about his sons he's going to bless them but some of them don't really get a blessing some of them get a little more of a curse and something negative but it says in verse two gather yourselves together and hear you sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father Reuben thou art my firstborn my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power so not only do we see his empathy and his caring and concern for his brother Joseph and the fact that he's not a malicious or mean-spirited evil type person but also Jacob says that he is the excellency of dignity so here's a man who is very dignified he's very respectable and people would look at him and think that he is a strong noble person of character in general right he's the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power but yet this one act that he commit is going to ruin everything for him now keep your finger there in Genesis 49 we're going to come right back there and flip back to Genesis 35 22 we're going to see his fatal error his mistake that ends up costing him everything go back to Genesis chapter 35 verse 22 Genesis 35 22 and it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine and Israel heard it so what did he do he actually slept with Bilhah his father's concubine so remember his father has two wives and two concubines you say what is a concubine a concubine is someone who a man lives with as a wife but she doesn't actually have the honor of being his wife she's basically just like a a mistress or a living girlfriend or in this place sort of like just a lesser status woman in the household that's she's not really his wife because his wives are Rachel and Leah they're at a higher status these are maids that are just basically being you know put in this situation where they're going to have children and and it's going to be I mean it's complicated but you know hopefully you know the story a little bit but the point is you know I Jacob has had relations with this woman Bilhah and he has had children with Bilhah okay and so for Reuben to be with this woman is super wicked and perverted and sinful okay first of all number one it's fornication because Reuben is not married to this woman it's fornication okay number two you know you could look at it as adultery in the sense that she sort of belongs to Jacob in a sense as a concubine but number three the fact that his dad has been with the same woman just is a whole nother level of just kind of perverted just weird now you know some people say it's incest but I mean obviously Reuben's not related to this woman in any way it's it's it's you know it's not even his mom's handmade it's it's from the other branch of the family and whatever but of all the women in the world that Reuben could commit fornication with you know he has to be with this woman that's been with his dad and that that kind of just weird confusion is is something that God hates it's an abomination under the Lord okay and so by laying with Bilhah he ends up losing his rights as the firstborn son because as the firstborn son he's supposed to get the birthright the double portion of the inheritance to be the leader of the family and so forth but yet he ends up losing that because of this action now nothing really happens right away you know when he lies with Bilhah it basically just says Israel heard it he lay with Bilhah and Israel heard it but later we see that Jacob didn't forget about this okay and so if you're there in Genesis 49 after complimenting him and saying in verse 3 Reuben thou art my firstborn my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power and you can probably see Reuben at that point kind of like yeah you know all right this is okay you know thanks dad I'm so glad you're proud of me but then he says unstable as water thou shalt not excel now notice what he just said excellency of dignity and excellency of power notice the beginning of the word excellent is the word excel right so he's saying you've excelled in dignity you've excelled in power but he says guess what you're not going to excel and here's why here's what undoes the achievements that you've had whatever strength whatever power whatever might whatever dignity that you have whatever position in the family that's negated by the fact that you are unstable as water because thou wentest up to thy father's bed then defilets thou it he went up to my couch he's he's basically referring to the fact that he lay with bilhah now if you would flip over to first chronicles chapter number five this this is referenced again in first chronicles chapter five harkening back to this so Jacob is rebuking him and saying that he's not going to excel he's not going to be the leader of the family he's not going to get the birthright he's not going to get the double portion he's going to lose all that because of what he did with bilhah was it worth it for him to just have that one night with bilhah and and to just indulge in that sin indulge in that carnal desire obviously not because now this affects him not only for the rest of his life but even for all eternity it goes down in the word of God to where thousands of years later we're still talking about it i mean here we are literally thousands of years later like remember when Reuben got with bilhah you know i mean how much older was she than him i mean she was significantly older than him i'll tell you that right now i don't know how much older she was but this was an older woman okay because if you think about it Jacob marries both Rachel and Leah in the same like a week apart from one another and then they both receive the handmade like like it's like he marries uh leah and then leah receives zilpa as a handmade and then you know these are basically like servants or slaves or whatever you want to call them and then basically he receives Rachel and then Rachel receives bilhah as a handmade you know and so these are obviously all adults you know i mean Rachel and Leah are adults they're getting married the handmaidens are clearly adults because uh you know they come in and end up serving as concubines and having children and so forth and here's the thing Reuben's not born yet because you know he marries leah and then a week later he marries Rachel and gets you know bilhah as a as a handmade who's an adult you know it's not a child it's a woman and then Reuben is conceived by Leah and born maybe like a year later or something or a year and a half later we don't know exactly when so my point is that this woman's got to be at least like 20 years older than him maybe even older than that and when did this story take place it's kind of hard to pin down the timeline sometimes in genesis but he's probably like in his 20s and she's probably like in her 40s you know just realistically if you think about it that's what's going on in this situation and again i'm guessing at those ages but she has to be at least like 20 years older than him and he has to be at least over 20 you know just doing the math of the story so you know realistically just kind of taking a guess probably like he's in his 20s she's in like her 40s or whatever anyway look down at your bible there in first chronicles chapter five it says now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel and then there's a parenthesis for he was the firstborn but for as much as he defiled his father's bed his birthright was given under the sons of Joseph the son of Israel and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright for Judah prevailed above his brethren and of him came the chief ruler but the birthright was Joseph's and then he gets back to you know the sons i say of Reuben the firstborn of Israel Haynock, Fallu, Hezron and Carmi so the bottom line is that from that parenthesis here's what we can glean from that that Reuben should have actually received both the blessing and the birthright as the firstborn son he would have been in line to receive the birthright the double portion and the blessing to be the patriarch of the family to be the leader to be the progenitor of the Lord Jesus Christ right to be that line of succession that's ultimately going to lead to Jesus Christ but instead this ends up being divided this honor ends up being divided where you have two sons replacing Reuben in a sense because on the one hand you have Judah excelling his brethren and becoming the chief leader and becoming the one who receives the blessing and he's the one where Jesus Christ comes from his line right Jesus Christ of the tribe of Judah because think about the birth order goes Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah okay now we know what Reuben did to mess things up because Reuben you know lay with Bilhah Simeon and Levi we don't have time to go into it tonight but there's a story where they go in and pretty much murder an entire town because of the fact that you know their sister got involved with a dude in that town and they committed fornication and they said well they're treating our sister like a harlot and so we're just going to go in and just wipe out the whole town and so they trick them into all getting circumcised and then when they're sore from being circumcised Simeon and Levi just go in and just start killing everybody in this whole town and so because of that they get rebuked in Genesis 49 as well and so it's like okay Reuben it's like you're drawing lines through these names like okay Reuben gets a line through his name okay Simeon Levi murdered a whole town all right let's cross them off and it's like all right Judah you know and he's good to go ultimately now he did some rough things too but that's another sermon that I'll be preaching in like a week right because I'm going through the whole list but the point is that you know that honor of being the leader of the family or the one who's ultimately going to lead to Jesus and the genealogy goes to Judah goes the fourth son but the birthright of getting the the double the inheritance actually goes to Joseph according to first chronicles chapter five here and that's what we see in Genesis as well because remember he ends up giving Ephraim and Manasseh the two sons of Joseph he ends up giving them each a full portion so by giving Ephraim and Manasseh each a full portion that's like giving Joseph two portions right because he basically even though they're lower on the generation he puts them up with Reuben Simeon and Levi and everybody and he gives them each a full portion that's why a lot of times Ephraim and Manasseh are listed as if they're tribes of Israel even though they're actually the sons of Joseph because Joseph gets two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh he gets two portions he gets a double portion because he's the one who saved the whole family and he's the one who was the victim that ended up fixing everything and so we can see from first chronicles five just how much Reuben lost in this night of passion with Bilhah now here's the thing we don't really know how this went down the bible doesn't give us the details you know who initiated this relationship was this Bilhah that was seducing Reuben and and uh you know she cast her eyes on this younger man we don't know the Bible doesn't tell us or was this Reuben you know putting the moves on Bilhah and initiating this sinful wicked bizarre relationship we don't know but either way Reuben is a grown man and is responsible for his actions so whether she seduced him or enticed him or whether he was the one who started it that's not really the point at the end of the day he as a man should flee fornication and he is responsible for that sin that he committed and he ends up destroying his life and I don't think this was some ongoing thing where him and Bilhah are just just growing old together or something it pretty much seems like it was a one-time thing because it's like while they're in this one land because they're moving around it's a period where they're moving and things are changing and it's like well while they were in that land Reuben lay with Bilhah and Israel heard about it Jacob heard about it you know it does it was like a one-time thing or at least a short-lived thing and yet Reuben ends up throwing it all away for that now if you would go over to Hebrews chapter 12 in the New Testament Hebrews chapter 12 in the New Testament and you know the Bible says dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor and so think about you can have a great reputation for wisdom and honor or as in the case of Reuben dignity strength power compassion all these great attributes all these great things going for you but a little folly can actually end up destroying everything pleasure for a moment and pain for a lifetime is it really worth it and so just as dead flies you could have the most beautiful perfume and the most beautiful amen but dead flies can cause that ointment of the apothecary to send for the stinking saver you just put a little bit of garbage in there a little bit of putrefying dead fly flesh and it just stinks up the whole thing and that's how it is you could live your life for years and years and years building a reputation for yourself building a Christian testimony building trust building faith in it from other people and then you just do something stupid and it's just all shot in a moment i mean think about it i've been pastoring faithful or baptist search for 16 years but if i were to just go out tonight and commit some horrible sin think about that i mean i could just flush my entire uh legacy down the toilet i could flush my entire reputation down the toilet my ministry everything that i've worked for could just go down the toilet just if i just went out and did some stupid horrible sin like rubin did okay but guess what the same goes for you too all of us need to make sure that we guard ourselves and don't allow ourselves to be enticed by the lust of the flesh into committing a sin that will have an impact on the rest of our lives you know you young single guys you young single gals you want to go to the marriage altar pure you want to be a virgin when you get married because that is what god demands that's not a suggestion jesus said if you love me keep my commandments and the bible says in first thessalonians chapter 4 you know what commandments we gave you by the lord jesus you say well you know commandments that's like that's like old testament you know the new testament it's more just relationship but you know the bible says in first thessalonians chapter 4 you know what commandments we gave you by the lord jesus sounds like there's some commandments that are given by the lord jesus and he said you know what commandments we gave you by the lord jesus for this is the will of god even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication that's a commandment by the lord jesus abstain from fornication okay so god has commanded that he says you know what commandments we gave you by the lord jesus for this is the will of god even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel meaning his physical body in sanctification and honor okay the real dignity the real honor the sanctification is when you keep yourself pure and you go to your wedding day a virgin on your wedding day and they say oh i'm offended because i fornicated earlier shut up because you know what i'm talking to young people who haven't made that mistake yet and they need to hear the fact that it's not worth it to commit fornication before you're married you're going to live on this earth in all probability 70 80 years or maybe even longer you know maybe if you honor your father and mother you might even make it to 90 or 100 and your it'll be well with you and your days will be long on the earth you know you're gonna live on this earth for so many years okay wait until you're married and you'll have plenty of time when you're married to indulge in that activity within the bounds of marriage the way that god intended that activity to be enjoyed hang in there 16 year old 17 18 year old 19 20 year old hang in there wait be patient and wait and you're gonna have decades god willing to enjoy that relationship don't flush it down the toilet say oh well give me the portion of the inheritance to fall to me now give it to me right now i want to have it right now give it to me now you know and a lot of times in my house i wake up super early in my house sometimes and sometimes i wake up hungry you know i wake up and i'm real i get up real early sometimes i'll get up like four or five in the morning and i'm hungry and so you know i'm just kind of trying to push through push through and then finally i just break down and just kind of reach for the wrong thing you know cinnamon toast crunch or whatever you know what i mean and i just and then i just i indulge in that and then what will happen is like an hour later or something then all of a sudden my daughters or my wife are producing all kinds of you know avocado toast and all kinds of eggs and all all this really like nutritious healthful even better tasting food but it's like oh i and they're just like breakfast is ready and i'm just like and i have to admit like i've already eaten you know i'm sorry because it's you know it's like i did you know if i would have just waited i could have had the healthy the better breakfast instead i just gave in to the flesh you know what i mean you gotta push through now thankfully when it came to marriage i pushed through i didn't commit fornication okay when it comes to breakfast you know the stakes aren't really as high because there there aren't any there's no clear scripture prohibiting cinnamon toast crunch anywhere in scripture okay let's just be clear on that okay if there is i'm in trouble okay but the point is that you know we need to not be so short-sighted because let me tell you something marriage is going to be better if you do things god's way what if i told you it's not going to help your marriage all the people you've committed fornication with before you got married that doesn't help your marriage you think that's going to give you a better marriage you think your spouse is going to like the fact that you've been with all these but no and again i'm not here to chastise people who made mistakes earlier in life because you know what whatever mistakes you made earlier in life that's all forgiven and forgotten and i don't care about that i'm not worried about that i'm preaching to people who haven't made those mistakes yet who haven't suffered those consequences yet and i want you to understand that god's will for your life is that you abstain from fornication and you don't want to be a ruben who's got everything going for him first-born son he's in line to receive all the blessings and the birthright and then he just throws it all away because some 40 some year old woman looks too good and he just can't restrain from that temptation he can't restrain himself from that temptation but it's not worth it okay you've got to wait you've got to be patient control yourself and wait and look obviously you know sometimes the the pull of the flesh can be strong temptations can be strong but you know what it's possible because lots of people lots of people millions of people not just me but millions of millions of people are waiting until they're married to do that even unsaved people i mean there are people out there my friend in this world multitudes and multitudes and multitudes who are waiting until they get married to have that physical relationship and you know what it's what god commands it's what god demands and if you're smart you will not throw it away like ruben you will push through and be patient and wait you know ruben the bible doesn't really tell us about ruben's wife or who he eventually married but we know that there are four sons listed as ruben's son so ruben eventually got married had a family had children you know why didn't he just wait why didn't he just wait and have that relationship with his wife no instead he had to go sleep with bill haw and you know when people heard about that you know it says israel heard it you know it could have just said jacob heard it it said israel heard it now you could say well that's that's jacob's other name israel but a lot of times israel is also kind of referring to the whole family sometimes too because also you know it talks about with dina in that story which is right around that exact same chapter it says oh they wrought folly in israel it actually refers to the whole family or the whole clan as israel at that time and so when it says israel heard it it's it's very possible that it's not just saying that jacob heard it but that it's kind of just saying that word got around and in fact how did jacob hear it he heard it from somebody who heard it from somebody who heard it from somebody and so ruben's reputation is ruined by this shameful deed i guarantee you that this is a bear this is an embarrassing thing like bilhah really like the dad's woman what that's sick what are you doing it's a it's humiliating it's embarrassing i wonder if his brethren would have taken him a little more seriously in genesis chapter 37 when he went to batford for joseph because when he went to batford joseph was joseph was genesis 37 but when he lay with bilhah was genesis 35 okay i wonder if they would have had a little more respect for him and listen to him a little more when he said don't harm the child they're probably thinking like we don't listen to you mr i'm into bilhah you know what i mean people look people lose respect for you when you ruin your testimony when you're out doing these kind of things when you're committing sin especially things that are perverted or or things that are just really reprehensible and and things i mean look even garden variety fornication god's angry about but then the bible says in first corinthians 5 verse 1 he said you know there you know it's reported commonly that there's fornication among you and such fornication is not so much as named among the gentiles that one should have his father's wife like that's just another level of fornication and so people are going to lose respect for you look at hebrews chapter 12 now hebrews chapter 12 is not about rubin hebrews chapter 12 is about isa but the same principle applies because it's really the same uh situation it says in verse 16 lest there be any fornicator same sin that rubin committed right lest there be any fornicator or profane person as isa who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright for you know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears so isa didn't necessarily commit fornication but isa sold his birthright for one morsel of meat in that story the reason isa lost the birthright was because he was just starving hungry he was like me when i wake up early and you know breakfast isn't ready yet he's starving hungry and jacob has made all this delicious food and he says oh man you got to give me some of that pottage and isa says well you know sell me your birthright and i'll give you something to eat and he says well what good is my birthright gonna do if i starve to death sure take the birthright give me the food now it's absurd but the bible says that's how much isa despised his birthright and what does it mean to despise when we say despise we usually mean hate but in the bible despise usually doesn't mean hate sometimes it does usually the word despise in the bible has to do with like either looking down on something devaluing it not thinking it's important not giving something proper respect he did not have proper respect for his birthright he did not take it seriously and so he's just like sure whatever and let me explain to you how young people think young people can't see past like their 20s okay you know all think about all these like rock stars and actors that die when they're like 27. james dean you know kurt cobain janice joplin jim morrison jimmy hindrix or you know i'm sure there's modern examples i'm going to like my dad's generation or something who are the modern examples of the people who kind of lived fast and died young okay but i don't even know who these people are though sound garden that's a whole band is that did the whole band die heath ledger is that that queer guy who uh wasn't he a queer batman character or something the queer the the queer actor who played the joker or something right well that's a whole nother sermon don't give me don't get me mad about that all right okay let's just stick with my examples jimmy hindrix okay jim morrison kirk obey no i'm just saying look the point is that all these young people idolize these kind of live fast die young type and a lot of teenagers just have this really short side of you where they can always see like what's right in front of them they don't see the big picture and they kind of maybe can see their early 20s maybe and it's like they just don't see beyond that like me i'm 40 years old but i'm thinking about like what my 50s are gonna be like i'm thinking about what my 60s are gonna be like when we were talking about like fitness and working out i'm like man i want to be preaching when i'm 90 like i'm like thinking about that like i don't want to be one of these old people that go senile really early i don't want to have to retire from preaching really early like i want to be able to keep preaching when i'm old be healthy and i'm like thinking about that because when you get older you you start seeing the big picture of life right but but i remember when i was a teenager i couldn't see past like 25 like that was it was just like it was just nothing past that like i'm thinking about my life and everything just like stopped at that point it was just like i could only see up there it was just like nothing and that's how teenagers think that's how i thought when i was a teenager like you just you just think about the short term you have a short-term view okay and so that's how esau was he's just like my birthright so oh so like decades and decades and decades from now when dad dies i'm gonna get twice as much money who cares give me a bowl of chili now because seriously young people like talking about something way off in the future to them it's just like whoop because they're not they don't they don't see that far they don't think that far you know they're you know what they're thinking about they're thinking about this week they're thinking about this month and you know what you as a young person need to grow up and start thinking about what life's going to be like in your 30s and in your 40s and start laying a foundation now for a life that is going to last you longer than kurt cobain's life lasted him because you don't want to be some burned out loser in your late 20s where you're hanging yourself and killing yourself or driving down the freeway at incredible speeds because you just don't care if you live or die because you just are already burned out you've already just lost all will no no my friend i want to build a foundation for a life that could go a little further than that i want to build my life on a foundation of jesus christ where i can go forward for decades and decades and decades and keep building on that foundation you know it's like the stories of a building right if you have a weak foundation maybe you can build a one-story building and you'll be okay you'll get you to age 27 on that thing but you know if you want to build a building think about each story is like a decade like 30 40 50 60 70 you know i want to build all the way into my 70s 80s 90s serving god and and doing works for the lord so i better have a solid foundation okay and so you start laying that down in your teens and in your 20s don't be so short-sighted to just think like well you know bill ha's here now and she's looking hot and it's gonna be great and it's just like dude you're ruining your whole life right now your name is gonna go down to the but you know i mean ruben think about everybody how many people know somebody named joseph do you know anyone named joseph it's every hand should be up right now is anybody listening to this sermon tonight because every single person probably knows somebody named joseph let me try that again who knows someone named joseph okay now who actually knows someone named ruben now i do okay is there a ruben in the search where's ruben okay i want you to stand on the platform the whole time i'm preaching is that okay can you and that way i can say ruben here he's with bill huh all right i'm sorry ruben ruben i can't believe you came tonight i'm so glad i'm glad you're here that's hilarious i was just gonna say here's here was my point i was just gonna say that like you know a lot more people are naming their kid like joseph than ruben now here's the thing you think a lot of people would probably name their kid judah but it's too close to judas and people are like whoa you know so that like i mean people still do it though it's out there i'm just saying ruben isn't necessarily going down in history no offense all right now i gotta do disclaimers for the whole rest of the sermon you know ruben doesn't go down in history as the great bible character he just doesn't you know what i mean might be a sandwich that people like but it's not really it's not really a a hero of the bible because he ended up ruining his reputation just for one night of pleasure or one week of pleasure or one day who knows how that long this sordid affair lasted but it wasn't worth it i'll i'll guarantee you that that it wasn't worth it and the bible says in hebrew chapter 12 it says lest there be any fornicator or profane person as esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright and and again genesis tells us because he despised his birthright he didn't give it proper respect he wasn't giving proper thought to his future and and you know that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance so he sought a careful little tears you know after you make these mistakes after you commit the fornication or the adultery or after you take those drugs or after you get drunk or after you do these sinful acts you know you could be sorry afterward but it doesn't always undo the damage that you've done sometimes you've done permanent damage to your life and you know god's a forgiving god god's a god of a second chance and there's always a way forward and i do believe that ruben still was able to live for god and be blessed someone you know he's able to have four sons and those four sons went on to be part of you know god's nation and everything like that but he still lost a lot didn't he you know i mean ruben still ended up suffering consequences that could never be fixed and so look if you commit a big sin i'm not saying your life's over but i am saying you can't undo what you've done and there are going to be consequences that could persist for the rest of your life and it could really harm your future your reputation you know it's funny how you could you could spend 20 years doing something good every day let's say you just spent 20 years every day doing something nice and then you just murder someone you think people are just gonna be like well but look at all the look at all the good things you've done in fact nobody's even gonna care about any of the good stuff it's all gonna be about the murder that you did if you think of the famous murderers of this world the famous killers or serial killers or people who assassinated people you know nobody's like well let's talk about some of their achievements in high school you know let's talk about some of their athletic achievements or let you know let's talk about the work they did at their church in junior high or so you know none of that all that stuff is just gone it's just overshadowed by you went up to your father's couch and defiled it you know it's like oh yeah excellency of dignity but guess what unstable is water thou shalt not excel you went up to your father's couch you defiled it you lay with the concubine you know it's over for you as the firstborn that goes to someone else now why does he say that rubin is unstable as water what does that mean well think about water it's liquid that's the point what's the opposite of a liquid right a solid okay so you know in one sense a liquid is unstable in the sense that like let's say i'm driving down the road and i've got a bucket of water in the back seat just a bucket of water on the seat like a home depot bucket filled with water and i'm driving down the road it's gonna be like sloshing over the edge of that bucket it's gonna be unstable because it's gonna be just tossed to and fro with whatever movements of the vehicle whereas if that were in a solid state that were like an ice block if i took that same bucket and put it in the freezer and froze it and stuck in the back seat it'd be solid it'd be unmovable and it would just be cruising we're to be solid we're to be steadfast we're to be unmovable rubin on the other hand was unstable as water and i believe that what this means is that he is just carried about with his whim of this is what i feel like doing you know it's just like he was just in the moment and you know the candle light was there in that tent and he just looked across the tent at bilhah and she looked at him and it was just so magical and he was just kind of just carried away in that moment but you know we as christians we don't want to just be carried away with just hey whatever i feel like doing i'm just going to kind of just go with my feeling or just kind of just go with what happens you know i i believe he was tossed to and fro with whatever whim of his fancy of just whatever his lust told him to do it's just like he just kind of just was easily swayed you know you know and like i said maybe it was bilhah who came on to him and and he just went with it because he's unstable and the bible talks about people that would seduce and beguile unstable souls right in the new testament it talks about people that are beguiling unstable souls so the bible used the word unstable about someone who can be beguiled someone who can be seduced someone who can be enticed and so you know let's go with that hypothesis for a minute and like i said we can't really say for sure that bilhah is the one who started it maybe he's the one who started it who knows but the point is you know if we go with this idea of the unstable are easily beguiled that means that if bilhah would have tried that seduction on a more stable young man he would have run screaming in the other direction like how about joseph because think about didn't joseph also get seduced by an older woman you know i mean we again we don't know people's exact ages in the story but we can pretty much assume that potiphar being this important guy joseph's master joseph's only 17 years old when he goes into egypt joseph's not a potiphar and his wife aren't 17 folks you know these are older important people and so again we could probably guess that potiphar's wife is again a woman in her 40s or whatever it's you know it's probably pretty much a similar situation so here we got two guys in the bible we got rubin and we got joseph they're brothers they're both raised in the same home okay both of these guys are put in a situation where they have an opportunity to get physical with another man's wife who's 20 years older than them right and they're in this situation where this older woman is there and we don't know if bilhah was as aggressive as potiphar's wife we don't know but that doesn't really matter the point is they both had the opportunity they both had a temptation in front of them rubin's looking at bilhah joseph's looking at potiphar's wife they've both got this opportunity they're both in the exact situation and what does joseph do joseph literally runs screaming in the other direction where she literally grabs him and he runs away she even rips the coat right off his body because he's getting out of there so fast that she rips the coat right off his back as he is running away from fornication and what does the bible say in the new testament flee fornication flee fornication and so joseph literally is in a similar situation and just runs away but rubin's like cool you know and he basically gets involved in this awful sin and the sin that rubin was enticed into is even worse because it's his dad's concubine that's even weirder than potiphar's wife okay they're both fornication it's both adultery but you know so i don't think it's a coincidence that both joseph and rubin both because how many times in the bible is a guy seduced or involved with an older married woman like this it's not like these stories are just in every page of the bible are they so isn't it funny that we have two of them right here joseph and rubin they're brothers and isn't it interesting that rubin loses the double portion and who does it go to the guy who resisted the exact temptation that rubin fell for so rubin gives into a certain temptation of fornication with the older mature woman that's coming on to him he resists that temptation loses or i'm sorry rubin gives into that temptation loses the birthright joseph resists that temptation and receives the exact birthright and so my friend you know there's two types of people in the story here there's the rubins and the josephs okay there's the rubins and the joseph is there a joseph in the building tonight we don't even have this search is probably filled with rubins and and we got simian over here we got izakar right good to have you here tonight asher no i'm just kidding but anyway gad are you here tonight or oh he only comes on sunday mornings that's right but the point is though that you've got a choice in your life are you gonna be a rubin or are you gonna be a joseph you know are you gonna be that guy who says well you know it wasn't my fault i was put in a situation and i mean she was just all over me and you know i'm just human i'm just a man you know what i mean it's just like you know i it's just you know the the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak you know and there i was and it was you know and look look i'm a pastor you don't think i've had people make these kind of excuses to me about why they committed fornication or whatever and saying you know you don't think i've heard over the years of 16 years of pastoring i've heard like well she seduced me you think i've ever heard that before as a pastor for 16 years you think i've heard somebody say well pastor it wasn't my fault she seduced me i'm like you're a grown man flee fornication you are big and ugly enough to defend yourself against a woman oh well you know you don't understand i was just in the moment no no you need to be a joseph where you get out of there any of us at any time if we find ourselves in a compromising situation can always just get out of there just run out of there right run out of there slap yourself in the face run out of there get out of there flee fornication the bible says this is not optional and i don't care how weird our society gets and and and you know i was just preaching about on sunday how our society is getting so weird and the sins are getting so extreme and so brazen we could make the mistake of starting to think well fornication is not that bad because at least at least it's a man and a woman you know what i mean like at least at least at least it's like normal fornication you know and not like all this other 27 genders or whatever but the point is like folks just because the world out there is getting super weird we can't change our standards as christians you know we need to stand by the fact that it's it's marriage that god demands one man one woman for life and that we are pure until our wedding day and that we keep ourselves only under that person so long as we both shall live now again the and you if you've made that mistake in the past i'm not chastising you i'm not chastising you for being named ruben you know i'm not i'm not i'm not here to chastise you for the fact that you've committed fornication or even adultery in your life you know because if you've done those things i'm assuming that you have already confessed that to god and forsaken that sin and that you're not going to continue doing that you're not going to do it again and so amen you know that's all you can do and and i think you should forget about it because god is willing to forgive and forget you should forgive yourself and forget because god has already dealt with that at the cross and and and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and the cleanses of all unrighteousness but let me tell you something you young people you're hearing this sermon right now you're accountable and you're hearing the word of god and i'm getting up here and i'm showing you two people's lives and i'm telling you you grow up in first works baptist church and you go out and commit fornication guess what you're going to suffer you will suffer i promise you that if you commit fornication the suffering that you inherit will be a hundred times more than the pleasure that you derive from the fornication so just think just is that what you want do you want to get this much pleasure and then suffering times 100 or suffering times a thousand because that's literally what you're going to get say oh it was so worth it you won't say that when the suffering hits and it keeps hitting and then it hits again and then five years later it hits and then it just hits hits hits hits hits i'm telling you the bible says you'll sow the wind but you'll reap the whirlwind okay here's the thing about sowing the law of sowing and reaping you don't reap you do reap what you sow but you don't reap the amount that you sow you reap 100 times what you sow now that can be for good if i if i go out and do a bunch of good works for christ i'll be rewarded a hundredfold the bible says man if i give things up for christ i'm going to receive a hundredfold for what i give up for christ but you know when you go out and sow your wild oats you're going to reap a hundredfold suffering misery woe and look i just want you to be happy you know i want you to be blessed i want you to enjoy the blessings that come with living a godly christian life and i want you in the service of the lord five years from now 10 years from now 20 years from now i want to hear about you that you're still serving god okay i'm looking out for you tonight when i tell you to flee fornication okay i'm looking out for you i'm not trying to ruin your fun or just make you starve to death here i'm just looking out for you because i'm telling you it's not worth it the suffering outweighs the pleasure i guarantee you that rubin's not like oh man it stinks that i lost my birthright but that bill ha was worth it whoo that bill ha you know i wouldn't trade that for anything there's no way there's absolutely no way he's probably just thinking what what was i doing i'm such an idiot stinking bill ha what what what what was that i guarantee he's kicking himself about that and beating himself up about it and he probably got all happy when his dad's like oh man the beginning of my strength excellent and dignity and then when he heard that unstable as water he's probably like oh you went up to my couch he's like whoa you knew about that you know it's like i mean how embarrassing to have your dad bring that up to you to your face like because it seems like he didn't bring it up in genesis 35 he's probably so embarrassed everybody's probably so embarrassed nobody probably want to talk about it at thanksgiving it just doesn't come up it just isn't brought up but then like then it's like he's about to die and he's like bill ha and it's just like whoa you don't want to face dad with that well you know what you don't want to face the heavenly father you know and his chastisements on this earth for what he's going to punish you on this earth because i'm telling you whom the lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son of me receiveth and it is not going to be worth it so don't give into those temptations resist temptation abstain from fornication adultery is not worth it let's bow your heads in our word of prayer father we thank you so much for this story lord and what we can learn from it and father i pray that you would please just help everyone who's here to be encouraged by the sermon admonish not to give in to these temptations that are out there lord help us to be a joseph lord and and resist these temptations in jesus name we pray amen