Tramper her son or brother so it's her family right that's what I called you impose
Jimbo yes Miss Kennedy? Okay. That's Trish Trapper's
family and Miss Kennedy. Put those on your prayer list.
We'll have them on our Sunday. An hour earlier. We get our worship service to
hymn number 52, Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned Upon My Savior's
Brow. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
upon the Savior's brow. His head with crown his lips
with grace or flow his lips with grace or flow no mortal can with
him compare among the sons of men Fairer is he than all the
fair who fill the heavenly train, who fill the heavenly train. He saw me plunged in deep distress
and flew to my relief. For me he bore the shameful cross
and carried all my grief, and carried all my grief. To him I owe my life and breath
and all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death,
and saves me from the grave, and saves me from the grave. Hymn number 212, Nothing But
the Blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow That
makes me white as snow. ? No other fount I know ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? Nothing can for sin atone ? Nothing but
the blood of Jesus ? Not of good that I have done ? Nothing but
the blood of Jesus Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white
as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
? This is all my righteousness ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
? Oh, precious is the flow ? That makes me white as snow ? No other
fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus. If you have your Bibles turn with me
please to Exodus the first chapter. Exodus chapter 1. I'm going to
read verses 8 through 14. The title of my message tonight
is Seen and Unseen. Verse 8 says, Now there arose
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 come to pass that when they
fall without any war, they join also with 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, Pithom and Ramesses. But the more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew, and they were grieved because
of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children
of Israel to serve with rigor. and they made their lives bitter
with hard bondage in mortar and in brick, and all the manner
of service in the field, all their service wherein they made
them serve was with rigor. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you for mercy and grace, for ruined and lost sinners who
are without hope and without help in this world, who have
nothing to offer you and can do nothing to appease you. We
know your wrath is kindled against all ungodliness. We are thankful
for that precious blood of Jesus Christ. That blood that took your wrath,
that body of death, that took all your wrath and
condemnation against sin and swallowed it up, that paid for our sin debts by
His mighty power, And through his shed blood we
have forgiveness of sin, and you have made him to be unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We thank you that you left nothing
to us, for we know in ourselves we could do nothing. But what
you required, you supplied, and we praise you for it. Pray for
those who are sick. These two have been added to
the prayer list. Lord, we ask you to be with them. Watch over
them. Pray for those others on the
prayer list that you would help them, Lord, and be a comfort
to them and strength to them. Pray for our shut-ins that you'd
watch over them, give them peace in Christ. Pray for ourselves
tonight. Fathers, we've gathered here
that you might be pleased to meet with us in the presence
of your Spirit to guide us into all truth and take the things
of Christ and reveal them unto us. we bless you for this book
for the glory of it for the words therein speak so gloriously of
our savior and what he has done and accomplished for us help
us lord to see him we'll catch a glimpse of him what a day it
would be help us now lord we pray in christ's name now one of the remarkable things
about the four hundred years of israel's sojourn in egypt
is that the lengthy time span is covered in a relatively small
amount of scriptural literature. The span from Joseph to Moses'
adulthood is allotted in three chapters in this book, and that
covers a long period of time. This makes it impossible to create
some kind of timeline, and it thus must be construed that when
a thing occurred, that the thing is more important than the time
it occurred. What we know is that the entire
generation of Joseph's time, we saw last time, both Hebrew
and Egyptian, had all died. The whole generation. Though
it is not clearly stated, it seems that a number of years
has passed between verse 7 and 8. The Hebrew tribes had so grown
in number that their multitude had drawn the concern of the
sitting government. So some time has passed from the time that
Joseph died and that generation died. Perhaps another generation
has passed. We don't know. But some time
has passed. The declaration that this new
king knew not Joseph should be viewed in light of the abundance
of the Israelites because that was connected to that. The king
probably wanted no one to remember the name of Joseph and especially
Ahai had been the salvation of that nation. It certainly would
be to his advantage to disallow that particular portion of history.
The Israelites probably, by this time, entirely engulfed the land
of Goshen. Before they came, they came with
just 70 folks, 70 men and their families. And now, in all probability,
the land of Goshen, every city is filled with Hebrews. They
were a prolific group. There's no doubt about that.
The men were strong and the women were strong and fertile. And
in verses 9 and 10, the king exercises political speak. And
this is what he's doing. He says this, And he said to
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 come to pass that when there
falleth out any war, they join also with our enemies and light
against us, and so get them out of the land. Now he's not talking
about get them out of land. What he's saying there is he
doesn't want them to get out of the land. He wants them to
stay in the land. But he don't want them to be
in a position where they can war against his people. But if
there's ever the bailiwick of the politician to employ apocalyptic
fear in order to set his agenda in order, may well be that this
narrative was a way to know not Joseph or never mention Joseph
by bringing his name into disfavor. At the very least, the New King
employed hyperbole to get his agenda underway. It is not possible
that the number of Hebrews had grown to the point that they
were a match for the mighty armies of Egypt. He said they're mightier
than we. That's not possible. However, if the idea can be planted
and nurtured by those who control the narrative, the intent and
design can be realized. He did not want to get rid of
the Hebrews. He did not want to get rid of them. Their presence
had been and was beneficial to the prosperity of that nation.
They had made them a lot of money. They had done well with their
herds and their cattle. They had done well. He wanted
to make sure that they were controlled so they would not be able to
leave. That was what he meant when he said, so get them out
of the land. He didn't want them to get out
of the land. Now he'll apply two tactics to do this. The first
is taxation. The first is taxation. And the
second is diminishing the male population or population control,
lest they multiply, was his words. And we'll look at the second
tactic next time we meet. The first is taxation. This is
the affliction. laid upon their burdens. Though
the word says that they built cities, the Hebrews were not
builders. They were never builders. They were herdsmen and nomads,
people who dwelt in tents, though they WERE given houses to live
in according to Genesis chapter 47 and verse 11. But even in
the future days of dire slavery, which we covered later on They
did not build anything. They slavishly manufactured the
building materials, the bricks out of clay. That was their job.
They didn't build anything. So when it says they built the
cities, the cities for these two cities, it was talking about
the fact that they probably supplied the money from their taxes to
build those two cities. The affliction and the burden
of the kingdom was disallowing them the fruit of their labors.
This was the idea. Have a workforce, don't get rid
of them, but subdue them to the point that the government gets
all the money and they do all the labor. That's the way it
works. The taxes garnered from them
built those cities. Now this is what the king called
dealing wisely. with the people, so they would
not multiply. His wise plan, however, did not
work. We read in verse 12, and even though he did all these
things to them, they still multiplied and grew into a great nation.
The king, displeased with his failure, added rigor, it says,
to the Hebrew burden. What does that mean? It means
that pain and punishment was the price Israel paid for the
king's failures. didn't produce like he thought
they should produce, he would beat them and strike them. More
rigorous burdens were laid upon the elect and beatings ensued
when the toll was not met. In fact, Moses got in trouble
and had to leave Egypt because he saw one of the Egyptians beating
up a Jewish man and he went and protected him, actually killed
him, actually killed the Egyptian man. And then it was found out,
he thought he did it and it was in secret, but the Jews found
out about it and they gave him a hard time. So he had to leave
because the bricks that they were making was not sufficient
for the king at the time and they were treated poorly. They
were beaten. They were now enslaved. This great nation was a slave
nation. More rigorous burdens were laid
upon them. There's a couple of true principles here. that are
set forth and it speaks out throughout the entire book of Exodus and
through the Bible all together and through the New Testament
also, but in different language. The first considered, we considered
the last time when at ease, whenever things at ease, there's no indication
that the Hebrews were calling on God. His name is not mentioned
during that time. Joseph is dead, the generation
dead, and the people are doing well. That's the way it's set
forth. in scripture the second is that in times of tribulation
and in times of sorrow in times that God comes to mind during
those times and you know and I know that that's true that's
just the case of humanity as we are human beings when things
are going well we don't we don't apply to God but we speak of
him we sing praises to his name but we don't do real business
with him do we? But let the trials come. Let
the sorrows come. Let the fears come. And we'd
start to do business with God. That's what it says over in verse
17. It says this, but the midwives
feared God. Now this was when the king said
we're going to kill all the baby boys. we'll get to that later,
but the midwives, they feared God. They wouldn't. So the principles
that were taking place now in the Hebrew among the Hebrew children
is they had God on their mind. God was now in the picture. You
want to mess up a king's plans, bring God into the picture. That'll
mess up anybody's plans is to bring God into the picture. But
we know from the Word of God that when people are in trouble,
when the Lord's people are in trouble, they call on God. And
we know also that many times He's the one that brings them
into trouble, so they will call on Him. So they will call on
Him. Look over at Psalm 107, just for a moment, Psalm 107.
Verse 5 and 6, He said this of the people, hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. When did they call? When they
were hungry. When they were hungry and thirsty. That's when they called upon
the Lord. Their soul fainted within them.
That's when they called. Look at verse 11. Because they
rebelled against the words of God and contemned the counsel
of the Most High, therefore He brought down their heart with
labor. They fell down and there was
none to help. Then they cried. When? then they
cried unto the lord in their trouble and he saved them out
of their distresses and brought them out of darkness and the
shadow of death and break their bands asunder then they look
at verse twelve excuse me verse uh... uh... nineteen says this
then uh... verse eighteen says their soul
abhor all manner of meat they don't even want to eat in such
a sad condition they draw near to the gates of death They cry
unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their
trouble. Verse 28, Then they cry unto
the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their
distresses. This is how it works. Unfortunately, we are such as
human beings, sinners saved by grace, we still operate in a
way that we really do business with God when we are in the times
of trial and tribulation and this is where God will ultimately
bring Israel and it has already started. This king is laying
heavy burdens on them. He is taxing them. He is taking
their money. He is using them as a slave labor
force. Now Paul said to the believers
in the book of Corinthians that they look not on things that
are seen but on things that are unseen. And as we read of this
account, the believer can see what the king CANNOT see. Now,
the king can see some things. He saw that the Israelites were
growing in multitude. The king's refusal to acknowledge
Joseph was also a refusal to acknowledge God. He sees this
group grow. He refused that he himself was
alive and thriving because his progenitors had been squarely
in the hands of the Savior. He's refused that. He won't believe
that. This is where he's at. They were
not eternally saved. They were temporally saved from
near death only to die later, but Jesus Christ is Lord over
all and all men are in his hands. What do men refuse? They refuse
to acknowledge Him as the sovereign Lord. So they come up with all
kinds of inventions to make Him not so. They give man a free
will and power of the will of decision to decide whether or
not Jesus Christ's work on Christ on the cross was actually effectual. because he tried, he wants to,
but he can't unless you let him. Now that makes you the king and
him not the king. He refused to acknowledge Joseph.
The Lordship over all, this Lordship over all is Christ's sovereign
right and Jesus Christ as Lord of all possesses all humanity
by sovereign right. The Lordship over all is exercised
in one way of the salvation of his elect and the employment
of all others for the good of the elect. This is what goes
on in this world today. There are folks out there who
are the enemies of the gospel, but they are used for you. Even the fallen angels, according
to Hebrews chapter 1, are ministers unto the people of God for their
salvation. Even the fallen angels are used
of God for the benefit of His people. The kings of the earth
refuse to acknowledge Christ's sovereignty. and thus think themselves
to be not accountable to him. They operate on what they see.
They see these, they see the, I mean people do that too. I
do it too. I look at what's going on in
the world and I'm perplexed and confused. I look and I see and
it bothers me. Just like this king looked and
saw the multitude of this people and it bothered him. He wanted
to do something about it. He wanted to control the situation.
This is the way men operate. Over in 2 Peter chapter 3, when it talks about the COMING
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, which was the PROMISE from the EARLY
DAYS. It was not something you croaks
talking about, a fellow talking about REVELATION BEING FULFILLED.
Listen, as far as the saints of old believe, they believed
Christ was going to come tomorrow. They didn't see some big gap
and seven years of tribulation and all this stuff. They believed
that he was imminently on the way. Read Colossians and Thessalonians. Read how the pastors and preachers
talked about this day. They believed it was right now.
It could happen any moment. That was the language. But men
don't believe that. Men don't believe that. And over
in 2 Peter chapter 3 it says, Knowing this first, in verse
3, that there shall come in the last days, and the last days
started with Christ's coming and will end when He comes again.
In the last days, scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying,
this is what they say, where's the promise of His coming? He
said He's coming. It's been 2,000 years. He ain't here yet. We
ain't seen Him. For since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of creation." Nothing's
changed. Everything's the same. Why are you looking for His coming? Nothing has changed in the last
year. We look back at history, men are doing all of the same
things over and over again. This is how they reject and refuse
the sovereignty of God. Peter goes on to say, well, you
think that your understanding of time somehow applies to God. He said a day is like a thousand
years to God, and a thousand years is like a day. If this
time is not essential to Him, essential to Him is the salvation
of His people. So the king of Egypt could not
see Joseph. He could not see Joseph's God,
but he saw the people of Israel. He could see that Israel was
multiplying, and he could not abide that. He could see that,
that's what he could see. His point of rebellion was born
of what he could see, and what he did not know was that which
he could not see was controlling even his rebellion against what
he could see. That was being controlled. The
Word says that the wrath of man shall praise God, and the rest
he will restrain. Isaiah said, Let the potsherds
strive with the potsherds of the earth. Woe unto him that
striveth against his Maker. This man, whether he knows it
or not, is striving against God. He doesn't want to know anything
about Joseph. He doesn't want to know anything about Joseph's
God. Now, generations before, it talked a lot about him. And
now, the Hebrews, maybe this had something to do with it,
too. Now, since they're in trouble, Maybe he's hearing rumors that
they're starting to talk about God again. And he don't want
to hear that. The king was merely operating
in proven tactics of political expediency. If you want to be
a king that runs a country, if you want to be a ruler that runs
a country and you don't want to have any opposition, what
you do is tax the people and burden them and take their money
and ultimately decrease their power by decreasing their population.
This is what, this is nothing new. We're hearing it today,
but it's nothing new. This is what the king did. He's
merely operating on a proven political expedient tactics. But he was just a pot sherd striving
against the pot sherds of his earth, rather than striving against
the pot sherds of his earth, he was striving against his maker.
He didn't know that. The issue with him was that Israel
was multiplying and the remedy was punishment. The punishment
was not to do away with Israel but to enslave Israel and incorporate
them in His plan. He was a tool in God's providential
workshop though. He was the instrumental means
to the end that God had ordained. Israel was multiplying and pain
and punishment and rigor served to multiply them even more so
His plan didn't work. His plan, based on what he saw,
seems to have the opposite effect of what was planned. Why? Because
his plan was part of another plan. His doing was part of another
plan, a greater plan. On a night long before this,
before this king ever drew a breath and wanted to enslave Israel,
the Lord said something about Israel multiplying. to a man
named Abraham in Genesis chapter 15. Back then his name was still
Abram, it wasn't Abraham yet. In Genesis chapter 15, it says
in verse 5, And God brought him forth abroad, and said, Look
now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be
able to number them. And God said to him, so shall
thy seed be. What? It was just Abraham and
Sarah then and Ishmael. Isaac hadn't even been born yet.
This seed of promise was Isaac and was Jesus Christ. But he
said, you're going to be a great nation. And what's the king's
fear? Them multiplying. Well, this
is part of God's plan. It's part of God's plan. This
is the language he used for Abraham throughout the Old Testament
in Genesis chapter 22 and verse 17. It says that in blessing
him I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore and
thy seed shall possess the gates of thine enemies. The gates of
thine enemies. And in chapter 26 in verse 4
he says the same kind of language. He says, And I will make thy
seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto
the seed all these countries. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. This was the promise to Abraham.
I'm going to multiply your seed. And what was the problem with
the king? The seed was multiplying. And when he tried to stop it,
what did it do? It multiplied all the more. lest they multiply
with his fear." But that's what God had said they were going
to do. They must multiply. They must multiply. That which
could not be seen was actually what was in control. The king
didn't know any of this was going on. He said, they're multiplying.
I'm worried about that. But he didn't know that centuries
before, God said, they're going to multiply. He had no idea. He had no idea. What was unseen
was in control of all things. The God over all was employing
this king to bring things to their appointed end. Because
when the king punished them, they multiplied more. Why? Because
God said they will multiply like the stars of the heaven and the
sands of the sea. God was nonetheless manipulating
all his thoughts. What this king was thinking I'm
worried about this multiplication. He was thinking, I need to do
something about it. But what he thought he could do about
it didn't work. It went just the opposite direction. Even as he was unknowingly against
the multiplying of Israel, he was unknowingly multiplying Israel
according to the heavenly eating. His wise response was likewise
ordained. The slavery that ensued was the
catalyst for the ultimate cry for deliverance. That too was
promised to Abraham in the same chapter in Genesis 15. He says,
your people, who's going to outnumber the stars of the sea, they're
going to grow into a great nation in a strange land, a land that's
not their own. And they're going to be enslaved. They're going to be treated poorly.
And I'm going to deliver them by my great power. This is all
part of the plan. As I look about what's going
on in the world today, and as you look about what's going on
in the world, what you see will bring about visceral responses,
and will even cause you to think of resolutions. I've thought
of some resolutions as to what needs to be done today, haven't
you? And sometimes it involved guns. You know, you just never
know. What you see will affect you. But you know something, don't
you? You know something more than you see. Pause and look
at the unseen. Look who's running this thing.
Look who's in control. And know that the first thing
in the published gospel message, which is what we preach, the
gospel message, and is the entire basis upon which the whole gospel
message is built, is that God is sovereign. That was the promise
in Isaiah chapter 52 and verse 7 when he talked about how beautiful
are the mountains of the feet that come and publish salvation
and publish peace, saying, thy God reigneth. This is the theme
of this whole book. When you read this book and when
we study this book, this will be a theme that the under-occurring
theme that this is not some great happenstance that was out of
control. Every footstep, every thought
of every king of every Pharaoh is according to God's plan. I
raised Pharaoh up, he said in Romans 9, just to make my power
known. I raised him up. I raised him
up to put him down. This king, he saw some things. The unseen was what was controlling
what he saw, but he did not know it. Trust in the Lord with all
thy heart. Father, bless his true understanding,
we pray in Christ's name, Amen.