Sermon On Overcoming

The Glory of God in Creation and Christian Fellowship

What a glorious time to be alive. What a wonderful reality to live in a world that God Himself and His great kindness has made, fashioning us in His own image and giving us the privilege of living one with another, particularly those who are Christians and living in the context of a local church.

What a glorious reality, the privilege of showing forth the gospel by our lives. However, in a very real sense, we could have never predicted that we would actually be living in a society where so-called same-gender marriage was legal, where gender confusion and rejection was normal, and where killing and dismembering infants was financially profitable.

Yet at the same time, in another sense, why would we not assume? Why would we not assume that we were on the fast track to a post-Christian America? Especially if we back up and gaze carefully, assessing the state of evangelicalism in the past few decades.

The state of our current situation, in our land specifically, is not the result of a few rash decisions that were made over the past several months. If it seems that way to you, you've been asleep for far too long.

The church, generally and broadly speaking, has been far too content to set back and to allow the world to sit as it were in the driver's seat of our country and of our land, among our culture, in our society, though it seems almost impossible to fathom.

The area that we are guilty of being the most passive and the most silent is that of abortion. As evangelicals, as Christians in our country, we have been too silent for too long. We've been too passive for too long, as untold millions of little lives have been snuffed out while still in the womb of their mothers.

Abortion as an Assault on Christ and His Word

The womb, one of the most dangerous places in our country for children, snuffed out right from the place where there should be the greatest safety. It is not just the right to choose. It is an attempt to overthrow the king.

It's an attempt to overthrow Christ. The atrocity that is happening all around is an attack against God. It's an attack against His Word. He Himself is the creator of life. Now, for our purposes this evening, I want to point out that this is not at all the first time in history that things have been so bad.

It's not the first time in history that we have, as mankind, have attempted to topple heaven's grand regime. Unfortunately, it's not likely to be the last, but oh that it would be. Let's look at a previous situation and learn from their response, the response that they had to their own cultural chaos.

Israel in Egypt: Judgment, Bondage, and the Death of a Dynasty

Open with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 1. Exodus as a whole is a book about the relationship between God and His people. Throughout the book, God is continually revealing Himself to His people through signs, through wonders, again and again, page after page, making clear His sovereign majesty, putting on display His holiness and His power, magnifying His awesome glory, His wonderful righteousness, and His kind compassion.

Exodus holds significant hope for the entirety of the human race. It offers every captive the hope of freedom. It offers every one of you who are in bondage to sin, it offers you freedom and hope through the promised Savior, who is Jesus.

Let's begin reading in verse 1, and read verses 1 through 7 initially. Exodus 1, 1. Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. They came each one with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were 70 in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. But the sons of Israel were fruitful, and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty so that the land was filled with them.

This is the death of a dynasty. They had known kind providences in the lives of Jacob and Joseph, kind providences of God. And the kindness from God was expressed in the midst of the judgment that they were under.

Think with me about why they were actually in Egypt. Yes, it's true, the Lord was sustaining them there, and he sustained them there for a long time. But what required them to go to Egypt? Genesis 43, 1 tells us, because the famine was severe in the land.

Why would there be a famine in the land? The psalmist tells us, because God called for a famine upon the land. Psalm 105, 16. God called for a famine upon the land, and he broke the whole staff of bread.

Why would God call for a famine on the land? They weren't short on rain. They weren't short on sunshine. Why a famine? God called for it as a judgment on their sin. Many of the circumstances that the people of God were experiencing were a result of Egypt's sin.

That's true, but not all. The famine covered their homeland as well as Egypt. The point here for us is that the spiritual climate that we live in today is a direct result of our disobedience. We must not be content pointing out there at all the problems that exist out there.

Our problems are in here. As individuals, our problems are here. It is a completely wrong assumption if we think that the lack of flourishing in churches today is because of how secular the society has become, or how left the media is, or how outspoken liberals are.

Our churches, generally speaking, are failing because they're failing to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age. And because of this, it's given way for these things, these atrocities that are happening all around.

Not only that, but in many instances, professing Christians have begun following in the ways of their wickedness. The present spiritual condition and climate in which we live is a direct result of our own disobedience.

Jacob died. Joseph died. But not without leaving a lasting impact. They were fruitful. They increased greatly. They multiplied. They were exceedingly mighty. They filled the land. However, simply outpopulating the enemy was not sufficient.

That's not what God had commanded them to do. Yes, they were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, but not to trust in that for overcoming their enemies. Egypt may have seemed like a promising place to mature into a godly nation initially, but it quickly grew into a place of bondage for the people of God.

Let's pick up reading in verse 8. We began with the death of a dynasty. As we read the rest of the chapter, we see that the days were very dark. Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

He said to his people, Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply. And in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land.

So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor, and they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out.

So they were in dread of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor vigorously, and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks, and did all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shipra and the other was named Pua. And he said, When you're helping the Hebrew women to give birth and seat them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death.

But if it is a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this thing and let the boys live?

The midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them. So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty, because the midwives feared God.

He established households for them. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive. Dark days marked by oppression, slavery, infanticide.

A new king arose. Joseph who? I don't know this man that you speak of that saved our country. And they began to crack down on the people, worried that they were expanding greatly. Imposing slavery. They call it in verse 10, dealing wisely with them.

Oppressing them with hard labor. Five times in verses 11 through 14. Difficult labor. Hard labor. Imposing labor on them to oppress them. When we look at it through the eyes of a sovereign, kind king, this oppression that the people were experiencing is very likely what actually preserved their purity.

If Pharaoh would have just left them alone, it's very likely they would have blended right into the Egyptian race. We see that as when they get out of Egypt, it takes a long time to get Egypt out of them.

They did not seem to really mind all that much being in Egypt. They had become content there. Adopting many of the local superstitions and idolatries. And the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied.

The more they were afflicted, the more they were put in the vice, the more they spread out. We can see the hand of God evident here in Pharaoh's harsh dealings. It's not working. Pharaoh's strategy of oppression and slavery and hard labor isn't working.

So he switches strategies from slavery of the people of God to slaughtering the infants. I'll finish them. Death was demanded. Verses 15 and 16. Pharaoh tells the Hebrew midwives, if it's a boy, if it's a son, you shall put him to death.

Pharaoh was anti-life. Clearly rejecting the promises that God had made to his people. Paying zero attention to the covenant that God had made with Israel. He had said to them, be fruitful and multiply.

I will make you a great nation. Pharaoh was flying right in the face of that by attempting to slaughter the sons at birth. Pharaoh would even go on and reject God's plan for his people to have a land of their own and not let them go.

If you're familiar with the rest of the book, Pharaoh was not just anti-life. As I mentioned already, his problem wasn't with little boys. His problem was with God. He was anti-Christ, anti-God. Not altogether unlike Herod, who we would see later, who heard that a king had been born in Jerusalem, pardon, in Bethlehem and he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him.

And he gathered together the chief priests and the scribes of the people and he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. You remember what he said? Because I too want to worship him. We know he didn't want to worship him.

He eventually issues an edict to have all of the male children killed. But though death was demanded by the Pharaoh to the Hebrew midwives, they responded with what we might call dutiful deception, righteous deception.

We're familiar with this from the book of Acts. We must obey God rather than man. They were willing to do what God had commanded. They were committed to allowing the little boys to live. When that plan fails, the covert infanticide that Pharaoh was promoting fails.

It becomes outright gender selective genocide. Then, verse 22, Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, every son who is born you are to cast in the Nile and every daughter you are to keep alive. Pharaoh's sin, once hidden from the people, not from God, now exposed.

It's clear. Just throw all of the boys into the river. Initially a command simply to the midwives, now to everyone. He commanded all his people, verse 22 says, commanded all his people, every son who is born you are to cast him into the Nile.

Sin has this natural tendency to grow in severity and in boldness. We know that experientially. We know it in our own lives experientially. When we open up and give just just a little bit of room, when we give in to the temptation and we give in to sin, it's a quick track down.

It's a fast spiral. So we're overcome continually with the growth, the severity, the boldness. This is also clearly evidenced by the recent events. Most of you remember that abortion was once considered safe, legal, and rare.

Now, late-term, even post-birth, abortion promoted and celebrated. These were dark days. We live in dark days, no doubt. But with the same change as we continue in in the book of Exodus here, hope is quickly sensed.

The Birth of Moses and God’s Sovereign Providence

Look at the transition from chapter 1, verse 22, to chapter 2, verse 1. He commanded all his people, saying, every son born to you should be cast into the Nile. In chapter 2, now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.

The woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. Surely the suspense then is growing, right? She's disobeying the king immediately. This is good news.

When she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile with her maidens walking alongside the Nile. And she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the boy was crying.

And she had pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go ahead. So the girl went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.

So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses and said, because I drew him out of the water. From the dark days to the dawn of a deliverer.

Jochebed and Amran, Moses' parents, they saw his beauty. And they put him in the closet for three months. And then in the basket in the river. And then he's in the arms of Pharaoh's daughter. And then he's back to his mom to nurse.

And then he's back to Pharaoh's daughter and goes into the house of Pharaoh. God's remarkable, amazing orchestration of all these things. The laws of the land, the Pharaoh himself, the parents of Moses, his sister, the princess, the daughter of Pharaoh, the basket, the river, the reeds.

God controls them all. The same is true in your life and mine. Friend, don't waste your time and energy worrying about every little thing. Don't toss and turn all night reliving your day or planning the next one.

He knows what is best. He controls everything. And he's kind and compassionate in his orchestration. William Cooper said it best. God moves in mysterious ways. He moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

We see it demonstrated in the life of Moses here. God planting his footsteps in the sea and riding up on the storm. Deep in his dark and hidden minds with never-failing skill, he fashions all his bright designs and works his sovereign will.

He moves in mysterious ways. A baby in a basket amidst the reeds in the river. Mysterious. Moses, the deliverer in the river that was the grave of all of his contemporaries. Mysterious. Did his mom leave him to be murdered before Miriam, his sister?

His sister is sent to watch and see what happens. Would Moses's mom send his sister to witness the incident? Mysterious. Did Moses's mom send him to be massacred by Pharaoh's daughter? It was the intent of Moses's mom for Pharaoh's daughter to find the princess.

She knew that he was there every day. The daughter of the king who who issued the edict. Mysterious. By faith when Moses was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child.

And the writer of Hebrews tells us they were not afraid of the king's edict because they trusted in God. The River Nile and the royal house both subjected to God's hand of good providence. But with the dawn of deliverer, the deliverer on the dawn, it proves to be a false dawn and the deliverance delayed.

Moses’ Failure, Midian, and the Delay of Deliverance

Let's pick up reading in verse 11 of chapter 2. Now it came about in those days when Moses had grown up that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.

So he looked this way and that and when he saw that there was no one around he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. He went out the next day and behold two Hebrews were fighting with each other and he said to the offender, why are you striking your companion?

But he said, who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and said, surely the matter has become known. When Pharaoh heard of this matter he tried to kill Moses but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well.

Now the priests of Midian had seven daughters and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.

When they came to Ruel, their father, he said, why have you come back so soon today? So they said, an Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds and what is more, he even drew the water for us and watered the flock.

He said to his daughters, where is he then? Why is it that you have left the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat. Moses was willing to dwell with the man and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses and she gave birth to a son and he named him Gershom for he said, I've been a sojourner in a foreign land.

The reason that it's a false dawn, it's very hopeful when you get to the first part of chapter 2 and you see Moses is born and he's saved. There's something around the corner with this little boy who was rescued but as soon as Moses has the ability, he takes things into his own hands.

He's aware of his role at some level but he incorrectly understands it resulting in another 40-year delay of God's will being accomplished and his people being rescued. It's as if Moses has given up even he names his son, I'm a sojourner in a foreign land.

Now there's a bit of irony in the story up to this point that's worth noting. The irony of Pharaoh allowing the daughters to live and killing the son and I say irony because it's the midwife ladies who defied Pharaoh's orders.

It's Jochebed, Moses's mom, who's Levi's daughter and Miriam, Moses's sister, who are playing a part in this great rescue of Moses, the saving of Moses. It's the Pharaoh's daughter who defies her father, the king.

It's Jethro's daughter who are meeting Moses and Midian. It was not the sons alone that posed a threat to Pharaoh. It wasn't really the sons at all any more than it was the daughters. The fact is Pharaoh was unaware who exactly he was dealing with.

He was dealing with the king. He was dealing with God. Now reviewing up to this point, we see that the people of God have no hope in family lineage. Who is Joseph? He's dead now. Jacob's dead. They've expanded.

They've blossomed. There's no hope in human leadership. There's a new king on the scene, a new pagan king. That's no help for God's people. There's no hope in sanctification by suffering. Misery does love company but it doesn't produce godliness, not for ungodly people.

And there's no hope in a mere man like Moses who attempted to take things into his own hand rather than trusting in God. Now we've seen that in the different passages with the death of a dynasty marked by the dark days that followed, death being demanded, the dutiful deception of the Hebrew midwives, the dawn of a deliverer in Moses, and that very deliverance then being delayed.

Quite a miserable situation. All that for this. It's their response. We can identify with the difficulties of life, with the atrocities that are going on. How do we respond rightly to it? Verse 23 of chapter 2, now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage and they cried out.

And their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them.

Here's their response. Desperate desires for God, they sighed, they groaned, they cried out for help. And God heard them. He remembered his covenant with them. He saw his children. He took notice of them.

He even says, verse 7, skip down to chapter 3, verse 7, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters. I am aware of their suffering.

Verse 8, I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians. Verse 9, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. God is not far off. He is very much intimately acquainted and in tune with what's going on among his people.

After 400 years of bondage, in the midst of terrible oppression, as a result of horrific genocide, when hope in Moses turns to disappointment, when days are dark and deliverance seems only to be a dream, then verse 23 happens.

Then they cry out to God. They recognize that they're helpless without him, hopeless apart from him. What will it take for us, friends? Do we not live in a society ravaged by sin? Are we not ourselves in bondage to it too often?

We've been made even more aware in recent days of the genocide that is happening all around us. Are our days not dark and does deliverance not seem distant? Should we not? Is there any real reason why we would not be at the end of our attempts to bring about change in our own strength?

The way that the people of God did of old, by outpopulating the enemy. Again, they were faithful to be fruitful and multiply, but there's no hope in a multi-generational strategy. Joseph died and the whole generation with him.

Nor do we want to be guilty of simply outwitting them in our dealings. Yes, be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, but there's no real hope in a different national ruler. Joseph was completely unknown in chapter 1 verse 8.

Chapter 2 verse 23 brings yet another new king with the same old results. Same song, third verse. Nor is there any hope in politically outstrategizing our enemies. There's no lasting hope in a mere great human leader.

Moses blew it from the outset, delaying deliverance for 40 years, and he blew it again in the end by not making it to Canaan. But though there's no hope in you and I operating in the strength of our own flesh, there is immense hope in God.

A God who orchestrates every detail of our lives so that we might cry out to Him. Friends, what will it take for us to sigh and groan and cry out to God? This is what we need. This is all we need for Him to hear us, for Him to remember His covenant with us, for Him to see us in our affliction and to take notice of us, to intimately acquaint Himself with us.

We must lay hold of this principle. We must lay hold of this God. We must come to the conclusion that nothing else will suffice than for God Himself to intervene, to rain down righteousness from on high.

God’s Nearness, the Burning Bush, and the Call to Rescue

God saw the sons of Israel, chapter 2 verse 25, and God took notice of them. Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Nice, cool transition by the author. But look at verse 2. The angel of the Lord appeared to him. Now, it's incredibly encouraging for God to hear, to remember, to see, to notice, but all those things can happen from a distance, from far off.

Here we have displayed for us what it means for our God to hear, to remember, to see, and to notice. It is far more than a mere glance in our direction. This is not a vague notion of our situation that our God has.

This is not some foggy idea of the circumstances surrounding us. When God hears the cries of His people, when God sees His people in their distress, He doesn't stand back and hope for the best. He doesn't just sit and feel compassion and pity from a distance.

Look at chapter 3, verse 8. So I have come down. I've seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. Verse 7 says, I've given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters. I'm aware of their sufferings.

How will God Most High respond to the suffering, the affliction of His people? How? I've come down. I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

God comes down to rescue and deliver. Surely we hear the glorious gospel overtones of Christ coming down to save sinners, of robing Himself in flesh, the fullness of God enveloped in frail human flesh.

The angel of the Lord coming, speaking to Moses. What I'm willing to argue is Christ Himself, the pre-incarnate One. Whether you agree that the angel of the Lord here is a Christophany or not, surely you can at least agree with Gregory of Nysa in the late 300s suggesting that Moses saw the transcendent essence and cause of the universe on which everything depends alone subsists.

God came down. Note that this messenger of the Lord did not speak for God, but as God. Whether or not it's Christ in the bush, this is certain Moses was in the presence of God. And that's what we need, to recognize the situation around us and to cry out to Him for help.

Briefly in closing, look at verse 10 of chapter 3. Therefore, this is God speaking to Moses, therefore come now and I'll send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

God commissions Moses to rescue his people. This is an ever-amazing paradox, a paradox that we are given the of participating in. God uses sinners to carry out his saving purposes and plans. Moses had failed initially, and in God's mercy, he comes back around, visits Moses there in the burning bush, commissions him to go to be used to deliver and to rescue.

God is using Moses here in quite a remarkable fashion. Moses, who was born at a time when all of the sons should have died, based on the king's edict. Moses, who was put in a basket on a river, found by the king's daughter and saved.

Moses, whose life, every detail of it, was orchestrated by God in order to prepare him to be used by God. Not a whole lot is different for you and me. God uses the uncommon faithfulness of very common people.

God uses people like us to go on campus and preach the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, to go into the community and proclaim Christ as king, to go to the clinic and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ that he's come to save sinners.

But he has not determined that we do it our own strength. He has determined that we cry out to him for help as we go. May God help us to be increasingly convinced that we can do nothing apart from him, that we must have him.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We pray, God, now that you would use it. Use it for the glory of your Son, for the good of us, your people. In Jesus' name, amen.