Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11. I'd like for us to look at verses
24 and 25. Hebrews 11, 24 and 25. The Scripture. reveals that 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. Let's pray together. Our blessed Father, we ask your
Blessing upon your word this evening. Lord, your word that
you send, bless it to our hearts. May Christ be honored. We pray
for these that have been mentioned. Lord, thank you for your mercy.
For Christ's sake. Amen. You know, as we continue in this
book of Hebrews, and especially I've been reminded as we Look
in this particular chapter, in this 11th chapter, I see and
behold, thankfully, the absolute sovereignty of our God in bestowing
His mercy on His people. He told Moses, He said, I will
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. And you know, often we find that the Lord is
pleased to take some, sometimes one, out of any particular family
by His good pleasure, by His purpose, according to His will,
and passed by some of the others. This is His right. He's the Lord. He made all things. He said,
I do what I will with my own. I know this. We've read and considered
this Scripture so many times that men are born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." People are rebirthed, born again. Born from above. Not because of family ties or
heartfelt desire of families to have their loved ones converted. Nor of the ability of any man's
free will. They're born of God. Salvation
is of the Lord. But there are instances where
I've found in Scripture, and personally, well, I know that
God has been pleased to show mercy from parents to children. Abraham knew God. Abraham believed God. And so
did his son Isaac. And so did Isaac's son Jacob. And so did Jacob's son Joseph. The last time we considered this
passage of Scripture, this 11th chapter of Hebrews, we considered
the faith of Moses' parents. And now tonight, I'd like for
us to look and consider how the Lord was pleased to show mercy
to Moses too. Oh, how we thank God who is pleased
to show mercy. Now, the Scripture reveals something
that happened totally by the grace of God. There's two passages
that we just read. There's two things that we learn
about faith. Now, it's talking about the faith
of Moses, but this is faith of any believer. Every believer. Two things happens. I'll just
take the Scriptures concerning Moses, but we apply them to every
believer. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, he refused. He refused. He refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. There were some real opportunities
there. He was brought up in royalty. And I can just imagine all of
the best that could be had. The riches of Egypt. was his. But the scripture says he refused,
he disavowed, he rejected to be called Pharaoh's daughter's
son. And the second thing that happened
was by faith he chose rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now, we could stop right there,
and we could take, I was thinking about this scripture, 2 Corinthians
8 and 9, I'll just read this to you. How Moses, right here
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was rich, but he chose
rather. 2 Corinthians 8-9, For ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich. You see Moses there, a picture
of Christ. You see how Moses refused something
and chose something else. He refused the royalty. He refused the glamour. He refused the riches. And he chose affliction. He chose
poverty. Now, let's look at these Scriptures
for just a few minutes. By faith, verse 24, the Scripture
says Moses, when he was come to years. Now, obviously, until
he was come to years, There was no faith. The Scripture says, by faith,
Moses, when he was come to years. This is what we know. This is
how much we know. I want you to turn to Exodus
2. Exodus 2, I'm going to read verses 5 to 10. This is what
we know from the Old Testament about the life of Moses. Exodus 2 verse 5, And the daughter
of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her
maidens walked along by the riverside. And when she saw the ark among
the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had
opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him,
and said, This one of the Hebrew children. Then said his sister,
that is Moses' sister, to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call
to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the
child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to
her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And
Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and
nurse it for me, And I will give thee thy wages.' And the woman
took the child and nursed it. And the child grew. And she brought
him unto Pharaoh's daughter. And he became her son. And she
called his name Moses. And she said, Because I drew
him out of the water." Now, the Scripture reveals concerning
that passage of Scripture, verse 9, I'm sorry, verse 10. It says,
"...and the child grew." Now, here's what happened. Moses'
mom and daddy, three months, they hid him. That's what we
looked at last time. They hid him for three months. Believed
God. Trusted God. When they could
hide him no longer, they took him and they made a little ark.
And they put Moses in that ark and they put him in the river. And by the good providence of
God, Pharaoh's daughter came and she was with her maid and
she looked out there and she saw that little ark out there.
One of her maids went out there and got the ark, came back and
there was this baby. And the Scripture says she had
compassion on that baby. And there was Moses' sister. She was watching. And she comes
up to her and she said, I can get him a nurse if you want me
to." And she said, okay, that'll be fine. You take this child,
and you take this child, and you let one of the Hebrew women
nurse that child. And of course, it was Moses'
mama. Boy, you talk about considering
the providence of God. Now, here was Moses, a little
boy. And the Scripture says, and he
grew. I looked into that. And he grew. And when he got to a point to
where he could be turned over, he didn't need to be nursed and
cared for by his mother any longer. I know it's hard for us to understand
this nowadays, The writers said that more than likely, he was
somewhere between two and three years old whenever she stopped
nursing him and sent him on to go to Pharaoh's daughter. Now,
during that time, and the Scripture does not bear this out here particularly,
but I can only imagine, I know that Moses' mom and daddy, they
saw that he was a proper child, a goodly child. And the Scripture
says that by faith, by faith, they hid that baby. By faith,
she put him in that water. By faith. Now, there is no true
faith without life, eternal life. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
is the grace that God Almighty gives to His people in regeneration. They believe God. Without faith,
it's impossible to believe God. So I know, according to the Scriptures,
I know that Moses' mom and daddy were believers. They saw that
he was a proper child. The Lord had revealed to them
that Moses was an object of God's mercy. That God Almighty was
going to do something with this young boy. Now, how much I know. I can take what the Scripture
says concerning by faith they did this, by faith they did this.
I know that there was life there. Here was Moses. He's in the care. of his mama, and his mother,
by faith, a regenerated woman. She knows of the promise of God. God had told Abraham, and Abraham
told Isaac, and Isaac told Jacob, and Jacob told his son Joseph,
and passed it down, passed it down. Joseph knew. Joseph knew. that God was going to deliver
them out of the land of Egypt. Joseph was the one who says,
you take my bones with you. They knew. God had told them.
And told them how long it was going to be. How long they were
going to be in Egypt. And God was going to deliver
the people of Israel, the Hebrews, were going to take them out of
Egypt. Now this believing mother, she taught that boy. She spoke
to him. Let me read this for you. 2 Timothy. Here's Paul the Apostle talking
to young Timothy. He said in 2 Timothy 1 verse
5, Paul says, When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith,
the sincere faith, that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy
grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice. And I'm persuaded that
in thee also." And then in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, Paul told
Timothy, he said, "...continue thou in the things which thou
hast learned." and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned them. And that from a child thou hast
known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Here was
a believing mama that taught that boy. I don't know how long
she had him. Two, three years. But this mother
spoke to that boy. And told this boy who God is.
And told this young man, this young boy Moses, what God had
promised. This is what the Lord said. This
is what God's going to send to deliver. God's going to send. There's going to be a redemption. You're going to be brought out
of Egypt. And so here we find that the
Lord providentially caused Pharaoh's daughter To come down and to find that
little ark. And gave that ark, now gave that
baby out of that ark to Moses' sister. And sister brought him
to Mama. And Mama, by the grace of God,
taught that boy the Scriptures. And spoke to him concerning God's
will, God's purpose, God's promise. Well, I want you to turn now
with me to Acts 7. Acts chapter 7. Now, here's this
young boy. How old is he? I don't know.
Two years old? Three years old? And the Word of God has been
taught him. And the Scripture says, Acts chapter 7, starting
in verse 22. Well, let's just start in verse
21. When he was cast out, Met by
his mama and put out there in that river. Pharaoh's daughter
took him up. Nourished him for her own son. 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 forty years
old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children
of Israel, and 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 against,
saying, Sirs, your brethren, Why do you wrong one to another?
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away and said,
Who made thee a ruler and judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as
thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at his dissaying
and was a stranger in the land of Midian where he begat two
sons." Now, I know. I said that the Lord had taught
His people. He taught Abraham, He taught
Isaac, He taught Jacob. The Lord taught them. The Lord
taught them. And the Lord taught Moses of
His purpose and His will for Moses. How Almighty God is able,
we don't know. But we know for a fact He said
that my word shall go forth. It's going to prosper. It's going
to accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. When Moses'
mama taught that boy, because he came up in Egypt. There was
no scriptures taught in Egypt. He came up in that palace. There was no truth in that palace. All he had in that palace was
paganism and just false religion, false religion. But Almighty
God had had that mama teach that boy something when he was young,
young, young. And in due time, the Spirit of
God took and told Moses. He taught him. The Scripture
says in verse 25, For he supposed his brethren would have understood
how that God by his hand, by Moses' hand, would deliver them. The Lord had blessed the word
that that young boy had surely heard. And God blessed it. And the Lord spoke to Moses.
And the Spirit of God moved upon Moses to visit his brethren,
and he defended his own, and he killed an abusive Egyptian. Now I know this, we're never
told that Moses ever said anything to his adoptive mama about not
having a heart to be there. But I do know this, the day that
he The Scripture says that he went out and wanted to be with
his brethren. They were brethren to him. He
knew. He knew that these Hebrews, that
they were his brethren. He knew that. The Scripture says
that. He went out to be with his brethren. And there was an
Egyptian. And he grew up. He grew up as
an Egyptian. And he saw this Egyptian abusing
One of his brethren. And he killed that Egyptian.
And the Scripture says, and here we are back in Hebrews 11, in
verse 24, By faith, when he was come to years, when he was 40
years old, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. The denial of self. The denial of Moses to himself
was evidenced the day he killed that Egyptian. The day he killed
that abusive Egyptian was the day that it was brought out.
When he was coming to years, he was coming at 40 years old,
and he was out there and he killed that Egyptian that was hurting.
one of his brethren. Now, true faith is always going
to be evidenced as it turns from that which opposes God, God's
honor, and God's glory, by faith. A believer willingly relinquishes. He turns from anything that he
knows to hinder God's will for him. He longs to forsake it. I'm not saying they never struggle
with it. But there is a forsaking of it. That's not what I want. The Scripture says, Matthew 16,
24, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself by faith. Moses rejected the position of
affluence. and ease, humanly speaking. He had it made. What is Moses going to want for?
The Spirit of God put it in his heart to detest what he formerly
loved and accept it. Faith is that grace by which
God Almighty teaches a man to in his heart, and it will come
out on him, to renounce that which is opposing God. Thomas Manton, one of the old
writers, said this, when God calls us from the care of this
world, we cannot enjoy those cares. with a good conscience. Now, that's true. It's just something
that just grates on you. When there's something that is
opposed to God's will, God's purpose, a believer, he just
can't relax around it. I know Brother Henry said, be
careful how tightly you hold on to this world stuff. 1 John
5 verse 4 says, For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the
world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even
our faith. So first, by faith, Moses, he
denied himself is what he did. He refused to remain in the place
where he was brought up. The Lord's got sheep in all places,
doesn't He? There was a chosen vessel of
God. Who would have ever thought?
I mean, it's two or three years old, and in this, here's a young
boy. How much does that young boy know? He don't know anything. He'll never know anything. But
when Almighty God blessed the Word that he had heard by faith. Faith is based on God's Word.
Moses heard the Word of God somewhere and the Scripture was explicit
to tell us that Moses' mom and dad were believers. And that
Moses went back and stayed with his mama, daddy, and raised for
two or three years. I know that I'm thinking about
Joseph. You know, Joseph was in Egypt.
And the Scripture says that he remained in Egypt until he died.
Well, somebody might say, well, why did he stay in Egypt? Well,
the only answer that I can have to that is that Almighty God
was pleased to put Joseph in Egypt and to leave him there
until he died to take care of his people, to feed his people.
Joseph had a purpose in staying in Egypt. Joseph knew God and
Joseph believed God, but as far as Moses, Moses was not going
to be able to stay in Egypt. God Almighty gave him a heart,
the Scripture says, to refuse. He refused something. But here's
the second thing that happened. He refused one thing, but verse
25 says, Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. He refused something, but he
chose something else. Almighty God had made this man
willing in the day of God's power. He did choose. The Scripture
says he chose rather to suffer affliction. Why does any man
choose to follow after Christ? Well, because the Lord has given
them a heart to do so. We know that. We know God's people
are willing. Men talk about free will. Man
by nature doesn't have one, but I tell you this, God's people
have a will that goes after Christ, comes to Him, believes Him. Faith
does those two things. It refuses And it chooses. It refuses the world. It denies the world. It will
deny itself. A believer will take God's side
against himself. He always does. Always does.
A sinner is caused to hate that which is evil to him. Then he chooses that which is
good and proper according to the Lord's leadership to him. God's people, they go out and
they come in. They go out from rebellion and
they come into the fold, into the sheepfold of the prodigal
son. When he came to himself, and
that's what Moses did, and that's what every believer does. When
he says he came to himself, it's when the Spirit of God moved
on him and gave him a heart. He gave an understanding. That
prodigal son, he came to himself. What am I doing? What in the
world am I doing? I'm at a point where I'm going
to have to eat husk. I don't even get the best of
it. The hogs get the best of it.
I've got to eat the husk? You mean to tell me that I'm
eating husk and servants in my daddy's house? I'm going to go home and I'm
going to tell my dad, I have sinned against heaven. I've sinned
against you. He had it all planned. That daddy
saw that boy afar off. I think about how far the Lord
has seen His people. He saw them eternally. He's always seen them. That boy
coming up. And that daddy fell on his neck
and kissed him. Don't you know that broke that
boy's heart? What have I done? How I have mistreated you. I have given this boy the best
robe, best shoes, best ring. Killed a fatty calf. This is
my son. My son is dead. He's alive. Here's
Moses. Just like that prodigal. Just
like every child, object of God's mercy. Almighty God has caused
Moses to abandon the idols that one time just stole his heart.
And now he takes up his cross and he follows Christ. He chose. to suffer affliction. Left the
palace, I'd rather be over here and be with these people right
here. These are my brethren. I'd rather
be with them. And the affliction that they're
suffering, I'd rather make bricks with them. I'd rather have to
go pick straw with them. I'd rather be beat like they
are. than to go sit in that palace.
I don't want to be there anymore. I don't have a heart for that
anymore. No man, Matthew 6, verse 24, no man can serve. No man
is a slave. No man can serve two masters,
for either he'll hate the one, and love the other, or else he'll
hold to the one, he'll care for the one and despise, disregard
the other. You cannot serve God and material
possessions. Man, you can't do it. You just
can't do it. By faith, Moses, he preferred
affliction than to enjoy the pleasures of sin or Caesar. Pleasures of sin. What is that? It's anything that the Lord calls
us away from. That's what it is. Anything that
God calls us away from. What's wrong with doing this? Or what's wrong with doing that?
Maybe in itself, there's nothing wrong with it. Except if that's
something that Almighty God has called you from. Whatever it
is. Whatever it is. If there's anything
that Almighty God calls you away from that hinders your worship
to Him. James 4.17 says, Therefore to
him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, To him, it's sin. To him, it's sin. The way that
you know what the Lord will have you to do is this. I'll just
ask you this question. Is it a misery? Is it a burden? Is it a strain upon you to continue
doing what you know by faith is God's will for you to do or
not to do? What bothers you more? Suffering
loss in this world or displeasing God? There are some things that
God Almighty calls men away from. Things that are hindrance to
them. Things that hinder their faithfulness to Christ. And he
calls them away from it. And God's people are going to
walk away from it. I remember Maurice Montgomery
told me one time, he said there was a piece of property, he'd
been looking at it for years and years and years and years.
He said, I've got an opportunity to buy it one day. And he said,
He said, I was so excited. He said, I was working on it.
And he says, the more I looked at it, he said, the Lord, he
said, I knew God was calling me to go to Madisonville. And
he said, I just, I looked at that piece of property and he
said, I thought, I got to let it go. He said, I
got, I've got to let it go. Moses refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter. And he chose rather to suffer
the affliction of God's people than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin. It was sin to him. It wasn't
sin to Joseph. It wasn't sin to Joseph. Joseph
stayed in Egypt. And he did so with God's blessing. God blessed it. God blessed it.
But staying in Egypt was sin to Moses. Some might say, well,
how can he do that? Well, the Lord will tell you. You'll know. May the Lord bless
these words to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.