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[0:00] Well, we'll continue in Hebrews 11. I'm going to open back to our set. And as I mentioned, you have a great gift to your notes if you have your floor here.

[0:18] Some notes to be early, the outline to be there. You guys can see where we're looking today. Moses, this is that there, this is 23 to 29. If you did not open up, you'd come back to the table.

[0:35] Yes. You can't hear me, Dave? When he gets older. No, I appreciate that. Hey, Mike, will you see if this is on all the way, if you can crank that up?

[0:48] There's a dimmer switch. As I get older, it's harder to see. No, no, no, it's right in the sound bit there. There you go.

[0:59] That's much better. Thank you. All right, so I mentioned yesterday that we would try to read through the entire chapter. So we'll pick up where we left off yesterday and go from there.

[1:12] And we'll go to verse 31. Although, again, we're looking at verses 23 through 29 that focuses on the person of Moses. So we left off with verse 19, Abraham believing that he would receive back his son Isaac from the dead.

[1:27] And then, so we're looking at verse 20. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

[1:42] By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. By faith, Moses, when he was born, 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.

[2:03] By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

[2:16] He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

[2:34] By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

[2:51] By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

[3:03] Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we thank you for your word and how it instructs us and teaches us. And Lord, even more than that, by your spirit, changes our hearts.

[3:15] Lord, we pray you'd open your word to us, that you'd make it clear. As we focus on faith, and as we look at this man Moses, Lord, we pray that we would learn from his example. And Lord, we know it's more than just trying to follow an example.

[3:28] We pray that your spirit would be working in us to enable us to live in such a way that we might be men of faith. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

[3:38] Let me just start by reminding you what we've seen so far in terms of faith.

[3:56] Yesterday, I defined faith as an unshakable, assured, convinced hope in God that enables us to trust in him and his word.

[4:08] You may remember Simon Kistemacher. I quoted him at the end. And I'll bring this up again in the third message. But he says, Faith is adhering to the promises of God, depending on the word of God, and remaining faithful to the Son of God.

[4:22] All right. And I argued that one simple way of thinking of this would be we're believing the gospel. Faith is believing the gospel. Trusting in what God had promised in the gospel.

[4:35] And so today, we're going to look at Moses as an example of faith, of a man of faith. And just two points here. I want to look first at this. I kind of grouped in terms of the wording that was used in the passage.

[4:47] But the first is fear and obedience. And the second one was wealth and reward. So fear and obedience. Now, you guys hopefully will not begrudge me for including his parents in here, much as we talked about Sarah a little bit yesterday.

[5:01] It's men of faith. But as we look at Moses, I think we're taught something about his parents. I think his parents are even brought up because it relates to the same kind of faith that Moses had.

[5:12] So we're going to look first at his parents. Verse 23. We see there that Moses' parents hid him. You guys remember the context. Exodus 1, 22.

[5:23] 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. And so there's a command that every son was to be killed.

[5:36] We can think even culturally, abortion in our culture has not been mandated or commanded. But in this situation, it's commanded.

[5:47] The child's born and it's a boy, you have to kill it. And it's interesting that the reason why they didn't kill him. Did anybody catch what the reason was they hid him?

[5:59] What's that? He was beautiful. All right. How many of you, have you ever had a child that you, maybe I shouldn't ask this. I don't want anybody to raise their hand. Your kids are here.

[6:10] You're ready, kid, that you looked at, you thought, not beautiful. Right? Parents think their kids are beautiful. You guys forgive me, but I'll share some of my cynicism and you guys can maybe pray for me more diligently.

[6:22] So when I was in seminary in Atlanta, I was at RTS Atlanta and I was sitting behind this guy in class and he just had his baby. It pictures up on the computer. He's telling everybody about this baby he just had, right?

[6:35] And years ago, I'm still working on this, so forgive me, but years ago, I was really, I would joke around a lot and I tried to back off, at least in terms of lying type joking, saying something's true that's not true.

[6:49] So I'd really made a commitment that I wasn't going to lie. And so he's going around and he's showing everybody in the class the pictures of this baby. He said, isn't this the prettiest baby you've ever seen? You know, he'd ask questions like this and guys, I'd never seen a baby that ugly before in my life.

[7:03] And so he shows me the picture. He's like, what do you think of my baby? I said, congratulations. Prettiest baby you've ever seen, isn't it? I go, congratulations. It doesn't even look good.

[7:14] I'm like, congratulations. That's all I could say because I was committed not to lie to this guy. All right. But so, if this guy could think his baby was beautiful, I mean, are our babies beautiful?

[7:27] I mean, don't we think our babies, what in the world are saying, are they saying here? They thought the baby was beautiful. They just liked him. They favored him. What's being said here? I think it has to be understood that it's something more than just, we thought our baby was cute.

[7:43] You know, cutest baby I ever had until I have my second one. Stephen, in Acts 20, when he's recounting really redemptive history, he says, at this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight, which I think helps us to understand more.

[8:00] His parents found him to be beautiful. He's beautiful in God's sight. What's being communicated to us here? Take guesses. It's okay. I'm glad to tell you you're wrong.

[8:11] He was chosen and elected. In what sense? Okay, for a mission and for salvation. Okay. Others, what else would you say?

[8:27] God thought he was beautiful. Yeah. He's made the image of God. So were all the other babies. Why is this one saved and not the others? My point is to say, John, I think the fact that it's acknowledged that God found him beautiful and his parents found him beautiful is saying there's something remarkable here.

[8:44] Now, my tendency would be we're probably not talking about physical appearance when it says that he was beautiful. I think, Dean Ardo, you're hitting on the point. He's been chosen and set apart by God.

[8:56] I tend to think, and this is really going too far. I mean, I'm hypothesizing, okay? So I'll tell you like there are things I think when someone's preaching the word of God that they're sure of and there's other things that they're hypothesizing about.

[9:08] This is a hypothesis. So, I tend to think that they had a vision toward Genesis 3.15. So there's a promise that there would be a child who would crush the head of the serpent. And my view is that all throughout the Old Testament, redemptive history, they're looking for this child.

[9:23] And so I told you, Abraham was looking for the child. He thought it was going to be Isaac. And he would be raised from the dead if this is the one. And it was through Abraham's seed that all the children were named.

[9:34] It wasn't a physical descendancy. You guys understand that. It was through Abraham's seed. It was through Jesus, through which the children who are more numerous than the sands on the seashore exist. And you are one of those today. Right? So Abraham expected it with Isaac.

[9:46] Isaac with Jacob. He's chosen of the two sons. To some extent, I think, Joseph and going on. And so we have this narrowing. But I think that the faithful parents to God were looking for the coming Messiah.

[10:01] And so there's a way in which I think they see this child has been set apart by God, which is what Deonardo is saying. And that's true. Now, he wasn't the Messiah, but he's preparing the way for the Messiah.

[10:13] And there's something special that God has something prepared for him, and it's going to be accomplished. Yeah. Yeah, right.

[10:25] It wasn't a physical appearance. Yeah, no, I think that's a great point. He wasn't... Physical appearance was nothing to draw people to him. And yet, I think there's a way in which he's beautiful in God's sight, and I think it relates to the way we're saying Moses is.

[10:39] Yeah. Right. Right. So, yeah, if we were to trace that as well, the two lines, and understand that they're under that oppression, and God's deliverance of his people from the hand of the oppressor is going to be through Moses, in which sense he becomes a type of the Messiah to come.

[10:56] So, I just want to make that clear that they're saving his life because they understand something about this child that he will be a deliverer. Now, to what extent, I read people and John Brown, who's the Banner of Truth commentary on Hebrews, he argues that he thinks they received direct revelation from God that this child would be the deliverer and to preserve his life I don't know.

[11:19] But remember, by faith, they're believing in the promises of God and they're acting on those promises. So, they did not kill their child because they believed the promises of God. What promise did they believe?

[11:30] I think it's that, one, there would be a deliverer to come. Two, I think they also understood that they were to be in exile in Egypt for 400 years or four generations.

[11:42] The four generations is about up. They're believing God's promise that he's going to deliver our children and all of us from Egypt. So, the parents, it says that they're not afraid of the king's edict.

[11:57] And I think that fits with the theme we're going to see in Moses. So, I told you, fear and obedience is what I've kind of entitled our first point. They're not afraid of the king's edict. Rather, I almost want to say, they feared something greater.

[12:11] They feared God over the king. They obeyed God even if it meant disobeying the king because they feared him. So, they were not afraid of the king's edict because they feared God's edict.

[12:22] We could even say his command not to murder, which although the Ten Commandments had not been given, we understand that that was already in play because Cain and Abel. So, they knew God's law, what's right, and this is wrong.

[12:34] So, to that extent, maybe they obeyed as well. But again, the idea of faith, they're holding fast to the promises of God, the prophecy that they'd be delivered, the prophecy, the fourth generation, the prophecy of a coming Messiah.

[12:47] I think there was an implied threat over the edict to the king. It's not told to us specifically, but the king had ordered that you kill your child. If you don't, what's going to happen to you?

[12:59] Probably death, I think. So, there's a choice. Moses' parents kill Moses or they get killed. Seems to be the logical choice. Now, we know God delivered them as well by the child finding favor in Pharaoh's daughter's eyes and then they even get to raise their own child, at least for a time.

[13:19] But by faith, they did not fear even death. Or we could say they trusted that God would spare them and spare the son, which in fact, he did do.

[13:30] Now, I don't know where the faith rested in terms of what they knew and what they expected or what they hoped, but I think to some extent, maybe like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that as they go before the king there, you remember what they say?

[13:50] What God will deliver you? Our God will deliver us. But even if he doesn't, maybe there's some of that with Moses' parents too. God will deliver us and our son, but even if he doesn't, we have a great reward and we've seen that already, right?

[14:05] They're by fate setting their sight on a future reward. So they hid the baby and they were really wise in their disobedience. They didn't flaunt their disobedience.

[14:16] For three months, they hid the baby in the house and then, you know, they placed him in a homemade boat there, a little reed boat and floated him down the Nile. So they cast their child in the Nile.

[14:28] That's what the king had ordered, but not exactly the way he had ordered. They did it in a way to preserve the king's life. What I want you to see, though, is there's fear and it's saying they didn't fear the king's eat it.

[14:41] Why? Because they trusted God's promises. It's better to obey God than to fear even the king, even though we know he has power over us. And again, I'm not there yet, but in terms of application, you guys understand.

[14:55] And let me just clarify what I was saying yesterday is I'm saying we're not there yet, at least most of us probably in our jobs, but there may come a day in which it may be at work or it may be with the government, but being a Christian could become illegal.

[15:07] You guys may end up being missionaries in a country where it's illegal. And we're being taught a lesson here that what do you do? Well, you can't fear the king.

[15:20] He can only take your head. What's that? Right? We set our eyes, our sights are set on the reward. Then in verse 27, we see Moses is not afraid of the king as well.

[15:35] So again, Moses' parents, I think, are mentioned not just to say and this is why Moses was alive, but to say here's an example of faith and in the same way they didn't fear the king, they lived by faith.

[15:46] Remember the context of the people receiving this letter. They're getting plundered. They're getting arrested. Don't fear the king. Live by faith. So, Moses left Egypt.

[16:02] You guys, just from memory, kind of recount to me, why does Moses leave Egypt? What's the story behind that? Who can tell the story? Yes. Right, he killed an Egyptian for beating up on an Israelite.

[16:17] So he's protecting the life of his kinsmen. So, we'll get there in a minute, but he's identifying with God's people here. But he kills an Egyptian. There's a witness to it.

[16:28] And so the next day he sees two, I'm telling the story. I told you guys to tell the story. He sees two Israelites fighting. And he steps in to intervene with them. And one of them who apparently has heard or witnessed the event says, are you going to kill me too?

[16:43] And so he realizes at that point what? What's the realization? He's in trouble. Why? Right. The word's out. People know what I did.

[16:56] It can't be hidden. And if this guy knows and the word's spreading, then who's going to know? Everybody. In particular, Pharaoh.

[17:07] And if Pharaoh finds out, what's going to happen? Thank you. That's exactly what I was going to say. You know? He's a goner. So he flees Egypt.

[17:19] Yeah, he flees Egypt. So, I want to read to you Exodus 2. 14 through 15. Then Moses was afraid and thought, surely the thing is known.

[17:35] When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. Okay, so by all accounts, why did Moses leave Egypt?

[17:47] From Exodus 2. Based on Exodus 2, let's say. Not all accounts. Exodus 2. Why did Moses leave Egypt? He was afraid of the king. Right? I think that's the obvious answer. He was afraid of the king.

[17:57] Verse 27 of Hebrews 11. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. All right, Dan, you're a pastor.

[18:08] You solved that one for me. Ha ha. Okay, so though we know that there is a practical reason why he left, we also know by the inspiration of God's word, this is interpreting it for us and saying that wasn't the, I think I can at least say that is not the ultimate motivation for why he left.

[18:30] Fear wasn't what ultimately drove him to leave. I would even go so far as to argue from Hebrews that we get an idea that he's already determined to leave. He's decided to leave.

[18:41] Which is why he's upset when he sees an Egyptian attacking an Israelite. He has already decided in his heart by faith what we're going to see in a minute that I'm not Pharaoh's child or grandchild.

[18:55] I'm not one to live in Pharaoh's courts. I'm not an Egyptian. My identity is with God's people. And so he's identifying with the people of God which means he's not going to be able to endure there.

[19:08] He's decided already. He's chosen his side. And he's done so by faith. And we're going to see that really in our second point. So going to Midian likely saved his life.

[19:20] But self-preservation was not the motivation. That's not what ultimately drove him there. His ultimate motive. His leaving Egypt meant enduring something else. It was a decision that was already made as we're going to see in just a moment.

[19:33] So his faith we're told was based on seeing the invisible God. Think back of our definition of faith in verse 1. He's convinced of things not seen. He sees a king Pharaoh but he sees a greater king that he aligns with.

[19:51] God. And so then as we continue the story I really didn't touch on this so let me just say verse 27 by faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured and seeing him who is invisible.

[20:11] What did he endure? How is that example of faith? I think it's part of what we're going to see in just a minute. That he identified with God's people which meant rejecting the wealth and the riches of Egypt.

[20:25] He endured by going to Midian which we're going to look at in just a moment but if you guys remember the accounting of Moses' life God makes it really easy for us. It's split up into 40 years. 40 years in Egypt 40 years in Midian 40 years back in Egypt or 40 years in the wilderness after he comes back and delivers God's people.

[20:42] So really nice divisions here. So we skip 40 years and see in verse 28 that he obeyed God in the Passover. So we've skipped over all that happened in Midian. We know he left he went to Midian he was there for a time and he comes back to Egypt to deliver God's people 40 years later and what's mentioned to us as an act of faith is the Passover.

[21:01] By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer or the firstborn might not touch them. How's that an act of faith? And what is what is being communicated through the Passover and why does that matter?

[21:16] Go. You guys teach for me while I take a water break. Okay, let me start then.

[21:28] How's an act of faith? Just imagine you're told that if you sprinkled blood over your door your child wouldn't die and all the others will die. I mean that is completely arbitrary.

[21:40] I mean you understand like there's nothing about putting blood on your door that saves your child's life. God's going to do something. Yeah, Jerry. Much like when the virus comes together Yeah.

[21:55] Right. Right, the poison's not going to kill me it's going to jump out of my body or whatever because I'm yeah, that doesn't really make sense. Dave? Dave? Yeah.

[22:13] Right. Right. In essence and we're not really talking about Egypt we're talking about Moses but in essence all of Egypt had to make the same decision Moses had to make.

[22:39] Who do I align with? Am I with Egypt or am I with God's people? And what's going to identify me as God's people is I'm covered by the blood of the lamb. This is obvious I'm sure you guys Passover you've connected with the Lord's Supper before but yeah I mean they're trusting in the shed blood of a a substitute lamb which is prefiguring in a type of Christ.

[23:02] And so what I would argue again is that all of all of Egypt and in particular Moses here as he leads him and sets this example is he is hoping in the Messiah to preserve his life and the life of the people.

[23:14] If there's any hope of salvation it's coming through the blood of the lamb and so the trust and hope is in the blood of the lamb over the doorpost and so that I'm covered by the blood of the lamb which again I've said this multiple times but I think he's trusting in Christ the coming Messiah.

[23:32] So again by faith he led the people to obey God then in crossing the Red Sea we see as it continues. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land but the Egyptians when they attempted to do the same were drowned.

[23:47] Let's talk about it again. How is this an example of faith crossing the Red Sea on dry land? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[23:58] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[24:10] Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine? Yeah. Go ahead. Right. Yes. Yeah.

[24:26] Right. So we talked about faith is the trust in God something about his character we believe him to be faithful. So God tells Moses cross the Red Sea on dry land and you know I'll make sure you're okay. And yeah I think I'd have the same problem.

[24:39] Remember faith is the trust in what is unseen so we have God who's saying it we have the words of what's going to happen that has not yet taken place but also we have this water being held back probably by an unseen force.

[24:51] I've heard all kind of attempts and explanations of strong winds or whatever somehow God is holding this water back even if it's strong wind at some point the wind stops. When's that going to be?

[25:03] If I'm in the middle of this I'm dead. And so yeah we're trusting in God's promises that what he said he will accomplish and so again I see the issues of fear and obedience.

[25:15] They didn't fear the waters. They didn't fear the angel of death the destroyer who came through the camp. They trusted God and believed his promises that he would deliver them. And then you know as well that we see an example of what happens when you don't have faith.

[25:35] The Egyptians are swallowed up by the flood the firstborn are killed. Now let's look at the second example that of wealth and reward from his life verses 24 through 27 I read it earlier I won't go back and reread well maybe I will reread it so we hear the words.

[25:48] By faith Moses when he was grown up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward.

[26:07] By faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king. So in this passage we see Moses making a monumental decision based on his faith.

[26:18] It's a huge decision in his life. He measured two things against one another. the treasures of being Pharaoh's son or grandson to the reproach of following God and being destitute.

[26:35] So these are the two things he's comparing. I thought for a moment maybe we could imagine so you have here Pharaoh who is the ruler of the greatest empire in that day.

[26:47] Right? This is the major empire of the world. He rules it. Things are a little different than you know we give our president a salary I think it went from 240 to 400,000 if what 10 years ago or something.

[27:00] So we pay our president 400,000 dollars a year. If you're the ruler of Egypt the greatest empire of the world what do you possess? Yeah everything. I mean right? You probably own the entire country. You take whatever you want.

[27:11] The grain jurors so just imagine wealth beyond our comprehension like Elon Musk. I thought maybe that's a good example for us today. I saw that they're estimating now that he could be the first ever trillionaire because of space ads but now he's I think I have it in my notes.

[27:29] Yeah he's worth more 215 billion dollars. So I know that will never sink in. I don't care how you communicate that. A million million is one billion.

[27:45] So I mean you think of millionaires he would be the equivalent of 215 million millionaires he has that kind of wealth. I saw a comparison recently and this was back when it was maybe Jeff Bezos or something and I forget the example maybe you can find it on YouTube but they spread out like a tarp and they were piling up something.

[28:04] Anybody see this? It may have been even like it could have been grains of sand maybe paper clips something small you know and they're piling this up and they show this pile of millionaires and then they zoom out and they show what a billionaire is.

[28:16] It's huge but 215 billion dollars and just imagine Elon Musk says hey I'd like to adopt you. Right? I'm going to give you all my wealth when I die. Just think what that can buy.

[28:30] Probably Pennsylvania. And then some left over maybe. 215 billion dollars that's all yours. Just one condition. You can't be a Christian.

[28:41] You can't identify with Christ. You cannot go to church or identify with God's people. You can't worship. You can't read the Bible. None of that. That's it. Just one condition. In fact realize that the church is being mistreated and abused.

[28:57] So you have two choices. Either you can come and be a part of my family. No, not my. I'm Elon Musk at this point. Okay. You can come be a part of my family or you can be mistreated with the church.

[29:08] You can have your property plundered. You can be arrested. Right? This is an easy choice, isn't it? I mean, I think from worldly standards we have to understand that that would be difficult worldly speaking if you don't live by faith.

[29:22] So what do you choose? Well, it's an obvious decision for Moses. He chose to follow God and remain destitute. I mean, again, we see that contrast.

[29:35] Choosing to be mistreated with the people of God. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth. So, he endured mistreatment with God's people.

[29:49] Which again is why he left Egypt. He identified with God and his people. The decision was made before the murder and the fleeing of Egypt. It is why he was so enraged when he saw a Hebrew man being beaten up or abused by an Egyptian.

[30:06] So Hebrews tells us he chose the reproach of Christ in verse 26. Did you guys catch that when we read through? He chose the reproach of Christ. So I know some of you are probably thinking all this time, I'm making this stuff up.

[30:18] How does he keep sticking Christ into the Old Testament? Are you joking? By divine inspiration, God sees it that same way. He chose the reproach of Christ. So again, we don't know what all he understood but by faith he was looking to the coming Messiah.

[30:35] That's what his trust was in. He believed that he would be delivered through Christ. And so, the reproach of Christ is a greater reward. So his faith is in the unseen again, the unseen Messiah that was to come.

[30:50] His vision of Christ, not Pharaoh, is what got it his decision. So, his eyes are set upon Christ. He chose the reproach of Christ. So I want you guys to understand, his eyes, what he's setting his vision upon is Christ, not Pharaoh.

[31:05] What happens if we're looking at Pharaoh? Well, I think one of two things. Either fear drives us or wealth drives us. Right? That's what Pharaoh has to offer.

[31:16] Either you fear him or you accept his wealth. Those are your decisions. But when our eyes are set on Christ, the decision is made for us. It's not the wealth that I'm after.

[31:28] It's not even fear that's going to make me make these decisions. It's Christ. And so his vision is set on Christ. Fear or reverence for man or God, which is that determines our decisions.

[31:41] Is it our fear of man, whoever that may be, that motivates us and drives our decisions? I mean, sometimes it's even for good things. Right? Maybe we think, I don't really want to go to church today, but I'm going to go because people will see me there.

[31:59] And people are going to ask questions if I don't come. That's fear of man. I can drive us. Going to church is a good thing. But our motivation could be way wrong. And what we see driving him here is, it's not fear of man, it's fear of God.

[32:13] He has reverence for awe for God. And we're told that Moses was a stranger, an exile on the earth, which is the same language that's used for Abraham that we saw last night.

[32:26] And so many others that we're going to see elsewhere in the book of Hebrews who live by faith. They were strangers and exiles in the world. in the world. So Moses received the promise from God that Israel would receive Canaan.

[32:37] He knew that promise from Abraham. He knew that they were going to the promised land. But do you guys realize Moses never stepped foot in the promised land? So he spends 40 years, he gets to live in Pharaoh's house, at least for probably the latter, maybe 35, 33 years of that or so.

[32:54] He lives in Pharaoh's house. Pretty sweet. Right? You're in the palace. What about the last 80 years of his life? He goes to Midian. He lives in his father-in-law's house there, but he's, again, there as a stranger to an alien.

[33:06] He comes back. He delivers God's people just to wander in the desert in tents because camping's in tents. So he's in tents in the desert for 40 more years. And he, like Abraham, has no home.

[33:19] And he sees the promised land from the top of a mountain but isn't allowed to ever even step a foot into it. So does he receive the promise? Oh, come on.

[33:29] No, he doesn't. He doesn't get to go into the land. He sees the promise. Joshua gets to take him into the land. Okay, Josh, yes. We know. We saw last night, right? He receives the promise but not in the way that we would think.

[33:42] Verse 27 tells us that he endured as seeing him who is invisible. So again, his eyes are fixed on God. That enables him to endure being a stranger and an exile and the mistreatment of God's people.

[33:55] And he was at home no matter where he was because he was with God.

[34:11] I always liked Rich Mullins' music. Rich Mullins has a song. The song may be called Home. I don't know. But he says in there, I'm at home anywhere if you are where I am. Speaking of God, I think Abraham and Moses, they have that kind of mentality.

[34:27] It doesn't matter where I am. What's going on externally? Which, my take is, that is what most of us focus on most of the time. What's going on in my life?

[34:39] What are things like? How lousy is it when the snow's two feet deep and the skies are gray? I'm sorry. Forgive me. That was my personal confession there. But whatever the circumstance is that causes us to feel down, depressed, upset, angry, frustrated.

[34:56] But his eyes are set upon God and God's there with him and so he feels at home even there. Now, what I want you to see though, remember my point was wealth and reward. And what I want you to see there is that he did all this because he was greedy.

[35:08] And so, my point is that faith is greedy. I just threw that out there to get some looks and get you guys thinking about this. Faith is greedy. How is it greedy? Why am I saying greedy? Yes.

[35:22] More of Christ and more of faith. Good. I think you got to the final conclusion. Before I got there, I would have said, what do we see in our text?

[35:33] It says, because he was concerned, what was Moses worried about? What did you say, John? Did you say it maybe? His life.

[35:43] Yeah, there's a word used. Edgar? The riches of Christ. Or, I have in the ESV, it says the reward. So, what's driving him is he wants reward.

[35:58] I better prove this. Let's go to verse 26. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward. So, what drove Moses to make his decisions?

[36:12] What does it look like to live by faith? What drives you is you want reward. So, why not go back to the palace?

[36:26] He wants greater reward than Pharaoh, than all that wealth, than Elon Musk asking $215 billion. What's greater reward?

[36:39] Eternal reward. Yeah. The eternal reward is what he's got his eyes fixed on. Which is, remember, what we saw with Abraham as well, right? Now, Abraham, it was a land to some extent.

[36:50] Moses is also with the land. But, his eyes are fixed on the reward. So, and I think it's intentionally done this way in the book of Hebrews. The reproach of Christ on one side, you guys, I always do this with my church, right?

[37:02] You know the scales that no one ever uses anymore? You know? You put, so, you have on this side the reproach of Christ. Doesn't sound all that hot, does it?

[37:14] And you have all the wealth of Egypt. And when he weighs the scales, it's the riches of, the reproach of Christ is a greater reward for him.

[37:24] He would rather have the reproach of Christ than have all the wealth of Egypt. Pharaoh's riches. So, he would not, let me say it this way, he would not settle for just all the riches of Egypt.

[37:40] That was too small a sum. He wanted something far greater. And guys, I think we have to live this way. Right? If we're going to learn from these men of faith, this is what we have to be thinking as well.

[37:52] There are things that are offered to us in this world that we will have to reject because we don't want to settle. We don't want to get cheated by the world.

[38:05] We're holding out for something greater through Christ. Christ. Now, I'm trying to see if I have this later before I jump right into this because I'm realizing that I haven't touched on this, but let me bring this up now.

[38:29] Look back at verse 25. He chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. I think we can make a point that there is no sin that has lasting pleasure.

[38:45] I would even go as far to argue that even all the good pleasures even that God gives us in His life are intentionally not lasting. They endure for a time. They're short.

[38:57] They don't really satisfy as much as we wish they would. Even the best of them, they don't last. Especially, I think, sinful pleasures. I mentioned last night momentary gratification.

[39:10] Right? They gratify us for a while. Some things more than others. I mean, some things longer times than others. But none of them last. Why? We were made to enjoy something and that ain't it.

[39:27] Right? It's not the fleeting pleasures of sin. It's not even the good stuff in this life. Those good things are meant to drive us to long for something far greater.

[39:40] And so, let me just positively, marriage, I think, is one of the greatest gifts God's given in this life. If you've got a good marriage, if you're both Christians, marriage can be a really, really good thing.

[39:52] What's Ephesians 5 tell us? I'll tell you a mystery, but I'm speaking of Christ in the church. Marriage exists to point us to union with Christ. marriage does not exist in heaven.

[40:04] Why? You don't need the shadow when the reality's there. When you have Christ, you don't want marriage. That's the lesser of the two. Do you understand?

[40:15] And so, it points us to something. If we make marriage the idol, we mess up. Now, how much more so with sin? And so, the riches of Pharaoh's house are equated with the fleeting pleasures of sin.

[40:30] Why? I won't spend a great deal of time on this, but I give you two realities. One is to say, the nature of living in a pagan culture would probably mean most of the things that he would enjoy would in some way be tainted with sin.

[40:42] There are probably great feasts and parties that are happening in Pharaoh's place. There's probably sinful things going on there. There's probably drunkenness. There could be nudity, as we saw in other examples in the Bible of such parties.

[40:54] There may well be the fact that they're stealing the crops and the people to provide a feast for Pharaoh and for Moses to enjoy. So, in that sense, most of what would have been enjoyed there would have been sin.

[41:07] I want to go even further and say, I think what's being communicated to us is, if he had made that decision to identify with Pharaoh, it would have been a sinful decision.

[41:17] He would be rejecting God, and so whatever he would enjoy would be fleeting pleasures of sin, and it would not be what would satisfy. The reproach of Christ is what satisfies his heart, not that.

[41:31] And so, then we realize as well, for our lives, how often are we choosing the fleeting pleasures of sin over Christ? And that goes back to what I talked about last time in terms of unbelief.

[41:43] Do we really believe the gospel? Do we believe that there's a greater reward if we say no to the sin? If by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh, do we believe there's greater reward there than in the temporary enjoyment of the sin?

[41:58] I'll answer for you, no, we don't. Every time we sin, we're choosing the fleeting pleasures of sin over the reproach of Christ. C.S. Lewis said it this way, it's one of my favorite quotes, you guys probably have heard this as well.

[42:16] He said, and I think this is getting to what Hebrews is saying here about Moses, there's two rewards, he wanted the greater reward. C.S. Lewis said, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

[42:38] We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sets and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us. like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased.

[42:58] C.S. Lewis is really hitting on the very thing I see the author of Hebrews hitting on. We oftentimes are too easily pleased. We don't hold out for the greater reward.

[43:08] reward. And this is what it means to live by faith is we say, my eyes are suddenly reward, so I'm not doing that. Or I'm not living in that way.

[43:19] Or I'm not even worried about getting this because I want that and that's worth more. I think I've equated it to my, with my kids and maybe in a sermon once before.

[43:30] It's like you can have monopoly money in all of it, or you can have real money. It's like monopoly money, it looks good, especially if you got one of the new editions that's like million dollars instead of a hundred dollars, you know, it gets into the millions, you're like, whoa, I'm rolling in it.

[43:46] Right? It looks great, but you try to take it to the store, it buys you nothing. We want something that will last, that actually is of value. And that's what Moses chose. Jeremiah 2, 12 through 13, Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shot, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord.

[44:02] For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So, if we want to know what God considers evil, here's what God considers evil.

[44:18] Forsaking God to go after things that will never please you. it's the opposite of faith. So, why, I'm moving now to application, why do we find it hard to live by faith like Moses?

[44:35] You guys, any responses? Why is it hard to live by faith like Moses? Yeah, I think that's a great point.

[44:48] We're impatient, we want it now. Delayed gratification is hard for us. You guys, maybe you're familiar, I forget the terminology, but the psychological experiment with kids where you delay reward, and you keep increasing the candy, whatever, every ten minutes that they wait on it, and they said it's a great judgment of future behavior, if they can delay gratification.

[45:08] We're not good at delayed gratification either. Some of us would jump on that first piece of candy in a heartbeat. Yes? Okay. Right.

[45:20] Yeah. So, can I say the corporal, we can touch them, we can see them, and remember our definition of faith is we've set our eyes where our faith is trusting in the unseen, but when you're comparing the seen and the unseen, one seems more real.

[45:36] Now, I'm not arguing that ghosts are real, but you can imagine like if I'm over here and I'm interacting, oh, I'm interacting with BJ here and BJ to me seems a lot more real than the ghost over there, right?

[45:48] We don't see the ghost. I'm not arguing ghosts are real, maybe this is a really bad example. I'm bad at these illustrations on the fly. Yeah? Yeah.

[46:00] Do you think it's going to be easier if suffering does increase? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, I think we've already seen this year with COVID that there's been some purifying of the church, if I can call it that.

[46:17] There have been people who were hanging around who walked away when things got hard. Yeah, Peter. Yeah. I completely agree.

[46:31] That ultimately is my answer. There's a lack of belief. It's unbelief that's driving. Yeah? Yeah. Right.

[46:52] Yeah. Right. Right. Now, that's a great point. So, yeah, I think ultimately we don't really believe God's word.

[47:08] We don't really trust that what God has said is true or that, I mean, none of us is going to say on paper, we find God to be untrustworthy. But don't we live like God's untrustworthy at times?

[47:19] So do we really believe the scriptures that our joy is to be found in God? One of my favorite verses, Psalm 1611, in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forever more.

[47:32] Now, there's a reason that's one of my favorite verses. Contrast that with the fleeting pleasures of sin that we talked about earlier. In my presence is fullness of joy. How much joy? joy? We never know fullness of joy anywhere else.

[47:46] We will never. We were made for God. And there's nothing else that will satisfy our hearts but God. There are things that are good that God's given us and he wants us to enjoy them.

[47:57] But as a means to point us to him, to find our ultimate joy in him, if we settle on the thing, we miss out. And so there's fullness of joy and how long does sin last?

[48:08] Fleeting pleasures of sin. Contrasted with in my presence is the fullness of joy and in my right hand are pleasures forevermore. Unending.

[48:20] So, right, do we really believe that? Because if we did, would we really settle for temporary passing joy? I mentioned getting Elon Musk money.

[48:35] Just imagine, he's, actually I think he sold like most of his houses and stuff, but he's got his cyber truck that still isn't in production that he drives around everywhere but won't sell to anyone else. What if he said, my cyber truck, would you like it?

[48:47] You can drive it for three minutes or you can just keep it forever, no cost. And we settle for a temporary pleasure when God's saying, I'll give you pleasure forever more.

[48:58] And it's a greater pleasure. I said before, we don't believe the scriptures that are joyous to be found in God. Let me just give a few, like, overview.

[49:11] Psalm 34, 8, taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 37, 4, delight yourself in the Lord. Philippians 4, 4, rejoice in the Lord, and again, I say rejoice. Psalm 73, whom have I in heaven but you, and besides you, I desire nothing on earth.

[49:26] My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Then will I go to God my exceeding joy. And then also enter into the joy of your master.

[49:37] We have all these commands to take delight in God and do we really believe them? Do we follow them? So what I want to argue is, if we're going to be men of faith, if we're going to live by faith, then what we really need is a bigger view of God, a bigger view of the gospel, a deeper love for God and the gospel is what we need.

[49:57] I'm not saying go out there and just try to live by faith. How are we going to get there? We've got to have a bigger view of God and the gospel. This is from Richard Baxter.

[50:10] He says, no, pardon the Puritan language. He says, to avoid sinful flesh-pleasing, right, the sinful pleasures of the flesh that we talked about, okay. So, to avoid sinful flesh-pleasing, seek the joys above.

[50:24] Remember that God would give you more pleasure and not less. and that temporal delights are subordinate to heavenly delights.

[50:36] Beware, the flesh is the grand enemy of your soul. You're feeding one or you're feeding the other is what he's arguing. And God would want you to have more joy than that. God doesn't want you to be unhappy with sin.

[50:51] Maybe another way of saying this is that nothing kills sin like the enjoyment of God. Right? If we're going to wage war with sin, we need to enjoy God more. The pastor that preceded me here, who's still in the church and not here today, so I can talk about him, but he always gave what I thought was just a great comparison from Greek mythology of Odysseus and Jason.

[51:12] You may remember, maybe you don't, but Odysseus and Jason both have to pass the sirens. The sirens were, they would cry out from the rots and if you listened to them, you'd be drawn in by the music, you'd steer your boat over and you'd crash on the rots and then they eat you.

[51:28] Okay? So, Odysseus had his men tie him to the boat while he listened to the sirens. He wanted to hear their beautiful voice, but not be drawn to it.

[51:42] You may remember, and then he wants to get untied and his men aren't paying him any attention and I think they plug their ears so that they don't hear Odysseus or the sirens and they get by. But the desire is there all along.

[51:54] They want the sirens, but they force themselves to get by. Then Jason, by contrast, brought with him the skilled musician Orpheus. And when Orpheus heard their voices, he drew his lyre and played music that was more beautiful and louder.

[52:14] And he drowned out the bewitching song of the sirens. friends. I think this is how we battle sin. This is how we live by faith. We need to see something more beautiful.

[52:27] You guys aren't greedy enough. I'm not greedy enough. We need bigger rewards. We want greater rewards than what this world has to offer. Again, pull out another Puritan here because it makes my message seem more legit.

[52:42] John Flavel. It is a duty and wisdom of every Christian to renounce, deny, and forsake all inferior interests and enjoyments when they come in competition with the glory of God and our enjoyment of him.

[52:58] So, he's taking a little bit further. Did you catch? He's not talking about sinful pleasures, is he? Because we should cast out sinful pleasures at any time. Renounce, deny, and forsake all inferior interests and enjoyments when they come in competition with the glory of God and our enjoyment of him.

[53:16] So, sometimes there are even good things that will compete for the enjoyment of God. We've got to forsake them. We've got to cast them out if they're going to hinder our enjoyment of God.

[53:29] So, final point. If we have this foundation of faith, then we can heed the commands of God's word. I want to just point us to a few of those commands. 1 John 2, 15-17. Do not love the world or the things in the world.

[53:43] If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires.

[53:58] But whoever does the will of God abides forever. The same contrast, even the same language, desires of the flesh there. And we have to understand that there's a war going on for our souls.

[54:14] And sometimes we think it's okay just to dabble in the things of the world. And I think we're encouraged here to set our sights on that which abides, that which lasts, that which is really going to satisfy us.

[54:27] Romans 12, 1-2. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

[54:41] What's going to renew your mind? I think ultimately it's the Word of God. We believe the Word of God and what He says is true. In Colossians 3, 1-4, If then you have been raised with Christ, seat the things that are above, where Christ is seated, the right hand of God.

[55:00] Set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

[55:12] So I see that verse in particular as a summary of what we see in Moses' life. Set your sights on things above, not on this world. He even goes on to say, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ.

[55:26] Through union with Christ, we're obviously not yet dead, right? We're not zombies in here, walking around. But through union with Christ, the old man has died. He's been put to death.

[55:37] We've been raised with Christ to newness of life, to walk and live in a new way. So therefore, he says, if that's true, if the old man's died and we've been raised because we've been united to Christ, where's your life at?

[55:52] It's in Christ. Where's Christ at? He's sitting at the right hand of the Father. So what do we long for? We long for where our life is. We long for, we set our sights on heaven where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of the Father, which I think is another way of saying, not just on heaven in some ethereal way.

[56:12] We set our sights on Christ. We want to be where he is. That's where our longing is. And we don't want anything to get in our way or hinder that. We want to enjoy him even now as we taste of that joy in this life.

[56:23] And so, again, as we think about what is faith, we've seen already, we're setting our sights on that which is unseen. We're convinced that we're going to get it. What is that which is unseen that we set our sights on?

[56:37] There's a few answers, so spit some out. What is it that's unseen that we're to set our sights on? Christ and heaven where he is.

[56:50] Right? Eternity with Christ. Christ, which I think, again, is speaking primarily of the new heaven and the new earth, but to some extent when we die to be spiritually present with the Lord. But we long ultimately to be in glorified bodies and dwell with God forever on a new earth.

[57:03] Right? That's what our eyes have set on. And that's what we're longing for. And so, faith is belief, convinced belief that in the unseen, in Christ, in eternity.

[57:16] And the hope, the assurance that we're going to get it. For such, God has prepared a city. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we do again thank you for your word and we pray that you would, by your spirit, Lord, drive this message into our heart.

[57:35] Make it real for us. Lord, we pray you would help us even to see how we do this. How do we live by faith? How do we set our sights on things above when the stuff around us is so real?

[57:47] The stuff around us is seen. Lord, help us to see the unseen. And for that to be more real to us than even the stuff that we face each and every day in our lives.

[57:58]  We praise the name of our great Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.