Beloved radio friends, we greet you heartily in the precious name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. We give you an earnest welcome to the continued study of the Word of God in the book of Exodus chapter one. If you have your Bible available, turn with me to chapter one and read beginning at verse fifteen to the end of the chapter or listen carefully to it as I read it. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shifra, and the name of the other poor. And he said, When ye 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. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not, as the king of Egypt commanded them. but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing and have saved the men 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. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass when the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. 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. May God bless the reading and the hearing of his word. May the Holy Spirit illuminate this precious word to every one of our hearts as we look in meditation. upon the theme before us. May I repeat without apology for the repetition the study that we are seeking to follow in this book of Exodus and the early chapters from one through twelve. It is a study concerning the revelation it brings before us of the world in which we live and its character in the light of Israel's history in Egypt long ago. This story very vividly illustrates the great story of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. For just as Israel, the nation of God's earthly people was delivered from the realm of Pharaoh and Egyptian darkness and bondage. So the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a greater story of a greater deliverance, when by his power he is able to save men and women. and deliver them from the realm of Satan, the serpent, and bring them into the realm of the Savior himself. We have noted certain types in this story of Egypt, and of Pharaoh, and of Israel, and of Moses long ago. We mention them briefly and quickly. Egypt, a type of the world in which you and I live. Pharaoh, a type of Satan, the prince of this world, and the god of this age. Israel, a multitude of people, who typify sinners in this world in bondage under sin and Satan, and Moses, as we shall later see, a type of Christ God's provider deliverer. Please may I re-emphasize from chapter one, we see the type of Egypt and that it typifies the world in which we live. And I repeat with no apology for the repetition, I would re-emphasize what kind of a world, according to the Bible, you and I are living in. The world is the sphere where Satan holds dominion. There is a day coming when Christ will have dominion, when, if sometimes, we have sung and still do, Jesus shall reign where ere the sun doth his successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more. That day is in the future. The present day it is Satan who dominates this earthly scene. Now don't tell me any different. I am not blind nor deaf. to what I see and hear around me that gives full proof the devil runs the character of this world at large. And because of it, we have found that the world is the very sphere where the afflictions of sin and the bondage of sin is very evident. I look around and I see on every hand, I hear from every direction the groanings of men and women under the power and the tyranny of sins, affliction and bondage. Why is there so much sin? And please call it what it is. It is sin. It is bondage. And men and women and boys and girls are morally and spiritually under the power of sin and Satan. Don't fool yourself. God calls it sin and he hates it. You call it the same thing. And when you look at the troubles, the marital distresses, the home delinquencies, the strife and the violence, name anything and name everything, Call it by its biblical name. It is the affliction of sin. And sin is the root and the cause of human affliction, sorrow and bondage. Don't tell me any different. You may raise the question, why doesn't it stop? Raise the question in another way. Why do not men and women stop sinning? instead of rather going on in an increasing manner, in the power and affliction and bondage of sin's tyranny. I want to tell you very frankly, this is a sinful world. Thank God for those who were saved and have been delivered from it. And thank God by His grace and power I have, but only by God's grace. And then we have noted it is the sphere where the very increase of God's people is opposed. I want to tell you very frankly. And this I say after perhaps many years of Christian experience, I have never found it so hard and difficult as it is today to win men and women to Christ. And the opposition to the gospel. The opposition to men and women being saved is very evident. I want to tell you frankly the devil does not want to see you saved. And even the world in its character, the government and many organizations and all that we may have in the usual society of life, they're not interested in your soul's salvation. Every program of man without God does not concern itself with your soul's eternal welfare. Men and women can go to hell and they are going to hell. And the world doesn't care. Only God cares. Christ cares. And there are some Christians who care. My friend, I want to make it very clear and plain. The world is a sphere where the increase of God's children is definitely opposed. And we added also a truth that we should not forget as believers that the world is the fear where spiritual growth is hindered. Oh, when I think of my Christian friends, many of them, how many have I seen come under the influence of the world, hindering their spiritual development and growth in the Lord? And I want to tell you I believe the Bible teaches very clearly that a Christian should walk a separated life from the character of this world as it is under Satan. Loving not the world, nor the things that are in it. And I wish to say to my fellow believer, and I say it to my heart as well as to yours, the world is a place that is opposed to my spiritual growth. and your spiritual growth and can hinder it if you and I permit it. I say frankly, when I study the Bible and see what Christianity is, I cannot hold on to the world with one hand and then hold on to Christ with the other and think I'm a good Christian. No, no. I don't read that in my Bible. Said the Lord Jesus, ye are none of the world. Ye are in the world, but not of it. My beloved, I want you to realize, just as the children of Israel were opposed in developing and growing and increasing as the male children were to be killed. May I point out, as you close the chapter in verses twenty-one and twenty-two, and especially verse twenty-two, you can recognize the world is the sphere where the coming in of Christ is prevented if it is possible. Pharaoh charged all the Egyptians, his people, he says every time you find a male child among the Israelites, you throw it in the river to the crocodiles. You can save every daughter alive, but throw the males to the crocodiles in the river. I don't have to tell you we shall see it in our next lesson. But I'm sure you realize that when you read the Old Testament and when you begin the reading of the New Testament, and even the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the deliverer, for you and for me, Satan opposed this coming. And he sought from the beginning in the book of Genesis chapter three to prevent the coming in of Christ to this scene. My beloved, that's the world for you. The world has no use for Christ under Satan and sin's power. And wherever possible prevents the coming in of Christ. Oh, how we can gratefully thank God in spite of all the satanic opposition and the worldly opposition. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. as Paul the Apostle has written in First Timothy one-fifteen, declaring of whom I am chief. Beloved, may I suggest, I hope that you realize, as we have covered chapter one, not too much in detail, but sufficiently, I feel, to prove that Egypt was a type of the world in which you and I live. My friend, I hope you are concerned if you've never been saved, of our being saved out of such a world you live in. Christ alone can save you. Father, bless thy truth, to all we pray, for the glory of our Saviour and the blessing of all in Jesus' name, amen.