Freely let me take of Thee. String Thou us within my heart,
Right to all eternity. Turn with me, first of all, to
Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. The story we just
read is recorded three times, spoken of three times in Scripture.
Exodus 2 and then Acts 7. Stephen preached this. And then Hebrews 11, briefly,
one verse. It says in Hebrews 11, verse
23, And by faith, Moses, when he
was born, was hid three months of his parents. That is, by faith,
his parents hid this son, this child, because they saw he was
a proper child. They were not afraid of the king's
commandment. When I went to Spring Lake, Bethel
Baptist, I knew what I was going to preach
on before I went there, Romans 8.28. But I didn't just grab
the old outline I preached to you. I completely laid it aside
and completely redid it. Because the half has not been
told, that one verse, any verse. But in that message down there,
I brought out several examples, stories, of those who went through
many, many, many things and showed how all things work together
for good, no matter how bad it seemed at the time. And we have
the end of every one of those stories. It was good, so good,
because God is good. Now, my pastor reminded me of
this in his message on that. He said, everything doesn't work
for our material good. Financial good. Everything doesn't
work for our physical good. Oh no. In fact, material prosperity
and physical well-being sometimes works against us. When we're
rich and increased with good, we forget God. That ain't good. Sometimes these
things are the judgment of God. And then when He brings them
away, He takes them away, riches and even physical health, that's
far good. Then you start calling on God.
Then you stop looking to things in the flesh, and then you start
looking to the Lord, don't you? Then He turns your eyes away
from these things that you've trusted in and tried to find
some comfort in. He turns your eyes away, doesn't
He? Then you realize, whom have I in heaven but Thee? There's
none on earth but Thee. He's weaning God's people from
this world. I gave stories like this of Abraham. Abraham was called out. He was
75 years old, an old man. It doesn't happen very often,
but the Lord does call some old people by the Gospel. And they leave their father,
they leave their mother, they leave their religion. You know
he thought he was a saved man. He thought he knew God. He didn't
know God. The Lord called him out and he left his family. That's how you know. And Moses refused to be called
Pharaoh's daughter. I'm not from Egypt. As Abraham left, he wandered,
didn't he? He wandered. That's a trial in
itself. He came to Bethel. The Lord brought him to God's
house. That means the house of God. And he was thankful. And he should have stayed there.
But there was a famine that arose, wasn't there? God's people have
never begged bread. But He didn't. He went, where'd
He go? Egypt. And what happened? He denied
His wife. Not once, but twice. How was
that good for Him? Well, it sure humbled Him, didn't
it? It says Moses was the meekest man on earth. After that, he had to be meek in front of
the God he now knew. Read Brother Maurice Montgomery's
article. You can't fake it in front of
him if you know God. And his wife knew him. Well, Abraham went back to Bethel. Back to Bethel. And he had a
boy named Lot, his nephew, that he loved like a son. Abraham
didn't have children. He was childless. And that's
a trial, isn't it? There were 13 adults in this
congregation. The Lord never gave children
to them. And that's a trial. Isn't it? It's a trial. Abraham went through that. Long
time. Hundred years. Well, he loved a boy named Lot
like his son. He took him under his wing. He
did everything for him. He loved him like a child. He
was his child, his son. He did everything for him. He
took him with him. He loved him. He provided for
him. He taught him. He did all these
things for him. And Lot, there was division and
strife. And it killed Abraham, and Lot
left him. It killed him. That boy left him after all he'd
done for him. Over what? Was that good for Abraham? Was
it? Oh, yeah. Abraham said, Lord,
what do you give me? Everybody's gone. My only son's
gone. What do you give me? God said,
me. Do you see now, Abraham? I am
your portion. Though everyone forsakes you,
the Lord will take you in. That's good, isn't it? It's going to happen to all of
us. It's going to happen to all of us. If you belong to the Lord. What about Lot? He went down
to Sodom, didn't he? Got rich. Had it all. Well-watered
plains of Sodom. Left Abraham in the mountains.
I bet his wife had something to do with that. That old man. What does he know? Look at that
world out there. Look, it's ours for the taking.
And God destroyed Lot, didn't He? And he lost everything. He lost everything, including
his wife. But God. Was this good for Lot? Was all
that good for Lot? Lot was one of the greatest objects
of God's mercy in the Bible, wasn't he? The Lord being merciful,
laid hold of him. He lingered. He wanted to stay
there like his wife did. And the Lord left his wife there.
Okay, stay there. But he would not let Lot stay. That's my story. That's my hope. Was that good for Lot? Yeah,
it was. As I said, Abraham was childless,
and he finally had a son that boy had been waiting on, Ishmael. He was a wild son. He was a wild son. And God said, kick him out. I've never been through that,
and I don't want to go through it, but some of you have. Was
this good? Was this good for Abraham? One
of the clearest gospel stories found in Galatians and Romans
is about Ishmael and Hagar. Oh yeah, it's good. After these things, the Lord did try Abraham. After all that, there's more
to come? The worst. The worst? The best. The best. Mount Moriah. Is there a clearer picture of
the gospel in all the Old Testament than Mount Moriah? Genesis 22.
Abraham, take your son, your only son, whom thou lovest, and
offer him as a burnt offering unto me upon the mountain. And
I'll tell you, it was silent. He went. He believed God. His face was
going to be tried. And it's not a pleasant trial.
Fiery trials are going to be found under praise and honor
and glory. You reckon Abraham was praising
God coming down that mountain? What for? Substitution. It was all that good? Would Abraham
have ordered it that way? Would Abraham have ordered anything
like that? No. He had been back in Haran,
an idol worshipper with his father, and he had died. But it all worked
together. Oh, there's so many stories,
people, isn't there? Story after story. I do want you to turn
to Genesis 42 and look at this. Jacob, and then we'll go to Exodus.
Genesis 42. You know the story of Jacob.
Oh, brethren, happy, happy, happy. Blessed is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob, fickle, foul, up and down, shall
not be concerned. Genesis 42, you know, after all
that happened to Jacob and Dan around, just on and on it goes.
And Jacob, I was going to tell you about his life. Oh my, so
much happened to him. Well, you remember Joseph, he
thought was dead. And Simeon was put in prison
by Joseph. And the king said, don't come
back and see my face till you bring that youngest boy, the
one that Jacob loved more than any other. He said, And look
at it, verse 36. Jacob said, their father said
unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not. Jacob. And Simeon is not. And you'll take Benjamin away.
All these things are against me. No, Jacob. No, Jacob. No, no, no. It's all for you. Just hang on. You just wait.
You'll see. And you'll praise God to high
heaven for doing everything exactly like He did it. If you'd have had a hand in it,
you'd have messed it up. Brother Scott said this, and
I love this. Brother Scott Richardson lost
his first child. A daughter, the only daughter
they had. Was she three years old? Mom, three years old? Scott's
daughter? I think she was three years old. And then, a boy got put in prison. One of his boys, put in prison.
Anybody been there? Then he got cancer. Had to wear
an ileostomy. and a colostomy for the last
10-15 years of his life. His wife died, and he said, if you knew what God knows, you
would order your life exactly like he ordered it. Exactly. All the facts work together. In our story, Exodus 2, Pharaoh
had given the command for all the male Hebrew children to be
thrown in the river. Pharaoh gave the command. Who gave the command? There is no authority but of
God. The powers that be are of the Lord. There's nobody. Our Lord said this in Isaiah.
He said, there's no little God with me. Little G over there.
There's nobody that runs or rules or orders or commands anything.
It's I, the Lord. I kill. Deuteronomy 32, 39. And I make a life. I wound. I
heal. I make peace. I create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Isn't that what He said? The
world doesn't like that. But heaven and hope, that's my
hope. Is it yours? He's God. And beside him, there's none
else. And he's ordered it all. He's too wise to err. He's too
good to do wrong. He's too loving to do me wrong.
And I'm just going to have to leave it there. I don't understand. Someday we will, won't we? Exodus 2. Now, can you imagine,
people? Can you try to imagine? what
the parrots were going through. I'm just trying to remind you. It's
inconceivable in a different way. It's inconceivable, inconceivable.
They come in your house and take your male child and throw it
in the river. Throw it in the river. This happened. Why would God do such a thing? Why would a loving God? Do you know how good God was
to those children? Huh? The Lord preserved it, the simple.
The Lord saved the little children like that. Every one of them. I don't know how many there were. There were 1,000, 2,000, 3,000,
10,000, 20,000, 50,000. They all went to glory. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, 50,000 people were singing, glory, hallelujah! But God ordered this. Paris wept. Parents grieved. Parents couldn't
understand. Parents got mad at Pharaoh. Whereas,
if that hadn't happened, maybe they'd have grown up to hate
God and ended up in hell. Right? God's good. All the babies aborted. Maybe somebody in here lost a
child in a miscarriage or even an abortion. And I'm here to tell you, your
child lives. And you'll see that child someday.
He won't be a child. He'll be just like Jesus Christ.
And you'll know him or her, and they'll know you, and you'll
know why that happened. And you'll thank God in heaven
for doing it. Yes, sir. God is good. God is good. He's better than
you. He's better than me. Well, there's this Levite man.
He married a daughter of Levi. This Levite named Amram. His name's Amram. Her name's
Jochebed. The woman conceived and bear a son. A son. This was her third child. She'd
already had a daughter, she was now 12 or 13 at the time, a son,
about three years old, named Aaron, Miriam and Aaron. And
she saw this child, and the Lord impressed in her that this is
a goodly child. And I know all parents think
that. They thought that about me. It was quickly dispelled by the
Lord. You know, every mother's child is a good boy, even the
ones on death row. He's a good boy, just bad circumstances. Yeah. This child's a sinner,
yeah, but God spoke to people and dealt with people and dreams
and so forth before the word was completed, right? And he
told, the Lord impressed upon her that this is a good child.
He's going to be good for something. He's not going to be a worthless
boy. He's going to be good for something. I'm going to get some
good out of this son. And she hid him three months
to concede a goodly child. In Acts 7, in Stephen's sermon,
he said they saw that he was exceeding fair. Now, let me just
go ahead and tell you who this represents. Okay? I can't hide
it any longer. You saw it when you were reading
it. Moses represents bad prophets. Moses said that. Stephen preached
that in Acts 7. He said, the Lord will raise
up a prophet, capital P, like me. And him, he'll give you the
words of God. And him, you'll follow. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses was a Levite. Our Lord
is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He's a
prophet. Moses was a prophet. Our Lord
is that prophet. Moses wasn't a king, and our
Lord is. Prophet Christ the King. So there,
now you know. The secret. Not here any longer.
Who this child represents. Well, they said this child is
exceedingly fair. What does God say about his son?
The fairest of ten thousand, a bright and morning star. None
like him. But now, hold on. It was an outward
beauty. He had no form, no countenance,
there was no beauty that anyone should desire him. But God, who
looks on the heart, said, now this is an exceedingly fair and
good child. I love thinking about Mary. I
was going to have you turn there, but for the sake of time, Matthew
1, Matthew 2, I'll just tell it to you. Herod gave the command. Just kill all the Hebrew children. And God warned Joseph in a dream. Mary, in a dream, to take that
child where? Where? Egypt. Egypt! Man, if I was Pentecostal, I'd
say, This is all the Scriptures are telling of Christ. Take Him
to Egypt. My Son will be called out of
Egypt. He's going to be put in Egypt. Why? Like Moses was put
there. Why? To bring us out of Egypt. He's going to be like Him. Made
like unto Him, but without sin. Meek. Moses called the meekest
on earth. What does it say about the Lord
Jesus Christ? What did He say? He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly. And you'll find rest
for yourself. Where am I? They say he's a goodly
child, a fair child. I love thinking about Mary when
she had that child and she would be around other mothers and,
you know, mothers brag about their babies. And Mary would
say, He's a good child. No, really. He never cries. He never fusses. He's a good
baby. He's a good boy. No, you don't
understand. We didn't teach him any of this. He's a good boy. He's not like
us. Joseph said, I don't have anything
to do with that son. Twelve years old. He's smart. You don't understand. He's wise beyond his years. Why? Because this is God's child. This is the Son of God. And like
Moses, he was hidden. Hidden for years. Hidden for
thousands of years. Christ was a lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. And he's hidden in the pages.
You know what the flags are? I'll just go ahead and tell you
this. It's called papyrus. It's the material, the reeds,
that they make paper out of. You might catch that. This ark was hid among the flags.
And so is the gospel of Christ. Hidden. In the newspapers, he
pages it. From the wise and the prudent,
but revealed unto him. He's called, he's chosen, he's
based. Okay. And once he's revealed, he's
everywhere. Like, Umrah, just like Jacob said, he can't be
hid any longer. There came a time, in the fullness of time, God
sent forth... I'm so far ahead of myself. God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them who are
under the law, like the story of Moses. In the fullest of time,
40 years old, I'm here. God hid His Son in the pages
of this book. Even Peter said that. He said
these things were not revealed unto the prophets, unto others,
but unto us in these last days. And then God hid His Son in the
carpenter's shop. For how long? 30 years. You think about the Lord Jesus
Christ walking around in Rome that corrupt government, watching
all the injustices, watching all the perversion, all the corruption,
watching his brethren being ill-treated like Moses saw, watching all
that, and he didn't do anything about it. Think about it. Why didn't he? Could he have? He was there. He's ordering all that. That's
Him. That's God. But you see, it's all for a purpose. He's waiting for this eternal,
one central purpose why He came. To redeem His people. Not to
exact vengeance on those who are cruel. Not to right every
wrong, every injustice. to change the world, but to save
people from their sin, His people from their sin, by being made
sin, by going to the cross. That's why He came, to save His
people. And so it was all on purpose,
and it was all good according to the wisdom. I look at our
text here, just look down through here with me. It says in verse
3, she could no longer hide him. She took for him an ark of bulrushes,
or reeds, and daubed it with slime and with pitch. And she
put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's
bank. And his sister Miriam, a mother
of Jochebed, said, Honey, go watch the ark. And the sister
stood afar off to wit, wondering, wondering what's going to happen
to my brother, what's going to happen to this child. Jochebed cast her child, her
third son, her third child on the water. She cast all her care on the
Lord. She cast her fears in that river. All her hope was where? In the
Lord. In the Lord. Was she afraid? Now, it says in Hebrews, she
was not afraid of the king's command. She believed God. Doesn't say that she was not
afraid. She believed God. So that's why
she cast her beloved upon the Lord's river. It was the Lord's
river. Actually, she cast him into the Lord's hand. He's in
your hands. And she went home. True story. Try to enter into this. True story. She went home. You
think she's weeping? She went home. And her husband
put his arm around her, put his arm around Jacobin and said,
honey, and he's crying too. We believe in God, don't we? We believe the Lord is God, don't
we? Don't we, Jacobin? Yes. Well, honey, I don't know
how. I don't know how, but I just
believe somehow, someway, this is going to be good. And against hope, hope? Against
hope, they hoped in God like Abraham when he cast that boy.
I don't know. You know the Lord had mercy on Ishmael? He did. He heard the boys cry. And he pointed him to a well.
Do you hear that? Anybody with a wayward son? Well, she cast that child on
the water. Miriam was 13 years old at the
time. She watched and wondered to wit,
that means wondered what's going to happen, what's going to be
done for him. Brothers and sisters, cast your care upon the Lord,
all of it, for He careth for you. That's what the Scripture
says. Brother, you have never provided for your family in your
life. You have never given them one
thing. What you've given them was given to you from the Lord.
You don't get the credit for that. So if something happens
to you, what's going to happen to your children? Believe and you'll be established.
That's what the Scripture says. Believe and you'll be established.
You won't have your hope in Egypt. You won't have your hope in Pharaoh.
These things are against you, we think. Your children, you
know, and now listen to this. Why did God write this? Well,
it's a picture of a greater story. She put this child in an ark,
dogged with pitch and slime, her beloved son that she loved
dearly, and cast this child into the care of her Lord, and the
rivers brang upon the Brothers and sisters, if you have children,
let me tell you what you want for them. You may not know this,
you may not be wise enough to, some of you are, but let me tell
you what you want for your children. Let me tell you what your children
need. Let me tell you what you should be praying for and asking
the Lord to do for your children. That they be found in the ark
covered with bitch. And then what's going to happen
to them? All good. All good. Whether they're a king on a throne
or a slave like the rest of them. What did Jacobette want for her
son? That he might live. How's he
going to live? In the ark, under the slime. Under the pitch, under the blood,
in the hands of God. Our salvation is in the ark.
Our salvation is in Christ. Our salvation is under the blood.
And so is your children. And they're lost like us. They
need Christ. What do you think Jochebed thought
when Moses was on the throne in Egypt? What do you think? Do you think he's proud of that
boy? No. He doesn't know God. Egypt's
got a hold of him. Lord, deliver him from Egypt. You know what? God did. You know
what Moses did? He said he can do some good in
Egypt. The Lord doesn't use Egypt. The Lord doesn't save with corruptible
things such as silver and gold. He saved by blood. He saved by
an ark. And Moses, when he was come to
year, when the Lord brought him to himself and revealed himself
at that burning bush, Moses said, look at me. I've got everything, but I've
got nothing. Look at me. I'm somebody, but I'm a nobody.
Look at me. I know Pharaoh, but I don't know
God. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go up on that
mountain and see that bush that burns. And buddy, God changed
his countenance to me. And what'd He do? He left Egypt.
I don't need that. That can't do me or anybody else
any good. It'd just bring me down. Here's
what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a wanderer in
the wilderness with my brethren. I esteem the reproach of Christ
greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt." Yes, sir. Now he's
come to his senses. Now the Lord's brought him to
himself. Now. And the Son of God had not a
place to lay his head. Poor, who was rich, became poor
for our sake, like Moses. Did Christ have anything? He
had it all. And he told us, A man's life
consists not in the things that he possesses, but in the one
that possesses him. The one in who he's found. How
long is it going to take us to learn that? A lifetime. A lifetime of hard trials that
come from being in Egypt. So he was cast on the water,
and the daughter of Pharaoh, The daughter of Pharaoh came
down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along
by the riverside. When she saw the ark among the
flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. She opened it and saw the
child. Behold, the babe wept. She had compassion on him. The
Lord does give us favor in the sight of the Egyptians sometimes. I was talking to one of the brethren
just the other day when the children of Israel were leaving Egypt. And it says the Egyptians loaned
them their jewels of silver. The Egyptians wanted them out
of there. But, Lord, they needed these. Why did they need gold
and silver and all that? They didn't pay for anything.
They didn't buy food. They didn't buy a dime's worth
of food. It came from the sky. They didn't buy water. It came
out of the rock. that went in the temple. The gold and silver and the precious
stones was all for the temple, for Christ's sake. You know why
you have a job? You know why you earn money?
You know why Egypt loans you money? For the Lord's work. You're going to have food and
rain. Yes, you are. Isn't that wonderful? You're
going to have food and rain. God's promised it. If you're
in Christ, that's all you need. But the Egyptians loaned them.
The children of Israel, they're not coming back. We need loans.
They're not coming back. That's to tell us. Are you hearing
me? That's to tell me that everything
you have is on loan. You can't keep it. So he was cast out. Cast out. God gave the command to Pharaoh's
daughter to take him up. Take him up. You with wicked
hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory, but you did
what God determined for to be done. Christ said, if I be lifted
up, the ark, I'll draw all men unto me. Oh, that was the worst
thing ever in the history of mankind to happen. The most evil
act in the history of mankind was what they did to the Son
of God. Did that turn out good? You see, Christ is all. Christ
is all and in all. All the pages of this book, in
all of His people, and all of this is to the praise of the
glory of God's grace who sent this deliverance, who sent Christ
down here, put Him in Egypt for us, ark among the flags, and
revealed Him unto us that we're in Him that is true, and He in
us, and all this is for us. for our good. Why? Because he's
taking his people out. He's bringing them out. And he
did it. Think about it. When the wise men came, they
saw. It wasn't hidden from them, the
wise men. They saw that child and they
hit their knees. This is the Savior. Simeon came in the temple, didn't
he? The young maid brought in this child, and all the rest
of the Jewish women were bringing their children to get them circumcised.
And here this one poor girl brings in this child and says, I can
die now. I've seen thy salvation. And
somebody's standing by, and that baby sat in that child. And if somebody
had said, that angel would have said to somebody, you see that
ark and the bulrushes? You see that baby there and those
bulrushes? He's going to bring all of Israel
out of Egypt. Serious? Who'd have to despise
a day of small town? See, God's not by might nor power,
but by the Spirit. By God's power. This is all going
to be clearly saying that this is of the Lord. That He brought
them out with a high hand. I know. Okay, let's sing a closing
here. Number 353. 267. 267. All things
work out for good. I know. 267.