Faith For Every Season

Would you take your Bibles? Turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 and I'll be reading verses 23 through 28. by faith moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict by faith moses when he was grown up refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of god than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin he considered the reproach of christ greater wealth than the treasures of egypt for he was looking to the reward by faith he left egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would help us as we give ourselves to your word, to your voice as you speak to us through this word. Lord, many are fatigued this morning. We're tired. we have many distractions that just come intruding during the holiday season i pray that today you would help us by your grace and by your spirit to give full attention to the to the word of god we pray for that grace that would strengthen us to that end lord god we are thankful for the fact that your word can tell us in detail what we ought to be and who we ought to trust.

We're thankful that it is filled with all that we need in order to serve you today. Thank you now for your sufficient word. Help us now as we give ourselves to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Here we are on the threshold of a new year on the day that the new year begins. What should we consider on a day like this?

What should be our meditations? What should we look at? I would suggest that a good topic for us as we look into the new year is living by faith. Now frankly, we have no idea what the new year is going to bring. We don't. None of us do.

We stand at this day every year not knowing what's going to happen. It could be an easy year. It could be a prosperous year for us for which we should give thanks. It could also be a very difficult year where Christians maybe lose more freedoms than we're used to. And it may be that it will be a year where we face more, Christians face more marginalization as what we believe becomes more and more unacceptable to the world around us.

Whatever comes, whatever comes, we need a faith that does not give up or give in to the pressure of avoiding pain by abandoning Jesus. Now remember why our writer in this great chapter on faith, why he concentrates on faith. It's because we face pressure to abandon Jesus, to abandon our profession of faith in him. because following Jesus will always cost you.

Following Jesus, let me say that again, following Jesus will always cost you something. And so there's this temptation to abandon Jesus to avoid the pain of following him, the pain of being unacceptable to the people who really matter in society, or even the pain of becoming unacceptable to our family or unacceptable to our friends. The pain of ridicule or even imprisonment.

The pain of persecution. There's always that temptation to abandon Jesus to avoid the pain. Now, you can't produce such perseverance on your own. It's not a matter of gritting it, of gritting it out. I'm going to be strong enough in order to persevere. Rather, you will persevere if you believe in the person and the promises of God.

We must be filled with the promises of God and give ourselves to believing those promises and the person of God. These are the things we're assured of, the things we hope for, that we're sure of them, the things that we're convinced of, even though we haven't seen them yet. But God has promised them. and that is what produces the perseverance that our writer is trying to help us to see in order to persevere in the difficult times in order not to abandon Jesus we must think of his promises we must make those promises part of our lives and we must believe those promises and when it comes by living by faith there's no greater example than Moses and so he turns our attention to this great forefather in the faith Moses as we see in our text today.

Let me read it again as we go over it. Verse 23, by faith Moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses when he was growing up refused to, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them Here you find a man who believed God at every important juncture of his life. A man who believed God in every season of his life.

Faith at his birth, faith when he was grown up, faith when he fled Egypt, faith at the Passover. those four markers are given to us and they're given to us so that God will communicate to us some truths that we need to know today it's not just about Moses in fact it's it's primarily about you what does Moses tell you about living by faith what does Moses tell you about endurance what does he teach us what does God want us to know well here's the first thing verse 23, your faith must face hostile authority. Your faith must face hostile authority. Of course, you see here the faith of Moses' parents.

He's not old enough to be exercised faith, but he begins in a household of faith. This is the faith of Moses' parents. Now you remember the story. The Egyptians are becoming more and more afraid of the Hebrews, this nation within their nation, who are proliferating and getting great in number. And you remember the story that the pharaoh said, first of all, to the Hebrew midwives, you need to kill all the male babies.

Well, of course, they didn't do it. And so he issued an edict to all Egyptians that said, you see a Hebrew male, you throw him in the Nile. Leave the girls alone. But any Hebrew male baby that you see, throw him in the Nile. Well, what do we read of his parents? We read it this morning.

They hid him for three months. And then you remember the rest of the story. What did they do? His mother puts him in that waterproof basket and puts him what? On the Nile. And who should discover him but the daughter of Pharaoh himself.

There is the providence of God. We talked about providence in Sunday school today. There is God accomplishing his purpose through some means that you would never imagine. now also consider the fact that at this point Satan is trying to destroy the promised seed he's trying to destroy the promised seed that was given to Eve in the Garden of Eden and that was promised through Abraham to be a blessing to all the nations Satan is busy seeking to destroy the seed hence the edict to kill all the male Hebrew children trying to destroy the seed And how did Moses' parents respond?

They disobeyed Pharaoh by protecting their child. They did not fear the penalty that might come upon them on account of their defiance. They were living by faith. Now, where does faith come in here? Where does faith come in? It's possible that they understood the promise of the seed.

In fact, I'm sure they did. This is now 400 years after Abraham. and they have talked about this covenant with God. Now, what we have to see here is that Israel is the promised seed. Israel is going to bring blessing to all the nations. At this point, Israel is the promised seed. And they knew that.

Now, of course, that promised seed of Israel culminates in a person called Jesus. We know that from this side of Calvary. But here is the promised seed. and they knew those promises and so they did what was consistent with that promise they sought to protect the baby and there was no guarantee there was no guarantee that their son would survive but they still believed God they still believed in the promise that he had made to their fathers now they might also and I believe more to the point they may also have acted fearlessly because they saw Pharaoh promoting evil and they trusted God to care for them and their boy as they responded with righteous actions.

They faced hostile authority with righteous actions. They defied that authority by faith. Now God calls you to exercise the same kind of faith. You may face authorities that seek to enforce evil. now listen that may happen that may happen in fact it's more than on the horizon is happening you know in some states in some states if you're a nurse you are required to assist in abortions even if you say my conscience won't allow it my faith won't allow it there's a lot of there's states now that say we don't care about conscience provisions any longer.

It doesn't count. And you may be faced, and people like this, you may be faced with a situation from civil authorities where to give in, as in this case these nurses, to give in might mean the loss of your livelihood. It might mean the loss of all the benefits that you get. But will you trust God to take care of you? right will you trust God will you be faithful to Jesus and trust God it may come from an employer your employer requires you to fudge the records in some fashion so and and so you don't invite inspection but you won't do it since you're a disciple of Jesus and he requires honesty from his disciples.

Will you give in or will you trust? Just like Moses' parents faced a hostile authority. They did not give in. They acted by faith. The question is, will you resist the pressure to avoid the pain of following Jesus Will you resist the pressure by believing his promises Again let me emphasize with you it not just a matter of resisting the pressure It resisting the pressure not in your strength It's resisting the pressure by remembering the promises.

Remembering what God has said. Do you believe His promises? By that you will be able to endure. He goes on, in verses 24 through 26, Your faith must choose mistreatment. Now I want you to note carefully that I did not say face mistreatment. I said you choose mistreatment.

By faith you choose mistreatment. That's what Moses did. Moses exercised his faith when he was grown up. Our writer puts it that way in verse 24. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the daughter of Pharaoh. Let's turn back to Exodus chapter 2 again.

Let's continue reading. We'll start in verse 11. Watch what it says here. One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together, and he said to the man in the wrong, Why do you strike your companion?

He answered, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely the thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well. Now notice that term there. when he had grown up.

When you look at the writer to the Hebrews, our writer says that Moses exercised faith when he had grown up. There's a connection. He's talking about this particular story. He's using the same words. Alright? When he had grown up, Moses chose mistreatment.

At this point, Moses took the step of identifying with his Hebrew kinsmen and renouncing his position in the royal family. You've got to understand what Moses is doing here. Consider the fact that Moses was part of the reigning elite. He was in the most powerful family in the world at that time. Egypt ruled over a vast empire at this time, and Moses was part of the royal family.

He had all the perks and the privileges that belong to this powerful family in the world at that time. Any comfort, any pleasure was his whenever he desired it. But he chose instead to identify with the slaves. Do you see this? I think sometimes we get so used to these stories we don't see the depth of them. Here is a guy who's part of the most powerful family in the entire world with all the perks, all the power, all the privileges that come with that.

And what does he do? He chooses to identify with slaves. He goes from the top to the bottom. By the way, does that remind you of somebody? It should. And by so identifying himself with his kinsmen, he chose mistreatment with God's people rather than the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Well, you say, what kind of mistreatment? Oh, things like back-breaking labor and whippings and social isolation, not to mention persecution, that sort of thing. And the pleasures of sin that are fleeting, what are those pleasures? Well, right off the top, avoiding the pain of whippings and back-breaking labor and isolation and persecution. Just avoiding all of that altogether.

Right? And do I really need to enumerate all the pleasures that are available to the rich and the powerful. Do I need to enumerate? Those were all his. No pain, all pleasure. Right?

He could avoid the pain that came by identifying with the people of God. He could have avoided all that. But he chose it. He chose mistreatment at that point. The moment he got involved, he identified with his people, and he had renounced everything that he had. Now remember what the readers of this epistle are experiencing.

Do you remember what the writer says in chapter 10, verses 32 and 33? Remember what he said to them? You endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometime what? Being partners with those so treated. like Moses they were identifying with people who were being mistreated and thus would be subject to mistreatment they're facing the same thing that Moses did and here's the question will you choose mistreatment with your brothers and sisters when the crunch comes you know abandoning Jesus you know what it also means it's turning your back on your brothers and sisters if you're going to be identified with Christians, a portion of us may come under intense persecution.

To be identified as one of them would be to invite that kind of mistreatment. Will you do that? Will you, by faith, choose to be mistreated? He says to that to these people, remember how it was when you first entered persecution, you were partners with those who were being mistreated. Well, where does faith come in here where does faith come in he chose mistreatment over pleasure why notice because he was looking to a future reward do you see that he considered the reproach of verse 26 he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward.

He chose mistreatment over pleasure because he was looking for future reward. This is what he hoped for because of what God promised. And he was sure of it because of God's faithfulness. He had not seen it yet, but he was convinced God would deliver. That's the definition of faith we see in verses 1 and 2. You see it played out right here with Moses.

He's looking for this treasure. He believes it's going to be his. And because of that, he had the ability to evaluate reproach in the proper way. Because he was looking to that reward, he was able to evaluate what reproach was. And because of that future reward, he was able to evaluate earthly treasure. He was able to evaluate those two things.

Earthly treasure and pleasure or mistreatment. He could make a proper evaluation of that by means of looking forward to that reward. With God's future reward in mind, you can see the reproach of christ is more valuable do you notice what it says notice what it says in verse 26 he considered the reproach of christ greater wealth the reproach is greater wealth than the treasures of egypt for he was looking to the reward by the way you remember what our writer has told us in chapter 10 therefore do not throw away your confidence which has a greater reward we're in the same place as moses he points you to moses who had such confidence who kept that reward in mind and so here he is he's he understands there's a future reward and he sees the reproach of christ more valuable than avoiding the pain of faithfulness and gaining the pleasure by abandoning what he knew was right if you look to the future reward you will be able to see the reproach of Christ is more valuable than gaining the pleasure that comes by abandoning Jesus.

Now there's one little thing here that may catch our attention. He says the reproach of Christ, where is Jesus in this story? I don't see him. That's a good question. Always remember this, that identifying with God's people will bring suffering. It will inevitably bring suffering.

You're following Jesus. There's always a cost. Identifying with his people will also cost you. And any time you bear reproach and suffering for your faith, you share in the reproach and the sufferings of Jesus. All of God's people, all of those who have come to Christ are in Christ. They are so united to him that there is this mutual sharing of our sufferings.

Okay? he although it's not clear from the old testament in the new testament we know that all those folks who lived by faith belong to jesus do you remember the story of paul on his way to damascus and he is stopped by jesus in the road you remember that and he's blinded and he hears some speaking and he says who are you lord or at that point he's saying, who are you, sir? And here's Jesus' response. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Now wait a minute. Jesus wasn't even around. Right? He's been ascended. Why is he telling Paul I'm Jesus who you are persecuting? You know why?

Because when we're persecuted that's the same thing as persecuting Jesus. We're that united to him. And so his sufferings are ours as well. Right? When we suffer, we're suffering because we're united to Jesus. The readers of this are indeed suffering the reproach of Jesus, like Moses.

Now, here's what I want you to see. As I meditated on this passage for a couple weeks, this struck me. And I hadn't seen this before. it says that he considered the reproach of christ of greater wealth do you get it the reproach that you suffer the suffering you go through is of greater wealth than the earthly treasures that you could have how in the world is that possible how is reproach more valuable than that you know what see how paul viewed his suffering for jesus is valuable Turn over to 2 Corinthians 4.

You probably say, oh yeah, Pastor, I knew you were going there. You go there all the time because I love this chapter. And it really says this well. Here is Paul considering the reproach of Jesus of greater wealth than anything he could have had. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1. By the way, can I say something to you?

I call this my losing heart chapter. When you start losing heart, read this chapter. This is the chapter. This is your go-to when you're losing heart. Go to this chapter. Anyway, that was a freebie, okay?

That's not in my notes. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. And again, you've heard me say this. I am, compare this to chapter 11. Chapter 11, he says, well, let's see.

I was beaten with rods three times, right? People taking rods and smacking the living daylights out of me. I was stoned three times. Have you ever thought about what it feels like to get stoned? Now, I'm talking about first century stoned, okay? throw rocks at you, all right? He goes on, he says, I've been shipwrecked, right?

I've been whipped, I've had the flesh torn off my back. I have, sometimes I'm hungry. There's all kinds of things. And you look at this and you say, this is your ministry and you call it the mercy of God. what right again you've heard me say this but i think it oh it's the mercy of god because he could have been a well-established pharisaic scholar who's living at the top of the world of an international reputation and just living the life of ease but ending up under the judgment of god it's the mercy of god that he gets to be beaten like this all right now turn over to the end of the chapter, the last three verses, 16.

So we do not lose heart though our outward self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light again, this is the guy that's whipped, beaten, stoned you know, all that, shipwrecked. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, the reward. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

That is why reproach is of greater wealth. Look what you have in Jesus compared to the easy life that ends in judgment. You have a life now of joy and peace in the midst of suffering. You can face death like no one else can. All of these things are yours in Christ. The reproach of Christ has much more value than the treasures and pleasures of this life.

And so faith sees the promises and gives suffering for Jesus the proper value so you can choose mistreatment. You can give the proper value to your suffering so that you can choose that suffering over what the world has to offer. And with God's future reward in mind, notice, not only does he assign the right value to suffering, he assigns the right value to earthly treasure.

He says, such treasure and pleasure that comes by abandoning Jesus, first of all, is sin. Is sin. To avoid suffering by avoiding Jesus is sin. Make no bones about it. And he says, not only is it sin, but notice, it is fleeting in comparison. With that reward, assured of that hope of the reward, convinced even though you haven't seen it, you now can choose mistreatment because you value, you're giving the right value to suffering, and you're giving the right value to earthly treasure and to earthly pleasure. and he says earthly treasure and pleasure cannot compare with the heavenly reward that that awaits you remember what jesus or what peter says in first peter chapter one he says that you have an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you let me ask you how much of your earthly treasure look at all the things you have some of you have more than others Doesn't make any difference.

Look at all the things you have. It rusts. It burns. It wears out and you throw it away. All that stuff that we have. All the pleasures that you might have.

Right? All the pleasures. Listen. Don't see I'm not rich so I don't have access to any pleasures. My goodness, folks. You middle class people, you have access to more pleasure than anybody ever dreamed of in years gone by.

But what is it It fleeting Your phone breaks So you can look up things on your phone Right? Your car rusts, your house burns down, or falls apart. What? It's fleeting. And when you compare it to the eternal treasure that awaits us, why do we want it? Why do we want that?

And so he says, you'll be able to choose mistreatment as you believe the promises of God, the promise of heavenly treasure that far outweighs what pleasure can offer. By faith, your faith will choose mistreatment. Verse 27, your faith must face danger. Your faith must face danger. It says in verse 27, By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured a seeing him who is invisible.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Okay, let me get this straight. How in the world can this writer say that Moses was not afraid when we just looked at chapter 2 of Exodus where it says he was afraid? What in the world is going on here? Didn't we just read that Moses was afraid?

Yes. What do we do about that? I think the first thing you have to see is that all the heroes of the faith are not 100% pure in their faith. Would you agree with that? I mean, who have we looked at so far? Abraham?

It's said over and over, Abraham believed God, but at one point, what? In his weakness, he lies. He lies. At another point, he takes a shortcut with a servant woman named Hagar. And yet God calls him a man of faith. Isaac.

Isaac believed the promises of God, but he got the recipients mixed up. God, by His providence, made sure the right one got it. but it's not a hundred percent right and what about jacob most of his life was faithlessness is only at the end of his life that you see faith and faith that grows so we're not talking about 100 pure faith here the same is true of moses He was afraid, but faith wins out. Faith dominates.

Here's what happens. He kills an Egyptian to rescue his Hebrew brother, and when it's discovered, he is afraid. Where does faith come in? I think Moses was afraid, because he was in danger. He was in danger. Now put yourself in his place.

You've just defended somebody. it may cost you your life what are you doing right now you're saying where in the world am i going to go where am i going to find refuge what's going to happen to me what do i do about this right i don't think moses had a pre-plan what's he's now it's over it's done he's afraid but he's also saying where am i going to go what oh what am i going to do now and so i believe he leaves Egypt trusting God for protection and provision. He doesn't know where he's going. He's getting out of town.

That's what he's doing. But he's a man of faith. In fact, he's able to endure because he saw him who is invisible. That's how he endured. The eye of faith can see what is invisible to the eyes of others. Moses was aware of the presence of God.

Moses could see the power of God. Moses could see God's providential work. I have no doubt in my mind that Moses knew what happened to him as a baby, right? He had seen God work. He had seen what God was like You too by the way can see the invisible God How so You look at him as he revealed in this world You have centuries and centuries and centuries of the record of what God does And so many people today say, show me a sign.

It's like, why would you need a sign? What do you got here? You got a history of God showing up and being faithful. Of centuries and centuries and centuries of that. you just open this word and you will see God's faithfulness on every page of the scripture God reveals himself in his word God reveals himself in his works look at your life look at the the from from this new year's day look back can you see the faithfulness of God in your life You see, you can see the invisible God.

So look, remaining faithful to Jesus often means facing danger. I remember my trips to Azerbaijan, one in particular. One in particular. So one night we're out in the country. We're not in Baku, the city. One night we're out in the country and we're staying in this house.

We walk into this house and it is stacked with books. All Christian literature. which literature was illegal. We're staying there that night. Okay. All right. Next day, we're going to go into Baku, the city.

What do they do? They load up the car with that literature, and we drive into the city. We drive to a prearranged point where there's another car, by which they take all the literature out of our car and put it in another. All right? All this is illegal. You're thinking, wow, this is an interesting trip.

I may end up in jail. Right? Now look, we did not have banners on our cars saying, we're carrying Christian literature. Right? The Christ car. We didn't have anything like that in this Muslim country.

We took precautions, just like Moses did, getting out of town, right? But even taking precautions, you've got to trust God. You have to trust God, because the precautions may not work. And I think that's where Moses is. That's where Moses is. He's facing danger.

It's entirely possible that following Jesus means danger for you. Now look, I don't want to be a Dan Downer here, okay? But let's be honest with ourselves. Danger may come to us. Let's be honest. Let's quit putting our hope in the fact that we live in a great nation and we're never going to suffer for our faith.

I'm not going to put my hope in that because it may not be true. In fact, I see things happening in our culture that maybe legally we're not going to get thrown in jail, but we sure are going to be marginalized and we're going to pay a price. And so let's just own up to it. We may face danger. And you have to decide, will you let danger dictate your faithfulness to Jesus or will you trust your Father to protect and provide?

What are you going to do? Will you see Him who is invisible? You can face danger by faith in the person of God. You see? All right, one last thing, verse 28. your faith must face deliverance and judgment verse 28 what happened to Moses by faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them 40 years after, here's the story remember 40 years after leaving Egypt Moses returns to deliver his people from the hands of their oppressors in accomplishing his task God uses him to bring nine plagues down on this country, on this nation.

And now the final plague will arrive. The death of the firstborn. By the way, the firstborn of the cattle as well. But the death of the firstborn from the highest place, from Pharaoh's household, to the lowliest slave girl. The death of the firstborn. And Jehovah is going to make a distinction now between his people and the Egyptians.

A distinction so that the Egyptians will say the God of the Israelites is the true God and he omnipotent He going to make that clear to them through this last plague of death of the firstborn But in order for any firstborn to escape, including those of Israel, they had to take a Passover lamb, they had to observe Passover, and take the blood and put it on the doorposts and the top of the door. So you've got blood splattered up here and on the doorposts. and by that sign the destroyer will pass over your house. Where does faith come in?

Put yourself in Moses' place. The only way to escape death is to be in that house observing the Passover, a house that is marked with those blood marks on the door. Had anyone ever seen anything like that before? No. But Moses believed that God would bring judgment and deliverance by this means. He believed that God would do what he said.

He was convinced of what he had never seen. But God had said it would happen. No one had ever seen this. He hadn't seen it. But if God said it, he believed that there was safety in doing what God had commanded him to do. Now what about you?

Do you believe that judgment and deliverance are on the way? Do you believe it? I mean, have you ever seen the cataclysmic events that God says are going to take place when Jesus returns? You ever seen any of that? No, you haven't. Have you seen yet the beautiful existence that's ours forever after God comes in judgment?

Jesus comes in judgment? Have you ever seen it? No. The answer is no. You have not seen it. You have not seen it.

Are you convinced that God's judgment is coming, even though you've not seen it? Are you sure of the hope that Jesus offers, even though you've never seen it yet? Do you believe? then like Moses you stake everything on what God has promised you stake everything on what God has promised now look there is one who by faith faced hostile authorities he faced danger he actually brought about salvation and he chose mistreatment you know who that is it's Jesus and the only way you can do the same is if you're united to him because by the mistreatment he suffered by his faith he's able to deliver us and has delivered us from the power and the tyranny of sin so that we can make the right evaluations so that we can face these things by faith only because He suffered for us.

That's the only way we can do it. If you've never trusted Jesus, then look, hard times are going to come and you're going to melt away. But we can endure because of His endurance. We endure if by faith we believe what God has done or what God has said he will do. Father, thank you for your word that just opens up a whole world of meaning to us. Thank you that you have told us about Moses and his faith, that you revealed a greater faith in Jesus himself, and that through all of what Christ has done, we can endure.

God help us to believe the promises that you have made help us to believe that you are the person you revealed yourself as help us we pray in Jesus name Amen