In Hebrews 11 verse 17, By faith
Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that
God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence
also he received him in a figure. Now the old Jews talk about ten
great trials of Abraham. We don't know much about the
first 75 years of Abraham's life when he lived in idolatry. He
may have lived a very plush, pleasant life. But we do know
a lot about his life after he was 75. Abraham was 75 years
old. The Lord called him and told
him to get out of your father's house. Go to a land that I'll
show you. And from that time on, Abraham knew trial and trouble. They talk about ten great trials
of Abraham. He was called to leave his father's
house. And he did. He obeyed God and went to a land
that God would show him. And he came to that land that
God promised him. Then he had to leave it. There
was a famine in the land. He had to go down and sojourn
in Egypt. He came back and he had to fight a group of kings
who had taken his nephew Lot prisoner. We looked at last week. King Abimelech took Sarah, Abraham's
wife. because Abraham told him she's
my sister. A lot of times we bring trials on ourselves, don't
we? Abraham had to part ways with his nephew Lot that he loved.
He had to part ways with him and gave Lot the choice of land. Lot took the best land and Abraham
had to go up into the mountains. He interceded for Sodom, watched
it be destroyed as Lot and his family were rescued. He had to
send his son Ishmael, their handmaid, Ishmael's mother, Hagar, away.
Hard, hard trials. Abraham is known for having great
faith. We call him the father of the
faithful. And we'd like to have faith as strong as Abraham's
faith would. Everybody would. I'd like to
have faith that strong. But look at the trials that it
took to produce that kind of faith. Abraham went through hard
trials. And in each of those trials,
he trusted in the Lord to provide. Now, when Abraham's an old man,
His last, the last of the ten great trials, and the hardest
one by far. God commands Abraham to take
his son Isaac and kill him. Offer him as a burnt offering
to the Lord. Look at that in Genesis 22. In
Genesis 22, verse 1. And it came to pass after these
things, after all the trials and things that Abraham had gone
through, that God did tempt Abraham. And it said unto him, Abraham,
and he said, Behold, here I am. And God said, Take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. Now the Lord told
Abraham, Your only Son. The Son of your joy. The Son
of your old age. The Son that you love as much
as your own soul. You take Him and you offer Him
as a burnt offering. Now, Isaac at this point, you
know, from children's storybooks, we see him as a little boy. Isaac
was a grown man in his mid-thirties. He'd had a long time to develop
a relationship with his father. Long time for that love to grow
deep. And Abraham took him. He obeyed. And he walked for
three days thinking about what he was going to have to do. When
he got there, what Abraham was going to have to do was take
that son that he loved. He couldn't take him by force.
He was going to have to sit down and tell him. He was going to
have to look him in the eye and tell him what he was going to
do, what the Lord commanded him to do. He was going to have to
tell Isaac. Isaac's going to have to agree
to this matter. He's going to have to tell him. He's going
to have to bind that young man that he loves on an altar. He's
going to have to slit his throat and watch the blood drain out
until he's dead. He's going to have to take that
body that he loves and cut it in pieces. He's going to have
to quarter it. Put those pieces on the altar and watch it burn. Now that's a hard trial by anybody's
estimation. But he obeyed. And if Abraham's anything like
me, there had to be a lot of questions come to mind. He had,
God told him in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Look back if
you're still in Genesis, Genesis 21, verse 12. Here's where the Lord told Abraham
to send Ishmael, Hagar, away. And God said unto Abraham, now
let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and
because of thy bondwoman. And all that Sarah said unto
thee, Sarah told him, the son of the free woman is not going
to live with the son of the bondwoman. May you send her away. And it's
in all that Sarah said unto thee, hearken unto her voice. For in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman
will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. But in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. And Abraham, if he's like me,
he wondered, I'm sure, how are my descendants going to come
from Isaac if I kill him? How is it that the Messiah is
going to come through Isaac If he's dead, if Isaac is dead,
it would seem to human rationale that all God's purpose of grace,
all God's purpose of salvation in Christ is going to be cut
off. If Isaac's killed, those thoughts would naturally run
through a person's head. But to Abraham's credit, he never
once out loud questioned God. Abraham's scripture says obeyed.
Because we talked about this last week. Faith doesn't ask
what, or why, or how. Faith is concerned with whom. Whom I have believed. And even
when faith, even when we don't understand, faith obeys. And that's what Abraham did.
And we have questions. We have situations, you know,
like what Abraham's going through. Faith has the answer. Now, here's
faith's answer. Who have you believed? Who is
it that you believe? Well, if you believe God, here's
faith's answer. God's holy. God's just. He'll only do what's right. He
won't do what's wrong. You believe God who's sovereign. Now, He's sovereign over every
minute detail in His creation. He's sovereign in heaven and
earth. He does whatsoever He pleases. He's sovereign. Something's
not out of His control. And because he's sovereign, God's
purpose of salvation will never fail. None of God's purposes
will fail, but now his purpose of salvation will never fail.
And that's what Abraham believed. He knew who he believed. He knew
that even when he offered Isaac, Abraham believed God would raise
him from the dead. He'd already come from a dead
womb. Sarah's womb had been dead a long time. He'd already come
forth from a dead womb. Abraham believed God would do
that again. And actually, Abraham did offer Isaac on that altar.
Now, he didn't have to actually physically do those things, but
he determined in his heart to do it. In Abraham's heart, it
was as good as done. Henry said in his outline, something
we've heard thousands of times, the issues of faith and life
are settled in the heart. And in Abraham's heart, he killed
that young man. And when they left those servants,
they got to the mountain, Abraham and Isaac left the servants at
the bottom of the mountain. Abraham said, we're going to
go yonder and worship. There is no doubt in his mind when
he got to the top of that mountain, he's going to kill his son. But
when Isaac didn't die, Abraham received Isaac with as much joy,
as much amazement, as much wonder as if God actually had raised
him from the dead. And we know why he didn't die.
The reason Isaac didn't die is there was a substitute. That
ram, caught in a thicket, fights horns. And he took Isaac off
that altar. And they put that ram on the
altar. And you can imagine the two of them, the father and the
son, the old man and the young man, watching that ram's body
burn. I'm confident of this. As long
as they lived, those two men never forgot the lesson of faith
in a substitute. They never forgot it. How could
they? He believed God. And Isaac believed God too. Look
in verse 20 back in our text in Hebrews 11. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning things to come. Now at the end of Isaac's
life, his wife Rebecca and one of his boys Jacob tricked Isaac
into thinking that Jacob was Esau. They covered him with dirt
to make him smell like the dirt of the field where Esau was covered
him with hair of an animal to trick Isaac into thinking Jacob
was Esau. And Isaac gave the blessing of
the firstborn to Jacob, who was the secondborn, the youngest.
The blessing that was meant, in Isaac's mind, to go to Esau
went to Jacob. Now he ended up giving a different
blessing to Esau, but the blessing of the firstborn, the birthright,
went to Jacob because Isaac was deceived. And those blessings
he gave those two boys came to pass. Now Isaac, by faith, believing
God, he blessed Jacob and Esau. Even though he was deceived,
he did it by faith. Now let me ask you, was his faith
in vain because he was deceived and his purpose of giving the
birthright to Esau didn't happen? Was his faith in vain? No, sir. His faith wasn't in his purpose. Isaac's faith wasn't in his purpose.
Isaac's faith was in God. And here's when a person has
faith in the Lord. You believe God, you believe
that God's purpose is going to be accomplished even when you
don't see how it can happen. He believed God. Now he intended
that blessing to go to Jacob. But God told Rebecca when those
boys were in her womb, Jacob have I loved. The elder is going
to serve the younger. Well, how's that going to happen?
How is that possible? Isaac's not going for this. He's
going to give the birthright to Esau still. After all these
years, he still intends to give the birthright to Esau. Just
leave that to the Lord. He'll take care of those details. Now, he always will, according
to his purpose. And that's what faith believes,
that his purpose is going to be accomplished. Even when I
don't understand, I don't understand the route that he's taking to
accomplish his purpose, I believe that his purpose will be accomplished.
Now, verse 21, now it comes time for Jacob to bless his sons. By faith, Jacob, when he was
a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning
upon the top of his staff. Now, the patriarchs of the Old
Testament, they gave the blessing to their sons and their When
that patriarch was in his last days and it started to become
obvious he would soon die. Now years and years had passed. A lot of waters had gone under
the bridge since Jacob was blessed by his father. Now it's time
for him to give the blessing to his sons and his grandsons.
And it came time for him to bless the sons of Joseph. Joseph gathered
his two boys. He put the So he put the oldest
in his left hand, and he put the youngest in his right hand.
So when he brought him to his father, the oldest would be on
Jacob's right and the youngest on his left. But Jacob crossed his hands and
put his right hand, the hand of the greater blessing, on the
youngest. And Joseph, going to correct
the whole thing, he says, no, father, not so. The Scripture
says Jacob guided his hands wittingly. He said, no. He told Joseph,
I know what I'm doing now. You just step back. He did that
by faith. The Spirit led him to do that
for whatever reason. And he blessed those boys. And the blessing came to pass
just like he said it would. And as you look at these things,
you see over and over and over again in Scripture, several times
in our lessons today, The Lord seldom works the way that we
think he should. He seldom works the way that
makes sense to us. Now, just very seldom. We would bless the oldest, the
biggest, the strongest, the one that appears the smartest to
us. That's why we do things. We wouldn't choose a small sunburnt
shepherd boy to be king. We'd choose one of them big strong
brothers who stood head and shoulders above everybody else. We'd choose
the fellow that looked like the warrior. Not the little scrawny
one. Not the run of the litter. That's not who we'd choose to
be king. If we had an army like Gideon, and we're going to go
fight a battle, we'd be recruiting extra soldiers. Not sending a
bunch home. The Lord does not work the way,
most times, that makes sense to us. And faith We'll just rest
in that. Just believe God. This thing
is not out of His control. I told, this might be a silly
example, but I told Jancis Sweet several years ago, I told her,
I just thought our next pastor would be John Chapman. I just,
I just, that's what I wanted to be, you know. Well, here we
are. It wasn't in a situation I thought
it would be. But the Lord works according
to His purpose, His plan, His will. And even when it doesn't
make sense to us, faith just believes. And that's the way
Jacob was. Because I love this. You see
this at the end of verse 21? Let me find it here. And he worshipped. And here he
is at the end of his life, worshipped. Leaning upon the top of the staff.
You read through the life story of Jacob. Life's journey had
brought Jacob a long way. I mean, he'd made a lot of mistakes. Jacob was far from a perfect
man. But he loved the Lord, and the Lord loved him. And he died
like he lived, worshiping God. He died like he lived. Even to
the end, his faith believed God. And that's the way I want to
be. I don't know how long that will be until I get to that point.
But that's the way I want it to be. That's the way every believer
wants it to be. Don't you? It's the end of my
life. I've watched them. I've watched
these believers. I've grown up watching them. It's a blessing to die in the
Lord. Here he is at the end of life.
Too weak to stand. He's just practically bedridden. But he got up and leaned on that
bedpost and worshiped the Lord. Oh, that's a blessing. Well,
verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was
born, was hid three months of his parents. I'm sorry, verse
22, I skipped a verse, verse 22. By faith, Joseph, when he
died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones. Now, Joseph had gone down
to Egypt as a slave. You know the story. He prospered
till he became second in command in Egypt, the second most powerful
man in the world. And then as time progressed,
he brought his family down to Egypt with him and they prospered.
And when Joseph died, things were looking good for Israel.
Pharaoh had given them the best part of the land to live in.
They were prospering. Things were going well. But Joseph
knew one day they're going to leave that place. Now, why did
he know that? Faith. Faith. He remembered God's
promise to Abraham that his seed would live in Canaan. And he
knew, because of God's promise, that seed of Abraham that was
prospering in Egypt now, one day, would go to that promised
land. Because of God's promise, he
believed God. So Joseph gave commandment that
when you boys do leave Egypt, you take my bones with you. Don't
leave me here. You take me with you. What's
left of me. Joseph chose to lie with his
fathers. He chose to lie with his people.
He chose to lie with the people of God rather than to lie as
royalty in Egypt. And that was an honor to lie
as royalty in Egypt. Maybe they were building him
a pyramid or something. Who knows? They say Joseph was buried in
the Valley of the Kings where all the big pyramids are. That's
where they buried Joseph. They gave him a place of high
honor. And that's where he stayed until Moses went and took his
bones and took them with him to Canaan. always chooses the Lord over
the world. And that's what we see here in
verse 23 of Moses. Moses made the same choice. By
faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents
because they saw he was a proper child. And they were not afraid
of the King's commandment. Now, when Moses was born, Israel,
as a people, were growing. The population was growing. And
it got to be that it was too much for the comfort of the Egyptians. They said, they're going to outnumber
us. You know, we've got to do something here. So Pharaoh called
the midwives in and he said, now whenever there's a Hebrew
baby born, it's a boy, you kill it. If it's a girl, you let it
live. But if it's a boy, you kill it. Well, they wouldn't
do it. So eventually he said, well, he just gave commandment
to all the parents. If there's a Hebrew baby born,
you kill it. And what they were hoping for is that they did that.
Well, eventually there'd be no more Hebrews. Well, I don't know
what the punishment would be if you didn't kill that baby.
Apparently some of the Hebrew babies were killed. Many of the
parents apparently feared Pharaoh. Moses' parents didn't. It says
here they did not fear the king. Why didn't they fear him? Faith. They believed God. One of the
writers this week I read said this. Faith is the great preservative
against the fear of men. If you believe God, if you fear
God, you're not going to fear men. And they didn't fear the
king. Somehow, they knew this baby was special. He's a proper
child. Maybe they thought he's even
going to be the deliverer of Israel. So they risked their
own lives to hide that baby. They hid him for nine months.
Then after the end of nine months, the mother figured she couldn't
hide him anymore. She made a basket. She thatched it. She put that
baby in that basket. Hit him in the water among the
bulrushes. And right that moment, Pharaoh's daughter came down
there to bathe. Right to that exact spot she heard that baby
cry. She sent one of her servants and found that baby. She fell
in love with him. He's a beautiful child. She took
him home to be her son. And then she found Moses' mother
and hired her to be his nursemaid. And Pharaoh Raised that boy that
He gave commandment to kill. He raised that boy as His own. Think of that. Pharaoh fed Him. Pharaoh clothed Him. He educated
Him with the finest tutors. Taught Him the best there was
of math, engineering, science. Taught Him all about warfare.
Taught Moses to be a leader of men. God used Pharaoh to raise
that boy He would be the deliverer of Israel and bring Egypt to
its knees. Pharaoh raised him. Think of
that! That's God's purpose. That's not how we'd have done
it, but that's what God did. God would use even His enemies
to accomplish His purpose. Now verse 24, 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."
Now Moses grew up as Pharaoh's grandson. He's 40 years old. And all the historians say Moses
was going to be the next Pharaoh. Now the movie we see of the Ten
Commandments kind of shows it as there was a rival and they
didn't know who would be Pharaoh. But the historians say there
was no other children. Pharaoh didn't have a son. His
daughter never had any other children. Moses was it. Moses was going to be the Pharaoh
of Egypt, the most powerful man in the world. And at that time,
he abdicated the throne before he ever took it. He refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter anymore. Rather than
be Pharaoh, Moses chose to associate himself and live as a slave. There's a difference, isn't there?
Why on earth would someone choose to be a slave rather than sit
on the throne of Egypt? The only reason is faith. He
believed God. By faith, Moses saw God was with
Israel. That's where God's presence was
and that's where he was going to be because that's where God's
presence was. He saw that God's mercy, God's
grace, God's salvation, His presence was with Israel. And that's a
whole lot more valuable and precious than the throne in Egypt. Look
back at Psalm 84. David said the exact same thing. In Psalm 84, verse 10. For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of my God. In the margin, it says there,
I would choose rather to just sit at the threshold of the house
of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. By faith,
Moses forsook the throne of Egypt. By faith, Moses saw it was better,
it was a better station to be the servant of God than to be
Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world. He saw by faith
it was better to be called the son of Abraham, the son of faith,
a son of God, than to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter. By
faith, Moses saw that the promises of God and the Word of God is
more valuable than all the gold of Egypt. Look over at Psalm
119. Psalm 119, verse 72. God's Word is much more valuable
than gold and silver. Verse 72, the law of thy mouth,
the Word, God's Word, is better unto me than thousands of gold
and silver. Now, only faith can see that.
Only faith can see suffering affliction with God's people
is more valuable, more precious than earthly riches. Moses wasn't
looking with human eyes at all the gold of Egypt. You think
of all the gold and riches of Egypt. Instead, he looked at
the value of God's Word. The value of God's promise. The
value of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the reward of every believer. He looked at the value of eternal
life in Christ. Now how valuable is that reward? I looked recently Someone tried
to get me to sell my GI Joes I had when I was a kid. They're
not worth a plug nickel. I played hard with them. But
I looked online to see what these things are worth. And a group
of GI Joes that looked pretty similar to mine, a few more of
them, that lot of those things is selling for $2,500. I guess
that's the value of those because that's what somebody is willing
to pay for them. What's the value? of the believer's
reward. What did it cost to buy it? It
cost the blood of God Almighty. That's a valuable reward. The
gold of Egypt can't compare to that. And there was a bunch of
gold in Egypt. Those pharaohs were so wealthy.
But where's all that gold now? What good is it doing anybody
now? It's either been looted and melted
down to use for something else or it's in a museum somewhere
where nobody has you know, really any real access to it. You can
go gawk at it, but it's of no value to anybody anymore. Salvation is eternal. It's valuable eternally. And
I say this to our young people. The pleasures of sin, Scripture
says, is for a season. A season, just a short time.
So short. And I'll tell you the truth.
The pain of those things will catch up to you. In this life,
the pain of those things will catch up to you. A lot of them
will catch up to you the next morning. Now they will. You think it's
fun now, late in the morning. It ain't going to be fun. They'll
catch up to you in this life. And they'll be absolutely just
rubbish in eternity. This is eternal. Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. And quickly, let me give you
this. I thought of this. Why not? Why wouldn't Moses,
when he is making the decision not to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter anymore, why wouldn't he just wait just a bit and become
Pharaoh? Then he could use all of his
power to set Israel free, couldn't he? He could end the oppression.
He could set everything right. He could put the Egyptians in
their place and put the Israelites all in the positions of power
and authority and honor. Why wouldn't he? Joseph used
his power to help Israel, didn't he? He fed them, he protected
them, he brought them to Egypt, he gave them the best of the
land, he prevented them from starving. That's what Joseph
did with his power. Why couldn't Moses do the same
thing? As a matter of fact, Moses tried that. He went out one day
and he saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite, and Moses killed
that fellow. And he thought, well, I'm going
to deliver him by the power of my might and my influence and
my authority. He is a miserable failure. He found out those Israelites
didn't want his help. He went out and saw two Israelites
fighting the next day, and he is going to mediate this thing.
They said, what are you going to do? Are you going to kill
us too? We don't want your help. Who good are you? God doesn't do things according
to men's logic. He doesn't do. The Lord's going
to use Moses to set Israel free, but he's going to do it in a
way that the Lord gets all the glory, not Moses. And the Lord
stuck that educated, wealthy man on the backside of a mountain
for 40 years to watch sheep. He didn't have anybody to talk
to but sheep for 40 years. When Moses went there, he was
one of the most educated men on the earth. I'm sure he was
very eloquent. I mean, he'd been raised to be
Pharaoh. He spent so much time with nobody
to talk to. When the Lord told him, go tell
Pharaoh, let my people go, I can't talk? I forgot how! I've just
been talking to sheep. He was so humbled, he had all
the starch taken out of him. There was no more of this, I'm
going to go set these people free with my power. Now he's
ready for the Lord to use him when all the starch is taken
out of him. When he sees, I'm nothing. Now the Lord's ready to use him.
And Moses went back to Egypt by faith and led those people
out. And he did it by faith. You know
how I know he did it by faith? What did he take with him? A
shepherd's rod. He went to the most powerful
army on the face of the planet with a shepherd's rod. Set those
people free. When the United States goes to
fight a very inferior army, we spend billions of dollars amassing
an army like nobody's ever seen. Moses took a shepherd's rod.
and set those people free. That's faith, isn't it? All right. Well, I hope the Lord
bless them.