Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to begin looking at verse
24 of Hebrews 11, talking about Moses, by faith Moses, when he
was come to years, meaning when he was a grown man. That time
he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now you
know the story of Moses. We read about his parents last
week who, when that evil Pharaoh issued forth the command that
all the Hebrew boys, two years and under, be killed. And Moses'
parents, based upon revelation from God, hid him away and then
put him in the basket and sent him off, and it just so happened. You know how we say that. We
know it was God's hand, wasn't it? Moses came into the house
of Pharaoh. Pharaoh's daughter saw him and
took him in, and she became his adopted mother, raised him. And of course, we know Moses'
real mother was involved there. We know the story. But here it
says here, he grew up in Pharaoh's house and by faith, when he was
grown, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He rejected her as his mother. Now that may sound cruel, but
you've got to keep it in its context. I'm really going to
deal with that a little bit more next week. This is one of those
messages that it's kind of like opening a treasure box. You know
there's a treasure there, but you just don't know the extent
of it and how much there is there until you open it up. So I'm
going to take these verses here and give you a few messages,
especially going back into the book of Exodus that I want to
do. And I know that it'll be profitable for you. Gospel, that's
what it is. So Moses refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughters. Verse 25, choosing, Moses made
a choice, rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, now that's
the Hebrews, he realized he was a Hebrew by blood, and he chose
to suffer the affliction with the people of God, and you know
that suffering was their bondage, than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season. And then verse 26 says, esteeming
the reproach of Christ. Now I've titled this message,
Faith and the Reproach of Christ. And that'll be next week's title
too, part two. Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect
unto the recompense of reward, And then it says in verse 27,
by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king,
for he endured as one who saw or seen him who is invisible. He saw someone who's invisible. How can you see someone who's
invisible? And again, I'm going to deal with that a little more
next week. The reason that I had Mark read
that section in Psalm 119 is because of this. It sort of reads
like a biography of Moses. A sinner saved by grace. And
in essence, if you are a sinner saved by grace, if I am a sinner
saved by grace, it's kind of our biography too, isn't it?
Because not only does God establish within His people His grace in
seeing the glory of Christ, we suffer the reproach that comes
with that. And so that's why I had him read
that. Because it is kind of like that. But if you want to read
the history of what's being written here in Hebrews 11, you go all
the way back to Exodus chapter 2. That's where it starts. And it really carries on all
the way through. the Book of Exodus, the story of Moses, the
lawgiver, the great deliverer of the Hebrew people. In those
two areas, Moses was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is the lawgiver. In fact, he is the one who gave
the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, I believe, in Exodus chapter
20, after Moses had delivered the children of Israel, the Hebrews,
they weren't called Israel then, they were Hebrews. The Hebrew
children. And he, by the power and the
hand of God, not by Moses' power, but by, he was the instrument,
he led them out of the bondage of Egypt. That's a picture of
Christ, the deliverer of his people, who leads us, or who
led us out of the bondage of Egypt, that is sin. and condemnation
by His work on the cross. He established the law that He
gave. He established righteousness
for His people, the righteousness of God that God has given to
us by imputation. And that's our deliverance. That's
why we cannot be charged like an Egyptian in that sense, like
a sinner. We're sinners, but we cannot
be charged with sin. Because we've crossed the Red
Sea, which I see as a type of the blood of Christ. Washed in
the blood, are you washed in the blood? And therefore we stand
before God righteous. So we see Moses as a type of
Christ, as the lawgiver. The passage that Mark read there
talked about him, how he kept his law. Now we know Moses was
not perfect in himself. We know that he was a sinner.
There's several occasions in Moses' biography that prove that.
But Moses himself testifies of that, that he was a sinner. That
sinners could not be saved by the law. You remember, and we're
gonna look at this in just a moment, in John chapter five. You remember
when the Pharisees in trying to prove their salvation before
the Lord of glory, they invoked the name of Moses. Saying, well,
we're not, we're children of God. We're saved. We're righteous. We keep the
law of Moses. And you remember what Christ
said? He said, Moses will be your judge. Moses knew better
than that. Moses knew that no sinner can
be saved by law. Moses, the lawgiver, knew that
sinners could not be saved by the law and their works. He knew there was no righteousness
to be found in that. And so he wrote of Christ. So Moses was a type of Christ
as the lawgiver. He was a type of Christ as the
law keeper. How did Moses keep the law? He
pled the blood and righteousness of Christ. Remember Paul said
in Romans chapter 3 that faith does not deny, ignore, or break
the law. Faith honors the law. How does
faith do that? Well, God replaces righteousness
with faith. No. Faith does that by pleading
Christ. His work on the cross, His blood,
His righteousness alone. When you plead Christ, when you
plead His righteousness, that's perfection. But it's His work,
isn't it? Not ours. So Moses was a type
as the law keeper. Moses also was a type as the
deliverer. So he was a type of Christ. It says here that Moses, when
he was grown up in the house of Pharaoh, you can imagine what
that was like. Pharaoh at that time was probably,
Egypt was probably the most powerful nation. He was the most powerful
ruler in the world. So Moses was pretty well off.
Pharaoh's son, grandson, raised by Pharaoh's daughter. I don't
know You've probably seen the movie The Ten Commandments or
movies like that. I don't know about all that stuff. There's nothing in the Bible
about it. But I know he was raised in Pharaoh's family. Pharaoh
in Egypt was considered to be a god. Whenever people would
come to visit Pharaoh, they weren't even supposed to look at him.
It was a sin to look at him. They had to keep their heads
down. And the priests would say, bow before the living God. Human
nature, isn't it? Man trying to be something he's
not. So that's the house that Moses was born into and raised
in. Now, a lot of preachers say,
well, Moses' mother had to teach him the things of the Hebrew
people. Now, that's probably so. And I don't know how all
that worked out, but I know this. If Moses came to a saving knowledge
of Christ, he did it just like every sinner who God brings to
a saving knowledge of Christ does. By the grace and the power
of God. Through the work of the Holy
Spirit. And it wasn't Moses was a better man than everybody else.
Moses made a better decision than everybody else. He did make
a decision, it says in verse 25, he chose. Nobody says that because man's
will in bondage, that it is in bondage by nature that he didn't
have a will. You've got a will, you make choices every day. But
if you make a choice like this, I'm gonna tell you something,
it's because God has done a work of grace. That's it. Because if God doesn't do a work
of grace, you're not gonna make a choice like this, like what
Moses made. And this choice has to do something
to do with the promised Messiah. How do you know that? Look at
it. He chose rather to suffer the affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming. He made a value judgment here. And what did he esteem? What
did he judge? The reproach of Christ, Messiah. Now Moses knew
about Messiah. He knew about a promised Redeemer.
And He chose to suffer the reproach that comes with the Messiah rather
than greater than the riches of Egypt. That's amazing. What is the reproach of Christ?
Now again, I'm going to get into that more next week, Lord willing. But let me just show you this.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 13, just the next page. Now, here, look at verse 8 of Hebrews
13. The writer of Hebrews talking about
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. This whole
book of Hebrews is about the superiority, The greater riches,
the greater power of Christ over and above anything and everything
that man could imagine. Over above angels. You know,
people are fascinated with angels. Stop being fascinated with angels.
You know who the angels are fascinated with? The scripture says, the
redemption of sinners through Christ. These are things that
angels desire to look into, it said. God being just to justify
the ungodly. Now that's impressive. That's
something to be fascinated with. I thank God for the angels. Don't
get me wrong. And I believe there are attending
angels. You know, guardian angels. I don't know if there's one particular
one assigned to me. That's kind of mythology to me. But I know he sends his angels
to protect his people. He sent his angels to minister
to Christ. The angels were ministering spirits
under the old coven. But don't be fascinated. Don't
worship angels. Don't pray to angels. Look to
Christ, see? And so he says in verse nine,
be not carried about with divers, that means various or different,
and strange doctrines, strange meaning foreign. Foreign to the
gospel. Foreign to the person and work
of Christ. Foreign to his righteousness.
Don't be carried, don't be carried about with those things, because
they're gonna be there. Satan is going to attack, he
has his false preachers, and they'll always attack right there.
The gospel, the ground of salvation, how God can be just and justifier,
the righteousness of Christ, that's where they'll attack now.
They'll always either confuse it, ignore it, deny it, add to
it, take away from it, but they'll do it. And he's telling the people
of God, don't be carried about with that. And then look, he says in verse
9, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with
grace. That's what we want, isn't it?
That's what our prayer is. God, establish my heart with
grace. Now listen to me, grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how the heart is established.
Your mind, your affections, your will, your conscience, firmly
ensconced in the person and work of Christ as your whole salvation. Nothing added to, nothing taken
away. And he said, not with meats which have not profited them
that have been occupied there. Well, what's he talking about
there? Meats. What he's talking about there is the offerings
that were indicative of the old covenant law. And that's what he's saying.
Now, how do you know that? Well, look at verse 10. We have an altar. Now, what was the altar for in
the Old Covenant? It was to bring the sacrifice,
the animal. All right? We have an altar.
Now, he's talking about the believers now. We have an altar whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. He's talking
about the worship of the tabernacle. The worship that was conducted
in the tabernacle. Alright? That was the Old Covenant. So what he's saying is this. Our hearts are to be established
in the grace of God through Christ who is our tabernacle. He's the
tabernacle of God. Not with the Old Covenant law
and its works and its ceremonies and its sacrifices. Because we
have an altar. Our altar is Christ. The altar
is not down here. Our altar is Christ. And he says
we have an altar. And he says those who serve that
tabernacle, those who want to bring in that law and keep and
enforce and use itself righteously, he says they don't have any right
to worship at our altar. What he is saying is they reject
Christ. In other words, to go to that
system is to reject Christ. It's kind of like what Paul said
in Romans 10. He said, my heart's desire and
prayer for Israel is that they might be saved, they have a zeal
of God. You know, they're serving the tabernacle, the temple. He
said, but without knowledge. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness under
the law. He says, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's
saying they're lost. Now once you take that position,
by the grace of God, look here, verse 11. He says, for the bodies
of those beasts, those sacrifices, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin and burned without the
camp that is outside the tabernacle. Verse 12. In other words, you
remember what they would do, they'd take the lamb, they'd
slay it, they'd pour the blood in a basin, the high priest would
take that blood to the altar. The meat was to be given, the
edible meat was to be given to the priest, but the entrails
and all that, that was taken outside to the trash dump, you
know, outside the altar. And he says, look at verse 12.
Hebrews 13. Wherefore, for this reason, Jesus
also, that he might sanctify, set apart the people, God's elect,
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Where was he
crucified? outside the gate of the city
on Golgotha's Hill. That was the place of the skull,
the place of death, the place where they took criminals, malefactors,
and put them to death. It's like the gas chamber, the
electric chair of our day. In other words, they didn't even
look upon him as being worthy of being in their city, their
holy city. They looked upon him as being
cursed. Cursed is everyone that can...
Well, wasn't he cursed? Yes. By the imputation of our
sins, he was cursed of God. He was made a curse for us, but
in the eyes of men, he should have been highly esteemed. Yes,
he was cursed, but not in the way that they thought. They looked
upon him as ungodly, not worthy. So they took him outside the
camp. Now look at verse 13. Let us
go forth therefore unto him, unto Christ, outside of this
false religious notion of holiness, righteousness, salvation. We're
outside the camp, folks, if you're in Christ. You can't go to Christ
and stay in the camp of false religion. Do you understand that? That's called repentance. Isn't
that right? You can't turn to Christ without
turning away from self, without turning away from idols, without
turning away from dead works. If you claim to have turned to
Christ without turning away from that, you are a false professor. Moses could not suffer the reproach
of Christ and still be in Pharaoh's household, the house of bondage,
the house of idolatry. So he says, let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Now what is that
reproach? The reproach of Christ is the
hatred, the derision, the rejection, and the affliction, the alienation,
That believers suffer from the unbelieving world because of
our esteem for Christ. Our esteem for God's grace. Our esteem for His glory. Our esteem for His righteousness. You see? It's our identification
with and our testimony of the Gospel of Christ and His righteousness
as it exposes what the world highly esteems and glories in
as being evil. Turn to John 3. We quote this
verse or refer to it quite often, but this is what it's about.
And that's what happened to Moses. John 3. Verse 18, he says, he that believeth on
him, that's on Christ, is not condemned. Now, I want to tell
you something now, and I say this on our television program
all the time, which by the way, I don't know if it's on this
morning or not. They said at noon, but I don't know. But anyway,
I say this all the time. Everybody that I run into invokes
the name of Jesus around here. Don't you all see that? I mean,
if this isn't the buckle on the Bible belt, it's close. Second
or third notch, maybe. I don't know. Just same where
I come from up in Kentucky. I mean, you know, everybody claims
to be Christian or believe in Jesus. Most people. The Bible's clear. There are
counterfeit Christ. So how do I know? When I stand
up, I'm preaching in His name. That's what we're doing. Anytime
you men, you stand up to preach or teach a lesson, you're doing
it in His name. You're not up here saying now,
look at me and follow me and trust me. You're pointing centers
to Christ. If I told you, if I was going
to give you directions to Ashland, how do I know if I'm giving you
directions to a place called Ashland, Kentucky, where I'm
from, or to a place called Ashland, Oregon? There is an Ashland,
Oregon. Did you know that? Well, you've got to look at the
specifics of a map. That's the way it is, isn't it?
Well, that's the same thing. How do I know that I'm not invoking
and preaching in the name of a false Jesus? Look at the map,
and the map is the Word of God. Who He is, what He did, why He
did it, and where He is now, the glorious person, the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel is about who Jesus
Christ is. Well, who is He? He's God manifest
in the flesh. Isn't that right? So when it
says, verse 18, he that believeth on him, who him? The one who
is God-man. The I am, you know, that's how
God revealed himself to man. I am that I am. Christ said,
I am. I'm the bread. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the light. All of the I am's. Jehovah, that's how we transliterate
that in the English language. It's an unpronounceable thing
in the Hebrew. But the thing about it, what
is he talking about? The Lord of glory, that's who he is. He's
the Lord my righteousness. The compound name Jehovah, Sid
Canu, the Lord my righteousness. I have no other righteousness
but him. He is the righteousness of God. You know, the gospel
of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the righteousness of God.
Revealed from faith to faith. Well, what is the righteousness
of God? It's the justice of God satisfied for the people of God
through Jesus Christ. Now if I stand up here and represent
God to you as one who loves everybody, trying to save everybody, if
you'll let him or do his part, you've just destroyed the justice
of God, my friend. You've just denied it. I say
destroy, you can't destroy the justice, but you've denied it.
The righteousness of, the justice of God satisfied by Jesus Christ
demands the salvation of his people. Righteousness established,
imputed to them, demands that they go free. Just like the blood
of Passover. Now we'll talk about that in
a few weeks more. The blood of Passover demanded
the liberation of the Hebrew people from the bondage of Egypt. The blood of our Passover, who
is Christ, demands the salvation, the liberation, of the people
of God from the bondage of sin. If one person ended up perishing
in eternal damnation for whom Christ died, you've just denied
the justice of God. You've just denied what the gospel
reveals, the revelation of the righteousness of God. The gospel
is about who he is. That's why it's called the righteousness
of God and not the righteousness of man, because God-man's the
one who produced it. as our surety and substitute,
and the gospel is about what he accomplished, not about what
he tries to do. Do you understand that? That's
why it's called the revelation of the righteousness of God.
Because it's about what he accomplished. Now, with that in mind, verse
18 of John 3, he that believeth on him is not condemned. Somebody said, well that's a
lot of theology, that's a lot of truth. And he says, but he
that believeth not is condemned already. Because he hath not
believed in the name that which identifies and distinguishes
him of the only begotten Son of God. Now look at verse 19. Now here's why the reproach comes. He says, And this is the condemnation
that light, now this is the light of truth, the light of the gospel,
the light of Christ, is coming to the world and men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. Their deeds
were evil. The deeds there is not talking
about man's immorality. Even though that is evil. Did
you hear? Immorality is evil. But so is
religion without Christ in God's sight. What is religion without
Christ in God's sight? It's idolatry. No matter what
you call it. Isn't that right? Without Christ, it's idolatry.
Without His blood, His righteousness, without His accomplishment, it's
idolatry. And so he says in verse 20, for
everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. You know who he's
talking to here? A religious man named Nicodemus.
Somebody who's trying to establish a righteousness of their own
through their works. He's not talking to the drunks
in the bar or the whoremongers in the brothels or the drug pushers
in the drug. He's talking to Nicodemus. He's
talking to me. He's talking to you. Isn't that
right? He says, They don't come to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth
truth, that's to believe the gospel, that's to rest in Christ,
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that
they are wrought, or the work of God. Now, back in Hebrews
11, I'm going to close with this, and we're going to pick up here
next week. Think about it that way. Here's Moses being raised
in Pharaoh's household. And when he got old enough, verse
24, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. In
other words, even though he was by blood a Hebrew, it was a new
family to him. He got a new family now. Choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. Now what was
that choice based upon rather than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season? It was based upon an estimation,
a judgment Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures
of... You know what brings about that estimation? Man doesn't
esteem Christ like that by nature. It's a gift of God. You won't
make this estimation, I'm going to show you that next week, apart
from a work of God's grace. He changes your standard of judgment.
He changes your values. Paul stated it this way, he said,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now before Christ revealed himself
to Paul, what did he glory in? What did he esteem? Well, that
which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God,
Luke 16, 15. But now when that changes, Men esteem, men and women esteem
that which is highly esteemed in them, that's Christ. God's
grace in him, his righteousness alone. And we'll explore some
of that in the life of Moses next week or begin to as we continue
through there. All right.