Hebrews chapter 11. We begin
reading in verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as
seeing him who is invisible. And through faith he kept the
Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed
the firstborn should touch them. By faith, they passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians, a saying to do,
were drowned. True faith follows Christ, forsaking
everything this world has to offer. That's the only kind of faith
God gives. That's the only kind of faith
He's pleased with. I want to ask you six questions
this morning, and I ask everyone that's listening to give this, to answer these questions with
utmost honesty. They're six questions, and they're
questions only you can answer. That's the title of this lesson
is, Questions Only You Can Answer. First question. Are you choosing
to make a name for yourself in this world or to be a nobody
who follows Christ? Verse 24 says, By faith Moses,
when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. Egypt was the most powerful,
wealthiest nation in the world. And the ruler who ruled that
nation was the most powerful man in the world. And Moses was
next in line to take that throne. But believing God and choosing
to give up all for his Lord, Moses declined and followed the
Lord. Here's the second question. Are
you choosing a life of ease and pleasure in this world? Or suffering
this world's disapproval for Christ's sake? Verse 25 says, Moses chose, rather,
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. Sin is enjoyable to our flesh. It is a pleasure that we love
by nature. It's the one thing that you and
I never have to be taught how to do. We do it because we like
it, because we love it, because it's what we are. Yet all the
pleasures of sin last but a season, and it's a short season. Look
with me at Isaiah chapter 47 and verse 7. And thou saidest, I shall be
a lady forever. so that thou didst not lay these
things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end
of it. Therefore hear now this, thou
that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that
sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. I shall
not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children,
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day,
the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon thee in
their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries and for the
great abundance of thine enchantments." The believer suffers affliction
while in this flesh because the world is opposed to Christ. This world is opposed to Christ. I know it appears that this is
the most religious age that there has ever been in the world. But
this world hates Christ Jesus the Lord, the majority. But the believer knows that the
pleasures of sin and the afflictions we suffer are nothing compared
to the joy of our Lord and of following Him. The psalmist said,
thou will show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness
of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. There's no pleasure in this world
that compares to the peace of being reconciled to God in Christ
and having peace. Of knowing that you stand before
God complete and accepted and able to approach Him with no
fear of being punished for sin? They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures." It's a river that never ends.
Well, here's the third question. Are you going after the riches
of this world, or have you given them up to follow Christ? Verse
26, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt. The rich young ruler couldn't
do it. The Lord said, sell everything
you have and follow me. And he was a rich man. And he
was a young man with a long time to enjoy those riches. And he
was a ruler. well-esteemed man. And he couldn't
give them up. He walked away sorrowful from
the Prince of Life. The folks in the Laodicean church
thought that they had riches. They thought they were abundantly
blessed in riches in their religion. And the Lord said, you've got
to give that up. You're empty. You're lukewarm. Come into my house to serve me
with half a heart. the rich man in the Lord's parable,
he couldn't do it either. He said, he built him some barn,
tore down his barns, had so much he had to build more barns. And
when all his barns were filled, he said, he said, soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease and drink
and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool,
This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided?" The wise man
Solomon said, honor the Lord with thy substance. And with
the firstfruits of that increase, so shall thy barns be filled
with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Honor
the Lord by faith, with the substance of our hearts, with everything
He's given us, give ourselves wholly to Him. That's what the
wise man said. And then your barns, your bank
account may not be filled with plenty of money. Your garage
may not be filled with plenty of luxury automobiles. Your freezer
may not be filled with filet mignon. But by God's grace, the
hearts of His people are filled with the fullness of Christ the
Lord, with plenty. And when that happens, You're
no longer going through this world trying to get everything
you can get because you've got everything that can be had. You've
got Christ the Lord and you're content with what you have. Well, look here with me at the
fourth question. Why would Moses or any man ever
take such a path? Moses the path of the world that
he could have taken in this world would have offered him power
and prestige and pleasure and riches and The path that he took
promised him suffering and affliction Reproach and ridicule all of
which he suffered greatly. Why on earth would any man take
that path? It says, verse 26, "...by faith
Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of
the reward." Oh, so you mean Moses looked ahead and he thought,
well, you know, I'm going to have a mansion in heaven, and
I'm going to have those cars, and I'm going to have all those
things that I'm going to do without here. That's not what it means.
It means he had respect unto the recompense of the reward,
meaning he trusted the Lord to be his reward. He trusted the
Lord who would rule and take care of him with love and kindness
and in judgment and in righteousness. The reward of trusting the Lord
to be his wisdom and not to have to depend on the own arm of his
own strength. He looked to the reward of one
day beholding the riches of God Himself in all His glory. We sat out there last night for
hours waiting to see a silly balloon. What about beholding
the riches of His glory? I believe I can wait for that.
I believe I can hold out. The reward of having Christ is
all His righteousness and all His holiness. That's the reward. Christ Himself is the reward.
Christ is our inheritance. There'd be no heaven if Christ
is not there, no matter how good things are. If He's not there,
it's not heaven. So when the people mocked Moses
for believing God, when they ridiculed him and esteemed him
as such a nobody and nothing in this world, he considered
it to be the highest honor that could ever be bestowed upon him.
Greater riches than Egypt could ever give him. The reproach that
men had for him because he trusted Christ alone. Because having
Christ, he didn't care. He really didn't care what men
thought about him. He just didn't care. You young
people that you get up in the mornings, I can remember getting
up in the mornings, getting ready to go to school, And I was a boy, I wasn't a girl,
so I can't even imagine what it'd be like being a girl. But
I can remember when I started getting up to where, you know,
you kind of started thinking about what other folks thought
about how you dressed and if you was cool or not, you know.
Boy, I'd go into that closet and I'd stand there for 30 minutes
trying to figure out what in the world to put on. And then
I'd put it on, I'd take it off, put something else on. I'd look
in the mirror and I couldn't get my hair like it ought to
be. It wasn't like the coolest fellas, you know. It wasn't like...
My hair just wouldn't fix like that. And it was nice to get
old enough to where I realized, you know, that don't matter.
I don't care what they think about me. Well, it's nice whenever
you come to know Christ by faith to where you don't care what
other people think about the Christ you worship. You really
don't care what they think about you. Moses believed he loved
the Lord. and he was willing to suffer
reproach and suffer affliction because he loved the people the
Lord loved. It says there in verse 25, he
chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. He could
have taken that throne to be the king of Egypt. And he could
have had a multitude of people, a whole kingdom full of people
to serve him and be at his beck and call. And instead, he beheld
that God had chosen these people and put them in Christ Jesus
the Lord. He beheld that those brethren
that truly trusted the Lord, that they were righteous and
sanctified in Christ their surety. That He would lay down His life,
live and die for them to make them righteous and purge them
and make them holy. And He beheld the great sacrifice
that Christ would give to do that for them. And He beheld
not only that, but He beheld that everything that was taking
place with Him and His family and His brethren and everybody
in that world, everything that was taking place was taking place
by the direct hand of God Almighty, moving everything in accordance
with His will and purpose to glorify Christ His Son, and He
was doing it all for those brethren of his. And because they were
precious to God, they were precious to Moses. And he said, I would
rather stay here with them and help them than to go to that
throne and have all those riches bestowed upon me. That's what Paul said. He said,
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. That's why a believer gives himself
to the gospel. It's for his brethren. That they
might inherit the inheritance of Christ. And then Moses walked
this path because he feared God and not men. Look at verse 27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him
who is invisible. Now I want you to be sure you
understand what this means. Now you be sure you understand
what this means. A lot of folks can forsake a
lot of things. There's a lot of folks in churches
this morning that profess to believe on Christ the Lord, that
profess to have denied themselves of many things. And I'll tell
you, the things they've denied themselves of actually boast
about the things they've denied themselves of. If you mourn the
things you've denied yourself of or left behind, you ain't
left them behind. You haven't left them behind.
You're like Lot's wife, looking back, because you ain't really
left, Sodom. But I want you to see here what
that means, that he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the
king. You're going to want to see this. Let's look over at
Exodus 8. When the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh,
the most powerful man in the world, He sent Moses to that
man. with these words, out of Moses'
stuttering mouth, with these words. And he said, let my people
go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Now,
Exodus 8, verse 25. And here's what Pharaoh said
to him. Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. Now get what he's saying. Go. That's fine, Moses. But now,
If your God is the ever-present God, you don't have to go out
into the wilderness to worship Him. You can worship Him right
here in Egypt. Worship Him right here in this
land. You don't have to assemble with the Lord's people in the
place that the Lord has appointed and given His blood to establish
and said, that's where I'll meet with my people. You don't have
to go there. You can worship God out in the wilderness, in
the trees, in Egypt. You don't have to be with the
Lord's people. You're being too narrow on how the Lord says He's
going to be approached. You don't have to worship Him
that way now. Broaden your mind a little bit. Pharaoh said, Moses,
you can worship right here in this land. And Moses replied
there in verse 26 and 27. He said, not so. Not so. We will offer the abomination
of Egypt and they'll stone us. What does he mean by that? He
means the God that we serve, Egypt considers an abomination. They hate the God we serve. And
if we worship here amongst these Egyptians, they hate our God
so much, they'll kill us. They will destroy us. And he
said this right here, we will go three days' journey into the
wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He shall command
us. We're not going to compromise
with you, Pharaoh. We're not going to worship here in this
Egypt. We're going just where God said go and we're going to
worship just like God said worship. Well, as all men do when they're
attempting to sway you to their way of thinking, Pharaoh gives
in a little. And there in verse 28 he says, I'll let you go that
you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. Only
you shall not go very far. Don't go the whole three days
journey. You can't go that far. But I'll
let you go into the wilderness. You just can't go that far. But Moses wouldn't compromise.
And he said no. And then over in Exodus chapter
10, Moses comes to Pharaoh again and says the same thing. The
Lord said, let my people go into the wilderness that they may
worship me. This time in Exodus 10 and verse 8, Moses says, who
are they that shall go? Okay, who do you want to take
with you? And Moses answered, we'll go with our young and with
our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks
and with our herds. Pharaoh says there in verse 11.
He says that sounds pretty good go now ye but just the men just
the men and Serve the Lord you got to leave the kids here children
here and leave your wives here You gotta leave the sacrifices
here you men go you can go You know we'd come down there to
Rocky Hill and worship with y'all But I just got so many things
for our kids We don't want to bring our kids with us down there,
because we've got things for our kids here. Moses said, where
we go worship God, we're taking our children with us. They're
going with us where we go. Well, Moses wouldn't compromise. And so finally, Pharaoh gives
Moses the best offer yet. And this right here is the sum
and substance of everything that would have taken place if Moses
would have compromised with Pharaoh anywhere along the line. Verse
24. And Pharaoh called unto Moses
and said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your
herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go
with you. You take your kids with you. But you leave the sacrifice
here. Oh boy, down there where we worship,
we hear the best messages on how to serve God, how to be a
faithful servant of God. Our preacher don't say too much
about the blood. He don't talk too much about...
And he don't ever tell us that we're sanctified in Christ, that
we're holy in Christ, that Christ is all our sanctification because
then we wouldn't want to work and serve God. We got to serve
God, you know. There's things a man's got to
do. There's more to Scripture than just Christ. Look what Moses said. Moses said,
verse 26, Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a
hoof be left behind. For thereof must we take to serve
the Lord our God. If we're going to come to our
God, there's only one way we can come to Him, and that's in
the blood of a substitute. That's in a spotless lamb. that
died in our room instead. And that's Christ. And if we
don't have Him, there's no point in us going into the wilderness.
There's no point in us serving God. There's no point in us taking
our children. There's no point in us taking
our wives. There's no point in us even doing anything but compromising
with you, Pharaoh. And that we won't do. We're worshiping
God the way God said worship Him. God said, you come to the
place I've appointed. You come amongst your brethren
and with your brethren. You teach your sons and your
daughters of me, of my ways. And you come to me one way, and
that's in the blood of a lamb. And don't compromise. Don't come
any other way. And Moses took this path because
by faith he beheld Christ, that Passover Lamb. It says, verse
28, Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of
blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
Moses, when he beheld that Lamb, he beheld Christ, that spotless
Lamb of God. When they killed that Lamb, he
beheld his Messiah that was to come that would lay down his
life for him that he might live and go free. When he put the
blood on that door, over that door, and he went in under that
blood, He understood what it meant to trust God alone by faith
and to enter into the house and shut the door and not go out. And when they woke up the next
morning and all Egypt was crying out because God had passed through
and smoked the firstborn in Egypt and killed them in righteous
judgment, and yet he passed over them because he saw the blood.
Moses said, that's all my hope and all my salvation. That's
all my hope and all my salvation. And he believed God. And having
asked these four questions, let me ask you this fifth question.
This fifth question. What have you given up to follow
Christ? Folks can't give up. They can't
give up. the possibility of what this
world can offer them in power and influence. Folks can't give
up the pleasures of sin to follow Christ. Folks can't give up the
riches of this world to follow Christ. Folks can't to give up their false way of
thinking and their false religion and that gospel of compromise
that they think is going to bring them into God's presence? What
have you given up to follow Christ? We cannot be the friend of God
and the friend of the world. It's impossible to follow Christ
without giving up everything else. Look with me at Luke chapter
14. Luke chapter 14. There was a multitude of people.
When the Lord walked this earth, there was a multitude of people
who followed Him. And they professed to believe
Him. But the fact of the matter was, they hadn't given up anything. They hadn't given up anything.
Made a profession, but they hadn't given up anything. Now look here
what he said. Verse 25, And there went great
multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any come
to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of
you, intending to build a tower, Sitteth not down first and counteth
the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Lest happily after
he hath laid the foundation He's not able to finish it and all
that behold it begin to mock him saying this man began to
build but was not able to finish it Or what king going to make
war against another king sitteth down first and consulteth whether
he be able with? 10,000 to meet him that cometh
against him with 220,000 Or else while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple." What's he saying? Well, I've sat down and I've
counted the cost, and I don't know now if I'm live up to the
mark where I will be able to follow Christ all that long.
I don't know if I can build that tower. I don't know if I can
wage that war. What he's saying to you is, do
you realize you can't? Do you realize you can't and
do you completely trust that I can? Have you counted the cost
and realized that I am the only one that can pay the wages that
you owe and build the house And thus you follow me with your
whole heart? Because if you haven't, and you
haven't given up everything you have, you can't be my disciple. You're not really following me.
You haven't left everything. And he says here, salt is good.
But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith it shall be
seasoned, it's not fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill,
but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. What have you given up to follow
Christ? Last question. Question number
six. Do you think you'll be disappointed
if you leave all and follow Christ, trusting Him alone? Do you think
you'll be disappointed? Was Moses? Look at verse 29. By faith they passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do,
were drowned. You know, by this time, the Lord
told Moses, everybody that sought your life, they're dead. That
means Pharaoh, if Moses would have chosen to stay in line for
that throne, he'd be the Pharaoh. He could have made his profession
that he's following Christ and still tried to straddle that
fence and still be the king of Egypt, but he'd have been the
one leading the army that tried to go across that Egypt by the
strength of their own hand and they'd have drowned. He'd have
died right there. But instead, by God's grace, by faith, Moses,
along with all of God's departed saints in every age, have gone
across the Red Sea on dry land. Dry land. And when his heart was overflowing
with thanksgiving and joy, on the other side, Moses lifted
up his voice with these words, and he said, Thou and Thy mercy
has led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed. Thou hast
guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation. Thou shalt
bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance,
in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in,
in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The
Lord shall reign forever and ever. He wasn't disappointed. He was not disappointed. And
no person that ever cast their care on Christ, forsaking everything,
bearing the reproach that comes with believing Him, suffering
for Christ's sake in this world, waiting on Him, they're never
disappointed. They're never disappointed. I
beseech you this morning to be honest before the all-knowing
God. These six questions are questions
only you can answer. And I ask you to do this. Turn
to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait
for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even
Jesus, which, past tense, delivered us from the wrath to come. I don't know what else to tell
you. I could give a lot of advice to somebody like
AJ going off to college, but it'd be worth nothing. These are questions you've got
to answer. These are questions you've got
to answer. I pray God will give you grace to answer them.