Faith That Identifies With Christ

0:00Good morning. Y'all go ahead and open up to the book of Hebrews. Chapter eleven is where we are. Verses uh twenty-three through twenty-six is what we will cover this morning. Uh prop providentially, that's a word we've been throwing around a lot. Starting to starting to think it's not even a real word. I use it so much, but it is. Praise God. Providentially, God's word always shows up when we need it. Amen. Uh I think maybe everybody has heard, I don't know, I was I'll say too much, but I don't know if every any if it can ever be too much, but I think maybe everybody has heard too much the past couple weeks about the tragedy that we talked about a little bit last week that has struck the Kirk family and really uh our country. So I'm not gonna say anything specific uh again, other than what's already been said. Um however, we must not forget. We must not forget. It's very easy for us as people to compartmentalize and to move on with our with our lives. Uh, but our call is to remember, uh, is to remember these great testimonies of faith as we have been laboring now for many weeks through Hebrews chapter 11. Because, uh, and I'm not saying that necessarily that I'm meaning to say that Charlie Kirk's life is worthy of being included in Hebrews chapter 11, but I am saying that great lives speak for a generation, but great faith speaks for an eternity. Great lives speak for a generation, but great faith speaks for eternity. And that's exactly, I think, where our text, again, providentially is taking us this morning in Hebrews 11. So, with that being said, note again why the book of Hebrews was written. And I know I've said this many times now, but it was written because there is a temptation to fall back. For those who received this word, there was a temptation to fall back to Judaism. To fall back again to the law of Moses. But the writer is making clear, as we will see here, that Moses was actually looking forward to and trusted in Christ. So to deny Christ is to deny Moses, the very heritage and legacy that those who received this word wished to preserve. You can't have Moses without Christ. It doesn't work. Because it wasn't as though Christ, when he came, was this new thing. It wasn't as though the Christianity that then flourished after Christ was a new religion. Christ was always the thing. The church under Christ, the promised fullness of Israel, the promised fulfillment of that law given through Moses, that was always Christ. Moses was a Levite. Remember Hebrews 7 when we went through that, the priestly order of Melchizedek. Christ then is the fulfillment of the priestly order, under which only Moses only longed to look for. He only shadowed that which Christ fulfilled. Another thing I'll note as we get into the text, and this is important for this morning. Faith and providence always reveal itself in the choices and the decisions of man. Faith and providence always reveals itself in the choices and decisions of man. Stephen has labored this point through 1 Samuel specifically a few weeks ago, now, chapter 9. The women who came out to meet to meet with Saul and to instruct him about where to find Samuel. Providence was clear in the orchestration of that entire event. But as Stephen pointed out, the women still did what they did, right? There was still agency there. We talked about it when we mentioned Noah and the building of the ark. Clearly, Providence guided Noah and his faith, but he also built the ark. Awesome, James comes up there as well. So putting those two kind of things together, we considered this morning the necessity of a faith or necessity of faith that chooses Christ. The necessity of a faith that chooses Christ against the pleasures and even against the indictments of the world. A faith that chooses and looks to Christ alone as our great reward. We will also then consider the cost of such a choice and the cost of our faith. So if you're taking notes, we're talking a lot about Moses this morning. The salvation of Moses, the choice of Moses, and the consideration of Moses. Salvation, choice, and consideration. Those are our kind of our points as we get into it. So stand with me and let's read our text. Hebrews 11, verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. This is the word of the Lord. I pray and ask that you would speak now for Christ's sake and for his glory. In his name that I pray. Amen. I think the biggest question to address as we begin, why did Moses choose reproach over the riches of Egypt? Why did Moses choose the reproach of Christ over the riches of Egypt? Why would anybody choose persecution over peace? And if this question and the answer to it should be one of the reasons why we trust that the Bible is true. It's often been said that no one suffers willingly for something that they know to be false. Sure, people will suffer for things that they truly believe in, but happen to turn out to be false. But no one suffers for something that they know to be false. No one. And so Moses then decided against Egyptian royalty and did so in favor of persecution because of one thing. Faith. He believed in God's word. He possessed faith. This is the reason why he chose persecution over Egyptian royalty. Faith is the only reason to explain why any of us in the eyes of the world seemingly act foolishly. It is faith alone. And that's what Moses had clearly. It's what Moses displayed clearly. But where did he get such a faith? Where did that faith that Moses had come from? And the Sunday school answer is Jesus, God, right? And this is true. But remember what I said to start with. Providence always reveals itself in the decisions of man. Hebrews tells us where Moses learned his faith. Verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents. Because they saw that a child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edicts. Moses learned his faith from his parents. There's a Jewish historian, many of you know him, Josephus. I won't get into exegeting or dissecting Josephus' comments on this particular passage and Moses in general, but I'll say that he considered this passage and the story of Moses and commented and thought, believed that Amram, who is Moses' father, who was the grandson of Levi, right? So get that around your head. Sorry for the history, but we have Levi, who was the son of Jacob, actually the third son of Jacob. His grandson was Amram, and that was the father of Moses. And Amram and Jacobed had Moses, they had Aaron, and they had Miriam. At least that's what's recorded for us in Scripture. But Josephus said that it's very likely that God appeared in a dream to Amram to let him know that Moses was the chosen vessel to deliver Egypt or deliver God's people from Egypt. And that was this divine beauty that the text speaks of when it says that his parents hid him because they were not afraid of the king's edict, because the child was beautiful. Everybody thinks their child is beautiful. Am I right? There has to be something more to this beauty that they saw within Moses, and it is likely, although not necessarily proven, that they knew that Moses was the one to deliver the people from Egypt. They were, as I have said, these were Levites. The father of Moses was a Levite. He knew the promise of God. He trusted in the promise of God. He was waiting. They were waiting for this deliverance to come from God. They trusted him. And this possible revelation by faith, they defied the king's edict. They saw the beauty, the divine beauty of their son. They did not care about this edict. They did not fear the king. They trusted the Lord, and so they hid him. And then they sent him off. That was by faith. They did that. And the idea that Moses knew this, you know, Moses knew that he was the divine one to deliver the people. And perhaps even that his parents at some point told him this, that he was called by God. This is actually supported by Acts 7. Stephen, he says this. Shortly before he was martyred, Acts 7.23, Stephen says this quote, when he was 40 years old, talking about Moses, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. Stephen is saying there is that Moses figured that his actions in defense of his own people against the Egyptians would be viewed by them as the beginning of their salvation, but they missed it. They missed it. And if you're thinking, well, didn't God reveal himself to Moses in the burning bush and tell him that he was the one to deliver? That was about 40 years after this instance. So the timeline is that potentially, at least from that and from Acts, Moses knew. Either way, Moses at least had some indication of who he was, what he was to do, who his people were. And Moses had ingrained in him this call to be an instrument of salvation for God's people, and he trusted in that. He had faith in that, such that he defended them against the wicked Egyptians. And when the time came for him to step into that call, knowing what it was going to cost him, Moses acted in obedience to God. Again, where did that faith come from? It came from his parents. His parents showed him how to obey God. Because when the time came for his parents to step into their call, knowing the cost, they acted in obedience to their faith. Not fearing the king. They acted in obedience to faith. For us today, then is a great honor. And it is also a terrible burden to pass faith along to our kids, isn't it? To be the instruments of their salvation. And by extension, the instruments of salvation for generations to come. Do you take that responsibility seriously? I'm going to poke at you now. Open and blatant hypocrisy on the account of parents is the quickest way to make a child suspicious of religion, suspicious of Christ, to harden them to God. It is. Consistency and stability in the things of God. Consistency and stability in this model of faith that makes children like Moses resolved to trust in God. Resolved to follow God's will and not the world. Resolved to choose the narrow path that leads to glory over the wide path that leads to destruction. For our young parents, them to be parents, and I guess everybody really applies to us all. Don't be a spiritual hypocrite. If you are anything, be consistent, immovable, follower of God. Seeking Him, seeking the will of God in all things. That is how we pass that faith down. Okay. The choice of Moses. That was the salvation of Moses. This is the choice of Moses. Verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Consider how difficult that choice would have been. How difficult that choice would have been for Moses. He was raised his whole life by Pharaoh's daughter. But now, in his adulthood, he essentially walks away from his adopted mother. Oh, Moses? She raised you. She took care of you. And you're just gonna deny her and walk away from her? You might ask, wouldn't it have been better if you would have stayed? Worked things, worked the things of God from the inside, slowly infiltrating the Egyptian ranks, kind of like Joseph did. Wouldn't that have been better? Would that have worked out better? How long could he have stayed where he had no business being? This is the myth of influence. It's popular in our culture today. Modern church seekers, kind of that seeker, we've talked about that, the seeker church movement, do it with liturgy. We can just look more like the world, be more like them, dress more like them, act like them, our service is more welcoming to them. We can actually kind of infiltrate their ranks and slowly turn them to us. There's a movement among Christian circles called Third Wayism, made popular by several men, but firmly plants themselves really entrenched amongst the sinners and the unbelievers. Really takes kind of an open, moderate position on all things, hoping that they'll infiltrate the sinful ranks, and that over time slowly they can slowly begin to influence them. People all the time get entwined with sin because of this supposed influence that they may have. Saying things like, well, it's true that I'm allied with unbelief and I'm partnering with injustice and with evil, but it's worth it because of all the good that I may be able to do. Consider Lot. So entwined with sin that even in the face of judgment, he's very slow to respond and get out, isn't he? Go back and read that section. It's like the weight of sin was so heavy on him that he was sluggish to get out when the judgment was coming. You've had this experience. This is the best analogy I could come up with. If you've had a five five to seven-year-old, probably any age, actually, kid, who's literally bouncing off the walls, and then you tell them it's time for bed, and all of a sudden their legs are like concrete. You had this experience? No? I hear some laughter, I'm sure that's probably true. We at times get so entwined with sin that we become sluggish to move out of it. We make excuses. Well, I have no idea, because I do it too. Why we continuously think that we can cozy up to sin and nestle up to unbelief, and we can be the influencer and not the influenced. And certainly we can go into those places from without and we could give truth and the gospel. Certainly we can, and we should. But the example of Moses is that we cannot rationalize living with sin on the basis of this myth of influence. We cannot. You will not have the influence. I won't say will not. Very likely. Your call is to refuse to be identified with a sinful world and a sinful culture. That is your call. Metaphorically speaking, if you are wearing the same clothes as Satan, how does anyone know you belong to Christ? If Moses stayed in his Egyptian garb, how would he answer his call to deliver God's people out of the bondage of slavery? We might just know Moses on another long line of mummified Egyptian royalty. But instead, he is on a short list of the faithful greats. Because he refused to be known as anything other than a child of the one true God. He chose to be mistreated rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. And those pleasures are fleeting. They will not sustain you. They will not last forever. Could you choose to be mistreated rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin? Would you make that choice? I'm sure glad Christ did. Christ made the choice. To save you from the punishment of sin. To give you freedom from sin. But Christ didn't choose that mistreatment so that you don't have to. And anyone who says that is lying. They're ignorant. Christ didn't choose that mistreatment solely for the purpose so that you don't have to make that choice. Christ chose mistreatment over the fleeting pleasures of sin because he was holy. He was set apart, consecrated, righteous. He was the embodiment of pure light. And light has no fellowship with darkness. Holiness has no fellowship with sin. May it be our joy then, church, to walk as Christ has walked. And when the choice needs to be made, we choose holiness over sin. We choose a faith that identifies with Christ especially. Especially when it means mistreatment. Only let your life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come to see you or am absent, I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Not frightened in anything by your opponents, this is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. Engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Philippians 1, 27 to 30. And given to us in that passage that I just read in Philippians, and certainly supported in our text this morning in Hebrews, that the grace of God doesn't allow us to suffer alone or to face mistreatment alone. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God, side by side, as Paul says in Philippians. Grace of God does not allow us to suffer alone or to face mistreatment alone. We may think we are alone at times. We might feel like it, but be assured that a faith that identifies with Christ is never alone. It will never be alone. Finally, the consideration of Moses. Verse 26, he considered. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for the reward. This word considered again. It's came up now multiple times. This is that logic or calculation word. Moses calculated, you could say. He considered. He considered Christ. How is it possible that Moses considered Christ? John 1, verse 45. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Even Christ himself in John 46, 5, 46. For if you believed in Moses, you would believe in me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Moses wrote of Christ. Moses talked about Christ. Moses was looking to Christ. Moses longed for Christ. As a result, the mistreatment that he endured was trivial. Nothing for him when compared against the glory that awaited him in choosing Christ. That's the faithful calculation. That knowing Christ, that serving Christ, even dying for Christ, is of such a greater value than anything else. All else seems a bit trivial, really. And then that suffering becomes the means by which we obtain the prize that we seek. And what is that prize? It is the person of Christ. I'll quote J.C. Ryle real quick here. Faith told Moses that affliction and suffering were not the real evils. They were the school of God in which he trains the children of grace for glory, the medicines which are needful to purify our corrupt wills, the furnace which must born, which must burn away our dross, the knife which must cut the ties that bind us to the world, marvel not that he refused greatness, riches, and pleasure. He looked far forward. He saw with the eye of faith kingdoms crumbling into dust, riches making themselves to wings and fleeing away, pleasures leading on to death and judgment, and Christ only and his little flock enduring forever. He saw with the eye of faith affliction lasting, but for a moment reproach rolled away, an ending and everlasting honor, and the despised people of God reigning as kings with Christ in glory. Moses then was the foreshadowing of the person and work of Christ, but also another example of the outcome of faith, the outcome that chooses to identify with Christ. Ever notice how nowhere in the Bible it says, after someone who has boldly and unapologetically identifies with Christ by faith, it says something like, and everyone loved him and rejoiced with him, and he lived all the rest of his days in perfect peace and harmony. Blessed are you, Jesus said. When others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. I don't believe Christ said that just in case. This is the expectation. Because that's the great gospel sales pitch. As paradoxical as it is. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Give your life to Christ. Turn from your sins, repent from them, and receive his grace and salvation. It's going to be great. You'll be alienated from your friends, family, you'll be mocked by the world, potentially likely mistreated if you are obedient to him and unashamedly so. You'll be made to suffer seemingly unending trials such that you will be tempted in your flesh to question whether this was even worth it. Christ is worth it, though. Because what's the alternative? The fleeting pleasures of Egypt? Moses did the calculation, so you don't have to. If the choice is to suffer with Christ or have the fleeting pleasures of Egypt, it's not even a choice. Problem is we want both. We want the world and Christ. We want the perfect life of pleasure and peace, and we want Christ, but you can't have both. John 16, 33. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Faith that identifies with Christ is so difficult. It is impossible without the Spirit of God because it requires both a yes and a no. We love the yes. Yes to salvation. Yes to Christ. Yes to eternal life. Yes to the treasures and the riches of heaven. Yes, Lord. Take it all. It also requires us from us knows. No to the world. All its sinful pleasures. No to sin. No to the corruptions of your heart. No to your old habits that continually bring you down. No to yourself. No to your selfish desires. Matthew 10, the words of Christ, and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. As it is often said, if it's easy, everyone would do it. Narrows the way that leads to life. And few will find it. Those choices come easy? No. Easy in that it's a it's a gift, requires nothing of you to come to salvation in Christ. That's all been bought and purchased for you. But the consequences of our faith, these are not easy. Is it worth it though? Moses did the calculation again. He looked far ahead to the reward and he concluded, yes, indeed it is worth it. And church, the good news for us this morning, I don't want to give you all bad news. Not that I was giving you bad news, but if you would, church, with eyes of faith, see your faithful Lord sitting upon his throne in heaven, with every knee bowed before him in worship, with every tongue confessing in that heavenly chorus that Christ is Lord. And from that day on, forevermore, only perfect joy will be experienced with our great King. If you can, with the eyes of faith, see that day, then surely we can take up our crosses. And we can declare, that's where I am going. And I don't care what I have to do to get there. That's the faith of Moses. And that is a faith that boldly identifies Christ. This is our faith. And we go and live it boldly. Amen. As always, we thank you for the faith again of all of these men. And as we talked about this morning, Lord, the faith of Moses that chose Christ over the pleasures of this world, Lord. Chose mistreatment and persecution. For Christ's name. For his glory. That is relevant and poignant to us even now, Lord. Would you give us boldness? Would you give us courage? Lord, ultimately, would you increase our faith? Lord, we would see the reward that you have purchased and secured for us. Lord, and we would declare that that is our end by faith. Trusting in Christ, Lord. And we will boldly walk to that end and forsake the world along the way. Help us, Lord, by your spirit. Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.