Moses And The Messiah - [Hebrews 11:23-29]

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Well, when we were having young kids in the house, we always had a game when it comes to the great show, the
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Ten Commandments. And so in our family, we would watch the Ten Commandments and we would try to figure out what part was true according to the
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Bible and what part was made up. And whoever could figure out the most errors in the movie would win some type of prize.
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So I, don't you wish you were my kids, see. So, I just thought
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I would go through a few of the things when it comes to the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston as Moses that weren't correct.
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So if you ever have to play this game, you can be the winner. Moses's mother in the movie is called
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Yashabel while in Exodus 6, she's named Jacobed. So there's an error.
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The daughter of Pharaoh is mentioned in the Bible only when she rescues baby Moses, but in the movie, she leaves with the
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Israelites out of Egypt. Moses had no relationship according to the
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Bible with any of Pharaoh's sons. Although in the movie, you can see a lot of interaction. Moses is referred to in the movie as a successful commander, a military commander, but that's basically lore.
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Josephus, the Jewish writer said something about that, but it doesn't come from the Bible. What else did
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I find? The special character named Baka, B -A -K -A, played by Vincent Price, not mentioned in the
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Bible, but we just had to have Vincent in the movie, of course. Moses in Exodus 4 is being portrayed or is portrayed as not being very eloquent, but of course, in the movie, he's a great speaker.
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The story of Korah and the rebellion happens in the movie with the golden calf so they conflate the thing.
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And many other things. What I didn't do this week is I didn't study the Prince of Egypt, the cartoon, and see how many errors were in that.
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I figured there might be too many. There's so much about Moses in the Bible, so much data.
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What's important? What do we need to know about Moses? And so if you take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews, Moses is brought up not only in chapter three and four, but also in chapter 11.
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And when we look at Hebrews chapter 11, we'll be surprised by some of the things that this preacher, the writer of Hebrews, includes and what he excludes.
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He doesn't talk about the plagues. He doesn't talk about the circumcision of blood. He doesn't talk about the burning bush.
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He doesn't talk about God buried Moses on Mount Nebo and all kinds of other things.
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What does he include? And the bigger question today is why does he include them? If you're only gonna talk about five snapshots of Moses in the book of Hebrews to spur the listeners, the readers onto faith, why would you include these things?
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And so we're gonna look at today five events in Moses' life designed for you to keep believing so that in spite of circumstances, in spite of difficulties, you still trust the
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Lord Jesus Christ, that you take God at His word, that you don't walk in blind faith but you walk by faith in the object, the
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Lord Jesus, who's presented in the book of Hebrews as not just a king and not just a prophet but as the great high priest, a mediator.
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We need somebody to stand between God and us and He is the advocate or the mediator, the
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Lord Jesus. What we've been doing here in the book of Hebrews is we've moved from these great by faith
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Abraham who God gave the promise to now by faith Moses to whom God gave the law.
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It's very interesting. We've moved from in a sense to Exodus after we left...
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What did I just say? I'm not even on any medicine. What can I blame it on?
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Did you know they've said in the last two weeks that PowerPoint doesn't really do any good? And so all these years, some of you wanted me to use
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PowerPoint illustrations and all that stuff, I told you so. What they like to say is if you can't preach, use
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PowerPoint. So I think that the text is dramatic enough. I think the text is wonderful enough as we look at the story of redemption.
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We don't need any kind of props. God has ordained gospel ministry in a very simple fashion, water, wine, bread, and a book, right?
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And we can learn everything we need to from that. We move from Genesis to Exodus, from Abraham, the promise, to Exodus, Moses, the law giver.
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And if I were to say to you, think like a Jew for a moment, you would be locked in, not only when
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I talked about Abraham, but Moses. If I began to talk to you Jewish people about Moses, you would listen, you would pay attention, you would identify, you would understand what this writer is trying to do to these recipients.
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And then of course, everyone else is he's trying to say simply this, dear person who's trusting in the
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Lord Jesus, in spite of the circumstances that you're going through, don't go back to Moses, don't go back to Judaism, don't go back to the old covenant, because everybody, this would be good when
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I'm able to stand, everybody back here, I can't stand myself anymore. Everybody back here in the
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Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, and everybody else, they're looking forward to where you are. And now because you've got some trouble, you wanna go back to Moses, Moses was looking forward to where you are, because he was looking forward to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Forward -looking faith, the right object of faith, faith in spite of circumstances, taking
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God at His word. Now, of course, it's good to know context, and so if you can just go back to chapter 10, you see how 10 ends, and if you know how 10 ends, everything in chapter 11 is much easier to understand.
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Do you see in verse 32 in Hebrews 10, but recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated, for you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
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Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. Notice the word again, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
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He's telling them, you're going through difficult times, you're getting persecuted for your faith, and you wanna go back to a time when you're not getting persecuted, you have to keep enduring.
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Do you notice that he says in verse 37, I love this verse, for yet for a little while, and the coming one, what a great messianic title, the coming one will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith.
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You can almost have a little inkling here that these people were waiting for the Lord's return, that Jesus would come back, but he hasn't come back yet, and now we're going through all this persecution, losing our homes, eventually our lives, if only the
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Lord would come back, we're waiting for the imminent return of Jesus, but now we're running into trouble, maybe we should reconsider
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Christianity. He has said in Hebrews chapter nine, verse eight, since you're there, you can see it, so Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.
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We're waiting for you to come back, Lord, come Lord Jesus, Maranatha, we're eagerly expecting you to be the, not the political savior, but the savior of mankind, please come back, and then when you're not coming back, we're wondering what's going on, and so he says, the just shall live by faith.
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Don't go back to Judaism, don't go back to Moses, Moses was looking forward to your day. So now we come to chapter 11, and remember, chapter 11 is arranged with these clauses that all start with, or many of them start with, by faith.
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Remember, this is a figure of speech called the anaphora, an anaphora is good for memory, it's good for this kind of an emotional appeal, so you'll be drawn into it, it's good to have you just kind of see the inspiration that this writer wants to give through these lists, not just any list, but a redemptive list.
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And now we come to our passage today, Hebrews chapter 11, verses 23 through 28, five events in Moses' life, handpicked by the
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Spirit of God, given to this writer, whether it's Paul, the author of Hebrews, we're not exactly certain, but with apostolic authority, five events designed for you to keep believing, keep taking
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God at his word, no matter what's going on in your life. And so here's what we're gonna do today, dear congregation, we're gonna go back and forth between Hebrews and Exodus, and so maybe you wanna keep your thumb or your digital, do you guys use digital stuff here?
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Let's just do a good survey, how many people use digital Bibles?
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Okay, how many people are godly? Okay. How many people are self -righteous?
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I'm just glad you have your Bible. Years ago, we had a man and he would check out churches by sitting in the parking lot and seeing if people brought their
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Bibles in, and if they did, he would come in. And then now, it's on your phone.
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Okay, that's all right, five events, right?
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This is not just for these recipients of the book of Hebrews, it's for you too, because you might not be a
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Jew, but you go through trouble and you're like, well, what am I gonna do? You have to walk by faith, faith in the right object, forward -looking faith, the
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Lord Jesus said he'd come back for us, he's not come back, how do we act in the meantime? The just shall live by faith,
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Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith, Galatians, the just shall live by faith, Romans, the just shall live by faith,
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Hebrews, walking by faith, not by sight. So five events designed for you to keep believing in the life of Moses.
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Number one, verse 23 of Hebrews 11, and it's not really Moses, but it's his parents, and there is a tie -in here.
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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.
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So we move from dying, dying, dying in the last three verses to the birth, to the birth of Moses.
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Where is this account found where you have both mother and father protecting Moses from wicked
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Pharaoh? Where do we find it where you see regularly Satan trying to kill the line of the
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Messiah? Remember back in Genesis chapter three, there's going to be the serpent crusher. The Messiah will come as we get an inkling of God's redemptive purpose, and we know, of course, that serpent crusher is the
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Lord Jesus. But all throughout history, whether it's Herod or in this particular case with Pharaoh, are the book of Esther.
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God's people need to be snuffed out so the Messiah can't come. And here's an illustration of it.
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It's found in Exodus chapter one. Let's turn to Exodus chapter one. We're gonna be going back and forth between Hebrews and Exodus, and you say, well, it's taken a long time to get through Hebrews.
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One of the reason is because we regularly go back to the Old Testament to make sure we understand what they knew very well.
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We don't know what the names are of the parents of Moses in the old first couple chapters, but later we'll learn their name is
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Amram and Jochebed in Exodus chapter six. How did they by faith live?
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And we're gonna see it's a tie -in between faith and revelation. Exodus chapter one, verse eight.
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And again, talk about drama. It starts off in chapter one with very much drama.
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Now there arose Exodus 1, 8, a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
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Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.
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Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities,
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Python and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread about.
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And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of God. What's the backdrop for this? The Abrahamic covenant where God says,
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I'm gonna make you into a great what? Nation and no matter what kind of persecution happens from other kinds of people,
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God is going to make their name great and they're gonna be a blessing to everyone. Verse 13. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field.
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In all their work, the word is used again here, ruthlessly, they made them work as slaves.
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Then King of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, by the way, without looking at it, what are their names? Anybody remember?
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You're failing my class here because I was gonna try to tell you what was Pharaoh's name? Nobody knows
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Pharaoh's name. What were the two Hebrew midwives names? We all know them. Well, we all do now.
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Shipra and Pua, take a look. And one was named Shipra and the other was named Pua. One was named
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Beauty and one was named Splendor. I don't know about Pua as a name for Splendor, but it's a different culture.
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Gomer, Pua, you know what I'm talking about. It's interesting, we don't know who the
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Pharaohs are, but these two names inscribed forever as two ladies who would do the right thing, taking
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God's promise at face value, at their own expense, possibly. Verse 16, when you serve as a midwife to the
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Hebrew women and see them give a birth on the birth stool, they kind of had this stone thing that they would make and women would hunch down as they would give birth.
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If it's a son, kill him. If it's a daughter, she shall live. Why kill the sons and not the daughters?
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Well, the daughters would just marry into the Egyptian race and be assimilated and we wouldn't know the difference.
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But the midwives, verse 17, feared God and did not do as the King of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
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I mean, this is the classic illustration of Acts chapter five, is it not? Do you know what? We'll obey you in every way, shape and form, but when you tell me to sin,
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I won't do it, right? So the King of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live?
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Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they're so vigorous, they give birth before the midwife comes to them.
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So God dealt well with the midwives. How did he deal well with them? The people multiplied and grew very strong.
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And because the midwives fear God, he gave them families. It probably was true that you're a midwife because you're barren, you can't have children.
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And then now because of their fearing God, trusting God, he gives them children.
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Verse 22, then Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born of the Hebrews shall be cast in the
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Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. Well, now we come to really what Hebrews chapter 11 is talking about, the birth of Moses, Exodus chapter two.
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Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife, a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son.
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And when she saw he was a fine child, or as Hebrew says, a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
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When she could no longer hide him, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, or literally an ark, where we would get the word ark,
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Noah's ark, daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
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Now we have no idea if she had any inkling on Moses being the future deliverer.
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Josephus said that in a dream, the parents were told, he's going to be this great deliverer, protect him at all costs.
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Our just text says in Hebrews that he was beautiful, that he was fine looking. Sometimes people back in those days would say, well, they're so beautiful.
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God must have a purpose for them. They're so handsome. God's going to use them. I don't really know if any of that's true or not.
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What I do know is they're not going to kill the boy. People say, well, why three months?
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Because the kids start, I'm serious, talking to me. Do you know if you ever say the word Assyrian, Siri answers you.
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Well, at three months, isn't the baby gonna be kind of loud and they have to get rid of the boy at three months? Have you ever heard a two -month -old cry?
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They're loud. And by the way, what's the difference between a boy crying and a girl crying? Most likely what's happening is she's going to have three months off of her work, the mom.
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Now three months is up. Somebody's gonna have to watch that kid. And when you take the diaper off, guess what you're gonna see? Not a girl.
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So at three months, something's gonna happen. So verse four, the sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.
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Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her servant, she took it.
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She opened it up, saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him. I mean, the providence of God, the sovereignty of God.
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This is one of the Hebrew's children. Obviously they could see. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "'Shall
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I go and carry you a nurse from the Hebrew women "'to nurse the child for you? "'And here with luck, serendipity, fate, and chance.'"
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It says in verse eight, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "'Go ahead,' the girl called the child's mother. "'Take this child away and nurse him for me, "'and
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I will give you wages. "'You nurse your own child, and also we'll pay you for it.'" That's a pretty good deal.
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That sounds like later you're gonna leave Egypt with all their money. That happened too.
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The child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter. He became her son. She named him Moses because I drew him out of the water.
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And that's what Moses means. So the writer in Hebrews is saying, Moses' parents had faith, trusting in this
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God to do the right thing, even though they might lose their own lives to protect the son.
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Hebrew says both husband and wife were involved in protecting their son. I think
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Moses' parents knew. The Abrahamic covenant. Genesis chapter 15, "'The
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Lord said to Abram, "'Know for certain that your offspring "'will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, "'and there'll be servants there.
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"'They'll be afflicted for 400 years, "'but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, "'and afterwards they shall come out "'with great possessions.'"
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We know that we're only here for a while and God will take it out because he's promised to Abraham, our father.
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We know that Genesis three talks about a Messiah to come out of the covenant of Abraham.
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We know, we trust. Event number two, let's go back to Hebrews chapter 12.
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Something now about Moses himself. I think he learned from his faithful parents. I think he learned from his parents that feared the
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Lord. The writer of Hebrews is just trying to show you that many other people who were less than faithful all their lives, who were sinful and not the
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Messiah, they had faith in the Messiah, you keep having faith in the Messiah. And whether it's a health issue, whether it's a family issue, whether it's a plague across the nation, across the world, you can trust the
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Lord. You can take him at his word and your faith has to be forward -looking. There's a future. Everything on this earth, there's something past this earth.
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Hebrews chapter 11, verses 24 through 26, the second event in Moses' life, designed for you to keep believing, taking
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God at his word. Verse 24 through 26, by faith Moses, when he was growing 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.
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He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
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Can you imagine the privileges and some of the things that go along with being
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Pharaoh's son, Pharaoh's daughter's son, to be more precise.
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So much that he could have. And you know what? If I was
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Moses, maybe I'd be thinking, let's see, I could put one foot in this world and I could put one foot in this world.
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And by the way, influence is good. And so how can I stay in Egypt and be a good influence for the
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Israel people? I can see all this going through Moses' mind, but he made the choice and he stuck to it.
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Moses had no inkling to be some political Messiah. He didn't care about revolution.
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He didn't care about politics. He cared about one thing. I will be identified with God's people, even if it costs me.
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That's the point here. I will be identified with God's people, even if it costs me. Think about the writer of Hebrews and its recipients.
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I'll be identified with God's people, even if it what? Costs me. That's the point. His parents taught him well.
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It had nothing to do with blood. It had nothing to do with Zionism. It had to do with, these are the people that God has chosen.
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Spurgeon said, quote, Moses believed that the Israelites were the chosen people of God. This, of course, he had learned from his parents and he heartily believed it.
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Though it certainly did not look to be true, it was the solemn conviction of Moses that the living and true
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God had chosen the seed of Abraham to be his people. They were the election of grace.
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For this cause, Moses loved them and desired to be numbered with them. Of course, the recipients of the book of Hebrews now would be saying things like, yes, we've thrown in our lot with God and his people and if we suffer, we suffer.
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We've made our choice. Those who live by faith identify with God's people, even if they suffer.
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Sounds kind of like Jesus to me, does it not? Did in fact Jesus identify with us?
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It's the opposite of we identify with God's people. Even the Lord Jesus identified with us,
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Hebrews nine, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.
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Look at verse 26 in your Bible in Hebrews 11. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt and he was looking to the reward.
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I mean, the temporary advantage of Egypt with all the pomp and circumstance and glory, that was something to give up.
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How alluring the world had everything to offer through the treasures of Egypt. But Moses reckoned, he thought, he counted, he made a calculation, that's not worth it.
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I'm gonna add up everything and I'd rather pay the price. I'm gonna look forward.
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And he identifies, the text says, with the reproach of Christ. He considered the reproach of Christ.
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How can we talk about Christ in the Old Testament? How can we talk about Christ in Exodus? True or false,
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Moses was a prophet. All right, you thought it was a trick question, didn't you?
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True or false, David was a prophet, that is a trick question. You're gonna have to look that up on Siri.
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There was a greater prophet who was gonna come greater than Moses that Moses wrote about in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
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I don't think we look at the Old Testament like we should sometimes. I think we look at it, Jesus comes later.
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They're thinking about this Messiah who is gonna come since Genesis chapter three. I love
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Deuteronomy 18, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses is talking, from among you, from your brothers.
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It is to him you shall listen, just as you desired the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of assembly.
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Moses didn't say, I'm gonna go for revolution, but I'm a man of faith and I'm trusting in this
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Messiah, the Lord Jesus who would come. He didn't know his name was Jesus, but he knew the Messiah would come.
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He didn't straddle the fence, no halfway position. He regarded the disgrace that he was going through for the sake of Christ.
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He knew the Messiah would come. He didn't know when, but it was going to be worth it. And I could play this off on Hebrews for the audience.
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The Lord Jesus is gonna come back the second time. We don't know when, but it's gonna be worth it.
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Event number three, designed for you to keep believing, for you to have faith in the object of the high priest in spite of circumstances with forward looking nature.
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Event number three, verse 27. By faith, Hebrews 11, he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured as seen him who is invisible.
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So we've got the parents, we've got the reproaches of Christ and now we've got, he left Egypt. How many times did
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Moses leave Egypt? Not according to the cartoon or the 10 commandments, but the
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Bible, twice. Once he leaves for Midian and later, 40 years later, he leaves for Exodus.
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So which one is which? Which one is this? By faith, he left Egypt not being afraid. Which one is it?
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50 -50? Sometimes when I look out of the congregation and you look a little tired, then
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I have to like walk back and forth or hit the PowerPoint. I'm trying to figure out a way to kind of get your attention right now. Huh?
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Taser. Taser. I learned not that long,
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I mean, Luke is in Indiana preaching this weekend at a conference. I learned not that long ago that when he was in college in the dorm room, they would have a couple tasers and they'd run into a buddy's room and then double tase him.
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And I'm like, what kind of kid is that? I asked my wife, what kind of son did you raise?
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See, now you're paying attention. Creating me a clean heart. Oh God, it should be
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Luke's prayer. The first time when
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Moses left, he left because he was afraid. So while this is taken out of chronological order, which is fine for them to do, this is the second time.
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This is Moses leaves the second time, 40 years later. This is the Exodus. John Owen has this view,
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John Calvin has this view, Arthur Pink has this view. It's kind of difficult because do we take it chronologically? But I think that whole fear thing comes into play.
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Either way, the point is this, Moses took God at his word and obeyed anyway.
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He walked by faith and not by sight. And then number four, the fourth event, verse 28, by faith he kept the
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Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
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Okay, I've been waiting my whole sermon to lead up to this. This is the Passover. Take your
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Bibles and turn to the Passover chapter in Exodus. Does anybody know where that is? Exodus chapter 12.
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There should be certain things in your mind where you should say, Genesis three, the Messiah is promised.
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You should have things in your mind like Genesis 12, 15, 17, 21, Abrahamic covenant.
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You should have things in your mind like Exodus three, the burning bush, Exodus chapter 12,
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Passover, Leviticus 16, Yom Kippur. This is one that you should mark. If you've got a Bible, maybe you put a crease on it or a special notation digitally.
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This is the Passover event. And now let's think about it before I read the passage and we go through it.
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You have to take God at His word to survive, but it's weird. It's not scientific.
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It doesn't even really seem logical. There's no precedent for it. You daub some blood over the doorpost and you live.
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Well, what do you mean? This is just as odd as next week. I want you to march around the city six times and on the seventh time, march around seven times and the walls will come tumbling down.
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What are these things? How does this go about? So the author wants you to know you have revelation from God.
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He says something. You see it in the word. They heard it from God directly and we'll do it no matter what.
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In spite of what we see, we have to walk by faith. The whole thing is walking by faith, not by science, logic, or something else.
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There's a supernatural nature to God. Don't buy into modernism where we just gut any kind of supernatural thing.
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This is the sprinkling of the blood by faith. Moses thought, I'm gonna take God at His word even if it kills me.
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Even if I perish, I perish. So knowing that, take a look at Exodus chapter 12.
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We're not going to look at every verse, but of course, every reader of the book of Hebrews would immediately think, yes, that's true.
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This is a forward -looking faith, taking God at His word kind of faith, faith in the object of God, the triune
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God Himself faith, not just kind of this amorphous faith in faith, taking some kind of Kierkegaardian leap of faith.
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No, I know who God is. He's trustworthy, and if He is faithful then, and I know He doesn't change,
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He's faithful now. And before I read this, I could just make it as practical as possible. Dear Christian, no matter what you're going through, you can trust
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God. His word is true. Your life could be chaos, but His word is true.
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And you have to reorient your mind, it's called repentance, to think that way. I have a dear friend and he's going through a trial and I talked to him on the phone yesterday.
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And he's been handling the trial pretty well. And then he said to me yesterday, he said, do you know,
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I've done all this work and this is the payback I get from God. And I said, dear friends, dear friend,
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I've known you for quite a while and I wish you could see my face when I said this to you. But I said, this is the first thing you've told me over the last five months of your trial, that's wrong, it's awful.
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You can't think that way about God, He's not failed you. He's good, His promises are true. You just look at the
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Lord Jesus and you can see the faithfulness of God. And what He would do for the son and to the son on your behalf, because He loves sinners.
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You ought not to think that way. There's a word I have for you and that is repent. You don't need to be chastened by God because your view of God now is lower because your circumstances are overwhelming your view.
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When your circumstances overwhelm your view, that's why theology matters. That's why you have to start with, okay,
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I can't walk by sight, I have something more important than my five senses and that is the word of God.
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I know you feel abandoned by God, but in fact you're not. Luther's right, feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving.
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My warrant is the word of God, nothing else is worth believing. And so I said, dear friend,
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I love you and I know I'm rebuking you, but you can't think that way about God because I know what the text says and I know
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God's faithfulness, not only in Abraham's life, David's life, Moses' life, Rahab's life,
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Jephthah's life, Jesus' own faithful life, Paul's life, Peter's life, the list goes on, but in your own life.
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And so when things are upside down and the tests are bad and the family's amassed and everything else and you're like, you know what?
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Maybe God is out to get me. That has to be eradicated from your thinking. Or maybe
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I could say it more gently, don't think that way. Because even though he slay you, yet I'll trust in him, that's what
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Job said. I've been in trials before and I've done a lot of dumb things, but I didn't wanna get disciplined by God to add to the trial.
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I didn't wanna be chastened by God to think something about God. I know if you say,
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God, why? I don't mind the question, the psalmist asks it, Job asks it, but God never responds with the answer to why.
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He responds with, this is who I am. That's why theology is so important. Where God's faithful and trustworthy and he is reliable and he is good and he is gracious.
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And when I get my mind off all these other things or on these other things rather,
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I have to be reminded that there's a savior who has conquered death and he's coming back. I want him to come back now, but part of that is just,
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I'd like to get out of my problems, but he's coming back. So everything here is designed, so when you're in a trial, you have to think biblically.
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That's why little sermonettes for Christianettes won't work. That's like, just give me five more things to get me through my day this week.
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No, no, you might not make it through your week. This lie that people have been told their whole lives, taking a verse out of context,
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God will never give you more than you can take. That's not true. He'll never give you a temptation that you can't handle, but he might give you more than you can take.
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Ask Paul, ask Job, look at your own life, but he'll be with you.
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And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So these things aren't picked out randomly.
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These things are picked out, so you say, you know what, I'm struggling in my faith. What should I do? You know what my new answer is gonna be?
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Read Exodus 12. Let's see what it says. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be the beginning of the months for you.
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It shall be the first month of the year to you. So let's get everything prepped before the sacrifices. You got four days to get ready.
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And here's what you're gonna tell them. On the 10th of the month, each to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father's household, a lamb for each household.
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Now, if the household's too small for a lamb, go to your neighbor and essentially share.
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Your lamb, verse five, shall be an unblemished male, a year old. You may take it from the sheeps or from the goats.
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By the way, back in those days, sheeps, goats, they're about the same thing. That's why we even learn when Jesus is going to, on that last day of judgment, he's the only one that can separate the sheep from the goats.
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Because to these farmers, to these people, they're the same. Take the lamb, unblemished.
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By the way, does that set off any bells in the New Testament for you? Unblemished lamb, does that sound like anything to you?
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Of course, that's with the precious blood of Jesus, the lamb without blemish, 1 Peter chapter one.
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Keep it until the 14th day. Kill it at twilight. Take some of the blood.
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Now, this is the part that's weird. This is the part that's like, I mean, we know the passage, so maybe we don't think it's weird. Here's how you're gonna survive.
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Kill the lamb, take some of the blood, put it on the two doorposts of the lintel of the houses in which they eat.
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They shall eat the flesh the same night, roast it with fire, eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
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Verse 12, well, sorry, verse 11, it talks about the Lord's Passover. Verse 12, for I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast against the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments.
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I am the Lord. You Egyptians think your gods have the power of procreation and fertility, we'll see.
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And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. Verse 13, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
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I hope you're thinking New Testament as well. And no plague shall befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
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This just strikes me as so strangely because, okay, there's gonna be a death angel, he's gonna come and kill.
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I haven't really seen any death angels, have you? Well, yeah, the death angel's gonna come. What are we supposed to do, dad?
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We're supposed to kill this lamb. And you can imagine just the kids are around you asking these questions. Here's a lamb, let's bring it in for a while.
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We keep it for a few days. And kids, let's not name the thing because then it's gonna be harder to kill.
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And you know what I mean? Kids named it, you know, these are older, so it's not like a little fluffy thing, but maybe they named it fluffy or whatever.
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Get the taser out, tase the thing. And then daddy is gonna take some hyssop because it's kind of got, we know we don't have paintbrushes, but it's like a paintbrush, it's a plant and it's kind of good for that.
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And we're gonna drain the blood out and I'm gonna take the blood and put it over the doorpost. Everybody else's firstborn kid's gonna die, but our kids, you're not gonna die.
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The point is there's revelation from God and we just do what he says. It seems odd, it seems interesting, it seems weird.
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How about any weirder than out of the 10 ,000 Jews crucified 2000 years ago, there's one particular
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Jew who claimed to be God and did a bunch of miracles. And if you put your faith in him, you'll go to heaven and have all your sins forgiven.
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That's pretty weird. No, let's not use the word weird. Let's use the words of 1
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Corinthians 1. That's foolishness to those who don't believe, but to those who believe it's the power of God unto salvation.
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The key is God's word. Now, I don't know about you, but if it was me, I would like double and triple paint it.
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I would paint it a little bit, let it dry, see if I missed a little spot. You know, have you ever done any painting?
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You go back and check your work, like I missed some of that. And I would have all that there. The kids would be supervising and I would make sure
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I did that thing right. But do you have to put two coats on? Do you have to put three coats on?
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Do you have to sand it? What do you have to do? Very fascinating. You take
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God at his word. S. Lewis Johnson says, there's a legend among the
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Hebrews about two sisters who on that night had gone in to their household on the night of Passover.
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One of them stood all ready to depart and began eating the portion of her roast, the roast lamb, a type of the soul feeding on Christ.
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Her mind was perfect, peace and rest. The other, however, was walking about the dwelling full of terrible fear, lest the destroying angel should penetrate therein.
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The one reproached her sister saying, how could you be so careless and so confident?
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And finally asked her how it was that she could be so certain they were not going to lose the firstborn of the death angel.
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Why, sister, the blood has been sprinkled. We have God's word that when he sees the blood, he'll pass over it.
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Now I have no right to doubt God's word. Isn't that good? Yes, but I don't feel like I put enough blood up there.
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This is where we move to the objective promises of God. God said to do it, I did it, I trust him. But I haven't really lived a holy enough life this week.
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But I haven't repented of all my sins. I haven't surrendered every part of my life to Yahweh, the triune God. Son, daughter, kill the lamb, paint it up there, your kids will live.
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Isn't that interesting? That's so great. It's kind of back in the old days, you know, when you have to put your hands on the head of the lamb before you make a sacrifice under certain situations.
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And you're like, well, where do my hands go? How firm do I have to put my hands down?
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How long do I have to have my hands there? No, the question is, you just put your hands on the lamb, kill the lamb, it'll be in your place.
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This is taking God at his word. This is walking by faith. This is why the most immature Christian, the
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Christian who's struggling with sin are the most mature Christian, can say the object of my faith,
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I trust in him, even though I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And then finally, turn over to Exodus chapter 14.
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The fifth event to keep you believing is the crossing of the Red Sea. I'll read Hebrews 11 for you while you're returning to Exodus 14.
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By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned, were literally swallowed up.
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Okay, so what's going on in Exodus chapter 14? This is another chapter, by the way, that you ought to know. What's in Exodus 12, by the way?
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What's in Genesis 3? What's in Genesis 12? Okay, it's like ordination, isn't it?
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I said to the men's discipleship group, I said, listen, there's a danger at our church.
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Well, there are many dangers, but here's one. We learn a bunch of theology, right? And then we only walk in light of that theology this much.
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What's the difference called? Hypocrisy, right? Then the next week we learn this much, and we only do this much.
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Pretty soon it's a gap, it's a chasm, it's a Grand Canyon. So what are we to do?
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Well, I have a good idea. Let's just toss theology and just live and let live. Is that the right answer? No, we have to teach you theology because we want it to lead to things like,
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I will acknowledge I'm a hypocrite, Lord, forgive me, but I have to do things based on what I know. Faith is tied to revelation.
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Faith is tied into who God is, trusting in that object. These kind of passages like Exodus 12 and 14 are great faith boosters.
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If you're going through a trial, this week I want you to read Exodus 12 and 14. Well, let's take a look at the Red Sea. This is another one of those things where you're like, yeah, you sure,
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God? This is not how I'd run the universe. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, chapter 14, verse one, tell the sons of Israel to turn back the camp before that big mountain and before that big mountain.
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Pith -har -erath and Migdol. Okay, so here's what's happening. In front of you is the Red Sea. There's a huge mountain over here.
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There's a huge mountain over here and Pharaoh's army's back over here. What do you do? A perfect scenario that you're boxed in and you have to go,
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God help me. Right? You ever been in those situations? There's nothing you can do. Lord, you're gonna have to help me.
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So what are you gonna do? Well, Pharaoh's heart's gonna be hardened, verse four, but I'm gonna teach the
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Egyptians a lesson. I'm gonna teach them the lesson that you know, that I am the Lord. I'm Yahweh, the covenant -keeping
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God, and I protect my people and my promises will come forth as true. The Messiah will come out of this nation held in bondage to Egypt.
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They made the chariot ready, took the people with him, 600 select chariots, verse seven, and all the other chariots.
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The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. By the way, what's it mean when it says, the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh? What's it mean?
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The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. The king's heart is in the
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Lord's hand and he turns it what? Whatever way he wishes. How can you harden
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Pharaoh's heart? Well, it says here several times he did. Egyptians chasing, verse nine, all the horses, horsemen, army overtaking.
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What are they doing? They're camping by those mountains.
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Pharaoh draws near, marching, everybody's frightened, verse 10, Israel's crying out to the covenant -keeping
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God, Yahweh. Now the complaining comes. I know you'd never do this. I would never would.
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Always the other complainers, it's because there's no graves in Egypt, you've taken His way to die in the wilderness. Why have you dealt this way?
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They know there's no possible way out. Moses said to the people, verse 13, fear not.
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And this summarizes all the Bible by the way, with our Lord Jesus and our salvation. What do we contribute to our salvation?
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Nothing but sin. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. The risen Savior does it all. Salvation is of the
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Lord Jonah. And here the same thing, physical salvation of course, but we see the picture of eternal salvation.
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Stand by and see salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. Take me at my word.
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For the Egyptians who have you seen today, you'll never see them again. Don't you love it, verse 14, the
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Lord will fight for you, you keep silent. What's your job? Could I say it kids, you kids listening?
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Your job is to shut up. Stop complaining. Now all the kids are looking straight up.
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And even other people too. Moses took
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God at His word. What was God's word? Verse 16, lift up your staff, stretch it out with your hand over the sea and divide it.
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Okay, that's amazing. This is by faith. Whatever God says
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I'm going to do. And the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea and dry land.
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As for me, I'm going to harden everybody's hearts. Who are the Egyptians? Whatever God's word says
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I'll do. All right, let's just make it as practical as we can. If you're ever in a trial, what do you do? Count it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials.
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I told that to that guy yesterday. I want you to count this all joy. I can't see him over the phone.
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We didn't FaceTime, it was just call, but I'm thinking, he's thinking to me, you're telling me what? Count it all joy?
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I know this isn't joyful, but how can you count it all joy? This is God and he said it in his word. So what happens?
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You know what happens. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, verse 21. Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land.
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So the waters were divided. I saw an old show years ago, CBS, said there was a certain kind of earthquake and a wind and a typhoon and a tsunami and all this other stuff.
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Is that what God had to do? He could have used it. How about God just said supernaturally like he created the world out of nothing, ex nihilo.
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He just supernaturally says, I'm going to do this. Simple. They go across dry land.
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By the way, verse 22, the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Time is gone, but I will say this.
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When you watch the movies, both Prince of Egypt and the Ten Commandments, it seems like it's kind of this narrow corridor that they're going through, dry land.
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Sometime calculate, how do you get 2 million people across the Red Sea in one watch of the night?
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Answer, it's got to be a mile wide. A mile wide, you've got 2 million people and the wall here and the wall there, and in you go, taking
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God at his word. And the
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Egyptians took pursuit and the rest was a disaster for them. What's the point, dear pastor?
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What's the point for you, dear congregation? There's been many people who walk by faith and not by sight and you need to continue to walk by faith and not by sight.
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Don't go back to Moses when Moses was looking forward to the Messiah. Well, next week, we run into two more interesting passages and that is
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Jericho and Rahab. My goal is to see if I can get through the whole chapter next week, but I'm already gonna do two things.
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I'm already gonna throw these crutches away and tell you I can't do that. So we'll just see what happens. Don't you dare believe, dear
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Christian. People like Andy Stanley who tell you to unhitch the New Testament from the
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Old, you don't need the Old Testament because they're too ashamed to know what's in the
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Old Testament. They're afraid of certain food laws and what about homosexuality and what about the sexual laws of cleanliness and all that.
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So we're just ashamed of the Old Testament. This writer says, would you like to grow in your faith?
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Read the Old Testament. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for our time and your word.
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I pray for those who are here today that are Christians, that you would increase their faith. We admit we're weak and we need to increase faith.
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We also admit and confess that you're a great God who provides abundantly beyond what could ever ask or think.
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So thank you. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the one to whom Moses looked. For those that are not
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Christians here, not believing, they're believing that they'll get out of death unscathed without a mediator,
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I pray that you would convict them and give them no rest until they rest in your Son. In Jesus' name, amen.