Please turn with me and your Bibles once more to that passage we read earlier, Exodus chapter number one. Exodus chapter number one, and that will be our passage for this evening's message. Exodus chapter one, and the title is Overcoming the Enemy. Overcoming the Enemy. In this chapter we see A lot of changes have taken place. Joseph is forgotten. It's quite a long time has passed. Some hundreds of years have taken place between the events of Genesis 50 and Exodus chapter number one. And so much has changed and much has been forgotten and difficult and trying circumstances come upon the people of God. But of course, we see, even in our own day, times change, don't they? We see great and drastic changes in our own land. In the last 10, 20 years, 50 years, if you compared these things, and if you had told our great-grandparents, Our great, great grandparents, that this would be the state of either modern day Scotland or the United Kingdom or wherever you're talking about, they would scarcely have imagined it. There has been big changes we know in technology and all sorts of things around us, but surely the greatest change we have seen in this nation and other nations around it, spiritually. Not that long ago, many, many attended churches. I think it was, we watched, it was a documentary, I think it was back in the 1980s, it was on the Isle of Lewis, and you just see how many people would attend church, and how they spoke about their excitement of going to church. It seems so different and so distant now. There's so many gospel preaching churches, sound preachers, And so many things, but things have changed, haven't they, across these islands? There's solid churches, yes, but things have become more difficult. And we may not realize this, but churches like here and other parts within the free church continuing, and indeed other denominations, would have been fairly much more common than it is today. But it's not just this, within the church there are struggles that it didn't struggle with not that long ago, male and female roles. Much confusion is there. Also much confusion over the light of nature. And so with these drastic changes, it can be a great challenge for the people of God. But it's not the first generation. This time, in Exodus chapter one, we see drastic changes. Drastic changes in how the state in which they were in, which was once favorable toward them, which once looked favorably upon them and promoted their good, no longer looks upon them with favor. How do you deal with such changes? Well, Joseph has forgotten, we see that. And once they had the best of the land in Goshen, Joseph has favorably looked upon. But how do we overcome? The enemy is using Pharaoh in this chapter. The enemy uses many leaders in our own day. How do we overcome? Do we overcome in the church with clever new ideas? So often what the church has to realize time and time again, it's the old paths. It's returning to the old ways. And I don't mean the old ways from 50 or 100 years ago, the old ways of scripture. So our first point that we're going to look at from this chapter is favor. Number one, favor. The first six verses, just gonna read verse one and verse six. Now these are the names of the children of Israel which came into Egypt. Every man and his household came with Jacob. And verse six, and Joseph died and all his brethren and all that generation. There's some time that has passed, but it's almost like a reminder, here are those who came to Egypt first. Hundreds of years earlier. And why were they there in the first place? If I remember back, if they stayed in the land of Canaan, what would have happened to them? Famine. They would not have survived. had the Lord not brought them out of there and brought them in to Egypt into the land of Goshen. God's face was shining upon them. God's favor brought them there to save Egypt. people alive. In the previous page you'll see Genesis chapter 50, verse 20 says this, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. And also verse 24 of Genesis 50, and Joseph said, unto his brethren I die, and God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of the land, unto the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. They were there because God's face shined upon them, but God was not going to leave them there. There was going to be a certain period of time they would be there. God's favor was undeserved. God's favor was unmerited. What would have happened without God's favor? They would have perished. So it is with us as well. Without God's favor and his face shining upon us, undeserved, unmerited, we would surely perish. We need heavenly manna. We need food from heaven or we will perish. And what is happening in the modern day church She is perishing for lack of heavenly food. She has lots of activity. She has lots of things going on. But what has been neglected is the Scriptures and so many teachings that have been passed on from generation to generation. We need humbling in our day, don't we? If you listen to, and some of them are very intelligent men, but you'll read some of the more modern, popular day authors, they believe they know so much more than the men of the past. A lot of them don't think that they need to read a lot of the men of the past, and it doesn't mean they got everything right. But we need to be taught, don't we, all of us, And we need to realize how little we know. We need God's grace. We need God's unmerited favor. How are we saved in the first place? Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God." Verse 9, not of works, lest any man should boast. Why were they there in Egypt? God's favor. And why were they going to be moved again? Made uncomfortable? God's favor. Why were they going to go through difficult times? God's favor. Even Joseph, when he was going through horrible things, being accused of all sorts of things, God's favor shone upon him. If we turn briefly to Genesis 39. Genesis 39 and verses 20 and 21. Verses 20 and 21. Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison a place where the king's prisoners were bound And he was there in the prison If you read the life of Joseph from a human perspective you think What could possibly go wrong next? time after time after time but look at verse 21 of Genesis 39, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him a Favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. So while Joseph did go through very, very difficult times, the Lord's favor still shone upon him. The Lord gave him favor in the eyes of either the prison or in other places he was in to allow that many people would be saved alive. If God's favor was not shining upon Joseph, the people of God would not be in the position that they are in Exodus chapter one. In a position where they go from 70 souls in verse number five, to multiplying exceedingly in verse number seven. God was with Joseph, God was with his people. Now on the surface it may not look like that. On the surface you may think, well where is God in all these things? You know, Joseph has been sold into slavery by his brothers. But yet he continues to trust in his God, and he continues to look unto his God for help in difficult, distressing times. We also have to remember as well with all of this, the favor of God is seen in the verse six verses, that God is in control of even the pagan rulers. It's interesting, isn't it? Even the prison, the Egyptian rulers, the Pharaoh, and other things. How did Pharaoh and others look favorably upon Joseph? Because Joseph is so interesting and God. God made the difference. And there's a number of verses we can look at to show this. We should not be afraid of men. You see in Genesis, there's a few examples of Abraham as he, later Abraham, he's afraid of what the pagans are going to do to his wife and to him. God is in control of even the hearts of pagans. If we turn briefly to Proverbs 21 and verse 1. Proverbs 21 and verse 1. It says this, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of waters, he turneth it whithersoever he will. This is not describing the king as a kind of a robot or anything like that. But even while the wicked intents may come from Joseph's brothers, wicked rulers, God directs it in the way that will bring about the glory of God. God is in control of everything. If we turn as well to Proverbs 16 and verse 1. Proverbs 16 and verse 1. The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Verse 9, same chapter. A man's heart diviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. And just one other verse on this. Psalm 105 verse 25. Psalm 105 and verse 25. He turneth their heart, speaking about the Lord, to hate his people and deal subtly with his servants. Israel, we just read there for a few verses, verse 23 onwards. Israel also came into Egypt and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham and increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their hearts to hate his people. and to deal subtly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen." If we read through all this we see that God directs most wisely in a way that is ultimately for the good of his people. Now we don't see that often in the midst of this. Those wickedness and sin come from fallen man. God directs it all. God directs it all. Even, and we might look at the Scottish Government at the moment and wonder what are they going to do next? God is in control. They think they're in control. They're not. But God directs. And the wicked intent comes from the heart. God directs that to His own ends for His own glory. Now we also, we were saying there as well, what has changed? Verse number six of our text, and Joseph died and all his brethren and all that generation. What do we see here? Verse 8 as well. Now there arose a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. Had the favor of God disappeared? Now a lot of it was tied to Joseph you could say. And their view of Joseph. God's favor was still with his people. God's favor was still with his people. The circumstances was changing around them. But God's favour had not changed. You see that? God's favour was still, before he was to save them from Canaan and famine, bring them into Egypt, things were about to get difficult. Why? Because they weren't supposed to stay in Egypt. They were to return, to go and inherit their land. If we turn briefly to Exodus 2 verses 23, 24, and 25. And it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their groaning. And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel. And God had respect unto them. You see, it took them out of their place of comfort and ease in Egypt. And made it a very uncomfortable place. Because God did not want them to be comfortable there. Friends, does He want us to be comfortable in this world? God's people were never meant to be comfortable in this world. Now, because difficult times come, it doesn't mean that the favor of God is gone for the people of God. Circumstances will change, challenges will come, but for the glory of God and for the good of His people. That brings us to our second point, fruit. fruit. How did they overcome? Well, they overcame the enemy by the favor of God, but they also overcame by the fruit. And this fruit is life from heaven. We see from verses 7 down to verse number 10. Verse 7, and the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceedingly exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them. But the Lord blessed them. They went from being a very small group of people to being a very large group of people which made the Egyptian ruler extremely uncomfortable. And he was afraid of them. Verse 9, He said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Now I think it's important as well that we point out Just because the favor of the Lord is with you, and the Lord's face is shining upon you, doesn't mean everything's gonna go easy in your life. We may look at a passage like this and go, okay, the Lord's favor is with them. Oh look, they had many children. We need to be careful with this. There's a lot of godly people, and they struggle to have children. I know that may be obvious to some of us, but there are some people who do teach things that are extremely hurtful to many of God's people. There's all sorts of reasons why things fall out in this world. Circumstances change, challenges come, and difficulties are there. But the Lord at that time multiplied their number greatly to overcome and defeat the enemy. It was for God's purposes at that particular time, for that particular But when that happens, there's a great increase of life, a great increase of fruit, the enemy is uncomfortable. And when the enemy sees the church, either through lots of conversions or however else, grow, it's afraid. It doesn't want the Kingdom of God to grow. And what did they say? Oh, look at verse number 9. He said unto the people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them. As they multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies. They're not the first generation of Christians to be spoken evil against. You see some of the rumors that were spread about the children of God in the early church. It was claimed by their view of the Lord's Table that they believed in cannibalism. That was one rumor that was spread around. They believe in eating the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Obviously, it's a distortion of the truth. But the enemy does that. The enemy takes something that's somewhat true and twists it, because the enemy is uncomfortable, doesn't want the kingdom of God to advance. Heavenly life is not welcome in Egypt. It wasn't then and it isn't now. When, if there was ever conversions, in the future, the world won't be happy about that. If the world sees growth in a Christian, they're not happy with that. The world doesn't want heavenly fruit. If we see Ephesians five and verse eight, Ephesians five, And verse number eight says this. Down to verse 10, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Light shineth in the darkness, and what does darkness do? It flees away. One of the very interesting things about staying here over the last few weeks was it never ever seems to get dark in the summer months around the Isle of Skye. And that's very, very different. But the darkness doesn't stand a chance, does it? When light is shining, darkness doesn't stand a chance. And when light challenges darkness, and that's what it does, the enemy, how does it fight back? It doesn't fight back with light, it fights back with darkness, lies. Verse nine says, verse 10, there's the accusations. They'll join with our enemies. And you even see at other times, the accusation later on in later chapters is, wow, they're lazy. They want to go out and worship. Nah, they're just lazy. Give them more work to do. But at the end of the day, whether it's today or where it's in that day, the devil is the one behind it. I know, yes, Pharaoh is wicked and he does his own wicked things. But we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We looked at that this morning. But against principalities, against powers, against wickedness in high places. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5, it talks about love. Love, it says, thinketh no evil. What's the opposite of love? Hatred. That thinks evil. The enemy does spread rumors, and we've got to be very careful in the church that we don't fall prey to that. The enemy often uses distortions of the truth and spreads rumors and scandal and all sorts of things. In Revelation 12 and verse 10, the devil himself is called the accuser of the brethren. So we must be very careful what we do with our tongues. James 3 tells us about that. The enemy looks with suspicion. When the kingdom advances, the enemy looks with suspicion. Number three now, fortress. So we overcome the enemy by God's favor. God's fruit, this heavenly life. But we need God's protection. And they have God's protection here in these verses. Number three, fortress. Fortress. Our protection comes from God. If our protection doesn't come from God, we stand no chance against the enemy. We are easy pickings against the enemy. To illustrate, if you ever saw a wolf fighting with a small lamb, Do you think the lamb could fight the wolf and survive? By the way, we're the lamb. And the enemies of God are lions, jackals, and so forth. But the enemies, when we are protected by God, and that protection, that heavenly life that we have around us, in verses 11 and 12, look at what they want to do. 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, Isn't this wonderful? The more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. Do you think that's what they wanted to happen? It's the complete opposite, isn't it? They wanted to make their life difficult and they wanted their numbers to decrease. What happened? They multiplied and they grew. Why? Because of God. Why? Humanly speaking, this would crush any group. A small group, the state has taken particular efforts to stamp them out. But God protects and sustains his people. They grow in hardship. And when we think about the early church, there's a fairly famous quote from Tertullian, who said this, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the martyrs. Persecution. Suffering. The church grew under such conditions. Not easy conditions. Horrible conditions. The church grew. Actually today it is growing most in the parts of the world where it is the most difficult to profess Jesus Christ publicly. That's where it's growing. I heard one statistic that it's to every one person that is saved in the West, there's 16 in the developing world. 16 people for every one person saved in a Western developed country. What is that saying to us? Friends, if the kingdom advances, if the church grows, it's because of God. The enemies seek to say, no, we're going to stop that. And it's in that midst, it's in that environment that it grows. You may ask yourselves, where's the church growing today? The most heavily persecuted places. You think of places like China, we don't even know the full numbers because there's so much heavy surveillance. Verses 13 and 14, and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. They made their lives difficult. Verse 14, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick, and in manner of service in the field, all the service wherever they made them serve was with rigor. Everything, they were seeking with everything to make their lives difficult. And that's what the enemy seeks to do, that's what sin, seeks to do, heavier burdens. We may fear persecution is coming in the West and we may pray at times that it won't come, but maybe we need it. Maybe we need it. If the Lord brings it, he brings it for his glory and for the good of his bride. And whatever happens, he protects his bride. Doesn't mean we're going to go through an easy time. But whatever needs to be done, he sustains and maintains us. But also in those moments, you're also going to see probably the death of what we call nominal Christianity. The Christians who will, in name only, Not interested in being there. Well, they're not going to want to suffer, are they? So the vineyard gets pruned. The dead and lifeless branches are removed. But what happens to that vine when those dead and lifeless branches are removed? Growth. Growth. And the Lord may bring such times for us. Whatever happens, the Lord must be our fortress. Not our numbers, not our money, not our houses, nor anything else, God. God is our fortress. And our fourth and final point is this, fear. How do we overcome God's favor? fruit, fortress, he's our protection. And finding number four, by the fear of God. And we see it at the end of this chapter with these Hebrew midwives. They're given a most difficult challenge. I know we can, maybe in the West we think, well that's horrible, you know, you can't go to your union representative and complain and talk to someone in government. You obey or you suffer. You obey or you could possibly die. That's the reality that most of the world lives with. You know, there's very few regimes and governments in the world where you could speak ill of the king or say no to the king. But here, they do say no. Why? Because they feared God. And the king of Egypt, verse 15, spake to the Hebrew midwives of which the name of 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 see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. If it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God. This is the reason given. But the midwives feared God and did not, as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. They were, humanly speaking, putting themselves in danger. But if God is a fortress, If we do die, it's because it was our time. God is in control of all these things. Far more powerful than the king of Egypt. Far more powerful than any wicked, tyrannical ruler. You see, godly fear of the midwives, no doubt they feared the king of Egypt, but they feared God far more. And you see, it's not that they're like, you know, we sometimes have a wrong view of bravery, that we don't have any fear whatsoever. No, godly fear puts in context all other fear. And when we fear God, we realize how puny and small all the other threats are in this world. We've got an infinite power, without limit, Versus a finite limited King with a finite limited and small Kingdom And what godly fear does if we see who God really is it drives out? cowardice out of our hearts and by nature we're all cowards all of us But we must have the right kind of fear. If we turn briefly to Luke chapter 12 and verses four and five. Luke chapter 12 and verses four and five. And it's saying to you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body. But after that, have no more that they can do. See what they're saying? Yeah, they can kill you. That's it. No, don't fear them. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Verse five of Luke 12. Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell, yea, I say unto you, fear him. After death, there's eternal death. And it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. If we fear God as we should, if we see Him as powerful, the problem is we often have a very limited view of God. And there's a challenge going on here. Pharaoh is saying, I am God. God is showing him who the true ruler really is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1 and verse 7. And when we have the fear of the Lord, it's replaced, our cowardice is replaced with heavenly wisdom. Realizing that we are not to fear those who can, yes, harm us in this world. Again, only if God allows that. but they can't do anything to us after that. We need to fear God. If we fear men, there's lots of examples of it in government today. You often see it, one minute they make a decision, some person appears to stand up, making a brave stand for something, get a bit of opposition, two minutes later, oh no, that's not what I meant. They make a 180 degree change. Oh, I'm sorry, I was misunderstood. My words are taken out of context. We see it a million times. Because they fear men. Because our, take government for example, because we are so wicked, we are so afraid of men, we struggle to find any men of principle and integrity around the place. And that will not come back. until we as a nation turn back to the Lord. Now in our text here, we see an example of something that's clearly wrong. It's murder. The king of Egypt is saying to them, kill any of the boys. And again, this is again to hurt and to diminish and to slow down the growth of these people whom he fears. In verses 20 and 21 of our text, it says, therefore God dwelt well with the midwives. What happened? They didn't do this. And when they're asked, why did they not do this? Verses 18 and 19, the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, why have ye done this thing? And I've saved the men's children alive. And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively and are delivered, ere the midwives come in unto them. This is gonna put them in danger, isn't it? Now some people wonder if they're not telling the whole truth and different things like this. There's not necessarily a lie here. They may have attended more to the women and various things that they could have done to allow just basically not be there when the boys were being born, different things like that. But whatever the case here, we see God blessing them. Because why? They feared God. Verse 21, and it came to pass because the midwives feared God, he made them houses. If we're under the protection of God, nothing can touch us. Now, if something does difficult come into our lives, it does, it will, it's by the sovereign hand of God. Not everyone believes this. There was a book I read years ago, I think it was a charismatic book, and the idea was, well, if anything bad happens, that's from the devil. And if anything good happens, that's from God. Friends, God is in control of all the things in our lives. He is sovereign, not just over the good stuff, but indeed over the difficult things as well. We need to fear God. See, if we have such a view of the devil, the devil being all powerful, he's not all powerful. His power is limited. God's power is unlimited, without beginning, without end, without any limitation at all, infinite. A power we cannot comprehend. So in conclusion, how do you overcome the enemy? The enemy for the people of God has not changed. Now we may see Pharaoh in this chapter, but who is his father if he has not trusted the Lord Jesus Christ? The devil. It's the same enemy. And to overcome that enemy, we, they, needed God. We. 2024, need God. The Lord's power overcomes the enemy. It's not even a close match. Infinite power, without limitation, versus a limited power of the devil. It's not even a contest. His life, He is the source of life. His life itself overcomes Him who is the Father of life. He protects. The devil will promise protection and so many things, but he can provide nothing. His wisdom overcomes, and his wisdom brings us courage to overcome. Friends, in the days that lie ahead, we need courage. And that's not just for church officers, that's for all of us. We need courage at school. We need courage at work. You need courage to share the gospel with a cousin. You need courage. And what's the courage? That it might even be, well, you know what? They may not like me after I share this truth with them, but I love them too much not to share the truth with them. Courage to look away from the lies of the enemy. And courage to look to life in Jesus Christ. I'm just going to leave you here with this last thought here, verse 22. Look at the efforts, look at the efforts of the enemy. Verse 22, And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. See the effort? Desperately trying to crush the people of God. there was a certain boy thrown into the water. And he was rescued out of that water. He was prepared for a life to deliver his people. And that person was Moses. So even with the efforts of the enemy, the enemy attacks, and guess what the enemy does? It leads to the means, they don't know that they're doing this, of the people of God being delivered. What should we take away from this? Fear not the attacks of the enemy. Fear God. Let us pray.