look in our Bibles to Exodus
chapter 2. Exodus chapter 2 and I'm reading with verse 11
through 15. And it came to pass in those
days when Moses was grown that he went out unto his brethren
and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting
a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that
way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second
day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said
to him that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And
he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest
thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared
and said, surely this thing is known. And when Pharaoh heard
this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the
face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat
down by a whale. We began last week looking at
Moses, his life, what is recorded in the scripture, and we looked
at his birth and how he was providentially taken by Pharaoh's daughter and
educated in the palace of Pharaoh. And I pointed out that he was
born under a curse of death. That is all the male children
were to be thrown into the river. He was born under a curse of
death. He was saved in an ark and he
was predestined to become the servant of the Lord. And that's
a good picture of all of us who've been saved by the grace of God.
We too came into this world born under the curse of sin and the
curse is death, eternal death. And we were saved, if we're saved
tonight, in the ark, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only
ark of salvation. And we too have all been predestined
to be servants of God. And I didn't have this at my
disposal last time, so I looked this up. But in Deuteronomy chapter
34 and verse 5, at the end of his life, this is what is recorded. So Moses, the servant of the
Lord, died. Died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the Lord. And I pointed out what
a blessing, what an epithet for any person to be called a servant
of the Lord. Put that on our grave marker,
a servant of the Lord. No higher praise could anyone
receive. than to be called and to be a
servant of the Lord. Now tonight, we're going on looking
at these verses which take him from a palace to setting beside
a well in the land of Midian. And I cannot help but think how
strange is God's providence. How strange to each one of us
is God's providence. Our God and Father, who according
to what Nahum wrote of Him, hath His way in the world wind and
in the storm. And the clouds are the dust of
His feet. The clouds are the dust of His
feet. And I think about the providence
of God and the fact that most of the time we don't understand
and we can't comprehend fully what God is doing. And these
clouds keep you from seeing. And the dust of his feet, I know
that's spiritually speaking, but we can't see now what God
is doing. But I think of the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ that he said to his disciples after he washed
their feet in John chapter 13. What I do now, thou knowest not,
but thou shalt know hereafter. And yes, God's providence is
amazing and it's baffling as we experience things and we see
our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ go through
different things and it is amazing to say the least. But the Apostle
Paul, remember he wrote, for we walk by faith, not by sight. And we don't see and we don't
understand many times How it is that a man like Moses, who
was providentially saved by Pharaoh's daughter, and now he's had to
leave the palace where he had lived most of his life and run
to a foreign land and sat down beside the well. I can just imagine
what he might have been thinking there sitting by that well. We walk by faith, believing that
though we don't know what's ahead, we know who's ahead. And we know
that God, our God, our Father, is working all things after the
counsel of his own will. What comfort and assurance this
gives to God's children to know nothing happens by accident.
And no tragedy that we experience in this world just springs up
out of the dirt. It's God's providence, God's
hand in our lives for His good reasons, for His glory, and for
the good of His people. But now I have two parts to the
message tonight. First, Moses was now 40 years
old. Here in our text, it simply says
Moses was grown. Moses was grown. Doesn't tell
us how old he is. When is a person grown? When
is a person grown? What age? But we've got to go
to the book of Acts to see. Keep your places here, but turn
with me to the book of Acts in the New Testament and find out
exactly how old he was at this point. in Acts chapter 7, and
these are the words of Stephen before he was stoned to death,
before he was martyred. In his long discourse on the
history of the nation of Israel, people of God, in verse 22, we
read, Acts chapter 7 and verse 22, and Moses was learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full 40 years
old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children
of Israel. seeing one of them suffer wrong. Now that's what we read, wasn't
it? That's what we read in Exodus chapter two. He went out and
he saw one of his brethren, one of the Hebrews, being mistreated,
maltreated by an Egyptian. Seeing one of them suffer wrong,
he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote
the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren
would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver
them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself
unto them as they strove and would have set them at one again,
saying, sirs, your brethren, why do you wrong one another?
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying,
who made thee a ruler? and a judge over us. Wilt thou
kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at
this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian. Moses was now forty years old. How brief The history of Moses
is recorded, his early years here. We saw him as a babe, saw
him put into the ark, put into the river, taken to the king's
palace, and now he's grown. Now he's grown. The brevity of
life. The brevity of life. Our life,
your life, my life. It's just like a vapor. It appears
for a little while, and then it vanishes away. And I know
I'm guilty, maybe you are too, of making plans and saying, well,
next year or next spring, I'm going to have my garden. I'm
going to boast not thyself of tomorrow. We always need to say
the Lord willing, don't we? When we make our plans and think
of the future, we don't know what's on tomorrow, none of us.
But I have three thoughts I want to give us here about Moses being
40 years of age before we look on. First of all, the actions
of Moses that we're going to see, the actions of Moses were
not the actions of youth. He's 40 years old. These are
not the actions of youth. Now this is not always true.
But generally the time of youth is leaping before we look. A time of rash, impetuous, impulsive
actions. Man who is young many times is
guilty of these. I look back on my life and I'm
amazed. It humbles me just to think of
how God has taken care of me and many things that I did. And
I'm not past it yet, but foolish things. And God preserved me
and kept me, has thus far. But the actions that we're going
to see of Moses, these are not the actions of a young man. He's
40 years of age. He was a grown man. And second,
I say this about his actions. The actions of Moses could easily
have been rationalized into no action. What do I mean by that? Well, he saw his brethren and
looked upon their burdens. This is what the scripture here
tells us. If you've turned back to Exodus chapter two and verse
11, And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that
he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens. Now in chapter one, in verse
11 of Exodus, we know the scripture says, therefore they set over
them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. Moses goes
out and he sees his brethren being afflicted He saw them,
and he knew that they were his brethren, and naturally, he was
touched. These were his brethren who were
being treated as they were by the Egyptians, and they were
servants. They were servants. They were
slaves to the Egyptians. Now, naturally, he would want
to help them. I mean, when you're kinfolk and
people that you're of the same nation as, like in this case,
Moses and the Israelites, seeing them being afflicted, seeing
them being mistreated, there would naturally be a tug on his
heart to help them. But where better could he help
them? If he had stopped to rationalize
this, I want to help them. And where better could I help
them than being in the palace, being where the king is, where
the ruler is? And if the historian Josephus
was correct, Moses would have become the Pharaoh, which means
the king of Egypt in just a few years. Because according to him,
Pharaoh had no children other than the woman, daughter who
adopted Moses, she had no children, that he would have become the
Pharaoh. Well, just a few years, I can
really do something. Just a few years and I'm going
to be the king here. He could have rationalized and
not done anything. But as I thought about that,
if that had been the case, were the case, who would have then
got the glory? Who would have then got the glory
for the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt? Moses. Moses. God's not going to give
his glory to another. The scripture tells us that in
Isaiah 42 in verse 8. I am the Lord, that is my name,
and my glory will I not give to another. And we know that
in God's purpose, he raised Pharaoh up. so that his name, God's name,
might be magnified among the nations. And it was. Remember when those two spies
went into Jericho and stayed in the house of Rahab, she told
them, we've heard. We've heard what your God has
done to Egypt, to Pharaoh. I mean, the news has spread. that God had been glorified in
the destruction of Pharaoh. So that just came to my mind. He could have rationalized this.
Better not do anything, just wait, wait my time. And in the
meantime, I'm in the place, the seat of authority, I'm in the
palace, I'll do what I can here. No, he didn't do that. And a
third thing that I mentioned to us When Moses fled, our Lord
approved of men fleeing from danger, didn't He? This is what
He said to His disciples in the New Testament. Now there's a
time to stand, no doubt about it. and suffer like Stephen did. But our Lord told his disciples,
when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another. And so, yes, God gives men wisdom,
and you don't put yourself You don't put yourself in harm's
way if there is a way of escape that is not dishonoring to God
and not dishonoring to your confession or profession of faith. Now,
so first of all, Moses was 40 years old, and we know that from
Stephen's word in Acts chapter 7. Moses acted by faith. And we
know this, not from here in Exodus, but if you turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 11, we know that what Moses did, he did by faith. In Exodus chapter, Hebrews chapter
11, Beginning with verse 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. Now, that verse speaks of the
faith of his parents. That verse there speaks of the
faith of the parents of Moses. They were not afraid of the king's
commandment. And their faith caused them to
do like Noah. Up above that in verse seven,
in Hebrews 11, by faith Noah being warned of God of things
not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark. Well, the parents
of Moses, They believed God, and by faith, they too moved
with fear and prepared an ark, an ark in which their son was
saved, Moses. But now, beginning with 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's 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." Truly,
it is amazing to read in this chapter of what faith in God
has allowed men and women to do. Now, it's not just faith. I know it says by faith, but
it's by faith in God. It's not by faith in myself.
It's not by faith in any other group of people, no. By faith
in God. And it's amazing when you read
through this chapter and see what men and women have been
enabled to do by believing God. By simply believing God. For instance, by faith, the scripture
says, kingdoms have been subdued. here in this chapter. Kingdoms
have been subdued. And I thought about Gideon. You
remember, he was weak in faith, wasn't he? Put out the fleece
to ascertain God's will, make sure God was speaking to him.
But then, remember, he had an army that was so large, and God
said, it's too big. Too big. Many nights they had
armies just covered the land, you know. And God said, no, that's
too many. And Gideon told the men, if you
want to go home, if you have any fear in your heart, you can
leave. And most of them left. But God said, that's still too
many. Took them down to the river,
didn't he? Down to the water. And some drank one way and some
drank another way. And the smallest group, God said,
that's the group. Those are the men. And by faith,
the sword of the Lord and Gideon And they conquered a nation,
the Midianites. And then we read that through
faith they quenched the fire, quenched the fire, the flames
of the fire. And you know that's Meshach,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, isn't it? They told King Nebuchadnezzar,
we're not going to bow down to your statue. And we know our
God can deliver us. Now whether He does or not, we
don't know. But we're not going to bow down to your statue, your
idol. And don't you love that story? He said, do you believe that?
I do believe it. I believe the Bible, don't you?
I believe that those soldiers who picked those three men up,
that they died. The heat was so great that the
soldiers themselves died when they threw those men into the
furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar said, how
many men did we throw in? Three, right? Yeah, well, I say
four. And one is likened to the appearance
of the Son of Man. In the afflictions, the Lord
Jesus Christ visited His people there in the fire. And I know,
and you know this from experience, that afflictions, none of us
want them. We all do everything we can not
to go through any kind of trial or difficulty. The flesh doesn't
want it. But some of the sweetest times
that God's people experience in this world are times when
they are in extreme affliction. Why? Because no doubt the Lord
comes and he's with us, especially, I know he's with us all the time,
but especially in those times. And not only quenched the fire,
but the scripture here speaks about women receiving their dead
raised to life again. You remember the two women, the
woman that Elijah was sent to her house, and she was out there
gathering a couple of sticks to cook just a little meal and
some oil that she had, and she said, that's for me and my son,
and we're gonna die. He said, fix that for me first. And for three and a half years,
the barrel of meal never ran dry. It all never failed. And that other woman, Elisha,
remember, she noticed that. She told her husband, he came
by there every so often, Elisha did, and she said, he's a man
of God. Let's build him a little house,
a little room here. And so she did. And he asked
his servant, Gazi, what would this woman want? Does she want
me to speak to the king for her? No, no, none of that. She doesn't
have a son. Oh. So Elisha said, you're going
to have a son. And she did. Of course she did. God said it. But it wasn't long. Son went out one day to his father
working out in the field, and he died. And they carried the
boy home, remember, put him on the prophet's bed. And she went
to see Elisha, didn't she? And Elisha told his servant,
said, take my staff and go with this woman. She said, no, you've
got to come. You've got to come. She was insistent,
wasn't she? The Bible teaches perseverance
and prayer. Pray and keep on praying. And
Elisha came and he restored her son to her. Yes, what faith? There's many other things. But
you know what it says here about Moses, what he did by faith.
One writer pointed out that of all these examples here in Hebrews,
the example of Moses is something that most of us probably can
identify with more than any of the others. The Lord's never
going to tell us like he told Noah to build a ship, an ark. He's not going to tell us like
Abel to offer up a lamb. The lamb's already been offered
up. But what we read here that Moses by faith did, and let's
look at them quickly. And let us remember when we do
as we look at these things that what James said about Elijah
was true of Moses too. He was a man of like passions
as we are. There are three things we read
here. First of all, we see that he
turned his back on the fame and the prestige of this world. In
verse 24, he refused the honor of being called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. Don't you know he had a chariot?
He had a chariot he rode in and people ran before him. pronounced
his coming as they did in those days, he refused that. He turned his back on that. Number
two, he turned his back on the pleasures of the flesh, verse
25. And number three, he turned his
back on the riches of this world, verse 26. Look at what it says. Esteeming the reproach of Christ's
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, Several years ago,
there was a display down at the museum downtown of the pharaohs,
the treasures of the pharaohs. All the gold that they had, the
mask and the necklaces and all of that was on display. Moses
turned his back on the riches of Egypt. When a person, think about this,
when a person turns from something, he turns to something. And really,
the Bible order is turning to, and then we're turning from.
Paul told the believers in Thessalonica, you turn to God from idols. The prodigal son turned to his
father's house from the hog pen. Turning to, you turn from. Now I pointed out he turned from
these things. Turned from fame, from riches,
and the pleasures of the flesh. But look at what he turned to.
He turned, first of all, to affliction. Verse 25. Choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God. He turned to affliction.
Number two, he turned to the people of God to suffer affliction
with the people of God. They were the people of God.
Yes, the Israelites were, but they were a despised people,
a nation of slaves at this time. And number three, he turned to
the reproach of Christ. Verse 26, esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. You know, the Bible tells us
that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Moses,
he did this, we read, by faith, he heard the word of God. No
doubt he heard the word of God from his parents. And he had
respect unto the recompense of the reward. Now, the word that
he heard, I can only imagine was that God had promised the
Messiah. God had promised to his father,
Moses. He's just a child. Moses, I want
you to know this, that our God has promised to us a deliverer. that the seed of our father Abraham,
in him all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed.
And not only that, but listen son, he promised our father and
us all the land of Canaan, a land that flows with milk and honey.
He did what he did by faith, but what I'm pointing out is
faith has to be based, if it's real faith, it has to be based
on the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Nobody can have faith in Christ
who hasn't heard of Christ. And this man, he had faith. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
the thoughts to all of us here this evening. We've seen his
birth, and now he's 40 years of age. We'll leave him at this
time, and next time, God willing, we'll follow on. He's still going
to have an experience at that burning bush, isn't he? He's going to have an encounter
with the angel of the Lord. Amen. Let's sing a hymn before
we're dismissed.