Lastly, we looked to our gospel lesson text, which is Exodus chapter 1. Please turn there in your Bibles or in the Bibles in your seats that's found on page 40. I'll give you a moment to get there so you can read along. Exodus chapter 1, this is God's Word written for us for His glory and for our good, beginning in verse 1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family, Rubin, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Isaacar, Zebulin, and Benjamin, Dan and Naftali, Dad and Asher, the descendants of Jacob numbered 70 and all. Joseph was already in Egypt. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king who did not know about Joseph came to power in Egypt. Look, he said to his people, the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous, and if war breaks out, we'll join our enemies, fight against us and leave our country. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built pithem and ramses as store cities for Pharaoh, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields. In all their labor and all their hard labor, the Egyptians used them ruthlessly. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives whose names were Shifra and Pua. When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him, but if it is a girl, let her live. The midwives, however feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do, they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summed the midwives and asked them, why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live? The midwives answered Pharaoh, Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive. So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people. Every boy that is born, you must throw into the nile, but let every girl live. Here in our reading we have a response of thankfulness printed for us in our bulletins. The word of the Lord, let us pray. Our God and Father, we are thankful for this your word. This is not boring to us. These are words of life, true words and words that are not dead, but words that your spirit inhabits and uses in penetrating our stubborn minds and hearts, cause our hearts and minds to be wise, to fear you and to be of understanding that we might grow to love you, seeing your great love for us. Jesus, we ask that you would preach to us now by your word and that spirit you would make this word clear to our understandings. Amen. This passage is centered around the idea of a promise. When we think about promises in our own lives, we can think about various things. Maybe we can think about promises that were kept, that we kept, or that someone kept for us, or promises that were not kept. Talking with the teals this morning and we were talking about how it can be that sometimes people say, oh yes, I'll do this and then they don't do it. It's a promise not kept. It could have been, it could have appeared to these Israelites living in Egypt that God was not a keeper of his promises. It could have appeared that way to Abraham and we see Abraham struggling with this in Genesis 15. God, you have promised to make me a great nation,
but I don't have any kids and there's going to be a servant of mine that inherits all my property when I die. God, are you going to keep your promise? God takes Abraham out and he shows him the stars and says, yes, Abraham, you will have a child. It doesn't matter that you're over 90 years old right now. That you're almost 100. That your wife is 90 and way past childbearing age. It doesn't matter anything as possible for me. So look up at the stars, Abraham, and count them if you even can. So will your descendants be? That was the promise God gave to Abraham. That is the promise around which this passage centers. So what does this promise have to do with us? This promise that God gives to Abraham, that his descendants will multiply, that they will be numerous beyond the stars.
First of all this morning, God says to you, I am still bringing people to faith in Jesus. That's how it relates to us. We'll talk about that. We'll hear and we'll look at this passage. God says to you, I am still bringing people to faith in Jesus, to faith in my son. If you'd like to follow along in an outline, you're welcome to do that. We just hit number one there. If you don't like following in an outline, that's okay too. Just listen. God fulfills his covenant promise to Abraham. And he makes that very clear in this passage. Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 both had promised. God had promised to Abraham to have multiple descendants. Person upon person who would have come from Abraham. If you're filling out your outline, that next blank is numerous. There was a promise of numerous descendants to Abraham. The question is, how did God do on fulfilling his promise? How did he do fulfilling this promise? Well, we see it all through this passage. Look at verse 7 in Exodus 1. Here are the words that are used. The Israelites had multiplied greatly. They were exceedingly numerous. The land of Egypt was filled with them. Verse 9. The common about them is that they are much too numerous. Verse 10, there was a thread of them becoming the threat to Pharaoh, of them becoming even more numerous. Verse 12, even while being oppressed, the God's people, the Israelites, it says, the more they multiplied and spread. The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. Verse 20, the people increased and became more numerous, even with Pharaoh's decree to kill all the Hebrew boys. Verse 21. So numerous were God's people so much was he multiplying them that even these midwives were given families of their own. Presumably, they were midwives because they didn't have their own families and could go around and help those who did. But God gives even them families of their own children. God did pretty well with his promise to Abraham. We're shown here in this passage. What does this mean today for us in the church?
You've heard me before preaching the Old Testament. You've heard me say or in Sunday school that anytime we look at the Old Testament, we need to correctly adjust what's said in the Old Testament according to the New Testament. We need to adjust it according to the epic. We've made a shift. Christ has come and Christ makes a difference. He doesn't do away with any of the Old Testament scripture. He fulfills it. And so we look to the New Testament and say, how has Christ fulfilled this? How is this adjusted in Christ because Christ has come made Himself known and done His work? Well today we don't have the Abrahamic covenant that we look to, the covenant where God promises Abraham descendants. We have the New Covenant, don't we? We are reminded of that each time we come to the Lord's Supper. When we raise the cup, we hear the words of Jesus. This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Today because of Jesus, we have this new covenant. So in the New Covenant certainly, there is that promise of the forgiveness of sins, but as we look here at Genesis 12 and 15, we realize that the New Covenant is also the fulfilling of this Old Covenant to Abraham to multiply descendants. How does God multiply Abraham's descendants in the church today? Well Galatians 3 says there's a different schema of things. There's a different way that God is fulfilling His promise to Abraham than in this time as He fulfilled it next to this one. Galatians 3 tells us that all who believe in Jesus are children of Abraham. Children of Abraham, not by physical descent, but children of Abraham by faith. And so as we look at the Old Testament and we see the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham spreading and multiplying, we say, yes, that's fulfillment of the covenant made to Abraham of the multiplication of His descendants, but that's only temporary or half way fulfillment, or if you like a big word penultimate, not ultimate, but next the ultimate penultimate fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. Ultimately God had promised Abraham a multiplication of His descendants through all of us through the church who would believe in the Messiah to come from Abraham's perspective to come, that is who would believe in Jesus. For all of us who believe are descendants of Abraham. We are those stars in the sky that Abraham looked at so to speak. All who believe in Jesus are descendants of Abraham. Well how are Abraham's descendants then of course multiplied today through people coming to faith, through people coming to faith in Jesus. So for the church what does this mean? We look at this passage Exodus 1 this morning. It means that God is continuing today continuing to fulfill His covenant to Abraham, just as He fulfilled it during those days in Egypt that we read about in Exodus 1. God is fulfilling His covenant promise to Abraham by multiplying Abraham's descendants that is by multiplying the number of people who believe in Jesus. At the Son of God risen from the dead who is the only hope of eternal life. The question is should we expect everyone to come to Christ then or even a majority? Well no. That wasn't the case in the covenant to Abraham. It wasn't that Abraham, the world's population will have a huge number that is the majority of the people and you're going to dominate. No it's an addition thing. God will continue to add even in Egypt. That's the case. There would be this numeric increase person after person after person would come and will come to faith in Christ. Jesus indicated this when He told us disciples, He was training them. He said guys you're not going to find everybody coming to faith. In fact most are not headed to heaven but headed to hell. For broad is the path that leads to hell and many are those who are on it. But narrow is the path and fewer are those who are on it that leads to eternal life. So some will believe in that number will keep adding on and adding on but this is not to promise us that everybody will receive this message. As we look at Exodus 1 this is an encouraging passage for us as we see God's people multiply. So we see regardless of oppression whatever they multiply this then should be our expectation. As believers in the 21st century this should be our expectation that God will continue to work. He will continue to multiply his people. One person after another after another after another after another will come to believe in Jesus. Will come to faith in Jesus as their savior from their sins. This should be our expectation that God would work to continue to add. That's your plan. Continue to add descendants of Abraham. New Christians among us in our church in our church to do that as he's done. So God says to you first of all from this passage I'm still bringing people to faith in Jesus. Secondly this morning God says to you trust trust that I will continue to bring people to faith in Jesus regardless of appearances. Trust that I will continue to bring people to faith in my son Jesus regardless of appearances regardless of how it looks regardless of what's going on. Many of you must know that I'm in Ohio State football fan. My parents both went to Ohio State. My wife went to Ohio State. I grew up outside Columbus Ohio rooting for Ohio State from time I was little boy watching them lose and rose bulls but they played in the national championship this year and that game was starting at eight o'clock on a Friday night January 3rd and Ohio State was paired up against Miami University of Miami and there were no common opponents and I'd seen Miami play more this year than I had seen Ohio State play it was just on TV down here more and about 10 minutes before the game started. I remember I was putting my kids down and I was coming down the state walking through the upstairs hallway and coming down the stairs and I got this thought in my mind. Are we in Ohio State Park guys going to get humiliated in front of the biggest college football audience of this season? Are we just going to get blown out of the water? This high-powered offense and this great defense all I kind of think. Miami had 16 parade all American high school players on their team Ohio State had three. All the talk was Miami Miami Miami and as much as I like to Ohio State whoever I talked to before that game from from the end of November on when I knew Ohio State was in that game I said well honestly Miami's probably going to win it. It didn't seem to be a great match up there. I was so nervous as this game started my nostrils were quivering. My nostrils were quivering all through the first quarter. During the second half I had to mute the commercials because there was just too much noise there's too much going on. It's too much chaos I muted the commercials and I was walking around in my living room shaking out my arms and bending around my shoulders like this just to try to relax. Appearances were that we weren't going to win that game but God says to us here in this passage doesn't matter what appearances are like. Doesn't matter what's going on. Doesn't matter how chaotic things are. I will still bring people to myself. I will still multiply descendants of Abraham Ohio State won that game despite all the appearances despite all the circumstances that seem to be the case as that game started. In this passage to this one you can think about if you lived among the people his people in Egypt you would have had little thought of hope for your predicament enslaved driven hard exhausted Egypt was a dominant world power they were perhaps the dominant world power of the time they had a mighty army in a prosperous land and we hear a king a Pharaoh who came to power who did not know Joseph. Now Joseph was a Hebrew and he had been the Pharaoh's right hand man and done great things for Pharaoh and Pharaoh loved him and Pharaoh gave him power above all else besides him and Egypt but Joseph dies and a new king and a Pharaoh comes up who doesn't know Joseph doesn't love Joseph doesn't care for Joseph's people so it doesn't look like a good situation for God's people we look here and we find out it wasn't this account here written by Moses makes something very clear though even mighty Pharaoh a top perhaps the world's greatest power at that time could not control could not stop God from fulfilling his promise to Abraham to multiply Abraham's descendants who was in control really we read this kind of ironic verse that Moses puts in there in verse 8 look there in verse 8 it says there was another Pharaoh who came to power or who arose who came to stand over Egypt and we see that and we say how ironic this isn't Pharaoh in power who's in power here despite outward appearances God was in power appearances that Pharaoh's in power reality said God was in power didn't matter what Pharaoh tried to do to stop the Israelites killing babies boy babies one way or another enslaving God's people didn't matter what he did to in fact the more he did to him the more they multiplied the strength of Pharaoh was like nothing against the movement of God today we can get all worked up in a frenzy and all worried which God says in Philippians 4 we shouldn't do we shouldn't worry that's a blank for you we should not worry we can get all worried about when we hear the church being persecuted in this part of the world or in that country or this country we can get all worried or all frenzied even steamed even mean when we see immoral stuff in our country we can worry about immoral movies or TV shows or laws or or organizations that promote things which are contrary to God's word do we delight in that stuff no we don't delight in it do we have to worry about it I think this passage kills that idea it explains Philippians 4 6, 7 and 8 not worry about anything don't be anxious why don't we have to worry because it's not Pharaoh in control no matter what because it's not Pharaoh in control no matter what Pharaoh does God does his thing anyway God extends descendants of Abraham regardless of the environment that the church is in there's a famous saying when the martyrs of Christendom have been considered the blood of the saints the seeds of the church the church has experienced its greatest periods of growth when it's been under persecution we see that's the case here God's church is people in Israel in Egypt the more Pharaoh pressed them the more the more they multiplied so do we have to worry no to the nth degree in Egypt in Exodus 1 God's people had a non an immoral environment what would be a close modern day equivalent to this situation in Exodus 1 perhaps the closest equivalent we could get to is if they would gather up all people who profess faith in Christ and put them in slave camps all of us all over the world and they would whip us and they would drive us hard in labor are we anywhere close to that well maybe there's a country here or there where that in fact is is being done certainly not in this country now we're here we've got signs out on the street hey come in here there no police coming to rest us for our faith
but even if there were should we worry that God would not extend his promise to Abraham to multiply the number of people who come to faith in Christ no we should not even if we were to get to 20% of this persecution that we see the Israelites endured in Exodus 1 we should remember Exodus 1 when we think things are getting bad around us we should think about Exodus 1 and say hey we're not enslaved we can talk about our faith to our neighbor Exodus 1 teaches us that it doesn't matter that's your blank it doesn't matter how bad things appear for the church it doesn't matter how badly it appears that others are lining up against the church the fact of the matter is God's word to us here is that God regardless of these appearances will continue to add new believers to his church fulfillment of his promise to Abraham so don't fear don't be worried God made Pharaoh like a little wimpy boy see Pharaoh's fear through this whole passage oh no he is realized they didn't even have weapons he is realized he'll rise up against us he's afraid of them
the powers that be are of no match to God today so as we seek to spread the gospel of Jesus it's not Pharaoh with all of Egypt he's trying to stop the growth of the church it's Satan himself
Satan himself with all he has at his disposal that's how we adjust this into the New Testament times we read about this in the New Testament and we also read about how just as Pharaoh was powerless to stop the spread of the Israelites so Satan is powerless to stop the spread of God's people those who are his own will come to believe revelations 20 talks about this talks about how prior to the time of the gospel coming out in Jesus that the nations other than Israel were deceived and God gave the nations over to not believing in the one true God of scripture the creator God but that upon the ascension of Jesus Satan has been bound in what way bound it says to stop deceiving the nations this picks up with the great commission Jesus says preach the gospel to all nations make disciples of all nations why because I like I told you in Matthew 12 and Mark 3 and Luke Luke 11 I have bound the strong man remember that parable I told about you know you don't go into a man's house when he's awake and he's strong and try to steal his stuff first you bind the strong man and then you plunder his house Jesus was being questioned about his power at that time by the Pharisees about how he casted demons out of people and he said you know what I have bound the strong man and I am plundering his house what did he mean I have bound the evil one I've stopped him from deceiving the nations any longer no longer will all people that believe in me be of Israel be racially Jewish but now the Gentiles are let in as Jesus said in John 10 I have people who are not of this flock whom I am gathering to myself the Israelites in Exodus 1 could have been afraid that God would not multiply them when he put them in slavery it could have been they could have been afraid that he God would not multiply them when he had the Hebrew midwives with those orders to kill all the boy children but the more Pharaoh oppressed the more God multiply is Satan alive and active in this world certainly Paul talks about that he's the prince of the power of the air that is at work and all the sons of disobedience and all the sons and all the people that do not know Christ Ephesians 2 but the Satan have power to deceive the nations like he had in Old Testament times now the gospel is going to all nations because Jesus by his resurrection and ascension by his sitting at the right hand of God is raining and ruling and sovereign over the nations and bringing people to himself from every tribe tongue and nation so regardless of appearances in this country gets more and more immoral as the years go on that's been trend for quite some time now should the church shake no it's God at work is he bringing people to himself yes will he discontinue from doing that just because there's an immoral environment no there was a much worse environment in Exodus 1 and God responded to that in a great way lastly the Lord says to you this morning not only will I keep adding to the descendants of Abraham by new people coming to Christ not only do the circumstances and the appearances not matter I'll do that work anyway but also God says this morning having faith in Jesus and living for him is better than anything else having faith in Jesus and living for him is better than anything else Moses was writing this book Exodus to God's people who had come out of Egypt and he was writing this book in retrospect and retrospect and looking back at what they had experienced and how they had come out of Egypt and very clearly here God says us through Moses don't go outside that's your blank don't go outside the church and its beliefs God with this book was convincing his people on the edge of the promised land under Moses right prior to Joshua as this book has been written he was convincing his people not too long for Egypt that's your blank do not long for Egypt don't look to go back there remember if you're familiar with the wanderings of God's people the wilderness after they come out of Egypt what were they always saying oh let's go back to Egypt remember how good things were back there Moses why did you bring us out why did you deliver us from our select wait at least we could be back there and we can have all the different kinds of food we wanted God's people were saying that over and over again in the next of this one God writes to his people and he reminds them of what life was like in Egypt verse 10 Pharaoh dealt truly with them verse 11 Pharaoh enslaved and oppressed them they were enforced labor they were having to build cities that were not their own verse 12 they were oppressed verse 13 they were worked ruthlessly verse 14 their lives were made bitter with hard labor they were used ruthlessly verses 16 and 22 God's people had to fear for their lives of their infant sons that's how things were back in Egypt that's how things work prior to deliverance from Pharaoh now what does this mean to us in the church well in the New Testament as we said it's not Pharaoh that is seeking to oppress is not Pharaoh that is opposed to God's people it is Satan himself Satan himself that would lead people tempt people into sin that would tempt us to go back into sinful patterns and sinful things that we've done in the past to lead us back into spiritual that's your blank spiritual slavery so we read about in Romans 7 everybody is born into sin born into spiritual slavery but Jesus not Moses Jesus has delivered us from it Jesus has rescued us he's given us his spirit thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Paul says in Romans 7 Jesus by his spirit delivers us from slavery to sin so God encourages us this morning do not go back into a former life before you were a believer or if you grew up as a son or a daughter of a family who believed he is saying do not consider going outside the church and its beliefs it's a hard life out there remember Egypt he says and today he says look at the consequences of sin look at the consequences of living outside of the parameters of God's law you want to be sexually immoral well you may wind up with an unwanted pregnancy what does that do to your career plans is that a good is that a good method is that a good way to go no that's slavery that is slavery to sin sin wrecking our lives you man at that person you want to kill him you want to do him harm well you're going to get caught and then you'll spend life in prison or time in prison how is that for freedom that's not freedom at all that's slavery slavery to sin you tired of your wife you tired of your husband and you want freedom from them well if you've grown up in a home that was divorced if you've talked to anyone about this that's not freedom that's slavery what that does to the kids in that marriage and what that does to you personally to be united to somebody and one with them and then no longer with them that's not freedom that's slavery and God says that's this morning do not go outside my law not because I'm a person who wants to kill all your joy because I am a person God says who wants to preserve your joy I want to have you have the greatest satisfaction in life live in the bounds of my law in the promised land look forward not back don't think oh if I could only go back to Egypt Egypt was full of slavery and oppression a life of sin going back into sins that we did before and have been out of for a while that is a life of slavery and oppression sin is a hard task master that's your blank there sin is a hard task master and you don't want to go there Jesus talked about the same thing the prodigal son remember that story there was the there was the older son and he stayed with his father and he did everything his father said to do and then there was the younger son and the younger son said I'm tired of this I don't want to be shackled by the the the the bounds of what is here for me father give me my inheritance now and the son goes out and he spends all his money on all kinds of sinful stuff in another city he thinks that will bring him freedom that that will bring him joy in his life to live outside the bounds of his father and his father's care and his father's people but after being out there for a while he realizes as he's as he's out of money and eating pig's food are thinking about it he says even my father's slaves even my father's servants eat much better than this here I will go back to my father and I will offer myself to be one of his slaves then at least I can eat from some of his food the son goes back and to his surprise the father seeing him runs out and greets him and says welcome back and throws him a feast and he put the ring on his finger and a robe on his back that's what God has for each of us everyone who is his God has for us joy and satisfaction in him we may be oppressed we may be persecuted but inside there's joy and satisfaction in living with and for him so God says does this morning don't go outside the church and it's police just having faith in Jesus and living for him is better than anything else you can think of let's pray our father you are indeed good for us and you are out for our good not out to kill our joy but to increase our joy not out to diminish our satisfaction but to increase it and Father our hearts are given joy as we look at this passage this morning and see that you are faithful to your promise to Abraham to multiply his descendants you have multiplied his descendants by bringing us to faith in you Jesus you have multiplied Abraham's descendants and continue to do so and we'll bring others to faith in him we ask that you would do that through us and through our church and through other churches surrounding in Clayton and beyond that you would receive glory for being a fulfiller of your promise to Abraham multiply his descendants among us we ask in Christ's name and man