That's all right. Mike's here. It only aggravates him when it's
delayed. All right, let's pray. We are thankful,
Lord, for this day. We are thankful for the season
of thanksgiving. Because we, as your body, as
your church, as your people, we have much to be thankful for,
and we know to whom all thanks is due. And so as we continue
to look in the book of Hebrews tonight, We are overjoyed and
tired and content and sometimes frustrated all at the same time.
So Lord, help us to not look at how we feel and help us not
to look at how we think. But Lord, help us to look at
the truth of the gospel and the truth of your word. The good
news. as it started in Genesis and
is completed throughout John's apocalypse. Lord, that we can
trust in your sovereignty and your faithfulness to fulfill
the covenant that you've made with your people, the elect of
God, Abraham's seed, the body of Christ. And it's in his name
that we pray these things. Amen. Okay, in Hebrews 11, we're
going to be here a couple of more weeks, and then we'll be
moving right into the continuation. I mean, it's just one big discussion
on the sufficiency of Christ and His sacrifice. 13, and let's read down through the
end of verse 31. These all died in faith, not
having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted
them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and
exiles on earth. For people who speak thus make
it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they'd been thinking
of that land from which they had gone out, they would have
had opportunity to return But as it is, they desire a better
place, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and
he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up
his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your
offspring be named. He considered that God was even
able to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking,
he did receive him back. By faith, Isaac invoked future
blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying,
blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head
of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made
mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions
concerning his bones. By faith, Moses, when he was
born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw
that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the
king's edict. By faith, when he was grown, Moses refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting
pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of
Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was
looking to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not
being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing
him who was invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover
and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn
might not touch them. By faith, the people crossed
the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted
to do the same, were drowned. And by faith the walls of Jericho
fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By
faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were
disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Now I'm gonna stop there, I didn't
actually want to read those last two verses, but that's okay.
Now here's what we've had, here's what we've seen thus far in chapter
11. We've seen the sovereignty of God and the sufficiency of
his promises to know that he has created the world by his
word. And there it is. So we can see it. We know that
it has been, that it is his, and we can have assurance of
that, which cannot be seen because out of nothing came something.
God who has created all things has created a people for himself.
Remember, this is the purpose of Genesis. It's the point of
the creation narrative. And that we also know that Abel,
part of the first family, and Cain, we see that God has his
creative purposes even being shown in the days of the first
people, of the first family. That Abel died, Abel was accepted
by God, Cain murdered him because he hated God, because God did
not find favor with Cain. And thus Cain's worship was not
worthy. And then it goes on to tell us
about Abraham. It tells us about his obedience.
It tells us about the promises. It tells us about the fact that
Abraham believed in the promises of God even when he did not know
the details of God's promises and that he believed the promises
of God because God had granted him the belief. God had granted
him the faith. We see that as Abraham went,
he went to a place unknown. And that as the son of promise
was born, Sarah believed God. And then throughout the childhood,
we've seen all of the things. We've talked about Isaac. We've
talked about Jacob. We've talked about Esau. We've talked about Joseph. As
the book of Genesis ends, it ends with the death of Joseph.
And so when we see Joseph dying, Joseph is able to say by faith,
my dead body is to be buried in the land of promise. So that
even in death, he knew that God would fulfill his promise to
him. And in this picture, we see the gospel. We see the power
of God's sovereignty, free and sovereign. We see the gospel,
free and sovereign. And there is nothing that can
stay the hand of God, nothing that can stop the plan of God,
nothing that can overcome the power of God. So we rest in the
promises of God. Saving faith up to this point
has been described in this way, that we know what God has said,
and we stay the course to trust in what he's promised. And if
this has been true with all the people of old, all the ancients,
all of the disciples, the sending of the son Jesus Christ, certainly
it is true for the spiritual act of redemption, for that atoning
work, for what all the shadows of Judaism pointed to, even in
their election in a temporary way in the world through Abraham,
shows us that God is faithful to keep his promises. And then
we come to Moses. Moses is one of the two pillars
of Israel. When I say two pillars, there
are many. You hear people say the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, the God of Moses. But ultimately we see the promise
of Abraham, we see the exodus of Moses. And so when we come
to Moses, when we see the gospel narratives, we understand that
the Jews of Judaism saw Abraham as their as their father, as
the one who would bring them to the promises of God. That
through Abraham they were blessed because they were genealogically
connected to Abraham through DNA, through blood, through a
family tree. And then as one foot rested upon
Abraham, the other foot rested upon Moses, the prophet, the
redeemer, the one who led them out of Egypt. The one who gave
them bread from heaven, as we see in John 6. But the story
of Moses is not about the story of a nation. The story of Abraham
is not about the seed of a genealogical people. The story of Abraham
and Moses is a story of Christ. And even in their lives, the
picture of Christ is painted very clearly. And that's what
we're going to do tonight. We are going to see the picture
of Christ in Moses. Now I find it interesting that
Paul here in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 23 says, By faith Moses,
when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents.
What does it mean? How is it that by faith they
hid their son? Well it answers that. Because
they saw that the child was beautiful. They saw that the child was beautiful
and because they were not afraid of the king's edict. The king's
edict was that all firstborn children under a certain age
would be slaughtered. And this is not the first time
this happened. So in the birth of Moses, at that moment, because
the Hebrew people were becoming too numerous, too powerful. You've seen the movie Ants. This
was the fear of the king. He says, we're going to kill
them all. We're going to kill them. We're going to kill some.
We're going to sort of weed them out and take down the numbers
a little bit. The Hebrew slaves are too much,
too many. So they were not afraid of the
king. Why? Because they saw that the
child was beautiful. Now this is odd. And it takes
some investigating. It takes some tenderness. and
some time with the text because if you try to really understand
this, you can go to the original languages, you can look at the
grammar, you can look at commentaries, you can walk through some people's
ideas of this. But let me ask you this question. What does it mean for someone
to be beautiful? In the context of the promises
of God concerning righteousness. Well, I think it would be very
fitting for us to keep that context. And so I would say that maybe
this is saying, and I believe that I'm correct, in some metaphorical
way, that they saw Moses not as just a such a beautiful baby
in his face, but that there was something in their hearts related
to what God would do with him. That he was set apart for God.
In other words, he was an elect child. So this idea of Moses
being beautiful means that Moses was righteous.
Why? Because Moses was so good? No. Moses was a sinner in the basket
at birth. But Moses was one through whom
God would deliver his people. So in the writer's heart and
in the writer's mind by the spirit himself, he writes that they
saw that the child was beautiful. And that he was something to
behold in the context of God's plan. Where do you see this again?
You see it in the birth of John the Baptist. You see where Zechariah
and Elizabeth dedicate him and then the prophecies of this child. Everyone goes to the temple.
They're excited to see what this child may be. He is beautiful
in their sights. Beautiful are the feet of those
who bring the gospel of peace. Beautiful. Righteous. Perfect. You ever looked at somebody's
feet and said, those are perfect feet? There may be some. But typically when you think
of that, it's not perfect. Moses' parents knew what they
should do. And what's weird is I don't think
they even knew why. They just knew that they didn't
have to fear the king. They knew that their child would
survive, that he would be hidden. Have you ever tried to hide a
baby? Have you ever been in public and tried to keep a child from
making noise? Talking? Screaming? Crying? I don't know how they
did it. I don't know how they did it.
Except by the mercy and the purposes of God. But they were not afraid. They did not hide the child because
they were afraid of its death. They hid the child because he
was part of God's purposes. They hid the child because in
their hearts they knew that God had a plan. Now, this is not
a narrative for us to apply theologically to our lives. We don't go to
bed one night and then wake up the next day and say, you know
what, I feel like God has a plan. And so I'm going to do this like
Moses' parents did. This is not how we read the Bible.
This story is to show us how God worked in the life of Moses
so that Moses would be just like Jesus as a forerunner. Just like John the Baptist as
a forerunner. Who will make straight the paths
of the Lord. Just like Jesus, who was promised to be born in
the city of David, and there would be no room for him in the
inn, and that he would be born of a virgin, and that shepherds
would testify of his birth, the King, Emmanuel, God with us, so that this child born of nothing
would become a king. Well, Moses became a king's kid. Moses was found by Pharaoh's
daughter. Moses was loved by Pharaoh's
daughter. Moses was raised by Pharaoh's
daughter and nursed by his own mother, cared for by his own
mother. But when Moses was grown, verse
24, what did he do? Now ask yourself this question.
Could you imagine being told when you're eight to nine, 10
years old, Moses, you're special. You're special. God called us
to put you in a basket and hid you from death. And for three
months, we hid you from death. And then we floated you out there
in the river water and the daughter of the king found you and you
are special. Did they tell him? Probably. He knew he was Hebrew. But if you were in that position,
when you turned about 13, 14 years of age and you saw what
was yours, you saw that you had been adopted by the king. You
were the grandson of the king. Stepson of the king. And you
had everything you ever wanted. Here's the prince who will be
the Pharaoh one day and you guys grew up together. And then you
look out and you see the Hebrew people and you see their lives
and you see the things that they endure and you see how they're
mistreated. It would be very easy for you to go, thank God
I'm not a Hebrew. Put on that headdress and paint
my eyes. I'm Egyptian. I mean, think about
it for a second. Why didn't he do that? What would
you do? All of a sudden come in one day
and say, hey, Pharaoh, I am tired of not being honest about who
I am. You know that I'm a Hebrew. Look at me. I mean, I don't look
like you. Put me in the slave lines. I don't even think he would have
done it. Because it would have made the king look bad. When
Pharaoh was grown, He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. And this next phrase here is interesting because it's
not written anywhere else in the way that it's written here.
This is inspired by God the Spirit to be written through the hand
of Paul. Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of
God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." Isn't that
strange? That story is encapsulated. The
story of Moses is encapsulated in that phrase. Chose not to
be called and not just refused. Okay, now let's look at the parallel.
Jesus. Emmanuel, the King of kings,
the Lord of lords, born into the world, nothing. Then he comes
to prominence when he has grown. He walks into the waters of the
Jordan River and the forerunner who has gotten much attention
by the Pharisees and the people say, this, this is the one I
spoke of. Of whom I'm not worthy to take
off or tie or put on or clean or wipe his shoes. Whatever your
variant looks like. I'm not worthy to touch this
man's garments to help him get dressed. I'm not worthy to wash
his feet. I'm not worthy to do anything.
This is the Lamb of God. He says a few days before. And a few days after. There goes
the Lamb of God. Imagine that. So Jesus in His
baptism, people hear the voice of God the Father. People see
the presence of God the Spirit. They hear the testimony of God
Himself. This is My beloved Son. Now, there are two kingdoms in
this story. The story of Jesus has two kingdoms. The story of Moses has two kingdoms. The kingdom of the Pharaoh in
its opulence, in its rule, in its power, in its authority.
And Moses is as good as an Egyptian prince. He can have it all. Jesus in two kingdoms. comes
into the world, and during the early days of his ministry, the
inquiry was this. Jesus, Nicodemus says, We know
that you are from God, for no one does the things you do except
God be with him. We know you have come from the
Father. See, that's a profession of faith
for most of us. Oh, Nicodemus knows the truth. He's saved. Jesus says otherwise. Jesus says otherwise. Jesus says
there are two kingdoms at play in this context. Just like the
shadow of Moses, Jesus says there are two kingdoms. There's the
kingdom of the flesh and there's the kingdom of the spirit. There's
the kingdom of the world and there's the kingdom of righteousness.
There's the kingdom of man and there's the kingdom of God. And
these two do not overlap and intertwine. We do not hire within. We do not set up shop in each
other's territory. They are enemies of each other. Jesus had the appreciation spiritually
of the Pharisees in the early days until they began to listen
to what he had to say. And then they hung their hat
on Abraham and Moses and pushed Jesus over into another camp.
And we all know John chapter five where Jesus is debating
with the Pharisees. And he says to them, the word
of God is not in you. You've never heard it. The word
of God is not in you. You've never seen him. You've
never heard it. You don't know his voice. How dare you speak to us that
way? Who do you think you are? Jesus
answers them many times. And he says to them, it is not
gonna be I. You dare judge us, you condemn
us, you indict us of sin. You indict us to not be part
of the kingdom of God. Jesus says, no, you're the kingdom
of the devil. But ultimately, I'm not going to indict you,
Moses will. He wrote of me. Jesus, if He were a mere man,
sinful, born into human sin, He could have ruled Israel. The people were numerous. The people would have followed
him anywhere. He could have taken over Rome and pushed the Pharisees
out and had a whole new breed of Israel. Nationalism at its
highest. But Jesus did not come to set
anchors in Judaism. It was a shadow of another kingdom
that was not of this world. For if they were looking for
a place, or a kingdom, or a religion, or an opportunity to just do
what they knew they had always been doing, they could have gone
back. But they had a better reward.
A better place. A city whose foundations have
been made by God, and prepared by God. And Jesus is faithful,
and He's more faithful than Moses, but Moses is elevated. We've already seen that, haven't
we? Moses over in the beginning of Hebrews is called the fateful
one over God's house. You who share my holy brothers
and heavenly calling consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest
of our confession, who was faithful to him, who appointed him just
as Moses was also faithful in all of God's house. For Jesus
has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more
glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house
itself. Every house is built by someone, but the builder of
all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house
as a slave to testify to the things that were to be spoken
later. But Christ, Christ is faithful
over his house, over God's house as a son. We are His house if
we are truly holding fast to the confident and boasting in
our hope in Him. That's a paraphrase of Paul in
Hebrews 3. And so Moses is a type of Christ
in this picture. He refused to take the honor
that came from men. He refused to take the very thing
that was at his grasp. He refused to do what was easy
for him and even for his own family. Now, see, some people
might say, well, Moses could have done great things if he
had just stayed in the ruling family of Egypt. Look what he
could have done in the reform against or for his people. Look,
he probably could have said, listen, this is my mother and
my father and my sisters and my brothers and bring them into
palace. Make them a higher status, please. Let's leasen the workload. Let's
go conquer a different people. Did Joseph not have the ears
of the king? Did Joseph not do great things
as co-regent of Egypt? Now here's another opportunity.
Moses could just stand in his shoes. But Joseph didn't care
about Egypt and Moses didn't care about Egypt because the
kingdoms were not of God. 1 John 2, 15. Do not love the world or the
things of the world, for the things of the world are not from
God and are perishing. The lust of the eyes, the pride
of life, the pride of possessions. These things are passing away
and the world and everything in it is passing away. It is
of a kingdom that is shaking presently and it is going to
crumble to nothing. Put your hope and treasure in
something that is eternal. Moses is the picture of that.
Christ is the purpose behind it. Christ is who Moses points
to. Refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with
the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Now what fleeting pleasures of sin, pray tell, did Moses have
opportunity to enjoy? Was it a sin to be a child of
the Pharaoh? Was it a sin to be wealthy? Was it a sin? It is when you don't belong to that
kingdom. When we seek after the world
above the body, being the body, we seek after the world forsake the truth. It's what
we do. But Christ didn't. Moses is a picture of that. Moses
failed. Moses didn't even get to go to
the promised land because he disobeyed God. Remember, we talked about
that three weeks ago. He hit the rock again rather
than speaking. And God killed him for disobedience. And God was righteous and loving
and just for doing so. But Moses received the true promise. And you may think, well, this
is sort of strange because I've never really looked at Moses
that way. Well, this is how you should look at Moses. We do so
little reading of the Old Testament in light of the New Testament
that we forget Moses is a good story. Part of how God's going
to get the Egyptians to let let his people go, and then they
got out, and then they complained, and then they died, and then
they got to where they were going and had to fight for it, but they
got it. That's a cool story. Jericho's so cool. We make little children's plays
out of it. Everybody knows the storyline, but nobody knows the
real purpose. And it's not hidden from us,
beloved. It's just there. We don't read it. And so we're
reading it tonight. And we're seeing tonight that
the whole point of Moses is to prove that God is faithful. The
whole point of Moses is that Moses, in all of his life, when
all of his life was over, he knew that everything that God
was doing in him and through him and for his people was a
picture of what God had already promised through Jesus Christ.
And he fulfilled it completely, and it is finished. The promises
of God are done. The fulfillment of God's promises
to all of his people are finished. Moses believed God and he would
rather have the reproach of Christ than the wealth and the treasures
of Egypt. Why would he do that? For he was looking to the reward. What is the reward? There's a lot of authors out
there who have spent their entire theological careers writing about
the, oh, writing about the rewards of heaven, the crowns of heaven,
and the mansions in heaven. And one of my first postgraduate
discoveries, some research, was to deal with the rewards of eternity
according to the Bible. And here's the rewards of eternity.
Jesus. The joy of Jesus. That's the crown. That's the
reward. He's the mansion. He is heaven. We don't have to
sit around and worry about how we're going to play softball
in heaven. Whether we're going to have to train dogs in heaven.
It's not going to matter. We're going to be with the crown
of righteousness. We're going to receive everything
that's been promised to us. Everything that we suffer for
now is worth nothing in comparison to the priceless gain of knowing
Christ. Paul said that. John taught that. We see it over
and over and over again. Christ is worth it all. Well, pastor, the worst thing
that could happen to me is I could lose everything and die. That
is not the worst thing that could happen to you. That is the greatest
thing that could happen to you. Let me say that again. That is
the greatest thing that could happen to us. No more of this, no more of life,
no more of, but to receive everything we truly live for and long for.
to no more to not battle over the flesh and the world any longer.
But beloved, by the mercies of Christ, we live for one another
until that day comes. You can't scare me with heaven. You can't scare me with the presence
of Christ. Because his promises are true. And we as the believers, though
we suffer, we would rather be counted in the reproach of Christ
and understand the treasure of His glory as better than anything
else that the world could offer. So what did Moses do? By faith,
he left Egypt. Why? Not because he was scared
of the king. Remember? His parents weren't
scared of the king either. Why would you be scared of an
earthly king that your sovereign God put on the throne for His
purposes? And we are forgetting what God's
Word says about why Pharaoh even existed. Why all the lineage
of Pharaohs for hundreds of years came and went and came and went
and came and went so that this Pharaoh could sit on the throne
of Egypt to have a Jewish slave in the palace so that one day
this stuttering, worthless man could put his finger in the face
of royalty, of earthly sovereignty and say, you let God's people
go. What would you do as a king? I know what I'd do. I'd laugh
so hard I'd wet my throne. This man has lost his mind. He stood up all night playing
Xbox. He is crazy. But that's what God sent him
to do. The Bible says, I raised up Pharaoh that I may show my
power against him. And God destroyed Egypt. Without
an army, With a stuttering old man and a stick? No, with his
divine power, with his decree, with his will. Why did it have
to take a thousand years for Moses to come on the scene and
for Egypt to be where it is and for Pharaoh to be where he was?
Why does it take that long? Because that's what God wanted. And the people of Israel looked
and they saw and they looked and they thought, well, Moses,
you lived in the palace and now you're going to come and rescue
us. What are you going to do? And then God showed them what
he could do. And then Moses was just the messenger. He was just
the apostle. He was just the angel of the
Lord in the context of bringing the message of the gospel, which
was what? I'm going to get you out of here.
I'm going to take you to the promised land. He left Egypt,
he was not afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as
seeing him who is invisible. And at the very end of it all,
God said, I've done what I'm going to do, and I'm going to
do it one more time. I'm going to kill the firstborn
of everything in the land. I want you to hear that for a
second. This is where Jesus' ministry
centers. in all of John's Gospel. Three
Passovers are listed in John's Gospel. It's the most Jewish
of the Gospels in the context of its narrative. I'm going to kill everything. The firstborn in every household
is going to die tonight. Of the Egyptians? Of everything.
I'm going to kill every firstborn everything. I'm going to kill
the firstborn dog, I'm going to kill the firstborn butterfly,
I'm going to kill the firstborn child of everything. And the only way you will escape
is if I pass over you in mercy. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. So to point to the son whom I
have promised through Abraham, who is the life eternal, you
kill lambs and you put the blood of those lambs on your doors. And anthropomorphism here, when
the angel of death sees the blood on your door, he will pass over
that house and your firstborn will not die. God was faithful. The water and the blood ran out. God was faithful. Abraham rejoiced in the day of
Christ because God is faithful. Moses wrote of Christ because
God is faithful. By faith, Moses kept the Passover. and sprinkled the blood so that
the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. The bloody,
purifying sacrifice of Jesus is what saved the Israelites in Egypt. And their blood ran out. The Egyptians' blood ran. And then even after it was all
said and done, when Pharaoh was hardened over
and over again, he pursued God's people even after God had delivered. I want you to see the stupidity
in unbelief. I'm not calling I'm not calling
unbelief in general stupid. There's a worse adjective for
that. I'm talking about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit type stupid.
You know the power of God before you and you call it not. You saw what God had done and
you pursue Him. What did Jesus say to Saul? Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me? When you do it under the least
of these, my brethren, you do it under me. Beloved, we not
only can believe in the promises of God because he is faithful,
we must also believe in the promise of his presence. And that when
we suffer in this life, we are just experiencing a small taste
of the sufferings of Christ that bring a great reward. And I will
tell you something, the world is powerfully seductive. The treasures of Egypt are right
there. But by God's mercy, we look at
the Passover blood of Christ. And even when we feel like there's
nothing left to do but drown, when there's nothing more to
do, I used to teach this a long time ago this way, and this is
speculation, but I believe that when the sea was there before
them and the rage behind them of the Egyptian army that God
told Moses to stretch out his staff and to walk into the sea,
and that as Moses walked, God parted the water. And he was faithful. And nothing can destroy us. Christ
said, it is finished and nothing can destroy us. Paul reminds
us of that in Romans 8. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, by faith. What does faith look like? We've
learned it over and over again over the last 32 sermons, readings. Faith is resting. in the promises
of our sovereign God, even when we can't see them. Even when everything else we
look at seems impossible. It's almost insane. But by the
mercy of God, he causes us to believe and to rest. And beloved,
if we didn't have each other, Lord knows in this season, God
has used the body of Christ to keep our focus on him. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord,
that you are faithful. Father, tomorrow a lot of us
are going to just eat hundreds of dollars worth of food. We're
going to enjoy great fellowship with people six feet apart. Some of us may not fellowship
at all, but Lord, we are free. And that freedom is not American
freedom, it's freedom in Christ. Though I'm thankful that you
have ordained all the things that you have ordained for us
in our community and culture and country. Lord, it's just
wasting away. It's just the treasures of Egypt. Lord, you haven't called us to
throw it all in the trash and to take a vow of poverty, but
Lord, you have called us to hold it very loosely in light of the
glory that you've revealed to us through Jesus, your son. And
so, Father, press upon us with your easy yoke, with your light
burden, to rest. To rest in gratitude, to rest
in love, to rest in thanksgiving so that we may know and see and
long for that which we cannot see, which is ours in Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.