Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Hebrews Chapter 11 beginning at verse 23. By faith, Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the King's commandment.
By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
By faith He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood.
Last, he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, or drowned.
I'd also like to turn back to acts the.
8th chapter. The 7th chapter rather of Acts.
The 19th verse.
The 18th verse perhaps till another king rose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children to the end that they might not live.
In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, or as the margin says, fair to God, and nourished up in his father's house three months. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart.
His brother and the children of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptians. For his supposed His brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not, and the next day showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sergey, our brethren.
Why do Iran one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made the ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst? The Egyptian yesterday then fled. Moses at this saying, was a stranger in the land of Madion, where he begat two sons.
And the 35th verse this Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the Bush.
And reading this portion this afternoon from Hebrews Chapter 11 was on my heart to point out 10 different things that it mentions here in connection with Moses and things that I believe have very deep instruction for us. And perhaps we might say not only for those who are young, but perhaps for all of us, because what we have here covers mostly all of the.
Of Moses and how interesting and instructive it is. And the reason I read in the 8th chapter, 7th chapter of Acts, it was because it tells us that the time that Moses was born was a very difficult day. It was at a time, it tells us, when the king and all his forces in Egypt were opposed to God's people.
And young people were having a very difficult time.
They were in distinct disfavor in the land of Egypt and truly that answers to the time in which we Live Today, that if we would live as a separated people to the Lord, for they were a separated people. They dwelled in the land of Goshen and they were tells us how the shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. They were separated people by their position and by their manner of life and dear young people.
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Now that is the way it is with us. We are called from above and heavenly men by birth. We are separated by our position, and we ought also to be separated by our manner of life. And so that here, at least here, young people among the Israelites, where it cast founder time, their lot, cast in a very difficult and trying time. And perhaps you feel it so, and indeed I'm sure it is so.
There never was a time when it's more difficult to live as a truly separated Christian.
And not only is it difficult for you, but as we'll find to it was difficult for the parents. But I enjoyed reading that in the 7th chapter of Acts when it says in that time was Moses born? In that time God saw the need of his people. And just at that time here was a boy born a little babe. And as his parents looked upon him, it says they saw that he was fair to God.
They saw that boy born into a place of privilege, and they saw that he was born into a place of special favor. And dear young people, those of you who have Christian parents, what a wonderful privilege is yours. Have you really considered what a marvelous thing it is?
To have Christian parents, to have a mother and a father who love the Lord Jesus.
And more than that, who seek to bring you up and that path that God is marked out in His precious word, the path of obedience to His word and costing them a great deal, as well as costing you a great deal to seek to walk in that path in that time He was born. And it may be that right here in the audience this afternoon, there may be those whom God is going to specially use.
For everyone of us are either a help or a hindrance in the meeting where we live. We're either a great help among the young people. We encourage them to follow Christ. We encourage them to go on in the past that's pleasing to him. Or perhaps we may be a hindrance. Well, May God exercise us.
That we might each seek to be a help, and I say that especially to you who are young.
Because of the importance of youth, because of the important decisions that are made while we are young.
Well, it tells us here, when Moses was born, he was hid three months of his parents, and that was the first thing I wanted to call attention to. He was hid by his parents. And it may be that perhaps as you are being brought up, you feel very restricted. You feel that you're not allowed to gloat and enjoy many of the things.
That's your unsaved neighbors next door. Enjoy. And perhaps you tend to say, why do father and mother restrict me? Why do they hold me back? Why can't I see what the world has to offer? Well, Moses parents hid their child. They knew that the whole purpose and plan of the system of government and everything at that time was in opposition to bringing up a boy as a separated one for the Lord. And so.
Your parents know that. Perhaps you don't realize that, dear young people. Perhaps you feel that your parents hold you back too much. But it's love that's seeking to bring you up for the Lord. And may I pause here to say a little word to those of us who are parents?
Wasn't it an important thing This is sometimes we may feel.
That it's such a narrow path, the tendency might come to say, well, our children have to learn. Our children have to learn for themselves. We have to let them try these things so they'll know how to refuse them all. That wasn't the attitude and that Moses parents took as they hid their boy. They weren't going to leave him exposed to unnecessary things where it might be.
The ruination of his whole life and testimony.
One of the messengers of the king been able to find that boy, they would have thrown him into the river. It would have been he would have been drowned and all. Little do you realize how the enemy has a plot to ruin your whole life and testimony to drag you down to a last eternity. And if you can't do that to at least hinder you from being out and out and following the Lord Jesus Christ.
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All may I say again a word to those who are parents, and I speak to myself as to you.
Let us not be weary and seeking to hide our children. There are all kinds of elements today and that would seek to introduce themselves into our lives and into our homes. And may I lovingly speak to you who are parents. Don't bring the world into your home. Don't bring it into your home because you can't expect to hide your children from the world if you bring the world into your home to entertain them because.
They're they all feed upon those very things that will afterwards.
Lead them away from the Lord. Oh how lovely it is the first thing here. They it says here.
He was hired 3 months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child. Now they saw he was different. You say, well, I don't like my children to feel too different. Orbit and dear parent, we want our children to be different. They are different. They're born in a different place else for our children unclean. But now are they holy? They're born into a place of privilege and they're born too in a wonderful place.
When we think of what it is to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. So the 1St 2 steps that we find here in these points I would like to draw to your attention, is the godly faithfulness of the parents. And if I might just pause and go back still farther, we would find that this happy home began at the marriage where it says there was a man of the sons of Levi, and he took to wife a woman of the daughters of Levi.
That is, he was careful in his choice, that he chose one who was of like mind with himself.
Because the tribal Levi was the one which was devoted in faithfulness to the Lord.
Well, I arrested the camp, went into idolatry, and the tribal Levi stood firm and faithful for the Lord. And so may I say to you, dear young people, be careful the partner whom you choose. The godly order and the godly character of your home doesn't begin after you're married. It begins before it begins in the one whom you choose to be your partner and saw this happy.
That was seen in dark, dark Egypt, where there was a darkness that could be felt. It all began when a man of the sons of Levi was seeking one who would be a godly helpmeet and partner. And so that was at the beginning of the exercise how they hit the child. And then it says here they were not afraid of the King's commandment. They hit the child and then this they were not afraid.
Of the King's commandment. What does this tell us? All the world would try to make us afraid.
They would try to tell us, your child won't be this, your child won't be that. They'll never get anywhere if you bring them up so narrowly, so carefully. And so they would seek to discourage us. And surely at the time that Moses was born, they might well be afraid as far as natural things were concerned. Wasn't there power behind this decree of the king that all the boys were to be thrown into the river? Yes, there was.
Wasn't there vigilance to find these children? Oh yes. And surely, I say again, it was an all easy day for those young people brought up in that land in mid in the midst of such a condition as that. But I say again to those of us who are parents, are we afraid of the King's commandment? Does the teacher at school make us afraid by telling us our children aren't going to get along if we don't let them do this?
And the other thing, all of us who are parents here this afternoon know the things that we have to confront with, the things that our children are asked to do, the part they are asked to take, the things they want them to do in school. And we have to seek grace from the Lord and wisdom to be faithful unto Him. They hid their boy as long as they could, and they were not afraid.
Of the King's commandment. But there was someone they did fear. They fear the Lord. They fear the Lord.
They sought his glory and it doesn't matter. I want to say this to those who are parents here this afternoon. It doesn't matter what they say. If they tell us as parents that we must let our children do something the word of God condemns. The question is, do we fear God or do we fear men? Tell us about the early disciples. It says we would rather obey God.
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Than men. And what is our attitude as parents?
Oh, I know it's difficult. I know it casts us on our knees. I know we have to be before the Lord over and over again. There isn't a parent here who's seeking to bring up their children for the Lord that doesn't know the reality of what I'm saying. As we look upon our children, we like to see them get along. We don't like to see them ostracized and hurt and wounded and cast out.
But Moses was cast out. Moses was despised, and so his parents.
Had that lovely godly faith that God can command. They hid their boy and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. All I say again, who do we fear most, God or men? Do we want our children to be up there with Christ in glory or do we want them to be in a lost eternity? Do we want them just to struggle along through this world and make a success of this life?
Or do we want them to live for the praise and glory of the precious Savior who died for us?
All you say that my children, my child has ability, My child can make his mark. He's won a scholarship. He's going to do this and that. Well, whatever. A child with more abilities, more outstanding ability than Moses. And why? I believe that had he had the opportunity, he would have aspired, perhaps he would have been one of the Pharaohs of Egypt. He was one who has learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
He was not back number. He was not one who couldn't make his mark in this world. I no doubt as he grew older, his parents began to realize that that they have great ambitions for their boy in this world. All I can picture as that little child was handed back to the mother to nurse and bring up for the Lord. I can just picture the mother with tears weeping over that child and say what am I going to do?
My boy is going to be brought up and made a great man in the world. I don't want him to be a great man in the world.
I want him to live for to hover the God of Israel. I want him to be someone who will be a blessing among my despised and rejected people. And so she had conflicting forces. She had his education, which he was receiving as one of the sons of Pharaoh's daughter. And then it was also the education he was receiving.
By his mother's side, yes. What kind of instruction was that?
Oh, I am sure that the mother often told this boy that God's people were despised people, but that wonderful promises hung over them, that God had just signed them to have that land of Canaan and to have a wonderful place in God's purposes and plans. And did he want to aspire to be someone great in Egypt?
Which is a picture of this world? Or did she want him to grow up?
Can be among the despised people of God, but with the glorious future before him, because as I say, God had just signed his people versus glory all. Doesn't this challenge our hearts? Well, we can picture of that family and we can picture that boy and the instruction he has received and all supposing that we kill, pause and consider.
When our children come home with their lessons and when they say.
Other teacher wants me to do this and they want me to join this team and they want me to take this part in the concert and they want me to be somebody. I want a scholarship. I'm going to be somebody and I can do this and that. What kind of instruction do we give them? How do we talk to our children? Do we sit before them? Great girls in this world always say again, can't we picture that humble home that despise home? Three children?
Aaron, Miriam and Moses, three children that were brought up not for this world, but were brought up with a desire that they would be useful among God's people. And they were, and they were. Oh, what a lovely picture. And God is making a record to your parents of what goes on in our homes. It's not easy. There may be many tears, I'm sure.
That that little home in Egypt would be sat with many tears.
As one and another of God's people were brought into difficulty, they were beaten. Some of the children were thrown in the river. Oh, what a what a great deal of sorrow must have surrounded that home day by day as they looked out and saw what was taking place. Boy after boy thrown into the river and destroyed so many of them, yielding to the pressure that was about them.
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Oh, it was a home where I'm sure they were tested daily in the path of faith and faithfulness. And such is the record of every Christian home where the parents seek to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Well, Moses has had this instruction at home. He's had this instruction at school. He's become mighty in words and deeds. He can talk well, he's learned in all the.
And now he must make a decision for himself. Which was the most important. Did his parents mean what they said when they told him about the the place that God had purposed for his people? Or was it more important the things he heard in the court of Pharaoh, Which was the choice he would make? Well, how anxiously the parents must have waited that day.
How I completely must have cried to God that they waited the time that their boy made his decision about what he was going to do.
And it says when he was coming here, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And he turned down what the world would call one of the best futures that was ever offered to any young man. Yes, he did. There never was a young man, I suppose, that had to find future offered to him as far as this world was concerned and think he turned down, he turned down. He must have been considered a fool.
If they have newspapers in those days, surely it would be the headline in the newspaper. The Queens daughter, The Queen, the Queens son has refused to be called her son and he's chosen to be identified with those despised slaves in the land of Goshen. Oh what a headline, what a surprise.
Unusual, but so it was when he was come to years, he made a choice.
Yes, I say, dear young people, God is writing up His report above and at this very moment in the lives of you dear young boys, you dear young men and you young girls, you see those same two things presented to you. You see the past that your parents would seek to set before you in following a rejected Christ, being a despise nobody as far as this world is concerned to follow in the past, the Lord would have you.
And then you see future of prosperity, of getting along in this world, and there's a parting of the ways. I don't know when you may come to yours. Quite a few years that passed in the life of Pharaoh before he said of Moses, rather before he seemed free to make this choice on his own.
But today, as the way things are ordered, that choice no doubt comes very much sooner in your life, very much earlier.
But it says when he was come to years when he had the time to choose for himself, when he had the opportunity to make his own decision, he made a clear cut decision that his first step was to refuse to refuse. He was killed. His parents were not afraid of the King's commandments. And now strengthened by the godly faith and courage and teaching of his dear parents.
When he comes to years.
He refuses all. Dear young people, do you know how to refuse? I think it's one of the hardest things for a young person to do. We like to be popular, don't we? We like to be well thought of. We like our friends, even though they're Christian young people, to give us a clap on the back and encourage us. And it's awfully hard to be misunderstood. It's awfully hard to take a stand and know that others don't appreciate the stand that you have taken for the.
Jesus, although it was with Moses, how he must have been misunderstood for this, but he refused. You know how to refuse to say again, I say, dear young people, have you refused something? Not just some little thing, not hard to refuse something that's trivial, something unimportant, that have you refused something that in the eyes of the world was an opportunity for life?
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Something that would have perhaps marked out a path of success in this world.
Have you refused? Oh, May God grant that if you find yourself this very day, at such a point in your life where you find life before you with all its opportunities and then the path of following Christ, that you will refuse that which the world has to offer, that you will say no.
Oh, what joy this must have given to the hearts of these dear parents.
I think I can just see the joy in that home, the rich reward for the tears, the infrared, the loving teaching that they had given to their boy. When he finally came and he made this decision, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. What did he refuse it for? Did he refuse it? Did he refuse a big?
Place of importance in this world to become a great man in the Church of God, as we would say today.
Did he refuse this, that he might be someone great among God's people, Israel. Well, that's what we often see in Christendom. A man turns down a job that makes him very great in this world, to be on the front lines in an important place in the religious world. He becomes a great man in the religious world. But we find here that when Moses.
Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He chose to what? What did he choose? Did he choose a path of fun? You know it pains ones heart today to see how that young people are offered the Christian life as a path of fun, a path of success.
A path of glamour. A path that is not rejection but popularity.
And the way it's presented today in Christendom is to try and encourage young people to take the Christian life and to be someone great in the religious world. Dear friends, that's not the path in which God would have us to walk. Dear young people, the path in which the Christian would walk if he would be identified with the Lord Jesus is a path of rejection.
Was the Lord Jesus popular in this world?
Ah, he was despised and rejected of man. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Prison them today has tried to make Christianity a popular thing, and the only way it can be done is to compromise the truth, to set aside that which is really Christian and reduce Christianity down to the level of this world.
Yes, you can be someone great in the religious world.
If you will compromise your heavenly position, if you will give up that little company gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus, and go and identify yourself with what is great in the religious world, you will refuse perhaps of what the world has to offer in a political or business or entertainment way. But you will not be doing what Moses did.
He chose rather to suffer affliction.
With the people of God, He chose the companionship of an afflicted people.
And more than that, when he made that wonderful decision, he got an awful jolt. He got an awful jolt. Surely after he'd made that decision, then God's people would appreciate him. Surely they'd say, why, Moses, you've left your place in Pharaoh's court, What a wonderful decision you've made. And surely he would be appreciated. But was he? Well, he went out among God's people.
And he thought they'll understand, they'll understand, they'll surely know that I have come and that I'm going to help to deliver them. And so he goes and shows himself to the people and he tries to settle some little wrong that has come between them. He thrust them away, thrust them away, they push them out. And perhaps you have tried to follow the Lord, perhaps you've tried to show kindness, perhaps you've tried to speak.
Word for the Lord Jesus to one of the other young people. They've done just that to you.
They have pushed you away and they said to you just what they said to Moses, who made thee a ruler and a judge over us, and they didn't want what you had to say to them. Now I granted that Moses didn't do it just in the right spirit. I granted that there was quite a bit of fleshly energy, and there often is with us. There often is.
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Who of us can say, as it was remarked in the meeting, that we haven't failed?
There's iniquity in our holy things, but isn't it wonderful that God has been pleased to record it in his word? Or in spite of the fact that there was failure in the manner in which Moses did this, That God was pleased with that faith that refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God? And perhaps as I'm saying these things, dear.
Your mind goes back to the little assembly where you come from, and you know the difficulties there are there. You know that there's little quarrels perhaps that have risen up in the local assembly and you've tried to be faithful and you've been misunderstood for us. And the devil says, oh, that's a hard path. Moses found exactly what you're finding.
Moses found exactly the same situation, and God had purposes of blessing and usefulness.
And that was part of the school of God. That was part of the school of God. And the very things that we have to pass through in our little meetings, the very difficulties, the very ups and downs, the reverses, there's the knocks, if we wish to call them soul that we receive are part of God's schooling. And this was the beginning of God school in a certain sense.
For Moses, the previous education had been the kind that made a great man out of Moses.
And when he came forth, he was accomplished. He was able to talk. He was one who was well fitted for leadership. But now he is entering, if we might put it in that way, the school of God. And the first lesson is one that knocks him down. The first lesson is one that makes him feel that these lessons are not easy, but they're hard in the school of God. And so it often is. Your young people. Let me encourage you if that has.
In your life and the devil says us no use, you can't be a help. Why nobody will appreciate you. Don't get discouraged. Those are the lessons of the school of God. Those are the things we have to learn. We must learn. And not that we're somebody great, but that we're nothing. As we had this morning in the meeting without me, He can do nothing.
That school is not popular. It's quite contrary to all our natural thoughts.
When we have to learn our nothingness. So Moses now, he turns his back upon the whole thing. He flees. He goes to the backside of the desert and for 40 years he goes to God's school. God's school, we might say, that was lost time, lost time. What did he do in those forty years?
Oh, it was most necessary those forty years, or in those forty years in the backside of the desert.
Moses had to learn his own nothingness if he had come forth from the.
Schools of Egypt and load the people out of Egypt. Why, they would have said it was his education that fitted him for that he was qualified by all the education he received in the schools of Egypt. But instead, when he has come out from there, he goes to the backside of the desert, and at the end of those 40 years God sends him now.
And he can't even talk. He can't even talk. And when the Lord says, I'm going to send you Moses.
Moses said I am of a slow speech and a slow tongue. If you spent 40 years on the backside of the desert, I suppose you'd feel the same. I'm sure I would. Why? He hadn't been talking to people for a long time. He didn't know how to speak. Was this a mistake in God's ways? Wasn't he better fitted when he could talk well than when he couldn't? And he couldn't speak when he wasn't accustomed to meeting people.
When he had lost contact with the others and when he didn't know the ways of Egypt.
Surely he should have been a little more trained in the ways of Egypt. 40 years was a long time to be away from them and to know what progress had been made. Shouldn't he address them according to the position that they occupied in their their standards? Shouldn't he, shouldn't he be acquainted with how to meet them all? Instead of that, God completely empties him of himself. And in those forty years.
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Moses, as another has put it, learn to be nobody, Learn to be nobody.
All what an important thing all dear young people, I say these things and love to you because.
One longs to see you go on for the Lord. One longs to see you following Him. And how often, as I look into your faces, I think of how one longs to see you. Useful in the assembly where you are. You'd like to be useful too. You'd like to be a help to your brethren. But these are things that we don't learn all at once.
These are things that we have to learn slowly in God's school, but all what wonderful lessons, as it says in the book of Job, who teacheth like him. And so at the end of these 40 years, what a change had taken place. He chose. And then here's the next one, the 26th verse, esteeming the reproach of Christ.
Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ. Or did he really have something that he esteemed, something that he valued, something that he prized?
Yes, he did. What was it the reproach of Christ? The reproach of Christ? Or is that actually something to be esteemed? We might say, well, we have to endure the reproach of Christ, but I didn't know it was something that was really a joy.
All any of us who in any little measure have known something of it, we know that it is a joy. Think of those dear early Christians. They departed from the Council rejoicing.
That they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Yes, they rejoiced. And it says again in Peter's epistle, if he be reproached for the name of Christ. Happy are ye happy are ye all? If we bear any reproach for Christ, there's always happiness with it. We try to escape it. The devil says it's a hard path, but it isn't really. It's the path of true happiness.
Have you ever been sorry you have confessed Christ?
As you look back over your life, is there ever an instance in your life where you say, I'm sorry, I confess the Lord Jesus?
I'm sorry I took a stand for him. Well, I can. I can think of times I'm sorry I didn't. I'm sorry I didn't confess his name. I've missed golden opportunities. I've missed times when I could speak. And I'm sorry for them today. But never have I been sorry when I did Take a stand for the Lord, and neither will you.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, All of Egypt had to offer. Wasn't it any comparison?
Without which he felt was a treasure. Now to suffer reproach, esteeming the reproach of Christ. Oh, how lovely. Oh, I've often thought of the judgment seat of Christ. And to think to have the Lord say, Well done, how it will repay us.
All just powers for a moment and let us look on to the judgment seat of Christ.
Think of our lives passing into review and to think of the Savior stopping as it were in the course as our lives pass in review and say you suffered for me there, but it gave my heart joy. It gave my heart joy almost that repay us 1000 times. Won't it be well worthwhile to hear him say that he was pleased.
As our brother remarked this morning, we'll all be perfectly happy in heaven.
God wants the measure to be increased and deepened. He esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches, and the treasures in Egypt. Or He had respect under the recompense of the reward. He had respect under the recompense of the reward. He knew that God was going to reward whatever had been done for him. And all of you, dear young people, who are suffering for His name's sake, who has thought to be faithful?
And our suffering, Perhaps you could have chosen the path where you would be getting along in this world and you've refused it. The devil may come along to you sometimes and you'll say, well, what have you got for that path you took? Perhaps Moses often had that said to him, Can't you think of him 40 years in the backside of the desert? Can't you think how often the enemy would come along and say to him, well, Moses, what did you get?
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You turn to You turned your back on Egypt, but God hasn't helped you out.
Here you are a stranger. What has he done for you, and how that must have been thrown up by the enemy of his soul?
But he looked on, he saw a reward. He says here he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. The Savior's well done to hear Him and tell us how he approved all that was enough. And all dear young people, it's enough. It's 10,000 times enough to have that blessed Savior.
Give us his smile of approval in that day.
And it says here by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. Notice the steps here. He refused, he chose, he esteemed, he had respect. And now it was carried into action. Carried into action, he forsook Egypt. That is, we consider these chairs, we can enjoy these three days of fellowship.
We can have a lovely time with so many other young people here, so many dear Christians, and I don't suppose any of us can help but feel a lift that we get from such occasions as this. But then we go back and we know very well when we go back and we face the world again, we face those situations that we have left behind for three days. We face those problems that have been, as it were, hanging in the balance, and they come up again when we return.
To our homes and it's a time for action. It's a time when we have to make a positive stand about something. As I say, it's quite easy during these three days meetings to enjoy all the blessings. But when the time comes for action, all the Lord gives strength. For that. The Lord gives strength. Let us look to Him, Let us fasten our eyes upon Him and see Him up there in the glory.
And so it says here.
Not fearing the wrath of the king or he endured, he endured. Now it was the question. It wasn't a question, as I say, of esteeming and all this, but it was a question of enduring. Enduring.
And how we come to that time in our lives when it's just a question of enduring doesn't seem to be any particular gain or progress. The Lord isn't coming in distinctly and working on our behalf. There is just a time of enduring. You may have noticed in the end of this chapter. I just call your attention to it.
33rd verse.
It says here.
Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, wax violent insight. Turn to flight. The armies of the aliens women.
Receive their dead raised to life again. Now I'd like you to notice a different class here. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings gamer over of bonds and imprisonments.
They were stoned, and they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all having obtained a good report through faith, I just called attention to the two different classes there.
In the 33rd and 4th and the 1St praise of the 35th verse.
Why these people cried to God and got deliverance. God came in, He answered their prayers, He delivered them. But when we come to the other group, why have they suffered and they didn't get deliverance? God didn't come in. And perhaps you say, well, I'd like to be in the first class. And when I cry to God, he is coming and answered the prayers of others and He's taken them clean out of their difficulties. He's removed their problems. He's given them a better.
He's helped them, he's done so much for them, and why doesn't he do that for me?
Why does me come in and show his power toward me? And many Christians have been discouraged because they weren't in the first class, but they found themselves in the 2nd. And God didn't seem to come in. They turned to Him, just like Paul did as we had this morning. And he asked the Lord three times to take away that thorn in the flesh. And what was the Lord's answer?
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The Lord said, My grace is sufficient for thee.
And for the rest of Paul's life, he suffered that thorn in the flesh. God didn't take it away. His work was one of enduring as one has called attention to the fact that when the Levites were given to Aaron, it says he appointed to everyone his service and his burden. His service and his burden. We like to be doing things. We like to feel that we're accomplishing something. And if we're not, we say.
What use his life? Well, here it tells us about Moses. He endured, and for 40 long years it was a question of enduring. In fact, I might say even more because it seemed to be that in the last part of his life there was a lot of enduring too. Yes, and there's so much of our Christian life that is made-up of enduring, of perhaps going on and being.
Misunderstood, not seeming to make progress.
But all how wonderful God is writing His record, and as I often say to the children when they bring home the reports.
God is writing your report, children, God is writing it, and it says these all obtained a good report through faith. Do you see someone else? And God is coming in and undertaken for them, taking them out of their difficulty. And you find that He has not come in in your case, and He has not taken you out of your difficulty. He seems to leave you in it. And you say, what is the matter? Is it something about me that He has not delivered me and He has delivered them?
Well, perhaps He wants you to glorify Him by bearing a burden. Perhaps He wants you to be a faithful witness for Him in the patience in which you endure the burden that He has placed upon you and in that coming day of glory. The reward is not to the successful servant, but it says, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
For what was it that enabled Moses to do this? It says he endured as seeing him.
Who is invisible now? That is, he saw a person beyond all the difficulties, beyond all the hardships, beyond all the things he couldn't understand. There was a person whom he saw all. Dear young people, may I set that person before you, and before my own soul all I long that I should have Christ as a living reality before my own soul more and more.
And I desire it for you Is Christ that blessed person who died for us.
Do we see him up there? All I say again, this is not a doctrine that we're talking about. This is a person, a glorified Savior, the captain of our salvation. He's trodden the whole path before us. There isn't a difficulty in which we can be placed that he hasn't been through it before us, that he know what it was to be despised. Did he know what it was to be lonely? Did he know what it was to be misunderstood? Did he know what it was to be?
Hungry. Did he know what it was to make a trip somewhere and find no results? Why, he went over to the country of the Gadarenes, and they came out and tempted him. And it says he sighed deeply in spirit and returned. And he was the perfect servant too. He was the perfect servant. We might go somewhere and make a mistake, but here was the perfect servant. Saint Mark's Gospel, we get it too. He went there and he was rejected.
Sighed deeply in spirit and return. Did you ever feel that way? You wanted to do something for the Lord and it seemed to be frustrated and it just felt like a sigh. The Lord heard that sigh and if your heart was rising, you were seeking to do it out of love for Him. How wonderful that he should record such a thing or how how blessed it is. We have a Savior who knows all that we pass through this captain of our salvation.
US home to glory has been through the whole pathway. So it says here He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. And May God open your eyes and mind to see that blessed Savior up there crowned with glory and honors. See Him up there at God's right hand, attract our hearts to Him, and fill our hearts with a sense of His love.
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Well then, it says here, through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood.
Last, he that destroyed the first born should touch them. The 40 years on the backside of the desert are over. The one who tried to be a ruler and a judge. God is sent back to be a ruler and a deliverer. All I think that's lovely. That often challenges my heart. You know, when we're young, I think we have more of that character too. A ruler and a judge. We look around and we we want to set things right.
We want to we see something wrong, we say why can't this be set right? Why is it others don't see it?
Surely we ought to be able to set this right. And we try, and we're frustrated it doesn't come that way. And there comes a time of enduring and of patience. Well, when Moses had gone and spent those 40 years on the backside of the desert, it says the same Moses whom they thrust away, saying, who made the ruler and the judge?
God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer. All that touches my heart. A ruler and a deliverer. It's easy to judge what's wrong.
It's easy to pick out what's wrong, JMD said. The flesh in another is easily detected. But to know how to be a ruler and a deliverer, to know how to seek the good of our brethren, to know how to good seek the good of the other young people with a heart full of love for them. A heart. And how can your heart be full of love toward them? Well, two things. Having learned yourself and having learned Christ.
Having learned himself, Moses was emptied of anything in which he might trust.
And that made him patient with his failing God's failing people, and having seen the one who was invisible.
He brought something of the glory of his presence to them, for when he came down from the mountain his face shone. All this one who came as a a ruler and a judge was thrust away, but the one who came back as a ruler and a deliverer was now able to take these people out of Egypt.
He kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood. And so I wonder, I just like to speak of this in connection with the Lords Supper. What a wonderful privilege we have and the Lord knows how forgetful our poor hearts are, how easy it is for us to get taken up with present day affairs.
How easy it is to be pressed with the difficulties of life and of business and assembly life. And here it says he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood all. I often thank God from my heart that He's given us that privilege. And amid all the pressure of life, isn't it lovely to come on Lord's Day morning, sit down at the Lord's Table, and to think of the Lord Jesus going into death for us?
See those emblems on the table telling us of His body given and of His bloodshed? Israel were never to forget that every year they were to keep the Passover, and every first day of the week we gather to remember the Lord Jesus. You and I value this privilege. Dear young people, do we value the privilege? Oh, what a lovely thing it is to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, not gathered to a man.
Gathered to a system, but to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus and remember that wonderful deliverance that God has wrought for us. God didn't bring his people out of Egypt because they were better than the Egyptians. He brought them out because they were under the blood. Under the blood. And God hasn't saved us because we're any better than others. It's only his sovereign grace. And I think that's lovely. Here. It speaks about Moses.
They kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood. They recognized it was all of grace. And then the 29th verse by faith they passed through the Red Sea is by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. And this is the last one they passed through the Red Sea. They left, they left Egypt. Now they turned their back upon it and they came out on the other side.
How wonderful if Moses had remained in Egypt. Why?
He would have, he would have become a great man there. Perhaps he could have made the burdens of God's people a little easier because of his position. But was that what God wanted? No, he wanted his people to be taken out of Egypt. And we might use our influence to make things easier for other Christians. But what God wants is not to have an easy path for us, but that we might glorify the one who has done so much for us. And so here we read of Moses now.
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The desire of his heart.
Leads the people out of Egypt altogether far better than making their burdens easier and takes them away from pharaoh's taskmasters altogether he leads them out of Egypt he's a ruler and a deliverer for God's people he takes them out. And we might wonder why it is that God doesn't mention about the 40 years of the wilderness journey well, I I believe that it was a time of great endurance and patience and as we know the character of the.
Epistle to the Hebrews this chapter. Rather, God doesn't mention their failure. And I was during the wilderness that Moses failed. And so in all that we have before us, we're reminded of God's faithfulness. But we fail. Let us not be discouraged. God is writing that record above. He sees every movement in our hearts to please Him.
And if there's one little desire in your heart or mind to please that blessed Savior who's done so much for us.
He sees it, he's noticing it, and it's all going to be rewarded someday. And I feel, dear young people, if the Lord leaves us here a little longer, that things are not going to be easier and the prospects offered to you in the world are going to become more and more attractive.
And the world is going to do everything they can to submerge, Chris, the Christians in among them and to make them part of the world system. And I'm sure that you, dear young people who are going to school are finding it more and more that it's harder and harder to be a separated Christian. But all I plead with you as we read about Moses at that time, Moses was born just at a time like that.
And God in his faithfulness is going to preserve a testimony gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus right to the end. May He keep us. And may you, dear young people, grow up to value the place and privilege of being gathered to a rejected Christ. May you grow up that the Lord doesn't come to be useful in following Him and encouragement of the help among your brethren, and that as you go home from these meetings.
That your heart may be stirred afresh to follow that precious Savior who's done so much for us. And again I say to those of us who are parents, may the Lord give us the courage and grace that we need in these trying and difficult days to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, counting upon Him that they may be kept.
From all this force of evil it is about us that would seek to hinder us from following in the path that God is marked out for their feet.
May He keep us for His own glory.