Moses: Faith to Choose Reproach, Part 3 (Hebrews 11:24-26) | Worship Service

♪ Raise the sun, raise the spirit free and we sing ♪ ♪

Oh to say, oh praise

Him, our King ♪ ♪

We were sinners, we were orphans ♪ ♪ We were looking for a home ♪ ♪

Lost and we were broken, perditioned ♪ ♪

You sent your son to change our fate ♪ ♪ Hopelessly imprisoned, he came to take our place ♪ ♪

Glory to the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to the only name that saves ♪ ♪

Ransom the captives, your name is matchless ♪ ♪

A mystery to fathom, the way your children set apart ♪ ♪

He's now pilgrims, prodigals at heart ♪ ♪

What your spirit now has caused us ♪ ♪ To no longer doubt your love for us ♪ ♪

Adopted through your son, glory to the name of Jesus ♪ ♪

Glory to the only name that saves ♪ ♪

Ransom the captives, your name is matchless ♪ ♪

Glory to the nameless, glory to the lashes ♪ ♪

Your name is matchless ♪ ♪

Glory to your name, glory to your name, glory to your name ♪ ♪

Ponder all we have been given ♪ ♪ Heirs to God through Jesus' name ♪ ♪

Esteemless death has been made certain ♪ ♪ Glory now awaits, your glory now awaits ♪ ♪

Glory to the name of Jesus, glory to the only name that saves ♪ ♪

Ransom the captives, your name is matchless ♪ ♪

Ransom the captives, your name is matchless ♪ ♪

What is seen is no hope at all, our salvation has to come ♪ ♪

Christ coming again to bring us to heaven ♪ ♪ A glorious end to our fall ♪ ♪

The trials we face will fade, tears are washed away ♪ ♪

Rejoice, our hope is alive, alive in you, the sun is risen ♪ ♪

Rejoice, one day we'll rise, from death to risen found ♪ ♪

In things we possess, nor found in the praises of men ♪ ♪

Our will to survive will bring us new life ♪ ♪ As we look past this world to the next, we'll see the king end ♪ ♪

Rejoice, the sun is risen, rejoice, one day we'll rejoice ♪ ♪

Our hope is alive, rejoice, our hope is alive, rejoice ♪ ♪

Of his glory, Jesus, the son of God descends ♪ ♪

Takes on the nature of a servant, Jesus, obedient to death ♪ ♪

The father willed to crush him, as a sacrifice for his sins ♪ ♪

He satisfied God's justice, and in victory rose again ♪ ♪

You are high above all names, name above all names ♪ ♪

You are Jesus, you're the king over everything ♪ ♪

Exalted to the heaven given,

Christ is risen, Jesus ♪ ♪

The lamb once crucified, the angels never cease to worship ♪ ♪

Jesus, in heaven glorified, to him belongs the power ♪ ♪

The wisdom, might, and exalted, name above all names ♪ ♪

You are Jesus, you're the king over everything ♪ ♪

Exalted to the highest place, given the name of Jesus ♪ ♪

We bow, our tongues proclaim that you are

Lord Jesus ♪ ♪

We bow, our tongues proclaim that you are

Lord of all ♪ ♪

We bow, our tongues proclaim that you are

Lord of all ♪ ♪

You are highly exalted, name above all names ♪ ♪

You are reigning, Jesus, you're the king over everything ♪ ♪

Shelter in the storm, when troubles come ♪

Well, good morning. Just a couple of announcements before we get started here this morning.

We have a newcomers night coming up on July 8th, that's this coming Friday night. We're having pizza and ice cream.

This is for any who have come to this church in recent months and you want more information about who we are and what we do and who the elders are and the deacons.

This is your opportunity to meet us and ask questions and get to know us a little bit. And so that is this

Friday night at 6 p .m. We just ask that you sign up on the sign -up sheet that is outside in the foyer so that we can know who to expect for that.

And then also on July 24th, and please take note of what's in your bulletin, there is a family fun day after church.

We're going to have a barbecue and provide hamburgers and hot dogs and do what we normally would do at the church camp out, but we're going to do it out here on the lawn and have a potluck together after church on that Sunday, July 24th.

And we ask that you sign up for that so that we know that you are coming as well. And then we have a baptism class on August 14th.

So if you are interested in obeying the Lord in believers' baptism, we'd encourage you to attend that class on August 14th immediately after the service.

Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 99. Psalm 99. Psalm 99.

The Lord reigns, but the peoples tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim, but the earth shake.

The Lord is great in Zion, and He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name.

Holy is He. The strength of the king loves justice. You have established equity.

You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool.

Holy is He. Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called on His name.

They called upon the Lord, and He answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept

His testimonies and the statute that He gave them. O Lord our God, You answered them.

You were a forgiving God to them, and yet an avenger of their evil deeds. Exalt the

Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for holy is the Lord our God. Will you stand with me as we pray?

Let's bow our heads. Our Father, You are holy, entirely set apart from us.

We thank You that by Your great grace, You have condescended to make Yourself known in the pages of Scripture, to make

Yourself known in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we may behold the glory and the character of our triune

God in Him. And we thank You that You have called us out of darkness and into light, so that we may gather here together to worship

You, to learn more of You and of Your ways, and to express to You the joy of our hearts.

We thank You for the blessing of the freedom that we have to enjoy this time together, to worship openly, to worship with one another, and we pray that Your grace would strengthen us to fellowship, to serve one another, to love

You, to listen to and to obey Your Word. May You be honored and glorified here amongst us, Your people, so that You would be glorified in our obedience and in our attentiveness.

Help us, we pray, to focus our minds and our hearts upon You, the most worthy object of our worship and our focus, we ask in Christ's name.

Good morning. Let's sing, Praise Him, Praise Him. Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our blessed

Redeemer. Sing over this wonderful love proclaim.

Hail Him, Hail Him, highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor give to His holy name.

Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children.

In His arms, He carries them all day long. Praise Him, Praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.

Praise Him, Praise Him, ever in joyful song.

Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer.

For our sins, He suffered and bled and died. In our heart, our hope of eternal salvation.

Hail Him, Hail Him, Jesus the crucified. Sound His praises,

Jesus who bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong.

Praise Him, Praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, Praise Him, ever in joyful song.

Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly mortals, loud with hosannas ring.

Jesus Savior reigneth forever and ever.

Proud Him, Proud Him, prophet and priest and king. Christ is coming, over the world victorious.

Power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, Praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness.

Praise Him, Praise Him, ever in joyful song.

Your Savior, behold, your great high praise.

Draw near Him all and wonder, His cross and spoken peace.

Come rest from sin that's striving. Find endless stores of grace.

The heart that turns to trust. Displays from every stain.

Oh how deep, how wide, how long. Oh how vast the love of Jesus.

Oh how sure, how sweet, how strong.

Oh how vast is love for us.

So lift your eyes to Jesus. Arise from doubt and shame.

His blood cries in extinct. Our life is in His name.

Oh how deep, how wide, how long. Oh how vast the love of Jesus.

Oh how sure, how sweet, how strong. Oh how vast is love for us.

No one can separate us.

In death or pain or fear. We have

His strong assurance. In Christ we've been brought near.

And in His strength or labor. His promises are whole.

Thus far His love has led us.

His love will lead us home. Oh how deep, how wide, how long.

Oh how vast the love of Jesus. Oh how sure, how sweet, how strong.

Oh how vast is love for us. Oh how deep, how wide, how long.

Oh how vast the love of Jesus. Oh how sure, how sweet, how strong.

Oh how vast is love for us.

The grace of God has reached for me. And pulled me from the raging sea.

And I am safe on this earth. The Lord is my salvation.

I will not fear when darkness falls. His strength will help me scale these walls.

I'll see the dawn of the rising sun. The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord on high.

Strong to stay faithful in love. My debt is paid and the victory won.

The Lord is my salvation. My hope is in Him, the

Lord. He flowers each promise of His word.

When winter fades, I know spring will come. The Lord is my salvation.

In times of waiting, times of need. When I know loss, when

I am weak. I know His grace will renew these days.

The Lord is my salvation. Who is like the

Lord on high. Strong to stay faithful in love.

My debt is paid and the victory won. The Lord is my salvation.

And when I reach the final day. He will not lead me in the grave.

But I will rise, He will call me home. The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord on high.

Strong to stay faithful in love. My debt is paid and the victory won.

The Lord is my salvation. Glory be to God the

Father. Glory be to God the

Son. Glory be to God the

Spirit. The Lord is our salvation.

The Lord is our salvation. The Lord is our salvation.

The Lord is our salvation.

Oh, fount of mercy. That flows from my

Savior's pleading side. Where sinners trade their filthy rags.

For His righteousness supply. Mercy claimed.

Now washing all us like a flood.

There the wretched and vilest ones. Stand adopted through His blood.

Oh, mount of praise to Thee. From the law has set us free.

Once and for all on Calvary's hill. Love and justice shall agree.

Praise the Lord, the price is paid. The curse defeated by the man.

We who once were slaves by birth. Sons and daughters, now we stand.

Oh, well of joy is mine to drink. For my

Lord has conquered death. Victorious forevermore.

The ancient foe is laid to rest. Hallelujah, Christ is

King. Alive and reigning on the throne. Our tongues employed with hymns of praise.

Glory be to God alone. Hallelujah, Christ is

King. Alive and reigning on the throne. Our tongues employed with hymns of praise.

Glory be to God alone. Our tongues employed with hymns of praise.

Glory be to God alone. In Ephesians chapter 3 it says,

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And that you being firmly rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and the length, and the height, and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

That you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Let's end our music service this morning by singing

Speak, O Lord. Speak, O Lord, as we come to you to receive the fruit of your holy word.

Take your truth, plant it deep in us shame and passion us in your likeness that the love of Christ might be seen today in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.

Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your promises for your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience holy reverence, true humility.

Test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of your purity.

Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see your majestic love and authority.

Words of power that can never fail, let their truth prevail over all unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds.

Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us.

Choose unchanged from the dawn of time that will echo down through eternity.

And by grace we'll stand on your promises and by faith we'll walk as you walk with us.

Speak, O Lord, till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory.

And this does not mean that we're going seeker sensitive and every time I make a profound point I'm supposed to take a sip out of the water bottle while you all sit and ponder the profundity of just what's come out of my mouth.

That's not what's going on here at all. I have another cough drop up here just in case

I need it. So turn your Bibles please to Hebrews chapter 11. The benefit of Sundays like this is that having to slow down and be more measured and not make my voice do what normally it would do is that it forces my mouth and my brain to run in tandem instead of trying to compete with one another to see who gets to cross the finish line first.

That's typically how I would describe most of my preaching. We shall see how this shall turn out.

All right, let's pray. Our Father, we do ask that you would speak to us through your Word. It is our earnest desire to hear you there where you have ordained to speak to your people and to educate us, to equip us, to edify us, to encourage us, to strengthen us, comfort us, to sanctify us.

All of this is to be found in your Word. And so it is our prayer today that you would help us to be attentive to that and that you would speak to us through that one place that you have promised, that you have revealed yourself and revealed your will to us.

Encourage us, we pray, in our faith, in the strength of our faith, that you may be honored and glorified through our time here, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

We are looking at the faith of Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel. He was not just the giver of the law, he was a man of great faith.

And we've been seeing over the last couple of weeks how it is that Moses obeyed the

Lord and demonstrated his faith by obeying the Lord and choosing to be affiliated with and to cast his lot in with the people of God, the

Israelites, instead of the Egyptians. And Moses did this knowing that he would be rewarded for it.

Moses' faith contained a strong assurance of the reward that was set before him, and as he trusted in the

Lord, he did so and made his decision looking forward to and anticipating a reward that was to come.

He's a great example of the faith that is described in Hebrews 11, verse 6, that the one who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

The faithful believes both of those things, not just that God exists, though we have never seen him with our eye, but we believe that he exists, and we believe that he will reward the one who comes to him and seeks after him.

There is a reward that is set out ahead of those who are faithful. And so today we are examining

Moses' choice that he made in light of the reward. Hebrews 11, we're looking at the end of this passage, verses 24 to 26.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for the reward.

Now we have looked so far at Moses' faith, his choice between two peoples, between Israel and Egypt, his choice between two positions, slavery and royalty, and today we're looking at the third element of Moses' choice, and that is choosing reproach over treasure.

And we talk about his choice of two positions, between two positions, slavery or royalty. We have to make sure that we have clear in our mind that Moses' choice was not merely an ethnic identification.

Everybody knew that he was a Jew, but it was the choice of a spiritual affiliation. Moses was choosing to be spiritually affiliated with the people of God's covenant, the descendants of Abraham.

And so it's more than just I like Jewish food or I like the way the Jews dress or I like the songs that the

Jews sing. It wasn't that kind of affiliation. It was I will worship the God that the Jews worship and I will therefore benefit and receive all of the blessings that are promised to that nation.

It's a spiritual affiliation that Moses was signing up for when he chose Israel over Egypt. So today we're looking at these two prizes, reproach and treasure.

Now, those two things don't sound like they go together at all. It doesn't even sound like reproach.

I sound like a guy going through puberty, don't I? It doesn't even sound like reproach is a prize at all, and yet those are the two things that are offered to Moses, reproach and treasures.

And so how is it that a reproach would be considered to be valued as something that is better than all the treasures of Egypt?

In fact, it is verse 26, considering the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Verse 26 explains to us why it is that Moses chose

Israel over Egypt, why it is that he chose to be affiliated with a slave people instead of being affiliated with royalty, as he certainly had the option to do.

See, from a worldly perspective, Moses chose a people without any kind of a national identity.

I mean, they were Jews, they had an ethnic identity, but they didn't have a homeland that they were from, that they had been taken out of.

They didn't have any kind of national status. Nobody in Moses' time could say, well, you know where all those

Jews live. They're out, and this is the boundaries of their habitation. No, they were slaves in Egypt, so they had no homeland.

They had no national identity in that sense. They certainly had no wealth. So Moses was choosing a people with no wealth over a people who had abundant wealth.

From a worldly perspective, it didn't seem right that he would choose slavery over royalty, pain over pleasure, or poverty over the wealth.

He really was embracing reproach and giving up all of the respect that would be due to him as a member of the royal family, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

This type of a choice, Moses' commitment, listen, it is completely inexplicable apart from his faith.

So verse 26, when it says that he considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of Egypt, he was looking for the reward.

Moses saw something with the eyes of faith that nobody else could see, namely that which would come to the faithful believer.

And because Moses was able to see that, he was able to make a choice in light of that truth, and he did so by faith.

Faith explains that he saw what others did not. He looked beyond the immediate, and he saw something that was far in the future.

He looked far ahead, and he said, what comes to me on the basis of choosing Israel now is far greater than what will come to me now if I choose

Egypt over Israel. And so it is only in light of that faith, it is only because Moses saw something that nobody else could see, that his choice makes any sense at all.

His faith made him assured of what he hoped for. His faith made him convinced of what he could not see.

By faith he believed in God, and by faith he believed that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

And this theme of reward that is mentioned in verse 26 is a constant theme through the larger passage.

In fact, we could go all the way back into the previous chapter, the end of Hebrews 10, that warning passage, where at the end of that chapter and at the end of that warning passage, the author reminds us that far from falling away, the ones who remain faithful to God in the midst of tribulations and reproaches and all of that, they can expect a reward that is to come.

Hebrews 10, verse 34. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing you have for yourselves, now listen to all of this language of reward, a better possession and a lasting one.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

All of that is the language of reward, a better possession, a lasting possession. Receive what is promised.

Maintain your confidence because you have a reward. The author is holding out the prospect of a reward to those

Hebrew Christians who are facing affliction and persecution and suffering, and he is saying to them, look, if you will embrace the reproach of faith, you will receive the reward of faith.

And most certainly, only those who are willing to endure the reproach will receive the reward. If you shrink back to destruction, if you ease out of the affliction that you're faced with so that you can have more comfort or more convenience or something else, then you certainly should not expect to receive the reward.

Now let's look at Moses' two options, the treasures of Egypt and the reproaches of Christ. The treasures of Egypt, this is not a difficult thing to understand at all, what is meant by treasures of Egypt.

A little bit more difficult to understand what is meant by the reproaches of Christ, we'll get to here in just a moment. But by the treasures of Egypt, the author would obviously mean the wealth of a world dynasty.

Whenever it is that we might land on a date for the exodus, and I think I have arrived at an actual date for the exodus because somebody gave me a book, didn't give it to me, lent me.

Sorry, Simon, I know you didn't give me the book, you lent it to me. Somebody lent me a book with an archaeologist who nails down a date for the exodus.

So I'm gonna get to that next week with verse 28. Sorry, verse 27. But whenever it is that we might think that the exodus happened, we know that when

Moses lived, Egypt was one of the world's dynasties. And they would have had with that dynasty all of the wealth that one could imagine that would come to the royalty of that dynasty.

It would have been money and gold and precious stones, precious items. They were a wealthy people, the

Egyptians. Now, yeah, they were a wealthy people because they were able to build a lot of their wealth off of the backs of slave labor.

But that wealth would have also included prestige and honor, the comforts and conveniences, the pleasures and delights that money can buy you.

And money, though it can't buy happiness, it can buy some comfort, and it can buy some conveniences. And the Egyptians would have had all of that.

And in Moses' case, he wouldn't have been just a common Egyptian. He would have been an Egyptian who was known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He would have been the grandson of Pharaoh. So he would have had access to all of that wealth, all of those treasures, and he would have had access to the honor and respect and the dignity and the approbation, the public applause that would have gone along with being the grandson of Pharaoh.

And yet he chose instead the reproaches of Christ over all the treasures of Egypt. Now, that phrase, the reproaches of Christ, it's a little bit more difficult to understand what is meant by that simply because the idea of Moses choosing the reproaches of Christ doesn't seem to fit with Moses in the timeline for this reason.

Moses lived at least 1 ,400 years before Christ. So how is it then that Moses would have seen his choice of Israel as being an embrace of the reproaches of Christ?

Or better stated, how would the author of Hebrews have understood that Moses in choosing Israel was choosing the reproaches of Christ since Christ was not born for another 1 ,400 years after Moses?

What is meant by that phrase? We understand what it means in our context if we are affiliated with or we join our forces with or are known as being amongst the people of God.

We understand what it means to bear his reproach in that sense that we name the name of Christ. We are referred to as Christians.

We're called Christ ones. And as those who embrace his truth and name his name and worship him on a

Sunday morning, that is part of our identity. We are Christians first and Americans second. We're not

American Christians. We're Christians who happen to live in America. That is our primary identity.

And we could be Christians that live in any other country. But if you are known as a

Christian and that is your primary identity, then when Christ is reproached and Christians are reproached, then you are reproached because you're in that group.

So as those who identify with Jesus Christ, we know that when the world heaps its hatred and scorn on Christians and on the

Christian church and charges Christians with being homophobic and xenophobic and hateful and bigoted and intolerant and all of the other slander that goes along with that, they do so because they're really heaping their scorn upon Christ.

And when they heap their scorn upon Christ, we are the recipients of it. Because we are the visible manifestation of Christ in this world.

And so if the world is going to hate him, it must hate him by hating us.

Because the only way that the world can get to him is through us. And so we become then the recipients of that reproach.

So we understand what the reproaches of Christ are, but 1400 years before Jesus was born, nobody ever heard the name of Christ.

Nobody knew the name Jesus Christ. So what is meant by Moses choosing instead the reproaches of Christ?

In what way? There's a couple of different options, a couple of different ways of understanding this. First, it's possible that Moses by this, what is meant is that Moses was a deliverer for the nation of Israel.

And as a deliverer he stood as a Christ figure for the nation. Let me work this out just a little bit.

We all understand that Jesus' last name was not Christ. Refer to him as Jesus Christ, but Christ was not his last name.

He was Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth. But he is Jesus the Christ. Christ being the word for, or the title of anointed one or Messiah.

It's a messianic designation. So he is Jesus the Christ. And so it's possible that the term

Christ in this passage, reproaches of Christ, simply refers to the reproaches that come to one who is a deliverer or a redeemer.

And Moses was, for the nation of Israel, a deliverer or redeemer. Moses is the one who confronted

Pharaoh and led the children of Israel out of Egypt. And so it might be that what the author is referring to is the reproaches of one that would be heaped upon the individual who would serve as the instrument through which

God would deliver an entire nation. Moses then functioning as a Messiah figure, or a messianic type of a deliverer for an entire nation.

And that because he did that and he did the work of delivering the nation, that Moses himself then would have upon him, heaped upon him all of the reproaches from Egypt upon the one who would seek to deliver those who were slaves to Egypt.

That's possible. That it's not a reference to Christ as we know him, but Christ as in the function of deliverer that Moses took.

That he would choose the reproaches of being a national deliverer for that nation over all the treasures of Egypt.

That's a solid possibility. I think it's a solid number two. Not number one yet, but another solid number two is the possibility that what's being described here is

Moses as a type of Christ. A foreshadowing figure of Christ. And in this sense it is,

Moses functions as well as a foreshadowing of the one who is the national deliverer. The one who is the deliverer from sin, the

Lord Jesus Christ. Moses as a type or a foreshadowing of Christ himself, therefore would receive all of those reproaches being one who functions in the way as a national deliverer.

And he becomes then because the deliverance of Israel from Egypt in the

Exodus, becomes something of a precursor, almost a prequel to the actual storyline which is the delivery of slaves of sin out of the bondage of sin by one who is actually the

Christ. And because Moses' life parallels Jesus' life in many ways, Moses then becomes a foreshadowing or a prophetic sort of biographical figure of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And as such, he would of course receive all of the world's scorn. That's another solid number two possibility.

But I think that what is being described here is Moses' willingness to suffer with the people of the

Christ, that is the Messiah's people. There was in Moses' day a strong messianic hope.

That messianic hope goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 when it was promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head.

And that messianic hope comes all the way through that godly lineage that comes up through Noah and through his godly descendants of which

Abraham is then made aware. In fact, you see this messianic hope and this expectation of a national deliverer even in Jacob's blessing of his twelve sons on his deathbed when he says of Judah in Genesis chapter 49 verse 10 the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

I want you to ponder on that for a second. That was very profound. While I sip on that.

So they would have had a robust understanding in Moses' day that there was going to be a messianic deliverer, one who would fulfill the promise of even being the one to whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.

And that was part of the hope. That was part of Joseph's hope and Jacob's hope and Isaac's hope and Abraham's hope and Noah's hope and Enoch's hope and Abel's hope.

It was part of all of that godly lineage's hope that there would be this national deliverer. So just because all of the

New Testament hadn't been written and most of the Old Testament hadn't been written you and I should not begin to think that those who lived in Moses' day had no expectation of what was to come.

They had a very rich and robust understanding of what God's redemptive plan was through this

Christ deliverer. So therefore Moses would suffer reproach by being with the people of God and embracing for himself that messianic hope.

This is why I pointed out last week and this week, it's not merely an ethnic identification.

It is a spiritual affiliation. When Moses reached out and embraced the Jewish people he was embracing their

God and their hope and therefore he was saying, I am believing in this,

I am trusting in this, I'm casting my lot in with these people and therefore their

God is my God. Their hope is my hope. Their future is my future and therefore their reproach will be my reproach.

So since he embraced the Messiah and the hope the messianic hope of the Messiah then he embraced along with that all of the reproach that Egypt and the world and that unbelievers would cast upon him for his embrace of the truth.

Another way to think of it is that Moses living before Christ would be looking forward to the appearance of that Christ and therefore along with David and Jeremiah and Isaiah and Noah and everybody else who was scorned and reproached for their love of and embrace of the truth he had that hope and because he had that hope and he was reproached for it, it becomes then a messianic or a

Christ -centered reproach that he bears. Just as you and I living after Christ look back to the appearance of Christ and therefore though we have more revelation, all of the reproach and the scorn that is heaped upon us is heaped upon us because we are looking to the same messianic hope and figure.

So before Christ or after Christ, all those who embrace God's truth and God's word and have their hope in that Christ, all of them bear the reproach of Christ.

So therefore we can say that anybody who has suffered for Yahweh's truth have borne Yahweh's reproach.

Psalm 69 verse 9, zeal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

This is what every true believer can say. That I'm so aligned in my purposes and my faith with Yahweh, the one true and living

God, that when he is reproached those reproaches, though they are aimed at him, they fall down and hit us.

They fall upon us. So the reproach of those who have reproached you have fallen on me. And we are called then to be like Moses, Hebrews 13 verse 3, to go outside the camp and to bear

Christ's reproach. So when you suffer as a believer for doing what is right and for having true faith, you are suffering the same kind of reproach and the same

Christ -centered messianic reproach that was also suffered by Jeremiah and Isaiah and Noah and Moses and Joseph and all those who embraced that hope.

Now what is the role of reproach? How is it that the world sees the truth? The world hates the truth.

This is becoming more and more obvious to us with each and every passing day. You see how they respond to God's truth regarding gender, how they respond to God's truth regarding human sexuality,

God's moral standards, the truth about marriage, the truth about Scripture, the truth about Heaven and Hell, all of those truths, all of those things which are part of our faith, which we embrace by God's grace.

The world hates that and heaps it, scorn upon it. And reproach is something that always precedes persecution and here is why.

Reproach is how the world justifies its treatment of Christians. You see, the world knows they can look and see the same thing that you and I see.

The Christians are the ones who are working with the sick and starting up hospitals and feeding the poor and taking care of widows and orphans and gathering together and doing good.

Atheists don't start hospitals. Atheists don't start research on disease. Those things, that's not the purview of the world at all.

It's Christians who do that. And so the world must look at Christians and say these are the people that stand out for their good deeds, their charitable deeds and because they're living in accordance with the truth.

But being unable to lobby any serious reproach or scurrilous standard scandal against true

Christians, the world instead heaps it, scorn upon Christians and begins to reproach them. Well, you're homophobic bigots or you're intolerant xenophobes or you're just hateful people who want trans people not to exist and you just want to wipe out everybody that's not a

Christian. None of that is truthful at all, but the world has to reproach those things so that it can justify in its own mind how it wants to treat

Christians. And they treat us that way not because they hate our good deeds, but because they hate what we believe and they hate the

God that we serve. And so their reproach becomes then a precursor and excuse for their persecution.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Moses' example would have been a tremendous encouragement to these early Hebrews because in chapter 10 verse 32, remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

The unbelievers of their day had heaps scorn and reproach upon those early Christians and what a comfort it would be for them to be able to say ah yes,

Moses, the great lawgiver all those who have come before us were in that category.

We're in that group. Those were our people. That's our tribe. They're the ones that we come from. You and I looking back can do the exact same thing.

We can say yeah, they treated Moses like this. Unbelievers treated Joseph like this. Unbelievers treated

Luther like this. Unbelievers treated Calvin like this. Whitefield, Edwards, all the great saints of history have been treated in this way.

The world has heaped its scorn on all of them. We ought to expect nothing better and so when something better comes our way we ought to be somewhat surprised.

Oh hey, I wasn't hated by somebody today. This is, I might need to get out more. And then when we are hated by somebody in that day we should say this is exactly what

I should expect. We should expect no different from the world. And so then when it happens we're not surprised.

Instead when we're met when we meet the world's hatred we can look at it and say this is how the world treats the people of God so I'm in very good company with Moses and the rest of them.

And here's the difference. Moses you and I might give up nothing to be treated that way.

We might give up nothing to be treated with that way. Moses chose to be treated with that way because he had a different option.

He gave up everything just so he could be treated that way. That was the choice he made.

How much greater then was his understanding of what it is that he was doing. That word considered at the beginning of verse 26 means to esteem, to regard, to think, or to assess.

It describes a reasoned and rational assessment of his circumstances. Not a rash and thoughtless emotional response.

It was not a decision that Moses made in the heat of a moment. But it was a deliberate and well considered decision that he made.

Moses was a man who had thought through and weighed all of it in the balances. He looked at the messianic hope of Israel.

He looked at the promises that had been given to his forebearers and forefathers by God. And he looked at his present circumstances and Moses took some time to reason this through and to think this through in a very reasoned and rational and thoughtful process.

He weighed all of it in the balances and he decided that he was going to value instead the reproach that would come by being aligned with the

Christ forward looking people of God than the treasures of Egypt. And he made his decision on that basis.

And it was all expressed in the decisions and the choices that he made. He decided instead that the reproaches were greater riches.

Now, the reproaches were not the riches in themselves. Understand this, when he says the reproaches of Christ are greater riches, the reward is not the reproach.

The reproach is what we endure looking to the reward. But the reproach is not the reward.

The reward can be seen with the eye of faith. 1 Peter 4 .14 says, if you're reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

You see, the reward that we look to can only be seen with the eye of faith because it believes that those who have embraced

God's truth and embraced the reproach of faith will receive the reward that comes to those who are faithful.

Moses did this looking to the reward. Now, again, it's not the reproach that is the treasure, but the reward. Look at the end of verse 26.

He was looking to the reward. Now this explains everything from the beginning of verse 24. Moses did what he did.

He chose what he chose. He put himself in with the people of God, shunned royalty, accepted slavery, shunned

Egypt, accepted Israel, skirned the treasures of Egypt, and embraced the reproaches for one central reason.

The end of verse 26. He was looking for the reward. He had his eyes fixed on the reward.

Now what is that reward? It's a good question, isn't it? What's the reward? You say, well, I think it's heaven.

I think it is heaven too. I think that's part of it. I don't think that that's all of it. If it were all of it, if the only reward were heaven, then the author would have said he was looking for heaven.

They had a Greek word for heaven back then. The author could have said that. But the author doesn't say that. He just talks about the reward.

In fact, you'll notice that the reward is not specified as exactly what it is.

I think that that is intentional because I think that by that the author means every good thing that comes to the faithful is included in that reward.

Every good thing. So that means heaven. That means the promised land dwelling in it.

The righteous dwelling in it with that heavenly city. It means justification by faith.

It means the forgiveness of our sins. It is our adoption into his family. It is reigning and ruling with the

Messiah in his millennial kingdom and for all of eternity and his ever expanding new heavens and new earth.

It is the rewards for our service. It is an everlasting and eternal life. It is an everlasting and eternal resurrected body.

It is the riches and glories of the new creation and all that that poses for the people of God and all that promises for the people of God.

Every good thing that comes to those who are faithful is included in that reward.

Now that makes the treasures of Egypt and all the treasures of this world pale by comparison if you understand what

God has promised to us in the new creation. In fact, Moses would put the treasures of Egypt on the scale and the reproaches of Christ on the scale and if you just measured those, the treasures of Egypt, they're heavy.

They're weighty. Who wants reproach over treasure? Nobody would choose that. But when

Moses looks to the reward, all of a sudden the scales are completely out of balance but in the opposite direction. Why?

Because all of the reward that we're talking about, everything promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, everything promised to us in Christ in the new creation with resurrected bodies, the rewards for our service, life together, fellowship together in a place where there is no sin, there is no death, there is no dying, there's no disease, there's no mourning.

All of that makes the treasures of Egypt pale by comparison. Paul could say in Romans 8,

I can say the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

Therefore, the reproaches of Christ are not worthy to be compared to the reward that comes to those who are faithful.

Do you see why the author is encouraging them to fix their eyes and their hope and their focus on that reward?

Sorry, I'm not crying, I'm coughing. I'm going to take a sip before I quote Spurgeon. Normally, I would take the sip after I quote

Spurgeon to give you a chance to contemplate what Spurgeon said, but here's Spurgeon. Moses said within himself,

I must renounce much and reckon to lose rank, position and treasure, but I expect to be a gainer notwithstanding for there will be a day when

God shall judge the sons of men. I expect a judgment thrown with its impartial balances and I expect that those who serve

God faithfully shall then turn out to have been the wise men and the right men while those who truckled and bowed down to gain a present ease shall find that they missed eternity while they were snatching after time and they bartered heaven for a paltry mess of pottage.

That's a good point to take a sip. Bartered heaven for a paltry mess of pottage.

Most of those who are alive in our day right now are bartering away heaven for a paltry mess of pottage.

Spurgeon said we are to set our eyes upon the reward that is to come. Now, I understand that there is something inside of us as Christians that wrestles with this idea of fixing our hope on rewards.

And I've had this conversation with a couple of folks in the congregation in recent months as we've been working our way through Hebrews chapter 11 and the wrestling that we have is this.

Given all that God has done for me in Christ is that not enough for me to serve

Him? And shouldn't all of my service and my sacrifice and my mortification of my flesh and my giving and all the good deeds that I do, shouldn't it just be motivated out of love and nothing but love for the

Lord? And if I do something for a reward isn't that a polluting of my motive?

Do you see the struggle that we have? Is that an illegitimate motive? I would suggest to you that if doing something for the reward or keeping your eyes fixed on the reward is an illegitimate motive then scripture would not hold that out to us as a legitimate motive.

Does that make sense? Why did Moses do what he did? Because he loved pain?

No. Did Moses do what he did because he was just altruistic and he thought if I just give up everything and get nothing in response to this

I'll just do this out of love? It's not to say that love and thankfulness and gratitude toward God and being overwhelmed by His grace to us that those are not in the mix.

But it is to say that we can't just exclude rewards as if it is some illegitimate aspect of why it is that God has called us to do what it is that He has called us to do.

Moses did everything that he did looking forward to the reward. And because he was looking forward to the reward he was in no sense looking forward to something illegitimate.

The reward of the righteous and the retribution upon the unrighteous are both held out to us in scripture as legitimate motives for encouragement and enthusiastic and industrious labor for the

Lord. Paul says to the Thessalonians who were suffering under the affliction of evildoers he held out the destruction that would come upon those who will not obey the

Lord Jesus Christ and he reminded them, don't worry God's enemies will be destroyed in flaming fire.

He's going to deal out retribution to His enemies. That is held out as an encouragement to the church. So you and I can be motivated and encouraged by both of these things.

By the anticipation of the reward that the righteous receive as well as the anticipation of the retribution that will come to those who heap their reproach upon the righteous.

Both of those are legitimate motives and legitimate causes of encouragement. And it is a legitimate motive to look forward to the reward when we understand this and I think,

I hope that this will help clear up the conflict that we feel in our hearts when we understand this that the reward that God gives to the faithful is

Himself. In the gospel God gives us Himself. He's the prize of the gospel.

Heaven is not heaven without Him. And so everything that we enjoy in heaven every reward, every blessing, all of it is intended to turn us back to Him to draw us to Him and allow us to experience

Him in ever deepening and ever increasing degrees of glory and joy.

So what God aims to give us is not just rewards apart from Him. There, go enjoy those things, but God aims to give us through the rewards

Himself. So if God Himself is the reward and my reward is just a means by which

I enjoy God more then when I do something for the reward I'm doing it for what?

For Him. If He's my reward and I'm doing it looking forward to the reward and what

I get in the reward is Him, then He really is the focus of why I'm doing what I'm doing since He's the reward that He gives to me.

Does that make sense? I hope that kind of clears up the conundrum because it is something of a conundrum in our hearts until we realize that the reward we receive is nothing more and nothing less than God Himself.

And therefore that is a perfectly legitimate and God -centered motivation for doing everything that we do when the reward is

Him. Look, if you were to take all of this world's treasures, take the wealth of Elon Musk and add

Jeff Bezos and add Jack Dorsey and add

Apple and Microsoft and Bill Gates and Charles Schwab and all of the other people into that mix, all of their wealth, you put it all together that's not all the wealth of the world by the way because that doesn't include our wealth, right?

It's almost an unimaginable amount of wealth. But listen, if you were to take it and multiply it by 10, multiply it by 100, in multiplying all of those riches, you do nothing to change the nature of those riches.

The nature of those riches is that they are fleeting and passing and destined to perish.

Doesn't matter how many times you multiply it, it's still the same thing. Just a passing treasure.

Moses' choice of reproaches with eternal reward means that his choice to leave

Egypt for Israel and to leave royalty for slavery and to embrace reproach instead of treasure, that choice ends up becoming the most rational, clear thinking, wise and logical choice that anybody could possibly make.

We can't even say that Moses' choice was a sacrifice, can we?

It wasn't a sacrifice. In fact, Moses did something that was in his own self -interest in the best possible way.

If Moses got nothing for it, that would have been a sacrifice. In fact, that would have been foolish.

But he is acting in his own self -interest in that. He is giving up something that is passing and useless and perishing and will profit him nothing on the day of judgment and he is receiving instead something that is lasting and eternal and will profit him much on the day of judgment.

And so he is not doing anything that is irrational at all because faith is not irrational. In fact, you'd have to be a fool to pass up what

Moses chose. You'd have to be a fool to take the treasures of Egypt. You'd have to be a fool to take all the people's wealth that I mentioned just a few moments ago, multiply it by a thousand, to take that over Christ, you would be a fool.

But Moses' choice then becomes the most rational and reasonable choice that one could make. To quote that passage from Spurgeon that I read earlier,

I expect that those who serve God faithfully then shall turn out to have been the wise men and the right men while those who tuckled and bowed down to gain a present ease shall find that they missed eternity while they were snatching after time and they bartered heaven for a paltry mess of pottage.

It's only the eye of faith that can see that, to see what nobody else can see and to treat it as substance and to be convinced of it and to base your life upon it.

In fact, without that perspective nobody would make the trade of reproach for treasure.

Nobody would do that without that perspective. But to have that perspective, everybody who has that perspective would make that trade.

It becomes the most reasonable thing to do. Imagine that I were to offer you your choice of one of these two things.

You can't have both of these but you can have one of these two things. You can have $100 now or $10 million a year from now.

Which one of those would you choose? Given the current rate of inflation, you might be better off to take the $100 now.

But let's assume that we weren't being governed by all of the escapees from Arkham Asylum for a moment and we lived in a rational world.

Which would you choose? If you said, well, I'd pass on the $100 now, I would take the $10 million a year from now.

Yeah, that's the most reasonable choice, is it? Would we call you sacrificial for making such a trade? No, you'd be acting in your own best self -interest.

And you would be doing what every rational and reasonable person would do. You would gladly take the greater later than the lesser in the immediate.

This is what Moses did. He passed on $100 now, all the treasures of Egypt, so that he can have untold blessing and benefits and glories in the age that is to come.

He was simply passing on that which is passing to embrace that which is everlasting.

And that is a reasonable thing. J. C. Ryle said this, marvel not that he refused greatness, riches, and pleasure.

He looked far forward. He saw with the eye of faith kingdoms crumbling into dust, riches making to themselves wings and fleeing away, pleasures leading on to death and judgment, and Christ only and his little flock enduring forever.

He saw with the eye of faith affliction lasting but for a moment, reproach rolled away, and ending in everlasting honor, and the despised people of God reigning as kings with Christ in glory.

That's what the eye of faith sees. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we are so grateful to you for your goodness to us in your

Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What you have promised and provided for those who are faithful to you, for those to whom you have granted faith and repentance is truly beyond our ability to comprehend or even imagine.

We know that that waits ahead of us and we pray that you would help us to focus our hearts and our minds in good times and in bad upon the reward that is to come.

Knowing, trusting, and believing that you are that reward that you will give to us not just things to enjoy but you will give to us yourself to enjoy.

The pleasure and delight of knowing you and fellowshipping with you and seeing you face to face, receiving those blessings, blessings for our service, blessings for our fellowship, blessings for our sacrifices, in the end will make anything that we give up in this life seem so small by comparison.

And we pray that you would help us to grasp that in our hearts and in our minds and that that would manifest itself in the daily decisions.

Help us, we pray, and give us grace not to lose heart when the things of this world pass away and fly away from us when we lose in this world knowing that we shall gain in eternity and gain more than this world can ever offer.

We ask this in the name of Christ and for his sake. We're going to observe our communion now.

We'll do so recognizing that the glory that I've spoken of and the rewards, in fact, God himself has offered to us and given to us in the person of Christ and only because of what

Christ has done. Everything that we enjoy, every blessing, spiritual blessing, physical blessing, and of course the eternal and coming blessings have all been purchased for us by the blood of Christ.

There is nothing good that comes to the people of God apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That is true because we deserve only bad things from God's hand.

We deserve only his wrath, only his judgment, only his reproof and rebuke.

We deserve eternal wrath because of our sin because we are liars and thieves and blasphemers and fornicators and adulterers and violated

God's law. We deserve nothing but his justice and his judgment. In fact, that is the good and the right and appropriate thing for a just and holy

God to do is to punish lawbreakers of which we were in that lot. We were among them. But Jesus Christ came into this world being the divine son of God and being

God himself. He lived a perfect life and then he died on a cross to pay the price for any and all who repent of their sin and embrace him as Savior and Lord.

So we can enjoy good things from God's hand, good blessings in this life and the life to come and of course all the spiritual blessings that we have to enjoy are ours because of what

Christ has done, purchased them for us through his blood on the cross. So if you are here this morning and you have never trusted

Christ for salvation, you have never repented of your sin and believed upon him and been born again, you need to understand that right now you sit here under the wrath of God, under his judgment deserving eternal hell for your sin.

And not just your sin, singular, but all of your sins, all of your iniquities. Every last thing that you have done, every thought, word and deed is known by God.

He sees the secret things. He sees every thought. He sees every motive of the heart. He's recorded every deed that you've done.

He forgets none of them and he is unchanging in his holiness and in his righteousness. And for that reason, if you were to stand before him without someone to pay the price for your sin, you would receive his judgment and his justice and you would deserve eternity in hell.

You would deserve what every person around you deserves as well. The only reason that those around you do not get that fate is because they have come to understand their sin and they have obeyed the gospel command, which is to turn from that sin and to trust in the sacrifice of the divine son of God who gave his life to redeem sinners.

Through his perfect life, he provides for us all the righteousness that we need and in his perfect death, he has atoned for and paid the infinite and eternal price that our sin deserves.

And he calls out to you and commands you this day to turn from your sin and to believe upon his son, the

Lord Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God. And if you will not do that and you die unforgiven in your sin, you will perish everlastingly.

All of that is the bad news. And the good news is with it that Jesus Christ died to save sinners.

So yes, you're a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. Embrace him or perish. Those are your two options. If you are not a believer and you will not repent and you've never been born again, what we do in partaking of the

Lord's table with the bread and the wine and the juice is not for you at all.

It's not intended for you. You're outside of those blessings. You have no part in them and to eat and to drink is to eat and drink judgment to yourself.

So you do it at your own peril. Believer, if you're in Jesus Christ, you can eat and drink in an unworthy manner.

If you're living an unrepentant sin, you're unwilling to confess that sin. So before we partake, we're going to take a few moments to pray together.

I will ask the ushers to come forward and then I will lead us in a prayer of confession. Ushers, come on forward.

Alright, let's bow our heads. Our Father, we search our own hearts and we can sometimes be overwhelmed by the sin that we see in ourselves that still remains.

We hate it and we want to be rid of it. We long for that day when we shall be rid of it. We are aware of the ways in which we fail you each and every day, sometimes moment by moment, and not loving you as we should and not doing good to our neighbor as we should, neglecting to do all of those things that we are commanded in Scripture to do and then doing those things that Scripture forbids.

So we have sinned in both ways and we confess that to you. We are grateful for the forgiveness that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.

And we are comforted by the fact that you know our hearts better than we do and you know our sin more thoroughly than we do and yet you offer us forgiveness and provide for us that forgiveness in your

Son. And you never forget any of our sins in the sense that they have become unknown to you, but you refuse to call them to mind.

You have put them as far away from you as the east is from the west and you do not reckon our sins to us.

You do not count them to our account. But we thank you that you have taken them away and that you do not deal with us on the basis of our sin, but on the basis of the grace and the work of the

Lord Jesus Christ. So we confess our iniquity and we take comfort in the fact that you know us so well and that you are able to reveal and expose our sin and we gladly embrace the grace that has been made available to us in Christ.

We thank you for him and for his death for us on the cross. It is in his name that we pray.

On the night in which he was betrayed our Lord took the bread and when he had broke it he said take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same manner also after supper he took the cup and said this is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Thank you so much Lord for the time we can enjoy together, this fellowship just remembering what you did for us.

We thank you so much Lord that we can remember that, that we can stand in your righteousness and not our own.

And thank you too that we can look forward to the riches there before us in heaven and for eternity.

Thank you so much Lord for your salvation. We just thank you so much that we can enjoy this time together in fellowship in Jesus name, amen.

Please stand. Holy God in love became perfect man to bear my blame on the cross he took my sin by his death

I live again Holy God in love became perfect man bear my sin by his death

I live again by his death

I live again To those who are the called, beloved in God the

Father and kept for Jesus mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Have a great week. God bless you.