“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 unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing htm who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.”―Heb. 11:24-2824By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 27By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. 28Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. (Hebrews 11:24‑28).
TO have the courage of your convictions is an immense thing, and I want to show you from Scripture a fine illustration of that principle, and what it led to. I do not know if you have any convictions about divine things. Convictions can never be really divine unless they are based on God’s Word; and that connects itself with faith, because faith is the soul’s reception of a divine testimony, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)).
When divine conviction is wrought in the soul, it may be conviction of sin, or conviction of the love of God, or of coming judgment, all great realities; but the point is this—when conviction enters a man’s soul something has taken place of an entirely new order in that man’s history.
But a man may be convicted about a thing, yet not have the courage of his convictions. Pilate was convicted as to the glory of the Person of Christ, and yet had not the courage to hoist his colors, hence I do not expect to meet that man in eternity; and I do not expect to meet you unless you have the courage of your convictions. That will impel you to cross the line to Christ, and be out-and-out for Him. I am not going to appeal to your feelings, though you have them; you are not made of stone, for you have a conscience, and you know when you sin; further, you have a heart, and you know whether it is filled and satisfied or not.
It is a grand thing to know what is coming. I could not be sure of anything in this life, but the one thing I am sure about is what is eternal. Presumptuous, you say. Where is the presumption? Am I to believe what God says, or to doubt it? God never tells lies, and never holds out baubles to men, like the devil, and He never promulgates untruth. He is true, and what He is has come out in the blessed Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is not called the Truth. Christ is the Truth. The truth is the exact expression of something that is; and when here Christ expressed all that God is in the goodness of His nature, as well as the love and the holiness of His being; and He has not only expressed all that God is, but He has expressed all that a man should be, in love, tenderness, holiness, and grace; and more than that, He has gone to death in order that He might take up and then wind up and forever close the history of the man that has not one single point about him that will do for God. When Christ died my history as a responsible man in the flesh came to an end in God’s eye, and when Christ rose He rose for me. Christ is the wisdom of God, and the power of God; everything that is in God is wrapped up in Christ, and every blessing God can give is wrapped up in the Person of His blessed Son; hence the moment there is the perception that everything is in Christ, a mail will make for Christ, and get Him.
Moses presents a fine illustration of my theme, and there are four points in his history recorded in these verses before quoted, which elucidate the subject: ―1. He refused. 2. He chose. 3. He for sook Egypt. 4. He sprinkled the blood.
1. First of all, where was he? In Egypt, and of the world. He was a man who had been lifted from obscurity to a position every man in Egypt would envy. Moses is rather pooh-poohed nowadays; when his detractors have descended into the pit, yet will find Moses in a remarkable place. He earned Et wonderful title— “Moses, the man of God” (Deut. 33:11And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. (Deuteronomy 33:1)). You have been the man of the devil, and so have I; he never had a better servant than I, but it is a wonderful thing when conversion takes place, Moses was in a remarkable place, next the throne, although not a prince of the blood, but of obscure origin. You know the story. I believe the Scriptures; do not you? You say, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but this tale about Moses I doubt, Well, in that case you must give up the Lord Jesus Christ, because if the tale of Moses be not true, the Lord Jesus, in affirming, what He did as to Moses, has told lies. People do not see where their thinly veiled infidelity and higher criticism lead them. They really lead to the setting aside of the testimony of the Lord Jesus, and with that both God’s revelation and salvation go as a consequence.
But we will listen to Scripture, not to infidelity. Everybody knew that Moses was next to Pharaoh at court. The latter had no son, and his daughter had no children; but Moses was brought up as her son, and the natural outlook was that, since she had “nourished him for her own son” (Acts 7:2121And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. (Acts 7:21)), he would come to the throne. It is then we read:— “By faith Moses, when he was come to years” (i.e., “full forty years old”), “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (Heb. 11:2424By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; (Hebrews 11:24)). At that time of life his judgment was matured, and, more than that, “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:2222And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. (Acts 7:22)). The Egyptians were no fools; it would puzzle our architects to build the Pyramids, and Moses was no fool. Perhaps you think he was a fool to give all up as he did—that is where you and he differ. He showed magnificent wisdom; the wisdom of the Egyptians is not to be compared with the wisdom of Moses when he weighed facts, and said, The riches of time are not to be compared to the riches of eternity. The last time we read of him he is in the company of the Son of God on the mount (Matt. 17:33And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. (Matthew 17:3)). If, for eternity, you are found not in the company of the Son of God, it will be you who will be the fool then.
Moses must have been a very all-round man. Evidently, when in and of the world, he was a splendid orator, as well as a doughty man in deeds. When forty years old he was not a young man, except that he was young according to the time men lived then. He lived three forties; during the first he served the devil; in the second he was at school; and in the third he served the Lord. Moses’ action when forty is very remarkable. The ball was at his foot and every earthly glory before him, when all of a sudden he “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” (Heb. 11:24, 2524By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Hebrews 11:24‑25)). There came somehow or other this deep conviction into his mind, I am not right. He looked round at the sphere in which he lived, and found it to be the world, and all passing away. There was nothing for God; God’s people were not known, and were working in the brickfields.
2. Moses found himself in a position entirely out of keeping with what was in the mind of God for His people. This conviction led to action. Doubtless there would be a great commotion when he formed his judgment, turned his back on the court, and identified himself with God’s people. It is a great thing to find out that your life, your relation to God, and to His people, is wrong. I do not ask whether you make a profession of Christ, but has your conviction led you to do what Moses did? The thing is reduced to these two points: every man has to refuse and to choose. Has that taken place in your soul’s history yet? Have you refused that in which you find yourself by providence and nature? Have you really chosen Christ?
Notice the energy of faith in Moses’ case― “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward” (vs. 26). Somehow or other light divine had got into that man’s soul. He paused and balanced things, looked at what was all round about him, and then, looking right into eternity, made his choice. I wonder if you have ever taken a solemn, serious, grave look right into eternity. What I want is for you to know Christ as your own Saviour, and, if you are wrong, to get right with God. If you have been convicted that you are wrong, take the step that will set you right. You say, I know I am wrong, and 1 would like to live the right life.
Look at Moses—with everything to hold him back, and every influence to make him stay where he was, he went forward. Satan doubtless said to him, What a foolish man you are; why do you not stay and use your influence to ameliorate the condition of those poor people? No, says Moses; I see the whole circle in which I am is a system of sin, and lies under impending judgment. What was he in? The world. What have you been in up to this hour? The world also, with its pleasures of sin. There is great pleasure in sin, but forget not that there are eternal consequences, terrible penalties attached to it. It does not need to be gross sin. Sin is doing what we like―taking our own way. Moses saw that the pleasures of sin were but for a season, and he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than continue in what were transitory pleasures, with everlasting penalties attached thereto.
Now, you, my unconverted reader, are going on with the world, and the pleasures of sin. What will end for you these pleasures for a season? Death, and how near it is you know not. That will not do for me; I have heard of “pleasures for evermore” (Psa. 16:1111Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:11)). I am going in for them, and I have them on the road too. All believers in Jesus have the pleasures that are eternal, and we have them also on the road—the sweet sense of having the Lord, belonging to the Lord, knowing the Lord.
Perhaps you say, I admire a consistent Christian life in others. Then why do you not adopt it? If it is worth admiring in someone else, it is surely worth adopting. Sin is sin, and God will judge it. I know that by the cross. If Christ has suffered on the cross to bear the sins of sinners, as He did suffer, that is God’s estimate of what sin is, and it shows us what must be the consequences of man’s sin in a day to come. You may tell me you are not clear about the punishment of sin. It must be something unspeakably terrible, because it fell on a holy sinless Man on the cross, involving such agony of soul, that at length He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)). If God forsook me forever in hell I should feel I deserved it; but, why did He forsake Christ? Because, in grace and love, He took our place and bare our judgment. Well wrote the poet: ―
“He took the guilty culprit’s place,
He suffered in his stead;
For man, oh miracle of grace,
For man the Saviour bled.”
Moses refused and then he chose; he looked right on to the future. He said, If this is going to hinder me from getting God’s mind it must all go; so he laid aside his princely robes and identified himself with God’s people. Men might call him a fool, but look at his end. It is a great thing to bear the reproach of the Lord, and to be on the Lord’s side. Moses had without doubt pious parents. You say: “My parents were pious,” Why is not their son? You say: “I had a godly father.” Are you walking in his footsteps? You admire them, and you reverence his memory―why do you not walk in his steps? It was a grand moment when that man esteemed things rightly before God, and looking full into eternity said, I am wrong, and I am going to be right, cost what it may.
3. The second forty years of Moses’ history rolled by, and then we read: “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (vs. 27). He turned his back on the world. The danger for young Christians today is they want to be Christians and go on with the world. I know scores of young people today who have just enough Christianity to make them miserable. They think they have the forgiveness of sins, but they have doubts, wad fears, and uncertainties, because there has never been that break with the world. Egypt is a system that wants to go on without God. The eye Of Moses was fixed on God. God was to bring His people into Canaan; Moses says, I will go in for it, I will turn my back on Egypt; and he becomes a separate man.
Very likely, my reader, the reason you have not got much joy in the Lord is, that there has not been a break with the world. Moses made it; he had the courage of his convictions. He says, I am wrong where I am, and I am coming out of it. What next? I am going to identify myself with God’s people. He then had to go to the backside of the desert, and learn some remarkable lessons.
4. Thereafter we are told: “Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them” (Heb. 11:2828Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. (Hebrews 11:28)). That was the fourth point in his history-he got into right relationship with God on the ground of redemption.
W. T. P. W.