[0:00] Well, if we could, with the Lord's help and the Lord's enabling this morning, if we could turn back to that portion of Scripture that we read, the book of Exodus and Exodus chapter 2.
[0:13] And we're going to look at chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2. But if we read again at Exodus chapter 2 and verse 5.
[0:27] Exodus chapter 2 and verse 5. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. While her young woman walked beside the river, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.
[0:42] And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took 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 you a nurse from the Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?
[0:58] And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.
[1:11] So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, I drew him out of the water.
[1:27] As we were saying to the children, everyone loves a superhero. Everyone loves a superhero.
[1:38] And you know, with three boys growing up in a house, I'm always reminded that there are so many superheroes. When they were little, like Archie and Angus' age, they loved Fireman Sam.
[1:49] And Fireman Sam, as you know, he always seemed to save the day, regardless of how difficult or dangerous the rescue mission was. Nowadays, there are so many superheroes, it's actually hard to keep up with them all.
[2:02] Because as the children were saying earlier on, there's Spider-Man, there's Superman, there's Iron Man, there's Captain America, there's the Hulk, Wolverine, Ant-Man, there's the Fantastic Four, the Transformers.
[2:13] There's all these superheroes that seek to defeat and destroy their enemies. And in the fight between good, mercy, evil, as you know, the goodies, they always win against the baddies.
[2:26] They always save the day. And they win because they're strong. They win because they have special superpowers to defeat and to destroy their enemies.
[2:37] That's why everyone loves a superhero. But, you know, as we continue studying the story of redemption in the book of Moses or the book of Exodus, this morning we meet the superhero in the story.
[2:52] As you know, the superhero in the story of Exodus, as the children reminded us, is God's servant, Moses. But the thing about Moses was that he wasn't really superhero material, was he?
[3:05] Not just because he didn't have special superpowers or he wasn't strong. He didn't have this power to defeat and destroy Pharaoh. But because, as we'll learn in the coming weeks, as we look at the character of Moses, we'll see that Moses was someone who was very anxious and apprehensive.
[3:23] Moses was someone who was, you could say, reserved and reticent. Moses, as we'll see, he was someone who had a stutter or a speech impediment. He wasn't really superhero material.
[3:36] But more than that, Moses himself, he was almost destroyed and defeated by his enemy before he was even born. And that's what we'll see this morning as we continue following the story of redemption in the book of Exodus.
[3:50] Because as Moses steps onto the stage in this story of redemption, we have seen three things in the passage that we read. We see fearing man, faithful midwives, and finding Moses.
[4:06] Fearing man, faithful midwives, and finding Moses. So first of all, I want us to see this morning fearing man. Fearing man.
[4:19] If you go back to chapter 1 at verse 8, it says, Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
[4:31] Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us, and escape from the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them, to afflict them with heavy burdens.
[4:45] They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses. Now when we began looking at the story of redemption in the book of Exodus, last Lord's Day, we said that over 400 years have now passed since Jacob's family first entered the land of Egypt.
[5:04] And even though there had been no prophetic words from God, or no covenant assurances given, yet we saw that God was silently but sovereignly working out His perfect plan and purposes in the lives of His people.
[5:20] Because as we said, despite the power of death and the passing of time, the promise of blessing continued to be fulfilled. And the promise of blessing was fulfilled because the Israelites, as we read there, they were many, mighty, and multiplying.
[5:38] They were many, mighty, and multiplying, but they had made a mistake. And their mistake, as we saw last Lord's Day, their mistake was that they had stayed and settled in the land of Egypt so long that the promised land of Canaan had slipped their mind.
[5:55] In fact, as we learned, that was why there was the silence of God. And that's why God allowed the slavery of Pharaoh. But the slavery of Pharaoh was more because Pharaoh feared man.
[6:10] Pharaoh feared man. Pharaoh feared the Israelites because they were many, they were mighty, and they were multiplying. And he was afraid of the Israelites because he thought that they would outgrow and even outnumber the Egyptians.
[6:26] And Pharaoh's mind was, well, as the king, if war ever broke out and a foreign army invaded, the Israelites would ally themselves with the foreign army and defeat and destroy the Egyptians.
[6:39] And Pharaoh knew this, which is why Pharaoh feared the Israelites. And so what do you do when you fear your enemy? What do you do when you fear your neighbor?
[6:51] What do you do when you're driven by fear? The fear of loss and the fear of humiliation and the fear of exposure and the fear of weakness and the fear of losing control and the fear of defeat.
[7:03] What do you do when you're living with the fear of man? And what we see about Pharaoh is that you react. You react, but your reaction is either reservation or retaliation.
[7:17] Your reaction is either reservation or retaliation. For Pharaoh and his fear of man, his reaction was retaliation.
[7:29] Because as we read, he made the Israelites his slaves. He said taskmasters over them to wickedly whip them, to brutally beat them into submission.
[7:41] He oppressed and he afflicted the Israelites with slave labor. Because as we read there in verse 11, they were made to build two fortified cities for Pharaoh.
[7:52] One called Pithom, the other called Ramses. Pharaoh worked the Israelites hard and he sought to wear them down in the hope that there wouldn't be many of them and they wouldn't be mighty and that they wouldn't multiply.
[8:08] Pharaoh thought that the Israelites would become so consumed with work and so tired because of work that they'd be too tired to have children. But more than that, Pharaoh tried to execute the Israelites by exhaustion.
[8:24] He tried to execute the Israelites by exhaustion, but he didn't succeed. Because we read in verse 12, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.
[8:35] And the more they spread abroad, and the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. And that word dread there in verse 12, it conveys the image and the illustration of someone feeling sick.
[8:50] Do you know that feeling where you have something in the pit of your stomach because you're dreading it? And that's how Pharaoh felt. Pharaoh was filled with fear and dread because of the Israelites.
[9:04] They were many, mighty, and multiplying. And so how does he react? How does he react when he's a man living in fear? The fear of man. His reaction, it's not reservation.
[9:16] It's ruthless retaliation. Ruthless retaliation. We see in verse 13, So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field.
[9:32] In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. And you'll notice that Pharaoh's ruthless retaliation, it's repeated in that verse for emphasis.
[9:44] He's emphasizing that Pharaoh was ruthless with them. Literally, he was violent with them. He was cruel with them. He showed hardness towards them, bitterness towards the Lord's people.
[9:59] You know, that's how Pharaoh treated the Israelites. He treated them ruthlessly. He treated the Jews ruthlessly. You know, I don't know about you, but Pharaoh's treatment of the Jews, it immediately reminds me of the Holocaust and all that the Jews endured under the evil regime of Hitler.
[10:22] As you know, the Holocaust, it took place in the Second World War between 1941 to 1945, where Nazi Germany, they systematically slaughtered or murdered six million Jews across what was German-occupied Europe.
[10:43] And the murders were carried out in a similar way to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Because there was, as Pharaoh had, a policy of extermination by hard labor.
[10:56] There was hard labor in the concentration camps. But there was, as you know from history, there was also the use of gas chambers. But, you know, when we think about the Holocaust, we remember one of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust and the concentration camps, Corrie ten Boom.
[11:15] Where, as a Christian, she not only helped to hide some Jews in her home during the Holocaust, but she also survived the sufferings of the concentration camp.
[11:26] You know, every time I think of Corrie ten Boom, I'm always reminded of what you read in her autobiography, The Hiding Place. It was the occasion when Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy, they were in the concentration camp.
[11:41] And you read that they were thanking the Lord for the fleas. They were thanking the Lord for the fleas. Now, we probably wouldn't thank the Lord for fleas. But in the concentration camp, the barrack that they were staying in, it was full of fleas.
[11:56] To the point that none of the German soldiers, none of the German guards, would go near the barracks. They wouldn't enter it because it was full of fleas. And all those inside, they were protected.
[12:08] And they were praising the Lord and thanking the Lord in the midst of their awful circumstances. They were thanking the Lord for the tiny fleas who were protecting them.
[12:19] They were thanking the Lord for the fleas. Now, as we said last week, no people in recorded history have suffered as the Jews have suffered.
[12:31] Whether it's Pharaoh in Egypt, or Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, or Stalin in Russia, or even Hitler in Germany. Every nation or ruler that has persecuted the Jews, they have all been punished for it.
[12:47] But you know, and this is where I want to address my unconverted friend here this morning. As you consider Pharaoh fearing the Israelites, or Pharaoh fearing man, here's a man who fears man.
[13:01] Pharaoh fearing man. You see that Pharaoh's fear of man, he had a reaction of ruthless retaliation. But the question is, how would you react, or how do you react, to the fear of man?
[13:15] Because I don't think you would be like Pharaoh at all. You wouldn't have ruthless retaliation. Certainly not. But you would have reluctance and refusal.
[13:28] Because like it is for many of our unconverted friends, either here or at home this morning, you know, when it comes to Christianity and the gospel and coming out on the side of Christ and nailing your colors to the mast, when it comes to believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, you refuse.
[13:53] You refuse. And of course, in your heart, I know that you don't want to refuse Jesus. You don't want to resist Jesus. You don't want to reject Jesus.
[14:06] But you do. And you do because you're fearing man. Maybe you fear man. You worry about other people.
[14:18] Other people. You worry about what other people will say. You worry about what other people will think. You worry about what other people or how other people will react if you come out on the side of Christ and you confess that He is my Lord.
[14:35] He is my Savior. And your reaction to the fear of man is not ruthless retaliation. No, no. It's reluctance and refusal. You refuse to come out on the side of Christ because of other people.
[14:51] But you know, my friend, who cares about other people? Who cares about what other people think or what other people say or what other people will react and how they will react?
[15:06] Because you know, my friend, and this is what it all boils down to and this is why it's so important. On the day of judgment, my friend, you will not be thinking about other people.
[15:18] I can guarantee you that. You will not be worrying about other people. You will only be worried about all those times you failed to follow Jesus because you were fearing man.
[15:36] Don't be like Pharaoh in fearing man. You know, that's why Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, he said, he gave this wonderful proverb, the fear of man is a snare.
[15:48] But whoever trusts in the Lord will be safe. The fear of man is a snare that you get trapped in, worrying about what they think, what they'll say, how they'll react.
[16:00] It's a snare. But whoever trusts in the Lord will be safe. So don't be like Pharaoh. Don't be fearing man. But then secondly, we see faithful midwives.
[16:14] So fearing man, then faithful midwives. Faithful midwives. We see that in verse 15. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other Pua.
[16:27] When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew woman and 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 did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
[16:47] Now, I'm sure that many of you have watched the BBC TV drama called The Midwife. It's about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London. They're working during the late 1950s.
[16:59] And if you've watched it, you see that they work hard to deliver babies into the world while coping with all the changes in the world around them. But you know, when Pharaoh called the midwife or the Hebrew midwives, when he called them back in the 13th century BC, it wasn't because his wife was just about to give birth.
[17:19] It was because he wanted to introduce what was a paranoid plan. And at the time, it was a private policy of genocide, a private policy of specifically infanticide.
[17:34] Now, we mentioned this last week that throughout history, infanticide was usually carried out on disabled or female children because it seems that male babies, they were preferred for their strength.
[17:47] But for Pharaoh, it was the opposite because Pharaoh didn't want strong Israelite males in his community or even in his country. He didn't want strong Israelite males growing up in Egypt that would overpower and overthrow him as king, which is why he called the midwives.
[18:05] He called Shiphrah and Pua to come. And he called them and he instructed them and he insisted and even instituted this paranoid plan that he had of a private policy of infanticide.
[18:21] And you know, what we have to see here is that this was a man who was getting desperate. Pharaoh was getting desperate. Pharaoh was living in fear. He's living in the fear of man.
[18:33] And desperate times call for desperate measures. That's what we see here. Pharaoh has this fear, the fear of loss, the fear of humiliation, the fear of exposure, the fear of weakness, the fear of losing control, the fear of defeat.
[18:48] He's fearing the Israelites because there are many, mighty and multiplying. And he's living in fear and he's becoming desperate. And as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.
[18:59] Desperate times call for desperate measures. And you know, it's actually interesting if you look up that phrase. That phrase was coined by a Greek physician.
[19:11] Desperate times call for desperate measures. It was coined by a Greek physician called Hippocrites, which as you know means hypocrite.
[19:21] And that's what Pharaoh was. He was a hypocrite. He's a man who's living in fear. He's presenting himself as someone who is so strong and so powerful.
[19:35] But inside he's living in the fear of man. And it's causing him to take desperate action. Desperate and drastic measures. And that's what he does.
[19:47] Because his policy of slavery, where he's oppressing the Israelites, his policy of slavery is upgraded to a policy of slaughter.
[19:58] A policy of slaughter, he says to these midwives. He calls the midwife and he says to them, when you see women on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him.
[20:09] But if it is a daughter, she shall live. Now the birthstool that you read there in verse 16, it was literally a pair of stones. That's what it was.
[20:20] A pair of stones where there would be a space between the birthing stones and a woman would sit on them while giving birth. And the midwife, she was to check the sex of the baby.
[20:31] And if it was a male, she was to silently smother the child and slaughter him. You know, it was infanticide. They were told they were, this paranoid plan that Pharaoh had, it was infanticide.
[20:48] They were to kill these children. And if Pharaoh's paranoid plan had actually succeeded, in time, the nation of Israel or the people of Israel would have been destroyed because all the female children who would have survived, they would have been just sold off as slaves.
[21:07] But you know what's fascinating is that for Pharaoh's fear of man and his paranoid plan to actually work, he was counting on these midwives.
[21:20] He was counting on these midwives whom he had called. He was counting on them to carry out his private policy of infanticide. But what Pharaoh hadn't counted on was that the Hebrew midwives feared God more than they feared man.
[21:36] The Hebrew midwives feared God more than they feared man. Which means that although they acknowledged the position of Pharaoh as the king of Egypt, although they acknowledged him, they asserted and they affirmed that Jesus Christ is the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
[21:58] And you know, my friend, Shiphrah and Puah, they had true reverence and they had true respect for the Lord as the king of his people. And as midwives, they were not prepared to carry out an act that was contrary to their conscience, regardless of the political pressure that was being put upon them.
[22:17] You know, one commentator states about these midwives. He says, this is the first instance in Scripture of civil disobedience. This is the first instance in Scripture of civil disobedience.
[22:32] Now, as Christians, you know that we are called to follow Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ, he is king and head of the church. He has all authority in heaven and on earth.
[22:46] But in following Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches us that we're also to acknowledge the state. We're to acknowledge the government and its leaders. We're to acknowledge the prime minister and the first minister.
[22:57] We're to show them respect. More than that, Scripture actually says that we're to pray for them. We're to pray for those in authority over us. But, and this is an important but, but when the leaders of our land instruct and insist upon laws that are contrary to God's law, then Scripture says very clearly, we must, we must obey God rather than men.
[23:28] We must obey God rather than men. And, you know, that's the principled stand which these Hebrew midwives made against Pharaoh, who was the leader of the country, the leader of the state.
[23:42] He was the king of Egypt. That's the principled stand they made. We must obey God rather than men. In fact, you know, that's actually the principle upon which the free church exists.
[23:57] The establishment principle. It's the establishment principle. You know, in 1843, the disruption took place when some 450 ministers, they left the established Church of Scotland because they were affirming and asserting that Christ alone is the king and head of his church.
[24:18] And that the government, whether Scottish or the British Parliament, the government of Christ's church is distinct from and not subordinate to the state government.
[24:32] You know, it was Thomas Chalmers, the first moderator of the Free Church of Scotland. He defined the position of the free church and the relationship between church and state. And he said, although we quit the establishment, we go out on the establishment principle.
[24:47] Although we quit the establishment, we go out on the establishment principle. And the establishment principle is a biblical principle that emphasizes that the state is not to interfere in the spiritual affairs of the church of Jesus Christ because we must obey God rather than men.
[25:08] We must obey God rather than men. But although that's the case of the establishment principle, the establishment principle also exhorts and encourages us, both church and state, to work together or to help one another for the Christian good of the nation.
[25:27] You know, that's why as a denomination we adhered to the Prime Minister's announcement of lockdown in March 2020. the church took the decision to submit to the declaration of the state and close its doors to the public worship of God until it was safe to reopen.
[25:46] And the church made the decision based upon the Bible out of love for our neighbor and to adhere to the sixth commandment of preserving and protecting life.
[25:59] And you know, that's the same principle stand which these Hebrew wives made against Pharaoh. They obeyed God rather than men because of the sixth commandment.
[26:11] Although the sixth commandment hadn't been given by then. They obeyed the commandment to protect and preserve life. They obeyed God rather than men.
[26:24] And you know, as Christians, needless to say, that's what we are to do. We are to obey God rather than men. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
[26:39] But you know, what I love about these Hebrew midwives, Shifran Pua, and I love that they're named. There's not many names mentioned in this chapter. What I love about them is that despite the fact that Pharaoh had this paranoid plan and this private policy of infanticide, Pharaoh's fear of man that led them to be faithful midwives.
[27:00] And what I love about these midwives is that they weren't given positions of prominence. But in the background, they just faithfully and they quietly sought to serve the Lord and His cause by doing what they could.
[27:16] They weren't given positions of prominence. They just faithfully and quietly served the Lord by doing what they could. And you know, my friend, that's all that God asks of us.
[27:29] That's all that He asks of us as His people. He doesn't ask us to seek positions of prominence or power. He just asks us to obey Him rather than men and to work faithfully and quietly so that by doing so, it will bring about His perfect plan and purpose.
[27:48] And so as we follow this story of redemption in the book of Exodus, we see three things. We see fearing man, faithful midwives. And then lastly, finding Moses.
[28:00] Finding Moses. Fearing man, faithful midwives. And finding Moses. Now look at verse 22. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.
[28:16] Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
[28:28] When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
[28:43] You know, for our family Friday night, movie night, our boys, they recently watched Finding Dory, which is, as some of you will know if you have children, or maybe you've watched it yourself, you'll know that the original movie was called Finding Nemo.
[29:03] But you know, when baby Moses disappeared down the river Nile, I don't think Amram and Jochebed ever thought that it would be the daughter of Pharaoh that was finding Moses. Especially because her father, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, he had again upgraded his paranoid plan.
[29:21] He had upgraded his paranoid plan from a private policy of slaughter now to a public policy of slaughter. He decreed to the whole nation of Egypt, every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile.
[29:41] So if you see a Hebrew child, he says, cast him into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. It was a public policy of slaughter.
[29:53] And without question, Pharaoh's paranoid plan and this public policy of slaughter, it caused the Israelites to live in fear. They lived in fear of Pharaoh. But for the parents of Moses, who were called Amram and Jochebed, they didn't live in fear.
[30:11] They lived by faith. They didn't live in fear, they lived by faith. And we know that because if you read into the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 11, we're told that by faith, Moses, when he was born, he was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
[30:34] They lived by faith. They didn't live by fear, they lived by faith. And although they're not mentioned by name in this passage, the parents of Moses were this man called Amram and his wife was called Jochebed.
[30:49] And they knew that when Moses was born, he was, as the passage says, he was a beautiful child or a goodly child or a fine child. In other words, they knew that the Lord had a plan and a purpose for the life of Moses.
[31:02] They knew that the Lord was going to use Moses by his grace for his good and ultimately to his glory. They knew that their son Moses was going to be the superhero in the story of redemption.
[31:18] And you know, we can actually see that from the narrative because you'll notice when you read the opening verses of Exodus chapter 2, you'll notice that no one's name is mentioned in the narrative except for Moses.
[31:31] No one's name is mentioned except Moses. Amram, the father of Moses, he isn't named. He's only referred to, as we see in verse 1, the man from the house of Levi.
[31:42] Jochebed, who was the mother of Moses, she isn't named either. She's only known as the Levite woman. Then there's Miriam, who was the eldest child in the family. She isn't named.
[31:52] She's only, we're only told that she's the sister. Pharaoh's daughter, she also remains nameless in the narrative. And Aaron, who was three years older than Moses, he doesn't even get a mention at all in the narrative.
[32:07] And that's because the focus is all upon Moses. The writer of the book of Exodus, who was Moses himself, he wants us to focus upon the superhero in the story.
[32:20] Because Moses is the superhero in the story of redemption. But you know, what this nameless narrative is actually emphasizing to us is that Moses is a type of Christ.
[32:35] Moses is pointing us forward to the superhero in the greater story, the greater narrative. Moses is a type of Christ.
[32:46] And you can even see that in the opening verses of chapter 2, can't you? Where there's this edict or this policy to slaughter babies.
[32:57] And then you look forward to the time of Jesus. And there was King Herod. He's issuing and he's instituting another paranoid plan, another public policy of slaughter and infanticide to kill all the children who are under the age of two.
[33:16] And rather than living in fear, the parents of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they live by faith. they, because they knew that their son was a beautiful child. They knew that he was a goodly child.
[33:27] They knew that Jesus was someone whom God had a plan and purpose for his life. And they knew that he was going to be used by God's grace for his good and to his glory.
[33:41] But you know, when you read in the New Testament, when you read through the Gospel of Matthew, it's not a nameless narrative. Everyone is named, particularly Jesus.
[33:55] Jesus is given a specific name. Call his name Jesus. Call him salvation. Call him Savior. Call him, dare I say, the superhero of the story.
[34:07] Why? Because he is going to save his people from their sin. Call him Jesus. Call him Jesus. And as you know, my friend, Jesus, he is the real superhero in the great narrative, in the great story of redemption.
[34:24] When you look at the bigger picture, we're only looking at Exodus, this little part, but when you look at the whole story, the big picture, Jesus is the superhero in the story.
[34:36] Because he is strong. He is the one who is mighty to save. He is the one who has special superpowers, like we were saying to the children. He's the one who gives us the promise of redemption, the promise of renewal, the promise of resurrection.
[34:53] My friend, Jesus is the real superhero in the story of redemption. That's why we're called to trust in him with all our heart.
[35:04] The fear of man, that's a snare. But whoever trusts in the Lord, said Solomon, is safe. We need to trust in the superhero of the story.
[35:18] We need to trust in Jesus. You know, Moses, he may have been the superhero in this little part called Exodus, but he wasn't really superhero material, was he? He wasn't strong.
[35:29] He didn't have superpowers to defeat and destroy Pharaoh. Jesus is the superhero in the great story of redemption. Jesus is the one we need to trust in with all our heart.
[35:43] Jesus is the one we need to look to and call upon and claim as our Savior. And my friend, that's what this story is calling us to, to trust in this Jesus and to know him and to love him and to follow him for time and for eternity.
[36:08] The time has gone, but my friend, if there's a message this morning from God's Word, the superhero is Jesus and you need to trust him.
[36:19] The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord, in Jesus, is safe. Well, may the Lord bless these thoughts to us.
[36:31] Let us pray. O Lord, our gracious God, we give thanks to Thee that there is those who need a superhero, that we have one in Jesus, that we have a wonderful Savior, that we have one who is mighty to save, one who is able to pluck us as brands from the burning, one who is able to draw us from darkness into his most marvelous light.
[36:58] Help us to trust him, help us to lean upon him, help us to look to him, help us even to confess him, that we would not live in the fear of man, because the fear of man is a snare, but that whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
[37:14] all that we would be safe in the hands of Jesus, trusting him for time and for eternity. Go before us, we pray. Lead us and guide us by thy Spirit, for we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.
[37:29] Amen. We're going to bring our service to a conclusion this morning by singing in Psalm 118. Psalm 118, it's in the Scottish Psalter on page 397.
[37:44] We're singing from verse 5 down to the verse marked 9. Psalm 118, at verse 5.
[38:00] I in distress called on the Lord, the Lord did answer me. He in a large place did me set and from trouble made me free. The mighty Lord is on my side, I will not be afraid, for anything that man can do, I shall not be dismayed.
[38:19] And then we go to verses 8 and 9, which, very interestingly, are the middle verses of the Bible. I'll explain it maybe another day, but when you come to Psalm 118, at verse 8 and 9, it is the center verse of the Bible.
[38:35] And what does the center verse of the Bible tell us? Better it is to trust in God than trust in man's defense. Better to trust in God than make princes our confidence.
[38:49] So it's better to trust in God than to trust in man. The center verse of the Bible calls us to trust in God than to trust in man. So we'll sing Psalm 118 from verse 5 down to the verse marked 9.
[39:03] We'll stand to sing, if you're able, to God's praise. Psalm 118 Psalm 118 The mighty Lord is on my side, I will not be afraid, for anything that man can do,
[40:14] I shall not be to say. The Lord doth take my part with them, not doubt to stop or be.
[40:40] Therefore, our love's not to behave, but thy desire shall see.
[40:58] better it is to trust in God than trust in God the great that God is to trust in God the great than sin our confidence.
[41:34] the grace of the Lord the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore.
[41:46] Amen.