The reading of God's word this evening will be from Exodus chapter one, verse 12. But the more they were oppressed, that is Israel, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. You may be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Oh, heavenly Father, we come before you as a people who are humbled by your majesty. We're humbled by the fact that you tell us in your word that you're here with us this evening. Where else would we rather be than together, gathered with the saints in the presence of a holy God? You say that we are your temple, not only individually, but also collectively. that we are your people. And you've given us promises down through the ages for thousands and thousands and thousands of years that we cling to, that we love, that we cherish, and that we remember, even this evening. And we pray that remembering your promises would stir us up to praise, that we would honor and glorify you with our lives. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. Well, if you haven't already, please turn open to the book of Exodus. We're gonna be in Exodus chapter one. And while you turn over to Exodus, I just have something of a question for you. And here's the question. Have you ever found yourself asking, will the church make it through these difficult times? Maybe you haven't asked it explicitly, maybe not with your mouth, but have you ever asked yourself the question, will the church make it through these difficult times? Consider a moment of conflict within the church. You're having a fight or an argument or a disagreement with someone and they're licking you in the face and you couldn't be at any more difference or at any more odds with one another and you ask yourself the question, how in the world does the church function with a bunch of sinners that insist on their own way? Will the church make it through disunity? Or maybe you see the headline. Scandal in the church. Scandal in the SBC. Unfortunately, we've seen that far too often in the last few years. Scandal. And the question comes, will the church make it through these difficult times? Or maybe you're connected to someone really intimately who's a leader in the church and they have some sort of sin that they're hiding and it comes to fruition and the church is split and there's difficulty and there's heartache and there's distrust. and there's bitterness and resentment. Will the church make it through these difficult times? Or maybe you're looking at the wars and the rumors of wars that Jesus talked about. War in Israel, perhaps the Third World War. You see war in Russia and Ukraine. You see the church being persecuted in the Middle East. Christians killed daily. Will the church make it through these difficult times? Time and time again, there's opportunity after opportunity, brothers and sisters, for us to ask this question, will the church make it through these difficult times? Well, here this evening, the book of Exodus has something to speak to us. And so if you would open up to Exodus, I just want us to read one verse together and I'll give you the context. And we're gonna try to answer this question, will the church make it through these difficult times, from Exodus chapter one. Look at Exodus 1, 12. In Exodus 1-12, we see that the people of God are being oppressed by Pharaoh. The people have been in Egypt for almost 400 years now. If you look back in Genesis 15, this is how God promised it would happen. And as they multiply, as they grow, there's a new Pharaoh that doesn't know Joseph. Remember, Joseph led the people into Egypt because of the famine and there was food in Egypt. And the pharaoh was really actually respectful of Joseph in such a way that Joseph was second in command, but now the pharaoh doesn't remember Joseph any longer, and so the pharaoh sees that the people of Israel are multiplying, and what? He's afraid of them, and so he oppresses them with hard service, hard labor, even putting them in slavery. But in verse 12, we get a very interesting take from Moses, our author. In verse 12, he says, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. Now this isn't just talking about multiplication for the sake of multiplication. They're not just concerned about the population of Egypt. This multiplication language is actually connected into the promises of God from the Old Testament. I want to show you this. Look at Exodus 1. Look up in verse seven. What does this remind you of? The people of Israel were fruitful and multiplied. Is this just some strange emphasis on the multiplication of God's people? That somehow they're really concerned with the population growth in Egypt? No, this is interconnected, not with just population growth, but with the promises of God. Let's turn back. Let's look at Genesis 1, verse 28. Genesis 1, 28. This is right after God creates man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Verse 28, he says, God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. From the very beginning, God's intention for his people, for his son, Adam, was to fill the earth, to be fruitful and multiply. But what did Adam and Eve do? They sinned against God and they were cast out of the Garden of Eden, and a part of the curse was that there would be this enmity between the serpent and the Son of God. and that the serpent would be against the son, and that the serpent would try to crush the seed of the woman, would try to crush this promise that they would be fruitful and multiply. Look over at Genesis 3.15. This is after the fall, and God curses the serpent, and he says, I will put enmity, that is hatred or conflict, between you and the woman and between your offspring, that is the offspring of the serpent, and her offspring, that is the offspring or the seed of the woman, but he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And so this huge theme of conflict and enmity is built that God says in the very beginning, mankind, Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply, but what happens? After they leave the garden, God says that there's going to be a curse, and in this curse, the seed of the serpent, the seed, you could say, of the devil, the people of the devil will always oppress the people of God. And while they'll try to be fruitful and multiply, the seed of the serpent will always try to stomp them out, but who will overcome? Who will win? It's not gonna be the serpent. It's not gonna be the seed of the devil or the seed of this world. It's going to be the seed of the woman. And we understand that the seed of the woman is none other but Jesus Christ. But this seed language is carried all the way through Exodus. Go back to Exodus for a minute. Look at Exodus chapter four, verse 22. In Exodus 4.22, we see that not only is Israel God's seed, the ones who are being fruitful and multiplying in Exodus chapter one, because of God's promise to his people, but also in 22, then you shall say to Pharaoh, this is speaking to Moses, the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son. So not only is Israel the seed, but Israel is also the firstborn son of God right here in Exodus chapter one, and guess what? The seed of the serpent is trying to crush the seed of Eve. They're trying to snuff him out, because what did they say? Not only will we put them in slavery, but also, Pharaoh is so concerned that he tells the midwives, if you continue here, in verse 15, tells the Hebrew midwives, one was named Shipra, the other Pua, when you see the midwives, the Hebrew women, you see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and not Pharaoh. And so what we see if you look in verse 20, The seed of the serpent, as hard as he tries, cannot snuff out the people of God. Even when the people of Israel are in Egypt, in slavery, they're servants, they're slaves in hard labor, they don't have any power, they don't have any authority, they don't have any ethnic identity necessarily, they're being wrapped into the Egyptians, do they seem like they're people of power? Do they seem like they're people of substance and of worth? Do they seem like they're on top, that they're rising to the top? No. Nevertheless, the reason that they continue to be fruitful and multiply is because of the promise that God will keep his promises. Right here, 400 years later, Joseph's dead. Okay, Joseph's dead. He's gone. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all dead, all gone. All the patriarchs are gone. But guess what? The promises of God are not gone. And the promises of God are not dead. And as we see in the New Testament, the promises of God never die. They continue through the person and work of Christ. And we see the same scene that the seed of the serpent tries to snuff out the seed of the woman in Matthew 2 as well. This theme carries all throughout scripture, all the way to Matthew 2. Why don't you turn there? And we'll see a similar scenario. Matthew two, as Isaac read, starting in verse 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked, that is tricked by the wise men, became furious, angry, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region who were two years old and under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men that the prophet might be fulfilled in Jeremiah. Who does this sound like? Where is Jesus? Jesus is in Egypt. Who's the king? It's not Pharaoh, it's Herod. And he's not king of Egypt, he's king of Israel. And what is he trying to do? He's trying to kill all the sons in order to snuff out the seed, but can he snuff out the seed? Can he stop the seed? Can he stop the people of God? No, the most powerful man in that region at the time cannot stop the promises of God, because the promises of God continue. And even to the point, you think about this, even to the point where Jesus is going to the cross and is crucified, and the seed of the serpent is trying to snuff out the seed, trying to kill the seed, trying to cut off the seed. Jesus is being hung publicly, crucified and mocked. Portrayed as a dead man walking. Portrayed as a sinner hung upon the cross, next to a thief and a murderer. Is the seed snuffed out? Is the seed stopped? No. Even though Jesus is put to death, He raises from the dead on the third day, and He gives His Spirit. To who? To His people. And so the seed continues. Not physically like it did through Israel, but spiritually by the power of the Spirit. Let me show you this in the book of Acts. Open up to Acts 8. Acts 8, verse 1. And Saul approved of his execution, that is the execution of Stephen. And there arose that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Right here, the seed of the serpent. The people who belong to the devil are trying to kill people who belong to God. But will they succeed? Even though the church here has no power, no status, no influence, no cultural significance in any way, but what? What happens to the church here? Is the church silenced? Is the church quiet? No, just the opposite. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with him in one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard and saw all the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city." Listen church, in thousands of years of church history, there have been people time and time again who have tried to quiet and silence the church. There have been people and power and influences and ideologies that have tried to infiltrate the church and take the church down, but time and time and time and time again, the church continues to be fruitful and multiply. And why is that? Not because we have good pastors. It's not because we have good people. It's not because we have a good program, but it's because we have sure and steady promises. That we can be confident that the promises of God will last until he comes again, and that the church will be victorious. Listen, sometimes we know for a fact, we know it in our minds that the church will succeed. But at the same time, we can be ravaged by anxiety and worry and concern. What kind of church will there be tomorrow for our children and for our grandchildren, for our great grandchildren? What kind of world will it be? I don't know for sure, but I can tell you this. they'll have the promises of God in the same way that we have the promises of God right now. A sure and steady foundation in heaven behind the veil of Jesus Christ the righteous. I don't know what tomorrow's church will bring, but I can guarantee that they'll have the promise just like they did in Exodus 1 when the people of God were being killed and persecuted and in hard slavery. They'll have the promises of God and they'll be just as sure then as they are now. and they're just as sure now as they were when Christ died and raised from the dead. Listen, the church's victory is just as certain as Christ's resurrection from the dead. If you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, you can be certain, you can take it to the bank, that the church too will follow in his footsteps. As much as it seems like we're being persecuted and attacked and accosted and demeaned and we're insignificant and we're powerless and there are nations fighting against us and our freedoms are being taken away, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because we have something better, we have something greater, we have something higher. The promises of God which are sure and certain. And so we can be just like the midwives. And instead of fearing the nations, or fearing the powers of this world, or fearing the ideologies that are infiltrating the church, or fearing church scandal, or whatever it might be, we can fear God. And we can put our trust and confidence in His promises that no matter what, listen, no matter what, the church will be fruitful and multiply because God has promised. And so I hope we've answered the question, will the church make it through these difficult times? Absolutely. Absolutely it will because the church's victory is as certain as the resurrection of Christ. It's as certain as our justification. It's as certain as any other promise that God has made in his word because God is alive and he will keep his promises, brothers and sisters. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you so much for this time. We thank you for this word that you've given to us, this sure and steady promise that the church will prevail, that the church will be victorious. You even say in your word that the church will stomp on the head of the serpent. So Lord, we say amen and thank you that you've wrapped us in to be a part of your people, this people that you called before the foundation of the world. We praise you and thank you in Jesus' holy name, amen.