Good morning, everyone. A little fresh snowfall, hey? My wife said, you know, this is normal, I don't know why we're surprised every year. 

Well, we're looking at Hebrews 11 again, verses 23 to 29, in the faith of Moses this morning, continuing our study in this 11th chapter, and we've observed the faith of some great men in the first part of this chapter: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, the patriarchs. These are truly amazing stories of those who believed and trusted God, who looked to the reward, and they're great examples for us for application in our lives as we keep our focus on the promises of God in Christ and learn to trust Him one day at a time through the circumstances of this life. 

This is what we see in the amazing life of Moses. He was certainly a unique child born in incredible circumstances and chosen by God to lead His people out of the bondage in Egypt. He was not a perfect man, but he was a faithful man, and what God did from the time of His birth through the course of His life is an astounding example to us of the sovereignty of the faithfulness of the purpose and plan of God, as well as the abundance of fruit that can come from a life of faith. 

We saw in the life of Abraham that he believed God against all odds when everything seemed so hopeless as far as the promise being fulfilled of a son and a nation, and we see this with the faith of Moses as well concerning the fate of God's people Israel. But the real example of Moses' faith is one of a right estimation of the promises, the future fulfillment of the Word of God. Moses was presented with opportunities with privilege that few men have ever had. 

He had the whole of Egypt before him, all that the world could offer, and yet our text says that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the passing or temporary pleasures of sin. Faith makes a right estimation of the world, all that it offers, and it rejects it. And faith also makes a right estimation of the promises and the Word of God and believes Him and trusts Him and obeys Him, placing all faith in the fact that He will do what He says. 

Verse 26 says that he steadily looked to the reward. This is the key to faith, my friends. At the beginning of this chapter, we saw in verse 6 that without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This explains the faith of Moses. He believed that God is, all that He is, and he believed that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, that trusting in Him and His promises, doing what God says would result in His own good and the good of God's people. 

This is the example that we see today in our text in the faith of Moses. Let's look at that text in verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw that he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. 

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, we're going to look at the child Moses; second, the coming of age; third, looking to the reward; and fourth, the promise of deliverance. 

Well first we see in our text the incredible beginning of the life of Moses. In verse 23, it says, *by faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command.* I'd like to go back and look at that story in Exodus 2, if you'd turn back to Exodus chapter 2 with me, please. 

Beginning in verse 1, *and a man of the house of Levi went and took his wife, a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked alongside the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. So the maiden went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him, and the child grew. And she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, Because I drew him out of the water.*

Well, you remember the king's decree in Egypt, that all male children born to the Hebrews were to be thrown into the river and drowned. He feared the Hebrews because their numbers were becoming so great, so he decided that he should kill all of the firstborn males to reduce the population in Israel. But the mother of Moses would not obey this decree, which asked her to directly disobey God's commands. Our text says that they saw that the child was a beautiful child. The idea of the word here is that they recognized that he was favored by, or that he was beautiful before God, that God had plans for him. They knew that God had great plans for Moses, and so they did not fear the command of the king. They did not obey the king, but rather chose to hide him for three months. 

And when they could hide him no longer, they built an ark, a little boat, and they sealed it with pitch, much like the ark of Noah. And they put him in it and set him down in the river, waiting to see what would happen to him. His sister followed along and watched, and we see the sovereign hand of God in the early life of Moses. This was an impossible situation. The king had mandated that all male children be killed. They had no real way around this, yet in faith, they hid him and put him in the little ark. And God orchestrated all the circumstances. He brought Pharaoh's daughter down to the river and allowed her to find Moses and to have sympathy on him, to take him as her own. That's quite a story in itself, if you think about it. 

But then we see that God also orchestrated details so that his own mother could raise him and nurse him in her own home and be paid for it. Their faith was rewarded. Now here's the interesting thing about the young life of Moses. The text says that Moses went with his mother for him to raise, and it says the child grew. Most scholars believe that Moses lived in his own home with his family, possibly up to the age of 12. It was certainly a good deal of time. 

And here's the important part. Moses would have been taught all about Jehovah, all about the promises of God, of a deliverer, of a deliverer out of Egypt for the people of God, and a deliverer from sin and death and hell in the person of Messiah. And he would have been fully educated in the Hebrew culture and religion and faith. This foundation would be important later in his life. 

Now after he had grown, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter, and here he would have been educated and raised in all the traditions and beliefs and culture of Egypt. He would have been the prince of Egypt. Moses was fully Hebrew, but also fully Egyptian, exposed extensively to both cultures and faiths. We see in the childhood of Moses the great hand of God and His sovereignty, as well as the amazing faith of his parents and their faithfulness to God. 

Well next we see coming of age. In Exodus 2.11, it says, *now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, why are you striking your companion? Then he said, who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? So Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. 

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. When they came to Reuel their father, he said, how is it that you have come so soon today? And they said, an Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock. So he said to his daughters, and where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread. Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. And she bore him a son, he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a foreign land.*

We now enter the next stage of the life of Moses. Moses was grounded in the Hebrew faith and promises. Moses was educated and raised through his formative years in the Egyptian ways. But when he came of age, when he was grown, he was presented with a choice. Would he take all that the world had to offer? Would he take the riches, the fine food, the women, the ease of life, the power and the prestige of Egypt, and being the prince and the greatest power on earth? Or would he choose to identify with God's people, look to the promises, to the reward, and suffer through his time here on this earth, rejected by men and without prominence and luxury? 

I wonder if you ponder that choice that Moses had. This is a choice that all men really must make, however, it may have never been more of a contrast than for that young man Moses. Never has anyone given up so much in the world and taken on such burdens with the people of God. But our text explains the great faith of Moses in this way. 

Look at verse 24: *by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.* 

There are some really key phrases here that help us understand the faith of Moses and his choice to forsake Egypt and look to God. We saw before that Moses lived with his family and was trained and raised in Judaism with the promise made to Abraham as a key feature, and this perhaps until he was as old as 12. Then he moved into the house of Pharaoh and began his education in the Egyptian culture, preparing him as the prince of Egypt. 

But verse 24 of our text says that when he became of age, when he was grown, Exodus 2 says, apparently Moses had finished his training in Egypt, and now he was a full-grown man with the ability to make his own choices. And when he saw the suffering of his brethren, the Hebrews, he made a choice to side with them, to identify himself with the people of God, killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew man. It may have been that Moses thought this would prove his loyalty to his brethren. It may be that Moses knew that he would be the deliverer of his people. Whatever the reason, it did not work out for him, as we read. And he fled from Egypt. He fled from Pharaoh, who was trying to kill him, and he ended up living in Midian and marrying Zipporah. 

It was the next phase in the life of faith for Moses. It was a time of preparation, and he spent 40 more years there, 40 years in Midian. When he came of age, it says, 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 passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ as greater riches. Can you imagine that? 

Look at Egypt. Look at all that was there. Look at all that was at his fingertips. And he chose to esteem the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. How is it possible that the young man Moses could forsake the riches of Egypt? All that power and prestige, the indulgence of the flesh that would come from it, the passing pleasures of sin, how could such a young man turn from all of this and reject it in order to suffer affliction with the people of God? 

It makes me wonder about the choices that I have to make in this regard. My choices seem so much easier, simpler than those of Moses. He had so much more to lose, so much more hardship to suffer, and yet he made a right estimate of what the world had to offer. And he also made a right estimate of what would come with faith in God and fellowship with his people. And he chose to forsake it all and to take his place as God's chosen man to deliver the Hebrew people out of Egypt. 

He saw sin for what it is. Notice that it says sin is a pleasure. We enjoy sin. It's a pleasure, but it's a passing, temporary pleasure that brings death and destruction. And he chose to believe God and trust Him and obey Him. 

How could he see affliction and difficulty and heartache as a greater treasure than those of Egypt? There's only one way, my friends. Verse 26 says, *for he continually looked toward the reward.* The Greek is in the present tense, indicating an ongoing action. Through it all, Moses looked to the reward. He believed that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He kept his focus on the Word, on the promise of God, and this he had been taught all through his early childhood, the hope of Israel. 

We've been studying 1 Corinthians chapter 4 on Thursday night and there's such an amazing little nugget in there, I'd like for you to see it, 1 Corinthians 4. We'll begin at verse 1, Paul, you know, is writing here to the church in Corinth which had all kinds of problems going on. 

*First Corinthians 4.1 says, let a man so consider us, Paul's speaking of himself, of the Apostles, let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.*

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. You'll remember that there was division in the church in Corinth and Paul was concerned about it. The believers there had lost their focus; they had forgotten their first love and the grace of God and Jesus Christ, so much so that they were wholly fixed on themselves, on their own self-exaltation and comparing themselves with themselves and among themselves. 

And thus they had divided themselves up by teachers that they claimed to follow: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ. Paul is writing to correct them, to focus them back on Christ, on the promises. Because the truth is that he and the others and the apostles were just slaves of Christ. They were servants of Christ, stewards, he writes, of the mysteries, the Word of God. They were simply servants to dish out the truth according to the Word. 

And the Corinthians had no right to judge them, nor even to judge themselves. And certainly nowhere in the Christian life is there room for boasting, for we have only received all that we have by the grace of God. But the phrase that really grabs my attention in this passage is this, *that you may not think beyond what is written.* What a statement. What an admonition. 

I think in the context he's specifically speaking of what the Scriptures say about men, who we are, what we have in Christ, a right estimation of ourselves. But more broadly, it is certainly true for all spiritual truth and practical application in our daily lives. Do not think beyond what is written. Do not seek truth outside of Christ and the Word of God. Do not seek philosophies and wisdoms of men, means and methods. Do not seek after what is temporal, riches, fame, and power. But seek first the Kingdom of God. 

Set your focus on the promises of God. And the promises that Moses would have known would have been the promises made to Abraham concerning Israel, and perhaps Joseph's word of deliverance from Egypt. And he set himself continually on the reward. He had so much to think about, so much at his fingertips, so much to draw him away, but he did not think beyond what was written. He set his mind on the reward steadily, faithfully, and this allowed him to make a right estimation of Egypt and the world. 

And it also allowed him to make a right estimation of the fate and future of Israel and what it meant to align himself with the people of God. It didn't seem as though these things were so when Moses was young, living in Pharaoh's house. Egypt had it all. And the Hebrews were slaves. But Moses looked to the promise, to the reward, to God and faith, and this is what allowed him to act in wisdom, choosing the greater riches. 

When in our text we see the child Moses, we see coming of age, we see looking to the reward, and finally, we see the promise of deliverance. Verse 24 of our text, again, *By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.* 

We see a similar story a long time after this event in the life of Moses in Acts chapter 5. If you'd like to look at Acts 5 with me, please, at verse 17. 

Acts 5, 17, this is a story of the arrest of the Apostles. It says, *Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the Apostles, and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, and brought them out, and said, Go stand in the temple, and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and did not find them in prison, they returned and reported, saying, Indeed, we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priest heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. So one came and told them, saying, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood on us. Now look at verse 29, But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree, Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, and we are His witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.* 

The last verse of our text this morning refers to Moses' choice to forsake Egypt. He did not fear the king. He did not fear Pharaoh, in that he did fear God. As Joshua said, *Choose this day whom you will serve, but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.* Moses chose to fear God, he chose to serve Him, and that was a clean separation from Egypt and identification with the people of God. And so he fled. He fled to Midian where he endured for 40 years, waiting on the fulfillment of the promise to deliver Israel from Egypt. 

He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. This is the key to enduring, to waiting, persevering, to being faithful. As we set our minds on the promise, on the reward, the fulfillment that we are confident will come. And the time of deliverance did come for Israel by the hand of Moses, God's chosen deliverer. 

Look at Exodus 3 with me, please. This is such an amazing time in the life of Moses, Exodus 3 verse 1, we're going to read a bit of a lengthy passage here. 

So Moses is down in Midian, tending the flock of Jethro's father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. 

Then he said, do not draw near this place, take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 

Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. So he said, I will certainly be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. 

Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Moreover, God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. 

Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey. Then they will heed your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now, please, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in its midst. And after that, he will let you go.*

Well, the time had finally come. Can you imagine all the time in Egypt, in his mother's house, the house of Pharaoh, then the killing of the Egyptian, having to flee to Midian, forty years, enduring patiently, waiting for the promise, and now God would empower Moses to go to Egypt to Pharaoh and deliver his people from oppression and out of bondage. And this leads us into the next verses where we're going to pick it up next time. 

But I want to make an application for us from the example of the life of faith of Moses. Much of the Christian life is enduring, is making a right estimation of ourselves, of God, of the world, based on truth, based on what is written. And it's so easy for us to be drawn away, to be taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophies, by the ways and means of the world, by the wisdom of men. 

The key, the application that we can take from Moses, through all that he experienced, is that by faith he looked to the reward. He remembered the promise of God, which his family no doubt taught him over and over in those early years. He did not fear men, but he feared God. And he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. You know, all things are not right in our world either. There's a tremendous amount of suffering, plenty of fear and doubt, and we don't see things the way God intended, the way He created them. 

Man is in subjection to thorns and thistles and disease and famine and disaster, and most of all to his own indwelling sin. All things are not right in this world, and there is groaning and travail just as with the children of Israel and with Moses. But just as Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible, so we must look to Jesus to endure, to rightly understand, to anticipate the reward. 

Back in Hebrews 2, the author said, we do not see all things put under man's feet as God intended, but in verse 9 it says, but we see Jesus. Jesus is all that we need. He is able, it says at the end of that passage, to aid us, to keep us, to fully and finally deliver us. And we endure by faith. We endure by faith one day at a time. We trust Him. We believe Him. We know that He will do what He has said He is going to do. 

We endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Yes, we see Jesus. And in this we can, like Moses, have not only an enduring life but a fruitful life of faith. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for all these examples of the great men and women of faith in Hebrews 11, and we just thank You for recording this and for teaching us and reminding us and giving us examples to follow. Thank You for Moses and his faith and for all that You did through his life and the pictures we see there of fulfillment in Christ. I just pray, Lord, You'd help us to believe You, trust You, to walk by faith, keep our eyes focused on You, and to know that You do what You say. In Jesus' name, amen.