The Better Moses pt 2

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It continues to be the great honor and privilege in my life to steward this pulpit and to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.

I am sure that many of you are aware, today is Mother’s Day. Before we press on in our look through the book of Hebrews, I want to draw your attention to the story of a mother from Scripture. Last week, we saw in the beginning of Hebrews 3, that Jesus is better than Moses. Moses was a faithful servant to God, but Jesus is the Son of God. When we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ we are made a part of Christ’s house, not Moses’ house. In fact Moses is a part of the house with us!

Even still, the original Hebrew audience was very familiar with Moses. So what we will get to in a few moments is a continuation of seeing how Moses’ life points to Jesus. The section of Hebrews 3 today looks at events that happen towards the end of His life. Before we get there, I want to go all the way back to the beginning.

Allow me to read for you from Exodus chapter one. To set the stage here, the Israelites had been living in Egypt since the famine brought them there and first, it was a very positive relationship. But over the next 200 or 300 hundred years different leadership arose in Egypt. During that time, the Israelite people really multiplied. A new pharoah rose to power and said that Israel had become too many and too mighty so he started to enslave the people and eventually decided to kill every new born son of the Israelites. Take a look at how this plays out and what Moses’ mother does.

Exodus 1:22–2:9 ESV

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” 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 will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

Now, we could preach a whole sermon just on this passage. We could see what this teaches us about the sanctity of life. We could look at how wonderful it is to protect children. We could even draw parallels between the Pharaoh’s atrocity with the horror that is the modern day death culture promoted by the abortion industry.

But for the context of our message today I want to simply boil down the actions taken by Moses’ mother to help us into the mindset of what we will be seeing in Hebrews 3.

So what did his mother do here?

First, she understood that danger was immanent. It was no secret that the Pharaoh was having all of the baby boys killed. It is very likely that she knew other mothers who had their children taken away from them in such a horrific fashion.

Second, she valued the life of her son. Scripture says she saw he was a fine child and then hid him.

Third, she did something difficult and potentially seen as crazy to provide for her child. She made him a basket that was sealed and floated it down the bank.

Now, a lot else happens in the story and it deserves a longer exposition at some point down the road, but for our purposes, remember those three things about Moses mother. She understood danger was immanent. She valued the life of her son. She did something difficult to provide for her son.

With these three things in mind, would you open your Bibles to Hebrews 3. We have been talking about how great of a Savior Jesus Christ is. We have seen what a blessing it is to be a part of the family of God. Faith in Jesus Christ is the mode, and the only mode for that matter, in which God brings us humans into glory. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. With this understanding we pick up in Hebrews 3:7

Hebrews 3:7 (ESV)

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

Before we get into the three pointed outline illustrated in the Exodus Narrative, we cannot overlook the deep theology presented in the first few words of verse 7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says. After that phrase, the next 5 verses are a direct quote from Psalm 95. This is a much bigger deal than a passing reading would suggest.

The writer of Hebrews is suggesting that the Psalm that many believed to be penned by King David is actually the words of the Holy Spirit. What are the implications of this? Does this mean that David did not actually write the Psalm? We are given clarity on this in chapter 4:

Hebrews 4:7 ESV

again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

We will come back to the meaning of this verse when we get to chapter 4, but the big thing to notice here is “SAYING THROUGH DAVID.”

What we have to recognize, realizing, and respect is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God, worked THROUGH David to write the fully inspired, completely inerrant, life-giving, ever-flowing Word of God. And it is not just the psalms that are inspired in this manner. This is a great example of God speaking to us even today through David, but ALL of Scripture is this way.

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

What does this mean for us? It means that we should treasure these books that we are able to carry in our pockets, on our phones, on our coffee tables, because whether they be on a screen, a scroll, or bound in leather they are the very word of God!

There is simultaneously 40 different authors of the Word and but One author of the Word of God. All of it comes to us from God through men. Praise be to God for His Word. But alas, let us press on in Hebrews 3:7

Hebrews 3:7–11 ESV

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

Here we come to first stop in our outline.

Understand Danger is Immanent

The Author of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is drawing our attention back to what happened towards the end of Moses’ life. We must once again look back to Moses’ life to get the full context here.

We read earlier that Moses was brought into the house of the Pharaoh’s daughter. Flash forward a few decades later and God has chosen Moses to deliver His people out of Egypt and out of oppression and slavery. God afflicted the Egyptians with a series of ten plagues as both punishment and to coerce the Pharoah into letting the people go. The last plague, and most severe, caused the death of every first born son in Egypt. The Pharaoh then pleaded with the Israelites to leave, so they did so under Moses’ leadership. When they left Egypt, they got to the Red Sea and Pharaoh changed his mind. He and his troops took off after the Israelites to bring them back. God worked in a mighty way and parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross and escape. The people of Israel made it across and the Egyptians followed, but before they could make it across, the waters are released and the army is drowned.

It was a miraculous deliverance for the people of Israel, but the miracles didn’t even stop there. God provided for His people in a great way. He led them by a pillar of cloud in the day time and pillar of fire by night. He provided them with drinkable water. He sent them bread to eat in the wilderness so they would not have to scavenge food. Then one day in the journey, the Israelites got thirsty. After all of these miracles they had witnessed, look ath how they speak to Moses:

Exodus 17:2–3 ESV

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

The people of Israel were not trusting in the Lord to provide despite everything He had already provided. We’re told later on that part of this quarreling included question if the Lord was even among them or not.

‘God had been providing for them all along; they had abundant evidence of His power and care. But they would not put their full trust in God.” (MacArthur)

Yet even so, in His great mercy, the Lord instructed Moses to strike a rock. Water would then flow from the rock and the people were able to quench their thirst.

Though satiated for a moment, the people were still not satisfied. This was but one of ten times they tested the Lord and grumbled despite seeing His power and provision time and time again. (Ex 14:10-23, Ex. 15:22-24, Ex 16:1-3, Ex 16:19-20, Ex 16:27-30, Ex 17:1-4, Ex 32:1-35, Num 11:1-3, Num 11:4-34, Num 14:3)

The Israelite people, “your fathers” as we read in Hebrews 3, put the Lord to the test over and over again.

Hebrews 3:10–11 ESV

Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

This is a reference to the judgment God lays down on the people in Numbers 14.

Numbers 14:20–23 ESV

Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

To put it simply:

Hebrews 3:11 ESV

As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

God, working through Moses, brought His people out of Egypt, provided for them, and was taking them to the Promised Land. But because of the doubt and disobedience of the faithless people, none of the original generation brought out from Egypt and witness to the great power of God would enter the rest of the promised land.

Now you have the fuller context of the passage from Psalm 95.

But this isn’t just included to be a history lesson. Go back to verses 7-8

Hebrews 3:7–8 ESV

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,

We go from looking at the history lesson of the testing of God and rebellion to God of the Israelites in the wilderness, to thinking about this in the context of when? TODAY!

Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, like they did back then, or else you too will feel the wrath of God and you shall not enter His rest!

Understand Danger is Immanent

The Israelites were so blinded by their personal desires that they didn’t realize the blessing they were going to miss out on due to the hardness of heart! They didn’t understand they were in danger of feeling the wrath of a Holy God who did not OWE them mercy!

Church, unlike the Israelites, we must UNDERSTAND DANGER IS IMMANENT. By the Holy Spirit starting this stanza with the Word today, we are given the idea that this is urgent! If you hear the voice of God today, you better not harden your heart! You better not resist. If you do the consequences will be swift and lasting!

Connecting this section of Hebrews with the rest of what we have learned we can understand this message as telling us, “If you know the truth of Jesus Christ, if you know the gospel of Jesus Christ, do not do what Israel did when she knew God’s truth and saw His Revelation…God’s time for salvation is always now.” (MacArthur)

(MacArthur illustration) Early on in his ministry, Pastor D.L. Moody would often end his messages by saying, “Go home and think about what I’ve said.” One night in Chicago he told the people to do this and to come back the next night ready to make a decision. That night in Chicago a fire broke out, and some who had been in his congregation died. That was the last time he told anyone to think over the claims of Christ and make a decision later. None of us are promised tomorrow. Today is the moment we have breath and now is the moment to decide if you are really all in on this Jesus guy, cuz you might not have any other chance. That is why we have an invitation every Sunday morning. It is not that the alter call is the only way to place your faith in the Lord, but who am I to prevent someone from boldly making a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ. That interstate beside us has the 4th most fatalities in the United States of America. Anything could happed. We are not called to put it off, but to act TODAY. The Danger of being too late is immanent.

So what then do we do with the knowledge that danger is immanent? Look at the last two verse from our passage today.

Hebrews 3:12–13 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

There are two things that I’d like us to focus on from these verse for the remainder of our time together and they coincide with the example we were given from Moses’ mother in the beginning. After understanding that danger is immanent, next

Value Another Person’s Life

In the case of Moses’ mother she cared for the life of her son. We see here that the Author is caring for the eternal souls of the Hebrews. He doesn’t want to see any of them hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. He tells them to take care. He calls them brothers.

We’re going to get into the particulars of the exhortation from the author in our final point, but here in this moment just take a second to understand the place of love and value the exhortation comes from in the first place. He calls the recipients brothers. This doesn’t mean that everyone reading this letter would be at the same family reunion. Rather, it means that there is closeness and a bond between the people.

I would guess that all of us have people near to our hearts. People that we interact with on a regular basis. Friends that are even more than friends, but are family. Now as we think about those people in our lives, how many of them actually know and serve Jesus Christ as their Lord. How many of them understand that they have sinned and the wages of their sin is death, eternal, spiritual death. How many of them are by all earthly evidence, content in their sin and heading right into the full wrath of God? In our post-modern world, how many of them grew up in church and have heard the gospel and thus have no excuse?

A friend recently told me a story about being at a softball game. During one of the breaks they played over the Loud speaker, We’re On the Highway to Hell. A lot of people in the crowd began bopping along with the music and one lady in particular really put on a show during the song. After the game was over the lady walked by and it was seen that she was wearing a cross necklace.

We can never know the position of someone’s heart before God, but statistically and biblically speaking, most people out there are on the highway to hell, and what’s truly heartbreaking about it is that they’re proud to be there.

Next Sunday night we are going to be talking about oikos. That is a greek word and for our purposes we will consider it like your extended family but not just by blood, it is everyone who God has providentially placed around you.

We all seen from the teaching today that those who harden their hearts to the Lord will not enter His rest, but experience His wrath. The question now is, do we value someone’s life enough to warn them of the danger they are in?

Do Something Difficult to Protect

Hebrews 3:12–13 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

It must’ve been so difficult for Moses’ mother to place him in that basket and send him down the River. I know she sent his sister to watch after him along the way, but nonetheless it had to be hard. I couldn’t imagine doing something like that with AR and he’s now older than Moses was at that time. But Moses’ mother knew that danger was immanent. Shew knew she cared for her son and so she must do something difficult and then leave in God’s hands if she was going to protect her son.

The difficult thing that we must do to protect those we care about is exhort them to believe in the Lord Jesus.

The unbelieving heart is an evil heart. The unbelieving evil heart does not stay near to the living God.

Unbelief truly is greatest sin. It is the greatest offense against God.

The readers of this letter would have been well informed about the gospel. As are many in our culture. Many of them may have professed a kind of faith in Christ, though it was just a front. This message is a message of repentance before it is too late, before the gospel no longer cuts your heart. Before you are so numb to sin that it is the normative force in your life.

We are instructed to exhort one another everyday so that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

I can’t play the role of the Holy Spirit, but it is a fact that every Sunday churches are filled with people who don’t believe in Jesus but like the ritual of it all. As a body of professing, confessing believers, we must exhort one another to press on in the faith, to continue one believing Jesus is the only way, truth, and life.

It will be an utter shame to see how many “church members” across time and across the globe bop to the tune of their personal religion right down the highway to hell.

But if this thought breaks your heart as it does mine, we can do something difficult to protect it from happening to others. We can exhort others to believe.

Why do I say this is difficult? It’s not like placing your child in basket to go white water rafting, but it is difficult in some ways. It is difficult because it will require hard conversation. It will require talking to that uncle with a drinking problem about finding completeness not in bottle, but in the cross. It will require talking to our children about not just what to do to be a good boy but what Christ did because we couldn’t be good. It will require talking to our neighbors about more than the weather but really asking what they believe about the Lord. In some ways it will be difficult.

But we must understand three things as we close this morning.

We are ambassadors of Christ. God makes His appeal to the unbeliever through us. It is quite literally our job and our calling to talk about Jesus.

Christ is with us. When Christ gave the great commission that we should go out and make disciples of all people and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that wasn’t the end of His message. He also said and Lo, I with you always even until the end of the age. Well it’s not the end of the age and I know that because sin still exists. So that means it is still our calling to spread the gospel and Christ is still with us in that endeavor. Christian, you have Christ on your side. Difficult doesn’t seem so difficult when you remember you are on working on God’s side and in His power.

The gospel is true. The message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone completely and unequivocally the only saving message there is. Sticking to that message and that message alone may very well bring difficulties in this life. We know how just about all of the apostles, those who were closest to Jesus, died horrible deaths at the hands of those who hated the gospel. But despite the difficulty, they could not waver from the truth. Why? Because they had seen the glorious, risen Savior. And they knew that though they may die in this earthly flesh that they were assured of spending eternity in glory with the glorious Savior. The gospel is true and thus we should be emboldened to withstand any difficulties that may arise from proclaiming truth.

We are ambassadors of Christ. He is with us. The gospel is true. Because of this we must understand that danger is immanent. Judgment is coming. We must value the souls of those God has providentially placed around us. We must value them enough to do something potentially difficult. We must exhort them to believe.

So as we close today, that is what I am doing. I am exhorting you to believe. To truly understand your sin has a cost. And you can’t pay that cost. So in His great love, Christ suffered died on the cross to pay for your sins and for mine and for all those who believe in Him. On the third day He arose.

He did that to bring sinners like you and me to glory. When we understand that to be true, when the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to our sin, the only response we can have is to repent, believe, and publically proclaim Jesus as Lord, living in submission to Him daily. Would you proclaim that today? If so respond by coming forward during this next hymn of response. Let’s pray.