The Faith of the Parents of Moses.

Opening:

It is a beautiful thing to open the Word of God on the Lord’s Day.

Introduction of the Passage:

This morning we are going to be in Hebrews 11:23. In our study of Hebrews 11, we have seen many already in the list that have lived by faith. And that is the purpose of Hebrews 11. The author, who I believe is the Apostle Paul, is reaching back into the Old Testament to show us what living by faith looks like. The Apostle in Hebrews 10 says that we are to live by faith, quoting from Habakkuk. And then he moves on the basically say, “what does it look like to live by faith? I’m glad you asked. Look at all these saints from our heritage. They lived by faith!” we are to look at the lives of these incredible people and live like them. How did they live by faith? We see, and then we attempt to live in such a manner.

And this list has been so encouraging. These people were not perfect. They were very flawed. But these imperfect sinners loved God and lived by faith. They give us hope, that in our everyday lives we too can live by faith. And our passage today teaches us exactly the same thing. This morning we are going to examine the faith of the parents of Moses. So let’s read our passage this morning.

Reading of the Passage:

Hebrews 11:23 “23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.”

Behold the Word of God. Let’s pray.

Prayer:

Our gracious heavenly Father, we commit this time in the Word to You. Please use it to your glory and our good. Edify us this morning by Your Spirit and Word. We ask this in name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Text Idea:

The parents of Moses by faith, disobeyed the king and saved their son.

Sermon Idea:

This morning we are going to see how we can by faith save our children.

Need:

And as soon as I say that, I pray your ears picked up. And if you’re anything like me, you are interested in this. You likely see the need to save our kids. Our culture is rabidly pursuing our children. They are demonically hungry for the souls, minds, and bodies of our children. Any godly Christian in our culture will instantly see the need for Christians to fight for our kids.

For decades now the church has been on high alert over the fact that Christian children are abandoning the faith in droves. I remember growing up in church and hearing the statistics of over 75% of kids who grow up in the church abandon their faith. And things have only gotten worse since then. A demonic culture has always hungered for the death or corruption of children. We see this dating back all the way into the ancient world. Any self obsessed deviant culture in history has always demanded child sacrifice or corruption. And we see it today. Our current demonic culture demands child sacrifice in abortion and child corruption in the LGBT cult.

But the problem most Christians feel lost on is how do we save our kids? How do we do it? And it is here that my heart breaks. Many Christian parents I talk to feel the desperate need of our age to protect the faith and lives of our kids, but they feel desperately lost to know how to do it. How do we save our kids? Many Christian parents feel almost hopeless. They feel that there is nothing that can be done to save their children from the clutches of our ravenous culture, and it leads to an emotion of almost “there’s nothing to do so I guess we just throw our hands up and hope for the best.” And I imagine this was similar feeling to the parents of Moses. The king had given command to have all male children killed. What were they to do? Well, their response was not to just throw their hands up and hope for the best. They lived by faith, and if I could get a bit ahead of myself, their faith saved Moses. And we too can gain this hope from this text.

Transition:

Let’s begin by examining what happened.

What Happened?

Explanation:

The last passage we covered was the account of Joseph. Specifically we covered the death of Joseph. Well after Joseph’s death things drastically changed. It was likely very much the same for a little while, but as time progressed, things changed. Specifically,

A New Pharaoh Enslaved Israel.

Exodus 1:8–14 8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

This Pharaoh that the Bible calls “the king” did not know Joseph. Generations have passed and at some point this king became worried about how the Israelites were growing. So Egypt enslaved them. But notice God’s hand here. Under oppression, God was still blessing Israel. Israel actually flourished under the whips of their slaves.

The hope Egypt had was that if they worked the Hebrews to the bone, they would not have the energy to have kids. But instead, they had even more kids! They were multiplying like rabbits. So Egypt ramped up their evil plans.

Pharaoh Ordered the Death of the Baby Boys.

Exodus 1:15-16

15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

Think of the evil. State mandated infanticide. All Hebrew boys were to be killed upon birth. The midwives were commanded to murder them. Think of the evil of this command. And think of the punishment of disobedience? If they disobeyed, they knew that it would likely be their lives that were demanded. So what would they do?

The Hebrew Midwives Obeyed God Rather Than Pharaoh.

Exodus 1:17-21

17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”

19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”

20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.

This is such an amazing account. But remember, we are just setting the stage here. We don’t have time to get into all the details. But the midwives lie to Pharaoh and save the lives of the boys. And this is hailed by God to be completely righteous. They were right to do this. It was holy civil disobedience. And Pharaoh is thwarted. So what does he do? He once again ramps up the evil.

Pharaoh Commands the Murder of All Hebrew Boys.

Exodus 1:22

22 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

Pharaoh commands all baby boys to be taken and thrown into the river, likely the Nile. Human sacrifice on a massive scale. Infanticide on a massive scale. Nation wide abortion is commanded. Pharaoh wanted all the baby boys of the Hebrews to be killed, likely in hopes that Israel would be forced to marry their daughters into Egypt and therefore cease to be a nation in one generation. And it is in this situation that Moses is born. He born in this and saved from this.

Moses is Born and Saved.

Exodus 2:1-2

And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.

3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. 6 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”

8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

This is the account that the Apostle is quoting from. The faith of the parents of Moses that saved their son.

Transition:

So listen again to our passage this morning.

Hebrews 11:23 “23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.”

The first think we see is:

Moses Was Saved By Faith.

Explanation:

What was it that saved Moses? Why was it that his life did not end by being thrown into the Nile by the Pharaoh’s soldiers? We could talk about how it was how Moses’ parents hid him. How they likely had to sneak around and practice espionage just to keep their child alive. We could talk about the little ark his mother made to hide him in the reeds, trusting to God’s providence to guide it along to safety. But the Apostle cuts deeper. What was it that saved the life of Moses? Faith.

Moses’ life was saved by faith. The faith of his parents to simply protect this little baby boy’s life before God was what saved him. The Scriptures tell us that they saw Moses was beautiful. Some have said that this means they somehow prophetically knew how special Moses was. The NIV even goes so far as to impose this theological interpretation onto the text by rendering it as “No ordinary child.” I do not know if the parents prophetically knew what Moses would become. They may have. But that word “Beautiful” in the Greek and Hebrew simply means beautiful, lovely, or fit. I do not know if they somehow prophetically knew Moses would save them or not. That is really not in the text.

Illustration:

But here is what I know for certain. Moses’ father and mother watched their son be born and they loved him. He was beautiful in their eyes. They looked down and saw this helpless little boy who needed them. Infants are completely dependent upon their parents. They cry and need to be fed from their mothers. They need. That is what a baby does. It needs. And Moses was no different. This little boy who was just born already had a death sentence on his head. He needed their ultimate help. But If they protected their son, they would likely die. Pharaoh was evil. He would likely kill them for disobedience. But right there was that beautiful little baby.

A little baby that cried, that nursed, that could barely wrap his little fingers about one of his father’s fingers. Children melt the heart of man. God made it that way. And as these parents looked down at their son they loved him. And in that moment every parent knows exactly what to do. Every father knows when holding his child that all of Pharaoh’s army could be beating at the door and he would not care. He would throw his own body in front of the door to protect that child. He would take the swords and spears without a second thought if it meant his son would live even one moment longer. I can speak to this with ease. A father would give of his own body and life for his son without thought. It is not heroic, it is duty motivated by love. And a mother is no different in this.

Argumentation:

And Moses’ parents were no different. They protected their child. And of course the questions of how did come up I am sure. Eventually they had to place Moses in a basket and trust to God’s providence to protect him. They could not keep him safe any longer. I do not know what happened. Maybe Pharaoh instituted searches of each house for children to murder. But whatever happened, they could no longer protect him. So they placed him in the ark and trusted God. And God blessed them.

But the question arises how did they do all this? They did it all in faith. And from this we learn:

The Impact of a Parents Faith.

Let me just talk to parents for a few moments. Often, we doubt if our faith as parents has any impact on our kids. But think of Moses. His very life existed because of the faith of his parents. He was alive because they had enough faith to disobey the king himself. They had faith to disobey the king to keep him alive. They laid their lives on the line for their son. This has an impact. And it is not just physical. This has a direct Spiritual impact.

Proverbs 22:6 tells us “6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Biblically, a parent’s faith leads to the faith of the children. Sure there are exceptions, but they are exceptions to the rule. And we see from Moses’ parents that this cannot be passive. When the Bible tells us that the children of believers will be faithful if raised in the Lord, it is not something we can be passive about. We must fight for our kids. This takes work. Scripture says we must train. This is work.

Let me attempt to be as clear as I possibly can. Passive Christian parents have no right to expect their children to keep the faith. I will say this again. Passive Christian parents have no right to expect their children to keep the faith. How dare we as parents refuse to train up our children and expect faithfulness. This is fundamentally a rejection of Scripture. We are called to train our children in the faith repeatedly in Old and New Testaments. But sadly many Christians have rejected this idea.

Application:

I fundamentally believe that one of the largest reasons children of Christians are apostatizing if because we quit raising them in the faith. God’s promises are true. God did not fail. But we have. You see, Moses’ parents guarded him. And if there is something we must learn from this text it is this:

Guard Your Children Like the Parents of Moses Guarded Him.

Obviously they guarded his physical life. So that is step one.

Guard Their Bodies.

Provide for the physical needs of your children. Provide for the physical safety. Protect them from those who would seek to harm their bodies or lives. This is the duty of Christian parents. You are to protect the lives of your children. Your children are under your charge. Keep them safe. Fathers, protect your daughters from those who would abuse her. To protect your daughters is a true and holy thing. Keep your children out of situations that will be truly harmful to their health and life.

Now I am not saying that you are to bubble wrap your kids. They need some danger. Especially boys. I am not saying you must at all cost keep your boys from jumping off the couch. No, it is actually more dangerous to keep your boys specifically from all danger. A broken spirit in a young boy is far worse than a broken arm. What I am saying is that there are forces in our world that actively seek to steal, kill, and destroy your children’s bodies. Protect them at all cost. Even if you have to lay your life down to do it. Protect them.

Guard Their Minds.

Matthew Henry said this to fathers and mothers, “It is a happy thing where yoke-fellows draw together in the yoke of faith, as heirs of the grace of God; and when they do this in a religious concern for the good of their children, to preserve them not only from those who would destroy their lives, but from those who would corrupt their minds.” Physical concern is important but it is not the only concern. Protect their minds to. What are your children learning? What is influencing their minds?

There are countless forces in our world that are actively seeking to corrupt and destroy the minds of your children. They are everywhere. And we as Christians are completely unprepared. What are they watching on TV? What message is it sending? Does it agree with Scripture or not? Is it furthering their understanding of the truth of who God is or not? But TV while a major concern is not really the primary concern.

Can I talk about something really uncomfortable? What are they learning at School? Are you guarding the minds of your children in their education? Is their education furthering their Christian faith or destroying it? For too long we have bought into the lie of neutrality. I think a lot of young parents are beginning to wake up to this. Our children are not just learning math and algebra. In the government school system they are being presented with a worldview. Parents, what world view is it? Are they learning the religion of atheistic secular humanism or the truth of Christianity? We would never think of putting our kids in a place where they would be educated in Hinduism or Islam. Why is atheistic secular humanism okay? This is a genuine question we have to answer.

We have to really think about this. What is influencing our children’s minds? And is it righteous or not? There is no middle ground. It is either glorifying God or it is dishonoring Him. Is the education your children are receiving true and honoring to God? You have to know the answer to this. There is no neutrality.

We have to be willing to wrestle through this, especially in our day. You know the world we live in. I do not have to tell you. There are countless forces attempting deceive our children’s minds. Are you as a parent doing everything in your power to guard their minds? God gave them to you. Are you honoring this charge?

But humans are not just body or mind. Humans posses an eternal soul.

Guard Their Souls.

The soul and mind are linked as indeed the body and mind and soul are linked. But I mean something specific here. Christian parents, are you raising your kids to be Christians.

Children are part of the church. Now they obviously still are called to faith. They are still called to repent and trust in Christ in their own lives. But the children of believers are holy as 1 Cor 7:14 clearly says. They are part of the church. We are a paedobaptist church. We have at least some idea this. But let me read to you some of our confession.

From the Heidelberg Catechism.

74. Are infants also to be baptized?

Yes, for since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God; and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult; they must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian church, and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted in the new covenant.

Do you hear that language? Children of believers are included in the covenant. They are admitted here. Why do I bring this up? I bring this up because one of the parents chief duties is to shepherd the souls of their children. And I am not here to debate infant baptism if you disagree with that. I am bringing this up to say that Scripture testifies and we agree that children are welcome here.

Parents, as you guard the bodies and minds and souls of your children, one of the chief helps is seeing that God loves your children. He loves them. And He even welcomes them into the church. And this church stands on that. Your children are welcome here. As your shepherd the soul and mind of your children, I admonish you to have them in church. Sing these Psalms and hymns with them. Read the Scripture with them. Have them here in the service. They are members of the covenant. In addition to guarding their bodies and minds, include them in worship. It’s okay if they make a little noise or cry. It’s okay if you have to take them out to the lobby to discipline them. Have them here. They are part of this.

They have no less interest in the covenant than any adult. For Acts 2:39 “39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.””

But there is a central point here we must not miss.

Guard Your Children in Faith.

Do not miss this. You and I are not strong enough. We can’t protect our kids. Not on our own. As you attempt to protect your kids from anything that would seek to destroy them, you will quickly find that you do not have the strength. The ability to do everything we have just talked about comes only by faith in Christ. Beloved, cling to the promises of Scripture. Cling to Christ. And above all else, teach your children to cling to Christ. You cannot do this on your own and neither can I. We have so much work to do, but we must do it in faith. We must trust that God will bless our obedience in this.

But now before we close, a word for those here who do not have children or whose children are grown.

Those Without Children, Help Parents Guard Their Children.

I know this passage is rather aimed at parents. But think of Moses’ parents. They obviously did not do all that alone. Think of midwives. The midwives were not the parents of the children saved but they still aided and God blessed them. If you are here and you do not have kids or your children are all grown, you have a responsibility to aid parents is guarding their children. And I honestly cannot express enough the importance of this.

I am a parent. We cannot do this alone. Our world is hungry for the blood of our children. As a parent, I need you. I need this church. And I guarantee every parent here would likely agree. And this is the beauty of the church. And we see the fruit of this played out everywhere. How many times do you hear the testimony of how a Sunday School teacher spoke into the life of some child that changed their life. The church must help parents like the parents of Moses who are trying to guard their children. You have the opportunity to help pour into these families and help them in this horrific age.

And I recognize I have two roles here. I am a parent. So all of the application for parents is really me preaching to myself. But I am also your pastor. So parents, hear this. As your pastor I commit to you that I will do all I can to aid you in guarding your children from this culture. I cannot do it for you, but I will lay my life down to help you. May God help me.

Conclusion:

We see in the parents of Moses true faith that ultimately saved their child.

Visualization:

We must take this lesson and in faith guard our children.

Reiteration:

May this church be a church of parents and non parents who prioritize the protection of the faith in the next generation in our midst. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer:

Offering:

Offertory Prayer:

Benediction:

Acts 2:38–39“38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.””

The Sacrament of Baptism: