We know that Pharaoh and Egypt
are pictures of Satan and the world that are in opposition
to the Gospel of God's grace. They've always been in opposition
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan and the world have no love,
no respect for the Son of God. Satan knows who Christ is. He
knows to at least some degree what Christ has already accomplished
upon the cross. Even before that, he knew that
he was the seed of the woman because he actually heard those
words from the lips of the Son of God in Genesis 3 and verse
15. And if you'll look that passage
up, you'll find that our Lord Jesus, that's God speaking to
men because God always speaks to men through His Son. Men if
they're gonna speak to God have got to speak to God through his
son and there in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15 It's the Lord Jesus
who announced first of all to Satan That there would enter
into this world one who is the seed of the woman Who would bruise
his head? Satan has known that He first
of all sought to destroy the woman. And he did cause her to
fall, but then Adam, of course, he decided he'd go with his wife
in rebelling against God. But when the Lord Jesus then
announced to him the seed of the woman was coming, Satan,
he said in his heart to do something about God's purpose. and to frustrate
it if he could, to interfere with it, to interrupt that which
God had purpose to do. And of course, we know that time
and time again, Satan was, he raised up himself and other opposition
against the Son of God. After all, he hated Christ. He
wanted for himself that position that the Son of God was ordained
to have as being Lord of lords and King of kings. And you can
read about that in Isaiah chapter 14. God purposed to exalt His
Son through the the substitutionary death of his son, the sacrifice
for God's chosen people, and God's purpose to make that God-man
heir of all things. And this aggravated, this just
stirred up the malice of Satan. He's always been the enemy of
God, he's the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's the enemy
of God's people. He knew that God had given to
Christ a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue,
and that at some point in history, that one would come, that one
who was his creator, that one that he rebelled against, He
knew that that Son of God would enter into this world, and He
would accomplish something that Satan set out to interfere with. He would accomplish the salvation
of the Lord's people. This is a devilish opposition
to God, which always is frustrated by God. God's purpose is never
frustrated. Rather, He frustrates that purpose
of Satan. The Lord now brings into this
world a deliverer, Moses. Satan has already entered into
the heart of Pharaoh to do all he could to do away with the
lineage, those men leading up to our Lord Jesus. He entered
into the heart of Pharaoh. Pharaoh didn't realize it, but
he was being an instrument used of Satan to do away with the
seed of the woman that is the lineage of Judah. You remember
back in the first chapter that Pharaoh said he wanted all the
baby boys killed. If he had been successful, think
about it. that would have eliminated all
of those that descended from Judah. That would mean there
would have been no Boaz. There would have been no Jesse.
There would have been no David. And there would have been no
Messiah. Because our Lord Jesus would come through the tribe
of Judah. And Satan now, he enters into
Pharaoh, into his mind and into his heart. And Pharaoh, he doesn't
realize, but he's being controlled by the evil one. And the goal
is to do away with all the baby boys, all the males. And in that
way, Satan would be successful in keeping that great Messiah,
the Son of God, from coming into this world and doing the work
that God had purposed for him to do. He sets out to once again
oppose God. But his evil scheme is not to
come to pass. Because the Lord had within the
ranks of the Jews, He had two women who loved God, who feared
the Lord, who believed the Lord, and they had no respect whatsoever
for Pharaoh. And when Pharaoh called these
two women in, Shiphrah and Puah, and said, whenever a Hebrew woman
gives birth to a male child, kill it immediately. But they
refused to do that. In fact, they would even lie
to Pharaoh in order to cover up the fact that they did birth
into this world, they assisted in the births of male children.
And so they lied to Pharaoh. They said, when we go to help
them, they've already given birth. They didn't need us. So it's
always wrong to lie. They lied not for self-preservation. They didn't lie for their own
benefit. They lied for the cause of God. They lied to protect the lineage
of Messiah. And so, that effort of Satan
was frustrated by the Lord. Yes, Satan has always been against
the Lord and against His people. Of course, you can read, and
a really good passage to read on this is Revelation chapter
12, because it talks about our Lord Jesus conquering Satan at
the cross of Calvary. Now is salvation come, we read
in Revelation chapter 12. And now is the prince of this
world cast out. And then having been cast out,
cast into the earth, Satan knowing his time is short, he's going
after the church of God. He's always hated God. He's always
hated the people of God. He hated Israel. He hated Moses. He hated those who were the forerunners
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who were pictures of and
types of Him. He hated the Savior. He tried
to do away with Him. He couldn't do it. He was frustrated
and instead of Him defeating the Son of God, the Son of God
defeated Him. His head was crushed. He was totally frustrated in
his purpose of defying God. And his head was crushed. He
received a mortal blow. But as we read in Revelation
chapter 12, knowing his time is short, he's after the church. He's after the Lord's people.
But he cannot do away with the church of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that precious people bought with his blood. that people justified
by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the purpose of
God cannot be defeated. Not at all. He opposed the Lord,
but the Lord opposed him. And the Lord will always be successful. And of course, he brought great
persecution to the Israelites. And yet, though He brought great
persecution to the Israelites, look what it says back in chapter
1 and verse 12, because He's making them build for Him. They're servants building for
Pharaoh, but look at chapter 1 and verse 12. But the more
they afflicted them, the more the Egyptians afflicted the people
of God, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved. That is, the Egyptians were grieved
because of the children of Israel. Persecution cannot stop the work
of God. In fact, God uses persecution. He uses the enmity of the enemy
in order to further His own cause. Let me show you a couple of references
here. Look in Acts chapter 8. And I'll just look at these briefly
with you, but look at Acts chapter 8. This is when things really
got heated after the death of Stephen. You will remember how
he was stoned to death. Chapter 8 of Acts and verse 1. And Saul was consenting under
the death of Stephen. And at that time, there was a
great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.
Where did the persecution originate really? In the heart of Satan.
He stirs up the people. He hates Christ. He would take
away the glory of Christ. He would attack the very throne
of God. And so he goes after the people
of God to ruin God's purpose of grace regarding the election
of a people unto salvation. So great persecution was raised
against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all
scattered abroad. throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen
to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and
hailing or forcibly dragging men and women and committed them
to prison. Therefore, they went They that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel, preaching
the Word of God. Then Philip went down to the
city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people
with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake,
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." In other words,
the persecution. It was not successful in kind
of quenching this movement of people believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit of God. It didn't
quench it. It didn't water it down. It didn't
frustrate the purpose of God. Rather, God used that in order
to send forth preachers in other places, and the gospel of God's
free grace went forth, and God's elect were saved. You can't stop
the purpose of God. You say, well, there seems to
be so few people today who believe the Gospel of Grace. Well, right
here there are just a few, and over there is a few, and over
there is a few, but put us all together and the Lord will in
the last day. It's a multitude which no man
can number. You see, persecution doesn't
affect the purpose of God in salvation. Rather, God uses that
as well. Remember this, Satan. And it's
Satan who's using a Pharaoh. But it's the Lord who is using
Satan. He is the first cause of all
things. And he is manipulating the evil
one And in the manipulation of Satan here in Acts chapter 8,
raising the persecution against the believers in Jerusalem, they're
scattered and Satan says, Aha! Aha! This is wonderful. I've
broken this monopoly they had in Jerusalem. Here they're all
gathered together. Now I've kind of busted them
up and spread them abroad. But they go abroad preaching
the Gospel and more people are converted. That's the purpose
of God that can be frustrating. Don't grow weary in well-doing. And don't worry about the numbers. God will save His people. The
Word of God will always go forth and be successful in the thing
where to He sends it. Look at chapter 11 of Acts. Can
I show you one other passage? Look at chapter 11. Look at verses
19 through 21. Acts 11 verse 19, now they which
were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about
Stephen traveled as far as Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch preaching
the word to none but unto the Jews only and some of them were
men of Cyprus and Cyrene which, when they were come to Antioch,
spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand
of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned
unto the Lord." This is all working to fulfill the purpose of God.
And I tell you, as you look around today and you see the condition
of the world and even the condition of the visible church, don't
get down. Don't become depressed. Know
this, the Lord is doing His work in spite of what Satan's efforts
are. And the Lord will even use Satan
in the opposition. to accomplish His purpose of
salvation. Persecution is difficult for
the church, but it has a way of kind of culling
out those who are pretenders. And God uses persecution in His
own way to get the ear of His people. and to win their hearts. It's not about us giving our
hearts to him. He wins us over. And he takes
the heart of stone and he breaks it and gives us a heart of flesh. You know what a heart of flesh
is? It's a tender heart. It's a heart that's sensitive.
You get a thorn or a splinter up under your fingernail and,
man, it's quick under there. It's alive under there. That's
the idea of the heart that God gives us, a heart of flesh, a
heart that's sensitive to Him. The Lord accomplishes His purpose,
notwithstanding the enmity of Satan himself. Well, that brings
us this evening to the birth of Moses. So we'll go back to
Exodus chapter 2. I would say from Adam to our
Lord Jesus Christ, there's none that, no man stands out more
than Moses. He's one of the few men in the
Word of God whose life is set forth from his infancy virtually
to his death. And I say virtually because those
first 40 years are kind of passed over. We don't know a lot about
what happened then, but he lived for 120 years. And as you well
know, because you're all well-versed in the scriptures, his life's
divided into three 40-year segments, 40 years growing up in Egypt,
learning the ways of Egypt, being educated as a leader, with the
wisdom of Pharaoh and the teachers that schooled him, and then 40
years on the backside of the desert where God schooled him,
where God taught him to be a shepherd, and 40 years in leading the children
of Israel to the land of promise, though he himself wasn't allowed
to go in. All of God's early dealings with
Israel were transacted through Moses. He is, throughout the
book of Exodus, the main character. We see him over and over again.
He was a prophet. He was a priest. He's of the
priestly family of Levi. And he was a king in that he
was the leader of Israel. He carried out many vital and
important functions for the children of Israel. His history is worthy
of the strictest attention, and his remarkable life is deserving
of very close study. His life pictures in so many
ways our Lord Jesus Christ. And his life is a series of Well,
we'll call them striking opposites. One writer said this. I didn't
come up with these. Somebody else did. I wrote them
down for him. He was a child of a slave and the son of a queen. He was born in a hut and then
lived in a palace. He inherited poverty and enjoyed
unlimited wealth. He was the leader of armies and
a keeper of flocks. He was the mightiest of warriors
and the meekest of men. He was educated in the court,
and then he lived in the desert. He had the wisdom of Egypt, but
the faith of a child of God. He grew up in the city, and he
wandered in the wilderness. He was tempted with the pleasures
of sin and endured the hardships of virtue. He was backward in
speech, yet he talked with God and for God. He had the rod of
a shepherd and he had the power of the infinite God. He was a
fugitive from Pharaoh and an ambassador from heaven. He was a giver of the law, and
he was the forerunner of grace. He died alone on Mount Moab,
but later he appeared with our Lord Jesus in the Mount of Transfiguration. And no man preached his funeral. because God buried him. Well, Pharaoh is out to destroy
Israel, and he would have killed Moses. He would have had Moses
killed. But under these unusual circumstances,
when all seemed lost, hopeless, Israel's in bondage, What's going
to happen? Days are dark. The enemy is so
strong. The opposition is so great. What
in the world is going to happen? Lo, God sends forth a Deliverer. God sends forth a Deliverer.
Fast forward to when our Lord was born. More days of darkness. The enemy seemed to rule over
all things. Only a few folks knew the gospel. Not many. All the world was in
pagan, religious darkness. But God did something. He sent
forth a Deliverer. made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. He sent forth
His Son. God has never left Himself without
a witness. I say again, don't be discouraged. All things are going exactly
as our wise, infinite God has ordained. and everything is working
together to fulfill His purpose. He even uses the enemy. He uses
the hatred of Satan and all of his false preachers. He uses
everything and everybody to accomplish His purpose. In verse 1, we find
out there was a man that God used. He's of the house of Levi. His name is Amram. A-M-R-A-M. His name means one who's exalted. He was of the house of Levi.
He married a woman whose name was Jochebed. Also of the house
of Levi. Her name means glory of the Lord. It says in the second verse,
she conceived and bear a son. When she saw him, he was goodly.
He was goodly. She hid him three months. When
I think about Moses, what comes to my mind and what should come
to your mind is what does Moses represent? God's law. It says Moses was goodly. He was very fair to look upon. Of our Lord Jesus, it is written,
he didn't have an attractive appearance. He had no form nor
comeliness. Moses is very attractive. Our Lord Jesus, dare I say it,
unattractive. You see, our Lord Jesus, He speaks
to us of the grace of God, of salvation by substitute, of redemption
by His own blood, His bloody death. Moses, he represents God's law. To the eyes of the natural man,
the law of God is a wonderful thing. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's goodly. And to the eyes
of the natural man, our Lord Jesus and that salvation that
is all of grace has no form nor comeliness. It's not attractive
to the world. The world is attracted by works,
deeds, doings, living right. All of those things are very
attractive to the world, very beautiful to the world. Live
right. That's what the world says. Live
right, do for God, and God will do for you. The world says God
helps those who help themselves. That's goodly to the eyes of
the world. That's just beautiful preaching.
All preachers tell us what to do. The world loves that. But
if you preach grace to them, this is salvation through a substitute. This is salvation not through
anything you do, but by His doing which has been fully accomplished
and finished by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. They
say, that's too offensive. We don't like that kind of preaching.
And that's the way it is. Men and women are naturally drawn
to the law. Good living. But when they hear the message
of pure grace, they can't take that. That's not attractive.
Salvation by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ only? It's like I've had people say
to me, you just preach too much grace for me. I know. Grace is not attractive to the
man of the world. But I'll tell you, if God the
Spirit ever shows us what we are, we'll say, oh, how beautiful
is the grace of God to me through the Lord Jesus Christ. The law appeals to the flesh.
But you see, we perceive, those of us who have been given the
Spirit of grace, we understand the law of God was given to show
us our guilt. It wasn't given as a means of
salvation or a means of making us holy after we've been saved. The law of God was given to shut
our mouths is what Paul says in Romans 3, leaving us guilty
before God. And when the Spirit of God shows
us the law of God in its strictness, and that there's no possibility
we could ever keep it, when the Spirit of God shows us that,
then that law is used by the Spirit to, as it were, drive
us to Christ, because it just backs us in a corner with no
way out. The law can't show any mercy.
The law can't be lenient. The law says, be ye perfect or
die. That's all the law says. Live
up to my precepts or perish forever. And the Spirit of God shows us
that's an impossibility. And the law of God just strips
us. It leaves us bare. And then we say, oh, God, show
me mercy for Christ's sake. The law says, done my job. And
then the law has nothing more to do with you. Well, don't we
read in 1 Timothy that Paul wrote, the law was not made for a righteous
man, but for an unrighteous man. Listen, we're righteous. The
law's got nothing to do... We're dead to God's law. And
we're alive to grace. alive to God. Well, she couldn't hide him after
he was three months old, probably as crying, you know, how kids
do, and she couldn't hide him anymore. So she and her husband
made an ark of bulrushes and put the child in it. Had
some kind of covering over it, too. and set this ark of safety in
the reeds by the river. The river represents death. See,
look back at the last verse of chapter 1, verse 22, and Pharaoh
charged all his people saying, every son that is born you shall
cast into the river. That's death. Moses is as it were. He was cast into the river that
pictured death. Because that's where life is.
And I'm telling you, we cast ourselves upon the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I've got no other hope. And in
Him, we have life. What we find is, He is to us
as an ark of bulrushes. and we're safe. What an act of faith by Amram
and Jochebed. And there's a verse, hold your
place here and go to Hebrews 11. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11, 23. 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 weren't afraid of the
king's commandment. It reminds me what Peter and
John said when the Sanhedrin threatened their lives and said,
don't you preach this gospel anymore? They said, we ought
to obey God rather than men. And they didn't fear the opposition.
And the amazing thing, here's what I take from this. Here's
Amram and Jochebed, and they put Moses, a three-month-old
little baby in this ark. And such is their confidence
in God, not fearing Pharaoh, not fearing the wild animals
that roamed up and down by the river, but just believing God. They cast their son, as it were,
into the arms of God by faith, trusting the Lord to take care
of him. And then they walk away. You
see, we read of Miriam being there, but not Amram and Jochebed,
not dad and mom. They believe God. There seems
to be no anxiety, no worry. What's going to happen to him
there at the edge of the river? I know he's in the reeds, but
will a crocodile come and get him? Snakes? What will happen when somebody
finds Him? There appears to be no fear on
their part because as the Scripture says, by faith they did this. They just believed God. The most
God-honoring thing you can do. People ask me from time to time,
what can I do to honor God? Oh my, believe Him. Believe Him. Be done with fear. Mom and dad did not fear Pharaoh. So he's the most powerful man
on earth. Yes, he was. But there was one
more powerful, infinitely more powerful than Pharaoh, and that's
the Lord God of glory. And you know, here's something
else I think we can take away from this, and none of us have
any little children. But we have grown children, and
we have grandchildren. They just committed their little
boy to the Lord, Lord take care of him. As it were, they just entrusted
him into the arms of God. Let us do that with our lost
children. and grandchildren, maybe great-grandchildren,
as the case may be. I worked in a church one time
when a baby was born, they'd bring him to the front and dedicate
him to the Lord. Felt like they needed to do that
in public. That in some needs to be done
in public. But I'll tell you what, we need
to do it in our hearts. Lord, this baby, My son, my daughter,
might be 30, 40, 50 years old now. Lord, I commit them to your
care. I can't save them. But Lord,
you can. You protected Moses. Moses could do absolutely nothing
to protect himself. You say, well, God helps those
who help themselves. Well, Moses couldn't help himself,
but God helped him. Oh, if we could realize our own
helplessness and cast our children to the Lord. I give them to you. I cast them
to you. Oh God, I would if I could put
him in the ark of bulrushes, that place of safety, Christ
Jesus the Lord. I would, but I can't. But you
can. Pray in faith. And here comes Pharaoh's daughter. She has no idea that the Lord
is directing her steps. I wonder why she decided at this
hour of the day to take a bath. People say, well, what a coincidence!
Wasn't that lucky for Moses? No. Coincidence and luck got
nothing to do with it. God directed her path. God gave
her a compassionate heart. Oh, the sweet, sweet providence
of God. And she goes down to get her
bath. She has one maiden with her,
apparently, and the others go walking along by the reeds, along
by the river bank. Then God directs her attention
to an unusual sight. A little ark of safety. Three arks in the Bible. Each
one in a place of safety. Noah's ark. Ark of the covenant,
which we've already studied. That's later in the book of Exodus.
In this ark of bulrushes. That's what Christ is to us.
He's our ark of bulrushes. We won't ever drown. and the
river or the lake of fire came because we're dabbed without
and pitched within. The waters of wrath can't get
to us because the waters of wrath were swallowed up by our Savior. No river of wrath remains for
the people of God as Miriam watched. And then Pharaoh's daughter sees
that. She goes over and pulls the cover
back, and the baby starts crying. She said, oh my, that's a beautiful
baby. That's one of the Hebrews' babies.
She knew what her daddy had said. They all got to be killed. Wonder why she decided to leave
this one alone, and instead of killing it, give it to a woman until the
baby was weaned with the promise that that woman would give it
back to her and she'd raise it as her own adopted son. What
are the odds of that ever happening? Well, if you understand the purpose
of God, the odds are 100%. It's got to happen this way.
It's the way God purposed it. And there's Miriam. And probably
all the other maidens who are out walking by the river, they
hear this baby crying. Here they all come and so Miriam
just kind of joins in with them. Probably 8, 9, maybe 10 years
old. She's pretty brave herself. Pharaoh's daughter looks at this
baby and Miriam says, I know a Hebrew woman that would be glad to give her
milk to this baby, feed this baby. Said, you do? I do. She said, well, I'll tell
you what, you go get her and tell her I'll entrust this baby
to her until he's weaned and I'll pay her for her troubles.
You know, doesn't the Lord give us exceeding abundantly above
all that we could ask or think? But you see, Amram and Jochebed
believed God. Oh God, give me faith to believe
you. So here comes his mother, Jochebed,
and Pharaoh and his daughter said, I found a baby. I want you to do something for
me. Yes, ma'am, what can I do for you? I want you to take this
baby and I want you to feed it and nourish it. Look after it. I'll give you good wages till
this baby's weaned and then bring it back to me. And I'm reading
between the lines, but I would think that every so often that Pharaoh's daughter would go and
visit this baby, say, how's he doing today? Is he beginning to crawl yet? All those things that babies
do. And there he is, growing up. with his own mother taking care
of him. And so, the Lord took care of
Moses. He's got great things in store
for him. And God's purpose for him will
be fulfilled. And God's purpose for you and
me and our children and our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, His
purpose will be fulfilled. Let us commit all things, including
our families, unto the wise and good Lord of glory, trusting
Him to do what's best for them. Songbook. Turn to 205. Once For
All is the song. I picked this out because it
talks about being free from the law. Oh, happy condition. Number 205, Once For All. Let's stand together.