Would you turn with me to Exodus
chapter one? I find it. I don't know what to say. That was a blessing, Joe, and
to think of people holding me up in prayer, I don't know of
anything that is more encouraging or humbling to me than that.
And that was a blessing. Exodus chapter one. beginning
in verse 8. Now there arose up a new king
over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he
said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of
Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal
wisely with them, lest they multiply And it comes to pass that when
there falls out any war, they join also our enemies and fight
against us and so get them up out of the land. Therefore, they
did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure
cities, Python and Ramses. But. The more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew. Now these wise dealings
with them had the opposite effect. The more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew. So the king comes up with
a new plan. Look in verse 15. And the king of Egypt spake to
the Hebrew midwives of which the name of the one was Shipra
and the name of the other Pua. And he said, when you do the
office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and seat them upon the
stools, if it be a son, then you shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then
she shall live. Now the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh,
comes up with a barbarous, wicked, and a cruel plan. He wanted to
kill all the men and children of the children of Israel. Now
that's intense if you think about it. I mean, somebody comes out
of the womb and the first thing you do is kill them. Put them
to death. That's so cruel and that's so
wicked. And there were two motives. behind this plan. It was the
men they feared. They feared that the men could
grow up and hurt them. Therefore, if we kill them, we
get rid of the problem. The women can't hurt us. And
if we get rid of the men and intermarry with the women, the
race of the Hebrews will be swallowed up. They'll be lost in our culture.
We'll water them down, get rid of their race, and we'll have
nothing to fear. So what we need to do is kill
the men. So they go to these two Hebrew
midwives. I don't, it's hard for me to
imagine that there were only two with, most people say at
least two, three million people. So I imagine they were just the
top dog midwives. Maybe they controlled all the
rest of them, but their names were Shipra and Pua. That's what I entitled this message,
Shipra and Pua, and their names actually mean splendid and brilliancy. Splendid and brilliancy, and
there's great typical significance to their names and their conduct. So the king gives these two women
this command, kill the men children, verse 17, but the midwives feared
God, and did not, as the king of Egypt commanded them, but
save the men child alive, the fear of God will make you more
afraid of him than you are of men. They feared God. And because of the fear of God,
they would not obey this commandment. They saved the men children alive. Verse 18, And the king of Egypt
called for the midwives and said unto them, Why have you done
this thing? and saved the men child alive, men children alive. And the midwife said unto Pharaoh,
they did what we normally do, and we're backed up against a
wall, and we don't know what to do, and we're in trouble,
and I think they might have stretched the truth here. I don't think
they necessarily told the truth. How many times have you been
put in a position where you're getting ready to get in trouble
and it just comes out and you don't tell the truth? That's
not justifying it. It's not saying it's okay, but
what they said was actually kind of humorous. The midwife said
unto Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian
women. Now the Egyptian women are kind of wusses when it comes
to having babies. I mean, they just put up a big,
listen to me talking about that as if I know anything about it,
but at any rate, The Egyptian women, they don't deal with it
very well. The Hebrew women are lively and
are delivered ere the midwives come unto them. They're filled
with life and vigor and so on that they just have the babies
and get back to work before we can even get to them. Now, maybe
that might have even happened with some of them, but I think
it still was kind of stretching the truth. But I'm not going
to get too hard on them. It's not right. But how many
times have you done that when your back is against the wall?
You do that? No, no. That's what they were
doing at this time. But look at verse 20. Therefore,
God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and
waxed very mighty. And it came to pass because the
midwives feared God. That he made them houses. And
Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, he circumvents the midwives,
he goes to everybody, every son that's born, you shall cast into
the river, and every daughter you shall save alive. Now, you
probably noticed two times in this passage of scripture, it
was said that these very special women feared the Lord. And it had an effect on them.
Because of their fear of the Lord, they would not obey the
king's command. And we also read, because of
their fear of the Lord, that the Lord made them houses. They were greatly blessed by
God. Now, probably nothing describes
the life of faith better than this phrase, the fear of God. The fear of God. Now, this fear of God that these
women possess, that every believer possesses and that no unbeliever
possesses. This is not a slavish fear, the
fear of mistrust and the fear of unbelief. A lot of folks have
that. They don't trust the Lord. Therefore, they fear what He's
going to do. He's going to get me. He's looking for me. He's going to
get me. He's going to do something to me. He's going to punish me. He's
going to mess up my plans. That kind of fear is not the
fear the scripture is talking about. That's the fear of mistrust
and unbelief. There's nothing holy about that
fear. But the fear we're talking about
here is that reverential fear and awe of God. The fear of God is a product
of knowing God. If you know Him, you will. Fear Him. And this is the fear
of reverence and respect and in awe of His person. If you fear Him, you'll fear
Him more than you fear any man. And these women, at great cost
to their lives, they didn't know what was going to happen to them,
but they were afraid to keep the King's command and kill these
Hebrew children because they were afraid of God. The fear
of the Lord. You know, it's the fear of the
Lord that makes an individual afraid of sin. Now, I'm scared
of sin, aren't you? I'm afraid of sin. And the reason
I'm afraid of sin is because I'm afraid of the Lord. Scared
of him. Should be. Should be. He's God. He's holy. He's altogether
glorious. If he says it's wrong, it's wrong. That's... Don't need any other
reason. The fear of God makes a man afraid
of sin. The fear of God makes an individual scared to death
to look anywhere but Christ and Christ alone. Now, are you afraid
to look anywhere but Christ? See what I am. I don't want to
have anything to do with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. I simply want to be found in
Him. I don't want God to judge me
based upon the best sermon I've ever preached, the best prayer
I've ever prayed, the best anything, because the best anything is
no good. I know who God is. My only hope is that I might
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, that His righteousness might
cover me in all that God sees as Christ. And I'm afraid for
it to be any other way, aren't you? The fear of God. I want to read you some scriptures
regarding the fear of God. Proverbs 1, 7 says, The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the starting
point. It's where it begins. If we don't
start here, we're not going to end up in the right place. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Listen to this scripture
from Jeremiah, chapter 32, verse 40. God says, I will not turn
away from them to do them good, but I will listen to this. I
will put my fear in their hearts. that they shall not depart from
me." Now, the fear of God is just like every other grace.
It's the gift of God. It's not in the natural man. If you have
the fear of God, do you know why you have the fear of God?
It's because God put it in your heart. If you have faith, do
you know why you have faith? It's because He gave it to you.
If you have repentance, do you know why you repent? It's because
He granted you that repentance. If you love God, do you know
why you love Him? He gave you that love. Same thing with the
fear of God. If you have the fear of God in
your heart, it's because He placed it there Proverbs chapter 16,
verse 6 says, by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Proverbs 19 or Psalm 19, 9 says
the fear of the Lord is clean. It's clean. Enduring forever. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 26
says in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. Strong
confidence. You can't fear the Lord and not
have strong confidence in Him. We have confidence in Him. Proverbs
22 verse 4, By humility and the fear of the Lord. And these two
things always go together. Where there's the fear of the
Lord, you know what else there is? There's a genuine humility.
Humility before God. By humility and the fear of the
Lord is riches and honor and life. Ecclesiastes chapter 12
verse 13 says, Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. That's a big statement, isn't
it? This is the whole duty of man. So these midwives feared
God and did not, as the king commanded, that they save the
men and children alive. Would you hold your finger there
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 10. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus. We read in verse 28. Fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather, fear him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now that's the one to fear. He
says don't fear that man that can kill your body and that's
all he can do. You fear God. Now what was the
king's command that the fear of God kept them from keeping?
No doubt at risk to their own lives. Well it was killing the
male children. And you think of how barbarous
and cruel this is. I mean, as soon as they had a
baby, if it was a male, kill it, throw it in a river. That
is so barbarous and cruel. And these women refused to do
this. And they did so at great risk. I mean, it could have been,
it would have cost them their lives for them not doing this.
And I've already said what the motive behind this was. It is
the men and children that could end up killing us. Therefore,
let's kill them first. And that way we won't have to
worry about it. That was their first motive. If we can get rid
of them, we don't have to worry about them attacking us. And
we can also cause the race of the Hebrews to be swallowed up
in our culture. We'll kill the men, we'll intermarry
with their wives, and there won't be such thing as the Hebrews
anymore. They'll all be engrossed and engulfed and swallowed up
in our culture, and we won't have to deal with the Hebrew
race. There is nothing to fear. Now, it's important for us to
remember, Egypt, the great typical significance to Egypt. Egypt
represents bondage. Remember how they gave them taskmasters
and they made them work so hard and they were out working in
the field and they were the ones who built the pyramids. I mean,
what a miserable life they had. They lived under such bondage,
living under the hand of Pharaoh. And what does this bondage represent?
Bondage represents salvation by works. It really is that simple. Now what do I mean by salvation
by words? Salvation by words is salvation in some way dependent
on what you do. If salvation is in any way dependent,
I mean in any way to any degree, If your salvation, if your acceptance
before God is in any way dependent upon what you do, you believe
in salvation by works. And listen to me, that is bondage. Let me tell you why it's bondage. You're put in prison because
of your sin, so to speak. And if you've got to work your
way out, you're going to stay in prison. You can't get out. The bondage remains. It never
leaves. Salvation by works can't save
anybody. It's a miserable existence. When
have you done enough? When have you done anything that
can actually please God and merit His favor? It can't be done.
It's bondage. It's salvation by works. That's
what Egypt represents. Salvation by works. Revelation 11.8. Let me turn,
I want you to see this. I quoted this the last couple
of weeks, but I've never turned to it. I just want you to see
this for yourself. This is talking about the killing
of the two witnesses. Verse seven. And when they shall
have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended up out
of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome
them and kill them. And their dead body shall lie
in the street of the great city, talking about Jerusalem, which
spiritually is called Sodom and. What? Egypt, where also our Lord
was crucified, so we see that there's typical significance
from the New Testament of this thing of Egypt, it's spiritually
called Sodom and Egypt. Now, Egypt represents bondage,
salvation by works. Man's religion, salvation by
works, wants to kill what kills it. Now, what is the one thing
that will kill salvation by works? You can answer that question,
can't you? What is the one thing that kills salvation by works?
Salvation by grace. Salvation by the free and complete
favor of God. That kills works every time. Therefore, man's religion wants
to kill what will kill it. They want to kill what will kill
it. What does the Bible mean by grace?
Now, I said salvation by grace. Salvation by grace always kills
salvation by works. What does the Bible mean by grace?
Well, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. There are
a whole lot of good definitions in the Bible of grace, but none
are any better than this one. Ephesians chapter 2. Beginning in verse 1. And you
hath he quickened who were. What's that next word? Dead in
trespasses and sins. What can a dead man do? The only
thing I know of that a dead man can do is stink. That's it. Where in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, we were just like everybody else,
but God, who is rich in mercy, For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ." Here's what I mean by this. By grace,
you are saved. Look down in verse 8. For by
grace, you are saved. Through faith, in fact, not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any mention
boast. Salvation by grace is saving
grace. Grace is not, listen to me, grace
is not an offer. Grace is not God making an offer.
If you just accept this, I'll save you by my grace. It's not
an offer. God's grace is saving grace. He saves everybody he intends
to save. That's what God's grace is. It's
saving grace. It doesn't make salvation available. It doesn't
make you have the potential to be saved. Grace actually saves. By grace, ye are saved. Now, what's it take for grace
to be saving grace? Well, if we're dead in sins,
What can a dead man do? Dead. I'm not talking about every
bone broken. There's still hope that a guy
might live if every bone in his body is broken. But I'm talking
about dead, unable to perform the functions of life. What can
a dead man do to save himself? Absolutely nothing. The only
way he can be saved is by grace. So for grace to be saving grace,
first it's got to be electing grace. It's got to choose me because
I can't choose it. I'm dead. I can't choose to be
saved. I'm dead in sins. And that's
a horrible state to be in. So God's going to first have
to choose me or I'll never choose Him. For grace to be saved, it's
got to be electing grace, that grace that chooses us before
time again. It's got to be, secondly, justifying grace. I'm guilty. God's holy. God can't accept
me the way I am. I'm going to have to be justified. That means made not guilty. Being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. Thirdly, grace has got to be redeeming grace.
It's actually got to make a payment for my sin. I don't have anything
to pay. It's got to make payment for
me. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. God's grace. Fourthly, it's got
to be regenerating grace or life-giving grace. You know, the Lord said
you must be born again. Now, can you give yourself life? Does a baby decide to be born?
Of course not. It can't do it. God's got to
give life. And in the new birth, God's got
to give life. He's got to say, live or I won't
live. It must be regenerating grace. It must be keeping and
preserving grace. I can't keep myself. That's the
only grace that will save me. It's the grace that will cause
me to persevere all the way to the end. and a grace that will
make me just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Glorifying grace. Now that's grace, isn't it? That's
saving grace, electing grace, justifying grace, redeeming grace,
regenerating grace, preserving grace, glorifying grace. By grace ye are saved. I love
that kind of grace, don't you? Saving grace. Now, that is what
kills salvation by works. If that is not preached, grace
is not preached. If that is not believed, grace
is not believed. Now, grace completely excludes
man's works. If you preach grace as the Bible
does, man's work will say kill it before it kills us. Kill it. That's what they were and they
wanted to kill their competition. Now, works will spare the women
if you say, if you don't believe this, you'll still be OK. That
Egypt will tolerate if you're not there. They won't kill that. But when grace is preached in
its onlyness, this is the only message. All other messages are
wrong. Oh, that's so black and white.
Yeah, here it is. It is. All other messages are
wrong. Grace is the only message, and
that's when Egypt will seek to kill it. Now, this is also Egypt's
attempt to cause the Hebrews to be swallowed up in their culture,
and this represents Egypt's attempt to water down the gospel. Water
it down. Water it down. Don't make it
so stark. Water it down. You can leave part of this out.
Water it down. Make it more palatable to the
flesh. Make it so people will accept it in an easier way. Don't
be so stark with it. Water it down. A watered down
gospel doesn't save anybody. Egypt, salvation by works, hates
grace and will seek to kill it. But the midwives, splendid in
brilliancy. That's their name. Isn't that
a glorious name for these two dear ladies? They would not obey
the king's command. Verse 18, back to our text in
Exodus 1. The king of Egypt called for
the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing
and have saved the men and children alive? This is funny. The midwives said unto Pharaoh,
because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for
they are lively and are deliberate, the midwives come unto them. Therefore, verse 20, God dealt
well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very
mighty. God dealt well with them. That means He favored them. He accepted them. He blessed
them. Grace does not come to anybody. Remember, God's favor is God's
grace. Same word, favor and grace. God's grace does not come to
anybody because of their obedience and their fear. If that were the case, salvation
would be by works, wouldn't it? Now, let me repeat that. God's
favor toward these women does not come to them because of their
obedience and their fear. Their obedience and fear came
to them because of God's favor toward them. because God had
done something for them. Where there is grace, there is
always obedience to God's word, and there is always the fear
of God, the reverence, the awe, the respect of God. Would you
turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 12? Matthew 12. Verse 33. Either make the tree good and
its fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit
corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit. The tree is known. Now if you see a tree that's
not bearing any fruit, you might not be very sure of what it is. You can't make a real positive
identification of it. But if all of a sudden apples
start coming out on that tree, you know what it is, don't you?
It's an apple tree. Or if it bears cherries, it's
a cherry tree. If it bears pears, it's a pear
tree. A tree is known by its fruit. A tree is always known. by his fruit. Now, how can you
tell if a man's a believer or not? By their fruit. The tree is known
by its fruit. He believes. He loves. He obeys. He denies himself. He takes up his cross and he
follows the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't do what man's religion
tells him and commands him to do. He follows Christ by their
fruits. You should know that. By their
fruits. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter 7. You're there, Matthew. Look at Matthew chapter
7. Verse 15. Now our Lord says,
Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they're hungry wolves. Look what our Lord says. You
shall know them by their fruits. He doesn't say you're not going
to know them. He says you shall know them by their fruits. And by fruits, he means by their
doctrine, by their lives, and by their
converts. You shall know them by their
fruit, by their doctrine, by their lives, and by their converts. He says, do men gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore,
by their fruits, he repeats himself, by their fruits you shall know
them. Now somebody says, you can't
see into somebody's heart. You don't have to. It's true. You can't see into my heart.
I'm glad you can't. I'm glad you can't. And I can't
see into your heart. I'm sure you're glad I can't
also. But you know what? You don't need to see into somebody's
heart. You can see the fruit. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. Now, these women's outward conduct
tells us what was in their hearts, the fear of God. How do you know
they fear God? Because they wouldn't obey the
King's commandment. That's why. I know that these women truly
had the fear of God. They wouldn't go with Egypt's
religion. They wouldn't go with the King's commandment. They
feared God. They saved the men, children,
alive. And this is what ended up leading
to the deliverance of Israel in saving the men, children,
alive. You know who was saved? A fellow by the name of Moses. Moses is the one who, humanly
speaking, the Lord used to brought them out from under Egyptian
bondage. They feared God. And back to
our text. Exodus 1. Verse 21. And it came to pass. Because
the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. Now, evidently, these women didn't
have any kids. And that was the greatest reproach
on an Israelite woman. That's the way they felt. And
he made them houses. Oh, the benefits of fearing God,
the fear of God is to your advantage and how the Lord blessed them.
He made them houses and the word made. He made them houses. It's
the exact same Hebrew word that's used. When the Lord said, let
us make man in our own image. It's the same word where God
made the two great lights, when God made the firmament and so
on. It's a powerful word when God
makes something. He made them houses and what
a house he made them. This is the house that everybody
who fears God has made for them. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. This is what we're going to close with. Now, do you fear God? These ladies
did. Do you fear God? Well, if you
do, I know this. You're afraid of sin. You're
afraid of yourself. You're afraid of your own sinfulness.
You're afraid to look anywhere but Christ. You look to Him only
and you're scared. Now, that's an evidence of truly
the fear of God. Now, do you fear of God? He put
that fear in your heart. It wasn't there naturally. The
natural man doesn't have any fear of God. He put that fear in your
heart. And He's made you a house. This is what is so glorious about
the Lord. You know, He gives you something. He gives you this
fear. He gives it to you. It's a gift
of His grace. And He rewards you as if you did it all by yourself.
Isn't that glorious the way the Lord is? He gives you faith,
and He rewards you as if it came from you. That's how glorious
He is. He's so gracious. He gave this
woman this fear, and then He made them houses. And oh, what
our house is made of. Look here in 1 Corinthians 1. Let's begin reading in verse
26, because that sets up verse 30 I want to read. He says, For
you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to
confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of
the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea,
and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that
are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." That's one
thing God will not permit. There's not going to be flesh
glorying before Him. He's God. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. Now here's what the house God
makes us is made of. He is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now here's what
my house is made of. And this is the house every believer
has. Remember when the Lord said, let not your heart be troubled?
You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are
many dwelling places, many mansions, many houses. If it were not so,
I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for
you. And He was going to the cross
to prepare this place for us. This is not talking about Him
going back up to heaven and starting a new building project. No. He went
to the cross to prepare these glorious houses for us. And here's
what they're made of. They're made of the very wisdom
of God. Christ is my wisdom before God. I'm fit. And the only way
I know this is by faith. I believe this by faith because
I can't get a hold of it any other way. I'm fit for fellowship
with God. The infinite, eternal God sees
me as fit for fellowship and communion. I have the very wisdom
of God because Jesus Christ is my wisdom. Every believer is
a truly wise man. You may give yourself approval,
but if you trust Christ, you are wise. God's given you special
wisdom. He's made unto us righteousness. I have the very righteousness
of God because the righteousness of Christ is my righteousness.
God made Him to be righteousness to me. That's what my house is
made of. Perfect righteousness. No cracks in this righteousness.
No cracks in the foundation. No holes in it. This is the perfect. This is where my confidence comes
from. I have such confidence. I mean, boldly I can come into
His presence. How do you manage that? Because
His righteousness. Oh, it's so wonderful. He's made
unto us sanctification. That word means holiness. My
house is made of holiness. He is my holiness before God. How holy is Jesus Christ? That's how holy I am. Because
His holiness is mine. He's made holiness to me. He's made my redemption. He's
made my sin payment. I have sufficient sin payment.
He is my sin payment. He made them houses. And what a wonderful house that
we have. You know, the fear of the Lord
is a wonderful thing, isn't it? You know, we pray for all kinds
of things. Lord, give me this, give me that.
Bless me this way and bless me that way. I think it might be
a wise thing for us to pray, Lord, unite my heart to fear
thy name. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with friendly. Let's pray together.