And Moses made the right choice. He chose God's way. He chose to believe God, to believe the revelation of God, the Word of God, to live a life of faith. And his faith is demonstrated in his decisions, decisions that related the things he rejected and things he accepted. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.
I am your host, Phil Johnson. What would compel someone to leave a wealthy family, give up political power, and sacrifice extraordinary popularity to become a slave?
Well, today John MacArthur is going to look at the life of a man who did just that and show you how he models an extraordinary trust in God for you and me. We're continuing John's study called "A Faith That Pleases God." It's an in-depth look at the people in Hebrews 11's Hall of Faith.
So follow along in your Bible or on the MacArthur Study Bible app as John begins today's lesson. I draw your attention to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter eleven. I'm going to look at verses twenty three to twenty nine, twenty three to twenty nine. It's a brief portion of scripture that sort of encompasses the salient characteristics of faith that are indicated in the life of one very, very well known Old Testament figure, the man Moses.
Let me read it to you, starting in verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen.
By faith he kept the passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through the red sea as though they were passing through dry land. And the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. There you have a condensed version of the story of Moses. The writer of Hebrews is unknown to us.
We don't know which of the apostles or associates of the apostles actually, under the inspiration of the Spirit, penned this wonderful, wonderful book. But we do know that it was written to a group of Jewish believers. And some Jewish people who were associated with those believers, who had heard the gospel, were interested in the gospel, but who had not yet come to put their faith in Christ.
Now, the assumption of the Jews would be. That Moses is the model of the law. In fact, the law was even called the Mosaic Law. It was even called the Law of Moses. And so, the Jews would assume that if anybody was a model of legalism, it had to be Moses.
Moses was the ultimate archetypal legalist. And so, it is a stunning thing to say that Moses. Operated in the spiritual realm, not by law but by faith, and just having read that, the way that the writer of Hebrews lays out the faith of Moses is to show you how his faith acted, the choices that it made. It made a series of choices. In fact, verse twenty-five even uses the word "choosing," and so his life is marked by choices related to his faith.
And this extends way beyond Moses, because this is a good way to look in general at the life of faith. Because genuine saving faith is selective. If you have a true and saving faith, and you make Choices. There are certain things that you accept, and there are certain things that you reject, and they're really modeled for us here in the story of Moses. But in the bigger theme, the the grander scale, Moses is the next example of the truth that salvation comes not by works.
Not by religiosity, ceremony, or ritual, but by faith—that is, personal belief in the Word of God. The man Moses then is added to the others. In studying Abel, we learned how one comes to life by faith, and that is through sacrifice. Abel showed us then how to live by faith. Enoch then showed us how to walk by faith, and Noah showed us how to work by faith, and Abraham showed us the pattern of faith, and then the other patriarchs last time showed us.
The victory of faith in facing death with hope, for they were given the recitation of the Abrahamic covenant, but they never saw it come to pass. And yet Abraham died in faith, and so did Isaac, and so did Jacob, and so did Joseph.
So they are all models of faith to. One degree, or in one facet, or another. And now we look at Moses, and he shows us how faith acts in terms of the decisions that it makes. And that's a that's a basic way to look at life. Life is a series of choices that we make.
We make either good choices or bad choices. It's a series of decisions. You often hear people these days who who make a rather modest "maieculpa" and say, "I made some bad choices." That seems to be a kind of a metaphor for mistakes in life that very often people don't want to admit were really lustful, passionate sins. I made some bad choices.
Well, that's true. That is absolutely true. Sin is always a bad choice. Our lives are marked by either making the right choice or making the wrong choice. And so, again, I say, life is made up of decisions.
And every day, and every circumstance, poses another opportunity for us to make a choice. We face opportunity every single day of our lives, over and over again, to make the right choice. I love what J. J. Ingalls wrote many, many years ago.
He he wrote of opportunity in these words. Describing opportunity, he said, "Master of human destinies, am I? Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate deserts and seas remote.
And passing by hovel and mart and palace, soon or late I knock unbidden once at every gate." If sleeping, wake; if fasting, rise. Before I turn away, it is the hour of fate. And they who follow me reach every state, mortals desire and conquer every foe, save death. But those who doubt or hesitate, condemned to failure, penury, and woe, seek me in vain and needlessly implore. I answer not.
I return no more. Opportunity. Every circumstance in life is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the right choice. Shakespeare put it this way: "There is a tide in the affairs of men; taken at its ebb, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of life is strewn in shallows and in miseries." Napoleon used to say that in every battle, there is ten or fifteen minute period of time in which the issue of the battle is settled.
To gain this is victory; to lose it is defeat. And so, every turn in life is an opportunity to make a right choice. It is a singular opportunity, never to come by. Again, either you grasp that opportunity for the glory of God, you choose the way of God, the way of truth, the way of righteousness, or you choose the way of the flesh, the way of the world, the way of Satan. This is life.
In Deuteronomy chapter thirty, verse nineteen, Scripture says, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your seed may live." Or First Kings eighteen twenty one, and Elijah said, "How long do you halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal, then follow Him." And the people answered, not a word. Abel chose God's way, the more excellent way of sacrifice.
His brother didn't. Abel was blessed, and his brother was cursed. Enoch chose God's way to walk with God. The rest of the world didn't, and it was destroyed, with the exception of eight souls. Noah chose God's way.
The rest of the human race drowned in his generation. Abraham chose God's way to live a life of faith, and the people in whose land he dwelt did not, and were tragically destroyed. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph chose God's way to believe in God for what they couldn't see, and they died in hope. And here is the model of Moses. Who made the right choices?
There are many others in the Scripture that you could look at as heroes of faith, but these are the monumental lives that are delineated so carefully in the Old Testament, which would have so much meaning to the Jews. First Kings nineteen eighteen says, "Yea, I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal." And every mouth that has not kissed him, there were seven thousand more in Israel who made the right choice. And then there was that king Josiah, Second Kings twenty-two, two. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and turned not aside either to the right hand or to the left. And there were others as well.
There was a time when all Israel made an affirmation that sounded like a right choice. Exodus twenty-four, when they all collectively said, "We will obey your word," and they said it again in Nehemiah ten twenty-eight and twenty-nine. That's the right choice to be obedient.
So now we look at Moses, and Moses made the right choice. He chose God's way. He chose to believe God, to believe the revelation of God, the Word of God, to live a life of faith. And his faith is demonstrated in his decisions—decisions that related the things he rejected and things he accepted. Let's take a look at what he.
Rejected. What does true faith reject? Verses twenty four to twenty seven. First thing that true faith rejects is the world's prestige. Look at verse twenty four.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You know the story. Moses had, by the providence of God, been put. In a basket covered with pitch, and set in the Nile River to float away, his mother did that because there was a decree to kill all of the Hebrew babies. And so, in order to save his life, they simply let him float away, cared only for by the providence of God.
Had he been one of the Hebrew babies to be killed by Pharaoh. There would have been no story of Moses, and God's history would never have been what God ordained it to be. And so, there was no way he was going to die. God providentially ordered the circumstances. His parents hid him, put him in a basket.
After they had hidden him for a while, put him in the river. He floated down the river. Just happened to be that he floated right into a bathing party. Where the daughter of Pharaoh was bathing, and he became the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Look at Exodus chapter two, and obviously we can't go through the whole story, but this kind of touches on what happened.
Verse five of. Exodus 2. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile with her maidens walking alongside the Nile. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid and brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the boy was crying.
And she had pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." There was no mystery as to the fact that this was a little Jewish boy. She had pity on him.
However, it says in verse six, then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, she just happened to be strolling along the river, Miriam the sister of Moses, making sure somebody had an eye on him as he floated along. Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go ahead.
So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I'll give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. Is that an incredible thing or not? It just so happens that he is now officially adopted as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but she can't nurse him. And so she wants him to be properly nursed by a Jewish mother, and it just so happens that her her daughter Miriam is going along, watching for her little brother, and she sets it up so that he can be nursed by his own mother.
Now the child grew. That's what it tells us. Verse ten: the child grew. That's sort of undetermined. We can't be specific about how long that growing took place.
I tend to think it was probably years, maybe as many as twelve years before that child was brought back. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. I kind of lean toward the idea that by then he was maybe twelve years old or near that, and that would mean that he had had all the proper training.
Some might argue that it was only until he was weaned, and it would be more likely that he was maybe three years old or so. But I tend to think, as long as she could hang on to him, she would hang on to him, and give him the proper training in the things of God. Which would inform the later decisions of his life? If she gave him to Pharaoh at the age of three or four or five, it would be unlikely that he would have any idea of the word of God or the knowledge of God. How would he have known anything about God?
And so, if She kept him until ten or eleven or twelve. He would have learned of the promise to Abraham. He would have learned of the reiteration of that promise to Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. He would have learned the history of Joseph. That Joseph had died in hope, in hope of the promised land, knowing that there would become a time when God would lead His people out of Egypt.
And lead them to the promised land, and that God had promised to send a deliverer for Israel, and an ultimate deliverer, and an ultimate hope, and an ultimate Messiah—one who would have the scepter (Genesis forty-nine, ten)—one who would be the ultimate prophet. He would have learned that the people were hoping for the time of their deliverance and their entrance into the promised land. They were hoping for the coming of their Messiah, the one who would bruise serpent the serpent's head. He would have been trained in everything that God had revealed up to that time, the great covenant promise to Abraham reiterated to the other patriarchs. And after all of that training in what had been revealed by God up to the time of Moses, she took him back and took him back to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He became her son, not her baby, not her child. But her son, another indication that he was perhaps at that age that I suggested. She named him Moses because I drew him out of water, Moshe, which has that significance.
Now, verse ten says the child grew, and verse eleven then says, "Now it came about in those days when Moses had grown up, forty years between verse ten and verse eleven, forty years." The years of Moses maturing, which, according to Acts seven twenty two, were the years in which he learned all the wisdom of Egypt.
So he started out with a foundation in his life, and the foundation in his life was the truth of God revealed up to that point. And so he knew the truth of God from his parents, and now he's learning the wisdom of the Egyptians.
Now, what is going to take hold of his heart? Is it going to be the wisdom of the Egyptians, or is it going to be the truth of God? With the formal education in Egypt, the incultation of Egyptian wisdom, Egyptian idolatry, he would have learned hieroglyphics. He would have learned the hieratic scripts. He no doubt would have been involved in copying the texts that was part of the formal education.
He would have learned multi languages. He would have learned the languages of surrounding nations, the languages, the various languages of the Canaanites, so that he could interact with them in trade. But would he have lost what he had as a foundation of his life, the Word of God, when he reached the age of maturity? He faced a crucial decision. Actually, he reaches forty, so it's not a full forty years of Egyptian education.
But he faces a crucial decision. He is now to become fully absorbed into Egyptian culture. When he had grown up, he has to make a choice. What is his choice going to be? Let's go back to the Book of Hebrews.
And we'll return to Exodus a little later. This is what we've been doing every time, bouncing between the front and back of Scripture to look at both of these, both Genesis in the earlier text and now Exodus and the Book of Hebrews. The answer to the dilemma comes in verse 24. By faith, when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and that is. The first point that I want you to underscore in your mind: He rejected the world's prestige.
I don't know how it could be any more prestigious for somebody living in the world to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, to be the grandson of the Pharaoh, the greatest ruler on the planet at that time, the most sophisticated culture, the most sophisticated society. Highly advanced, he had the the privileges. He knew what they were, of prestige. He had seen them for the decades that he had been there. He understood the honors of being a prince in Egypt.
He understood the status. He understood all the royal rigmarole that went with it. He understood the comforts. He understood the servants that he would have, the power that he would have, the wealth that he would have. The privileges that he would have, and so this is the biggest decision of his life so far.
Should he hold on to the world's prestige, or should he forsake it for the call of God? And he knew that God had called him. That is indicated to us again in the seventh chapter of the book of Acts, because Stephen, in preaching that wonderful sermon that he preached, gives the history of Israel and incorporates the story of Moses. In verse twenty-two of Acts seven, says Stephen.
Well, verse twenty-one: Pharaoh's daughter took him away and and nurtured him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians. He was a man of power. In words and deeds, and when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brother and the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian, killed him.
And he supposed that his brother and understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. You know, he already had at that time begun to realize that God was going to use him to be the deliverer. He knew God had called him somewhere along the line. God had disclosed that to him: "You're in the position you're in because you're going to be my deliverer for Israel." And so he kills. An Egyptian to defend his people, and there is where he makes his decision.
Exodus chapter two, you'll notice it describes the very same thing. That is the moment at which he rejected the prestige and the honor and everything that came with being a prince in Egypt. He threw it all away and took his place with the slaves. He rejected the prestige that Egypt had to offer, that the world had to offer, because he knew God had a better kingdom, a better reward, and a higher calling for him. This is an act of faith.
Why? Because if you If you operate on sight, you're going to take what you've got, right? Power, prestige, money, fame—all of that—that is his as a prince in Egypt. He exchanged what he had for what he didn't have. He exchanged what he could see for what he couldn't see.
This is an act of faith. Prestige, believe me, honor, power, fame—those are very, very seductive realities. Most people live all their life chasing those things, and they wouldn't even leave the chase to live a life of faith. He wasn't in the chase; he had them all, and he gave it up. And he went all the way from the palace to becoming a slave.
He identified with. The slaves, because they were God's people, and because God had a plan for them, and He knew what the plan was. The plan was for a land, and for a promise, a kingdom, and salvation. Everything bound up in the Abrahamic promise. God was going to reward His people with things far greater than what Egypt could offer.
You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Today we continue John's study called "A Faith That Pleases God." Now, certainly Moses saw overwhelming evidence of God's presence. He encountered God in a burning bush. He watched ten plagues decimate Egypt. He saw the Red Sea parted.
He received the Ten Commandments on Sinai. Obviously. Believers today won't experience miracles like that, but we have just as much, if not more, evidence of God's presence. Here were John's thoughts on that.
Well, there's a sense in the Old Testament in which God kind of came and went. Obviously, He's omnipresent; He's everywhere. But he came upon certain men. He did certain miracles in very, very unique ways, and they were not always happening. In fact, miracles happened really in only just a few periods throughout the Old Testament.
There are centuries that go by in the Old Testament without any kind of miracle or any kind of appearance of God.
So it wasn't the normal thing to have an intimate communion with the living God. When someone came to faith in God, I am sure that that was a work of God. It had to be a work of God. It couldn't be a work of man, and I believe that the Spirit of God did that work, and the Spirit of God was with those believers. You remember Jesus said to the disciples, even before His death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit is with you, but will be in you.
The Holy Spirit was with them in the presence of Christ, but after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was in them, and since that, in every believer, every believer is the temple of the Spirit of God. Yes, friend, your salvation and your salvation assurance depends on the work of the Holy Spirit. And to help you be confident that you're saved, we want to send you a booklet by John MacArthur titled "Is Your Salvation Secure." It will help you address any doubts you have about your salvation, and it will help you put those doubts to rest. For a limited time, we'll send this booklet to anyone who asks. Get a free copy.
Of is your salvation secure? When you contact us today, call us at eight hundred fifty-five Grace. And again, the title of the booklet to ask for is "Your Salvation Secure." Our number one more time: eight hundred fifty-five Grace. You can also request your free booklet at gty.org. And something else I want to mention: from now through this Friday, October thirtieth, you can get the Legacy Standard Edition of the MacArthur Study Bible in brown leather soft cover at twenty five percent off the regular price.
With detailed introductions to each book of the Bible and about twenty-five thousand footnotes from Genesis to Revelation, the MacArthur Study Bible makes virtually every passage clear. And with the reduced price, right now is a great time to pick up a MacArthur Study Bible. Perhaps get a head start on your Christmas list.
So, to get one for yourself or to give to a friend as a gift. Call eight hundred fifty-five Grace, or place your order online at gty dot org.
Now for the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow as John MacArthur continues his look at the faith of Moses and how you can have a faith that pleases God. It's another thirty minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time on Grace to You.
