Sermon Tone Analysis

*/The Bondage of Sin and the Grace of God - Exodus 1 (Part 1 in a Series of 11)/*

June 29, 2008

*Read Exodus 1.  Prayer:*

Lord, fill us with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

You will is too important for us to miss.

It is not as mysterious as our sinfulness leads us to think.

We struggle with the specific choices of a marriage partner, a job offer, or whether we should by that particular refrigerator.

What we need is the attitude of the Psalmist:  Teach me to do your will.

Your will is clear to us when we obey your revealed Word.

The psalmist didn’t struggle with knowing your will.

We shouldn’t either.

The struggle is performing it because of sinful neglect of what you have clearly revealed to us.

Forgive us, Lord.

Transform our character and conduct through the renewal of our minds this evening.

Renewed minds are what we need so that we might be equipped to test and approve the will of God, to personally discover that Your way is always best.

Fill us with your Spirit, not with the allures of this life.

Make, O Lord, our relationships with others right and honorable in Your sight.

Your will is our sanctification.

Your will is that we have joy and gratitude in our hearts this evening.

Your will is not just a job or a marriage partner.

Help us to pursue what you’ve clearly revealed.

Help us not to simply tack on Christ tonight.

Jesus taught us that we live by every word that proceeds from Your mouth.

Basic knowledge of Your Word is needed or else we cannot be filled with knowledge which consists of all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

We need depth.

Give us depth, Lord.

Bless the reading and preaching of Your Word!

 

*Introduction*:  Joseph eased the tormented consciences of his brothers at the end of the book of Genesis.

They had abused him greatly, but Joseph assured them that he had God’s perspective on things.

He said in *Genesis 50:20** (NKJV) */20/But as for you, you meant evil against me; /but/ God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as /it is/ this day, to save many people alive.

God allowed very sinful and destructive things to occur in the life of Joseph, but through it all God meant it for good.

God allowed it in order to save His people.

Exodus is the continuing saga of God’s great redemptive work on the behalf of His people.

Our first message covers chapter one and prepares the ground for the arrival of Moses.

The bondage of sin is a black backdrop, but the grace of God radiates hope.

Note three contrasts in the text that help us organize our thinking in this chapter:

1.       Joseph, his brothers, and all the generation left in Genesis 50 died, BUT the children of Israel grew into a mighty nation that filled the land (1.6-7).

2.       The Egyptians set taskmasters over the children of Israel to stem the tide of growth, BUT in spite of affliction they multiplied and grew (1.11-12).

3.       Pharaoh intensified matters by seeking to kill all their male infants, BUT midwives who feared God refused to obey and the people multiplied and grew mightily (1.16-17, 20).

Sin’s savagery cannot stand against the gracious redemptive purpose of God.

He is with His people at every turn.

*Transition*:  The protection and proliferation of the children of Israel is the theme of the first seven verses of Exodus one.

Verses 8 - 22 continues that theme even when threatened by a satanically influenced pharaoh.

God’s grace teaches us that we need redemption from ourselves and the world.

First there is…

*Redemption from Ourselves (1.1-7)*

There is a logical bridge that joins Genesis and Exodus.

This is indicated by the connective (NKJ - ‘Now’) which shows a natural progression from Joseph into the story of Moses.

The children of Israel who came to Egypt (v. 1) …came with Jacob.

Thus, the brothers of Joseph are mentioned.

The number totaled seventy at the beginning.

Jacob’s sons are heads of households from which the nation of Israel formed within the incubator of Egypt.

Recalling Genesis is helpful.

In order to understand why the children of Israel are leaving in the book of Exodus, one must understand what it was that brought them to Egypt.

The background of their arrival is in Genesis.

It reads like a modern-day soap opera:

•                    Joseph, the favored son of Jacob, becomes the envy of his brothers.

•                    The brothers are angered by the favoritism and end up throwing Joseph in a pit in order to sell him into slavery.

•                    The brothers end up taking Joseph’s multicolored robe and drenching in blood so as to deceive Jacob into thinking his son was dead.

•                    Meanwhile, Joseph models godliness and becomes second to Pharaoh in Egypt.

God is moving.

•                    Famine strikes Jacob and his family and they must go to Joseph for bread.

•                    Eventually Joseph reveals himself and the whole family ends up in Egypt.

Ryken concludes, “The irony is that eventually the families of the men who sold their brother ended up in slavery themselves, toiling under the hot sun for their Egyptian overlords.”

When one looks carefully at the family of Jacob throughout Genesis, the conclusion of verse six is well-deserved:  “And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.”

The point is that God’s grace is magnified in the failings of the people He chose to work through.

These people, more than anything else, needed redemption from themselves.

They were hopelessly lost without God.

God is constantly and providentially working to deliver His people.

That’s why Joseph concludes in Genesis 50.20 that God allowed it and meant it for good in order to save many people alive.

God takes the failing sinfulness of man and turns it to good.

Exodus will remind us of how merciful God is when we consider our great sinfulness:

*Exodus 34:6-7** (NKJV)*

6And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin….

Exodus magnifies God as the great Deliverer of His children.

Read Exodus 1.6-7 in the light of the promises made to Abraham in Genesis 12 and 17.  God always keeps His promises.

*Exodus 1:6-7** (NKJV)*

6And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.

7But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

*Genesis 12:2a** (NKJV)*

2I will make you a great nation…

*Genesis 17:2** (NKJV)*

2And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.

Exodus is so pivotal in unfolding God’s work of redemption that it is referred to throughout Scripture as a landmark of remembrance.

No where is this catalogued more beautifully than in Psalm 106:

*Psalm 106:6-12** (NKJV)*

6We have sinned with our fathers, We have committed iniquity, We have done wickedly.

7Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.

8Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, That He might make His mighty power known.

9He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; So He led them through the depths, As through the wilderness.

10He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

11The waters covered their enemies; There was not one of them left.

12Then they believed His words; They sang His praise.

Because God keeps His promises, Israel grew from 70 to two million (Exodus 12.37 states that the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses with six hundred thousand men on foot; add as well women and children; 38.26 and Numbers 1.45-47 indicate that the number of men were those 20 or older).

Transition:  God’s protection provided a beginning of the fulfillment of the promise He made to Abraham.

The redemption did not come to a people who deserved it nor did they earn it.

But God, who is rich in mercy, did not let others stand in His way either…

*Redemption from Others (1.8-22)*

*/Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph/* (1.8).

That is, the pharaoh of the exodus no longer cared about the ancient history of Joseph.