Moses: The Great Lawgiver (Hebrews 11:22-29)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Hebrews chapter 11, and when you've found your place, let's pray before we begin. Our Father, it is our great joy and delight to be able to enjoy the freedom of being here, gathered with like -minded saints who have a like -precious faith, and like salvation, and to sit with open

00:19

Bibles in our laps to read and study Your Word. What a delight this is for us, and it thrills our hearts to see truth in Your Word, and to conform, be conformed by Your Word and to Your Word.

00:30

And we pray that You would accomplish that in our hearts today, that You would give to us grace to bow our hearts and our understanding to Your Word and to be sanctified by it.

00:40

We pray that You would do this work in us and send Your Spirit to be our teacher, we ask in Christ's name. Amen.

00:47

Hebrews chapter 11, verses 23 through 29, let's read them together. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

00:59

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 to the reward.

01:18

By faith he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, he endured as seeing him who was unseen. By faith he kept the

01:24

Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

01:30

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.

01:37

Well, Moses is our next example of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, and probably if you were to go out onto the street this afternoon and interview your average garden variety pagan, just anybody who is part of the walking dead, and ask them what they know about Moses, they would have some idea of who he is and his connection to Scripture.

01:56

They would probably associate him with the parting of the Red Sea, the killing of a bunch of people in Egypt for some reason, ten plagues, and the

02:05

Ten Commandments. And I think that that cultural association of Moses with those items in Scripture and those events in Scripture is probably largely due to the fact that we are still living off the fumes of a culture that was familiar with the 1956 movie by Cecil B.

02:21

DeMille starring Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston, The Ten Commandments, right? When I was a kid, some 14 or more years ago, we would watch that every year.

02:32

It was on on Resurrection Sunday that evening, and it was back then, if you were to watch

02:38

TV on Sunday night, that was the only thing that was on in our area because we had one channel, one channel.

02:45

And I know that it had to have been on ABC because anything that was on CBS or NBC, it was always snowing.

02:51

Every show was snowing inside, snowing outside, and if you turned the antenna just right, you could get it to stop snowing for a brief period of time until your favorite show came on, and then it would start snowing all over again.

03:02

If you're over 30 years old or so, then you have some idea of what I'm talking about. And if you're looking at me like, what is he talking about?

03:08

You have no idea how... You're probably thinking, if you're younger, you're thinking, you had a horrible childhood, didn't you?

03:16

And the answer to that is, yes, I did. But we had... Hold on. But we had

03:21

Ronald Reagan, and I would take one channel and Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat today.

03:26

I would do away with everything else if I could just have those two things back. So Moses, that's where we're talking,

03:33

Moses and The Ten Commandments. So I have vivid images in my mind of that movie, and that is a movie that could very easily be remade.

03:42

Hollywood is trying to remake a bunch of movies. I would suggest that The Ten Commandments could be remade. There are a lot of movies that age well, and then there are movies that do not age well.

03:52

And if it's been a while since you saw that, just go back and watch some YouTube clips. I was looking at one last night.

03:58

There's like an eight -minute clip on YouTube of all the times that Moses' name is mentioned in the movie.

04:04

And that's fun to just watch, that eight minutes of the references to Moses. And you could basically get the entire story in those eight minutes if you want to do that.

04:11

Rather than spending three hours and 40 minutes watching The Ten Commandments, you could just watch those eight minutes and basically catch everything that was worth watching.

04:18

I'm not even sure that eight minutes was worth watching. The Exodus is...

04:24

Moses' story is told in the book of Exodus. Moses wrote the book of Exodus, and Moses ended up leading the

04:29

Exodus, and he is our next example in Hebrews chapter 11. Beginning in verse 23, going through the end of verse 29, as we progress through this chapter,

04:39

Hebrews 11, we've gone from Abel, which is Genesis chapter 4, all the way through Joseph, which is

04:44

Genesis chapter 50, and we hit on all of the major events in the book of Genesis, except for the creation account and the

04:51

Tower of Babel. Those two events, we didn't have anything surrounding those, and we didn't deal with those, but we pretty much gave a survey of the rest of the book of Genesis.

05:00

And just these last four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, just those four take us 280 years of history, almost three centuries of history in those lives of those four patriarchs, from the time that Abraham was called until the time that Joseph dies at the end of the book of Genesis, about 280 years.

05:18

Now, between Joseph and Moses, the number of years between those two men is somewhat up for grabs, in terms of it's questionable.

05:27

We're not sure exactly how many years that is, largely because we don't know exactly how to date the

05:33

Exodus or when to date the Exodus. And disregarding all of the schools of thought by liberal theologians and people who are skeptical of Scripture and want to cast doubt on everything that's written in the

05:43

Pentateuch, if you cast aside all of that and you just consider the conservative Bible scholars, there are a couple of different ways of dating the

05:50

Exodus, and we're not sure exactly how to date it, whether we date the captivity of the

05:57

Jews in Egypt, whether we date that from the time of Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, or Jacob going down, or if it's after Joseph is no longer known by Pharaoh, if there's 400 years after that.

06:09

I mean, that can be a period of time that varies here or there. It's going to be somewhat subjective.

06:15

And by vary, I mean not millions of years, but we're talking about a couple of centuries at the most.

06:22

And so we don't know exactly how much time between Joseph and Moses. By some accounts, if you date the

06:27

Exodus rather early, then you're talking about probably 60 to 80, 100 years between Joseph and Moses.

06:34

That can be somewhere up to maybe close to 300 or 400 years between Joseph and Moses.

06:40

So there's a bit of a difference, and I just bring that up simply to say that, though I'm reading on it and trying to study up on it, there's no way

06:48

I'm going to give you a definitive date for the Exodus in this. So if you're expecting that, you should really lower your expectations.

06:54

You've seen me do math. I'm not going to be able to resolve all of the conflict between the conservative

06:59

Bible scholars on to when these events took place. And though we went through most of the book of Genesis, when we get to Moses, it is

07:09

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that feature Moses. So we have a lot more material for Moses.

07:15

Now, don't let your heart skip a beat at that because we're not going to cover everything that there is to cover in the

07:21

Bible regarding Moses. But we are going to highlight the parts of Moses' life, the events of Moses' life that we see highlighted by the author of Hebrews here between verses 23 and 29.

07:32

There's a lot available. So what I'm doing today is we're going to go over some of the details that are in the text of Hebrews chapter 11.

07:40

We're going to kind of give a broad overview of that, and I want to really answer two questions. First, to look at what details are here in Hebrews 11 that we are going to be going back into Exodus and examining.

07:50

But second, in order to set Moses in this context and to answer the question, why did the author choose to highlight

07:56

Moses, and why does he choose to pause at Moses and give us more details on Moses than he does for Abel, Enoch, and Noah, or Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph?

08:05

Because there are two characters in Hebrews 11 that get the bulk of the time there, and it's Abraham, whom we've already looked at, and Moses.

08:12

So the author, why does the author choose Moses? Why camp on him? When you have, for instance,

08:19

Joseph, who has so many examples of faith in the life of Joseph, why just give Joseph a mention and then camp on Moses?

08:26

And I think that there is a reason. The author has a reason. He's making an argument. And what I want to do today is put

08:31

Moses into that argument so you can see how his argument regarding the life of Moses contributes to the flow of the text and answers some of the objections that the first -century

08:40

Christians would have had. The author says, if you look down at verse 32, and what more should I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Sam, and the prophets.

08:50

The author knows that he has a whole list of people that he could spend time on, but he knows his time is limited.

08:55

And so the fact that he stops and pauses and gives us so much detail on Abraham is significant, and so much detail on Moses is significant.

09:03

So today we're going to look at why it is that he gives us so much detail in the life of Moses. The author is following a chronological order in Hebrews 11.

09:11

You've seen that beginning at the fall or just after the fall with Abel and his offering, his sacrifice, and then

09:16

Enoch and Noah, and then he pauses at Abraham, gives us the details on Abraham, and then rushes through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and then pauses on Moses.

09:25

And you'll notice that he's not hitting every character of the Old Testament, but he is hitting specific ones and specific events, and he's doing so in a chronological fashion.

09:34

And from the point of Abel to Moses, we cover roughly 2 ,400 years of history.

09:43

And I say roughly because it's give or take. And by give or take, I don't mean a million years. By give or take,

09:48

I mean a century or two at the most, depending again on how you date things. And the author's purpose is to show that faith has been a principle, faith has been at work, faith has been key since the fall of man.

10:03

Since the time that Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden, in their two sons, Cain and Abel, you see faith illustrated in the life of Abel and the sacrifice that he gave.

10:12

And faith is key, faith is key from the very beginning. And salvation, men's acceptance and approval before God and with God, has always been on the basis of faith, never works.

10:22

And Moses is particularly an example of that, since he is the great giver of the law. He's the great lawgiver.

10:28

So if you expected anybody's life to illustrate that you could be saved by keeping the law, you would think that Moses would illustrate that, but the author doesn't even suggest that,

10:35

Scripture nowhere suggests that. Instead, Moses is an example of faith at work. In fact, Moses' faith was at work before the law was even given.

10:44

Yet another argument, the salvation and being approved by God, being used by God, is on the basis of faith and not from works.

10:50

It cannot be from works. Man cannot be saved by works. Works flow from faith, works are the demonstration of true faith, but works contribute nothing to faith in terms of saving efficacy.

11:03

So the threat of faith is seen in the lives of these faithful men and women from the very beginning. Those who are approved by God are approved by God on the basis of faith and faith alone.

11:11

Now let me just remind you of the outline of Hebrews chapter 11, and I'm not going to go through all that we've covered so far, but I want you to see a very simple way of dividing chapter 11 into three main sections.

11:22

In verses 3 through 8, after the author defines what faith is in verse 1 and 2, in verse 3 through 8, he illustrates faith in showing that faith is central to a walk with God.

11:33

In verses 3 through 8, we see faith in a walk with God, in salvation, in the deliverance, and in making one righteous.

11:39

And the three examples there, Abel, Enoch, and Noah. Abel shows us faith in worship. Enoch shows us faith in walking with God.

11:46

And Noah shows us faith in the work for God. Our worship, our walk, and our work.

11:51

And we saw that when we looked at those passages. In verses 9 through 22, we see faith to wait on promises.

11:57

And the examples of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, all of those men, the emphasis of that passage, 9 through 22, is all on the forward -looking aspect of faith.

12:06

That men of faith look forward to the fulfillment of promise, and there's no greater illustration of that in Scripture than Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, who all died without receiving the things that were promised, but anticipated and expected the fulfillment of those promises nonetheless.

12:20

And now in verses 23 to 29, where the example is Moses, we see faith is necessary to endure hostility, adversity, and affliction.

12:30

Faith in our walk with God, faith looking forward to the promises of God, the fulfillment of them, and then faith in enduring hostility and adversity and affliction.

12:38

And as I mentioned, Moses is the second major figure in Hebrews chapter 11, Abraham being the first.

12:44

The author pauses here to focus on these two men, Abraham and Moses, and I think for a reason.

12:50

The other men, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc., they all get a mention in the passage, but nothing like the time that is spent on Abraham and Moses.

12:58

Why is that? I think there's a couple of reasons. First, both of these men are the recipients of covenants.

13:04

They were the recipients of covenants. They have a lot. Abraham and Moses have a lot in common, but one of the main things that they have in common is that both of these men were recipients of covenants.

13:15

Abraham was given an unconditional covenant of a land, a people, and a seed. By the way, the

13:21

Abrahamic covenant is an eternal covenant. Now Moses, the covenant that we refer to as the Mosaic covenant, is a different kind of covenant.

13:29

It's a temporal covenant, a covenant that Hebrews chapter 8 says is passing away. All of the forms and features of that old covenant, the dealing with the law of Moses and the covenant of works that came with Moses, and the law and the giving of all of that, it was a temporary covenant that is made obsolete by the new covenant, which has replaced it in the coming of Christ.

13:47

But Moses had also a covenant, it was a conditional covenant. It involved the law, the

13:52

Aaronic priesthood, and the sacrifices, all of which we've looked at already in the book of Hebrews. So these two are the most significant of all

14:00

Old Testament characters, Moses and Abraham. We might also argue that Adam was a pretty significant

14:07

Old Testament character, since we're all in Adam, and the effects of Adam's fall affects us all today.

14:13

But in terms of God's redemptive and salvation plan, in terms of the things that are connected in all of Scripture to men in the

14:20

Old Testament, we'd say Moses and Abraham really have the preeminence. Abraham was promised the land, and Moses brought them to it.

14:27

Here's a number of parallels between these two men. Abraham was told they would serve in Egypt as slaves.

14:33

Moses brought them out of that slavery. Abraham was promised a nation, and Moses served as a judge of that nation and a leader of that nation.

14:41

In Abraham, the nation was elected or chosen, and we see the choice of God from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as He distinguished between individual sons and firstborn and secondborn in affirming and confirming

14:53

His choice in His election through that lineage. In Abraham, the nation is elect. Through Moses and the

15:00

Passover and the deliverance from Egypt, the nation was saved. And we're not necessarily talking in the salvific, because we would define salvific in terms of sin and eternal life.

15:10

But there is the deliverance of the nation from slavery and bondage into freedom and into the land and into the promises of God.

15:17

And that deliverance out of Egypt is symbolic in a way. It also sets a precedence and becomes an example that is used throughout

15:24

Scripture of God's delivering power, His redeeming power. We speak of the nation of Israel being redeemed sometimes.

15:31

And when we talk about that in Old Testament sense, we're not saying that everybody in Israel was saved, spiritually speaking, that they all had eternal life and that they were all justified and that they were all righteous.

15:39

That's not what we mean. But we do mean that the Israelites, the nation, was saved or delivered out of bondage, out of Egypt, which is often a symbol of sin in the

15:50

Old Testament. That slavery and that bondage and that darkness becomes somewhat symbolic of sin as we read about in the

15:58

New Testament. So in Abraham, the nation is elect. But in Moses, the nation is saved. And not in Moses, but you know what

16:04

I mean, don't parse my words too much. But through Moses' ministry, he becomes the deliverer or the Savior, the

16:09

Redeemer of Israel in a sense. Abraham was the father of the nation. Moses, its deliverer.

16:15

Abraham was a great patriarch. Moses, the great lawgiver. With each of these men, Moses and Abraham, the salvific and the redemptive plan of God takes a leap forward, a jump forward.

16:26

Before Abraham, you have men justified on the basis of faith and faith alone, as Abel, Enoch, and Noah demonstrate.

16:33

But in Abraham, suddenly there's a crystallization of the promises of God and the redemptive intention of God, as he promises to Abraham a land, a seed, and a people, a descendants.

16:44

And this becomes the way through which God is going to bring salvation to the nations. Well, in Moses, you see the shadows of that salvation begin to take shape with the sacrifices and the ceremonies and the priesthood of the

16:56

Old Testament. So with each of these men, God's plan for salvation takes a leap forward and becomes a little bit more clear.

17:03

Now why is Moses included? I think he's included for the same reason that Abraham is included, and that is to show the faith in the lives of men whom the

17:11

Jews revered. Remember, the book of Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians in the first century,

17:17

Christians who had a background in Judaism, who had come out of Old Testament Judaism and had stepped away for a time from the

17:24

Old Covenant, and now some of them are thinking about returning to it. And the author wants to demonstrate that their lineage of godly men, starting from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and the rest of them, that all of these men had the same principle of faith at work that he has been advocating throughout the entire book.

17:42

So that these men would be encouraged, that these readers would be encouraged to cling to Christ and not abandon Christ.

17:48

And it's something of a stroke of genius that the author uses Abraham and Moses in this chapter because he is trying to argue against a couple of very common

17:57

Jewish objections to the Christian faith. Here are a couple of common Jewish objections to the Christian faith.

18:02

Number one, that Christianity is a Gentile religion and I'm a Jew. Many Jews think that.

18:07

Christianity is a Gentile religion. That's faith. That's for you Gentiles. You believe in this guy named Jesus.

18:13

That's a Gentile faith. But I'm an ethnic Jew, therefore I will please God based upon my works, based upon my interpretation of the

18:20

Old Testament, based upon my lineage. That gets me into the covenant. That gets me into God's goodness, His favor, because I'm ethnically a

18:26

Jew. Well, by citing Abraham, he's demonstrating that the faith that he's calling the readers to, the faith that God calls everybody to place in Him and thus in the

18:38

Messiah, is a faith that goes all the way back to Father Abraham. You want to trace your faith lineage back to somebody?

18:46

It goes all the way back to the Father of the nation. And by taking it back to Moses, he is showing that no one is justified by the law since Moses' faith itself predated the giving of the law.

18:57

The law came after the Exodus, after passing through the Red Sea, after the Passover, after Moses considered the treasures of Egypt less than the reproaches of Christ.

19:06

All of these examples in Hebrews 11 of Moses' faith predate the giving of the law, and therefore

19:12

Moses was already a man approved by God, not on the basis of the law, the Ten Commandments, and keeping all the forms and functions of the

19:19

Old Covenant, but Moses was a man approved by God, and embraced by God, and loved by God on the basis of grace and faith alone.

19:28

Second, it's a common Jewish objection, is that Christianity is incompatible with the law of Moses. And so here's what the author is saying.

19:35

He's saying, look, you are facing pressure to abandon Christ and return to the forms and features of the

19:43

Old Covenant. You are facing the pressure from your family and from your culture to leave what you have come to embrace in Christ and to go back to Moses.

19:53

And now the author, by citing Moses, is basically saying, if you go back to Moses, you're betraying

19:58

Christ. Because Moses considered the reproaches of Christ as greater and better than the treasures of Egypt.

20:06

Therefore Moses left all the convenience and the comfort and the treasures and the pleasures that Egypt offered, and he embraced instead the reproach of Christ.

20:15

So if you let go of the reproach of Christ and turn away from him and go back to Moses, you're actually doing the opposite of what

20:22

Moses did. Do you see what the author is arguing? He's basically saying to them, do you think Moses left

20:27

Egypt because he liked being with Jews? Do you think Moses left Egypt because he wanted to wander around the desert for 40 years?

20:34

Listen to the 3 million people say, are we there yet? I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. When are we going to eat meat again?

20:40

Can't we go back? Do you think that's why Moses left Egypt? No. Moses left

20:45

Egypt because he saw in the promises of God a great reward. That great reward was in the

20:51

Christ. And he was willing to leave all of that so that he could embrace Christ. And so now you, dear reader, if you turn from Christ to have the pleasures and the treasures of this world, to secure your own reputation and have a life of ease and freedom from persecution and conflict, you're actually doing the opposite that Moses did.

21:11

So don't claim that you're following Moses' example, and don't claim that you belong to the tribe of Moses, if you're doing the opposite of what

21:17

Moses did in his leaving of Egypt. That is a brilliant argument that the author is making. It's just brilliant.

21:24

He's pulling out all of the stops and taking away all of their excuses as to why they might abandon Jesus. And he's already made the argument that Jesus is greater than Moses.

21:32

He's already made that case. Back in chapter 3, you can turn back there if you want, verses 1 to 6, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider

21:40

Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses was also in all his house.

21:49

For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. For by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

21:57

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.

22:08

But Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

22:15

He's already made the point that Christ is greater than Moses. Moses was a servant in the house. That's right.

22:20

But Christ is the son of that house. We are his house. He is over us, and he is over Moses.

22:27

Moses was to serve us as his people, and we are to serve him, and the one that we serve is

22:32

Christ. Therefore, Christ is greater than Moses. And if you leave Christ for Moses, you're exchanging the greater for the lesser.

22:38

Moses exchanged the lesser for the greater. That's the example, Hebrews chapter 11. Now let's look at some of the details of the passage.

22:46

You'll notice in verse 23 through 29 that there are five by faith statements.

22:51

By faith Moses, verse 23. By faith Moses, verse 24. By faith he, verse 27.

22:57

By faith he, verse 28. And by faith they, verse 29. Five by faith statements.

23:04

And if you're wondering, how many sermons are there going to be on Moses in this series, then you can count at least five, because there are five by faith statements.

23:13

There are five examples of faith from the life of Moses. Now two of them relate to him indirectly.

23:19

Notice in verse 23, it says by faith Moses, and what we expect after that is some statement about something that Moses did, but Moses is the recipient of something done to him.

23:29

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents. So in verse 23, it's actually his parents' faith that we see demonstrated, in something that they did to Moses, or for Moses.

23:40

The other indirect reference is in verse 29, by faith they passed through the Red Sea. That's a reference to the entire nation.

23:46

Now Moses is the leader of the nation, was obviously involved in that. If you saw the movie, you know how that turns out. So he was part of that, so it's an indirect reference to him.

23:54

Verse 24, 27, and 28, all are specific examples from Moses himself.

24:00

By faith, when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Verse 27, by faith he left Egypt, and by faith, 28, he kept the

24:07

Passover. So something that Moses chose to do in verse 24, something

24:12

Moses did in leaving Egypt, and then in 28, by keeping the Passover. Notice that there's plenty of verbs that describe

24:20

Moses, beginning in verse 24. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, now watch the verbs, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

24:28

He chose rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

24:33

He considered the reproach of Christ's greater riches and the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for the reward. By faith he left

24:38

Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, and he endured to seeing him who was unseen. There was a lot of active verbs there. Refused, choosing, considering, looking, left, and endured.

24:47

And so if you're wondering, how many sermons are there gonna be on the subject of Moses, there's at least six verbs there, seven verbs there.

24:53

They're probably all worth their own sermon. Yeah, well, one person said amen, okay.

25:00

That's fair. Now just a brief survey of the passage. Verse 23, it is

25:07

Moses' faithful parents that are highlighted there. He hid them, or they hid him in the rushes.

25:13

Verse 24, Moses' own decision that is highlighted there, he 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.

25:24

In verse 27, Moses leaves Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. There's some question as to which event that refers to, because you remember that Moses left

25:33

Egypt twice, right? Once, 40 years before the exodus.

25:38

Then he returned to Egypt and had his confrontation with Pharaoh and the 10 plagues, and then he left

25:43

Egypt again. So what event, which leaving of Egypt is meant by verse 27, he left

25:50

Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured a seeing him who was unseen. Which departure from Egypt is that referring to?

25:56

We will get to that when we get to that. Verse 28, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch him.

26:06

And verse 29, they passed through the Red Sea. Now you'll notice that all the major events that we normally associate with the life of Moses are right here in this passage.

26:14

He found himself on the outs with Pharaoh and his household, though he had a claim to the palace and the life of the palace.

26:21

And he went back to Egypt and left Egypt with the children of Israel. He kept the Passover and passed through the

26:26

Red Sea. That's basically the outline of the Ten Commandments, the movie. Those are the high points of Moses' life.

26:33

I want you to notice now also the repeated themes here. There are three themes in this passage that we have been seeing repeated all the way through chapter 11, because they sort of crop up in chapter 10, and it is now as if chapter 11 is a bunch of illustrations of the principles and the teaching that he gave us in chapter 10 in the warning passage.

26:54

Three themes. First, you'll notice that twice it is mentioned that somebody did something not fearing someone.

27:00

In verse 23, Moses' parents hid him because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were, look at the end of verse 23, not afraid of the king's edict.

27:09

Not afraid of the king's edict. In verse 27, by faith, Moses left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king.

27:16

So this idea of not fearing something is mentioned twice, and you can see how it is.

27:21

Once of Moses' parents and then once of Moses. It is almost as if faith and fear are mutually exclusive.

27:28

Moses' parents did something, not fearing something else. So if I have fear present in my life, faith, in that very instance, in that regard, cannot also be present.

27:40

So the lack of fear of Moses' parents of the king's edict and Moses of the wrath of the king, that's mentioned.

27:47

And by the way, you can see how that is, you can see how that is related to persecution that the first century Christians were undergoing, right?

27:53

Some of these early believers, they were facing the possibility, the very real possibility, if Hebrews is written towards the end of the 60s in the first century, then they could see on the horizon an official government's persecution by Nero.

28:09

That was become obvious, or they were under Nero's persecution at the time that the book of Hebrews was written.

28:15

So the idea of having faith and not fearing what is to come and not fearing the king's wrath or the king's edict would say something very specific to these first century readers, wouldn't it?

28:27

He's really arguing with them for not apostatizing and leaving the faith. I cannot think of an example of apostasy that I have seen in our modern age where some form of fear has not been involved.

28:43

Fear of loss, fear of the loss of my reputation, fear of what academia will think of us, fear of what the culture will think of us, fear of what other pastors in town would think of us, fear of what the institutions would think of us.

28:55

It's the fear of man. At the heart of apostasy is the fear of man. And you take any one of these high -profile apostates that have hit the headlines in the last 10 years that we've been going through the book of Hebrews, if you take any one of those high -profile apostates and you listen to their testimony, you will see that all of them have one thing in common.

29:13

They have a slobbering love affair with the spirit of the age and the approval of men. And so they abandon biblical morality because they fear what would happen in their reputations with their family or their reputations in their community or they're going to lose an acting gig or they're going to lose credibility in the establishments or academia or in the press.

29:34

It's a slobbering love affair with the spirit of the age and with the world's approval. It's a fear of man. That is what is the heart of apostasy.

29:41

Well, the author wants to make the case that faith and fear are mutually exclusive.

29:48

Both Moses and his parents did not fear the most powerful person in their world at the time.

29:56

And instead, they acted in faith. The second theme that we see repeated here is the reproach of Christ in verse 26.

30:02

He considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking for the reward. He's already mentioned the reproach of Christ earlier in chapter 10, and it was in connection with the warning passage that described true believers in that early church.

30:16

Verse 32, chapter 10. But 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.

30:30

These believers had been reproached already. So the example of Moses who would embrace and endure the reproach of Christ rather than enjoy the treasures of Egypt, that would be a great example for them of the very type of faith and endurance and perseverance that he wants these early

30:45

Christians to model and to follow. Moses did not fear, and Moses embraced the reproach of Christ.

30:51

Now, you may wonder, how is it that Moses who lived 1 ,500 years before Christ embraced the reproach of Christ?

30:57

It's one thing for you and I to be reproached for the name of Christ. But before there was a Christ, how could

31:02

Moses have embraced that reproach? We'll get to that when we get to that. By the way, it's not the last time he mentions this idea of reproach either.

31:10

In Hebrews 13, 13, he says Jesus suffered outside the gate. And then he says this, let us go out to him bearing his reproach.

31:18

There is a reproach that the world heaps upon believers that we are to embrace.

31:25

We're not to shun it. We're not to just bear up under it. We're not simply to try and avoid it, but if it's unavoidable, okay, that barb hit me.

31:32

I guess I'll take that sling. I'll take that arrow. That's not the point. We embrace it. All that reproach that belongs to Christ, we should stand in front of the world and say, be faithful to the truth, arms wide open,

31:47

I will embrace it. Bring me that reproach. I will take that. I will bear that.

31:54

And we're not going to be unfaithful in the midst of that. And we're not going to shy away from it. We're not going to fear the king's edict.

32:00

We're not going to fear the laws of the king. We're not going to fear persecution that may come. We're not going to fear what may happen to it.

32:05

We embrace the world's scorn because those who embrace the world's scorn get faith's reward.

32:12

That's the third theme that's repeated. Also in verse 26, he was looking to the reward.

32:18

Those who bear faith's reproach gain faith's reward. Keep that in your mind. Those who bear faith's reproach gain faith's reward.

32:26

Chapter 10, verses 34 to 36, he spoke to them of this reward. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

32:37

That's the reward. That's something that is promised to us. Verse 35, Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

32:44

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. It is by faith that we take up the reproach of Christ.

32:52

It is by faith that we embrace it. It is by faith that we even enjoy it. And when we receive the reproach of Christ, it should signal to us that something is going well and right in our life.

33:01

Should it not? Those who live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Look, if the world doesn't scorn you, something is wrong with you.

33:09

Seriously wrong with you. Seriously wrong with your faith. Seriously wrong with your profession of faith. If you find yourself in a place where the world heaps its praise on you, you're an apostate.

33:21

That should be your signal. Something is seriously wrong if I do not have the reproach of Christ. Because the reproach of Christ belongs to all those who belong to Christ.

33:30

And so we ought to embrace it. Moses did. By faith, he was looking forward to the reward.

33:37

In fact, it is impossible to understand the faith of Moses and the actions of Moses if you do not understand, verse 26, that he did so looking for the reward.

33:48

And this is what faith is, right? Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he, what?

33:54

He is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That expectation of reward is not only biblical, it is legitimate, it is central to the argument of the book of Hebrews.

34:07

How else do you explain somebody who would leave all of the treasures of Egypt, the empire of its day, and walk away from all of that, heaping scorn upon that, and align himself with this slave nation when he had all of the pleasures and treasures that being a prince in Egypt could bring him?

34:29

How do you explain that if not for the fact that he did so convinced that God would reward him for that faith?

34:37

Convinced that the reward, whatever it was in Christ that was coming to him for that faith, he was convinced that it had to be something greater than all the treasures of Egypt.

34:48

And it had to be a glory and a joy and a delight that far exceeded anything that Egypt could offer.

34:54

Being a prince in the greatest nation on the planet at the time would pale in comparison to the reward that Moses was convinced he would have.

35:03

That reward is central to the issue of faith. One last thing, in all of the examples that we have here from the life of Moses, his heaping scorn on Egypt and walking out of it and the judgment that came and the ten plagues and the

35:18

Passover and parting through the Red Sea and the Egyptians being drowned in it, there's two things that God is doing through all of Moses' story.

35:25

These two things God is always doing, by the way. It's not the only things that God does. But these two things God is always accomplishing in this world through all of the other things that God does.

35:35

In the working out of his providence, God is doing these two things. First, he is judging sin and sinners and he is delivering sinners from sin.

35:45

God is always judging and saving. Those two things. He is never doing something that does not accomplish either his judgment against sin or his saving of sinners out from under sin.

35:58

Every natural disaster that we call natural disaster or an act of God, everything he allows in this world is set to accomplish one of those two things.

36:08

Everything that his providence works out is set to accomplish either the judgment of his wrath upon sin and sinners or the salvation of sinners from sin for the glory of his name and by his grace.

36:22

God is always doing those two things. Judging sin and delivering people from sin. Judging and saving. Every act of God can be boiled down to one of those two things.

36:31

God is set against sin because he acts in judgment. He acts in judgment because he is righteous. He is holy.

36:37

And so God is always set against sin, pouring out his wrath on sin. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who suppress the truth in that unrighteousness.

36:49

What God is doing in our nation is a judging of sin. We pray and ought to pray that in the midst of that judgment that God remembers mercy and saves people through that.

36:59

Because he is both accomplishing judgment as well as salvation in everything that he does. So he is angry with the wicked all day long.

37:06

His wrath burns against sin. His wrath burns against evildoers. And every evil deed that is committed by an unbelieving sinner, every last one of those evil deeds is storing up for them wrath for the day of judgment.

37:18

It's just adding an extra measure of wrath. Every sin, every impenitent action is adding up a measure of wrath into that cup of God's wrath which will be poured out of them on them on the last day.

37:29

And they will drink and they will suffer in full all of the wrath that they have stored up for themselves.

37:36

And God is not just acting in judgment. He is saving his people. Delivering people as he did through Moses.

37:42

In fact, we see that God acts to judge sin and deliver sinners sometimes at the same time through the same thing.

37:51

This is what the Exodus was. Was it not? It was God delivering his chosen people, Israel, by judging the people who were not his,

38:01

Egypt. So God poured out his wrath upon Egypt, raised up Pharaoh for this very purpose to punish him and to demonstrate his justice on Pharaoh while in the midst of that he delivers the nation of Israel out of the bondage in Egypt.

38:13

In that one thing, in that one event, the Exodus, God both judged sinners and he delivered sinners from judgment.

38:20

God always works to deliver his people from judgment through sometimes the judgment. And here's where God is most glorified.

38:26

When he allows his people to go through judgment. Now, you post -Trib people here, you're going to like this.

38:34

I'm not post -Trib. This is not post -Trib. But you're going to like what I'm about to say. God is glorified when he delivers judgment upon people but he takes his people and he shields them and carries them all the way through that judgment and delivers them on the other side of it into grace and glory.

38:51

God is glorified of that. That is what he did in the nation of Israel. Israel was right there in Egypt.

38:58

God poured out his wrath on Egypt and through that he preserved his people, his nation in the midst of that. And then used that judgment to save them and to deliver them out of their bondage in Egypt.

39:07

And the Passover is an example of that. God preserved his people because they were under the blood of the

39:13

Passover lamb and of the sacrifice so that when God poured out his wrath upon the nation of Egypt he delivered his people through that because they were atoned for.

39:23

They were covered by the blood of a sacrifice. And by the way, this act of judging and delivering people from sin that's seen in Christ too, isn't it?

39:34

In that work on the cross God did two things. He judged the sin of his people who would believe on him for eternal life.

39:42

And through that act of judging one person he has delivered all those who are in Jesus Christ. Christ's sacrifice on the cross bore the sin of his people.

39:52

And in that one act of judgment he forever brought salvation deliverance, sanctification and eternal glory to any and all who placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

40:02

In that sacrifice on the cross all of the wrath of God that you and I deserve was poured out on the head of a substitute who bore that wrath and that penalty in full.

40:13

So that concerning the one who has placed their faith in Christ there remains no condemnation to that one because he is in Christ Jesus.

40:21

Because Jesus Christ has borne fully the full penalty of the Father's wrath for his sin.

40:26

So that if you are in Christ because you have repented and placed your faith in him there is no more penalty for you to bear.

40:32

There is no more sin for you to be atoned for on your behalf. There is no more penalty to be poured out on you at all.

40:39

You will never see the frown of God. Ever. Because he treats you as he does his son and in his son he has seen all of his wrath that he has reserved for you.

40:48

Every last bit of it has been poured out on his son. The cup has been emptied and there is no more wrath to bear for you.

40:55

So the cup is gone. It's empty. It's cleaned out. The cup has been poured out. It's been rubbed out. It's been washed out and rinsed out.

41:01

And now all that is for us as God's people is a cup of glory and a cup of grace and a cup of blessing.

41:07

So that in Christ all of our sins are taken out of the way. Every last one of them. Past, present and future.

41:13

They are all atoned for. So that when you and I stand before God we can stand before God not just forgiven and not just atoned for, paid for but we can stand before God in the basis of Christ's righteousness because everything, good thing that he ever did has also been credited to our account.

41:32

So all of our wrath born in full all of his righteousness credited to our account that is the glorious news of the gospel.

41:41

Salvation from judgment. Salvation through judgment. Salvation by judgment.

41:46

God is always doing these two things. Saving and judging. And in Christ who is our Passover lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world his blood is over us, over our doorposts.

41:58

It is over our head. Because that blood has been shed and it covers us there is no more wrath for us to bear.

42:04

You and I are protected from the wrath of God you and I are preserved and kept safe from all of him pouring out his wrath on us because of what

42:14

Christ has done. Because he has judged our sin in him. He gives us eternal life and his righteousness.

42:21

And that is what we observe when we observe communion. It is what we are remembering. God in that act of judgment has purchased salvation for an untold multitude of people who will repent of their sin and trust in that sacrifice.

42:35

If you are sitting here today and you have never believed upon Christ for salvation the communion is not for you. Scripture warns that if you eat and drink of the cup in an unworthy manner you eat and drink judgment to yourself.

42:46

So if you are an unbeliever you have never repented you have never trusted Christ and you have never been born again I would just warn you because I care about you and I don't want to see you judged for this don't partake of communion.

42:56

This is for the believers. This is for those whose sacrifice has been made in Christ. This is for those who own him as savior who have repented of their sin and trusted in Christ.

43:06

And we don't want to partake in an unworthy manner as believers by partaking when we are not willing to repent of the very sin that hung our savior on the cross.

43:15

Our sin has been forgiven past, present and future. But when we come to the Lord and we confess our sin we are dealing with the distance of a relationship we are dealing with the separation between us and the

43:26

Lord and the cooling of a relationship and things that we do that we know have nailed our savior to the cross we are getting those out of the way when we repent and when we confess those things.

43:34

So before we partake of communion we are going to have a few moments of quiet prayer and then I will lead us in a prayer of confession.

43:40

So let's bow our heads now. Lord, we have been reminded of how perfect and gracious the sacrifice you have made for us in your son.

44:15

Perfectly able to atone for all the sins of all who we believe because the one who has borne our sin is himself infinitely righteous and gloriously divine.

44:24

Because he is infinite in his person and in his righteousness and in his goodness he is able to bear fully the weight of our sin.

44:30

For we had heaped up before you in a cup of wrath an infinite penalty because our sin was against an infinite

44:36

God. So we confess to you that sin Lord we are grateful that you have taken it out of the way.

44:42

We confess to you that even though we are made righteous by the sacrifice of Christ and through faith that we still sin while we are in this earthly body.

44:51

Though sin is not our master we do yield to it far too often and we hate that fact. We hate the part of us that sins so readily and even sometimes so unknowingly.

45:01

The habits the willful decisions that we make all of these Christ has paid for. We pray now

45:07

Father that you would forgive those sins and that you would restore to us the right relationship that we have and that we need with your

45:15

Son and with you. Thank you for the grace that is atoned for these sins and thank you for this reminder again that great sacrifice and the great cost.

45:23

And may you be honored and glorified as we reflect upon the goodness of our God in salvation.

45:28

For the glory of Christ our Lord we pray. Amen. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.

45:38

To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty might and authority before all time now and forever.