The birth of the Deliverer is
what we will look at this morning, the birth of Moses. As I started studying this, I thought great leaders are not just born great Deliverers,
leaders like Moses, they're not just born, they're made. If you
look at the life, if you go through the Old Testament, you look at
the life of those whom God used in a great way, their lives were
difficult. David, a shepherd boy, quietly
looking after some sheep, and God anoints him to be King of
Israel, but he does not go. FROM THE FIELD TO THE THRONE.
HE GOES FROM THE FIELD TO RUNNING, HIDING IN CAVES, SAW AFTER HIS
LIFE, AND EVEN AFTER HE TOOK THE THRONE, HIS SON ABSALOM TRIED
TO DETHRONE HIM, AND ALL THE NATIONS AROUND HIM TRIED TO DETHRONE
Great leaders are not just born, they're made. You can even look
at history just of natural men over the years. Those whom God
have used at difficult times came up through a difficult way. And here we have Moses, we have
his birth. You know, in this book here of
Exodus, the one thing we have about Moses, we have him in detail
from his birth until God takes him to the grave. And this story
is mentioned three times in the Word of God. It's mentioned here
Stephen mentions this in the book of Acts chapter 7. He gives
us a little more light on it. Then in Hebrews 11, in that Hall
of Fame of Faith, this is mentioned about his parents, that by faith
they hid him, not fearing the wrath of the king. Now in the
last verse of chapter 1, Pharaoh ordered all the Hebrew babies,
to be cast into the river. All the male Hebrew babies were
to be cast into the Nile River and drown. I thought, how convenient. No grave markers. No grave markers. No reminders of this atrocity. Just a splash and all is washed
away. Let the crocodiles have them.
Their memory will be swept away by the river. We won't have to
walk past their graves. Isn't that the way we try to
hide our sins? Just throw them in the river. And I know, I know
this, that was a great, that was a great tragedy. Those mothers and fathers wept,
their hearts were broken. But what a great, now you're
gonna, only a few people are gonna understand what I'm gonna
say now. But what a great blessing on those babies. I'm telling you, I believe this
with all my heart, as sure as I believe Jesus Christ is seated
on the throne, every one of them is with the Lord. Every one of them is with the
Lord, fully mature, like their Lord. And they didn't have to
go. They didn't have to go through
this sinful world. Now that's a heartbreak when
a child dies in infancy or a child, but they're with the Lord, not
because they're innocent, but because the Lord Jesus Christ
redeemed them by His blood, and they are with the Lord. Now chapter 2, we have the birth
of Moses. Here is where Moses enters the
scene, the one whom God raised up to be the deliverer of His
people out of Egypt. And we know that Moses in many
ways is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one whom God raised
up to deliver His Israel out of this world. That's what's
going on right now. There's probably not a day goes
by that I don't have this thought. All things were made by Him and
for Him. When I get up in the morning,
somewhere along the day, this thought comes through my mind.
All of this is for the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it's by Him. All of it's ordered by Him. Everything
is working out to that eternal purpose which God purposed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is His. I have that thought pretty much
every day. And it's a comforting thought
to me. THIS IS MY FATHER'S WORLD! It's His. It's not mine, not
yours, it's His. It's His. Now let me point out
a few ways in which Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ are alike.
Moses was a prophet and Moses said, God will raise up unto
you a prophet like unto me, him shall ye hear. He was a prophet
like the Lord. He's a priest. Moses was a priest. That's spoken of in Psalm 99,
6 about him and Aaron being priests. He was of the tribe of Levi.
That's the priestly tribe. He was a servant. Moses called
a servant. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
servant. He's that servant spoken of in Isaiah 42. And it's spoken
of also in Matthew 12. Both were shepherds. Moses led
the children of Israel through the wilderness. Our Lord is leading
His children through this wilderness into glory, but He's a shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Both were mediators. Moses stood between God and Israel.
He interceded for Israel. And God spoke to Moses, and Moses
in turn spoke to Israel. Christ is the only mediator between
God and men, it says in the Word of God. and both were deliverers. Moses was raised up to deliver
Israel out of Egypt. Christ is raised up to deliver
God's Israel, the WHOLE Israel of God from the beginning to
the end to bring them out of this world. Christ is our Deliverer. And then in character, they were
both said to be meek. Moses said to be a meek man,
one of the meekest men on the earth. Christ said, Come to me,
I am meek and lowly. You'll find rest to your souls,
all you heavy laden. And both were faithful over their
house. We are told that in Numbers 12,
7, that Moses was faithful over his house, and told that in Hebrews
3. Hebrews 3. Our Lord was faithful
over his house. And both were obedient and mighty
in word and deed. That's what it says in Acts 7
and Mark 6 concerning Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
so much alike, so much alike. What about their birth? Moses was born a Hebrew. He was
born in poverty, wasn't he? He was born in bondage, Moses
was. Even our Lord, He was born a
Hebrew. He was born in poverty. They couldn't even afford a place
in the inn. There was no place for them. Ended up laying Him
in a manger. Listen, the Lord of heaven and
earth, the God of glory, the God of creation, when He came
into this world, He was laid in a manger where they feed cattle. Boy, think about that when you
go to bed tonight. Christ said that he had no place to lay his
head. I have a very comfortable place to lay my head. And the
reason why? Because he had no place to lay his head. He took my place. Our Lord was born in bondage.
Galatians said he was made of a woman born under the law. He
was born under Roman rule. That's why he told Peter, pay
your taxes. He paid the taxes. He was born under a sentence
of death. Moses was born under a sentence of death. All the
male children would be thrown in the river. When our Lord was
born, He was born under a sentence of death. What did Herod say
to do? Kill all the children, two years
old and younger. Kill every one of them. The same
thing happened again. Our Lord was born under a sentence
of death. And being our substitute, He was under a sentence of death
by the law. The law said, CURSED IS EVERYONE THAT CONTINUES NOT
IN ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, DO THEY? Well,
we haven't done that. I haven't done that. You know, we break the law before
we even know anything about the law, don't we? When we're children.
Think about that. When you're just children, even
all the children of Israel, before they even knew the law, they
broke it. You can't keep a law you already broke. Because to
defend one point of the law, he said, is to defend ALL the
law, you broke the WHOLE law. Then Moses was hid for three
months by his parents there in Egypt. Where was our Lord hid? In Egypt. When they were trying to kill
those two-year-olds, they told him what? Take him down to Egypt. And he
was hid in Egypt. Man, there is so much comparison
here. But God is going to deliver his
people here out of Egypt as he told Abraham. He told Abraham,
they're going to go into bondage four hundred years and then I'm
going to bring them out with great substance. And he's going
to bring them out and he's going to use Moses to do it, but he's
not going to use Moses who was learned in all the ways of Egypt
for forty years. He's going to use Moses who believed
God on the back side of that desert. That's the Moses he's
going to use, the one who believed God. He's got to take him back
on the backside of that desert, strip him down and make him to
know that when Israel comes out of this, it's of God. It's of
God. And God will receive all the
glory. You remember there in Acts 7,
Stephen gives this account that Moses killed that Egyptian. It
says, For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that
God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. Moses didn't understand either,
I don't think at that time, how God was going to do it. Not the
way God did it, he didn't. I think Moses thought because
of his position in Egypt being near the throne, that he would
be able to deliver them but that is not the way God's gonna do
it because Moses would get the glory and not God. God's gonna
get the glory of our deliverance, isn't he? He's gonna get every
bit of it and he deserves it. Now there's three things we'll
see in these verses. There's three things that kind
of stood out to me. You'll see the power of Satan in death Satan
uses death to try to knock off course, so to speak,
the purpose of God. Now I know somebody's going to
say, well Satan doesn't have power of death. Well listen to Scripture. Hebrews 2.14, For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death THROUGH HIS
DEATH, HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT
IS, THE DEVIL. HOW DID HE HAVE THE POWER OF
DEATH? WELL, FIRST OF ALL, GOD ALLOWS HIM WHAT POWER HE DOES
HAVE. BUT HERE I BELIEVE IS WHERE HE HAS THE POWER OF DEATH. HE
INTRODUCED SIN THAT BROUGHT FORTH DEATH. HE INTRODUCED SIN. And Adam just
went right along with him. But sin brings forth death. Cain
slew Abel. You know why? It says because
he's of that wicked one, the devil. Joseph's brethren sought to kill
him, didn't they? They were going to kill him.
until one of his brothers stepped up and said, No, let's don't
do that. Let's just sell him. God prevented it because God's
going to take him to Egypt. He's going to bring Israel to
Egypt. My soul, the providence of God is just beautiful to study.
He's going to bring Israel to Egypt. They'll go in 70 people
and he's going to bring them out a multitude as he promised
Abraham. But he's going to send Joseph,
a picture of Christ. And he's the only one that nothing,
nothing negative is said about. You know that? Not one negative
thing was ever said about Joseph. He sent to prison for something
he didn't do. Jesus Christ put to death for something He personally
didn't do. He bore our sins in His body on the tree. The just,
it says, died for the unjust that He might bring us to God. But they was going to kill Joseph,
but God prevented it. And you go, I can just go on
and on and on with that, but Satan has always tried by death
And the greatest example of that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Pilate
says, I find no fault in Him. They say, crucify Him, crucify
Him. It doesn't matter if you find
no fault or not. It doesn't matter if He's in us or not. Kill Him.
Put Him to death. Crucify Him. It's amazing how Satan thinks
he's frustrating the purpose of God and he's fulfilling it.
Isn't that amazing? I tell you our God is our God
is God. That's the best way to say it
Our God is God And then we'll listen here we'll
see the power of that faith that is of God Our Lord said this if you had
faith as a grain of mustard seed you could say to this mountain
be thou plucked up and cast into the sea and it would happen you
believe that I Well, I have never cast one into
the sea, so I don't have the faith as a grain of mustard seed.
But I do, I believe by God's grace, I do have faith. And you do too, some of you do. We'll see here the power of that
faith that overcomes the world, the scripture says. And then
we'll see the power of God that rules and overrules all things
for our good. just in these 10 verses. Verse
1, And there went a man of the house
of Levi, and he took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman
conceived and bare a son, and when she saw him, that he was
a goodly child, Now, if you go over, let me see where I wrote
this down. If you go over into Acts chapter seven and verse
20, it says, they saw that he was exceedingly fair. And you
know what that translates to? What the translation of that
is in my margin? Fair to God. They saw some, God gave them
some kind of understanding about this child is different, or something
about this child is different. They saw he was a goodly child
and she hid him three months. I'm just going to give you some
things that just came to my mind as I read through this several
times. First of all, I know this. I
know that couples worry about having children in hard times.
Don't they? They worry about having children
in hard times. But you know the Lord is Lord of the hard times
as well as the good times, isn't He? Someone says, these are terrible
times to bring up children. Listen to the Word of God. Ecclesiastes
7.10, Say not thou, what is the cause, that the former days were
better than these? How many times have we said that?
Boy, the days when I was a kid were a lot better than these
days. You know what he says? Thou dost not inquire wisely
concerning this. Is not God over both? Is not
God over the over those days, and these days, and the days
to come. Is He not Lord of heaven and earth? Is He not Lord over
all? He is. He is. He can take care
of our children in these times like He did in those times, and
times to come. And now here, we're going to
see in verse 3, faith is going to be tried Where God has given
faith, I'm telling you, He's going to try it. There's no such
thing as untried faith. And when she could no longer
hide Him, like our Lord, when He could no longer be hid after
thirty years, He came on the scene. For thirty years we don't
know much about Him. But after that, once He was baptized,
After John the Baptist, when he performed that first miracle,
he could no longer be hid. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his son. When it was time, he could no
longer be hid. She took for him an ark of bulrushes. That was papyrus. You know, they
made ships out of this because it's very light. But I'll give
you something interesting here in a minute. It made for him an ark of bulrushes
and daubed it with slime. She took the slime that you get
out of that river, that old slime. You know how a river leaves behind
slime? She took that slime and daubed it and pitch. Who else
did that? Noah. Noah used that pitch. You know what the word pitch
means? Atonement. She's putting him
under the blood. She's trusting Him under the
blood in the ark. And this is the only other time
I think the ark is used that has the same meaning as the ark
of Noah. And she put the child therein. Now here she's doing this by
faith, her parent, because in Hebrews, I think it is, it speaks
of the parents, but here it speaks of her. But she puts him in there, and
I tell you, this is a mother who believes God. She takes this
little three-month-old baby, lays him in this ark of bulrush
that she had made, and she laid it in the flags
there by the river. Those flags grow tall. She took,
and don't you know she placed that baby down there gently,
and she said, the Lord, you're in the Lord's hands. She cast
that child in the hands of God, exactly where we cast our children
and our grandchildren, in God's hand. And when Moses, it says, couldn't
be hidden longer, she made this ark and she put him in it. And
you know where she put him? She put him in the river of death. She put him in the river of death. Every person on this earth is
born under a death sentence. But those in the ark are safe. They're safe. She put Moses, she didn't hide
him in some cave. She did what the king said. Throw him in the river. And she
took him and she placed him in that river of death, that's what
it was, it's a river of death. And she put him in there, trusting
him to the Lord. Trusting him. This was an act
of just God-given faith. God-given faith. It says in Hebrews
11, 23, By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months
of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child and
they were not afraid of the king's commandment. They were not afraid
to die. They were not afraid to die.
I tell you what, you have a child, you give your life for that child. And their faith, listen, their
faith was the same as Abraham's when he offered up Isaac on the
altar. Same faith. And you who believe,
you have the exact same faith as Abraham. Everyone who believes
God has that exact same faith. She put him in the ark, daubed
it with slime of the earth, and pitch represents the blood. Moses
was saved in the ark. Christ is our ark, and His blood
is the blood of atonement. His blood is our pitch. We're
covered with it. ALL GOD'S CHILDREN ARE SAVED
IN THE ARK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THEY'RE UNDER THE
BLOOD. YOU PRESERVED THAT CHILD. LISTEN, THOSE CHILDREN WERE THROWN
INTO THAT RIVER, AND THEY WERE SWEPT DOWN THAT RIVER. CROCODILES
GOT SOME OF THEM. THAT RIVER WAS FULL OF CROCODILES. MOSES WAS PRESERVED IN THAT ARK. LISTEN. LISTEN TO THE WORD OF
GOD. Jude the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God set
apart by God that's election God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ now listen and called which was first which
was first which is he mentioned first he said you were set apart
YOU WERE PRESERVED IN THIS RIVER OF DEATH IN JESUS CHRIST, AND
THEN GOD CALLED YOU IN TIME. GOD CALLED YOU, AS HE WILLED
ALL HIS CHILDREN. Isn't that beautiful? Preserved
in Christ in this river of death we live in. This is a river of
death. EVERY INCH OF THIS EARTH SOMETHING
HAS DIED ON IT, I GUARANTEE YOU. I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A FISH WORM,
SOMETHING HAS DIED ON EVERY INCH OF THIS EARTH. IT'S A RIVER OF
DEATH. BUT YOU ARE PRESERVED IN JESUS
CHRIST. Now here's an interesting note. Moses was hid among the flags
He was hid in this ark made of bulrush. Now, this is what was
called papyrus. You know what the Word of God
is written on? It was written on papyrus. Where is Christ hid? In the Word of God. I got that
from Paul Mahan. I'm not going to take credit
for that. I heard Paul say that and I thought, that's outstanding. Christ hid in the Word of God
and the only place you're going to find Him is in the Word of
God. This was written on papyrus in the Old Testament. And here's a note about our children.
We trust our children to the Lord. You know, we know how we
want the Lord to save our children, our grandchildren. But we understand
this, they're under a sentence of death and the Lord can save
them from it as well as us. As He saved me, He can save them.
He can save them. And now we're going to see the
power of God in making all things work together for our good through
His providence, not luck, Not luck. Don't ever say that. Erase
that from your memory. Providence. Ain't nobody lucky. It's the providence of God. I heard Tom tell this story,
Tom Hardy. He was witnessing to a man, Tom
probably one of the witness to more people probably than anybody
I know. I mean, he's going to drag you out of the car and tell
you about the gospel, if you know Tom. But he's talking to
this guy he worked with, and he's trying to tell him the gospel.
And the guy pulled his key chain out. He had a cross and a rabbit's
foot on it. He said, when I'm in trouble,
I just rub this cross and this rabbit foot. Tom said, you got
a rabbit foot religion. That's all you got. We're not
lucky. That rabbit wasn't lucky. And
we don't have a cross. We don't have some cross around
our neck or in our pocket. We rub them. Jesus Christ is
our salvation all the way home, all the way. Now it says here,
His sister stood afar off. You know, it said over in, I
think it's in Luke, it says there were some women who followed
the Lord when they were crucifying Him, and they stood afar off.
They stood afar off to watch what was going to happen. It
says here, His sister, in verse 4, stood afar off to wit, that
is to witness or wonder or witness what would be done to Him. But
do you know what she witnessed? Parents, listen up. You know
what she witnessed? She witnessed the end of her
parents' faith, the salvation of that child. She's probably
13 years old, she's a teenager, and she wants to see what's going
to happen to her baby brother. And no doubt she just tore up,
but Amram and Jochebed, his parents, they prayed, and she probably
heard them. She watched her mother make that
ark, She watched her put slime in pitch, and she watched her
mother lay it in the reeds and go back home. Her mother's not
standing there. She went back home. She believed
God. Her heart's aching. Her heart's aching. She's tore
up. But her sister goes to see what's
going to happen, and she gets to see the end of her parents'
faith. That's important to parents before your children. Moses' mother went home and rested
in God even though her heart was heavy, heavy, heavy. I can't
even begin to even say what that was. God placed Moses' sister
there to accomplish His purpose. You know, God is in all the details,
you know that. Not even the smallest thing goes
unchecked with God. It says that Christ kept the
law every jot and tittle, every bit of it. And the daughter of
Pharaoh comes down to wash herself at the river. And her maids walked
along by the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags,
she sent her maids to fetch it. I wrote out here, fetching grace.
It's like Mephibosheth, go fetching. She doesn't know she's doing
the will of God. She has no idea she's accomplishing one of the
great purposes of God. She has no idea that she's doing
this. You think you strolled in here
this morning? You think you just strolled in here this morning?
No, you're here by God's purpose. I promise you, you're here by
God's purpose for whatever His purpose is. You're here. Just
like she strolled down by that river. She went down there to
wash herself. I can just picture her standing
in her room. Oh, I need to go take a bath. Smells are under
arms. She's like, I need to take a
bath. I think I'll go down to the river and take a bath. All
of this, God's in the details. Even her stinky body needs to
be washed. It goes down to the river, goes
down with her maids, and they spot this. She sees this arc,
this thing in the reeds. And when she had opened it, she
saw the child. It doesn't say Moses was crying.
And she went to see what was happening. She saw the ark and
picked it up. And then when she opened it,
then he cried. God gave him a voice. God gave
him a voice that reached her heart. That reached her heart. And she had compassion on him.
She didn't say, well, this is one of the Hebrew children. They
disobeyed the king and throw him back in the river. No. He wouldn't surprise me, and
I don't know, I didn't go check all this out, but maybe she'd
been trying to, you know how, trying to get pregnant, she couldn't. Here's a baby. Here's a baby. Three-month-old baby. She said,
he's gonna be mine. He's gonna be mine. And she had
compassion on him. God gave her the heart for that
child. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it with him
so ever he will. He gave her a heart for this child, didn't
he? Now Moses' sister, she steps back into the scene now. See,
she's standing far off. You know, her part in this is
no small part to play. Someone said this, big doors
swing on small hinges. Here's a small hinge at a big
door swinging on. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's
daughter, she got the nerve to go up and say to her, Shall I
go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may
nurse this child for you? You know, I thought of this,
I thought if the Lord just used me one time to fulfill His eternal
purpose, that would be more than I could ever expect. Just one
time. If I could preach one message, one time in the power of the
Holy Spirit, THAT'S MORE THAN I COULD EVER ASK, JUST TO BE
USED ONE TIME OF GOD. HERE SHE STEPS INTO THE SCENE,
MAKES THIS ONE LITTLE REQUEST, AND MOSES, WE KNOW WHAT MOSES
TURNED OUT TO BE, MOSES, BUT GOD USED HIS SISTER TO FULFILL
HIS PURPOSE, AND MOSES, AND PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER SAID TO HER, GO, GO,
AND THE MAID WENT AND CALLED Moses' mother. This story can't,
I'm telling you, you can't make this up. Hollywood couldn't even,
they wouldn't have written this. She goes, calls Moses, there
she is, Jochabed, her heart's heavy as can be, and her sister
comes, I mean her daughter comes running in the door and tells
her the good news. And her and her husband are just
like, well that's just like God. That's just like God. Just like
God to do that. And then we see faith rewarded,
and I'm going to close here in a minute. Pharaoh's daughter
said to her, take this child away. I mean, she gets paid to
take care of her own child. You're talking about the providence
and power of God. She not only Takes care of the
child, she gets paid for it. She's probably the first paid
babysitter. Give me a second. Sometimes I
need to think about what I'm going to say so I can control
myself. Pharaoh's daughter said to her,
take this child away and nurse it for me. Don't you think she
didn't do that? She held that child. And I'll
give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child
and nursed it. She never said, I'm its mother. She just, she
submitted to God's will. Because there's another trial
of faith coming up. Here's another trial of faith.
But she knew what God did the first time, second time I'm sure
it wasn't, I mean it was hard, but she knew, she knew God's
hands in this. And the child grew, as she brought
him to Pharaoh's daughter, she became her son. Her son. You know, by our experience,
we're sons of Adam, aren't we first? By our experience. And
then we become sons of God by our experience. Now, we've been
sons of God in eternity past, but not by experience. And so
Moses, three months old, he's a little older than that now
because she weaned him. He's probably, what, two years old, maybe? Two
years old by the time she weans him. Anyway, she became her son and
she called his name Moses. She said, because I drew him
out of the water. That's right. You named him Moses because that's
what God named him. God drew him out of the water.
What we see here in closing, the POWER OF GOD and the MYSTERY
OF PROVIDENCE. Now that's a beautiful story,
but you know, if our life was written, it'd be a beautiful
story also. It'd be a beautiful story also. God put Pharaoh's destroyer in
his own house. Isn't that amazing? Pharaoh hated those Hebrews.
He put one right beside of him at the throne. He put his destroyer in his own
house and raised him for 40 years. For 40 years, you know Moses
his life is in three parts 40 years in Egypt 40 years in the
backside of a desert and 40 years leading the children of Israel
through the wilderness He put him there, but you know
God preserves his children even before they know him he preserved
him there He learned in all the ways of Egypt. He was a man mighty
in word and deed And now God's gonna take him back there strip
him and teach him Now he's teachable, he's going to be teachable when
God gets done with him. And listen here, and the sentence
that Pharaoh put on those children is going to be the last sentence
that God puts on him, the death of the firstborn. And those who are under the blood
are saved, just like Moses in that ark with that pitch. All
right.