Turn to Exodus chapter 1. We just went through, finished
up, Genesis. Genesis means the beginning. Now we're going to look at Exodus. Exodus means a departure. We
saw the beginning. Now we're going to see the departure.
in the book of Exodus. The children of Israel have been
in Egypt for several years now. They've been there, someone said,
around 30 years. They've been there around 30
years. And they've settled in. And they like it. At this point in time, they like
Egypt real well. They like the cucumbers and the
leaves and the onions. They like living there. They
like what they've got to enjoy and they like staying there. But God's purpose is not for
them to stay in Egypt. They forgot that. God's purpose
is not for them to stay in Egypt. just as His purpose is not for
us to stay in this world. And I think sometimes we forget
that, don't we? Sometimes we forget this is not
home. This is a pilgrimage. We're on
our way home. This is part of the journey.
And sometimes we forget it. We forget it. We are headed for the promised
land. Now, the Lord has to make them
fall out with Egypt and Egypt fall out with them. They've gotten
too kosher. So they're going to now become
a division. God is going to put a difference between the Egyptian
and Israel. That's what He's going to do.
But before Israel enters the promised land, they must spend
400 years in Egypt. And I read to you, they served
with rigor, rigor, hard, hard bondage. They're going to spend
400 years. Now remember, I want you to remember
this, Egypt in the scriptures is a type of the world, it's
a type of the world, and it's a type of religion by works,
false religion, works religion. So we can remember that. But
why do they need to spend 400 years in Egypt? Well, the first thing
that came to my mind when I asked this question to myself is this,
because God said so. Turn over to Genesis chapter
15. This is God's purpose. God has
purposed this. Just as God has purposed us to
stay a certain amount of time in this world. We have an allotted
amount of time to live in this world, and when that time is
up, He'll take us home. He'll take us out of it. In Genesis
15, let me see, what verse here? And look in verse 12. Well, verse
13. And He, God said unto Abram,
Know of a surety, this is after He had given him a promise of
the seed, But know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they
shall afflict them four hundred years." God said so. God said, your seed is going
to be there four hundred years. Now this was given many years
before it happened. And also, that nation whom they
shall serve, I will judge. And afterward shall they come
out with great substance." I wish I could just spend the time,
and I thought about doing it, I wish I could spend the time
on that verse right there. The great substance that you
and I are going to come out with when we leave this world into
glory. that is under such bondage. They're
my people now. This is God's people. You would
look at Israel and you'd say, that cannot be God's people.
Surely to goodness they wouldn't let it go that long or be put
under that severe of trial. Yes, that's God's people. And
when I'm done with it, and when I'm done with them, they are
going to come out of this place with great substance. You and
I are coming out with such spiritual blessings that we cannot even
begin to grasp it. We are coming out of here with
grave substance. But let's go back. First of all, as I said, God
said so. Listen. In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. That's what it says in Genesis,
isn't it? Here in Exodus, God is creating a people. God is
creating the people. He says, this people have I created
for myself. They shall show forth my praise.
In Genesis, He creates the world. Here, He's going to create a
people. He's going to create a nation that's going to serve Him. And
we know that they are a type, a picture of the true Israel
of God, the spiritual Israel that He is creating now, that
He's putting together now, bringing together now is what He's doing. And then secondly, He left them
there for 400 years to prepare them for the promised land. That's
what's going on right now. God is preparing His church for
the promised land. Paradise. Nothing will make you
appreciate good times like bad times. Nothing will. Nothing will make you appreciate
freedom like bondage. Knowing what it's all about. Nothing will make you appreciate
the good news until you hear the bad news. It was Scott Richardson
that said, I haven't heard any bad news since I heard the good
news. But he had to hear the bad news
first, and then you hear the good news. And then thirdly,
God, now listen, God is going to bring judgment on the Amorites. I never caught this before. I
want you to turn back over here to Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, look in verse
16. But in the fourth generation,
they shall come hither again. That is, the children of Israel
are going to come back into the land of Canaan. For the iniquity
of the Amorites is not yet full. It's not yet full. The Amorites are the descendants,
or they live in the land of Canaan. They're descendants of Cain.
Cain is the son of Ham. Ham is the son of Noah that Noah
cursed. But God says, they've not yet
filled up or reached the bounds of iniquity of which I'm going
to judge them for. And here's the point. God did
not drive out a people from that land that didn't deserve it. Do you see what I'm saying? He
said the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. There's a point
there where God is longsuffering. For 400 years He's longsuffering
with the Amorites. The Amorites were a very barbaric
people. They were very warlike people.
And God was longsuffering with them. But it's like the sea,
he says, hither shalt thou come and no further. God has set a
bound to their iniquity. And He did not run them out of
the land and give it to Israel. But they deserve it, is what
I'm trying to say. They deserve what they got. They deserve the
judgment that God brought on them. Let me show you a scripture
here. It goes over in Matthew 23. Matthew 23 and verse 31, wherefore ye be
witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which
killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of
your fathers. Then look over in 1 Thessalonians. God is longsuffering. He gives,
I mean, He gives men space. But there is a time when he cuts
it off. In 1 Thessalonians 2, look in verse 16. Forbidding
us to speak to the Gentiles that
they might be saved, to fill up their sins always, for the
wrath is come upon them to the uttermost, but to fill it up.
That's why He said, you know, the time of the Amorites, they
have not yet filled up their sins. There's a time for it. And there's a time God has drawn
a line that says they're not going to come past this. And
when they do, God's going to bring judgment on them. And when
He brings judgment on them, He's going to bring Israel in to take
over. They're going to inherit the land. So while the Amorites
are filling up their sins, God is preparing a people to take
over the Promised Land. Nothing is just out here willy-nilly
going on. God is absolutely working every
minute detail to fulfill His purpose every day. Every day. Everything and everyone
is fulfilling God's will and God's purpose. And we can be
sure of this, what the Lord does is right. The judge of the earth will do
right. He'll do right. He's not going
to just run a people off that don't deserve it. They deserve
it. They deserve it. And then the second thing we
see here in Exodus chapter one is that the world hates God's
people. They hate God's people, his people.
We should not think it's strange. Our Lord said, don't think it's
strange when the world hates you. It hated me before it hated
you. Don't think it's strange that the world hates us. In fact,
I'm telling you, I tell you this, I find it troubling. This is
something that's been troubling me for a while. I find it troubling
that we're not more troubled by the world. I find it troubling
to me. And I've talked to some pastor
about this not too long ago. I told him, I said, I find it
troubling that I'm not troubled by the world more At all, really. I mean, the world's not in, not
really troubling us. I said, there's just something
wrong. Something wrong. The early church was, the early
church was just, they ran out of town. The apostles. Look what happened to them. They
were martyred. We have it now, really. Don't we have it so easy?
We have it so easy. But the world hates God's people. There arose, he says in verse
8, now listen, here's the cause of the hatred here. We're going
to see the enmity come out. There arose up a new king over
Egypt. Stephen said over in the book
of Acts, another king, that means of another kind, which knew not
Joseph. Now this king, He knew Joseph. You could not be in Egypt and
not know who Joseph was. Joseph may have died before this
one came along, but I'm sure Joseph's name was known far and
wide. And he was not that far removed
from this king. He knew who Joseph was. Here's what it means. He loved not Joseph. That's what it means. It doesn't
mean he didn't know, he didn't have knowledge of Joseph. He
knew about all that Joseph did and all that they possessed at
that time was because of Joseph's wisdom and he was the one running
everything. He loved not Joseph, nor did
he love Joseph's brethren. He did not love the Israelites. He had no love for them, none
whatsoever. Just as Satan loves not Christ
or his people. Satan is behind this. You see,
this king gets all stirred up and he starts sitting around.
Nothing's going on. I mean, there's nothing for him
to worry about. Everything's going smooth. But he's sitting around
and he's thinking, hmm, these people are multiplying. They're
really doing well. He says, we've got to do something
about this. We're going to have to do something about this. Satan is behind this. The enmity
against God's people is now going to come out. It's going to come
out. Why did this new king start a
conspiracy against God's people? First of all, because of the
enmity that God said would be between the woman seed and the
serpent seed. Now you're going to see it come
out. You're going to see it come out here all through Exodus.
The enmity is still there. The enmity exists. The world
hates God's people, and it always will. Here's the difference. God had restrained it. God had restrained it. His purpose was to bring Joseph
into Egypt, make him the ruler. He gave him favor with Pharaoh. He blessed the land and Joseph
had the wisdom to keep all the corn and do what he did. And
then he brought his family in and saved most people alive.
But it was God's purpose to bring them into bondage. To put them
into bondage. And so this king turns on Joseph's
people, Israel. God pulls back his hand of restraint.
If God took away his hand of restraint, we wouldn't be meeting
here. You'd have to meet in secret.
If he took his hand of restraint away and let Satan loose. Here's the second reason. Envy.
Envy. The same reason the Jews delivered
Christ up to be crucified. Envy. They were blessed. They were fruitful. They multiplied. And the king was envious of them.
Envious of them. And then thirdly, God did it
to fulfill His purpose. God did it to fulfill His purpose. I want you to turn to Psalm 105. This psalm is all about Israel
in Egypt and being brought out of Egypt. I'll show you what I found out
here today. The king turned on them because of enmity. God withdrew His hand back and
He let that enmity start to show. Satan was out of envy. Look in
Psalm 105. He, God, turned their heart to
Hades' people. Who did? God did. To deal subtly with His servants. Here is the absolute sovereignty
of God. If someone turns on me and hates
me and causes me trouble, I know who the cause is. I know there's
a purpose in it. I know there's a purpose in it.
God has a purpose in it. And He says here, God turned
their heart. God turned the heart of the Egyptians
to hate His people. God did that. Because God is
going to bring a people out of that nation, out of that place.
And they are going to be His people. And He's going to separate
them from the world. He's going to bring them out.
And I tell you what, sometimes bringing His people out is tough. It's tough. Sometimes it's tough. God did it. He turned their hearts
against His own people. He took away the restraints.
That's what He did. He took away the restraints.
But now, you know why? You know why? Israel had began to worship their
gods. Israel got so comfortable in
those 30 years that they fell right into the worship of all
these false gods. That's what they were doing.
And if God had left them there... See, we have to trust the wisdom
of God. If something's going wrong or
somebody turns on... God's wisdom is at work here.
We have to trust the wisdom of God because, listen, Israel was
worshiping idols. They worshipped idols. And if
He had left them alone, they would have gone completely into
idolatry. Completely. Now, let me back
this up. Turn over to Joshua. Joshua chapter 24. Joshua 24,
look in verse 14. Now therefore, fear the Lord,
and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods
which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and
in Egypt, and serve the Lord." He says, your fathers served
other gods in Egypt. When they went down to Egypt,
they fell in with them in worship. They fell in with them in idolatry.
Look over in Ezekiel chapter 20. Ezekiel 20, look in verse 5. And saying unto them, Thus saith
the Lord God, in the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up
mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself
known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine
hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God, in the day
that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of
the land of Egypt into a land that I had aspired for them,
flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all the
lands, Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abomination
of his eyes, and defile not yourself with the idols of Egypt. I am
the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me
and would not hearken unto me. They did not every man cast away
the abomination of their eyes, neither did they forsake the
idols of Egypt." They fell right into it. This is why God turned
the Egyptians to hate Israel. He had to turn them. He had to
turn them. They fell in with them. And then thirdly here, we see
how that through afflictions, God's people grow spiritually. And this is how the church grows. She grows through affliction.
Not through the sunshine and the good times. That's not how
she grows. Not spiritually. Not spiritually. She grows through afflictions.
Listen here, let me go back to Exodus here. In verse 12, listen. But the more they afflicted them,
what happened? The more they multiplied. Have
you ever stepped on a spider? A pregnant spider? Have you ever
done it? I have. Growing up on a farm,
you're about, you know, you're going to do that sooner or later.
You can step on one and hundreds, hundreds of little spiders just
go poof. They just go everywhere. Hundreds of them. And this is
what happened. The more they afflicted the Israelites,
see, their purpose was to afflict them and to make them with work
with such rigor and such bondage that they would not reproduce.
They would be so, you know, work 12-hour days and go home and
are just shot. But they multiplied, it said,
more. They multiplied and grew and they were grieved because
the children of Israel, they kept multiplying. It grieved
them. This is how the church grows.
There is no spiritual growth without afflictions, without
trials. Wayne asked in his prayer to
give us more faith, increase our faith. Do you really want
that? I'm telling you the truth. Do
you really want that? It's not going to come easy.
It does not come easy. It will come through heartaches
and trials and testing That's how it's going to happen. That's
how spiritual growth happens. It happens through afflictions. Turn over to the book of Acts,
chapter 8. See if I got this right. Let
me read verse 1, chapter 8. And Saul was consenting unto
his death. And at that time there was a
great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea,
Samaria, except the apostles. Look over in verse 4. Well, let me go ahead and read
the rest of that. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial
and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc
of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and
women, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere. Preaching the Word. Preaching
the Word. That's how it got started. Look over in Acts chapter 12. Brethren, there is no such thing
as spiritual growth, increase of faith, without this. Not at
all. Look in verse 1 and 2. Now about that time, Herod the
king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church,
and he killed James the brother of John with a sword. And he
saw it pleased the Jews, so he proceeded further to take Peter
also. Now, turn over to verse 24. But the Word of God grew and
multiplied. Trying to stamp it out. And all
you ended up with was with more. With more. That's how it happens. I want you to notice here that
in verse 18 and 19, back in Exodus chapter 1, And the king of Egypt called
for the midwives. And he said to them, why have
you done this thing and saved the men and children of their
lives? And the midwife said to Pharaoh,
and I really don't think they're lying. And her son said, well,
they're probably just stretching it. I really don't think they're
stretching it. They say to Pharaoh, because
the Hebrew women, and this comes through their rigor, the strain,
the work, They tough women. They were tough
women. And because of this, because
the Hebrew women, through all these afflictions and trials
and things, are not as Egyptian women, for they are lively. They're
healthy. They're healthy. They're strong. See what I'm saying? They're
strong women. And they are delivered heir of the midwife. They don't
even wait on us. They don't even call for us. They give birth before we can
even show up. They're not like these Egyptian
women. I tell you what now, spiritual
growth and strength comes through afflictions. Comes through the
afflictions. If you're going to grow a garden,
if you want a really nice garden, and grow tomatoes and potatoes
and corn. What do you have to do with that
garden? You have to put a plow to it. You have to sink a plow
down into it and bust the ground. You've got to break the ground
up before you can plant it. And before we can grow in grace,
in faith, in knowledge, Some ground has to be broken up every
time. Every time. I think it's a good
sign. I do. I think it's a good sign
that the Lord is about to bless when He sends trials and heartaches. There's a blessing behind it.
There's a blessing coming with it. God is going to bring a great
nation out of Egypt. But before he does this, they
are going to have to go through the furnace of affliction. God's
going to bring a great nation out of this world. One nation under God. He's going to bring a people
out of this world that's going to worship Him. But they're going
to come out of this world through affliction. Look over in Isaiah
48. God says in Isaiah 48 verse 9,
For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise
will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I
have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in
the furnace of affliction. Yes, we're chosen in Christ.
We've been blessed in Christ. But on our way there, we are
going to go through these afflictions. He's going to refine us. He's
going to burn off the dross. He's going to teach us who we
are, who He is, and our great need of Christ. That's what He's
going to do. Egypt, as I said, represents
the world, and God's going to bring a great nation out of that
place just as He's going to bring a great nation of believers out
of this one, but not without afflictions. Then we also see here how God blesses them that fear
Him. Look in verses 15. And the king of Egypt spake to
the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Sifra,
and the name of the other Pua. And there are more than just
two. Israel right now at this time
is said to be over 2 million people. Somewhere between 2 and
3 million people. This is what I've been reading. So those two midwives could not
handle that many women. But these were two prominent
women. And these two women feared God.
And they were examples. Now listen. They were examples
to those younger midwives. Just as you ladies who are older
in the Lord, you're examples to the younger ones. That's what
Paul says, be examples to them, teach them, instruct them. And
these two ladies did not fear Pharaoh. They didn't fear his threats
to kill them if they didn't do it. They knew that could happen.
They knew that they could die if they did this. They feared
God. They feared God. And he said, when you do the
office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools,
if it be a son, then you shall kill him. See, it won't look
like he did it. It'll look like something happened
at birth. See how devious? It'll look like
something happened at birth. But if it's a daughter, then
she shall live. But the midwives feared God. They feared God. The Scripture says the beginning
of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. They were wise, don't you think?
They were wise. They feared God. And God honored
them to honor Him. And whenever God's law, listen,
whenever God's law comes in conflict with man's law, what are we going
to do? We're going to do God's law. I'm going to do what he says.
What he says. And God blessed them. He says
here, Therefore God dealt well, in verse 20, God dealt well with
the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because
the midwives feared God, He made them houses. He made their families
to grow. God blessed their families, because
they feared God. I just wonder how many generations
that were blessed that these women produced. They had their
children and their children and their children. I wonder how
many generations were blessed because they feared God. Because Sitra
and Pua feared God. That would be interesting to
check, wouldn't it? But God is not unrighteous to forget any
kind of act Any kind of kindness, act of kindness toward his people,
I mean the slightest, he recognizes it. I saw something here reading
Ezekiel, and I never caught, until I was studying this, I
never put it together. Over in Ezekiel 29. Look in verse 18. Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king
of Babylon, calls his army to serve a great service against
Tyrus. Every head was made bald and
every shoulder was peeled. Yet had he no wages, nor his
army for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against him. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, and he shall take her multitude, and take
her spoil, and take her prey, and it shall be the wages for
his army." He said, I'm going to recompense him for what he
did. He served God in this situation.
Well, he didn't know it, but he did. God wouldn't even let
that heathen king serve him without a recompense. Listen, I have
given him the land of Egypt for his labor wherewith he served
against it because they wrought for me, said the Lord God. He didn't even let that heathen
king go without being paid for his services. I never realized
that. Never realized it. And then last of all, we see
How that God, in this chapter, this is kind of the chapter that's
kind of laying the foundation here for what's about to happen.
We see how that God controls, absolutely controls, and he makes
all things work together for the good of his people. All that rigor they were going
through. You know, they just, I'm sure there was 400 years.
Many of them died. But God had a purpose. He's going
to bring a people out of Egypt. That's going to serve Him. He's
going to be their God and they're going to be His people. And they
represent the spiritual Israel. God is bringing a people out
of this world. A nation out of this world. And they're going to come out
with great substance. Great substance. And we are going
to serve God We're going to worship God perfectly. Completely. Never to end. Never to end. He has a purpose in our afflictions,
doesn't He? God has a purpose in our afflictions.
We don't see it at the time. I know we don't. But He has a
purpose in it. And if He didn't afflict us,
if He didn't try us, if He didn't do these things, we would fall,
I'm telling you, we would fall right in with idle worship. And
this service would become so deadly, the Lord would not be
worshipped here. Not if He didn't keep us. If
He didn't keep us and prune us and work us. I'm sure glad He
does. All right, Mike.