Well, good morning. For those of you who aren't aware,
Frank and Janet, I know you all saw on Tuesday, Frank said that
Janet's mother was doing better and they were going to stay a
few more days. Well, Wednesday she took a turn for the worse.
I got word Thursday that they were going to send her home under
hospice care. Friday night, Frank texted me,
the Lord has been pleased to call Ethel home. We grieve for our friends. They're part of our body. We
grieve for them. But we're thankful that the Lord
was pleased to call Ethel home, that she's with her Savior, where
she's longed to be for so long. Frank called Aaron Greenleaf
from Lexington. And Aaron was gracious enough
and permitted by the Lord to come. preached to us this morning. So Aaron's gonna be here. I believe
they're gonna have some private family graveside service for
Ethel. But I know that you all will keep that family, that dear
family in your prayers. I'd like to open our service
this morning reading Psalm 116. Psalm 116. I love the Lord. because he hath heard my voice
and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The
sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold
upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The
Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped
me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with me. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will
walk before the Lord in the land of the living, I believed, therefore
have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord,
truly, I am thy servant. I am thy servant, and thy son,
and the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bounds. I
will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call
upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now, in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the
Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye
the Lord. So I'm going to lead us in that. ? Will keep me near to thy wounded
side ? ? Tis only there in safety and peace I can abide ? ? What
foes and snares surround me ? ? What loss and fears within the grace
that sought and found me ? The other can keep me clean. Tis only in thee, hiding, I know
my life secure. Only in thee, abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thine arm of victory gaineth
for every hurtful foe. of my heart's sustain in all
its care and woe. Soon shall my eyes behold thee
with rapture face to face. God hath not been told me of
all thy power and grace. Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
the wonders of Thy love, shall be the endless story of all Thy
saints above. OK, if you would please turn
your hymnal to song number 287. 287 and we'll sing Like a River Glorious Like a river glorious is God's
perfect peace Over all victorious in its pride and greed Perfect
yet it floweth fuller every day. Perfect yet it groweth deeper
every day. ? Upon Jehovah, hearts are fully
blessed ? ? Finding as he promised perfect peace and rest ? ? Hidden
in the hollow of his blessed head ? Never foe can follow,
never traitor stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade
of care, not a blast of hurt. Touch the spirit there. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as He promised, perfect
peace and rest. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly find
Him wholly true. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, binding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Turn, if you will, to Romans
chapter 10. For a scripture reading this
morning, I'd like to read Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through
17. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ
again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto them that call upon his name. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed thy report? So then, faith cometh by hearing. in hearing by the word of God.
May the Lord bless his word this morning. Our holy, righteous, merciful
Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning, a blessed yet needy
people. Father, we're so thankful that
you've purposed to bring us here this morning And we pray, Lord,
that you would once again open your word, that you would give
Aaron recall of his notes, liberty to speak freely of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But Lord, we know that no man
is able. We know, Lord, that we rely on
thee to open your word, to give us hearing ears, Lord, and receiving
hearts. We pray, Lord, that you would
send your spirit to be among us this morning. Cause us to
not meet in vain. But Lord, give us, give us a
glimpse of Christ. Cause us to see thy mercy and
thy truth met together in the God man, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has made man That he might feel the infirmities that we
go through, yet sinless. Perfect righteousness. But then
be made sin that we might be made righteous in him. Oh, what
a mystery, Lord. Pray that you would leave us not ignorant. that perfect
righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, leave us not to
ourselves. Cause us to look to Christ. Look to his righteousness. In
whom we approach your throne of mercy. Lord, we pray for those
who are going through difficult trials. We know, Lord, that they
come from thee. We pray, Lord, that they would
accomplish your will in that right quick. That you would find
it in your will to restore, to point us to Christ. As we go
through these trials, Lord, just let them be a reminder of our
frail and sinful flesh and our need of thee, our need of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful for those
you've restored to this congregation. We pray for continued healing
for Gary. For those who are not with us
today, we pray, Lord, we lift them up to thee. Thou art able. And as we pray for bodies and
emotions and minds, Lord, we pray especially for our souls. Lord, we pray for the children
of this congregation, that you would reveal yourself to them
in a saving manner. Lord, have mercy on their souls.
You would call Israel, give them knowledge, cause them to seek
Christ. We pray, Lord, for those wherever
men stand this morning to open your living word, that you would
cause us to seek Christ. Give us but a glimpse of our
sin and cause us to run to him, to seek him, to call upon his name for thy mercy
to be found in him. Lord, once again, we lift up
our pastor and his family. We know that thou will provide.
We're thankful for the testimony of our sister Ethel. We're thankful that she's with
thee. But we hurt, Lord, and we pray
that you would send your comforter to be among us. We ask all these things in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I guess I should introduce. Obviously,
Aaron doesn't need an introduction. Aaron Greenleaf, he's come to
preach to us this morning. He's from Lexington. I know that Todd relies on him. That's why we love him. Come
preach to us. I love going to places where
We don't need introductions and fanciful language or anything
like that. We're just old friends. And so it's always great to be with
you guys. I wish it was under different circumstances, obviously.
But nonetheless, you're a sight for sore eyes. And also, too,
and I can't forget this because they'll beat me if I don't when
I go back, everybody from Lexington says hi. They send their well
wishes and their love. So I want to make sure I relay
that. If you would, turn to Exodus chapter 1. Somebody said once and several
times throughout history that a picture is worth a thousand
words. I certainly feel that way with the gospel. I'm so thankful
for the Old Testament and these types and pictures of Christ.
If I go to build a piece of IKEA furniture, I can just throw those
instructions away. I can read them. I won't figure
it out. But I'll pull up a YouTube video, somebody shows me how
to build it, that's how I build it. So truly a picture is worth a thousand
words. And here, what we're going to look at this morning is Exodus
chapter 2, really. It's the birth of Moses. He's
a very powerful type of Christ and all that. But so we get our
bearings in the story, I want to see how we get there. So,
in Exodus chapter 1, if you would, look at verse 8. It says, Now there arose up a new
king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. Now, As I understand
it, about 200, 210 years passed between the death of Joseph and
the birth of Moses. You can only imagine how many
pharaohs had passed in all that time, many of them, a whole lot
of water under the bridge. And finally, 200 years later,
we come to a pharaoh. He doesn't know Joseph, and that
doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't know the story of Joseph. I'm
sure he does. He just doesn't care about Joseph. And he doesn't
care about the people of Joseph, the Hebrews. What he is concerned
about is this. He looks out at the Hebrews and
he says, they are stronger and mightier and of greater number
than we are. And what he's worried about is
they're going to link up with our enemies and they're going to
come after us. They're going to conquer us.
And we got to keep that from happening. So Pharaoh devises
a scheme. He wants to get rid of the Hebrews
or at least put them under his thumb. He devises a scheme, it turns
out to be a threefold scheme, and as one scheme fails, he moves
on to the next one. And here's the first one. What
he says he's gonna do, he goes, here's my idea, he goes, we're
gonna put the Hebrews under hard bondage and labors. We're gonna
make them slaves. We're gonna have them work for
us, we're gonna put our thumb on them, that way they know they
belong to us, they can't be uprising. So hard bondage and labors. And
here's how it worked out for him. Look at verse 12. But the
more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.
And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. That's
gotta be, that's gonna be hard for Pharaoh, isn't it? We put
them under bondage, right? We're gonna put them under our
thumb. And the more they afflicted them, the more they grew. And
as a side note, when does the believer grow? When does he grow
in grace? When does he grow in faith, all
these things? When, you know, the wind's at your back and everything's
downhill and everything's going well? when he's afflicted, when
he's put in that fire of trial, when he's left, I can't do anything
to change my circumstances. I can't even control my attitude
to my circumstances. I can't give myself faith. There's
nothing I can do. It's in that fire of furnace
where the Lord comes to us, and he solves the problem, and he
whispers to us one more time, I am your salvation. You're not
your salvation. I'm your salvation. What happens?
You grow. You grow in humility. You grow in grace, you grow in
faith, you grow in brotherly kindness and virtue and all these
things. And we do, we want to grow, don't
we? I want to grow. I don't want to stay a child
in the gospel. I want to grow into a mature
believer. Well, if we want to grow, affliction, that fire of
the furnace, that's where it's born. Now, this has got to be
discouraging for Pharaoh. He says, we put them under bondage.
And what happened? They grew. They got better. There were more
of them, right? So this is his next scheme that
also fails. Look at verse 22. I'm sorry,
rather, verse 16. And he said, when you do the
office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools,
if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. And if it be a daughter,
then ye shall live. And so he goes to the midwives
that are going to service the Hebrew women. He says, all right. Here's
what you're gonna do. If a boy pops out, he goes, you're
just gonna kill it immediately. And if it's a daughter, he goes,
you can save that one alive. And Pharaoh thinks, here's how
we'll deal with this. He goes, we'll kill off all the males, right
at birth, and then we'll intermarry with their daughters. So we'll
breed them out and we'll kill them off, right? This will be
the end of the Hebrews. And this is subtlety on Pharaoh's
part. He says, no one's gonna know it's me. They'll think they
all just died at childbirth. But it says the midwives feared
God and they would not do this thing that Pharaoh wanted them
to do. And so finally he's had enough. He's had enough of lesser
means, and he's had enough of subtlety. And finally he makes
this final proclamation. Look at verse 22. And Pharaoh charged all his people,
saying, every son, make note of that, everybody, every son
that is born, he shall cast into the river, and every daughter
you shall save alive. Pharaoh says, I've had enough.
Done with subtlety. This is my commandment, the king
is making a decree, and the king's decree stands. Every son, not
one will be spared. They all gotta go through the
river. Either they're gonna get eaten by a crocodile, or they're
gonna drown, one of the two. But every son has to go through
the river. That's the king's commandment,
and the king's commandment must be done. You think about these
three things that Pharaoh tries here. That describes the total
depravity of every man perfectly. What do you say? Kill him at
birth. How's a man or woman born into
this world naturally? Dead in trespasses and sins. wicked, evil heart, incapable
of performing the spiritual acts, faith, repentance, looking to
Christ, incapable of doing that which is good and pleasing before
God, dead in trespasses and sins. He says, put him under hard bondage
and labors. How's a man born into this world?
Born under a law he can't keep. Born under a sinful nature that
he can't get out of, that he can't do anything about. He is
enveloped. Everything about him, his best
motive, it's self-serving, it's self-pleasing. Sin in everything
he does, under the bondage of sin and under the bondage of
a law he can't keep. And this is the final portion.
The king's command, they all gotta go through the river. No
one is exempt from this. Everybody has to go through the
river. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. That's the king's commandment.
The king, God himself, he is a just and a holy God and he
cannot pass by sin. He says everybody. Everybody
that sins, they gotta go through the river. They must be punished. These Hebrews, what do they need?
It's a terrible place to find yourself. They need a deliverer. They need somebody to come on
and free them from their bondage, free them from that death, and
free them from this law that says you gotta die. That you
gotta go through that river. You know what happens in the
very next chapter? Chapter two, verse one. Moses is born, the
deliverer. What does a sinner mean? A man
who's born dead and trespasses and sins in bondage to a law
he can't keep in a nature that is utterly wicked and sinful. With that law saying, you've
got to die, he's got to have a deliverer. Some who will save
him from that bondage, give him life, and pass him through that
river safe to the other side. Now, like I said, we're going
to take our text from the first 10 verses here. I want to read
it once so we get our bearings in the story. And we'll go back
and sincerely do this. Ask the Lord that he would show
us the gospel in all this. If we just look at a story, it's
not gonna do us any good, but if the Lord would meet with us and
show us Christ in all this, we'll be highly blessed. So look for
him along here. Look at verse one of Exodus chapter
two. It says, and there went a man of the house of Levi and
took to wife a daughter of Levi. This is Moses' parents. His dad's
name is Amram. and his mom is Jochebed, they're
Levites, that's the tribe they're from. Verse two, and the woman
conceived and bare a son, and when she saw them that he was
a goodly child, she hid him three months. Now I doubt that Jochebed
is alone in this. I'd say a whole bunch of Hebrew
women did this. She took him, she saw he was goodly. Every
mama loves their baby, thinks they're beautiful. Says this
is a beautiful baby, I'm not gonna put him in the river. and
she hides him for three months. So you make it through three
months, then what? He's getting older, he's getting bigger, he's
getting louder. Maybe you'd make it a year, then
what? Five years, then what? Bigger, louder, 10 years, then
what, right? Eventually, he has to step into
the light of day. Eventually, he has to walk outside
for everybody to see him. He can't hide forever. And as
soon as he does, as soon as the light of day hits him and he
is seen, where does he have to go? He's got to go to the river. That's the king's command. Imagine
how anxiety-ridden their life is at this point. See those guards
walking around the Hebron houses, just waiting to hear a baby coo
so they can grab and throw it inside this river. Had to be terrible.
Finally, Jacobit says, we can't hide him. We can't do this anymore. He's got to go to the river.
That's the king's command. Well, she's going to make a provision
for him. Look here, verse three. And when she could no longer
hide him, she took for him an arc of bulrushes and daubed it
with slime and with pitch and put the child there in and she
laid it in the flags by the river's brink. She made him an arc. It's
a basket made of reeds. And she daubed it with pitch
and slime, this waterproofing material. And she put Moses inside
of there and encapsulated him in this ark. And she took him
down to the river. The king said, this is the command,
everybody's got to go to the river. According to the king's
command, she went to the river. And she did the hardest thing
I bet a mama has ever had to do. She put him in that river,
in the ark. And she let go. And she turned
around. And she walked away. And she
trusted the good providence of God in that ark to keep him safe.
Verse four, and his sister, this is Miriam, you know her, and
his sister stood afar off to wit, what should be done to him? And what that means is she didn't
understand. She's standing afar off, and she sees what Moses'
mother is doing, what her mom is doing. She sees him put him
in this basket and this ark, and to put him in this river,
and she's just intently looking to Moses the entire time, but
she doesn't really understand. She's just got part of the story,
but she just keeps her eyes on him. She watches him the entire
time. Verse five. And the daughter of Pharaoh came
down to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along
by the riverside, and when she saw the orc among the flags,
she sent her maid to fetch it. When she had opened it, she saw
the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion
on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. Now,
this is Pharaoh's daughter. She knows her father's decree.
She knows what he has commanded. And she sees this orc floating
out there. She opens up, there's Moses.
She knows this is one of the Hebrew's children. And obviously,
his mama loves him very much. She made this great provision
for him, this ark. And she has compassion on him. She didn't have to. But there
she sits, having compassion on this child she found in the ark. Now look what happens next. Look
at verse seven. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter,
shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she
may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to
her, go, And the maid went and called the child's mother. Now,
Miriam's about 12, 13 years old right now, somewhere around that.
She's a very savvy 13-year-old girl, isn't she? She's just watching
Moses the entire time. All of a sudden, she sees Pharaoh's
daughter go pick him up. And she slides right over. She
says, ma'am, I see you have a Hebrew baby there. I happen to know
a good wet nurse. Would you like me to go fetch
her? She says, yeah, go fetch her. And she runs home to mom.
Mom. Pharaoh's daughter just picked
up Moses, and she has had compassion on him. She spared him. She needs
a wet nurse. Go, let's go, come on. Verse
nine, and Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child
away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And
the woman took the child and nursed it, and the child grew,
and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses
and she said, because I drew him out of the water. Now it's safe to say that this
story ends much better than when it first began. He begins, he
is the child of a slave born into bondage. At the end of this,
he's a child of the king. Before he can't walk out in the
light of day. As soon as the light of day shines
on him, he has to go through the river. Now, He's been spared. He's had compassion shown on
him. And he can walk around in the
light of day, and the king's commandment has been honored.
He's been through the river. He was in through the river in
the ark. And before, the best Moses' mom
could hope for was this. He's spared, and he comes back
to me. But it's so much better. Now she's going to receive wages
to do it. She's still going to get to raise him. He's still
going to be a part of the family. But now she's going to be paid to
do this thing she was going to do for free before. Things are
so much better at the end than they were at the beginning. Now, if you are like me, when
you think of Moses and his type in the scripture, what do you
think of? I think of the law, and for good reason, right? Who
received the law on Mount Sinai? Moses did. He gave the law. Several times in the New Testament,
he's referred to as the law and several times in scripture. It's
true. He is a great type of God's holy law, but his best type,
his most complete type as God's holy law is this. It's singing
what Moses could not do. What couldn't he do? He couldn't
lead the Children of Israel into the promised land. He couldn't
do it. Who did that? Joshua, that Old
Testament name for Jesus, Savior. The law never led anybody to
Christ, and the law never led anyone to glory. This is what
it says in Romans 8-3. It says, for what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. What's the weakness
of the law? Inherently nothing. For its purpose,
the law is beautiful. The law is holy, it declares
the righteousness of God. God is just this righteous and
just this holy. It is a manifestation of his
righteous and perfect and holy character. His law is beautiful,
but it is not a mechanism of salvation in any way, shape,
or form. It does one thing, it declares
what it sees. Looks on a man outside of Christ,
sinner. guilty, punish, looks on a man
in Christ, flawless, innocent, safe. All it does is say what it sees. It's not a mechanism of salvation.
What is salvation by works? What is it? It takes on so many
different forms, so many different fashions. It's simply this, there's
something I have to do. Independent of God, independent
of his will, independent of his power, there's something I have
to do to make what he does work for me. And you can call that
whatever you want. Assign whatever you want to that
to be that thing you have to do. That's salvation by works.
That's law. The law will not bring you to
Christ, and the law can never bring you to the promised land.
If salvation's on my shoulders in any way, shape, or form, I'm
going to go to hell. I say that fearfully. That's
the truth. So it says in John 117, it says,
for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. What's the truth? Christ and
his grace is the truth. What's the only way a man can
be saved? If God from the foundations of the world purposes to be gracious
to that man, purposefully, individually, I purpose to be gracious to him. Therefore, I put him in Christ.
Therefore, I sent my son to be his surety. Therefore, Christ
came to this world and lived for him and died for him and
bore his sins in his body and put them away. And the Holy Spirit
gives him life and preserves him all the way to the end. Christ
and his grace, that's the truth. We're all just shut up to grace,
sovereign grace, grace that can be given, grace that can be withheld.
It's completely and utterly up to him. The law came by Moses,
that law that cannot save, it just declares our guilt, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That's the truth of salvation,
Christ. Christ and his grace, we're all
shut up to him and his grace. Now, if we want to know who this man,
Jesus Christ, is, That's what we're here to proclaim this morning.
That's what we want to know, isn't it? Who is Jesus Christ?
Who is this man? We have to look no further than
our text. Look at verse one again. It says, and there was a man
of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. In this verse here, Moses is
a very powerful type of Christ. And you say, well, that can be
hard to swallow at this point because Moses is a Levite. Christ
is of the tribe of Judah. I get it. Hear me out. What came
out of the Levitical tribe? in the Old Testament? The priests. All the priests
came out of the Levitical tribe. How long did they last? A very
short period in history. As long as that Old Testament
Economy of worship was going on. They had a physical priest,
just a type and shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great
high priest of his people, our mediator, that one who makes
effective intercession between his people and the father, bringing
them all back, ransoming all to his father. They were just
types and shadows and pictures, and they lasted for a very small
time in history. But Christ is that great high
priest. who abideth forever after the
order of Melchizedek, not after political trial. And if you wanna
know something about who Jesus Christ is, all you have to do
is look at this man, Melchizedek. Keep a bookmark there, go over
to Hebrews chapter seven. Hebrews seven, look at verse
one. Y'all know this story. Lot is kidnapped by the kings
and Abraham goes to rescue him. He comes back from the slaughter
of the kings and he meets this Melchizedek, this priest of the Most High
God, this priest that abideth forever. And he meets him with
bread and wine. He pays a tenth of the spoils.
Abraham actually pays homage to this Melchizedek. Melchizedek
here, great type of Christ. Verse one of Hebrews 7, it says,
for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest, of the Most High
God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings
and blessed him. Now that's Jesus Christ. He is
priest, the priest of, that speaks of origin, the Most High God. It is not just simply that he
was sent of God, he is God. Only God could satisfy the demands
of God. only God could do business with
God. Jesus Christ was of God. The Savior of God's people had
to be God himself. He's a priest of the Most High
God, not being simply from God, being equal with God, with all
the attributes of God, absolutely sovereign, completely holy, ultimately
just, omniscient, omnipotent in all things, and thank the
Lord, merciful and gracious and kind and full of loving kindness.
Everything God the Father is, Jesus Christ is because he is
equal to God, but he had to be something else as well. As much
as he had to be altogether God, he had to be altogether man. Because only man could be the
savior of men. Remember the book of Ruth? Deals
with the kinsman redeemer, Boaz. If you had lost everything, you
lost all your money, you lost all your lands and things like
that. There's only one person who could help you out. A kinsman
redeemer could come back and he could buy back everything
you had lost. But he had to meet certain qualifications.
First one was this, he had to have the right to redeem. You
know what that means? He had to be bone of your bone
and flesh of your flesh. The same blood that coursed through
your veins had to course through his veins. Had to have the right
to redeem the Lord Jesus Christ. Had to be made flesh, could only
a man could be the savior of men. Bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh. He had to have the right to redeem.
He had to have the ability to redeem. He had to be able to
come up with the money to buy back everything you had lost.
Oh, nothing is outside the grasp of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is one that is without end. He's not finite. He's infinite.
He cannot fail. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's
got the money. He has the ability. He has the
power. And this is the final one. He had to be willing to
redeem. That family member, you'd lost
everything. That was your fault. He was not
obligated in any way to come buy back your stuff. But if in
mercy and grace, and he was willing and volunteers, and he stood
up and he says, I'll buy back everything you lost, you had
a kinsman-redeemer. Thank God that Jesus Christ is
the kinsman-redeemer of sinners. No one else. Not for people with
any goodness. Not for people who have anything
to offer God. He is the kinsman-redeemer, bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh, willing and able to redeem only one type of person. Sinners,
people who have absolutely nothing to offer him. Now look at verse
two. To him also Abraham gave a tenth
part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after
that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. Don't miss
that order. First righteousness, and then
peace. We talked about it this morning
in Sunday school. God is perfectly and utterly
just. He demands perfection. He can't just sweep sin under
the carpet and just forgive a man and say, well, I'm just gonna
not worry about your sin, I'm gonna forgive you. No, his perfect
sense of justice has to be honored before the floodgates of his
mercy can come out. And he says, first, king of righteousness,
what did Christ do in his own body? He made everybody in him
perfectly righteous with his own righteousness. Then king
of peace. Sin being put away, righteousness
being established where we are perfect and holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in Christ, then peace. Now we have true peace
with God in the Lord Jesus Christ because righteousness was first
established. He's a God of righteousness and
peace. Verse three, without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth
a priest continually. No beginning of days, no end
of life. Who is Jesus Christ? He is eternal
God. I don't, I can't wrap my mind
around that. Maybe some of you can, I can't.
I can't fathom something that never began and will never end.
I just can't, I believe it's right here, but I can't wrap
my mind around it. But think about this. Jesus Christ is eternal
God. He always has been, and he always
will be. And with that eternal character
comes with this notion. Everything he has purposed to
do, he has always purposed to do. And everything he purposed
to do, he has always done. From the foundations of the world,
everything he purposed, He had always purposed. From the foundations
of the world, all those purposes, all done. He is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. What does that mean for us, for
those in Christ? It means before we were born,
before we ever committed one sin, before Adam even fell, there
was a Savior who had already put away the sins of his people.
We have an eternal salvation. You know what that means? If
it's eternal, that means we can't mess it up, because we're not
involved. We're a commodity in all that.
He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Everybody
who came out of him, we've all been eternally justified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's without beginning of days
or end of life. Don't understand that, but I
love it. I believe it. And he abideth a priest continually.
I love thinking about this. David said, and I say it with
him, my sin is ever before me. That's the truth. It's ever before
me, it's every day, it's constant. That word continually, what that
means is it's just constant, it's perpetual. My sin is ever
before me, it's constant, perpetual. As long as I'm in this world,
as much as it is against God, as much as I hate it, sin, sin,
sin, that's it. And the only thing that is more
perpetual than my sin is his great high priesthood and his
effective intercession for me. He abideth the priest continually,
perpetually, forever. Because the day's going to come,
we're going to put down this sinful flesh. We're going to
die. We're going to put down this old man and this sin, and
we're never going to see it again. And we're going to be with Christ
in glory. And you know what? His great high priesthood, his
effective intercession, it's just as perpetual as ever. It
just keeps going and going and going and going. and it will
always be, he will always be our great high priest who represents
us before the Father, and that'll never end. That state, it cannot
change. This sin, we're gonna put it
down. His great high priesthood, he
never puts that down. Now, go back to Exodus 2 and
look at verse 2. It says, and the woman conceived
and bear a son, this is Moses, And when she saw him, that he
was a goodly child, she hid him three months. I think about that,
the hiding of Moses. You know, when the Lord Jesus
Christ was manifest in the flesh, in the Gospels, we get a few
stories about his birth, what's going on there. And then we get
one story when he's 12 years old, and the highlight of that
is, I must be about my father's business. Tells us what's going
on during his life at that point. He's doing what his father sent
him to do. That's what's going on. But until
you get to his public ministry when he's about 30, his whole
life growing up is just shrouded in mystery. It's just taken out.
You don't see any of it. And you think about what was
going on. I'll take a stab at it. The father was raising his
son. And I recognize he had earthly
parents. He was assigned Mary and Joseph.
But who raised him? God, his father, raised him.
And you think about this, how sweet this is. The whole time
he looked at me and says, that's a goodly child. I sent him, I
told him, condescend and be made man. God manifest in the flesh.
And he looks at this one who's on earth. He did exactly what
I told him to do. There he is manifest in the flesh. He looked at me and says, he's
goodly. He's the only man to ever live. He's perfectly just. He's perfectly holy. He's perfectly
righteous. He's incapable of sin. He's just doing by will
over and over and over, just doing those things that are pleasing
to me, in perfect obedience to me. And the Father says he's
so good, so goodly. And I love the fact that he excludes
that from the scripture. You don't get to see his formative
years. It's as if the Father is saying, that's just between
me and my son. That's our time together. You
don't get to know about that. And I bow to that. I love that. But
I get to thinking about this. Says he was a goodly child, Moses
was. Christ, he was a goodly child
before his father. David, in 1 Samuel 16, he is
described this way. And he's a great type of Christ.
But this is how David was described. He says he was ruddy, meaning
he was earthy. He's from the earth. That's what
the father saw. In obedience, his son condescended
to be made man. He was of a beautiful countenance,
the only man to ever live perfectly righteous and perfect obedience
to God the Father. Then he said this, David was
goodly to look to. You know, that's exactly what
the Father did. You think about our illustration. Moses' mom
takes him, he puts him inside this ark, takes him down to the
river. Let's go. Trust the ark. That's
exactly what God the Father did. He took that which was precious
to him, his people, and he put them in that one place of safety,
Christ. He put him in that which is most precious to him, Christ. And he put him in that river
and he let go and simply trusted Christ to bring all his elect
people safe and sound to the other side. He's goodly looked
to for a sinner. We look to him. We trust him
for everything and our salvation. But there is one who trusted
him long before we ever trusted him by his grace. God the Father
trusted him. Trusted him with his people.
It's all on you. I'm not going to require anything
from them. Their salvation, their damnation rests completely and
utterly on you. You have to do everything. And
God, the father, so confident in his son. And why wouldn't
you be? He's perfect. He can't fail. He has all power.
He can't lie. He put them in Christ and let
go says it's on you. Goodly to look to. Goodly for
a sinner to look to. We looked at this in Sunday school,
but I'll say it to you again. It's Isaiah 45, 22. It says,
look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. All the ends of the earth. People
who are as far away from God as they can possibly get. People
who can't take a step toward him and his holiness and his
perfect sense of justice and his righteous demand. I've got
nothing. I can't step toward him. It says, good. Here's your
command. Look to me. Look to Christ. Trust him for everything in your
salvation. He's goodly to look to. We have an illustration of
that in our text. Look at verse five. It says, and the daughter of Pharaoh
came down to wash herself at the river. Now, when we were
reading that, Did anyone find it curious that a princess who
has a palace has come down to this dirty old river with the
poor people to bathe? I find that interesting. She's
got a big castle, palace, whatever you want to call it, sitting
on top of a hill, plenty of bathrooms, as many servants as you could
possibly want. They could have drawn her a bath any time she
wanted it, and yet she finds herself here, down here at this
dirty old river with poor people bathing. Why is that? She couldn't
get clean in the palace. The way up is down. Come down. That palace of self-righteousness,
self-reliance, come down from all that. You come down to where
the poor people at, at the river. Down with the common folk, down
with the nothings. You come down there. I find it
very interesting, that's exactly where she found the deliverer.
And the better way of saying this is this, if Lord ever finds
you and me, If he ever reveals himself to us, you know what
we're going to do? We're going to come down. Down from that palace, down from
that self-reliance, you come down as the chief of sinners.
He says, then you'll look to me. I'm going to call you to
me. Then you're going to look to me when you come down. Now, verse 3 of our story. The type
changes here. Moses actually becomes a type
of the elect. The ark is now Christ. Look at verse 3. And
when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark
of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put
the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's
brink. Like I said before, what did
God the Father do? He took that which is precious to him, and
he put that in what was most precious to him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he put it in that river. And he took his hands
off and walked away and put it all on the shoulders of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I love the construction of this
art. It says it was daubed with pitch
and slime. The word daubed, you know what
it means? Befouled. Besmeared. Polluted. Second Corinthians
521, for he hath made him sin for us. who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Oh, the great transaction and
the great mystery of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. My sin being made his, me put
in him, him bearing my sins in his body and suffering under
the wrath of God, his righteousness being mine, because I'm in him.
Every step he took in obedience on this earth, I took too in
him. Everybody who's in him took those
steps as well. You think about this, this ark,
this encapsulation, Moses is inside this ark, he is completely
encapsulated inside this ark, dulled with pitch and slime according
to the king's commandment. The king says, everybody has
to go through the river. Those waters of the river, did
they ever touch Moses? No, that pitch and that slime
kept it out. The waters touched the ark, but it never touched
Moses. That ark brought him safe and
sound to the other side. The command of God is this, the
soul that sinneth, it shall die. Everybody's got to go through
the river. Every sinner must be punished. Folks of the elect,
we have been. In Christ, he went to that cross
bearing our sins. We were in him. And the showers,
that water of the Father's wrath came down upon him, and it touched
him. It'll never touch us. We come
to the other side, safe and sound, the very righteousness of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal salvation. Things that
have always been done. Union. The transference of sin from
the elect to Christ and righteousness from Christ to the elect were
all in one. Do you understand these things? I don't. We get pictures and
types and glimpses. I don't understand these things.
I believe it. I completely and utterly rely on this one who
did all these things. Whatever he says in this book,
I believe that. Simply because God said, absolutely believe
it. But understand? Understand, no, absolutely not. And you know what? That's exactly
the way it's supposed to be. Look at verse four. And his sister, Miriam, stood
afar off to wit what would be done to him. Miriam doesn't fully
understand. She stands afar off, not really
taking in what's going on. What does she do? She simply
keeps her eyes on Moses the entire time. She doesn't really understand. She doesn't understand the ark.
She doesn't understand all these things that's going on. She's just a
13-year-old girl. But she just keeps her eyes on Moses the entire
time. Folks, I don't pretend to understand
the things of eternity. I certainly don't. But what do
we do? What's the command? I just keep
my eyes on him. Just trust him. Trust him for every aspect of
my salvation. That is the command. And one
day, we won't see through a glass darkly anymore. One day we'll
see in full. We see in part right now. Just
keep your eyes on him. Just look to Christ. One day
it'll all be revealed. Now, what we just talked about is
justification. Now we're gonna see the effects of justification.
Look at verse five. And the daughter of Pharaoh came
down to wash herself at the river, And her maidens walked along
by the riverside, and when she saw the orc among the flags,
she sent her maid to fetch it. When she had opened it, she saw
the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion
on him, and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children." What
are the effects of justification? Compassion. Because the perfect
justice of God is absolutely satisfied for everybody Christ
died for. Compassion falls upon us. We
are spared. Mercy is shown to us. That mercy
that does no damage to the perfect and just character of God. Compassion. What else here? Notice she had
to open the ark. You know what that means? That
means Moses was completely encapsulated inside that ark. That means what
she saw floating on that river, all she saw was the ark. When
the father looks at us because of justification, who does he
see? He sees the ark, Christ Jesus. One until she opened the ark,
she could see Moses. All she saw was the ark because of justification
were fetched. It's what? Pharaoh's daughter
said, she said, told her maiden, go fetch him, right? Because
Christ died for us, because we've been justified and made whole
in him. Now the Holy Spirit is sent with
fetching grace. Go get him. I love the illustration
here. It's beautiful. Was Moses looking
for Pharaoh's daughter? Moses is three months old. He
is floating along in a basket. with essentially a shroud put
over top of him. Moses doesn't know that there's
a pharaoh. He doesn't know he has a daughter. He's not looking
for anyone or anything. He doesn't have any faculty.
He's just floating along. He wasn't looking for her, but she
saw him. And she had compassion on him.
And she went and fetched him and adopted him and brought him
to herself. That's fetching grace. Not I'm
seeking God and I found him. No, no, no. I was as far away
as I could possibly be and the Lord came to me where I was at
and he found me and he brought me and he had compassion on me.
He did these things for me. Fetching grace. And notice the
order here. She fetched him and he cried.
He didn't cry and she fetched him. She fetched him and he cried. What happens when the Lord with
irresistible, invincible grace reaches out and draws a sinner
to himself? You cry. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. It's not as if that cry comes
first and the Lord says, okay, since you've asked, you'll have
it. No, he fetches us according to his good will and purpose
because that's what he's always done. He's always saved us in
Christ. And then, what's the effect of
that? We cry, Lord, save me. And that never goes away. That's
constant. Day in, day out. Lord, save me. Have mercy upon me. Don't leave
me to myself. Over and over and over again,
you're fetched and you cry. This is a, I love the scripture.
This is Isaiah 65, 24. And it shall come to pass that
before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. He cries for mercy. Why does
he do that? Because I caused him to. He begs
for salvation. Because I caused him to. He trusts
me. Why? Because I caused him to. That's why we don't initiate
anything, we simply respond. That's it. Finally this. Look at how it all ends. And
Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, this is Exodus 9, or Exodus
2 verse 9. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her, take the child away and nurse it for me. And I will give
thee thy wages. And the woman took the child
and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto
Pharaoh's daughter. And he became her son. And she called his name
Moses. And she said, because I drew
him out of the water. Things are so much better at
the end than they were at the beginning. In the beginning,
he is the son of a slave. He is born into bondage. At the
end of this, he is literally a son of the king. entitled to
all the benefits of being a child of the King in Christ because
he suffered and he led us along the way, safe to the other side.
Everything that is coming to the Lord Jesus Christ from his
Father, I wouldn't say this if the scripture doesn't, it's coming
to us. We are co-inheritors with Christ, full acceptance, all
love, kings and priests with God, that's real. a son of the
king. Before, he couldn't walk out
in the light of day. Sun would shine on him, he's
gotta go through the river. Now he can walk anywhere he wants.
Absolutely no shame whatsoever. The king's command says you gotta
go through the river. I went through the river. I went
through the river in that ark. God's law has absolutely nothing
to say to you. You are dead to the law. It's
not the law that's made null and void. You've kept it. You
have a perfect righteousness in Christ. I love this. The best
Moses' mom could hope for, the best is that she would have compassion
on him, give Moses back, and that'd be the end of it. She
says, not only am I gonna do that, I'm gonna have compassion.
You're still gonna get to raise your son. I'm gonna pay you wages. We didn't do anything to earn
this salvation. Not a thing. Absolutely nothing. We provided nothing but the sin
that made it necessary. That's it. And we get paid wages. We get all the righteousness
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We get all the acceptance with
the Father. We get glory with God the Father.
We get sonship with God the Father. We get all these things. We get
paid all these wages and we didn't do a thing but that which was
wrong in the first place. You know, it's so much better
at the end than it was at the beginning in the garden before
Adam fell. He was upright. He was innocent.
And theoretically, if Lord hadn't planned and purposed the fall
in the first place, the best he could pass down was innocence. We fell. We fell on Adam. Always
the opportunity for fall. But yet now in Christ, it's so
much better than it was before. We're not just innocent, holy,
unblameable, unapprovable. That can't change. That is an
immutable state. As long as Jesus Christ is who
he is, and he is eternal God forever. Our state before God
the Father will never change. Now, I'll leave you with this
last closing thought. Y'all are familiar with Hebrews chapter
11, known as the Hall of Faith, right? Well, Moses' parents are
actually mentioned in the Hall of Faith, and I'll read this
to you if you want. This is Hebrews 11, 23. It says, By faith Moses,
when he was born, was hid three months of his parents Because
they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid
of the king's commandment. Let's talk about the story we
just considered here. Saying that what Moses' parents did,
that is a type of true saving faith. What did they do? What
did Jochebed do? We talked about it in the beginning.
She took that which was most precious to her. She entrusted
it to that ark. She put it in the water. This
is a big part. She let go. She took her hands
off, and she turned around, and she walked away, and she trusted
that ark to keep her boy safe. Paul said, for the witch cause,
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. What's the command? The entirety of your salvation,
the very salvation of your soul, entrust it to the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is a big part. Hands off. You don't put your
hand to it at all. You simply trust him and you
turn around and just like Mary, you sit back and you look to
him. Just like that. Just keep your eyes on him, looking
to him for everything. You have this promise, folks,
that has not failed anyone. He has never failed anyone. Sinner, trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. Been a pleasure to be with you
all today. We'll stop there. Well, I believe the Lord answered
our prayers. I feel like this was a good day. And Aaron, we certainly appreciate
you. Let's look to the Lord in prayer
and then Sean will lead us in closing hymn. Our Heavenly Father,
we're so, so thankful that you've shown mercy to us this morning.
That you've sent your preacher to feed your sheep. Lord, we
pray that you would give Aaron traveling mercies as he returns
to his family in Lexington, and pray that you would give traveling
mercies to our pastor and his family as they return to us. Father, we pray that you would
keep us mindful of our Lord Jesus Christ as we leave this blessed
place. Lord, this is holy. holy land because Christ was
here this morning. We pray that as we go out into
the world that you would guide us, that you would hedge us about,
Lord, that you would cause us to look to Christ for all things,
that it might be your will to return us here to hear of Christ
again, that you'd have mercy on us. Once again, we thank you
for this morning. Pray, Lord, for those going through
difficult trials, and we look to Thee for all things, and it's
in Christ's name that we pray, for His sake, amen. Great job. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnals
to song number 355. 355, and stand as we sing, From Every
Stormy Wind That Blows. From every stormy wind that blows,
From every swelling tide of woes, There is a calm, a sure retreat,
Dispel beneath the mercy sea. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides
more sweet It is the blood of mercy seen. There is a scene where spirits
blend, where friend holds fellow. Though shipped with friends,
though sundered far, by faith they meet around one common mercy
seat. Ah, whither could we flee for
aid when tempted, desolate, dismayed? Or how the hosts of hell defeat? Had suffering saints no mercy
seen? And heaven comes down, our souls
to greet, While glory crowds the mercy seat.