Would you turn with me to Exodus chapter one? I find it. I don't know what to say. That was a blessing, Joe, and to think of people holding me up in prayer, I don't know of anything that is more encouraging or humbling to me than that. And that was a blessing. Exodus chapter one. beginning in verse 8. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply And it come to pass that when there falleth out any war, they join also our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land. 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, the more they multiplied and grew. Now these wise dealings with them had the opposite effect. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. So the king comes up with a new plan. Look in verse 15. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives of which the name of the 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 seat them upon the stools, if it be a son, then you shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. Now the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, comes up with a barbarous, wicked, and a cruel plan. He wanted to kill all the men and children of the children of Israel. Now that's intense if you think about it. I mean, somebody comes out of the womb and the first thing you do is kill them. Put them to death. That's so cruel and that's so wicked. And there were two motives behind this plan. It was the men they feared. They feared that the men could grow up and hurt them. Therefore, if we kill them, we get rid of the problem. The women can't hurt us. And if we get rid of the men and intermarry with the women, the race of the Hebrews will be swallowed up. They'll be lost in our culture. We'll water them down, get rid of their race, and we'll have nothing to fear. So what we need to do is kill the men. So they go to these two Hebrew midwives. I don't, it's hard for me to imagine that there were only two with, most people say at least two, three million people. So I imagine they were just the top dog midwives. Maybe they controlled all the rest of them, but their names were Shipra and Pua. That's what I entitled this message. Shipra and Pua and their names actually mean splendid and brilliancy. Splendid. And brilliancy and there's great typical significance to their names and their conduct. So the king gives these two women this command kill the men children verse 17. But. The midwives. feared God and did not, as the king of Egypt commanded them, but save the men child alive, the fear of God will make you more afraid of him than you are of men. They feared God. And because of the fear of God, they would not obey this commandment. They saved the men children alive. Verse 18, And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, Why have you done this thing? and save the men child alive, men children alive. And the midwife said unto Pharaoh, they did what we normally do and we're backed up against a wall and we're don't know what to do and we're in trouble. And I think they might have stretched the truth here. I don't think they necessarily told the truth. How many times have you been put in a position where you're getting ready to get in trouble and it just comes out? You don't tell the truth. That's not justifying it. It's not saying it's okay, but what they said was actually kind of humorous. The midwife said in the Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women. The Egyptian women are kind of wusses when it comes to having babies. I mean, they just put up a big, listen to me talking about that as if I know anything about it. At any rate, the Egyptian women, they don't deal with it very well. the Hebrew women are lively and are delivered ere the midwives come unto them. They're so filled with life and vigor and so on that they just have the babies and get back to work before we can even get to them. Now, maybe that might have even happened with some of them, but I think it still was kind of stretching the truth. But I'm not going to get too hard on them. It's not right. But how many times have you done that when your back is against the wall? Do you do that? No, no. That's what they were doing at this time. But look at verse 20. Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, he circumvents the midwives, he goes to everybody, every son that's born, you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save Now, you probably noticed two times in this passage of scripture, it was said that these very special women feared the Lord. And it had an effect on them. Because of their fear of the Lord, they would not obey the king's command. And we also read, because of their fear of the Lord, that the Lord made them houses. They were greatly blessed by God. Now, probably nothing describes the life of faith better than this phrase, the fear of God. The fear of God. Fear of God that these women possess, that every believer possesses, and that no unbeliever possesses. This is not a slavish fear, the fear of mistrust and the fear of unbelief. A lot of folks have that. They don't trust the Lord, therefore they fear what He's going to do. He's going to get me. He's looking for me. He's going to get me. He's going to do something to me. He's going to punish me. He's going to mess up my plans. Now, that kind of fear is not the fear the Scripture is talking about. That's the fear of mistrust and unbelief. There's nothing holy about that fear, but the fear we're talking about here is that reverential fear and awe of God. The fear of God is a product of knowing God. If you know Him, you will fear Him. And this is the fear of reverence and respect and in awe of His person. If you fear Him, you'll fear Him more than you fear any man. And these women, at great cost to their lives, they didn't know what was going to happen to them, but they were afraid to keep the king's command and kill these Hebrew children because they were afraid of God. The fear of the Lord. You know, it's the fear of the Lord that makes an individual afraid of sin. Now, I'm scared of sin, aren't you? I'm afraid of sin, and the reason I'm afraid of sin is because I'm afraid of the Lord. Scared of Him. Should be. Should be. He's God. He's holy. He's altogether glorious. If He says it's wrong, it's wrong. Don't need any other reason. The fear of God makes a man afraid of sin. The fear of God makes an individual scared to death to look anywhere but Christ and Christ alone. Now, are you afraid to look anywhere but Christ? See what I am. I'm afraid. I don't want to have anything to do with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. I simply want to be found in Him. I don't want God to judge me based upon the best sermon I've ever preached, the best prayer I've ever prayed, the best anything, because the best anything is no good. I know who God is. My only hope is that I might be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, that his righteousness might cover me in all that God sees as Christ. And I'm afraid for it to be any other way, aren't you? The fear of God. I want to read you some scriptures regarding the fear of God. Proverbs 1 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the starting point. It's where it begins. If we don't start here, we're not going to end up in the right place. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Listen to this scripture from Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 40. God says, I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will, listen to this, I will put my fear in their hearts. that they shall not depart from Me." Now, the fear of God is just like every other grace. It's the gift of God. It's not in the natural man. If you have the fear of God, do you know why you have the fear of God? It's because God put it in your heart. If you have faith, do you know why you have faith? It's because He gave it to you. If you have repentance, do you know why you repent? It's because He granted you that repentance. If you love God, do you know why you love Him? He gave you that love. Same thing as the fear of God. If you have the fear of God in your heart, it's because He placed it there Proverbs 16, verse 6 says, By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Psalm 19, verse 9 says, The fear of the Lord is clean. It's clean. Enduring forever. Proverbs 14, verse 26 says, In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. Strong confidence. You can't fear the Lord and not have strong confidence in Him. We have confidence in Him. Proverbs 22 verse 4, By humility and the fear of the Lord. And these two things always go together. Where there's the fear of the Lord, you know what else there is? There's a genuine humility. Humility before God. By humility and the fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13 says, Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. That's a big statement, isn't it? This is the whole duty of man. So these midwives feared God and did not as the king commanded, but they saved the men and children alive. Would you hold your finger there and turn with me to Matthew chapter 10. These are the words of the Lord Jesus. We read in verse 28. Fear not them which kill the body. But are not able to kill the soul. But rather. Fear him. Which is able to destroy. Both soul and body. in hell. Now that's the one to fear. He says don't fear that man that can kill your body and that's all he can do. You fear God. Now what was the king's command that the fear of God kept them from keeping? No doubt at risk to their own lives. Well it was killing the male children. And you think of how barbarous and cruel this is. I mean, as soon as they had a baby, if it was a male, kill it, throw it in the river. That is so barbarous and cruel. And these women refused to do this. And they did so at great risk. I mean, it could have been, it would have cost them their lives for them not doing this. And I've already said what the motive behind this was. It is the men and children that could end up killing us. Therefore, let's kill them first. And that way we won't have to worry about it. That was their first motive. If we can get rid of them, we don't have to worry about them attacking us. And we can also cause the race of the Hebrews to be swallowed up in our culture. We'll kill the men, we'll intermarry with their wives, and there won't be such thing as the Hebrews anymore. They'll all be engrossed and engulfed and swallowed up in our culture, and we won't have to deal with the Hebrew race. There is nothing to fear. Now, it's important for us to remember, Egypt. There's great, typical significance to Egypt. Egypt represents bondage. Remember how they gave them taskmasters, and they made them work so hard, and they were out working in the field, and they were the ones who built the pyramids. I mean, what a miserable life they had. They lived under such bondage, living under the hand of Pharaoh. And what does this bondage represent? Bondage represents salvation by works. It really is that simple. Now what do I mean by salvation by works? Salvation by works is salvation in some way dependent on what you do. If salvation is in any way dependent, I mean in any way to any degree, if your salvation, if your acceptance before God is in any way dependent upon what you do, You believe in salvation by works, and listen to me, that is bondage. Let me tell you why it's bondage. You're put in prison because of your sin, so to speak. And if you've got to work your way out, you're going to stay in prison. You can't get out. The bondage remains. It never leaves. Salvation by works can't save anybody. It's a miserable existence. When have you done enough? When have you done anything that can actually please God and merit His favor? It can't be done. It's bondage. It's salvation by works. That's what Egypt represents. Salvation by works. Revelation 11.8. Let me turn there. I want you to see this. I quoted this the last couple of weeks, but I've never turned to it. I just want you to see this for yourselves. This is talking about the killing of the two witnesses. Verse seven, and when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth up out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them, and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, talking about Jerusalem, which spiritually is called Sodom and what? Egypt. where also our Lord was crucified. So we see that there's typical significance from the New Testament of this thing of Egypt. It's spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. Now, Egypt represents bondage, salvation by works. Man's religion, salvation by works, want to kill what kills it. Now, what is the one thing that will kill salvation by works? You can answer that question, can't you? What is the one thing that kills salvation by works? Salvation by grace. Salvation by the free and complete favor of God. That kills works every time. Therefore, man's religion wants to kill what will kill it. They want to kill what will kill it. What does the Bible mean by grace? Now, I said salvation by grace. Salvation by grace always kills salvation by works. What does the Bible mean by grace? Well, turn with me to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. There are a whole lot of good definitions in the Bible of grace, but none are any better than this one. Ephesians chapter two. Beginning in verse one. And you have he quickened. Who were. What's that next word? dead in trespasses and sins. What can a dead man do? The only thing I know of is a dead man can do is stink. That's it. wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, we were just like everybody else, but God, who is rich in mercy, For His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Here's what I mean by this. By grace you are saved. Look down in verse 8. For by grace you are saved. Through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Salvation by grace is saving grace. Grace is not, listen to me, grace is not an offer. Grace is not God making an offer. If you just accept this, I'll save you by my grace. It's not an offer. God's grace is saving grace. He saves everybody he intends to save with. That's what God's grace is. It's saving grace. It doesn't make salvation available. It doesn't make you have the potential to be saved. Grace actually saves. By grace ye are saved. Now, what's it take for grace to be saving grace? Well, if we're dead in sins, What can a dead man do? Dead. I'm not talking about every bone broken. There's still hope that a guy might live if every bone in his body is broken. But I'm talking about dead, unable to perform the functions of life. What can a dead man do to save himself? Absolutely nothing. The only way he can be saved is by grace. So for grace to be saving grace, first it's got to be electing grace. It's got to choose me because I can't choose it. I'm dead. I can't choose to be saved. I'm dead in sins. And that's a horrible state to be in. So God's going to first have to choose me or I'll never choose Him. For grace to be saved, it's got to be electing grace, that grace that chooses us before time again. It's got to be, secondly, justifying grace. I'm guilty. God's holy. God can't accept me the way I am. I'm going to have to be justified. That means made not guilty. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Thirdly, grace has got to be redeeming grace. It's actually got to make a payment for my sin. I don't have anything to pay. It's got to make payment for me. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. God's grace. Fourthly, it's got to be regenerating grace or life-giving grace. You know, the Lord said you must be born again. Now, can you give yourself life? Does a baby decide to be born? Of course not. It can't do it. God's got to give life. And in the new birth, God's got to give life. He's got to say, live or I won't live. It must be regenerating grace. It must be keeping and preserving grace. I can't keep myself. That's the only grace that will save me. It's the grace that will cause me to persevere all the way to the end. and a grace that will make me just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Glorifying grace. Now that's grace, isn't it? That's saving grace, electing grace, justifying grace, redeeming grace, regenerating grace, preserving grace, glorifying grace. By grace ye are saved. I love that kind of grace, don't you? Saving grace. Now, that is what kills salvation by works. If that is not preached, grace is not preached. If that is not believed, grace is not believed. Now, grace completely excludes man's works. If you preach grace as the Bible does, man's work will say kill it before it kills us. Kill it. That's what they wanted. They wanted to kill their competition. Now, works will spare the women. If you say, if you don't believe this, you'll still be OK. That Egypt will tolerate. If you're not there, they won't kill that. But when grace is preached in its onlyness, this is the only message. All other messages are wrong. Oh, that's so black and white. Yeah, here it is. It is. All other messages are wrong. Grace is the only message, and that's when Egypt will seek to kill it. Now, this is also Egypt's attempt to cause the Hebrews to be swallowed up in their culture, and this represents Egypt's attempt to water down the gospel. Water it down. Water it down. Don't make it so stark. Water it down. You can leave part of this out. Water it down. Make it more palatable to the flesh. Make it so people will accept it in an easier way. Don't be so stark with it. Water it down. A watered down gospel doesn't save anybody. Egypt, salvation by works, hates grace and will seek to kill it. But the midwives, splendid in brilliancy, that's their names. Isn't that a glorious name for these two dear ladies? They would not obey the king's command. Verse 18, back to our text in Exodus 1. The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing and have saved the men and children alive? This is funny. The midwives said unto Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women. For they are lively and are deliberate, ere the midwives come unto them. Therefore, verse 20, God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. God dealt well with them. That means He favored them. He accepted them. He blessed them. Grace does not come to anybody. Remember, God's favor is God's grace. Same word, favor and grace. God's grace does not come to anybody because of their obedience and their fear. If that were the case, salvation would be by works, wouldn't it? Now, let me repeat that. God's favor toward these women does not come to them because of their obedience and their fear. Their obedience and fear came to them because of God's favor toward them. because God had done something for them. Where there is grace, there is always obedience to God's word, and there is always the fear of God, the reverence, the awe, the respect of God. Would you turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 12? Matthew 12. Verse 33. Either make the tree good and his fruit good. Or else make the tree corrupt. And it's fruit corrupt for the tree is known. By his fruit. The tree is no. Now, if you see a tree that's not bearing any fruit, you might not be very sure of what it is. You can't make a real positive identification of it. But if all of a sudden apples start coming out on that tree, you know what it is, don't you? It's an apple tree. Or if it bears cherries, it's a cherry tree. If it bears pears, it's a pear tree. A tree is known by its fruit. A tree is always known. by his fruit. Now, how can you tell if a man's a believer or not? By the fruit. The tree is known by his fruit. He believes. He loves. He obeys. He denies himself. He takes up his cross and he follows the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't do what man's religion tells him to and commands him to do. He follows Christ by their fruits. You should know them by their fruits. Turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 7. You're there, Matthew. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Verse 15. Now, our Lord says, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're hungry wolves. Look what our Lord says, you shall know them by their fruits. He doesn't say you're going to be, you're not going to know him. He says, you shall know them by their fruits and by fruits, he means by their doctrine, by their lives and by their converts. You shall know them by their fruit, by their doctrine, by their lives and by their converts. He says, Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits, he repeats himself, by their fruits you shall know them. Now somebody says, You can't see into somebody's heart. You don't have to. It's true. You can't see into my heart. I'm glad you can't. I'm glad you can't. And I can't see into your heart. And I'm sure you're glad I can't also. But you know what? You don't need to see into somebody's heart. You can see the fruit. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Now, these women's outward conduct tells us what was in their hearts. The fear of God. How do you know they fear God? Because they wouldn't obey the King's commandment. That's why. I know that these women truly had the fear of God. They wouldn't go with Egypt's religion. They wouldn't go with the King's commandment. They feared God. They saved the men, children alive. And this is what ended up leading to the deliverance of Israel in saving the men, children alive. You know who was saved? A fellow by the name of Moses. And Moses is the one who, humanly speaking, the Lord used to brought them out from under Egyptian bondage. They feared God. Now back to our text. Exodus 1. Verse 21. And it came to pass. Because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. Now, evidently, these women didn't have any kids. And that was the greatest reproach on an Israelite woman. That's the way they felt. And he made them houses. Oh, the benefits of fearing God. The fear of God is to your advantage. And how the Lord blessed them. He made them houses. And the word made here. He made them houses. It's the exact same Hebrew word that's used when the Lord said, let us make man. in our own image. It's the same word where God made the two great lights, when God made the firmament, and so on. It's a powerful word when God makes something. He made them houses, and what a house He made them. This is the house that everybody who fears God has made for them. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. This is what we're going to close with. Now, do you fear God? These ladies did. Do you fear God? Well, if you do, I know this. You're afraid of sin. You're afraid of yourself. You're afraid of your own sinfulness. You're afraid to look anywhere but Christ. You look to him only and you're scared. Now, that's an evidence of truly the fear of God. Now, do you fear of God? He put that fear in your heart. He wasn't there naturally. The natural man doesn't have any fear of God. He put that fear in your heart. And He's made you a house. This is what is so glorious about the Lord. You know, He gives you something. He gives you this fear. He gives it to you. It's a gift of His grace. And He rewards you as if you did it all by yourself. Isn't that glorious the way the Lord is? He gives you faith and He rewards you as if it came from you. That's how glorious he is. He's so gracious. He gave this woman this fear, and then he made them houses. And oh, what our house is made of. Look here in 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 7. Let's begin reading in verse 26, because that sets up verse 30 I want to read. He says, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not. to bring to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence." That's one thing God will not permit. There's not going to be flesh glory before Him. He's God. But, verse 30, "...of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us." Now here's what the house God makes us is made of. He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now here's what my house is made of. And this is the house every believer has. Remember when the Lord said, let not your heart be troubled? You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many dwelling places, many mansions, many houses. If it were not so, I would have told you and I go to prepare a place for you. And he was going to the cross to prepare this place for us. This is not talking about him going back up to heaven, starting a new building project. No, he went to the cross to prepare these glorious houses for us. And here's what they're made of. They're made of the very wisdom of God. Christ is my wisdom before God. I'm fit. And this is just the only way I know this is by faith. I believe this by faith because I can't get a hold of it any other way. I'm fit for fellowship with God. The infinite eternal God sees me as fit for fellowship and communion. I have the very wisdom of God because Jesus Christ is my wisdom. Every believer is a truly wise man. You may feel yourself a fool, but if you trust Christ, you are wise. God's given you special wisdom. He's made unto us righteousness. I have the very righteousness of God because the righteousness of Christ is my righteousness. God made him to be righteousness to me. That's what my house is made of. Perfect righteousness. No cracks in this righteousness. No cracks in the foundation. No holes in it. This is where my confidence comes from. I have such confidence. Boldly I can come into His presence. How do you manage that? Because His righteousness. Oh, it's so wonderful. He's made unto us sanctification. That word means holiness. My house is made of holiness. He is my holiness before God. How holy is Jesus Christ? That's how holy I am. Because His holiness is mine. He's made holiness to me. He's made my redemption. He's made my sin payment. I have sufficient sin payment. He is my sin payment. He made them houses. And what a wonderful house that we have. You know, the fear of the Lord is a wonderful thing, isn't it? You know, we pray for all kinds of things. Lord, give me this, give me that, bless me this way and bless me that way. I think it might be a wise thing for us to pray, Lord, unite my heart to fear thy name. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Let's pray together.