By Faith Moses (Part C)

The world does not pursue the righteousness of God.

We do. It's a separating, it's a distinguishing feature about believers. That we're hot on the trail of righteousness that's come down from heaven. What attacks us are our urges. The flesh, the sin.

It pulls us, it competes, it challenges us. Many Christians succumb to those things without losing their faith. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will conclude his study called By Faith Moses in Hebrews chapter 11. What makes you a Christian is you know who Jesus is. What makes you not a Christian is you don't know who he is. You're contradicting who he says he is in his scripture. The Holy Spirit says here and elsewhere that he is equal with Yahweh. John chapter 5, you know, there will be those that, well Jesus never said he was God.

Oh yeah, he did. The Pharisees understood it that way. We'll take just this one, John chapter 5. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his father. Making himself equal with God. See the context saying he is not God the father, he is God my father. I come from him as humans come from human fathers.

I come from a divine father, directly. And they knew that that is what he was saying. And of course, you would think this would be the proverbial silver bullet to the argument when Paul says of Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Well how do you do that unless you're equal with God?

And accept it. That's Philippians 2 6. So what makes the Christian the Christian is they know who God is. They know who the son is. We know who Jesus is.

We're not foggy about this. If you say, you know, if you want to line up with the Unitarians and you want to line up with the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, well then you go do it. But you will be outside of the revealed word of God. He says greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He knew that, you know, when payday would finally come, what God had to give was better than what Egypt could ever give. And Moses had it all. Being born in Pharaoh's house, he was a prince. He did not lose it all. He threw it all away.

It was a big difference. Acts chapter 7, again Stephen speaking, and Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words indeed. There are some that believe there's evidence in the historical accounts that Moses was indeed the crown prince to become Pharaoh because Pharaoh's other children were not able to take on that position.

Well, we don't have to have that information settled one way or the other. We have what Stephen says, that he was mighty in words and deeds. So at 40 years old in Egypt, he had it all. He did not walk away from a barn. He walked away from a palace to go live in tents for the rest of his life.

Remarkable man. The wealth of archaeological information that has come to us by their unearthing the treasures of the Pharaohs speaks to us of what kind of wealth we're talking about was at the fingertips of Moses. I mean they buried, they entombed these Pharaohs with all this wealth having so much more they could spare it.

They could entomb gold. And this stands out to us because we as Christians sometimes think we may have given up something in the world that we should have held on to. And God says no. Moses got out and he took two million people with him. That was a great work.

So why? How did he do it? Well it tells us again verse 26, where he looked to the reward. He knew there was something more to this life than what is here. This can't be it. If this is it, we're in trouble.

No one can keep it. Philippians, I mean it's a lengthy quotation of scripture. Maybe I should ask you turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 because this is that important to the text that we are reading. So I'll sort of give us a commercial while you're turning the pages and just chatter about things until I think you're there. This section of scripture, if you're not familiar with it, you need to be familiar with it.

If you can memorize portions of it, you will do well. This is the Apostle Paul. He's in jail when he writes to the Philippians. The Philippian church was a good church.

It was a solid church. He sort of confides and he opens up his heart to them. He says, what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Well that's what Moses did. Esteeming Christ more than the riches of the world. He continues in verse 8 of Philippians 3, yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness, that is self-righteousness, which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. The fellowship of his sufferings be conformed to his death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. This is powerful. I'm going to read a little bit more from there. But this man Paul was saying I'm going to stare death down.

I mean Rome may kill me. That's all right. I hold more in my possession than this life. And he lived it out. And then he says, not that I've already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's what faith looks like. Why can't I live that way for Christ? Well, let me tell you.

I usually don't say that, but I'm going to tell you. It's the pursuit of righteousness that matters so much. The world does not pursue the righteousness of God.

We do. It's a separating. It's a distinguishing feature about believers that we're hot on the trail of righteousness that's come down from heaven. What attacks us are our urges, the flesh, the sin. It pulls us.

It competes. It challenges us. Many Christians succumb to those things without losing their faith. And so we know I'm going to build up the spiritual man. If I've got any chance of living like the saints of the scripture, of living the life that's going to please God, I'd better go at it with a serious mind. Verse 27, By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He forsook Egypt, again left behind everything that this world had to offer for the things that God was calling him to. He says, not fearing the wrath of the king.

His parents did that. He followed the example of godly parents. When he says not fearing the wrath of the king, he's not talking about when he slew the Egyptian and was found out and then ran to Midian. He's talking about that Exodus exchange with Pharaoh. And Pharaoh was huffing and puffing and saying all these things. Moses was not moved by that. He was focused on the outcome. He was simply being obedient. He knew what he was supposed to do and he went about trying to do it.

That works. It works wonderfully for the believer. If you can stay focused on what God has called you to do, then do that and God will be with you and there will be struggles nonetheless.

Don't become shallow. Don't become one who feels that you should be insulated because you walk with the king. There comes a time when we're not standing in front of the burning bush, but in front of Pharaoh. There are times in this life when we're not having a Bible study and increasing our knowledge, but we're putting it to work.

Those times are almost always not pleasant. That's when it counts those severe tests when we say to the Lord, though he slay me, I will trust in him. You see, God does not have to rescue me from affliction to be my God.

He is God by reason of truth. And I subject myself to that. I am one of his subjects. And that means I am determined to please him in spite of circumstances. Your failings does not disqualify you from that.

Your walking away would, but not your falling down, not the hits that you take, not the thoughts that pass through your head. Have you ever had, has someone ever provoked you to think thoughts that were unworthy of Christ? I'm sure. Moses was such a man. They provoked him.

And he took the bait. And they were the people of God. And you know, and I always say this, don't tell God I think this way. But I side with Moses, according to the flesh, not the spirit, of course.

I'm with God all the way. But I understand, I understand what they put the man through and he finally reached a point where he says, I've had it with you. You want water? Take the water.

He beats the rock. And God confronted him on that. He allowed the water to come out. He didn't withhold it on behalf of the people. And then he says to Moses, Moses, come over here.

What a painful experience. It should put fear in all of us to watch our step with God's people. And so before the burning bush, Moses went out in his own strength.

After the burning bush, he grew in power gradually. And yet he still used his own strength when he was provoked that day. Moses' big problem was anger. He just had a problem with anger. He's not the guy to get in front of us if he's driving a car and he's having a bad day.

That shouldn't be the way it is with us. How many of you are that way in the workplace? You're grumpy when you show up. You're grumpy when you go home. And you want to preach Christ to somebody.

How does that work? They want to hear from you. Tell me more.

It matters. You are being watched in the workplace whether you like it or not, know it or not, understand it or not. The minute you say, I serve Jesus Christ, the magnifying glasses come out and the microscopes. And all you have to do is work at being faithful.

And that will be effective. So Moses, he saw beyond the junk of this life. He served the God who was invisible. Again, looking at verse 27, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Take the New Testament, Colossians chapter 1, Paul speaking about Christ.

It is what's going on in Colossae. There was a little church. Paul had never visited that church, at least not yet. And they were coming into that church, those who were bringing in heresies, false teachings. And so he takes the pen to deal with that.

When something reared its head, Paul took out the pen. That's all he had and he dealt with it. That's why we have the epistles.

He wasn't the only one. All of the writers of the New Testament were doing just that thing. So did the prophets. And so he writes about Christ. He says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. He says so much more, but he is the invisible image of God, made visible. 1 Timothy, he's writing to the pastor and he says, Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, to God alone who is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. That kind of speech is contagious to those who believe in the Lord. The king eternal, immortal, invisible. In contrast to the idols, the little figurines of the world. If you walk by faith, then you understand believing is seeing, not seeing is believing. If you walk by faith, God will show you things that you could otherwise never see.

Faith matters. Warren Wiersbe, talking about this verse, has an interesting anecdote that I'm going to share. He says, I don't recall too many chapel messages from my years as a seminary student, but Vance Havner gave a message that has stayed with me and often encouraged me. Speaking from Hebrews 11, he told us that because Moses was a man of faith, he was able to see the invisible, choose the imperishable and do the impossible.

I needed that message then and I still need it today. I don't know, you might not know who Warren Wiersbe is, prolific writer of commentaries about the faith, the scriptures. He is retired now.

He's nearing his, the end of time on earth. He is a great man of God. And that was, Vance Havner was a great man of God also.

You can find books by Vance Havner. Just his quotes alone are just worth it. But as with the insight, he chose the imperishable. He chose that which does not rot away, that does not die. He saw what no one else could see. He saw into the visible because of God and he did what was impossible. He took the people of Israel out from Egypt and made them a nation in the wilderness. When they crossed into the promised land, they were a nation of people.

We'll come back to that in a moment. Verse 28, By faith he kept the Passover, the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. Again, writing to Christians, he's saying to them, you know what the blood means.

Now that we've had Calvary, you know what this means. So he makes very careful. He says, By faith he kept the Passover. But he adds, very important, and the sprinkling of blood. He did not only slaughter the lamb and eat the lamb, he put the blood on the door, posed to the left, to the right, to the top, but not on the ground.

The blood of Christ is not to be trampled. At this point in Moses' life, when he did this act in Egypt, he was the greatest man on earth. God did this to him. God said that about Job before Moses. There is Job, my servant.

There are none like him. He eschews evil, the righteous man. He says, Lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

Moses needed the protection of the lamb's blood, just like everybody else. That is the great story that comes out of this. This life is passing away for everyone.

Only the blood of Christ will protect you. And everyone needs it, but not everyone wants it. May we not be part of the process that turns people off to Christ for the wrong reasons. If they're turned off because they don't like the message, that's on them.

If they're turned off because we're behaving like we should not behave, then that's on us. And we need to work against that. I'm not saying we need to go into the workplace, skipping and singing songs with a smiley face on all the time.

That's impossible for most of us. But we do not have to be mean. You can show up to work, you know, it's Monday, ugh, without being mean. The world understands that. They hear you come to work, I wish it was Friday, they go, amen.

It's the curse that we're under. But you can go in, it's Monday, and still not have people say, yeah, we're going to get away from you, you walking cactus. Porcupine believer is not a good thing. Well, I've forgotten where I left off, so I'll start at the beginning. So you want the Word of God, do you? Verse 29, by faith they passed through the Red Sea by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so were drowned. Well, because they chose to follow God out of Egypt, of course, they were spared.

That's one of the lessons. They could have stayed back in Egypt, but they came out. It was a demonstration of the saints' boldness at this point in their walk, in the face of the world's difficulties, they trusted. Now, in that scene where God says stand still, Moses, you know, he has the rod of God in his hand. It was his rod, but God took it and made it God's rod. And he stands and he says, stand still, see the salvation of the Lord. And the sea, of course, parted. But before that happened, God said to Moses, why do you stand here crying to me?

Tell the people to go through. And you have to love that, because God never tells us, you don't have to do anything, just get in your little car seat and enjoy the ride. He doesn't do it that way, and we need to be mindful of that.

Exodus 14, 15, and Yahweh said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel, go forward. God, you can't miss that. Go forward. Don't stand there rigging your fingers. Do something. Well, what happens if you're cornered in life? You say, I can't go anywhere. Well, you can always go up.

That's just preaching. No, that's the fact, because the alternative is going down. The alternative is not going up, staying where you are. We go up in our heart. Again, I cannot stress it enough. If you have nothing else to pray for, pray for someone else.

There is always a need. And God, you know, we were singing that song, let the praises of the Lord rise up like a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord, like the incense off the golden altar rising up. What do we see in the book of Revelation? We see that the prayers of the saints are preserved. That means they matter to God. If your own prayers don't matter to you, they matter to God. See, we value our prayers by what God gets done. That was the struggle of Habakkuk.

Why do you let violence go on this way? Why do you impart knowledge to me as a prophet and you don't do anything about it? We're the righteous, not us. We shall not die. That's what he told God when God said, I'm sending the Chaldeans. They're a fierce army. No one can beat them. They're coming your way in your lifetime. Habakkuk said, we shall not die. We're the righteous ones. God said, yeah, wait and see what happens. And that's what he did. I will stand my watch.

I will see how he answers me and I will see how I respond to his answer. And when God said to just live by faith, then we have the prayer that the psalm of Habakkuk where he says, though everything fails, the vine, the economy, my money, everything goes away, my health, I will trust the Lord because he puts my feet in high places and the highest place for the Christian will be glory. Robert Murray McShane, an old preacher, died young.

He didn't even make it to 30. You can get McShane's sermons and if you can, get them, read them. McShane would encourage his congregation.

He was always in poor health himself. He said, this is all the dying you're going to do. Whatever is here, that's it. Such a profound thought.

Well, let's finish this up. He says, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. Well, the Jewish people, the people of God, they were defenseless against the Egyptian army. Invisibly, though, God protected them in this case. But unbelief can try to imitate faith. This is one of the lessons out of that story.

Pharaoh's army tried to go where God's people went and were destroyed. It can only go so far. They went in deep enough and they perished.

Bold confidence of the world goes only so far. Death, that's where it stops. So what we get out of this section, I'm closing with this. In verse 28, he speaks of the Passover. That brings us out of Egypt, does it not?

Yes. Verse 29 takes us through those things that are impossible to go through without God. And that is, in this case, the Red Sea. And verse 30 brings us in. Look with me at Hebrews 11, verse 30.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. So we see in verse 28 again, bringing out the people of God. And verse 29, taking them through. And then verse 30, bringing them in.

There's a lot that happened between those verses. The most important thing is that those who trusted God stand out to us, Moses and Caleb, for example. And we say to ourselves, I will be a Moses or a Caleb in the midst of the scary things of this life. To close with this thought, there can be no progress as a Christian without faith and without prayer.

Not the results. Our response to what goes on in this life are summed up in faith and prayer. You see, prayer is the outcome of trusting God.

You talk to him, you speak to him, you make contact with him in reverence, in defiance to those things that are scaring you to death. You've been listening to Cross-Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross-Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross-Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross-Reference Radio.