[0:00] that he would lead us. Let us look again at the portion of scripture read, the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11, and at verse 23.
[0:15] Hebrews, chapter 11, 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 commandments.
[0:52] And first of all, a word of introduction. And then, secondly, the faith of Moses' parents.
[1:11] And thirdly, their motive, why they did this. Why they did what they actually did, as recorded here.
[1:29] Their motive in the exercise of their faith, then, and the encouragement they got. And fourthly, in a word, we're just following the verse, how they were not afraid.
[1:49] A word of introduction. The faith of Moses' parents. Why they did what they did.
[2:01] And how they were not afraid. We must bear in mind, in considering this wonderful chapter, the 11th chapter of Hebrews, that the writer is not dealing with justification at all here.
[2:31] He's not dealing with justification. He's not dealing with faith as justifying faith.
[2:43] He's not dealing with the interest faith has in justification. What is he dealing with then? He is dealing with the power and operation of faith in those who are justified.
[3:06] He takes for granted that these people are justified. And he is dealing with the power and operation of faith in them after they have been justified, or as they have been justified.
[3:24] And what does that have to do with the power and operation of faith in the justified? Or it has to do with this?
[3:37] Their constancy And their perseverance in their profession of faith. It has to do with that.
[3:49] Their constancy and perseverance in their profession of faith. In the face of all the difficulties, spiritual and otherwise, which confront them in life.
[4:05] That's what he's dealing with. And this is the very way in which the Apostle James treats of faith.
[4:20] Especially in chapter 2 of his epistle. So therefore, we are faced with this. The definition which we have of faith here, in the beginning of this chapter, which is a great definition of faith.
[4:44] And it is the most comprehensive definition of faith that we have in the Bible. And yet, though this is the most comprehensive definition of faith we have in the Bible, there are aspects of faith, nay we can say more that, that there are very, very important, even the most important aspects of faith, which are not touched here at all.
[5:27] So there is a lesson for us here. We should always seek to make manifest when we are treating of our own faith, or faith as it is displayed to us in the lives of others.
[5:50] We should always make manifest that we know very little about faith. If you meet any person who gives you the impression that he or she knows everything about faith, you can be sure that such persons know comparatively little about it.
[6:21] The most important lesson for us to derive from what we have here is that when we are giving definitions of faith, we should round them off something like this.
[6:40] After you have said everything that you can say about your faith, when you're treating with others, after you have said everything that you can about faith, and said it in the best way you can, that you make this confession, that there are a thousand and one aspects of faith which you have said nothing about, and more than that, and which you know very little about.
[7:21] Faith is a wondrous grace. This is what is so wonderful about the great graces of the church worked in them by the Holy Spirit, that they go far beyond our comprehension.
[7:44] In this chapter, the writer takes these instances of faith from three states of the Old Testament church.
[7:58] Three. Three situations in the Old Testament church. He takes his examples from these.
[8:11] The first instance is that which was constituted in the giving of the first promise. That's the first one.
[8:26] From the beginning of the first promise until the call of Abraham. The second instance begins with the call of Abraham.
[8:39] The writer first instances able in whose sacrifices the faith of the church was made manifest.
[8:56] Oh, there's far more than that. A bull in whose death as a martyr the faith of the church was confirmed or by whose death I should have said by whose death as a martyr the faith of the church was confirmed.
[9:21] The first example his faith shown in his sacrifices and confirmed in his death.
[9:35] The next state of the church had its beginning and its confirmation in the call of Abraham with the covenant which God made with that believer and the seal of that covenant the circumcision.
[10:01] The third state or situation of the church was confirmed at Mount Sinai in the giving of the law and thus the lawgiver that is Moses the lawgiver himself is instanced here he belongs to the third situation Abel Abraham and Moses and what is the whole purpose of this spiritual cataloging of spiritual heroes what is the purpose of it it is this to make abundantly clear that no matter how great the changes effected outwardly as the
[11:03] Old Testament church progressed no matter the changes in time and in revelations of the truth yet it was the same faith with the same promises with the same power and efficacy under them all as we would expect the writer especially highlights the faith of Abraham he was the father of the faithful he showed faith in a most wonderful way he gives 12 verses let the young people look this up for themselves he gives 12 verses in the chapter to
[12:07] Abraham and then after that he specially highlights the next greatest faith recorded in this chapter that of Moses and he gives 7 verses to describing the faith of Moses 12 to the faith of Abraham 7 to the faith of Moses and no wonder for in many respects Moses is the greatest personage in the Old Testament in many respects Moses is the most Christ like he was the meekest he was the most he was the most plagued so therefore the meekest is the most plagued the person who puts up with most he was plagued in a variety of ways and one of the saddest afflictions that ever came upon
[13:35] Moses was when his older sister and his older brother rebelled ostensibly against him but that was not the real nature of their rebellion they were rebelling against God Miriam the leader of Israel song Aaron the high priest of God and along with this he was plagued with the stiff necked rebellion of that host which he had taken out of Egypt it took 40 years it took 40 years to take Egypt out of them they left Egypt in a night but it took 40 years to take
[14:40] Egypt out of them secondly then the faith of the parents of Moses and we notice an interesting thing here whereas in the case of Abraham's faith the writer commences with Abraham not with his father though his father Tira left Ur of the Chaldees with his son there is nothing to suggest that it was Tira's faith which effected this departure it was Abraham's faith it was Abraham's marvelous faith oh don't look on faith as a mechanical thing faith makes for adventure or real adventure we are so apt to think that adventure belongs to godlessness it does not there is no real adventure there adventure belongs to the lives of the saints and the more like god they are the more adventure there is in their lives faith is full of spiritual adventure and this is another interesting point the stronger a person's faith is the less god needs to tell a person now we're speaking advisedly here
[16:42] Abraham was not told where he was going he was not told very much he was just told go and he went and the stronger your faith the more you will do spiritually without being told the extras he did not know the outcome this was part of the adventure of his faith he relied wholly and totally upon his guide he only knew that god had called him and that he must obey but interestingly in Moses case the writer takes a step back it's interesting he takes a step back as it were he does not begin with
[17:44] Moses faith but with the faith of Moses parents and a wonderful instance of faith this is it all happened at a terrible time in the history of Israel we are all fairly conversant with this history it has been said before us from our earliest days the children of Israel were enthralled slaves there arrived there had risen a new king who knew not Joseph and he was jealous of the advancement of the descendants of Jacob and in his jealousy he appointed taskmasters to afflict them with terrible burdens in spite of that the chosen people of
[18:48] God multiplied and grew so Pharaoh in terrible cruelty he commanded the midwives to kill every man child born to the Israelites and when this failed and when this palpably failed he widened his order and he commanded everyone both Egyptian and Israelite to throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the river Nile to dispose of them by drowning and under such a cruel edict as this Moses was born it was a terrible time for Hebrew parents amidst all the fury of persecution by the enemies of
[19:54] God's people amidst all the fury of persecution by the enemies of God's people a wonderful thing happened there came into the world a male child who should like the rest have perished at birth but what did happen and we see the wondrous depth of God's counsels displayed in the midst or in the teeth I should have said of the deadliest contrivances of the kingdom of darkness wonderful light in the midst of the most terrible darkness when the heathens rage and when the people imagine a vain thing artificiality and superficiality when the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the
[21:14] Lord and his anointed what happens he who sits in the heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision we see this happening here with an almighty facility he lays in provision not only for the safeguarding of this babe he lays in provision for the deliverance of his church and the utter ruin of Egypt in this very act he was he was setting in motion his plan to break the head of leviathan leviathan leviathan leviathan is set before us in scripture as the pharaoh at that time to set to break the head of leviathan then but more than that he was laying his plan to break the head of the great leviathan the adversary the devil in the fullness of time both events were very very connected the parents of
[23:04] Moses Amram and Jochebed are not even named here but their names are written in heaven they were of the tribe of levi the old testament account emphasizes the role of the mother please notice this in your reading of it the old testament account emphasizes the role of the mother the part the mother played the account here emphasizes the role of both parents it could very well have been the father's plan or the plan of both executed chiefly by the mother oh the wonderful way in which God has worked through mothers executed chiefly by the mother father with the daughter
[24:09] Miriam there is a spiritual lesson here for all husbands and all wives the household which is ruled by the fear of the Lord and let us try to imagine how this household was ruled by the fear of the Lord every household which is ruled by the fear of the Lord will know the blessing of the Lord no matter what setbacks and sorrows they may experience that and every household which does not know the fear of the Lord no matter what semblance of success may attend their circumstances are these circumstances of that household that household will not or really prosper we are told that by faith they hid the child faith hides faith hides faith is very very good at hiding in our most spiritual and blessed way real faith made them attempt the seemingly impossible we can imagine all the strictures that would attend the king's command we can imagine how difficult it would be to hide a male birth in the face of all the power and the prying that would seek to effect this edict but faith made these two inventive faith makes greater inventors than any inventors of earth it made these two wondrously inventive their faith in
[26:41] God and their faith alone enable them to preserve their secret they preserved their secret in faith how else could they have preserved it can we not plainly see these two supplying in their faith all these wondrous things that Peter tells us to supply in their faith can we not see them supplying in their faith manliness and womanliness and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly and sisterly love and love itself can we not see their faith growing each day faith grows by exercise how wonderfully the faith of these parents must have grown each day as they contrived to hide their male child or we must not think that we can measure the growth of our faith there is a better one measuring the growth of your faith you just grow he will do the measuring as they contrived to hide their male child can we not hear their prayers to god in fervency seeking his help and his salvation and treating that he would show them his way to preserve this child we can plainly say that if it had been an earthly plan that these parents had put into practice they would never never have achieved what they did achieve and when they could obviously hide him no longer they committed him to the river in faith it was not a blind faith it was the real faith that has eyes to see the unseen that made them commit the child of three months to the river in an ark of bulrushes isn't that a significant name in an ark of bulrushes this was an ark of faith no less than
[29:45] Noah's ark of faith and the providence of God became the servant of the grace of God as it always does in spiritual situations you may be buffeted and buffeted and buffeted and you progress by faith through the grace of God Miriam watched the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river she saw the ark she sent a maid to fetch it she opened it and was greeted by a cry and everything working out God's plan of salvation she was greeted by a cry from the infant which evoked her compassion the story is full of spiritual pathos
[30:51] Miriam maneuvered the situation in her mother's direction and we hear Pharaoh's daughter saying to Moses mother Pharaoh's daughter saying to the mother of this very babe take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages and Moses mother took the child and nursed it oh the significance of these words never babe was better nursed till a greater babe was to come we are told by modern pundits that children learn at this stage of their lives more than at any other time when we are up to think they are not learning at all we are told that they learn more than at any other time
[31:59] Moses was nurtured in the faith and the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son now there's a question here for each one of us does your own faith enable you to hide many things to spiritual advantage women fervent love covers a multitude of sins and the wisdom of real faith also hides multitudes of things thirdly their motive in the exercise of their faith and the encouragement they got this is the way the scripture sets it before us they saw that he was a proper child
[33:05] I wonder what this means every parent looks upon every parent looks upon his or her offspring as a proper child but what does this mean does it just mean that he was calmly to look upon as no doubt he was the word proper in Hebrew is a most interesting word it is applied to everything that is on any account approvable and excellent in its kind it is the word whereby the almighty approved of all his works of creation and declared their perfection this word proper it is the word used to describe Rebecca's beauty it is the word which
[34:07] Greek translates kalos the good the comely the perfection of beauty his parents had spirituality to see that this child though he properly belonged to them though he properly belonged to them they had the spirituality to see that this child more properly belonged to God his mother brought him up for an Egyptian princess but infinitely more she brought him up for God oh that we would learn to nourish and to rear our offspring in this way she brought him up for God and for
[35:07] God's solemn purposes she reared this deliverer of God's people when Stephen addressed the council in that powerful sermon before his death he terms the baby Moses as exceedingly fair that is how Stephen terms the baby Moses exceedingly fair and in the original that is put fair or beautiful to God the people of God were groaning in bondage and looking for a deliverer they knew that God would deliver them in his appointed time they had a promise of this from God himself and Joseph had witness to this promise as he lay dying he gave commandment he gave a charge concerning his bones and then just in a word fourthly they were not afraid of the wrath of the king no doubt the king's order entailed that anybody who contravened it would be punished by death no doubt that was the king's order but these parents were not afraid faith gave them courage faith has eyes to see through death the promises of
[37:00] God made them spiritually bold God had promised Abraham that he would multiply his seed and further he had promised Jacob that he would do this in Egypt this was the particular promise given to Jacob that God would multiply Jacob's seed in Egypt and he said I am God the God of thy father fear not to go down into Egypt for I will there make of thee a great nation their faith therefore knew that no enactment of any king of any king no matter how great the nation as Egypt was at the time that no enactment of any king would stand against
[38:03] God's promise against the promise of the king of all kings it is in fact this is very interesting it is in fact very probable that from this time and from this very instance the king's edict was not enforced for the next 80 years because the children of Israel we see from scripture that the children of Israel increased exceedingly after this time oh friends how wonderful it is to exercise your real faith in the God of salvation amen let us pray