Now turn to the book of Hebrews
chapter 11 with me. As Jim was talking about the
message there, and he stated the title, God's History, Providence,
and Purpose, it just dawned on me that sounds like a heck of
a long message. God's history. All history is
God's, isn't it? God's providence. That's God's
government and God's purpose. Sounds like a big mess, but I've
only got one verse as my text. You look at Hebrews 11 and verse
23. We've been talking about these
various manifestations of the gift of faith, the revelation
of God. He says in verse 23, By faith
Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents."
Now it's talking about his parents here, not Moses himself as far
as the faith is concerned. That comes next when it talks
about in verse 24, by faith Moses, when he come to years, when he
came of age. But here, by faith Moses, when
he was born, was hid three months of his parents. Because they
saw he was a proper child. A proper child. And they were
not afraid of the king's commandments. That king is Pharaoh. This passage here is referred
to, obviously, in the recorded history of the Old Testament
in the book of Exodus chapter 2. And then it's referred to one
other time other than this right here in the New Testament when
Stephen, the evangelist Stephen stood in Jerusalem and preached
to the Jewish people concerning their history and his point was
that it all leads up to one thing and that is Jesus Christ crucified
and risen from the dead for the salvation of sinners. And Stephen
in Acts chapter 7 and verse 20 when he related it He used the
same word as recorded in the original text that we find here
in verse 23. It talks about, they saw Moses
was a proper child. Stephen, it's translated in Acts
7 and verse 20, that they saw that he was exceeding fair. And that exceeding fair is the
same word that's translated proper here. Old Testament in the original,
the Hebrew, it said in Exodus chapter 2 and verse 2 that they
saw that Moses was a goodly child. That means good, means excellent,
better, valuable, a good thing or someone of benefit. Now what
do we know about Moses in his birth? Well, we know what we
know as recorded in the Bible about all of us in our birth. And what does the Bible say?
The Bible says we're all born in sin. Now, is there any exception
to what the Bible says there? Well, you might think of one,
the Lord Jesus Christ, but the rest of us And it doesn't say
this now, it doesn't say that we're born in sin or we're born
dead and trespassed in sin, except Moses. Doesn't say that, does
it? We're all born in sin. And then
we know something else about Moses. We know the history there,
how he was brought up in Pharaoh's house and all of that. We'll
talk about that in just a moment. Moses, if he was saved, which
I believe he was, He was saved just like every other sinner
is saved, by grace. There is no such thing as any
salvation of any sinner by works. You said that? It just doesn't happen, folks.
Sinners cannot be saved by their works. They cannot be saved by
any inherent goodness that they are born with. Now, if you see
it otherwise in the realm of Moses here, or in the example
of Moses, then you'd have to say there are contradictions
in the Bible. And why doesn't it say, we're
all in this shape except Moses? It doesn't say that. And then
the Lord himself made this statement about Moses. He says, Moses wrote
of me. He said that at the end of John
chapter 5. Talking to the Pharisees, they relished in Moses. They
thought they were followers of Moses. They thought they kept
the law of Moses. And he said, Moses will be your
judge. In other words, what he was telling
them there in John 5 verses 39 and on, he said, the very thing
that you plead and have confidence in will be your damnation. Moses brought the law. That's
what he said. John 117. Through Moses came
the law. But where does grace and truth
come from? Not from Moses. It comes from
Jesus Christ. He said, Moses wrote of me. If you had to believe
Moses, he said you'd believe me. So Moses' own testimony is
this. I'm a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. I fell in Adam, I was born in
sin, and I'm saved by God's sovereign grace. That's Moses' testimony.
And we'll see that next time when we come to Moses. It says
here in verse 26, look here in Hebrews 11, 26, Moses left Pharaoh's
house, esteeming the reproach of who? Christ. Greater riches than the treasures
of Egypt. Is there any doubt? that Moses was a sinner saved
by grace through Christ. Moses looked at him as the promised
Messiah, the one to come in the future. The only righteousness
Moses had, the only righteousness any of us had, listen, the only
goodness that any of us had. So what does this mean? Well,
believe it or not, some comment when he says that they saw he
was a goodly child, a proper child, An exceeding fair child? Well, some commentators, believe
it or not, say this is referring to Moses' looks. That he was just a pretty baby.
Now, I don't know about all that. But do you reckon if he'd been
an ugly baby, they'd let him in thrown in the river now? Well, that doesn't say much about
them, does it? I don't think that's what it's about. And there's a couple of key things
here that kind of puts it in context for me. Now you know
as well as I do, I don't like to speak where the scriptures
don't speak. I don't like to put things in
their mind. But here's a big, big thing that tips you off. Verse 23 of Hebrews 11. By faith,
Moses' parents. Whatever they did by faith. Now
what does by faith mean? We've talked about that all the
way through Hebrews 11. The Bible says, faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by what? The Word of God. Now do you suppose
that faith here is just a feeling or some kind of a drawing of
a pretty child? No. They had a revelation from
God, folks. These parents did, by faith.
They had a word from God. I said, you know the word faith,
the root word of the original word is knowledge? Why do I believe something? Because
I know it to be true. How do I know it's true? Well,
in the Bible, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to anything
like this, it's because God said it. God said it, that settles
it. That's why anytime I talk with
anybody about salvation or about the Bible, about the gospel,
I say, you know, they'll give me, well, now here's what I think.
Well, I really don't care what you think. What does God say?
And that's why we have to be skillful in the Word. That's
why we need to study to show ourselves approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the Word of truth. People will tell me all kinds
of things. They'll call or they'll write and they'll say, I believe
this, I don't believe that, and I'll write them back and say,
that's not in the Bible. And that's your problem. If I
cannot back up what I say or do based on God's word, then
it's not a faith. Now these folks, it really doesn't
tell us what's in their mind except for one statement, this
statement, by faith. And it says, They didn't fear
the king's commandment. Now you reckon if Moses had been
an ugly child they would have feared the king's commandment?
Does that make sense to you? Doesn't to me. You reckon that
Moses was such a beautiful looking baby that that removed the fear
of Pharaoh who had made a decree? No. This whole thing of faith, as
related in Hebrews 11, I've told you it's a noun, it's not a verb.
The emphasis here is not on their believing it, even though they
did believe it, and that's a gift from God, isn't it? The emphasis
is on God's promise. And what in the book of Hebrews?
This is set within the context of a book That is clearly setting
forth that Jesus Christ, the salvation of His people by the
grace of God, is better than that old covenant. It's the fulfillment of what
God promised Abraham. That's the whole context here.
And that's what this means. Even Joseph, you remember Joseph
last time, he talked about how he was in the place of God and
God put him there for this purpose to save much people alive. Well,
how's God going to do that? Well, this is one of the ways.
He preserved Moses from an evil Pharaoh. Why weren't they afraid of the
king's command? Because God had revealed something
to them. God had told them something.
God had promised them something. And they had a revelation and
a promise from God of a greater king to come. The king of kings. Almighty God. The God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. This was many years after Joseph.
But I want to tell you something, this is God's doing. It's God's history. It's God's
providence, it's God's purpose being worked at and fulfilled
by His power, His determinate will, His counsel, and ultimately
His grace to save His chosen people through Christ. Moses' parents believed that
what God had promised, God was able to perform. And by God's
grace, they saw something in this child that told them that
this child was good and fair and proper in God's sight. That's what it means. This child
was destined by God for good things. Now, did they know at
the time that he would be the future deliverer of the Hebrews?
Well, I don't really know. I suspect they did. But there's
some indication of this by faith. I'm not afraid of the King's
commandment. In Hebrews, faith is a revelation
of God concerning His promise ultimately to send Christ. So let me just give you these
three things and it's not going to be that long of a message.
God's history. This is God's history. You know
what history is? History is His story. Now, I told this years ago in
this congregation, and a lady got so upset with me, she almost
left the church over it. I hope that doesn't happen today,
because I'm going to tell it again. History. They were interviewing
Henry Ford. You know who Henry Ford was.
A reporter was interviewing him. He's old age. Mr. Ford was pretty close to death. And the reporter asked him, he
said, Mr. Ford, how would you like to be remembered in history?
Now, let me give you what Henry Ford's answer was. He said, history? He said, that's just one damn
thing after another. And I thought about when I read
that. I said, you know what? If you just look at history from
sinful man's point of view, that's exactly what it is. The history
of the worst, the history of the best, the history of kings
and queens, giants of industry, it's all just one damned thing
after another. It proves to us that man has
not really gotten better. He's not been able to take care
of the problem of sin. He may be able to clean up a
river, clean up some air, may be able to cure cancer, but he's
not going to be able to cure sin. But what if you look at history
from God's point of view? Then it's something else, isn't
it? That's what we're looking at here. By faith, Moses, when
he was born, he was hid three months of his parents because
they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the
king's commandment. God's history. Before the world
began, God's history set in motion. And here, when he created this
world good and upright, created man upright, then man fell. That's
still God's history, isn't it? It's not chaos. It didn't take
God by surprise. It's what He determined to be
done. You think about as man progressed,
you see the first city. You know who built the first
city? Cain. He named it after his son. Pride
of man. Then the flood, the beginning
of nations. You know where that began? The
Tower of Babel. Sin, sin, sin. That's man's history. That's what Mr. Ford recognized
without even knowing it, I think. Sin, sin, sin. History proves
the sin and depravity of man. Man cannot improve and save himself. Ecclesiastes 7.20. There's not
a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Psalm 14, talking about God looked
down from heaven to see if anybody sought Him. No, not one. There's none good, none righteous,
none that seeketh after God. What's that prove? If there is
any salvation for this sinful humanity, it's got to come from
above. It's got to come from God. That's
what history proves. And His salvation is in Christ.
Christ intervened into the history of this world when he became
incarnate. And then as we go along in God's
history, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, look how history continues.
And now we come, if you can read about this, we won't turn over,
but look, sometimes just look at Exodus chapter 1. Here was
a heathen, idolatrous king, Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph. And
you remember how the history developed there through Joseph,
all that sin and depravity, and out of it God brings good? And here's this idolatrous king
in Exodus 1 who made an evil decree. Remember he's Pharaoh
and the Hebrew children were there and he saw the Hebrew children,
the Hebrew women were healthy and they had babies and the population
began to grow and he was afraid they were going to outnumber
the Egyptians so he made an evil decree. Let's kill all those
male babies. And here was a father and a mother.
This is recorded in Exodus chapter 2, read that too, who decided
to hide their child from Pharaoh because they knew there was a
greater purpose for him. Does that kind of remind you
of another history about 1,500 years later? Matthew chapter
2, where a heathen king, Herod, we, the men called him, you know
what, Herod, you know what they called him? Great. And he was anything but great.
You know why the Jews called him Herod the Great? Because
he sunk money into rebuilding the temple. And they had a good economy.
But in God's eyes, he was anything but great. But he made an evil
decree because he was afraid. Remember how the wise men came
to him? He was afraid. that the Messiah was come, so
he said, kill all the males. What did Mary and Joseph do?
They took him down to Egypt, the land of bondage, to hide
him. Brought him up later. You see, Moses is a type of Christ. Moses was made by God to be the
deliverer of his people from Egypt in a temporal way. He was
destined by God to lead the Hebrew children out of Egypt. Well, Christ was made by God
to be the deliverer of his people, God's chosen, Jew and Gentile,
to deliver them from sin and bondage in an eternal way. You
know, when God saves us, it's like Moses leading the Hebrew
children out of bondage. That's what Christ did. In fact,
one time when he showed his glory to Peter and James and John on
the Mount of Transfiguration, they had a vision of him speaking
with Elijah the prophet and Moses the lawgiver, and they spoke
of his decease, it says in the book of Luke, which he should
accomplish. You know what that word decease is in the original?
It's exodus. You know what, I get the impression
as I study the Bible, God knows what He's doing. And people look at this book
and they see contradiction. There's no contradiction here.
There's a thread that runs through this book, the blood of Christ. All according to God's sovereign
purpose, will, and providence. And you remember what happened
when Moses finally come to lead the people out before he did
that? They had the blood of Passover. How are we let out of our spiritual
bondage? Through the blood of the Lamb
of God. Christ is our Passover. He is our righteousness. We're let out. And David spoke
of it on his deathbed. He said, Although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made a covenant with me, an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. You see, everything
is ordered and sure with God. This is His history. For this
is all my salvation and all my desire, although He make it not
to grow. All right, let's talk about,
secondly, God's providence. What is providence? That's God's
government of the world. Working all things after the
counsel of His own will. That's what you read in Ephesians
1. God didn't step back. He didn't
wind us up and step back and let us go. He didn't go away
and He's going to come back later and see how we're doing. Somebody said, well, He's not
going to step on the dignity of man's free will. Bull. Read the Bible. That's how people kind of reason
that from their sinful reasoning. Listen, while we make our choices
and we make our plans, it's God who determines and establishes
and directs our steps. Psalm 37, verse 23, listen to
this. The steps of a good man, that's
a sinner saved by grace, are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth
in his way. Though he fall, he shall not
utterly be cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. That's the case. We read it in
Romans 8.20. We know all things work together
for good. To them that love God, who are
the called according to His purpose, all things. I mentioned earlier Joseph. What
did he say back in Genesis 50? You meant it for evil. You made
your choice. You exercised your will. God meant it for good. Now tell me exactly where the
power and the success or failure of a thing lies. with God. Isn't that right? Think about this. If I were to
ask you what is the greatest crime in human history, you know
what many people would say? They'd say the Holocaust. Hitler
killing the Jews. Well, let me tell you something.
That was a great crime in human history, but not the greatest. The greatest crime in human history
was the murder of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Think about it. The only truly
good and righteous man, he's God-man, but the only true good
and righteous person that ever walked the earth was murdered,
and I'll say, by the human race. If anybody Now, what does the
Bible say about that? Here's Peter in Acts 2.22. You men of Israel, hear these
words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. You've taken and by wicked
hands have crucified in slain. This was the work of God. It
pleased the Lord to bruise him. Acts 4, 26. The kings of the
earth stood up. Nobility didn't help. The rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against His Christ. Religion didn't help.
The kings of the earth, that's nobility. The rulers of the earth,
that's talking about religion. And what didn't they do together?
They gathered together against the Lord. and against his Christ. And what did they do? They did
their evil connivance. But it says in Acts 4.27, For
of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod, Pontius Pilate, and even the Gentiles. Oh, we can't
get off the hook. I heard a girl, a comedian one
time say, you know, well, I've got nothing against the Jews,
they just murdered our Lord. No, Gentiles were there too,
folks. It was lost humanity turning thumbs down on the Lord of Glory. That's us. We were represented
there. They were gathered together to
do what? Verse 28 of Acts 4, to do whatsoever
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done.
God's history. God's providence. Now, let me
tell you something. Only God can do that. Granted,
this is all mind-boggling stuff to us. You know, people, we cannot
fully grasp it. People ask, well, is God all-powerful?
Is He all good? Then how can He let evil come,
you know, all this, and bad things happen to good people? There
are no good people, but that's what people ask. How can He allow
evil? Man in his own natural sinful
understanding either becomes a total fatalist or he denies
God's sovereign providence, makes God an observer who bows to the
will of men. Some say this, they say, well,
if all that's true, then I can sin all I want to. No, you cannot. You're not God. And quit trying
to play God. You don't have it. You don't
have the wisdom, the knowledge, or the ability to overturn or
overrule evil for good. You don't have that. I don't
have that. God does. He's God. So what do we do? Well, the answer's in Romans
11. Verse 33, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or
who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him. Again, you don't make bargains
with God. He says, For of him, and through him, and to him,
and all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. And here we go
to his purpose. Here's God's purpose. What's
he doing here? By faith, Moses, when he was born, his parents
took him, hid him. They weren't afraid. God had
a purpose here. And it's to glorify himself in
the salvation of his people by his grace through Jesus Christ. That's his ultimate purpose.
The history of man is his story. It's all about God revealing
Himself in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about Christ. He's what it's all about. And
what He accomplished on Calvary to save His people. That's what
all this is leading up to. It was through this nation who
was in bondage to this heathen king, this nation that God would
bring the Savior of His people through. Here's the thing about it. Listen
to this. If you go through life, no matter what you experience,
what you do, how successful or how unsuccessful you are, how
happy or how sad you are, if you go through this life and
you miss Christ, here's what ought to be written on your tombstone.
Vanity of vanities. If you miss Christ. The purpose
of God is His own glory and the salvation of His people by His
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about this. If you're a believer today, a
true believer, if you confess with your mouth that Christ is
Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the
dead, which means righteousness accomplished. Do you know what
that means? He raised Him from the dead means righteousness
established. His righteousness imputed to me, security of my
salvation. Forgiveness. Eternal life. If
I confess with my mouth and believe from my heart that God raised
Him from the dead, this is what I am. A vessel of mercy prepared
before the creation of the world for glory. To know the riches
of the glory of His grace. That's what that passage that
Brother Jim read is all about in Ephesians chapter 1. Because
it says there plainly, that everything that God has for His people is
in Christ. Blessed, he said. Verse 3. Blessed with all spiritual blessings. Is there any spiritual blessing
that is excluded from that? Blessed with all spiritual blessings.
That's my election before the foundation. That's my justification
in Christ. My sins imputed to Him. His righteousness
imputed to me. That's my adoption. A child of
God, that's a blessing in Christ by virtue of who He is and what
He accomplished on Calvary. And you know, in the Hebrew exodus
from Egypt, that was proven. I mentioned before, the Passover,
the blood, it's all in the blood. Without the blood, nothing but
wrath. Without righteousness, nothing
but wrath. My new birth, That's a blessing. I've been born again by the Holy
Spirit, given a new heart, new eyes, new ears. See things I
didn't see before, hear things I didn't hear before. That's
a blessing of God from Christ. Everything accepted with God. Think about that. You know, we will really experience
the reality of that when we stand before God. We know it now if we're saved.
But sometimes we just kind of look at, well, I accept it in
the blood. That means something. That's what this is all about.
Everything in history. Now I want you to turn to one
verse, one passage in Isaiah 46. And I'm going to draw together
everything I've said with this one passage. Look at Isaiah 46. Anytime I talk about history,
providence, purpose, I always go to this passage. There's several passages you
could go to, obviously. But this is all about Christ
and how God justifies sinners. Did you know that? How God can
be just and justify the ungodly. It's all about Christ and what
He accomplished in establishing righteousness for His people.
Look at verse 9. Isaiah 46, verse 9. Isaiah was prophesying of the
future punishment of Judah in Jerusalem that was going to come
probably, I think, around 70 years after Isaiah. I'm not sure.
I'd have to go back and look at my time frame. But later on,
he said God was going to bring this nation into captivity. And
it was going to be through Babylon. But God was going to deliver
them out. Because God wasn't through with the nation yet.
He wasn't through with the nation until when? Until Christ came. So here's what he says. Look
at verse 9 of Isaiah 46. Remember the former things of
old. Now that's history. For I'm God and there's none
else. Nobody can direct history. Only God. I'm God and there's
none like me. We talk about people changing
history, they don't really change history. Verse 10, declaring
the end from beginning. Now there's God's providence
and purpose. You see, only God can declare
the end from the beginning. Now you and I, we can declare
the beginning from the end. I can tell you how this day has
started. Now I don't know how it's going
to end up tonight, but God, He knows. Because he declared it. And from ancient times the things
that are not yet done. Saint, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. There's God's providence. Calling
a ravenous bird from the east. That is a prophecy of the heathen
emperor that God was going to use to deliver the people of
Judah out of Babylon. His name is Cyrus. A ravenous
bird from the east. The man that executeth my counsel."
Cyrus was going to be God's pawn to deliver the Israelites from
a far country. Yeah, I've spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. You see it? Now look at the next
two verses. Now, how am I to react to that? How are we to respond to that?
Well, verse 12. Hearken unto me, hear me. You stout-hearted that are far
from righteousness. That's our sinfulness. Pride,
self-righteousness. Verse 13, I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. There's the purpose. Christ,
the Lord, our righteousness. It's all about Him and what He
accomplished on Calvary to save His people from there. Every
little minute detail, I mean even a mommy and a daddy taking
a little baby, putting it in a basket, floating it down the
river. Pharaoh's daughter finding it.
Moses' mother ended up being a nursemaid to it. All that,
all those intricacies of history and providence for this purpose,
look to Christ for salvation. Look to Christ for forgiveness.
Look to Christ for righteousness. That's all it's all about. Now
you can respond to it in different ways. People say, well, I don't
like that. I don't like that God. I don't want a God who does
all that. If he does that, I'll just sin.
No. You stay out-hearted and self-righteous. Look to Christ.
He's my hope. He's the only hope that any of
us have.