Good morning, everybody. It's
good to see you. It really is. We're going to
turn over to Exodus chapter 1. Exodus 1. Jamie couldn't be here this morning,
but she sends her love and her regards. She says hi to everybody.
And we're going to take our text from Exodus 2, the first 10 verses
this morning. That's the early years of Moses,
childlike years. I want to see how we got there.
What's the backstory before we get up to chapter 2? You got
to start in chapter 1. So in chapter 1, look down at
verse 8. Verse 8 says, Now there arose
up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. Now about 210
years passes between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses. A lot of pharaohs pass within
that time. And finally one rises up, a new
one, And he doesn't know Joseph. And that doesn't mean he doesn't
know the story of Joseph. He probably does. He was the deliverer of
Egypt for his time. He doesn't care. He doesn't care
who Joseph is. What he does care about and what
he sees is that Joseph's descendants, the Hebrews, the children of
Israel, they are very mighty in the land. And they are multiplying. And even by Pharaoh's own admission,
he says, these people are mightier, they're bigger than we are. And
he gets scared. He says, what these people are going to do
is they'll align themselves with our enemies, and they'll come
and they'll conquer us. We can't let that happen. So he devises
some schemes. Turns out to be three of them,
right? And as one scheme fails, he moves on to the next, and
he moves on to the next. That's how it works. And the first scheme is
this. He says, we're going to put them under hard bondage and
hard labor. We're going to make them slaves.
We'll set taskmasters over them. We'll make them hard burdens.
We'll afflict them. And that way they'll know we've got our
thumb on them. We're more powerful. They won't mount an uprising.
Look down at verse 12, let's see how that worked for him.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and
grew. And they were grieved because
of the children of Israel. He afflicted them, he put them
in bondage, and they thrived. That's what happened. I think
it's interesting, though, that word grew is there. The more
they were afflicted, the more they grew. I have an interest
in growing, don't you? I have an interest in growing
in grace and the knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I have an interest in growing in meekness and patience and
temperance and forgiveness and brotherly kindness, growing in
faith and reliance upon him and dependence upon him. All those
gifts of the Holy Spirit. You know, we look at the things
of this world, cars, houses, things like that, say that's
riches. That's not riches. These are riches right here.
I want all those riches. You're a believer, you want to
grow. When did they grow? Was it when everything was smooth
sailing, it was all downhill, comfortable times? When they
were afflicted, they grew. Keep that in mind next time we're
in the midst of that trial. The Lord puts us in that fire
and brings us to that place to where we have no control. We
see it all over again. I can't change my circumstances.
I can't even change my attitude toward my circumstances. Lord,
if you don't come down and do something for me, I'm helpless,
I'm hopeless, I'm lost. And once again, happens every
time he delivers. And he whispers to us again,
I am your salvation. And what do you do? Grow. When they were afflicted, they
grew. Gives us a different perspective on those times of trial, doesn't
it? But back to Pharaoh, he says hard bondage, that's what we're
going to try first, right? It fails. The more he afflicted
them, the more they grew. He's got another scheme. Look
at 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 you shall kill him. But if it be a daughter,
then you shall live. Now this is a scheme of subtlety
right here. And so he goes to the midwives that are servicing
the Hebrew women. He says, all right, when you're delivering
these babies, if it's a boy, kill it. If it's a girl, let
it live. And his thought process is, we'll
hit it two ways. We'll kill off all the males,
and we'll take their daughters to be our wives, and we'll breed
them out, and we'll kill them off. And the nice thing about
this is, no one will know this is Pharaoh's decree. Everybody
will just think they all died in childbirth. So he's using
subtlety here. But it doesn't work. It says the midwives feared
God they would not do this thing that Pharaoh commanded them to
do. He is thwarted once again. And finally, he's had enough.
He's done with subtlety. He's done with lesser means.
Look down at verse 22. This is the final proclamation.
And Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born,
you shall cast into the river and every daughter you shall
save alive. This is the commandment. Every
son, everybody, they all go into the river. Either they will ground
or the crocodiles will eat them. One of the two, whichever one
happens first, I don't care. But everybody has to go. Everybody
has to go through the river. And you look at this threefold
scheme that Pharaoh comes up with. It describes the complete
and total depravity of the natural man perfectly. What did he say? He said, kill him at birth. How is a man born into this world?
Dead in trespasses and sins. He cannot believe God. He cannot
repent. He cannot keep the law. He cannot
do that which is good in the sight of God. He cannot do that
which is pleasing. He cannot, he is dead in trespasses and
sins. He said, put him under hard bondage and hard labors.
How is a man born in this world? Slave to a law he can't keep.
Enslaved to a sinful nature that he cannot escape. He can't stop
sinning. It's in everything he does and
everything he says and everything he thinks. In hard bondage. And finally this, there's a command.
And the command is, they all got to go through the river.
They all got to die. That soul that sinneth, it shall die. The
perfect and holy law of God demands punishment for sin. He's a just
and holy God. He cannot let sin go unpunished. That's a horrible state for these
Hebrews to find themselves in, isn't it? And this is the state
of every natural man born in this world. This is a horrible
state for us to find ourselves in. What do these people need?
What do these Hebrews need? They need a deliverer. Someone who
will take them out of this death and out of this bondage and lead
them on out of all this. What does a sinner need? He needs
a deliverer. He needs Christ to deliver him from sin and death
and hell and all those things. And in chapter two here, these
early years of Moses, it tells both those stories. It tells
the story of Moses, the deliverer of Egypt. very powerful type
of Christ here. Christ, the Deliverer of His
elect. Now, here's how I want to do it. We're going to read
the first 10 verses, make some comments so we can get our bearings
in the story. And we'll go back and pray the Lord would show
us the Gospel significance of this. He'd show us Christ in
all this. So chapter 2 verse 1 it says,
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter
of Levi. Now these are Moses' parents,
Amram is his daddy, and Jacobet, his mother. They're Levites,
the tribal Levites. So Moses is a Levite. Verse 2, and the
woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him, that he
was a goodly child, she hid him three months. Now this is Moses.
She has Moses. She looks down and she says,
he's beautiful. He's goodly in my sight. And she decides, I'm
not sending him to the river. I'm going to hide him. I'm going
to see if we can get away with it. And I bet she's not alone
in this. I bet a lot of Hebrew women did this. How long are
you going to hide him? You make it three months. Okay.
He's getting older. He's getting louder. He's getting
bigger. Let's say you make it a year. Let's say you make it
five years. Let's say you make it 10 years.
How long are you going to hide him? How long are you going to
live in that fear that he steps out in the light of day and he's
exposed? He goes to the river. He can't do it forever. Eventually
he's exposed. So Jacob says, the commandment
is you got to go to the river and to the river you're going.
Look at verse three. And when she could not 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 break. She says, you're going
to the river. The commandment is you got to go to the river,
but I made a provision for you. She made an ark. reeds twisted
together, waterproofed with pitch and slime. She daubed it on there
and she encapsulated Moses in that ark and she set it in the
river according to the commandment. And she did the hardest thing
I bet a mother has ever done. She let go and she walked away, trusting
the good providence and will of God and that ark to keep him
safe. That sounds like faith to me.
We're going to see that here in just a minute. Now, look at this,
Q. Miriam, look at verse 4, and
his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him.
She stands off because she doesn't fully understand. She's standing
afar off, she's just watching him, just looking to Moses this
whole time. She doesn't truly understand,
she has some concept but she doesn't truly understand. She's
just watching intently and keeping her eyes on him. Look what happens,
verse 5, 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 ark among
the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And 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, she knows exactly what's going on here. She knows
her father's commandment. They all got to go to the river.
She said, this is clearly a Hebrew child. Clearly, his mother loves
him. Clearly, she's made this ark,
this provision for him. look at this she didn't have
to she had compassion on him, pitied him, spared him. Now,
cue Miriam again and she is clearly a very savvy 13 year old girl. Went down at verse 7, Then said
his sister, Miriam, 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, It's amazing. So all of a sudden, Miriam sees
the opportunity. She says, Pharaoh's daughter
has Moses. She's having compassion on him.
So she just slides up there and says, ma'am, I see that you have
a Hebrew baby there. It just so happens I know a good
wet nurse. Would you be interested in me
getting her? Pharaoh's daughter said, yeah, why don't you go
get her? And she goes to her mama. Pharaoh's daughter has Moses. She's adopting
him. She's had compassion on him.
She needs a wet nurse. Get up there. Get it, right?
let's look at what happens. Verse 9, this is Pharaoh's daughter
speaking to Moses' mom. 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. Now, this is purely my opinion.
It doesn't say this expressly in the scripture here, so take
this for what it's worth. I don't think Pharaoh's daughter is duped
in this at all. I don't think she's had the wool pulled over
her eyes. I think she knows exactly what's going on here. She sees
this girl standing off and looking at this baby in this ark the
entire time. She picks up the ark and the baby, and all of
a sudden, this little girl comes up. And lo and behold, this girl
that seemingly has no connection to this child, although she's
very interested in him, she just happens to know a good wet nurse.
She brings the wet nurse down, and all of a sudden, lo and behold,
just about the right age to be the child's mother. And she's
real eager to be that wet nurse. I think she knows exactly what's
going on here. This is all part of her compassion. You see, things
are going to be much better at the end than they were in the
beginning. Everything's going to be restored.
He's still going to be with his family. He's still going to be raised
by his mom. But it's going to be so much better than when it
began. When you normally think of Moses
in the scripture, and you think of his type, what do you think
of? The law. I think all of us think,
naturally, of the law, for good reason. Several times in the
New Testament, he's referred to as the law. In the Old Testament,
he is literally given God's holy law on Mount Sinai. That all
makes sense. And he is a great type of the
law, but this is his greatest type of the law. It's in his
inability. It's what Moses can't do. What couldn't he do? He couldn't
bring the children of Israel into the promised land. Only
Joshua could do that. Joshua, the Savior, Joshua, that
Old Testament word for Jesus. Only Joshua could bring them
into the promised land. Moses couldn't do it. You can't
save yourself by the law. Listen to Romans 8.3. This is
the first couple of words. It says, for what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh. What's the weakness of
the law? Nothing. For its purpose is absolutely
perfect. God's holy law is beautiful.
It declares the righteousness of God. It's not a mechanism
of salvation. It does one thing, only one thing. It declares what it sees. That's
it. It looks at a man outside of
Christ, guilty, sinner. Punish. That's all it does. Looks
at a man in Christ. Righteous. Holy. Accept him. God's law demands it. All it
does is expose sin. Just simply expose what is in
there. It's not a mechanism of salvation in any way. The weakness
of the law, not in its ability to save, it doesn't do that.
It's our inability to keep it. There's none righteous. No, not
one. Nobody can keep the law. The
law will do us absolutely no good. This is what it says in
John 1, 17. It says, for the law was given by Moses, that
one who couldn't deliver. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. What's the truth? The truth is
you can't save yourself by law, by the dos and the don'ts of
the law. I do this, therefore God must reward me with this.
No, it's complete fallacy. You can't save yourself by the
law. The truth is this. Christ and His grace. That's the only way a man can
be saved. The only way a man can be saved is if God in His
graciousness before the foundation of the world chose that man and
said, I'm going to be gracious to him. Christ is going to be
his surety. My son will do everything necessary.
He chooses him. He does everything necessary
to make that man perfect before him and he draws him out back
toward him. What's the truth? We're all shut
up to grace. Grace. My favorite part of the
whole thing is grace is only exclusively for the chief of
sinners. That's the best part of the whole
thing. Now, he's a great type of the law most of the time,
right? But in this story right here he's a beautiful type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can pick up in the first
verse, we can see that. Look at chapter 2 verse 1 again.
It says, And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took
to wife a daughter of Levi. So Moses is of the tribe of Levi,
right? Say, Aaron, you're off to a rocky
start here because the Lord Jesus Christ is of the tribe of Judah.
So where are you going with this? Well, hear me out. Who came out
of the Levites? What were they used for? Priests. That's it. The Levitical priesthood
right there. But what happened to all those
Levitical priests? You see any of them around nowadays? They
existed for a very brief time in history. When that Old Testament
economy of worship was going on, they existed as a type and
a picture and a shadow of Messiah, who is the great high priest
of the elect, that one who makes effective intercession for his
people. They were just types and shadows,
but they did not abide forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
priest after the order of Melchizedek, that priest that abides forever. He stands as the surety and the
effective intercessor for his elect, and he does that forever.
want to know something about the person of Jesus Christ very
briefly we can look at this Melchizedek. Go over to Hebrews 7 for just
a minute. Y'all remember the story on this.
Abraham returns from the slaughter of the kings and he's met by
Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. He meets him with
wine and bread and Abraham gives him a tenth of all the spoils.
This man Abraham, the patriarch, he paid homage unto Melchizedek.
Melchizedek, a great type of Christ here. Look here, Hebrews
7, 1. It said, For this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, Abraham returning
from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. He's the priest
of the Most High God. This is important. To have an
effective priest for God's people, an effective intercessory, an
effective mediator of God's people, his origin had to be of God. Not that he just came from God,
but that he is God. That's Jesus Christ. the second
person of the Blessed Trinity, equal with the Father because
he himself actually is God. This great high priest, he had
to be of God. He had to be God, but he had
to be something else too. He had to be a man. Only a man
could be the savior of men. Jesus Christ, the God-man. God
condescending down, made in human flesh. So much man that this
is true. Hebrews 4.15 says, For we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. So much man that he knows our
woes. So much man that he is touched with the feelings of
our infirmities just being flesh. But he did it in a way that none
of us have ever done before. He did it without sin. Never had
a sinful thought. never took a sinful action, never
had a sinful motive. God became flesh, altogether
God, yet altogether man. Touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. That's how much man he actually is. And yet completely
and utterly without sin. And for him to be the effective
mediator, to ransom his people back to God, he had to do it
in a certain way. 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
the order there. King of what first? Righteousness. King of what next? Peace. How
could the father have anything to do with us? How could he truly
look at us in peace? He's a holy and a just God who
can't do anything to punish sin. First, the Lord Jesus Christ,
our effective intercessor, He made all His people righteous.
Truly righteous. This is not a pasted on righteousness.
This is not a righteousness in just name only. God sees everything. He only judges what is there
and what is truly there. He made all His people righteous forever.
And then after righteousness, then came peace. But righteousness
first, through His death on the cross. And look at this, verse
three. speaks of Christ, 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, without descent." You know what that
means? Eternal. It means He had no point of origin. The Lord
Jesus Christ never began. He will never end. We can't wrap
our minds around that. It doesn't make any sense to
us. We began, we end. That's the way it is. He has
always been He doesn't have a point of origin. He is, in fact, the
origin of all things. Everything comes from Him. He
is before all things, and by Him all things consist. You know
what that makes Him? That makes Him sovereign. If He made all things by His
own will and His own power, that means He rules and reigns over
that which He made. He didn't begin. Everything began
in Him. And I love this. He abideth a priest continually. I'll look that word up, continually.
I like this. Continually doesn't just mean it doesn't begin, it
doesn't end, right? What it means is it is constant.
It means it is perpetual. It is always ongoing. And that
is very important to me for this reason. I say with David, my
sin is ever before me. What he means by that is it's
ever constant. It is perpetual. It's in everything
I think and in everything I do and every motive I have. I can't
escape it. My sin is over and over and over. And the only thing
that is more constant in my sin is this. It's his effective priesthood
that makes intercession for me. And one day we're going to put
down this sinful nature. We won't even remember what it's like
to be a sinner, but his intercession will never stop. He will always
stand as our surety. He will always be making effective
intercession unto his father because of his scars. It never
ends. I think this is interesting,
too. We were talking about the concept of him being eternal, right? Hard for us to get our mind around.
What goes along with that is this. That means everything he
has ever purposed, he has always already done and is currently. With Jesus Christ there is no
time. Everything He's ever purposed always has been. About 2,000
years ago God was manifest in the flesh. And you know what?
There's always been a man in glory, Christ Jesus. Always been. Revelations 13, 8 says He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He died on the
cross bearing the sins of His people some 2,000 years ago.
It was long before that. It's always been. the elect our
salvation is eternal. He has always been our safe harbor,
always been our atonement before God. Always. We can't mess this
up. It never could have been messed
up because He is in fact eternal. He has that eternal power. Now,
go back to your text. Look at verse 2. Exodus 2 verse 2, And the woman
conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him that he
was a good goodly child. She hid him three months. Jacobette
looks down, she says, he's beautiful to me. God looked down upon his
son and said, he's beautiful to me. I think it's interesting,
she hides him three months. When you read through the Gospels,
you know what's suspiciously absent? Really hardly any mention
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life up to the age of 30. We
get stories about his birth, a little time after that. There's
one story for when he was 12 years old. But until the time
that he begins his public ministry at age 30, largely obscure. We just don't know anything about
it. What's going on during that time? God was raising his son. Now, I know he had earthly parents.
He had Mary and Joseph. Who raised him? God the Father
raised him. And I love that. I think there's
something so sweet about that, that it's obscure from scripture.
It's as if God the Father is saying, this was my time with
my son. You don't get to know anything about that. And I bow to that.
I absolutely love that. But that whole time he looked
upon him and he said, he's beautiful. Beautiful. And in what way? Well,
I remember David in 1 Samuel 16, when he's anointed king,
he's a great type of Christ. He's described three ways. And
this is the same way the father looked at his son while he was
raising him. He said he was ruddy. And what that means is earthy
from the earth, a God man. Father looked down upon him.
He became flesh. for these people to ransom my
people back to me. Look at him. He became flesh.
He condescended down here. He was beautiful of a beautiful
countenance. He looked at his son and he said,
he's holy and he's righteous and he's perfectly just. He's
never done anything wrong. He's incapable of doing that
which is wrong of a completely pure, beautiful countenance.
And the last thing it says about David there is he was goodly
to look to. And that's exactly what the father
did. He looked to his goodly son. We trust Christ, but somebody
trusted Christ long before we ever did. His father did. He
gave him his people in that covenant of grace before the world ever
began. And he gave them to him and he says, you're going to
save them. You're going to do everything that is necessary
for me to receive them. My hands are off. It's all in
your hands. I'm looking to you. Just as Jochebed
put Moses in that basket and put him in the river and she
let go. The Father put his people in Christ. He let go. It's on
your shoulders. It's on you. And what the perfect
person to trust, because he cannot fail and he cannot lie. The Father
put all his trust in Christ. He's goodly to look to. The Father
goodly looked to him. For a sinner, he's goodly to
look to. Listen to this. I want you to
listen to scripture. I saw this with new eyes. Isaiah 45, 22
says, look unto me and be ye saved. the ends of the earth For I am
God and there is none else I have skipped over that all the ends
of the earth every single time I've ever read that you know
what it means It means those who are as far off as they can
possibly be Those who are as far from God as they can possibly
be are bad of a sinner as you can possibly be. Can't even take
one step toward God and His righteousness and His holiness and His perfect
sense of justice. Can't do anything as far off the ends of the earth
as bad as they can possibly be. You are commanded, look to me. Look to Christ. And he says this,
and be ye saved. That's commandment right there.
And we have a good example of that, an illustration of that
in our text. Look down at verse 5. It says, and the daughter of
Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. When we read that,
did anyone wonder what is a princess doing bathing in a dirty old
river? It seems odd, doesn't it? She's got a palace. She has
as many servants as you could possibly want. They've got baths.
She can have a bath drawn for her any time. What's she doing
down there at the river with the common people? She can't
get clean in the palace. She had to come down. Folks,
you can't get clean in the palace. The palace of self-righteousness,
the palace of our own works, come down from all that. Come
down. The way up is down. Come down to where the poor people
bathe, right there in the river. And I find it very interesting.
That's exactly where she found the deliverer. When she came down, she found
that deliverer in that basket. And the better way of saying
this, if the deliverer ever finds you, if he ever reveals himself
to you, this is what we do. We come down. We come down from
all those lofty thoughts, down from those palaces, down as the
chief of sinners were made to look unto him. He's goodly to
look to for a sinner. Now look at verse three. The
type changes here. Moses becomes us, his people.
That ark is now Christ. 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. What did she do? She took that which was precious
to her, and she committed it to that ark. She put it in the
ark, and she trusted that ark to keep it safe. That's exactly
what God the Father did with his people. He committed it,
he took that which was precious to him, committed it to that
which was most precious to him, his son, and put them in there
for safe keeping." And notice the construction of the ark there. It was daubed with pitch and
slime. Waterproofing material, kind
of like asphalt, tar, right? What's the purpose of that? That
water. They all have to go through the
river, that river of death. That water, that death, it could
never touch Moses inside there because of that pitch and that
slime. You know what daub means? It literally means befouled,
soiled, besmeared. 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. Father took the sins
of his people. He besmeared Christ with it,
made him our sin. He went through the river. suffered
under the wrath of God, putting away all the sin of God's people. And then we come out the other
side in Him, compassion. That's it. We all got to go through
the river, folks. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Everybody's got to be punished.
The only question is, am I going to be punished in and of myself?
Have I already been punished in Christ? You know, that's the
theme of the entire scripture. Salvation is found in one place.
It's in Christ Jesus. That's it. Chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. given to Christ in the covenant
of grace, placed in Christ in this world so much so that everything
he's done, I've done. He died. He suffered under the
wrath of God and he died. He was punished. I was too, in
him. But that pitch keeps that wrath
from touching me. It touched him so it doesn't touch me. made
the very righteousness of God in him." This great transfer
that everything he's done, I've done. Everything I did, he paid
for. It's all over. Let me ask you this, do you understand
these things? Truly, do you understand these
things? Eternal union. Things happening before the foundation
of the world. God being made sin. Me being made the righteousness
of God in him. So much so that's real. Don't
think for a second this is a show, a magic trick. That's real. Do
you fully understand these things? I don't. And that's the way it's
supposed to be. Look at verse four. And his sister stood afar off
to wit what would be done to him. She didn't understand, not
fully. She just sat back afar off and
she looked at Moses. That's it. And folks, that's
what we do. We believe these things. Everything this book
says, I believe wholeheartedly. It's the word of God. Do I understand
it completely? No. stand afar off and look to
Him. Lord, however you did it, whatever
you said in your word, that's the truth. I believe you. I take
ye at your word. These are mysterious things.
These are wonderful things. I'm so happy that we have illustrations
like this, though. We get some better understanding of it. Now, what we just talked about was
justification. Here's the effects of justification. Look over at
verse five. daughter of Pharaoh came down
to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along
by the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags,
she sent her maid to fetch it. And 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. She
had compassion on him because Christ justified us in himself
because he went to the cross putting away our sins that we
have made the very righteousness of God in him. Now, the father
looks at all his people with compassion and pity and he spares
them. That's what the word means, to
spare. And he does it because it does no damage to his just
and holy character because we truly are the righteousness of
God in Christ. Isn't that beautiful? And I noticed
something here. Do you notice where it says there
that she opened it? The Ark, she opened it. You know
what that means? It means that Moses was completely and utterly
encapsulated in that Ark. You couldn't see him. When she
saw that Ark float in the water, she couldn't see Moses. All she
could see was that Ark. If you're a believer, when the
Father looks at you, you know what he sees? He sees Christ. He sees the Ark. Jesus. That's real. That's why it's
written down there. Isn't that amazing? Because He justified
us, we're fetched. The Holy Spirit comes in time
with fetching grace. And the illustration couldn't
be more perfect here. Obviously it's perfect because
it's the Word of God, but it couldn't be more perfect. Is Moses looking for
Pharaoh's daughter? Moses is three months old. Moses
doesn't know there's a Pharaoh. He doesn't know he has a daughter.
He's not looking for anything. He's a nothing. He doesn't have
any faculties. He's just floating out in this river with absolutely
no control whatsoever. He's not looking for a person,
but she saw him. He saw him in that ark. She said,
go fetch him, bring him to me. That's how the Lord works right
there. That's how he gives us life, calls us by the gospel,
gives us life in Christ Jesus. And you know what happens when
you have life? You cry. Notice the order, very important.
He didn't cry and then she fetched him. She fetched him and he cried. Isaiah 65, 24, this is one of
my favorite scriptures. And it shall come to pass that
before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. God be merciful to me, the sinner. It's what the publican cried
out. do you do that? Because God had already been
merciful to him, the sinner. That's why. Now look at how it
ends. Look at verse 9, 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." Things end so much better than when they began,
didn't it? In the beginning, she was hiding him. Imagine the
terror that mother felt. Just waiting for those Egyptian
guards to come by and hear him cry. Every day, he can't step
out in the light. He can't be exposed. As soon
as he is, he's got to go into the river. And exposure is absolute. It's absolutely going to happen.
It's just a matter of time. You imagine the anxiety and the paranoia
you would live with. He couldn't step out into the
light of day. They just had to hide him. Now, he's been shown
compassion. He's been spared. He can stand
out in the light of day, that sun shining on him, no fear of
the river whatsoever. He's already been through it.
That's what we have in Christ. We can stand in the light of
God's holy law, his perfect sense of justice. He looks us over.
He sees nothing but the ark. He sees nothing but Christ. And
we can walk around in the light of day, the friend of God in
Christ Jesus. Before, in the beginning, he
was born a slave. His parents were slaves. He was
born a slave. Now, he's literally the grandson
of the king. In a very short amount of time,
he has changed position very rapidly. Before he was in complete
and utter bondage, now he's free. Think of the privileges he had
because of this, the education he had because of this. We're
sons of the King, entitled to every privilege that the Lord
Jesus Christ has because we're in Him. And finally this, as
if it couldn't get any better, the best Jochebed could have
hoped for was this. He's spared and I get him back,
right? That's the best she possibly
ever could have hoped for, right? Pharaoh's daughter says, not
only are you going to get to raise him, right? She's going to be his
nurse. She's going to raise him, right? You're going to get to
keep your family, right? Not only this, I'm going to pay you
to do it. You get wages now, right? Imagine that. We did absolutely nothing during
this salvation. All Christ, everything he did,
and yet we receive all the benefits. Benefits of sonship, acceptance
with God, We have it all. We receive wages, even glory,
folks. And we did absolutely nothing
to earn it. Isn't that amazing? I'm going
to read you this in closing. Y'all familiar with Hebrews 11?
Hall of Faith, right? Moses' parents are mentioned
in Hebrews 11. They're actually mentioned in
the Hall of Faith, and it's part of this story. So I'll read this
to you. This is Hebrews 11, 23. It says, 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." He's talking about this story and said what Moses'
parents did is an act of faith. It's a type of true saving faith. What did his mom do? I've probably
said it three or four times now. She committed him to that ark,
that which was most precious to her. She committed that ark.
She put it in the river, and she let go, and she turned around,
and she walked away, and she trusted that ark to keep him
safe. Now, folks, that's faith. Paul says, I know whom I believed,
and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. I speak solely to sinners
right now, solely, as far off as you can possibly be. You are
commanded right now. Commit the entirety of your soul
to Jesus Christ. The entirety of your salvation
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have this promise, this promise. He came and he saved sinners. You've already been through the
river. Trust him. Been a pleasure to be with you
this morning.