So we'll play on that next Sunday.
All right, Hebrews chapter 11. We'll just read a few verses
beginning in verse 24. This will serve as our text this
morning. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith, he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured,
as seeing him who is invisible." Let's stand together as Mike
leads us in singing our call to worship. Let's stand. as we sing our call to worship. God has mercy on whom He will,
And whom He will be hard and still, To whom He will He gives
His grace, And when He will, He hides His face. Let man despise God's sovereign
throne, He does what He will with His own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God takes some and others'
leaves to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made His choice, and it's then passed. Aware that I'm a guilty man,
and that I'm in God's sovereign hand. Prostrate I fall before
His throne, a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can, I
say, Take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your
throne, I beg for mercy. Now trusting Jesus Christ, God's
Son, I know that I'm His chosen one. and God's eternal sovereign
choice makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. John Fortner has written many
hymns I believe it's his best one. That might be his very best
one. We might sing that so often and
learn the words by heart. Isn't that a good song? What
a good way to open our worship service. Let's have a sing that. Let's turn now to 328. 328. Now my everlasting portion, more
than friend or life to live, All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior, let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee, close to Thee. All my pilgrim journey Savior
led, He walked with me, Not for ease or worldly pleasure, not
for vain thy prayer shall be. Gladly will I toil and suffer,
only let me walk with thee. Close to thee, close to thee,
Close to Thee, close to Thee, Gladly will I toil and suffer,
Only let me walk with Thee. Lead me on through vale of shadows,
Bear me o'er thy spitful sea, In the gate of life eternal,
May I enter, Lord, with thee. Close to thee, close to thee, close to Thee, close to Thee. At the gate of life eternal may
I enter, Lord, with Thee. Now over to 332. 332, a couple of pages. We'll just
sing the first three verses of this. My Jesus, I love Thee, I know
Thou art mine. For Thee all the follies of sin
I resign. my gracious Redeemer, my Savior,
Thou alone. If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus
is now. Because Thou hast first loved
me, And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus
is now. I will love thee in death, and
praise thee as long as thou in earth be praised. And say, when
the death do lies cold on thy brow, If ever I loved thee, my
Jesus is now. Let's open our Bibles to Acts
chapter 5. Acts the 5th chapter. We'll begin reading in verse
27 of Acts chapter 5. And when they had brought them,
they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,
saying, Did not we straightly command you that you should not
teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon
us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we
ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. He ameth God exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses
of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost
whom God hath given to them that obey him. And when they heard
that, they were cut to the heart. Well, I bet they were, don't
you? They were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them.
And then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named
Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had a reputation among all the
people. and commanded to put the apostles
forth a little space. And said unto them, ye men of
Israel, take heed to yourselves. What you intend to do is touching
these men. For before these days rose up
Thudias, boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number
of men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain. And all as many
as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. After
this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and
drew away much people after him. He also perished and all, even
as many as obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work
be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be of God, you cannot
overthrow it. Less happily you be found even
to fight against God. And to him they agreed. This
is odd. They agreed to this, but look
what they did next. They called the apostles and beaten them. When they beaten them, they commanded
that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them
go. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing. They left rejoicing that they
were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily
in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and to
preach Jesus Christ. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, be your matchless name. Father, we humbly bow before
your throne this morning. We bow reverently, we bow with
hearts that are full of thanksgiving. And Father, I pray this morning
that you would give us a true heart reverence. That you'd let
us understand something of the awe and the majesty of Christ
our Savior. That you'd give us some understanding
of the awesome privilege of being able to be where your gospel
is preached. To be able to hear one more time
Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you would
bless us in our worship in a mighty way. Father, bless the preaching
of your Word this morning. Bless me as I attempt to open
your Word. Father, uphold me with your Spirit.
Don't leave me to myself. For your glory's sake and for
the good of your people, for the good of those gathered here,
I beg of thee that you not leave me to myself. but that you'd
uphold me with your spirit, that you'd speak to my heart, open
my mouth, and enable me to rightly divide the word of truth, to
glorify the name of Christ our Savior. Father, be with those
who you brought here this morning. This is not an accident that
we're here this morning. You've brought each one here
according to your eternal will and purpose. And Father, I pray,
I beg of thee that it would be a purpose of mercy and grace.
We've heard the gospel, many of us, many, many, many times.
Father, I pray that you enable us to leave here this morning
saying, I've heard like I've never heard before. I've seen
the Savior like I've never seen him before. Let us leave here
with our hearts bursting with joy, gratitude for Christ our
Savior. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray, Father, for all of your people who are meeting together
today. cause it to go forth in power, to bring much glory to
your name and to help, to comfort, to strengthen and edify and save
your people. Father, we thank you for the
many gifts and this life you've given to us. You've blessed us
so richly. Father, we're thankful. We pray for the right attitude
for all the things that you've given us materially, spiritually. Give us the right attitude that
we not be selfish with these things, but that we look for
opportunities to give, to help others, to spread the gospel
that others might hear and have the great privilege of hearing
of Christ our Savior like we have. Father, for those who are
sick and afflicted, we pray for them. We pray for your hand of
healing and comfort on them, on their families. Father, you're
the great physician and there are no hard cases with thee. And whatever it is you determine
to do with your people, whether it's to heal them or whether
it's to bring them home to thee, we pray for the grace to joyfully
and cheerfully bow to thy will. All these things we ask, Father,
and we give thanks to that name which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Nearer, still nearer, Close to
thy heart. From me, my Savior, So precious
thou art. Hold me, O hold me close to thy
breast. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. safe in that haven of rest. Nearer, still nearer, nothing
I bring, not as an offering to Jesus my
King. Only thy sinful, now contrite
heart Grant me the cleansing thy blood
doth impart. Grant me the cleansing thy blood
doth impart. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to
be Thine. Sin with its follies I gladly
resign. All of its pleasures, love, and
its pride, Give me but Jesus. Give me a Jesus, my Lord crucify
Give me a Jesus, my Lord crucify Nearer, still nearer, my life
shall last, Till safe in glory my anchor is cast. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to Thee. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to Thee. If you would, open your Bibles
with me again to Hebrews chapter 11. The title of the message
this morning, Faith's Choices. Faith's Choices. Now the plane. unmistakable teaching of scripture
is that sinners are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and our works don't contribute to that salvation in even the
smallest way. That's the plain, unmistakable
teaching of scripture. I'll nail that down with two
scriptures, Romans three, verse 28. Therefore, we conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Ephesians
2 verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Sinners
are completely passive in this matter of salvation. And by that,
I mean, we don't do anything to earn it. Christ does it all. Christ has done all the work
of salvation and we do none of it and we receive salvation in
Christ by faith. We receive this salvation by
believing on and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we rest
in him because he did it all. The work is perfect. That's why
we rest in him. That's what faith does. Faith
rests in Christ. However, that does not mean that
saving faith does nothing. It doesn't mean that at all.
Faith in Christ acts. Scripture says faith works by
love, by love. That's why James said faith without
works is dead. Faith that does not act upon
the belief in Christ is not saving faith. So this morning, I want
us to see how Moses acted by faith and making three choices.
These are faith's choices. Now, obedience to God is absolutely
necessary. Absolutely. Now, by that, I don't
mean you've got to keep the law in order to earn or to keep your
salvation. Obedience to God is this, believing
Christ. That obedience to God is absolutely
necessary. Nobody will be saved until they
believe Christ and follow him. But here's our problem. We can't
produce that faith. Try as we might, we can't produce
it because we're dead. So God, in His mercy, gives a
gift of faith to His people. And any faith that God gives
will make these same three choices that Moses made. Now let me say
this at the outset, and I'm going to remind us of it throughout
the message. Faith makes these choices. Do you know why? Because it can't do anything
else. Because of the nature of faith. I breathe. You know why? Because of the nature of living
flesh. I can't help it. I do it without
thinking about it and I can't stop it. As long as I have living
flesh, I cannot stop breathing. I can try to hold my breath as
long as I want, but eventually I'm going to breathe because
that's the nature of living flesh. Well, God gives his people faith
in Christ and they believe Christ and they can't not believe him
because that's the nature of saving faith. Faith makes choices. Faith chooses salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I can't choose anything else.
I can't want anything else because of the nature of faith. I want
you to answer this question in your mind. Right now where you
sit, Do you believe God? Do you believe Christ the Savior?
You may not know when you started believing. You can't figure out
why it is that you believe. You weren't struck by lightning.
No magical, mystical, religious experience happened to you. You
don't know when or why, but you know that right now you believe
Christ. You believe He's the only possible
way that you could be saved. And your desire is to be found
in Him. If so, God's given you saving faith because saving faith
can't choose anything else. So here's the first choice. Faith
chooses to be identified with Christ. Verse 24 of Hebrews chapter
11. By faith, Moses, when he has
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now, according to historians,
Pharaoh's daughter was childless. She never became pregnant and
bore a child. Her only son, was Moses. That baby, she fished out of
the Nile. She raised him as her son. And
Moses would have been the next Pharaoh of Egypt. Now you and
I don't understand what that is. We don't understand the wealth
and the power that was going to belong to Moses. He would
have been the richest, most powerful man on earth. But when Moses
was 40 years old, he gave it all up. He turned it back on
him. Scripture says when Moses was
come to years. You know why it says that way? Because this was God's appointed
time. When Moses was come to years. When he arrived at that
point, it was God's appointed time for him. He refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter anymore. At God's set time, he
did that. And at that time, he insisted.
not on being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He insisted
on being called an Israelite, the son of a slave. He chose
that. Moses chose to be identified
with Israel, with the people of God, and not with the Egyptians,
even if it cost him the throne of Egypt. And when Moses did
that, what this is a picture of, Egypt's a picture of the
world, bondage to sin, Moses rejected the way of the world. And the only way anybody can
do that is by faith. Because you can't see a logical
reason to give up the throne of Egypt and all that gold and
all that wealth and all that power to be identified with the
slaves. The only way you can do that
is by faith. And Moses believed God. Moses
believed God's covenant. He believed God's promise to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that he's going to deliver his
people from Israel, from Egypt. Moses believed that. So this
is what Moses knew. This is God's purpose, to deliver
Israel, take them out of Egypt, bring them to the land that God
promised Abraham. Well, Moses knew God don't need his help
in doing it. He doesn't need the help or the
wealth and the power of Egypt to accomplish his purpose. Now
Moses could have thought, you know, I could do more for Israel.
I could do more to help Israel. if I'd sit on the throne of Egypt
like Joseph did, except I'd have more power than Joseph did because
I'd be the Pharaoh. I mean, Joseph at least had to
answer to Pharaoh. I can be the Pharaoh. I don't have to answer
to anybody. I could be more help to Israel on the throne. But
you know what? That was God's will for Joseph.
That wasn't God's will for Moses. So by faith, Moses knew he didn't
need all the wealth and all the power of Egypt to help God deliver
his people from Egypt. Moses knew God was going to do
that all on his own. I'll give you a modern day example.
I have a good friend, a pastor. Pastor's a congregation and at
one time they had two very, very wealthy men in this congregation. And those two men, began to not
like the message that they were hearing, and they tried to throw
their weight around. Get the message changed a little bit.
Let's take the edge off of this thing. Pastor refused. And they came to him, they threatened
to pull out, take their money, take their ball, and go home.
And the pastor said, that's just fine. That's just fine. Now somebody
might think, now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
I mean, we got this building, we got all these expenses. We
need these men and their money. Don't we need them? You know,
actually, we don't. I'll tell you what happened. Those two men left. Giving went
up, not down. God doesn't need strength of
the flesh to accomplish His purpose. God does use means. Please understand
me. God uses means. We ought to faithfully
serve God where He's put us with whatever means God's given us,
with all of our might. We should serve God. God deserves
more than our best, doesn't He? We ought to serve God. But don't
ever be mistaken in thinking God needs you and me, because
He don't. No, He don't. And faith loves it that way. I mean, faith just loves that,
don't you? By God's grace, I choose that.
I mean, I wouldn't want it any other way. That's why Moses rejected
all the worldly power of Egypt. But more importantly, what Moses
was doing by faith, he chose the religion of history over
all the idols of Egypt. Moses chose to willingly worship
and to follow the true and living God and reject all the idols
of Egypt. And that's what saving faith
does. Saving faith always, always chooses salvation by grace, by
sovereign free grace by the choice of God. Faith always chooses
that way. Faith always chooses God's sovereign
electing grace over all the false religions of the world. You know
why? Faith can't choose anything else.
because of the nature of faith. Now this is very important, get
what I'm saying. Our choice does not make salvation effectual
to us, not in the least. Christ's blood does that. Christ's
obedience does that. The power of the Holy Spirit
applying it to our hearts does that. Our faith, our choice does
not make salvation effectual to us. But faith always makes
a choice between this and this. between wrong and right, always. And faith will always choose
salvation by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, in who he is and
what he's done for his people, because faith can't choose anything
else. This is Donald's truth. I would rather be saved by God's
choice, not mine. I really would. I'd rather be
saved by Christ's obedience, not mine. I would rather be saved
by Christ's blood, not any sacrifice that I made. I'd rather be washed
clean in the blood of Christ than clean up my own act. I really
would. If God saved you, you'd say the
same thing because faith can't choose anything else. If that
describes you, God's given you faith in Christ. Now, faith rejects
the way of the world and chooses God's way. That's true spiritually
and it's true naturally. Without a doubt, a believer wants
to reject the sinful, selfish way of this world. The believer
wants to reject the way of the flesh. Now our flesh is always
there hanging on to it, but our desire is to reject the way of
the world. A believer has got to reject
the filthy, sensual way of this world. I hate to sound like an
old man, but I'm telling you it's worse. It's getting worse
and worse and worse. And we just can't put our seal
of approval on that. We can't go around promoting
that by joking about crass, obscene things, whether it's our conversation,
whether it's on social media. When Facebook first came out,
I thought, yeah, this is a really cool thing. Janet can keep up
with all of her family and see pictures of her family around
the world. And now I'm pretty sure it's just one of the greatest
curses this world's ever seen, because it gives everybody a
voice that a million people can hear. That's not good. That's
not good. Some people just ought to keep
their mouth shut. I mean, just, we ought not be joking about
these things. There's so many people. I mean, it's one thing
if you just do it where two or three people work and hear you, but
don't put it out there where everybody's, well, the whole
wide world, we can't do that. We shouldn't be finding pleasure
in the sinful activities of this world. It's like Henry said out
in the honky-tonks and bars and brothels. I mean, we just... A believer don't belong there
now. We can't put our seal of approval on those things. And
I'm not saying don't have fun. Please misunderstand me. The people who have the most
right to enjoy God's creation are those who believe God. I
mean, enjoy having fun. Enjoy being with your family.
Jen and I were just up in Amish country. You know, to reject
the way of the world, you don't have to dress like a Puritan
and, you know, make yourself stand out. I'm not saying that.
But we ought to try to not act like this world. And in doing
so, make you this warning. in trying not to act like this
world. And why would you want to? I
mean, if you got any sense, why would you want to? But in trying
not to act like this world, we better get this straight. That
don't make us any better. No, it does not. We're, Jan,
I was talking to this Amish fellow up there, and he told us, yeah,
he said, we're not any different than anybody else. He said, there's
good people and bad people in every walk of life, every religion.
There's good ones and bad ones. Well, no, there's bad ones everywhere.
We take it with us. We're not making ourselves any
better. Sin's what we are. Brother Henry told us so often,
those who sit under the gospel, you're better off. But you're
not better. We're not better. If we were
better, why would we need grace? Come on. No, we're not any better.
If we're trying to make ourselves more holy, that's not faith. But if we're trying to make ourselves
more holy by what we do, That's not faith. But if we see Christ
as our sanctification, Christ is my holiness. That's the nature
of the God, the nature of faith that wants to follow the Lord.
But this is especially true, this especially applies to the
religion of the world. A believer, someone who knows
Christ, who believes in Your hope of salvation is that
the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself all that he is to redeem you. How can you ever compromise with
false religion? You can't do it. We cannot compromise salvation
by God's electing love alone, by the righteousness of Christ
alone, through the sacrifice of Christ alone, By God, the
Holy Spirit, by His power, applying it to our hearts. There can be
no compromise with that, none. There can be no retreat from
that. And if that's your attitude,
let me tell you, but you already know that's gonna cause problems
with this world. It's gonna cause problems with
the flesh, the world you carry around with you, and it's gonna
cause problems in the world around you. But faith chooses to be
identified with Christ. even after it counts the cost.
Look here at verse 25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Now Moses chose this. He chose
to suffer affliction. Verse 26 says he chose reproach. He chose that. He chose to be
afflicted. He chose reproach rather than
enjoying being with the in crowd. My faith, Moses, chose affliction
and reproach rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Now the pleasures of sin, that does not primarily refer to all
the carnal pleasures of this flesh. What we normally think
of is sin. The pleasures of sin, It's false religion. False religion promotes self,
self-righteousness. Doing something to please an
idol, doing something to think, oh, God's going to be more happy
with me than somebody else. Nothing makes the flesh feel
better than that. Nothing. I mean, what we think
of, like Brother Henry said, the honky-tonks. You can go out
there all you want. You're going to learn pretty quick. Waking
up in the morning with a hangover, that ain't too fun. That's not
what it's talking about. Those things make the flesh feel
bad eventually. This is talking about what makes
the flesh feel so good. Self-righteousness. It's doing
religious things that make this flesh feel good. And faith rejects
it every time. You hear false religion. and
that just makes your skin crawl. That's God-given faith. You just
hate that. You just don't want to hear that.
You know why? That's God-given faith because
faith rejects religion, making the flesh feel good, and will
always trust Christ alone without my works adding to it. That's
faith. Now that message and the truth
of faith humbles the flesh. And it ought to be humbled, shouldn't
it? To know that I can't do anything to make myself feel good, to
make myself better, that'll humble the flesh. But God-given faith
will choose to have the flesh humbled every time. God-given faith will tell the
preacher, thank you for telling me again what a rotten, dead
sinner I am. It offends my flesh, but thank
you for telling me, because that makes me look devised. Faith
will choose that every time. Faith in Christ will always involve
denial of self. Now, that includes self-satisfaction. It includes self-promotion to
try to promote myself above the brethren. Faith will reject that.
Faith will reject selfish ways at the expense of hurting others.
But self-denial mostly means this, the denying of self-righteousness,
the denying of thinking that anything I do makes me better
in the sight of God. Faith denies that every time. Now, the world in which we live
can't understand that. As a matter of fact, they hate
it. They hate hearing this message that humbles the flesh. And they'll
hate you for believing it. And the world will afflict you
And they'll make it hard on you if they can. Just like the Egyptians
did to Israel. And you know, we live in a day
where people are not going to pull you out of your house and
beat you in the yard or take your belongings from you because
you're a Christian, you know. But your flesh will afflict you
every step of the way if God's given you a new nature. The world
will afflict you. But saving faith will choose
Christ anyway. because the pleasures of self-righteousness,
they're just gonna last for a very, very, very short time. But salvation
in Christ is eternal. And the world will reproach anyone
who rejects their ways of religion, their ways that they've concocted
to save a sinner. And that word reproach means
to mock and insult. And oh, we want, just this flesh
tries to avoid that, don't we? Nobody likes that. But they'll
say, you don't believe that election stuff, do you? You can't believe
this predestination stuff, can you? Yeah, by God's grace, I
do. I mean, it's all I got. And they'll
say, well, OK, but you believe man's got free will, surely,
don't you? No, I don't. By God's grace, I don't. And
I'm thankful, because I know this. If it was left to my choice,
I'd go to hell. I would. Well, they said, now,
well, you, you just don't, you, I know you believe Christ died
to give everybody a chance. I mean, God was, would give somebody,
he could give everybody a chance, didn't he? No, no, by God's grace,
I don't believe that. And I'll tell you what, I'm glad
God didn't leave it to chance. I don't need a chance. I need
a savior who's going to do it all and save me against my will
with my full consent. That's what I need. If that's
not my savior, I'm going to hell. Well, now, no, wait a minute.
You surely don't think God saves whom he will. He gives us a chance
to decide, don't you? No, no. By God's grace? No, I
don't believe that. Well, now, wait a minute. OK,
salvation is by grace, but you've got to believe that God will
be more happy with me if I do all this religious stuff. No.
No, I don't. By God's grace, I don't. The
only way God's going to be happy with me is in Christ. And that's
all I want. by God's grace. Faith will choose
that every time. Every time. Faith is scared to
death that God will see me as I am outside of Christ. Faith
desires that God will see me as I am in Christ. God's made me in Him. Faith will
choose that every time. And faith will just not be deterred.
by what the world thinks about salvation in Christ. Because
I cannot believe salvation is possible any other way. Because
that's the nature of faith. And this is just something, as
Sandy used to say, you get for free. This is something you get
for free. But it's very, very encouraging. As far as we read, this will
encourage you parents and you who teach, you listen to this
now. As far as we read, The only thing Moses knew about God is
what his mother taught him when he was a little fellow before
Pharaoh's daughter took him to the palace. What she taught him as a small
child, God used. And I would encourage our parents
as strongly as I possibly can. Don't ever sell your small children
short. Don't ever sell them short. You
require them to be in the worship service. You require them to
be in these Bible classes. We got the best teachers I've
ever seen anywhere. If I had a small child, I mean,
unless they were sick or we were on vacation, I'd have them in
there. Lord blessed Timothy that way, didn't he? I remember being
a little fellow going to conferences. And you children, boy, you just
don't understand the way the world's changed. We used to have
Bible conferences that lasted six days. In the morning, every
morning, three preachers in the morning. And these guys weren't
afraid to preach about an hour and 15 minutes. And then you
had two more. And then you go home and you
have some lunch. You know what you do then? You come back for
two more in the evening. Two more fellows, they ain't
afraid to preach for an hour. You know what? I thought, I thought
I was going to die in those services. And I never did. Never did. And I go to the Sunday school
class. And I come home. And you know what my parents
would do? They'd make me tell them why I had to listen, because
they're going to grill me later. I'd go to Bible school and Sandy'd
give you a list of questions you had to answer for you to
get out of the room. She expected us to listen. God used those seeds playing
that small boy. to give faith in Christ that
was undeterred. God hadn't changed. Could be
he would do the same for us. Could be. All right, I'm sorry. I got off my soapbox there. Here's the second choice. Faith
chooses Christ over the riches of the world. Verse 26. Esteeming
the reproach of Christ, greater riches and treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Now Moses, like
I said a minute ago, refused more material wealth than we
can even imagine. The wealth of Pharaoh would make
Bill Gates look like a pauper. It really would. And Moses chose
Christ over all those storehouses of gold. And I'll tell you why. Faith has a different accounting
system. Faith has a different way of
attaching value to different things. Now believe me, I'm not
denying the value of money. I'm not denying it at all. We
need to buy the things we need to live in this world. A believer
needs food and clothes and housing just like an unbeliever does
and it costs just the same. I'm not denying that at all.
God's people will go out and work for those things. They will.
God gives them a work ethic. They don't expect to be given
something for nothing. And they'll go out and they'll work and they'll
earn it. I'll tell you another thing that hasn't changed from
Adam until today. You're going to earn your living by the sweat
of your brow. And God's people aren't afraid to do it. But there
are many, many people who are out there working, aren't there?
Many people out there working. You go work with them. Clock
in, 7.30, 8 o'clock, whatever, same time as the rest of them
do. But there's one difference. Faith knows there's something
more valuable than money. There's something more valuable
than accumulating the things of this earth, and it's Christ. And faith, we've got to work
now. We've got to work. We've got
to make a living. I understand that. But faith will not sacrifice
being in the worship service to get more stuff for this life.
Faith will not choose to take a job in some place where I can't
hear the gospel. And faith will not teach our
children by our example. You know, you can tell your children,
oh, now, you know, the worship is the most important thing that
we can do. And yet you're, you know, you're, you're never in
the worship service because you're trying to go out and get a bigger
retirement account. They see your example. They get it. Like
I told you a minute ago, don't sell your small children short.
They get it. Faith says this is what's most
important. It's worship. It's worshiping
God. It's hearing the gospel preach.
It's being with his people. But now these riches the writer's
talking about here is some a whole lot bigger than financial riches.
He primarily means religious riches that are gained by being
with the majority in false religion. The false Fool's gold. That false religion promises
you by what you can earn, by all your good works for God.
See, the primary meaning of these riches is the fool's gold of
false religion that promises you do this for God and God will
bless you. You do this for God, God will
give you more friends. You do this for God, God will
give you a bigger bank account. You do this for God, God will
bless your children. That's fool's gold. Fool's gold. To rest in a righteousness and
a holiness and an acceptance with God based upon my works
and faith will reject fool's gold every time. Because the
fool's gold of our works is just going to last for a season. In
one day, in one moment, in the day of judgment, it will all
be wiped out. But salvation in Christ is eternal. See, there are things I need
in this world. There are things you've got to have in this world.
You've got to go out and work and buy things. After the kids
left, and you know, Janet kind of hates the emptiness, but I'll
tell you one thing we found, life's cheaper with them gone.
I mean, I can't, I just am shocked the money it took to raise children.
We've got to have those things. By all means, don't give your
children what they need. I should have said that. But
faith says, I know I have these things. Christ is the one thing
I must have. I must have it. So he comes first. Don't be confused by this reward
business that he's talking about here. The proper respect or value
of this reward is the reward of Christ. This is not speaking
of a reward we earn by what we do. This is the reward of grace. Not what we've earned from God,
the wages of sin. What we've earned is death. We
don't want that. This is the reward of grace,
where God gives us everything that Christ earned for his people. And the Father gives it to us
freely. And faith knows there's nothing better than that. There's
nothing better than what God gives me freely. And faith chooses
the reproach of Christ over the riches of this world, over the
religious of false, the fool's gold of false religion. The reproach,
reproach for Christ's sake, being mocked and made fun of for Christ's
sake is more valuable than all the fool's gold false religion
can offer you. If you look at First Peter chapter
one, I'll show you that. Faith doesn't just choose, faith
rejoices in reproach for Christ's sake. 1 Peter 3. Verse 14. But, and if you suffer
for righteousness sake, happy are you and be not afraid of
their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and with fear. Rejoice in that if you suffer
for righteousness sake. Somebody asks you, how do you
think God saves sinners? Do you tell them and they mock
you and make fun of you for that? Peter says rejoice. Happy are
you that you're counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake.
Look over the next page, 1 Peter 4 verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened to you. Don't sit around and wonder,
why did this happen to me? Why are they doing this to me? Peter says,
rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ's suffering, that when
his glory should be revealed, he may be glad also with exceeding
joy. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy are you. For the spirit of glory and the
spirit of God resteth upon you. On their part, he's evil spoken
of, but on your part, he's glorified. If you'll turn back to Acts chapter
5, the passage that we read open the surface, Peter knew exactly
what he was talking about. He's not telling us to do something
that he wouldn't do. He's telling us what he knew
by experience. Acts chapter 5 verse 40. This is after Gamaliel told him,
boys, leave these fellows alone. If this is of God, you can't
overthrow it. And if it's not God, they'll go away on their
own. Verse 40 says, and to him, they agreed. And when they called
the apostles and they beaten them, they beat them with rods.
They beat them with whips. They commanded that they should
not speak in the name of Jesus. And they finally let them go.
And they didn't go out crying and saying, oh, woe is me. Look,
look how they beat me. Look what they've done to me.
Look what I had to suffer. They departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame. for the name of Christ, for his
name. And daily, they didn't quit, daily in the temple and
in every house, they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus
Christ. You know why? Because faith only can't do it
any other way. Faith counts what's valuable
is Christ. All the riches of this world
can't compare. Well, lastly, faith chooses him
who is invisible. Hebrews 11 verse 27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seeing him
who is invisible. Now saving faith is not choosing
the right doctrine. Honestly, I can't remember not
knowing the right doctrine. Really, I can't. I can remember
being lost. So saving faith is not choosing
the right doctrine. Saving faith is not choosing
the right form. of religion. Saving faith always has to do
with a person. It's the person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he is invisible to the natural
eye. The natural man, no matter how
hard he tries, he cannot see because God, the invisible spirit
can only be seen with the eye of faith. And Moses rejected
Egypt. He rejected everything that he
could see with the natural eye, because by faith, Moses saw something
better. He saw Christ. Moses saw Christ
in the burning bush. The burning bush, you know what
Moses saw? Moses saw the self-existent one. That fire didn't need the
wood to keep burning, did it? It was self-existent. That's
who Moses saw. Moses saw Christ in the plagues.
Brother Edmondson told us last Sunday, God made a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. He delivered Israel from those
plagues by the choice of God. Moses saw that. Moses saw Christ
in the Passover land. He saw, he saw ahead, he saw
salvation. The Lord said, Moses wrote of
me. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ, our Passover slain for us as
our substitute. Moses saw Christ in the law and
the ceremony. He didn't see a bunch of rules
and regulations people are supposed to keep. He saw Christ as the
fulfillment of those things. As we've been looking in Matthew
chapter five in our class, he saw the true meaning of the law.
It's looked to Christ who fulfilled it. Moses saw Christ in the tabernacle. He saw the God man. He saw God
and man in one, that incorruptible wood and gold all throughout
the tabernacle. He saw Christ as God's holiness
in the white linen. He saw Christ as the one door,
the one way to God. He saw Christ as the one light.
He saw Christ as the one sacrifice. He saw Christ as the one mercy
seat. The only place God can meet with you and me in peace
is in Christ, the mercy seat. By faith, Moses saw that. Moses
saw Christ in the smitten rock. He saw how spiritual life flows
from Christ who is smitten by the rod of God's justice. Saving
faith sees Christ everywhere because it sees Christ is all
in salvation. That's invisible to the natural
man, but it's visible to the eye of faith. That brings me
to the last thing I want us to see today. I want to leave you
with this absolute utter assurance. We don't have to produce that
kind of faith. I'm afraid always of leaving somebody with that
impression, because if I got to produce this kind of faith,
I'm going to go home and just cry all day. I mean, what good
news is there in this? Salvation is by grace. God gives this faith to his people
freely. And even though we're imperfect,
our faith is so imperfect. It's Christ who saves. It's not
the strength of our faith that saves now. It's Christ who saves. I want you to look at Exodus
chapter 2. The writer here to the Hebrews says Moses was not
afraid of the king. Moses was not afraid because
by faith he saw the king of kings and the Lord of lords. By faith
Moses saw the real power. So he wasn't afraid of this pipsqueak
man. But I want you to look at Exodus chapter 2, beginning in
verse 11. And it came to pass in those
days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren
and looked upon their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting
in Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that
way. And when he saw there was no man, he slew the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second
day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said
to them that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And
he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest
thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared
and said, surely this thing is known. And when Pharaoh heard
this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the
face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat
down by a well, and that's where he met his future wife. Now,
the writer to the Hebrews said Moses wasn't afraid. Sure sounds
like to me Moses was afraid when he left Egypt, doesn't he? I
mean, he's left looking over his shoulder all the time thinking
they're gonna come get me. Then why does the writer to the
Hebrews say Moses wasn't afraid? Because here in the Old Testament
account, we have the picture of Moses represented as he is
under the law. He's afraid. In the New Testament
account, We have a picture, a representative of Moses as he is in Christ. And he's perfect. He's not afraid. His faith is perfect. See, salvation
is by grace, through faith, not of yourselves, lest any man should
boast. It's the gift of God. It's a good thing we don't have
to produce this faith in it. Good thing. I'm glad it's the
gift of God. I'm so glad God gives it. And
here's another way faith is not inactive. Now, I said to open
the message, we're sinners, completely passive in this thing of salvation. God does all the saving, but
I tell you what you can do. Face a gift of God. You can beg
him to give it to you. You can be like that woman, the
importunity that kept knocking on the door, that unjust judge.
You can keep knocking. You can keep calling. You can
keep begging. He'll give it eventually. You keep calling. You keep calling
for mercy. You keep being like blind Bartimaeus.
Don't anybody shut you up. Don't let your own flesh shut
you up. You keep calling. God will have mercy. He has mercy
on whom he will. And if you're begging, it's because
God put it in his bag, now you beg. And he'll have mercy. And
you'll find just like Moses did, I'm full of fear. My faith is
so weak it's not even worthy of the name. But in Christ, I'm
perfect. No spot, no blemish, and faith
wouldn't have it any other way. Faith will always choose to be
identified with Christ, not in Adam, not in our works. Faith
will always choose the riches of God's grace, not the poverty
of my works. And faith will always choose
Him that is invisible, because only the eye of faith sees. Oh,
I pray God will give every one of us this faith that we leave
here this morning. Let's bow in prayer. Father, how can we even begin to thank
you for the gift of your son, the gift of salvation in him,
the gift of faith that you give, that sees Christ and lays hold
upon him. I feel like we just ought to
put our hand over our mouth and sit in silence before you in
awe and thanksgiving for such a Savior, Father Franklin. We humbly pray that you bless
your word as it's been preached this morning. Bless it. Cause
it to bring much glory to your name. Bless it to the hearts
of your people. You give the gift of faith through
preaching. Father, would you give that gift
to someone here this morning that didn't have it when they
came? Would you increase our faith? Would you increase our
faith, our rest, our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ? Father,
we ask this great blessing for your glory. Would you get glory
to your name in saving and keeping, feeding and comforting your people
here in this It's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for His glory, we pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing. 327, 327. do do Roll for a faith that will not
shrink, Though pressed by many a foe, That will not tremble
on the brink of iniquity. That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chastening rod. But in the hour of grief or pain upon this God. A faith that shines more bright
and clear when tempest breaks. That when in danger, knows no
fear, In darkness feels no doubt. Lord, give me such a faith as
this, And then what e'er may come, I'll taste thee now the
hallowed bliss of an eternal home.