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By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead for once also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob when he was a dying blessed both the sons of Joseph and worship leaning upon top of his staff. By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses when he was born was hit three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son the Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured that seeing him who was invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land which the Egyptians is saying to do were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, brought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear God, for every precious word in it. Thank you for every precious soul in this church, dear Lord. We thank you for our pastor and please bless him this evening as he preaches your word on to us in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're continuing this evening with our Bible study of the book of Hebrews, and this is part two of chapter 11, the Hall of Faith. And we covered part one last week, but we're only able to cover the first couple of verses there up until Abraham. And really, when you when you read this chapter, there's two particular people that God spends a lot of time talking about when it comes to their faith. One being Abraham, a good amount, a good portion is dedicated to talking about Abraham because essentially he is what what many call the father of faith. And it required a lot of faith to do what he did. And then the second person that chapter 11 seems to hone in on a lot is Moses. Okay, and of course, we know that Moses is the mediator per se of the old covenant. And so it required a lot of faith to do what he did. And so there's a lot of things that are being talked about Moses, not just him as a person, but even his parents, and things that he did prior to even delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt that required a lot of faith. So tonight we're going to cover the remainder of Abraham all the way up until the unnamed of those who are unnamed at the end of the chapter. Now, last week, we talked about Abraham, and how him and Sarah exercise faith in the fact that God had promised them that he would give them a seed. Look at verse 17. We're going to look at Abraham's faith when dealing with Isaac, it says by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that hath received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac, shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. So what we see here is the story of Abraham, of course, back in Genesis, where God commands Abraham to go and sacrifice his only son, which is Isaac. And this is a very trying thing for Abraham, because they've waited so long for a child, right? This is the promise that God had given to him, that he's going to bless him with the son, he's going to bless him with the child, he's going to bless him with this person, and of course, many other children. But then as soon as he gets it, he's like, All right, now I need you to give him back, right? I want you to sacrifice him and give him back. And you know, put yourself in Abraham sandals, right? You just waited for this for so long, you're 100 years old, you finally get your one son that God has promised you. I mean, you got a long way to go, especially if you're going to have children as the stars in the sky, and the sand of the sea. And then all of a sudden, God says, All right, I need you to give him back. So required a lot of faith. And here's the thing is that the reason why Abraham was so obedient unto the Lord, because when you read the story, you see that he didn't question God, he just went and he did it. And he commanded Isaac to go with him. And they brought all the instruments necessary the wood. And when Isaac asks him, Hey, you know, here's the altar, here's the wood, but where's the sacrifice? You know, Abraham kind of tells them, God shall provide himself a sacrifice, right and offering. And of course, that has a double meaning there, meaning that God's going to provide himself meaning Jesus Christ, a sacrifice. But here's the thing is that now in the New Testament, because we have more information to work with, we actually see that the reason Abraham was so willing to sacrifice his son at the commandment of the Lord is because he knew that God was going to resurrect him. Because it says there in verse 19 accounting, the God was able to raise him up. Now we can conjecture that he's referring to when he offered him right there on the spot that he was going to raise him up right there on the spot. But I would say that he's probably referring to the resurrection, okay, of the last days. And this is very strong proof to show that people in the Old Testament knew about the resurrection. It was definitely a doctrine and a belief that Old Testament, Old Testament saints held to know why. Why make a big deal about that? Well, because you have dispensation lists that will claim that, oh, Old Testament saints didn't know about the resurrection, and the disciples didn't know about the resurrection. And obviously, when you read the Gospels, and you read some of the statements of the disciples, you can see that they were essentially ignorant of the chronology of things, right? They didn't know when things were going to take place. They didn't know if when the Messiah came, if he was going to establish his millennial reign, his earthly kingdom, when all these things were going to come to pass, but they believed in him. And in fact, you know, I preached an entire sermon on the resurrection in the Old Testament, proving conclusively that many of the prophets and saints knew about the resurrection. That's what their hope was about, man. David talked about the resurrection when he spoke of Jesus Christ resurrecting. I mean, when the Bible says that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. That was David speaking of the resurrection. When Jonah was swallowed up by the whale, and we have the book of Jonah being given to us, we see that he talks about the resurrection. We see Abraham referring to the resurrection. We see that the promise is given to Daniel, that in the last days he shall stand in his lot, referring to the resurrection. So you can't say the Old Testament saints didn't know about the resurrection. You think they just, oh man, we're just going to die and just be in the grave. But the reason dispensationalists will say this is because they need to promote the stupid doctrine of Abraham's bosom. Because, you know, in their minds, and according to their theology, everyone who died in the Old Testament went into that motel called Abraham's bosom that was right next to hell and didn't vacate that until Jesus Christ died and brought them all out. We obviously know that is a false doctrine. Abraham's bosom is simply the chest cavity of the patriarch Abraham. Amen. And of course, they'll try to use Luke 16 to try to prove that. But, you know, it's a stretch. Okay, it's so much of a stretch is the tear because they're tearing context, the scripture out of context. Amen. What we see here, even prior to the Old Testament being instituted, is that Abraham had the faith of knowing that if God required of him to sacrifice his only begotten son, which is obviously a picture of God the Father, giving his only begotten son Jesus Christ, that he was able to raise him from the dead. Okay, and of course it says from whence also he received him in a figure. Now this is important because I'm telling you a lot of dispensations believe this stuff. But, you know, 1st Corinthians 15 gives us essentially one of the best definitions of what the gospel is. And it says in 1st Corinthians 15, let me read to you verse 3, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, listen to this, according to the scriptures. Now that's not a hard argument to make, right? We can see throughout the scriptures that Jesus Christ was going to die to pay for our sins. Dispensationalists agree with that too. And I want you to notice that it says according to the scriptures. It's not referring to the New Testament scriptures, it's talking about the Old Testament scriptures. Now everyone collectively agrees that that's what that's talking about. But then it goes on to say, and that he was buried, and then he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. So dispensationalists will have a hard time convincing us that the Old Testament did not talk about a resurrection if the Apostle Paul, when given the definition of the gospel here in 1st Corinthians 15, is talking about the resurrection that he learned according to the scriptures, referring to the Old Testament. You understand? And so the Old Testament did speak on the resurrection. Now obviously the new testament is far more detailed in its doctrine of the resurrection. Like we know way more about the resurrection than Abraham did. Right? Then David, then Moses. I mean anybody in the New Testament has a far more greater plenary understanding of what the resurrection actually is because everyone in the Old Testament saw through a glass darkly. So it's like this dirty glass, right? And they're just, they can see the resurrection, they can make out certain figures and you know they can surmise a conjecture what is taking place but they don't, they can't really see the entire picture yet. It's not until Christ came and expounded unto them the things concerning himself. He came and he showed them what the resurrection is. He expounded unto them the parables that gave greater understanding to these doctrines that boom, you know, they're able to connect the dots and see oh man it was under our nose this entire time in the Old Testament but we needed these New Testament teachings to kind of bring light to that, okay? And so the point that I'm making here is the fact that the resurrection, which is something that we celebrate every Sunday but especially on Easter, amen? You know it's great that in our country we have, you know, this holiday where everyone is forced to just listen to us celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You know whether you're a Muslim or God hating reprobate you have to listen to us say happy Easter, resurrection Sunday and I'm good with both, amen? Because it's the day when the doctrine of the resurrection is exalted, okay? And so beautiful doctrine, wonderful doctrine and this is why it says that Abraham's faith was great in this regard is because he had limited information to work with. So he believed in the resurrection, he believed in the power of God, he believed that God can raise up Isaac in the resurrection but he didn't have what we have today. So it requires like a lot of, I mean quite frankly he didn't even have the book of Genesis to work with. He just had whatever verbal revelation was given at that time to him, right? And of course to others but just very limited revealed doctrine and just from that limited amount of information given he still had faith and he was willing to sacrifice his son. I mean that's powerful. I mean we who have the entire Word of God, I don't know if we can say we would do the same thing, you understand? Because for scarcely will a righteous man dare to die the Bible says. And so this man was willing to give up his son even with the limited information given to him because he had faith that he was going to receive him in a figure and of course now in the New Testament we have Isaac being that beautiful symbolic representation of Jesus Christ, Abraham representing God the Father, great faith there. Look at verse number 20, it says by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the things to come and it says and it came to pass that when Isaac, excuse me, this is talking about Genesis 27, let me read to you from verse number one, it says and it came to pass that when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him my son and he said unto him behold here am I and of course we know the story when Jacob ends up blessing or excuse me Isaac ends up blessing Jacob instead of Esau but the reason the Bible is telling us here that Isaac had great faith is because in spite of the fact that his eyes were dim which is a physical thing it's a physical element that he had that you know he couldn't necessarily see that he made the mistake of blessing the wrong person he knew in the long run that all things were together for good right so in spite of the deficiency of his physical eyesight that caused him to bless the wrong person in his mind right we see that in the long term God ended up working all things together for good and you know that is a testament to us all that when we make mistakes when we fail when we sin if we just love the Lord and continue to serve him he's gonna work it all together for good all the bad ingredients that we threw into the mix called our life and the bad decisions that we made you know God is an amazing cook so to speak right let him cook right and you know when you're serving God you gotta let him cook you gotta let him do what he can with what he has which is you know your life right and the bad mistakes that you made or even the good and obviously I'm not saying like let's just go ahead and just make all kinds of bad decisions because you know he can make steak out of whatever at the end of the day we need to strive to live a life that's pleasing unto God and strive to live according to his commandments but the point that I'm getting at here is that even when you fall short of that when you don't hit the target and you do fall short and you make mistakes it's okay just keep going forward keep serving God keep reading the Word of God keep serving him and God redirects that plan maybe you have to take a different route but it's the same destination as long as you're serving God right and so Isaac even though he made the mistake at the end of the day God worked it out together for good even though his eyes were dim he could not see him God still blessed it in the long run look at verse 21 by faith Jacob when he was dying blessed both the sons of Joseph and worship leaning upon the staff the top of his staff now why does it say this about Jacob having great faith to bless his grandchildren and the fact that it mentions that he's leaning upon the top of his staff well why is he leaning upon the top of his staff because he wrestled with God if you read the story of Jacob he wrestles with God and you know the Bible says that he prevails against him this is when he gets the name change to Israel but in the midst of winning the victory he's permanently disabled so to speak because God touches the his thigh and sin you shrinks and then he essentially has this limp for the rest of his life and it's this like you know lifelong mark that he has on him that he wrestled with God and what did it cause him to do it caused him for the rest of his life to lean upon a staff and what I believe it's figuring there is the fact that staff is God so in spite of the fact that he's broken in spite of the fact that he had that encounter with the Lord that created this disability in him it made it forced him to be dependent and to rely upon not just the physical staff but the spiritual staff which is God right and this is a great principle that you know what we don't want to become so independent that we're no longer dependent upon God right and it's always great to when God blesses us when he gives us a raise when he blesses our possessions our finances whatever it is that we have and but but here's the thing the danger and all that is that you become just this independent person where you no longer pray right you no longer depend on the Lord you no longer ask God to bless you because you already got it whereas the Bible says to pray for the rain and laddering you know pray for rain when it's already raining and we don't know anything about that because it's just like why are you gonna pray for rain I'm sick of rain you know tired of rain you know it always leaks and on those days rain was necessary in order to grow food and for life right and it was an agricultural type of a society then but the point that is being made here is is we need to be rely on the Lord for all of our needs and make sure we're seeking the kingdom of God first in his righteousness and that these things shall be added unto us and so you know the the thing with Jacob is that his wrestling with God really helped him to see how you know weak he really was right for the rest of his life and so as he's blessing the sons of Joseph leaning upon a staff he has faith that his the generations that come after him will likewise be leaning on the Lord and rely upon him for their blessings understand and it should be that with us as long as we keep serving God and we're exemplifying what it is to love the Lord and to serve God may we also have the faith that the generations that come after us from our loins and the loins of our children that they would continue to serve God you know I would say that one of my greatest fears quote-unquote as a father is that my children would not serve God they I would pass off the scene and then my children would cease loving the Lord Jesus Christ that they would get out of church and not serve God and not win souls and not dedicate their lives into the Lord that's like my worst nightmare right but the thing is you know as long as I train up a child in the way he should go when he is old he will not depart from it and obviously I have to exemplify what it is to serve God but at the end of the day when I pass off the scene I just need to make sure that my kids see me leaning on the staff okay that I'm leaning on that spiritual staff that you know how I am here at church is exactly how I am at home that I'm constantly relying on the Lord for his power for his provisions for his protection and then I'm conveying it to my kids because you know I'm not always going to be there for them right I'm going to die one day I'm going to go the way of all the earth as the Bible says and you know it's at that point that they need to supervise themselves and govern themselves to serve the Lord and so you know this is great faith of Jacob because you know parenting hasn't changed in the sense of the mentality that every parent who is a believer wants their kids to serve God not every parent has the same standard for their children but at the end of the day every parent wants their kids to get saved they want their children to love the Lord to serve God and there is this this how should I say this is somewhat of anxiety that the parents can get where they think of the future like man I just hope that my kids keep serving God thereafter well how about your grandkids right and so obviously Jacob had a lot of faith to the point where he not only blessed Joseph who is serving God but he's blessing the sons of Joseph in hope that they would continue to do so themselves and so it takes great faith to do that and obviously we know that when the Bible talks about faith in this matter it's the belief but it does require our works right you know that's the whole James 2 principle not about salvation and in fact the only work that's required for salvation is the work of Jesus Christ so you know if you want to say it takes faith and works to get saved then I agree with you as you as long as you understand that it takes our faith but it takes the finished work of Jesus not our works in order to be saved but you know thereafter we do have to put in some work as we extra that's called exercising our faith in order to see the blessings of God upon our life look at verse 22 it says here by faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones now this is pretty interesting in the Old Testament Joseph of course is like essentially the vice pharaoh of Egypt right and he has an incredible story in the book of Genesis where he is essentially betrayed by his brother sold into slavery lied about by Potiphar's wife he's in jail I mean just everything that can go wrong went wrong Murphy's law was his life it's just like and he's like and the guy loves God and in fact it says that the Lord is with him now think about this like what if you're just faithfully serving God you're living a life above reproach and just everything is going wrong going wrong not just for a week for years like 14 years you know you might be like you know what God I'm not cool with this you know most of us I think would have be tempted to point a finger at God and say well you know hey I'm like being loyal to you I'm serving you you know but Joseph did it he he did with what he could in the circumstance that he had which shows that he had a great faith right and so you know he's he's lied about from his boss's wife who's trying to commit adultery with him and he's thrown into prison and then you know you have two men in the prison with him a baker and a cupbearer who are thrown into prison as well and they have this dream okay and they don't know how to interpret the dream but you know Joseph can interpret the dreams not because he's talented but because God's hand is on him so he interprets the dream for these two and one's a good dream one's a nightmare because one dream is just like hey you're gonna be reinstated to your position with Pharaoh and then the Baker is just like you're gonna be hung so you're gonna die you know and both of them come to pass so the cupbearer is reinstated to serve Pharaoh once again and then the man the Baker is hung he's killed he's destroyed he's executed but before the cupbearer leaves Joseph tells him hey you know don't don't forget about me you know mention me to your boss you know if you could put a Google rating please you know and just put a good comment there I'd really appreciate it it's like oh man yeah don't worry about and then he just forgets about him just like everything else and he's just like man everything else is just the guy just forgot him well fortunately because all things work together for good God ends up giving a dream to Pharaoh regarding seven years of plenty and in seven years of famine well you know he doesn't know what that dream is all about and so he's kind of really he's troubled about the whole thing so he's looking for someone to interpret the dream and then the cupbearers like oh that's funny actually I know a guy you know who can interpret dreams so they end up calling Joseph Joseph interprets the dream Pharaoh is so impressed by Joseph's interpretation that he basically promotes him to be the vice Pharaoh of Egypt so he's like the second in command okay and now he's like rich he has everything he needs he gets married to an Egyptian he has a family he actually knows how to steward the plenty that comes in those seven years and how to prevent people from starving during the seven years of famine I mean he becomes a great asset to Egypt okay well throughout that you know the famine also hits Canaan where his father and his brothers are so his father sends his brothers to go to Egypt so they can buy corn Joseph I'm giving you a summary here okay Joseph ends up he sees that it's his brothers and you know it's not like reunited and it feels so good he's more like oh it's on I'm gonna get on these guys bad and you know what that's like my favorite part of the story because I'm like Joseph mess with them do it you know and he's doing it I mean he's he's getting on them he's accusing them of being thieves and spies and then he's setting them up he's putting his cup of divination in their bags so he has reason to accuse them so then they go back and he requests for the youngest to come back which is Benjamin which is actually his brother from his mother who died you know and so he comes back and he keeps one of the brothers with them and he's just going back and forth just like messing with his brothers and the thing is his brothers they're like you know why this is happening to us because of what we did to Joseph you know and it's just like yeah you know so then Joseph finally he just can't take it anymore and his bowels are just yearning for his brothers because you got to take into consideration that even those brothers are jerks and they're busters you know he still loves his father he met and his father thinks he's dead because his brothers told his father that he was torn of beasts I mean what a horrific news for any parent to receive like Oh brothers dead he got eaten by wild beasts so he's carried this narrative for years okay Joseph misses his mother his mother's obviously she's passed away he misses his father he misses his brothers and then he finally reveals himself unto his family and they're just kind of like you know it they don't even know what to say their mouths are stopped okay so then he shows them compassion he sends for his father they all end up coming to Egypt and he just gives them the best of the land he blesses them he's just becomes a really big blessing to his family he saves them essentially and then he explains to his brothers after the death of his father like God sent me here to preserve much life you know the reason all that happened so I can preserve your life so I can preserve the life of my father and the life of those in Egypt so he understood that all things were together for good that God used all of the turmoil that he experienced for a greater good now he gets old and he's about to die so he prophesies and he tells because at this point the children of Israel have grown exceeding in numbers like they're becoming a nation and even though it's it's great to dwell in Egypt that's not their home you know that's not where they belong you know God wants them to dwell in Canaan land which is known as the promised land and so Joseph ends up prophesying and saying that when I die one day you will carry my bones back to the promised land and if he's saying his bones he's referring to the fact that this is not going to happen for a very long time because anybody who dies in Egypt is obviously embalmed you know they they they do the custom of the Egyptians where they embalm people they don't necessarily bear him according you know to the customs of the Israelites and believers and so he understands that one day his bones you know there or all that's going to be left of him our bones but it's okay because one day they will be carried out back to Canaan land and what we see in the Old Testament is that the children of Israel are sojourning enslaved in Egypt for 430 years not 200 or whatever you know people are saying it was 400 numbers literally laid out 430 years okay that's a long time that's a long time and yet Joseph you know when he died he made mention of the departing of Israel and he basically says he didn't say if when if when we go back to Canaan land he's like when we go back you're going to take up my bones with you what does that mean means he has a lot of faith because obviously you know Joseph doesn't have you know he's not omniscient he doesn't know everything but you know we know the rest of the story and the children of Israel suffered a lot under the rule of the next Pharaoh that came into power I mean there were cruel taskmasters unto them they were enslaved they were in bondage I mean it was hell for them okay and they cried unto the Lord and of course God raises up Moses but the point that is being made here is the fact that Joseph was able to see far beyond his own life and even the preservation of his own body after death to know that God was going to fulfill his promise even if he wasn't there to experience it and that takes a lot of faith you know because he was never he didn't die in his homeland he died in a foreign land he left his homeland never to return again alive and it required a lot of faith to know like even though I'll never see that land you know you will carry my bones and I will be buried in that land because I know that God is faithful I mean that's a powerful testimony of faith from a man who and it was in the Old Testament look at verse 23 by faith Moses when he was born was hit three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the King's commandment now this particular faith is actually accredited to Moses but it really who's it for it's his first parents because by faith his mother did not abort him right and in these days Egyptians you know it was very common practice to to practice infanticide they're very big on it which is one of the reasons why the Israelites outgrew the children of Israel excuse me yeah the Israelites outgrew the Egyptians in number because the Israelites are having babies and the Egyptians are killing them so abortion was very common for the Egyptians and they wanted it to be common amongst the Israelites because they felt that the Israelites were growing too much they're just having too many babies and if they grow too much then they're going to revolt and you know they're going to try to fight against us so Pharaoh put out a decree that he wanted all the males to die you know he wanted them to be aborted well you know the the midwives are not cool with that so they lied about it and the women would bear and they would say oh yeah he's just you know before we even come to kind of you know deliver the baby the baby's already there so you know we can't really abort them and of course Moses is born and his parents hide him for three years because he's a proper child and you know the principle we can learn there for Moses mother is the fact that you know abortion is wrong it's wicked it's murder and it doesn't matter what circumstances you find yourself in it's always wrong and it's always murder because here we see that Moses is going to be born in a world where everyone wants to kill him before he even comes out of the womb I mean that's a pretty hostile environment if you ask me but in spite of that his mother was willing to have him because she didn't care about the circumstances the principle still applies is a proper child he's a life and therefore who cares what the King's commandment is we're going to have Moses and we'll figure it out right but you know if you have all these people always say well you know what if a woman's raped or something oh yeah oh yeah great logic so a woman is raped so let's let's go ahead and kill the baby and not kill the person who raped a woman yeah great logic liberals that sounds great yeah let's kill the innocent person who has nothing to do with it he didn't choose to be born and let's let the other guy go free or something it's nonsense my friends and so you know abortion is still murder is still wicked and you know people are like well we don't want to bring them into this really bad world and it's just a really wicked world well you let him decide how wicked this world is but you know what you should have thought about that before number one you had a baby and even if it was you know through rape or whatever may be incest or whatever you know hypothetical scenario that people always put out even in that case they still deserve to live because they did nothing worthy of death you know the people who are worthy of death are those who actually violate the individual and so kudos to Moses mom who was willing to have Moses and raise him three months because he's a proper child and she's not afraid of the consequences of her actions through the king you know that that's that's great okay and I wish more Christians would have this attitude but you know we have Christians today even in fundamental Baptist circles that are promoting birth control which is abortion they promote that garbage where you have fundamental Baptist is just like get your 2.3 and then you know take the pill and this is like oh you're just promoting murder and I'm not just talking about fundamental Baptist as in the congregants I'm talking about the pastors talk about the pastor's wives who are promoting that nonsense folks you know part of being a fundamental Baptist is that we know we love having children amen because part of being a fundamental Baptist that we believe the Bible and we esteem life and you know what you know people are like yeah but how we're gonna afford it you'll figure it out okay you'll figure it out God will provide for you and in fact you know it's like 1k per child every year so you're happy you know so you're not living in these days anymore okay God will provide for you God will take care of you and so follow Moses mother's example look at verse 24 by faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter so obviously the story of Moses is that when he's three months you know his his mom is trying to hide him but obviously at three months anybody who has a three-month-old knows that they're loud four months and then they only get louder as they as the months go by okay very loud and so they can only hide him for so long so they essentially devise a plan and we can conjecture this based upon the story that they're going to put them in an archibald rushes in order for Pharaoh's daughter to find him so it's not like you know the Prince of Egypt where they just throw them in a river and we'll just see what happens to me the Prince of Egypt is great movie but there's all kinds of bad doctrine in it okay I know I'm messing with your childhood movie but you know the mood of the book is better okay and it's always funny with the Prince of Egypt at the end it shows Moses coming down with the with the tablets and it finishes it's just like all right now let's get to the part where Aaron makes a golden calf and then the people are worshipping idols and committing fornication then he just kills a bunch of them can we can we animate that how did that look you know of course they're not gonna talk or how about when Miriam actually becomes leprous you know for for for usurping the authority of Moses you know they don't show that part of the movie or whatever I digress yeah we need we need a part two the wilderness edition you know that's the part I want to see but I digress you know what really happens is that they put Moses in the book archibald rushes in order for the Pharaoh's daughter to find him so that in turn she will raise him but she actually notices that it belongs to one of the Hebrews you know she obviously knows whose child this is so she decides to keep the child and then of course Moses mother is called to feed Moses and essentially to kind of raise him you know but he's growing up in the house of Pharaoh though and Acts chapter 7 tells us then not only does he grow up in Egypt and Pharaoh's house he grows up in all the knowledge and wisdom of Egypt so that he becomes mighty in word and indeed so this man becomes a military genius in my in my opinion because of what we see taking place later on in the wilderness he learns the wisdom and the knowledge he's a great orator he's a man who accomplishes great deeds and these are things that he learned while he was in Egypt okay but there came a point at the age of 40 that he refuses to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter okay and it seems to imply here that he kind of knows where he's from you know he knows what he's about he knows where he's from and you know obviously the scriptures don't tell us explicitly however if you're to compare this chapter to Acts chapter 7 it would almost imply that Moses somehow knew what his purpose was that God was going to use him to deliver the children of Israel in the future the problem was is that he was trying to do it the wrong way which is why he ended up killing that Egyptian with his bare hands when the Egyptian was beating on the Hebrew his Hebrew brother okay and so it says in verse 25 choosing rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteem of the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward so what do we see here with Moses well think about it you know Moses he's growing up in Pharaoh's household he probably gets everything he wants might be a little spoiled he has I mean he's part of the greatest powerhouse of that time he probably has access to unlimited funds resources possessions he's smart he's mighty in word and indeed but he knows that the reproach of Christ's riches are greater than any riches that he could receive in Egypt and it required faith to say you know what I'm not going to be a part of Pharaoh's household anymore I want to be a part of God's household and I actually want to serve God okay and if it requires me getting reproached and so be it because I esteem the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the riches of Egypt now not everyone's going to be put in this position but spiritually we kind of are right spiritually we can be because Egypt is a picture of the world Pharaoh is a picture of Satan right and each and every one of us has a choice and the choice is are you going to continue your living in Pharaoh's house in Egypt or you're just going to go all in and serve God instead and really what it comes down to is this what riches do you esteem more because obviously from a practical spread was like well man Egypt's got a lot of money though you know it's just so many riches there and he has he could you know he could use it such a great testimony to Pharaoh you know if he just remains there but at the end of the day Christians have no place in Pharaoh's house though like we don't belong there and you know what even though Moses probably look like an Egyptian because he's dark because they that's how they both look okay regardless of what Netflix says you know I don't know if they're changing the race of whatever but they always do yeah I think they make Cleopatra black right is that correct some of you with a Netflix account you guys can tell me go ahead okay well you know he's there but instead he's like you know what I'm going to serve God instead and he understands that serving God is going to cause him to be reproached and in fact if he serves God now Pharaoh is 100% against him and you know what once you start serving God Satan is 100% against you too okay and now it's like the positions are now polarized and now you know like if you're going to be on this side fighting fighting for God and trying to get the riches of Christ and his reproach you know it's going to be a lifelong fight but you know it comes with great reward and the reality is this you know the rewards that Christ has to offer you for your service to him far outweighs whatever Egypt can offer okay because at the end of the day the riches that Egypt has to offer they vanish away the riches that Egypt has to offer isn't worth much it'll vanish it'll rust these will break through and steal they don't really matter okay and so it took them great faith to say you know what I'm going to go ahead and suffer the affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin referring to Egypt for a season and therein we learned a great principle right that sin is only pleasurable for a season don't be deceived by sin and making you think that sin will keep you happy for the rest of your life because it won't it'll deceive you into thinking it'll manipulate you into thinking it will but it's only for a season you know Moses understood that he understood that the pleasures of sin in Egypt were only for a season and if if he fulfilled that season he would miss out on Christ greater riches so he's like you know what I rather just choose affliction choose the reproach and now we have like Moses the mediator of the Old Testament I mean Moses is like boss we love Moses and look let's just be honest we're thankful Moses made that decision when we read the Old Testament he's esteemed as the I mean when we talk about when they were when people in the New Testament reference the Old Testament what do they call it Moses and the prophets I mean that's just a way to describe the Old Testament Moses and the prophets I mean there's some great prophets out there Moses gets his own category and so a lot can be said about Moses but we see the faith that he had there and the decision he had to make and it was a hard decision okay and no he didn't have a brother named Ramses or whatever you know my kids love that movie but you know every once in a while my kids you know and they know too you know if they listen to it or they watch it they're like that didn't happen in the Bible ha ha dad yeah he that was that's not even true there's no Ramses in the Bible on it exactly don't don't get carried away with this stuff now okay you know they know what's up okay it says in verse 27 by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured a seeing him who is invisible you know what is he saying you know he doesn't care how powerful Pharaoh is he's not going to be afraid of him because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world if God before us who can be against us and you know serving God doesn't just mean serving him by serving others it also means listen to me fighting against the devil fighting against the world and fighting against your flesh being a Christian is actually a fight it's not just a matter of service it's actually a fight and you know what if you're keeping the law then you're contending with Satan you're contending with your flesh you're contending with the world so obviously Moses understood if I take the side then I'm going to be in this continuous battle with Pharaoh and what an incredible battle it was but he had faith and he knew that God would come he would come and show himself strong on his behalf look at verse 28 through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood lest he that destroy the firstborn should touch them by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land which the Egyptians are saying to do or drown and of course we know the story in the Old Testament where God the last plague that was going to be unleashed upon Egypt was the plague of killing the firstborn and the destroyer was going to come and destroy all the firstborn and God instructed the children of Israel if you don't want this if you want to be catch like a straight bullet here with the destroyer you need to make sure you sacrifice the lamb place the blood of the lamb upon the post of the door so when the destroyer comes and he sees the blood he'll pass over you that's why they call it the Passover it's the destroyer it's the wages of sin that passes over you when he sees the blood and obviously the New Testament symbolic representation of that is that when we get saved meaning we believe on Jesus Christ exclusively for salvation the blood of Jesus Christ is imputed upon us so that when we die hell passes over us it doesn't touch us the wages of sin the sting of death passes over us because it sees the blood of Jesus Christ the wrath of God passes over us because it sees the blood of Jesus Christ and he did it through faith because none of this stuff was like new all the stuff was new sacrificing animals was not new but this whole Passover thing was new so receiving these very in cryptic enigmatic instructions is like okay and then having to go to Israel and say hey if you don't want to die just do this just put the blood you know he did it by faith and of course it passed over them but not just that when they escaped Egypt with Egyptians some of them went with them you know by faith they went through the Red Sea on dry land and not because it was like a foot of water either regardless of a National Geographic says or Discovery Channel how are they all when they want to explain away the miracles of the Bible okay talk about great waters because the Bible says there was a wall of water on each side okay you know Prince of Egypt I think got it right on that part okay look look pretty cool okay that is an incredible miracle and of course when they went through during the night and they reached the other end the Egyptians also decided to go through and it closed upon them you know and it killed all of the Egyptians and they were drowned and so you know we said why does that require faith because there's a wall of water on each end and you're just like are we gonna do this or are we not gonna do this you know and obviously both of these picture that the Passover picture salvation the Red Sea pictures baptism and the New Testament but the point that I'm making here is that Moses didn't have a Moses to go off of right like he didn't have like he's like well let me just read about someone's great faith of the old time you are that's you who you better make sure you do a right bro because a lot of people reading your story and building their faith upon what you do what a man of great faith he says a verse 30 by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days this is another incredible story I'm not gonna get all into it but you know you would think that in order to conquer a city you have to just go in and you fight you have these swords and you kill people and that's it but God is telling them to come pass the city seven times blow a trumpet and then the walls would come down and you know I'm sure those people are like okay give those instructions one more time I miss the part about stabbing people or I miss the part about breaking the walls down it's just like you're not breaking the walls down you're compassing the set the city seven times and then you're gonna blow a trumpet and the walls are just gonna come down so it sounds to me like God is the one who does all the work right and we just need to make sure we base our faith around the Word of God and just obey him in that area and he does the rest of the work and it took faith for Joshua to believe that but he did it and you know what let's just related to salvation a lot of people make salvation super complicated they're just like all right well you know yeah believe but it's not just believe though don't you have like don't we have to like do something yeah the thing you have to do is believe yeah but isn't there something on top of that yeah I'm sorry I missed it believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but I'm saying don't you have to like live a godly life no you don't have to live a godly life because you don't even know how to do that you know aren't you supposed to be able to obey the commandments of the Lord you don't even know all the commandments so how are you gonna do that super simple to be saved but some you know you have these clowns who always want to promote a workspace salvation claiming that you have to participate somehow and if faith without works is dead being alone when James who has nothing to do with salvation and they probably couldn't find James 2 in the Bible if you gave them one to look at they want to do deeds they want to get baptized for salvation whereas salvation is super easy it's the easiest thing in this world literally the easiest commandment to keep in the Bible is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ it's as easy as compassing a city seven times you're not really doing anything to win that battle because God has already won it for you through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and that's the only by the way that's the only payment that he accepts anyways so he doesn't accept your little monopoly money of your righteousness you can do all the righteous works you want but God looks at he's like that's like monopoly money doesn't doesn't pay for anything the only purchase the only money he accepts is the blood of Jesus Christ it's only accepts no American Express accepted here know your righteousness accepted here only the righteousness of Jesus and so it took great faith to do that but then when the walls fell they were able to go in and overcome the city it says in verse 31 by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace now we already talked about Rahab and the sermons on Sunday but you know Rahab obviously believed on the Lord and she had already heard of what God was doing in with Israel even 40 years prior you know they had already heard about the news of what God can do and she believed and now that she believed but she was willing to hide the servants the spies there excuse me with peace in order for them to carry out the plan to overcome Jericho look at verse 32 and what shall I have more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson of Jephthah David also and Samuel and of the prophets and I love this part it says who through faith subdued kingdoms who would that be I think that would be like David subdued a lot of kingdoms but the Bible says he did it through faith wrought righteousness okay I would categorize that under Samuel Samuel was able to bring righteousness to nations and through his preaching obtained promises and stopped the mouths of lions now we obviously know who that is even though he's not necessary name is Daniel when Daniel is thrown into the lion's den he wasn't afraid of the mouth of the lion he was just there and he knew that God would stop the mouth of the lions because of his faith right quench the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong who do you think that's talking about Samson I believe hundred percent that's referring to Samson you know and I know you probably a lot of people don't think that only because when they see Samson in modern-day movies he's like super jacked and you know he's like a Samoan dude or something you know he's like Dwayne Johnson and they always picked the most jacked guy to play Samson but let's just be real honest you know the reason Samson was incredibly strong was not because of his muscles it's not because he was physically strong it's because he was strong in the Lord and the power of his might that's what made it a miracle because the Spirit of God will come upon him and you know he's probably victim weight you know he's probably probably super small you know then physically look like he could bench 225 or squat 400 or deadlift 500 or whatever he probably couldn't when the Spirit of God wasn't on him but when the Spirit of God was on him I mean he tore a lion in two he could do what no amount of lifting could ever accomplish right no trend could ever do that to a person no amount of deca or trend d-ball that you take could ever accomplish what Samson was able to do with his bare hands when the Spirit of God came upon him so out of weakness were made strong so you have this man who's probably physically visibly weak but yet because he had the faith that the Spirit of God will come upon him he was made extremely strong and he was used mightily unfortunate till the end of his life okay but you know what even then even at the end of his life when his eyes were gouged out God still allowed him to have the Spirit of God him upon him one more time so we can break down the pillars and destroy the enemies of God in one sitting and so you know he did finish his life well pun intended by the way you'll get that at lunchtime tomorrow where we at here it says here quench the violence of fire escape the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong wax valiant in fight now you could attribute a lot of the judges to this you could attribute Gideon to this you could attribute Bayrak to this and of course it says turn to flight the armies of the aliens now you know I just have to explain because we live in a day and age where everyone believes in like ET and alien this is not talking about those aliens okay this is not talking about UFOs UAPs you know extraterrestrial life out there and you know that these ancient prophets and judges were fighting these ancient aliens you know turn off Discovery Channel at through don't be watching Discovery Channel 3 o'clock in the morning right you're always gonna get some weird story of like aliens and Egyptians and Nephilim and all that garbage history that's what see how do you know that see how do you know that how do you know that history he's been wanting to correct me on that the entire sermon because he's been watching the history channel 3 o'clock in the morning aliens are just foreigners right and so anytime there was a foreigner that was oppressing the children of Israel in the Old Testament for example throughout the book of Judges it required a man of great faith to become a judge and turn to flight the armies of the aliens where they are destroying the oppressors through faith through the power of God okay that's what it's referring to he says in verse 35 woman received the dead race to life again we see that with Elijah and others which were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection I want to just pause real quick before I finish up here and I want you to notice that up until this point names are being dropped right and we know these names you know there's a lot of famous people in the Old Testament but you know verse 35 says others there's some people that are just not named you know what we're gonna be surprised when we get to heaven we're gonna meet some people they probably did even greater works than these people that we see that are named but they just were not named because they are the people of whom the world was not worthy they're just others they're just known by God I mean think about that where God doesn't want to divulge your name it's like this VIP that they get or it's just like you know it's like if we were to make a parallel to Instagram okay and God had an Instagram this is very shallow illustration if God had an Instagram it's like God is following them right like he recognizes them you understand what I'm saying and this is really shallow but it's like what if a famous person just followed you right you would have to be pretty special you know and I see at least at least someone understood the illustration okay you understand what I'm saying you think of your favorite I don't know famous person or whatever I hope you don't have them but let's just you know what if they just started following you know because they recognize who you are right well here we see that God speaks of others and he's not even willing to tell us their names but you know what you know who's the only one who knows who they are is God he's like what's the big deal about that because God is the most famous person in existence he's God you know when the Bible says that he and what is it Psalm chapter 3 that he is sanctified the godly for himself I think that's how it words it you think about there's certain people that God just keeps to himself because he's so pleased with them to the point where he just doesn't even name him he's like others because there's prophets in the Old Testament are just not named I mean there's literally someone called the unnamed prophet because he's you guys is like I'm not gonna divulge your names because it doesn't really matter to you but it matters to God though and you know what they do have a name because their names are written in the book of life so he talks about others and it says that they were tortured and this is one of the reasons why they're not named tortured why not accepting deliverance now that's powerful right there because up until this point we've seen the faith of those who have asked God to deliver them right and it requires great faith to go through trials mockings and scourging to experience everything that they experienced Gideon and Barak and God like came through on them like he delivered them right but then there's others is like I won't even take deliverance I'll just die whoa this guy's serious business and it says and if you're to ask him take the microphone and ask him like why and there they would say because I want a better resurrection basically they're like well I want you know I don't want to point on one 2.5 glorified body and so I know God would deliver me if I asked him to I know that he would save me out of the hand of my enemies if I prayed into him right now but you know what I won't do it because I want a better resurrection now there's one person in the Bible that we do know his name and he was martyred his name is Stephen and I legitimately believe that he allowed himself to be martyred because he wanted a better better resurrection I'll be preaching on that on Sunday but they didn't accept deliverance they wanted a better resurrection others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourging a moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sauna sunder and historically people would say that was Isaiah but we don't know but who cares though sauna sunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and these all listen to this this is why their faith was so great having obtained a good report through faith receive not the promise now what is that talking about referring to the Christ because these are all people in the Old Testament they did all this before they even saw what their physical eyes the Christ they didn't receive the promise yet they did it so that should be a challenge to us New Testament believers that if we have these Old Testament Saints who didn't have this and yet exercise great faith in God in spite of the limited information given to them they didn't receive the promise meaning you know Christ had not physically come to this earth as of yet they were still saved but you know they they look forward to the cross how much more should we have faith if Christ has already completed the work for us and now we have this because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God so I think the Apostle Paul is challenging us right now he's calling us out a little bit saying like how much more should we have faith in God when we experience trials tribulations hardships persecutions difficulties we have way more to work with than these people did then the others right and he says God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect referring to the fact that they look forward to the cross whereas we look back to the cross for our salvation what's the sermon for chapter 11 hey let's work at an increase in our faith and I mean any time I read Hebrew chapter 11 I'm always inspired by that I'm incredibly inspired because faith can move mountains amen but we also see that it can do all these other things and there's certain people that have so much faith they're like I wouldn't even I'm choosing not even to just not even come out as the victor in this story that's a lot of faith to say you know what you win I die and I'm fine with that cuz I'm gonna receive a better resurrection that's an incredible amount of faith may it challenge us to have the same amen let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the wonderful testimony of all of these saints of the Old Testament Lord and I pray God that you would help us to increase our faith in you Lord to serve you and to be faithful unto death Lord I pray that you would help us to do so as we read the Word of God as we pray as we are confronted with different circumstances in our life that would cause us to step out in faith and I pray Lord that you would stretch our faith a little bit Lord as the years go by and may we continuously resort back to Hebrews 11 to think about those who came before us Lord and bless us as we go underway we love you we thank you praise things in Jesus name amen