"By faith
Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents,
because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of
the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned."
Good Morning my beloved,
Its often been said, life is full of choices. We all must make choices in life, and quite often, those choices result in significant consequences. Many have heard the message of the gospel preached at some point in their life, and have failed to make the commitment to Christ. While others, having been moved by the Spirit, have given their life to Christ, but have failed to obey His commands. Still others, have heard, committed and fallen away. I feel compelled to tell you, that each of the choices have significant consequences. There is only one right choice. To hear the gospel, and respond by submitting your life, in obedience to Christ.
Many of the Jewish people who were associated with believers, had heard
the gospel, they were interested in the gospel, but who had not yet come to
put their faith in Christ. And one of the questions that the Jewish
people would have about the gospel of Jesus Christ would be this: that
since salvation according to the gospel is by faith, something new? Their understanding of the Old Testament and of Judaism was that if you’re good enough and moral enough, if you observe all of the
ceremonies, all the rituals, do your part to keep the Law
externally, and do all of the required things that the rabbis have added
to Scripture, if you manage to make a good effort and get to a
certain point, that you’ll be accepted by God. Judaism had developed into a system of works. Salvation was a matter of your own effort and your own works.
So, when the gospel comes along and says, "Forget all of that, none of that, none of that contributes to your salvation; it’s all a matter of grace and faith," the Jews were wondering if this was some new message. And so, the
writer of Hebrews is pointing out, in this chapter, that salvation has
always been by faith. And to make his point, he goes all the way back to
the beginning of the Old Testament.
We have already learned in the book of Genesis and Hebrews 11, through 22, about Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and how they demonstrated faith. And, we have seen that those men all had a right relationship with God through faith. So now we leave the book of Genesis behind, and move to the book of Exodus. The story of Moses. In fact, the story of Moses actually goes from the beginning of the book
of Exodus all the way to the thirty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy. Moses
story is so extensive that it goes through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy. The elements of the story of Moses are contained in all of those.
In fact, the
only part of the Pentateuch that isn’t written by Moses, including the
book of Genesis, is the account of his death at the end of Deuteronomy.
So, he’s the author of Genesis, but his story actually fills Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So, Moses has a lot to tell us.
Let's go back to Hebrews 11, verses 24-26, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward."
Now, the assumption of the Jews would be that Moses is the model of the Law. In fact, the Law was even called the Mosaic Law and it was called the Law of Moses. And so, to the Jews, if anybody was a model of legalism, it had to be Moses. Moses was the ultimate archetypal legalist, and so it is a stunning statement to say that Moses operated in the spiritual realm by faith, and not by law. And, the way that the writer of Hebrews lays out the faith of Moses is to show you how His faith acted,and the series of choices that it made.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word, this great truth of faith that only You can give, the faith that saves. Thank You for the Holy Spirit for sharing this amazing story of faith, helping us to realize, that faith makes all the right choices. Lord, we humbly thank You for the great gift of faith and for giving us the kind of faith
that says no to the passing world and yes to what is eternal. A faith that will not be intimidated by the pressure, or the fear of man, but operates
in the trust and confidence of the unseen power of Christ to protect His own. We give You all the praise and glory.
In Jesus' name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Moses By Faith
Genuine saving faith is selective, Moses life is marked by choices that related to his faith. Moses is the next example of salvation by faith. To Israel, Moses was the greatest prophet. He was the great lawgiver. He
was Israel’s greatest historian, authoring everything from Genesis to
Deuteronomy. He was considered Israel’s greatest saint, being revealed
by God’s Word as the humblest of the entire human race, in Numbers 12:3.
He was also Israel’s greatest deliverer, delivering Israel from 400
years of slavery in Egypt. Because Moses ranks so highly among the Old
Testament figures, to show that he lived by faith and not adherence to
the Law was a powerful argument to convince the Jews that God’s way had
always been the way of faith.
Our lives are marked by our choices, we are either making the right choice or making the wrong choice. Allow me to add, sin is always a bad choice! However, people today, don’t want to acknowledge their bad decision of sin, so most often we hear that they made a modest "mea culpa," which were really lustful, passionate sins against God. We
face an opportunity every day of our lives, over and over again, to
make the right choice. Every circumstance poses another opportunity for us to make a choice.The question then becomes, will we make a right choice or a wrong one.
Napoleon once said, that in every battle there is a ten to fifteen minute
period of time in which the issue of the battle is settled. To gain this
is victory, to lose it is defeat.
So every moment of every day, comes the opportunity to make a choice, we will either you grasp the opportunity for the glory of God, by choosing the
way of God, the way of truth, the way of righteousness, or we choose
the way of the flesh, the way of the world, the way of Satan. This is the choice that each one of us faces every day in life.
Allow me to share a few examples with you from our previous lessons, Abel chose God’s way, the more excellent way of sacrifice; his brother didn’t. Abel was blessed, and his brother was cursed. Enoch chose to walk with God, God’s way. The rest of the world didn’t. Noah chose God’s
way, and the rest of the human race was drowned in his generation. Abraham chose God’s way to live a life of faith, and the people in whose land he dwelt did not and were tragically destroyed. And, there are many others in the Scripture that you could look at, however, in our text we will be looking at Moses as our model of faith.
Moses chose to believe God, to believe the revelation of God, the Word of God,
to live a life of faith. And Moses faith is demonstrated in his decisions.
Open with me your Bibles to the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews. This a brief portion of Scripture that encompasses the
characteristics of faith that are indicated in the life of one very well-known Old Testament man, whose name was Moses. I am sure that you are well aware of Moses, however, many of you many not be as familiar with many of his salient characteristics, however, since we have been learning a great deal about faith, we certainly cannot pass this opportunity to view the story of Moses.
I would like to invite you to follow along with me as I read verses 23-29, to set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for a Word for the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 11:23-29.
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned."
That's a rather condensed version of the story of Moses. As you know, Moses had, by the providence of God, been put in a basket covered with
pitch and set in the Nile River to float away. His mother did that
because there was a decree to kill all of the Hebrew babies. To stem the population explosion among the Hebrew slaves in Egypt the
Pharaoh gave an edict that all male babies were to be drowned in the
Nile.
To protect their newborn child Amram and Jochebed first hid
him for three months, and then put him in a water-proofed basket and
placed him in the Nile near the place where the Pharaoh’s daughter
bathed. In
order to save his life, they simply let him float away, cared for
by the providence of God. Had he been one of the Hebrew babies to be
killed by Pharaoh, there would have been no story of Moses, and God’s
history would never have been what God ordained it to be. Moses mother was willing to risk her life to follow God’s will. Her
decision was clear: save the child, whatever the consequences. It was no small matter to defy the royal decree, but faith drove out fear.
From a human perspective, his parents had no way of knowing even that
his life would be spared, much less that, for all purposes, he would be
given back to them. Yet, they willingly let him go, entrusting him to
God. The faith of Moses begins with the faith of his parents. Verse
twenty three says that the parents of Moses saw that he was a "beautiful
child," which implies not merely a handsome child, but that they saw that he was no ordinary child.
So in order to get some of the back story, let's look at Exodus 2 verse 5-6, "The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children." Apparently, it was no mystery that this was a little Jewish boy.
Verses 7-10, "Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water."
So verse 10 tells us that "the child grew." Now, Scripture doesn't give us any specifics as to how long that growing process was, some would argue that it was only until he was around 3, I tend to believe that he was older than that, like around 12. I believe that she would have hung onto him as long as possible, in order to give him the proper training in the things
of God, which would later guide the decisions of his life. If he had been given back at a much younger age, how would he have known anything about God? You see?
If he had of been older, he would have learned of the reiteration of the promise to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, the hope of the Promised Land, knowing that the time would come when God would lead His people out of Egypt, that God had promised to send a deliverer for Israel. The promise of the coming Messiah, the One who would bruise the serpent’s head. He would had learned all that God had revealed up to that point.
Verse 11, "Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren." According to Acts 7:22, these
were the years in which he learned all the wisdom of Egypt. So, he
started out with a foundation in his life, and the foundation in his
life was the truth of God revealed up to that point. And so, he knew the
truth of God from his parents. Now, Moses had grown up, he would been immersed in the Egyptian culture, living as the grandson of Pharaoh, the greatest ruler on the planet and he had a choice to make.
Let's go back to Hebrews 11, verses 24-26, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward."
Moses would have been educated in all the learning of the Egyptians. He was a man of
power in words and deeds. And when he was approaching the age of forty,
it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And as indicated in Acts chapter 7, he knew that God called him.
Acts 7:21-25, "And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand."
I'm sure you've noticed that Exodus chapter 2 says the same thing, the moment at which he rejected the prestige and the honor that came with being a prince in Egypt. And he took his place with the slaves, because he knew God had a higher calling for him, a better kingdom. In other words, Moses gave up all that he could see, for what he couldn't see, that's faith. And so, Moses trusts God to accomplish His purposes and plans in his life.
Verse 26 says "considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward."
Job chapter 20 says it this way, "That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless momentary?" The pleasure of sin is passing, that's the point. Moses chose to reject the fleeting pleasures of sin. That’s the choice that faith makes, and Moses made the right choice. Moses made a conscience choice to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the momentary pleasures of sin. Moses considered that the pathway to greater riches, more than anything Egypt had to offer.
Then, in verses 27-28, "By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the
king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. By faith he kept the
Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the
firstborn would not touch them."
Moses did not fear the wrath of the king because he knows his life is in the hands of God. This is the first act that we see in
expressing faith on Moses’ part. Faith is willing to deny itself, to do
the will of God. You have to let go of the preoccupation with this world, in order to take
hold of the promises of God. You must choose between the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life and Christ. You cannot
have it both ways.
When you come to Exodus chapter 5, after 40 years in Midian, he comes back. Verse says "And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness."
Forty years of living in the land of Midian, forty years of having been prepared by God, commissioned at a burning bush, he marches right into Pharaoh's palace, facing a proud, haughty, pagan monarch who reigns over the greatest empire in the world, he's got no army, no weapon, and makes his demands, "Let My people go.. " Then, he proceeds to tell Pharaoh he better respond or it’s not going to go well. That my friends is boldness at its finest! That is a man of faith.
And, it didn't take very long, first the waters turn to blood, then the frogs come, then the dust and
the gnats, and then the dog flies, and the blood-sucking insects, then
the death of domestic animals, then the ashes, the dust, the boils, the
hail, the fire, the locust, the darkness, and verse 28 would indicate
the final plague: the death of the firstborn.
Moses was a man of faith, and he was accepted by God. Faith accepts the Lord's plans, rejecting all the pleasures of the world. Faith forsakes what is seen and endures, seeing Him who was unseen.
Moses accepted the Lord’s plans, and the Lord’s provisions, and the Lord’s promise. That brings us to verse 29, "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned."
Now, Exodus 14 says the people felt trapped; they were up against the sea, Pharaoh was coming after them with his army behind them. And Moses stands there, and gives them a command, Exodus 14:13-14, "But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." Moses was believing God for a miracle, that's an act of faith! And God split the Red Sea, and they all walked through on dry land. And when Pharaoh and his army tried to follow, "when they attempted it, were drowned."
Faith takes God’s word, God’s promise and moves right into the middle of a problem. Faith makes the right choices.
In Closing..
I believe that how we as parents, choose to raise our children, will have a greater impact on our society than anything else we do in this life. They will grow up, and will become a part of our culture and, depending on how they are raised,
they will either become a part of the solution or a part of the problem.
Proverbs 22:6 tells us "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." The word, "train," comes from a Hebrew word that was used to describe the
action of a midwife, who, soon after helping deliver a child, would dip
her finger into the juice of a chewed or crushed dates. Then she would
reach into the mouth of the newborn infant, and massage the gums and the
palate with this burst of flavor so the baby would be motivated to
learn to nurse. The word "train" literally means to "create a
thirst in."
The next part of that verse, "in the way he should go," means "a course of life or mode of action," in line with his unique God-given characteristics. You
see every one of these new little humans that will be born are unique, they are different. To increase the chances that your child will grow up and decide to
embrace a faith in God, create in him a thirst to use his unique talents
for God’s purposes. It is up to us as parents to create an atmosphere of faith in our homes and be godly examples to our children.
Today, you have a choice to make too. Maybe you need to choose to let go of the bitterness of the past and become a blessing. Perhaps you need to choose to offer healing to the broken relationships in your life. To mend past hurts and offer forgiveness.
Maybe you need to choose to be a blessing to someone, to restore hope to the hopeless. Letting someone know that no matter what today looks like, there's a future. And its a brighter future because Christ is there.
Living life by faith means basing our decisions and attitudes on God's promises rather than our feelings.
Faith is living in the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."
In the world in which we live, word are..well, just words. In God's Word, His promises are true, therefore, we can have every confidence that God will fulfill His promises, His purposes and His plans.
There are a lot of people out there and maybe even people around us, that don’t feel loved. As followers of Christ, we need to show God's love toward those people so that they can see the promises of God fulfilled in our actions toward them. God has promised to meet our needs. Yet, the world is full of people who are in need. We can be a blessing to others, by giving sacrificially to help meet the needs of others, trusting God to fulfill His promises in our lives. Each of us has something to offer, because we have been given gifts by God. Believing that God has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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