The Dictator's Disorders

[0:00] Desire to obey the Lord, getting an answer from the Word of God, that stuff is faith. It's faith. It's faith. And what a blessing and what a testimony, what an example she is.

[0:13] And so one thing we can do is, as she asked, to take those prayer cards and to continue to pray for her. Lord willing, as time goes by and she comes back around, Lord willing, she'll be able to come through here again.

[0:26] And we'll get to learn more of what she was doing and what the Lord has used her for in that field. And until then, we can support her this morning with an offering to help her along the way.

[0:37] But more importantly, pray for her along her path. So thank you for being with us, Grace. And I hope that folks can get to meet you after the service as well. So if you have your Bibles, please get them open to the book of Exodus, chapter number 1.

[0:56] Last week, we began a sermon series from the book of Exodus.

[1:09] And so I'm kind of stepping out by faith on this one here. I'm not sure where we're going to go and end up. It's a little bit intimidating to me, like I said last Sunday. But we got it off and running, and I felt like it went pretty well in Exodus, chapter 1.

[1:24] And I'll just give you a really quick review of what we looked at last week. We looked at that in the book of Exodus and the story of the Exodus. We're all very familiar with that and the bondage and Pharaoh and the plagues and the Ten Commandments and all of those big highlights of the book.

[1:41] But what I think we often overlook is that there's certain aspects to this book and to this very action, things that maybe we don't even have a handle on, don't even understand fully.

[1:55] I'm certain of it. And one thing we saw that we commonly overlook about the Exodus was right in verse number 1, that before there was ever an Exodus, there was an entrance into Egypt, and that was that God brought these people into Egypt.

[2:08] Before it was a place of slavery, it was a place of salvation. And a place of sanctuary for the people of God. And from Genesis, chapter 50, Joseph, when his brethren came to him and feared that Joseph, you remember Joseph, Dad said that when he dies, you take care of us, be nice to us.

[2:26] And Joseph said, am I in the place of God? I would never do that. What he said to him, those what you thought to do evil, God meant it unto good, to save, to save, to save much people alive.

[2:39] And so Exodus was a place of salvation long before it was a place of slavery. We overlook that. And we miss that of what God did. And I challenged you last Sunday, don't overlook your salvation.

[2:52] Don't overlook something that took place years and years ago and forget. And allow the cares of this life and the daily tasks of this world to make you think that you don't have it better than everybody else in the world.

[3:04] And as far as what she said about Japan, those 1.5%, if that's even a true number of born-again Christians, probably unlikely. But whatever that percent is, those Japanese have it better than the rest of them, far better than the rest of them, knowing where they're going when they die, knowing the true God and eternal life.

[3:25] And so don't overlook salvation. The second thing we looked last week that we commonly overlook is the timing in the Exodus. The timing, and this is by far, this is wild.

[3:37] It's too much to really fathom, I believe. But there was three elements to this that I pointed out. And we went back to Genesis 15 and saw that God had prophesied to Abram long ago that his seed would go into a land that's not theirs.

[3:53] They'd be strangers there. They'd serve them and then God would bring them out. And he said he'd do it in the fourth generation. And I gave you those generations last week. And then he also said that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

[4:09] And so there's something that God is watching over here. And he's going to bring his people, not by the way of the Philistines, but he's going to bring them down and around and take them up through to where they're going to destroy two very dominant and powerful kings of a very powerful people and nation.

[4:26] We saw them last week. It was, I forget, the Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan. And the Lord did that.

[4:36] The Lord's timing is perfect. The Lord's timing is above our heads and our understanding. But what he's doing in a global scale and a universal scale is beyond our understanding in many cases.

[4:49] And so it is with the exodus of the children of Israel. As a matter of fact, it even gets deeper than that. It was in chapter 12 that he said it was to the selfsame day. 430 years, I believe, from when he talked to Abraham, he brought it to the very day that he brought them out of Egypt.

[5:06] There's something that's way, way involved with the exodus that we don't even understand and the timing. And it reminded me to tell you that God's still on a timetable. And there's still a day when he's awaiting to bring us out of this world, to exit this place, this universe even.

[5:25] And it's on a timetable. And there's the fullness of the Gentiles that has got to take place, as Paul talks about in Romans 11, and Christ alluded to in Luke chapter 21. There's a timing that God has always been on, whether we're aware of it, whether we have studied it, whether we understand it or not.

[5:44] And so the timing is overlooked. And the third thing that's overlooked in verse 7 is how fruitful these people actually were. It said they increased abundantly. They multiplied.

[5:54] They waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them. And I challenged you a little bit. If you can do the math, and you can figure the generations from the 70, roughly, that came into Egypt to the what was 600,000 men 20 years and older, you go ahead and try to figure out how that's possible.

[6:15] There's no civilization that can reproduce that way, in that manner. It's nuts. And we overlook that. We don't even see that. We don't consider that God has miraculously had his hand on his people for them to be fruitful in such a way.

[6:29] And we finish by saying, could it be that in your day-to-day life that there's something that you overlook as well? Being fruitful to the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing fruit for him, instead of just taking care of the cares of this life and getting to that appointment, but rather winning a soul to Jesus Christ or reaching out in the gospel, trying to increase the church before it exodus.

[6:57] Exodus, that's not a word. Exits? Don't let me do that. Don't let me make up words here. So those are the thoughts we studied last week in our beginning to the book of Exodus.

[7:10] And now we're going to start in verse 8 and go forward. And I wrestled and wrestled and wrestled with this chapter this week. And I'm telling you, what came out of it did not, it's not what I saw coming, but we're going to go with it.

[7:24] And I want you to please, please pay attention. There's a lot of material I'm going to cover here. Some things that are a little bit off topic that you think scripturally, but I want to bring it and tie it in. And it's going to be a little heavy, not doctrinally, but just a little much to absorb and to relate.

[7:41] And so I'm saying this to you now for your attention and begging for you to pay attention and listen and follow through as we continue in the book. But before we do that, let's ask the Lord to help with that.

[7:53] I'm sure he can. Father, please help us to understand the material, to understand the truths in the scripture. Help us, oh God, help us not to be perverted in our thinking from what the world says, from what lost man teaches and presents to us on a daily basis.

[8:10] Help us to take our truth and doctrine and understanding from your words. Lord, grow us, teach us, train us. Help us to be obedient, to be receptive, and to care and to apply.

[8:24] And may Jesus Christ be glorified. May we be edified. We pray in his name. Amen. So while these people are awaiting a visit from the Lord, verse number eight says, Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

[8:44] And what follows in this chapter is the manner of life of these Hebrews deteriorates dramatically. I mean, it goes very much downhill when this new king rises to power.

[8:58] There's no doubt that in the beginning that Egypt celebrated this king. There's no doubt that they would have had a day where, I mean, they were even bowing down to Joseph as second in command back in Genesis 40-something or other, seven, eight.

[9:12] There's no doubt they were bowing down to this king. I wouldn't doubt that there was feasts and celebrations and ceremonies and parades even. I mean, that's just a common thing and a natural thing for a new king to take power and the nation acknowledge it and celebrate it.

[9:25] And as they did, little did they realize that it was this man, this new king, that was going to bring about the worst distress and the worst anguish this nation has ever known.

[9:41] What they're going to witness in the near future is their crops being destroyed, the crops that they have labored in the field in the spring and the summer and harvest and to watch it just get wiped out and then be left with nothing.

[9:57] They're going to watch their cattle be killed. This is their commodities. This is some of their assets and they're just going to watch them die thanks to Pharaoh. They're going to experience some of the most miserable days of their lives.

[10:12] Days you can read about, we will study it with frogs and lice and flies and blood. The water turned to blood. I mean, there's one thing to have your water shut off but to have it turned to blood is a total another thing.

[10:27] There's another time where it talks about the stink of the land. These are days they'll remember in their lives and they're not fond memories. They're nightmarish kind of memories.

[10:39] And worst of all, one night they're awakened to the horror that their oldest child is dead and the cries and the screams rise up out of Egypt that night.

[10:53] As this new king arose up, they had no idea of the pain that he was going to put them through. And in the very first chapter, we see that there's something wrong with the way this man thinks.

[11:07] A monarch that rules over such a powerful nation should be wise, he should be prudent, he should be sound in his judgment and reasoning, he should be rational.

[11:19] And yet this king displays, if I can use some modern terminology here, paranoia, antisocial, narcissistic, perhaps even psychotic behavior from the very beginning of his reign.

[11:35] And we call those things today, I say we, I mean the modern society calls those things personality disorders. Personality disorders. Now pay attention, I told you we're going to cover some material that's a little bit out of the norm, so just follow along the best you can here.

[11:53] In our modern society, doctors, if they would analyze this pharaoh and analyze his behavior, they'd say that he has several personality disorders. They call them now mental disorders, they call them mental illnesses.

[12:07] And understand, I'm not talking about a brain disorder, dementia, or some organic malfunction of the brain. I'm not talking about anything like that or something that's a genetic disorder, nothing like that.

[12:21] I'm talking about what people have branded today as a personality. A personality disorder. And they've said it's now a, it's a mental illness. I think this terminology should be somewhat familiar living around where we do.

[12:37] If you see somebody act out in aggressive behavior or somebody abuse alcohol, well they say they have a mental illness.

[12:49] They have a personality disorder. And they've arrived at this because scientists and psychologists have developed categories after studying and studying and doing much investigation and analysis.

[13:03] They developed categories based upon the symptoms of individuals. And so they've written textbooks. They've written conclusions. And I want to read you just an overview of, I've searched many, many sites and many of the top tier medical groups and their evaluation and what they put out.

[13:24] And this is just an overview from one of them, a very common and popular one. They all say the same, similar things. Here's what they say about this thought of personality disorders as they call them.

[13:36] People have unique personalities, true, made up of complex combination of different traits. Personality traits affect how people understand and relate to the world around them as well as how they see themselves.

[13:50] Ideally, people's personality traits allow them to flexibly adapt to their changing environment in ways that lead to more healthy relationships with others and better coping strategies.

[14:02] Now, I know that's a mouthful and it sounds very soft, but if you're not hearing what they're saying, what they're describing is when situations arise in your day, you're supposed to be flexible.

[14:17] You're supposed to be able to deal with it, to cope with it, to manage it. And the thought is personality traits allow them to flexibly adapt. It says, when people have personality traits that are less adaptive, this leads to inflexibility and unhealthy coping.

[14:35] It's a very generic manner of, I mean, I could say it a whole lot plainer. For example, they may manage stress by drinking or misusing drugs.

[14:45] They may have a hard time managing their anger and find it hard to trust and connect with others. And we call all of this personality disorders if they can't function correctly, if they blow up, or if they turn to substance abuse.

[15:02] A personality disorder is a mental health condition where people have a lifelong pattern of seeing themselves and reacting to others in ways that cause problems. Did you hear that? They cause problems.

[15:14] But it's a health condition when somebody causes problems. People with personality disorders often have a hard time understanding emotions and tolerating distress.

[15:25] They act impulsively. This makes it hard for them to relate to others, cause serious issues, affecting their family life, their social issues, their relationships, work performance, school performance, and overall quality of life.

[15:41] Now, this is from the medical profession today. This is their language. This is their description, their overview of what they call personality disorders. I think it probably sounds, I hope it does, I hear the language, I hear what they're saying, it sounds like stuff you've been hearing for years now, very much loudly in your face.

[16:01] People are diagnosed with disorders, and now they're victims of a condition that they have through no fault of their own. It's just a personality trait, as the doctors suggest, and it's actually a condition, and it needs to be managed with medication, or it needs to be tolerated.

[16:18] In other words, when somebody flips out on you and cusses you out, it's just a condition, it's a personality disorder, and you need to tolerate it, because it's not their fault. And you can't react to that if you can flexibly adapt to the changing environment of somebody cursing you out.

[16:36] That's the thinking here. I'm going to, just stay with me. I wonder if that stuff even sounds familiar to you. Like, are we on the same page right now with our society, with what's being preached and taught?

[16:48] I'm not building up a straw man here so that I can burn him down with the Bible. I'm just giving you things that has been logic and doctrine in our present society.

[16:59] It has a very strong presence, and it has very strong support in the world we live in today. My question then, is it right, or is it wrong? What we're studying, what we're talking about.

[17:11] I agree, I fully agree with what I've read, that you can study people's personalities, their traits, their behaviors, you can study them, you can categorize them as they're this, they're this, they're this, they're this, they're this, they're this.

[17:25] Most of them, they have 10 personality disorders. Most of these fall into these 10 categories. And so I agree with their categories. I agree with what they've studied.

[17:35] I believe it all has a legitimate basis of what they're seeing and analyzing and then putting into categories. That's fine with me. But there's something I think they all miss. And I think they'll forever miss the real thing.

[17:48] And what is that? It's the reason for the behavior. It's the reason for why they act out or rather the source for what they're calling a disorder or an illness.

[18:01] It's an explanation of it all. It's a root is what they're missing. And I want to talk about that a little bit and then we're going to get back into Exodus. Now in this Bible God has given us a revelation of truth.

[18:17] He has given mankind a revelation of truth of himself, of his personality, of his doings, of his actions, of his expectations for his, his creation, his creation, his expectations for what he formed and made.

[18:43] This book gives us all of that. What that sounds like in our kind of modern terminology is a worldview, a biblical worldview. But when man rejects the Lord God, his creator, when he rejects his word, the Bible, and establishes his own parameters for human behavior and research, he ends up pretending that man is good.

[19:08] And he also pretends, and he says, man is the apex of evolution. He is the top. There's no creator. That Bible, all that's baloney.

[19:19] It's religion. Put it in its own little place and keep the door shut. And he excuses any negative behavior, like the personality stuff, as a disorder.

[19:30] And so God rejecting sinful men, scientists, a.k.a. modern science, has developed his own doctrine and his own textbook.

[19:44] I want you to remember that this book has predated all of modern science's symptoms and publishing of their opinions. This book's been a lot longer and it shows a different story.

[19:57] It shows the very same symptoms. Do you understand that? If you're with me so far, this book shows the same symptoms, the categories that they study in human behavior.

[20:09] It shows the very same symptoms to be in the human race long before they studied it, long before they wrote their journals, long before they prescribed their procedures and medicines. This book has declared man to have those very symptoms.

[20:24] It reveals a different source. It actually reveals the source. What science has never done is reveal the absolute source of the behavior.

[20:38] And so what we actually have here is two worldviews, two different worldviews. One is that God created man and it explains the situation man got himself into.

[20:52] The other one says there is no God and man will sort it out and figure it out and explain it in his own way. And that's where we are. I told you two weeks ago when we studied a little bit about atheism, I told you that.

[21:06] I think in this society you're only seeing the beginning of the insanity of a nation that has rejected God. The things that you can't believe exist and decisions people make and allow, it just blows your mind that this is acceptable in our culture.

[21:20] You're just seeing the tip of the iceberg. It's coming. And this stuff falls into some of that category here of the fruit of a nation or of a people that will declare there is no God and then they come up with their own ideas.

[21:34] Now let's go back to the king of Egypt. In verse 8 we read in Exodus there arose a new king over Egypt and like all new rulers he came to power and he took a fresh assessment of his kingdom.

[21:47] And one major concern what we see right away is this growing thriving population of Hebrews. They're doing so well.

[21:59] There's so many of them. It says in verse number 7 that the land was filled with them. And this king became concerned. He didn't want them to leave.

[22:10] Matter of fact in verse 10 we'll read it that was one of the last things he wanted to see happen. Egypt was way too powerful way too industrious. This was a great labor force to have. A great asset.

[22:22] He didn't want them to leave at all. But what he wanted to ensure was that he could control them. And so to this king control is of utmost importance.

[22:33] That might sound typical of governments. You could probably big government yeah you can go that direction in your mind right away but it's not the government that's the problem. It's the wicked heart of man that is the problem.

[22:46] And so let that let those words hit you right now because they're going to keep coming back up. What we see in this new king is a sinful heart.

[22:57] A source for his supposed personality disorders. It's sin on the inside. And this kind of behavior can be seen in husbands.

[23:07] It can be seen in mothers. It can be seen in bosses. It can be seen in rulers of any kind. Anybody that has authority can display this kind of behavior. And they want to have control by any means necessary.

[23:22] So this new king rises to power. But notice something from verse number 8. One more thing we need to plug in here. This is crucial. At the end of verse 8 it said which knew not Joseph.

[23:34] The new king risen to power over a powerful large land but the Bible specifically declares he knew not Joseph. and this isn't good for him.

[23:45] You say why does that matter? It's because everything he has is because of Joseph. If we read back through Genesis it was Joseph that saved and preserved Egypt.

[24:00] There was seven years of plenty seven years of famine of hard famine coming for Pharaoh that he really knew nothing about. If it wasn't for the wisdom of Joseph and the discretion of Joseph they wouldn't have saved.

[24:14] They wouldn't have prepared. Their economy would have been destroyed. Instead of that during that time their economy went through the roof. I'll just show you this.

[24:25] Look back at Genesis 47. Take a quick trip here to Genesis 47. Joseph warned Pharaoh about this stuff coming.

[24:39] He instructed Pharaoh how to prepare for this and the people loved him. And as I said earlier the people bowed down before Joseph. Look at Genesis 47 and this is in the heat of the famine because of the wisdom of Joseph and the discretion that he exercised in the land they saved from those years of plenty and they stored it up in their land and look at verse number 13 and there was no bread in all the land for the famine was very sore so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine and Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the corn which they bought and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

[25:34] Do you see how rich the Egyptian king was in Joseph's day? All the money from Canaan coming down to buy this is the Philistines the Hivites the Hittites the whole group the Jebusites they're all needing food Egypt's got it they go spend their money in Egypt he got so rich filthy rich over this thing on top of that I won't read it to you but if you continue reading when the food failed their money failed they offered their cattle to Pharaoh and when that failed they offered their lands to Pharaoh and he bought them or he traded the corn for that and then when that failed they had to survive they offered themselves as servants to Pharaoh in the end the king of Egypt owned the whole thing every soul all their possessions he was dominant and when he gave them things to sow in the land he gets a fifth of that and they get to keep 80% he had a set up going that he was just reeling it in and this king steps up to power in Exodus chapter 1 a new king steps up to power everything he has and controls is because

[26:42] Joseph Joseph's doings if that Joseph wasn't there their economy would have been destroyed who knows if Egypt ever would have recovered back to power even close to it now something else about this it says that he knew not Joseph Joseph is the greatest picture in the Bible of the Lord Jesus Christ as in in the Old Testament there are pictures we call them types we've been studying Boaz in the book of Ruth as a type of Christ Joseph is the greatest there are like some 75 particulars in the book of Genesis about Joseph that came true or happened in the life of Jesus Christ just as a for instance he was envied by his brethren the Bible says the same of Jesus Christ he was hated for his words he was a shepherd where Christ is the good shepherd Joseph was sold for silver I think you remember that one right Joseph was falsely accused in Egypt as was the Lord Jesus it goes on and on and on and so as a type

[27:44] Joseph pictures Jesus Christ and you might say well what's the point well when one doesn't know Joseph aka Jesus Christ don't expect wisdom don't expect a sound mind instead expect a personality that will absolutely be riddled with traits of arrogance of harm or just straight up evil now if you got that far all of that to bring us to the text and to bring us to this man and to studying him out a little bit and trying to merge and understand what to take a shot at modern science and exalt the Bible while we even study this passage so in today's world today's doctors would look at Pharaoh and his behavior in this chapter that we'll read and they would say this guy has several personality disorders but I'm submitting to you it's not a personality disorder at all or a mental illness but it's a wicked heart a wicked heart on the inside and it's evidenced by his sinful behavior and what we're going to do here is I'll list off some of these symptoms and I'll call this this morning the dictator's disorders now I know it took a long time to introduce all of that and I'll try to be quick with this so the first one we see is in verses 9 and 10 paranoia paranoia verse 9 he said unto his people behold the children of Israel 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 into our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land and I told you he doesn't want them to get up out of the land but he wants to control them he says the Hebrews are going to turn on me and he has no evidence for this supposition at all they're a peaceful people they are not rebellious he doesn't have to deal with the burnings in the land of Goshen every other weekend that's not on his radar that's not happening it's supposed in his head now you might argue that well he's just prudent he's preparing for the worst but the truth is he doesn't know

[30:00] Joseph and had he known Joseph he would have celebrated that people he would have celebrated the Hebrews and the significance of that race and how they have there would like we do that as cultures today as a society we recognize an individual that does outstanding things and make a holiday for him and furthermore if he wants to have a good working relationship with them take care of them bless them praise them and they'll honor him and submit to them but more on that in a minute you can call it a personality disorder of paranoia but it's not and Christian when it's displayed in your life when you're afraid of circumstances that could happen or things you can't control or you presume things and get consumed with things it's worry it's care and it's fear and God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind you know what Christian when you show this in your life you know what it's not it's not faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin

[31:26] Romans 14 and this book here is filled with examples of men that made decisions based on fear or paranoia and not faith I'll give you one earlier on Abram had a wife Sarah beautiful woman leaving the land because of trials and going to Egypt and he said Sarah you realize when they see you they're going to kill me is he operating in faith is he trusting that God promised to give him this land and a seed and all of that is out the window and he's paranoid and he's living in fear and it's crippling him and his testimony and his relationship with his wife what he asks her to do and guess who does it his son does the same thing a few chapters later Isaac years later Jacob has Joseph in Egypt thinks that he's dead and the brothers come and say hey we have to bring

[32:27] Benjamin down to Egypt and he says oh no oh no if I send Benjamin I know what's going to happen he's going to be killed I've already lost Joseph I can't stand to lose my son Benjamin and he creates situation in Egypt with his boys such such just dysfunction such a mess that never had to happen but Jacob was paranoid and the examples go through the scripture you know what it's not a personality disorder church it's a wicked heart it's fear inside of your heart and it should be replaced with faith now the Bible has a solution I want to take you on this one I'm going to take you to some passages go to Philippians chapter 4 two passages I'll give you and they're so popular you know them maybe by heart and that's great but let's make sure that you know how to apply them Philippians chapter 4 Galatians

[33:27] Ephesians Philippians Philippians chapter 4 the Bible has a solution for this fear for this paranoia for this way of reacting and it's not medication the Bible shows us it's a work of the flesh and it's something that's supposed to be put off something that's supposed to be put down or mortified in Philippians 4 notice verse number 6 and 7 I told you you knew these verses be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God you notice the context is about something that you would otherwise be full of care about be worried about and the word of God says don't do that for anything instead take it to God take it all to God in verse number 6 let it be known unto God verse 7 and here's what happens when you obey the scripture and the peace of God it comes from the source of God the peace of God which passeth all understanding doctors won't be able to put their finger on this one shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus paranoid mind filled with worry and fear and stress the solution is that's a work of your flesh take it to God leave it at his feet take it to the throne of grace you'll find the peace of God it will keep your heart it will keep your mind when you're full of care and worry but you're going to have to pray because you have to pray you have to learn to go by faith to God over these issues that fill your mind with care come back to

[35:37] Proverbs chapter 3 another very common passage to us but one that you need to learn how to apply Proverbs chapter 3 and notice verses 5 through 7 trust in the Lord there's faith with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil you'll see in the chapter that there's some people that feared the Lord back in Exodus and it wasn't Pharaoh and if you start exercising yourself in faith and taking your problems to God and trusting in him it's going to lead you somewhere as this passage was continuing in Proverbs 3 by verse 13 you find happiness happiness by verse 17 you find pleasantness and peace and as it keeps going wouldn't you know by the time you get to verse 24 and 25 when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid verse 25 be not afraid the fear is gone when you learn how to take it to the Lord and when you learn how to trust in him and that's a work of the new man believer it's a work of the Christian and my my my how the book has the answers how the book has solutions to these things and it's not a doctor's visit it's a Bible visit because the book will get that out of you now we're going to move on

[37:47] I've got to be quick now come back to Exodus and I'm really going to try to go fast here and if you're with me you're doing well I'm not sure if I'm really all together on this to clear I'm afraid I'm bouncing too much for you but please stick with me we're almost finished with the whole the entirety of it all back in Exodus we see that there was paranoia as one of these supposed disorders personality disorders but no it's not it's a wicked heart a heart of fear and not a heart of faith and now moving forward we're going to see some things that fall into what would be several categories of our of our psychologist findings today and personality disorders or illnesses they call them and you're going to see some irrational behavior some aggressive behavior and solutions to what he needs to his response look at verse 11 how he responds to dealing wisely with them in verse 11 of Exodus 1 we'll read 11 through 14 here therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities

[38:59] Pithom and Ramesses but the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew and they were grieved because of the children of Israel verse 13 and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor now the Pharaoh the new king here believes that afflicting them later on God says that he oppressed them he believed that that would subdue them and they've done nothing wrong but yet the new king is going to establish his dominance over them and ensure that there's no uprising and no rebellion number one it's irrational why because typically when you afflict somebody they're more likely to rise up against you history bears that out very clearly you leave them alone they don't you mess with them they react doth not nature itself teach you if a bear robbed of her whelps what's she gonna do one of the most dangerous animals on the earth is a mother bear with her cubs nearby don't mess with the babies see that in a minute too this behavior is irrational and it's aggressive making their lives bitter just because you're paranoid it's far beyond reason what he's doing causing them to serve with rigor just wearing them out thinking this is showing his dominance there's more irrational behavior that even leads on the psychotic level here verses 15 and 16 the king of Egypt spake to the

[40:59] Hebrew midwives of which the name of one was Shiphrah and the others was Pua 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 now his decision his behavior is to presume or rather you know what let's murder their babies let's murder their innocent baby boys he's proposing to these midwives that they participate in genocide now psychiatric evaluation kind of of this guy talk about being removed from reality or absent of empathy or emotional detachment the people that work for you your peaceful labor force that are doing your bidding without fighting you without complaining you're going to murder their babies and think that this is going to resolve a non-existent issue that they're trying to take over something you imagine in your head you know what's going to happen when you murder their babies they're going to hate you they're going to despise you this guy is not thinking right he's wrong this king has issues and I'm not talking about something he needs to be evaluated for it's sin issues it's a wicked heart that wants control by any and all means all of this in our language of psychology today is deemed obsessive compulsive needing control or antisocial or narcissistic in his response in his behavior but in reality it's sin there's pride inside of this man's heart he's abusing his power he's even murdering the innocent to promote himself or to preserve himself now there's a couple lists in our new testament about of sins just a straight up list of men who are going to deteriorate into this and I'm going to condense those lists and just read a few off to you see if it sounds like this guy of a reprobate mind in Romans 1 full of envy murder debate deceit malignity haters of God despiteful proud without natural affection implacable meaning incapable of being satisfied unmerciful these are sins church in 2nd

[43:42] Timothy 3 a condensed list there says they're lovers of their own selves proud there it is again without natural affection false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good the bible list of these sins fits this man's behavior to a T and there's no scientific label and he's not a victim of a disorder it's just sin from a wicked heart now finally in the chapter there's one final evidence that displays that he displays that falls into again a multitude of these categories this antisocial disorder they call it or this schizotypal disorder is that he exhibits strong delusion presumes that the power that he asserts over others is final even tradition says in

[44:44] Egypt that they worship the pharaoh and their kings as a god and that's gone to his head and he believes this in verse number 16 come back to that verse he said to these midwives these Hebrew midwives he said when you 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 you know what he thought when those midwives left the room they're going to obey me because I'm God because I'm Pharaoh because what I say they will obey how deluded is this man to think that these professional ladies medical professionals that perform the office of a midwife that they're going to go inside a closed home door and get inside there with a woman delivering a child and there is extreme tension and stress and strain in the moment and there's pain and there's screaming and there's need to be calm and need to be relaxed and keep your focus and all of this the tension is very high in these moments as you well know and even so back in these days death was not uncommon and so very much alert and aware of what could happen to the baby what could happen to the mother these are professional women and it's an extreme ordeal that they're dealing with in giving in childbirth and assisting and the thought that they're going to go into that environment and deal with all of that and then the baby comes and

[46:25] I'm sorry it's a boy and then what use some tool in their medical bag do something and just murder the baby outright and then leave with their bag and say have a nice day I've got two more visits today that's what he expected them to do in reality go just how are they going to murder this son when the mom's right there when the dad's no doubt close by this guy's nuts it's a terrible idea from all ankles I don't see how he ever thought this was good or that it would work or that these women would obey his command you know just to put it in perspective we think we think our bosses are delusional if they say hey I need you to get all this done before the end of the day and it's like this is like six hours worth of work and it's two o'clock yeah I need you to get you know got to get it done and we think what are you what are you smoking what are you thinking

[47:33] I can't do that nobody can do that but it's it's there's a delusion there let's finish the chapter I'm going to quickly read verse 17 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 you done this thing and why have you saved the men children alive and the midwives said unto Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women 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 it came to pass because the midwives feared God that he made them houses speaking of their households they themselves were blessed with fruit of their wounds and verse 22 and Pharaoh charged all the people saying every son that's born shall be cast into the river and every daughter shall be save alive so the women feared God and God in turn blessed them and gave them children and what you sow you reap and so there it is now let's conclude and I want to take you to two passages to conclude go to

[48:40] Romans chapter 6 and we are finished here with these last two scriptures Romans 6 and then just a little bit next door is 2nd Corinthians 10 now in all of this that we've covered this morning what a world that rejects God calls a disorder or a condition of your personality again I'm not talking about something that's in the brain and something that you can't control what the world has looked at and decided that's a condition the Bible shows that it's sin at the root of these flaws at the root of these faults if it's a disorder it's because there's disorder in your life and there's sin in your heart I want you to listen to this if you're saved

[49:41] God is on the inside of you in the new man and if you walk in the new man as you're told the new man God will not allow your personality flaws or faults to overcome you to overtake you to where you act in a deviant or disobedient manner no no the new man if you walk in Christ he'll subdue that stuff all those tendencies to need alcohol or drugs to satisfy yourself or to deal with it to cope he won't allow anger is a fruit of this or a work of the flesh he won't allow that abrupt calling out or cursing or road rage or the explosions that's not the work of the new man and so any of these what they call disorders of the personality are only evidence that either the individual is not saved and does not have the spirit of God in him or he's just not being led by the spirit of God you're in the flesh all right take a look now at Romans chapter 6 look at verse number 12 let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lust thereof neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin shall not have dominion over you look at verse 20 for when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death but being now made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life for the wages of sin is death but the gift of

[51:53] God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord I hope you can see in these where these thoughts tie in where the sin what modern science calls disorders or some kind of illness and mental health thing where it's a root of sin inside of you it's not to have dominion over you the Lord Jesus Christ is to have dominion over you and he will not allow you to react or to live in envy and to divisions and strifes and you can go down the list now come to 2nd Corinthians 10 and we're finished 2nd Corinthians 10 verse number 5 here's a command for you casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God you can just lump that whole thing in the teachings of the doctrines that are come out of a God rejecting society and cast them down and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ now all these symptoms that are displayed in your personality they come from within and if they're negative symptoms and bad things they come from your sinful nature and we need the

[53:18] Lord Jesus Christ to rule in our hearts and we need the word of God to rule in our minds and so then put down that old nature and those tendencies and those flaws and faults not let those things have dominion over us God came long before the psychologist and the modern scientist and he described the root he described the evidence the fruit the whole thing it's in the book and as Bible believers we're people of a book learn to go to the book first and reject what modern science tells you even if they've analyzed the same behavior even if they see it and categorize it okay there's a root to it there's a root to the fruit and the Bible gives us the diagnosis and the solution far better than sinful man can so we're going to quit there and I know that that went a little long and a little much but I hope you'll learn to trust and lean on your

[54:27] Bible