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[0:00] Take your copy of the scriptures and turn to Exodus chapter 3.! Second book of the Bible, Exodus chapter 3.

[0:16] ! Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

[0:30] There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.

[0:43] So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush.

[0:59] Moses! Moses! And Moses said, Here I am. Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

[1:14] Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

[1:31] The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

[1:46] So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

[2:00] The home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

[2:18] So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

[2:37] And God said, I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.

[2:56] Moses said to God, Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, What is his name?

[3:09] Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites.

[3:21] I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

[3:38] This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

[4:05] And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

[4:22] The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.

[4:36] Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.

[4:54] So I will stretch out my hand and will strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

[5:06] And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave, you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters, and so you will plunder the Egyptians.

[5:36] Please open with me to Hebrews chapter 11, that great chapter of faith. Not all who start out on the Christian life persevere to the end.

[5:52] Some fall away, showing that they never really did belong to Christ. Perhaps a young person grew up in the church, raised in a Christian home, made a profession of faith, was baptized, joined the church, went away to college, quit going to church, abandoned Christ, fell in with the world, and turned his back on the Lord Jesus.

[6:16] Persevering in faithfulness to Christ and his word is not easy, especially in times of persecution, in times of affliction, hardship, and temptation.

[6:29] In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus warns his disciples of a time when many will turn away from the faith, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

[6:46] And so the importance of persevering in holiness and faithfulness to Christ to the very end is a major theme of this whole letter to the Hebrews.

[6:58] It's filled with encouragements to persevere and threats if we don't. And one come after another in that mix that God himself has ordained.

[7:09] And chapter 3 and verse 14, we have come to share in Christ, if we hold firmly till the end, the confidence we had at first.

[7:22] You see, not everyone holds firmly to Christ all the way to the end. Well, these first century Hebrews had made a beginning by professing Christ, being baptized, trusting in Jesus, the Messiah.

[7:39] But now they were being tempted to turn back, to abandon the Lord Jesus because of the allurements of sin and temptation so contrary to Christ's commands.

[7:52] They were being tempted to turn back from Christ because of the persecutions that were coming on them because they were holding to Christ. Their family was disowning them. The whole Jewish society was disowning them.

[8:04] It was hurting them economically. They were often cast into prison and had their possessions confiscated. And then there was ever that pull of the old ways of Judaism that they had grown up with.

[8:21] The ornate temple and the priests and the sacrifices and all the visible things that characterized Old Testament Judaism.

[8:31] And all this persecution would stop if we would just turn away from this Jesus and just embrace the old ways of Judaism once again without the Messiah.

[8:46] And in so many ways, if they just abandoned Jesus, life would get much better for them. They're being tempted to quit, you see. And so God sends them a letter.

[8:59] This letter to the Hebrews to urge them to persevere, to hold on to Christ firmly to the end. And this chapter of faith, Hebrews chapter 11, is found right in the midst of this call to persevere.

[9:16] You can see the NIV labels this whole section from chapter 10 and verse 19, a call to persevere. Indeed, that's in one sense the whole letter, but it's especially now the call to persevere.

[9:29] We see it again in chapter 10 and verse 36. You need to persevere so that when you will have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. And then comes this chapter, chapter 11, showing how central faith is to our perseverance.

[9:49] If you ever intend to persevere to the end of your life, you better give good attention to your faith. It is the key to perseverance to the end.

[10:03] Faith. That we need to take the first step in the Christian life. Trusting in Jesus to save us from our sins. In what he has done for sinners.

[10:16] That's a step of faith. And so is the next step to reorient my life in everything I think and do and say to bring it under the authority of Christ.

[10:28] That too is faith all the way. And the very last step of faith. Trusting my soul into his hands for all eternity when I die. It's faith from first to last.

[10:41] It's a way of life. Indeed, he has just said that in chapter 10 and verse 38, that my righteous one will live by his faith. Faith is the way of life for the Christian.

[10:54] And chapter 11 shows us people living by faith. People just like you and me who live by faith and did all sorts of things by faith.

[11:07] That is, by being sure of what they hoped for and by being certain of what they could not see. Now the reality is is that we all need lots of help to persevere to the end.

[11:20] The world, the flesh, and the devil are daily giving us plenty of reasons to turn away from faithful following of Jesus and his word. to abandon him and his word for something easier.

[11:35] And sadly, even the church is offering an easier way to people than the way, the truth, and the life that is Christ. We grow tired.

[11:46] We grow weary. We're tempted to give up. And so, this morning, we return again to this faith chapter to have our faith strengthened, to have it encouraged, to see the power of faith in people's lives.

[12:02] And we come again to Moses' life. Last week, we saw faith enabling Moses to first choose to abandon this world of Egypt as he lived in it and instead to identify himself with God's people, the people of the coming Messiah, even though it meant mistreatment and disgrace for the sake of Jesus.

[12:23] We saw him making that decision by faith, by the things that the human eye could not see. Today, we see that it's faith as well that keeps him persevering in that choice, that keeps him persevering in the way of Christ and in faithfulness to his call from God.

[12:47] And so, these things are recorded for you right here in Scripture to keep you running with perseverance, the race that's marked out for you. Your race isn't exactly like Moses' race, but God has marked out a race for you to run, a life for you to live, and it's through what we see in the Scriptures that our faith is to be revived, that we might keep running the race marked out for us with perseverance to the end.

[13:18] We're going to look at three more episodes of faith's power in Moses' life. It's found in Hebrews 11, 27 to 29. The first is faith leaving Egypt without fear, and you find that in verse 27.

[13:33] Speaking of Moses, by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who was invisible. Now, commentators differ on which leaving of Egypt was this.

[13:48] Was this when he first left Egypt as a 40-year-old and went into Midian, into the desert? Or is this the latter, Exodus from Egypt, when he came back at age 80 and left Egypt with the whole multitude of Israel with him?

[14:08] I believe it's the latter. I believe that it's referring to Moses as the 80-year-old. He fled Egypt the first time when he was 40 years old when the Pharaoh found out that he had killed one of the taskmen, the Egyptians, and he fled into Midian.

[14:25] There he met a woman, married her, had a couple children, was tending sheep. There the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush, as we heard this morning as the scriptures were read.

[14:37] And there the Lord promised to rescue the Israelites from Egypt and gave to Moses his assignment of going back to Egypt and leaving Egypt with all the Israelites with him.

[14:54] So he returned to Egypt where he was a wanted man. He returned to identify once more with the despised slave nation being mistreated. He returned to face down the new Pharaoh and to tell him, our God says, let my people go.

[15:11] A daunting task to be sure. Something that only angered Pharaoh all the more. We see his response in Exodus chapter 5 when Moses announces the word of the Lord to let his people go.

[15:26] Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go. He didn't know Israel's God, but he would be introduced to him by way of ten plagues, wouldn't he?

[15:45] Well, he was incensed against Moses and these people for wanting to leave and he accused Moses of taking the people away from their labor.

[15:55] Get back to work, he says to Moses. And so he made the work harder and he beat the Israelite foreman for not meeting their quota of bricks when he quit supplying the straw and made them get their own straw and still make the same number of bricks.

[16:10] And the Israelite foreman, beaten, come back and they said to Moses, may the Lord look upon you and judge you. You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.

[16:24] Here's Moses. He received ten rejections from Pharaoh. Not once, ten times rejected by Pharaoh.

[16:35] Harsh criticisms from his own people. There was enough discouragement there to make a grown man quit. But not Moses. He persevered, not fearing the king's anger.

[16:51] He kept going back to Pharaoh to announce the Lord's word. Let my people go. And when Pharaoh refused, Moses would boldly announce the next plague that was coming upon him in Egypt for refusing to obey God.

[17:06] You remember how often Pharaoh would be brought to his knees and say, okay, I'll let you go. Just end this plague and then you could go. Moses would pray to the Lord, the plague would end and Pharaoh would harden his heart and change his mind.

[17:20] No, you can't go. You can't go. Over and over, rejected. That could get old fast, but Moses remains undeterred.

[17:33] He persevered. Pharaoh tried to get Moses to compromise. Well, okay then, he says at one point, you can go, but only the men, not the women and children.

[17:45] No, all of us. Women, children, we're all going. another plague. Well, okay, you can go, but not the animals.

[17:57] Not a hoof will be left behind. Isn't that a good answer? Not a hoof left behind. We'll go and we're going with our animals. He sticks to announcing the word of God with the tenacity of a bulldog that's got you by the cuff and he won't let go.

[18:17] He wouldn't let Pharaoh go. Nothing would keep him from persevering. What an exercise of perseverance and by the end of the ninth plague, the whole land of Egypt is just in ruins, but still Pharaoh hardens his heart and will not let them go and he now lashes out in anger against Moses saying, get out of my sight.

[18:39] Make sure you do not appear before me again. The day you see my face, you will die. So here's the mighty king of Egypt threatening to kill Moses if he ever shows his face again.

[18:55] If he doesn't give up his plan of leaving Egypt. But just as Moses' parents did not fear the king's edict, remember?

[19:08] Even so, Moses did not fear the king's anger. And before he left, the king's angry presence, he announced the tenth plague.

[19:20] Okay, king, you won't let us go. This is what's going to happen. About midnight, every firstborn in Egypt will die from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn son of the slave girl who's at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

[19:37] There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there's ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any man or animal.

[19:51] And all these officials of yours will come to me bowing down before me and saying, Go, you and all the people who follow you, and after that I will leave. And Moses, in anger, went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

[20:06] Pharaoh. And it all happened exactly as the word of the Lord had said. Moses and two million Israelites boldly marched out of Egypt.

[20:20] He left Egypt not fearing the king's anger. Now, how did he do that? Well, that's the question we've been asking all along, and you know the answer because it's been given in two words, by faith.

[20:40] When God says that to us some 24, 25 times in one chapter, what do you think he wants us to learn? That this would not have happened if Moses had not believed, trusted the Lord and what he had said.

[21:00] How could he persevere so long against such discouragements? How could he leave Egypt not fearing this tyrannical king's anger?

[21:13] You see, this is where we open up the hood and look inside to see what's driving this man. What's the engine under the hood of this man to see him just keep going and going and going and not stopping.

[21:26] And as we lift it up, we say, ah, by faith. Faith. By faith he left Egypt. By faith he persevered. This is the power of faith.

[21:40] It's what drives out the fear of man. Remember the teeter-totter? When faith is high, fear is low. And we see it not only in Moses' parents, but we see it in him as well. This is what keeps a man persevering in difficult duties.

[21:55] Moses, you're going to lead them out. And he persevered in that difficult assignment. Faith kept him from quitting. But faith in what?

[22:08] What have we noticed in every incident in the book of Hebrews chapter 11? Faith is not just faith in a whim. Faith in a feeling. Faith is always tied to some revelation of God to man.

[22:24] God has made himself known and his will known. And he's spoken to man and that's what faith rests on. How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

[22:38] Right there. And they trusted in what God had said and it was no different for Moses. What word from God did Moses' faith rest upon?

[22:49] Well, he had the handed down promise from Abraham that God was going to bring his people out of the nation that was mistreating them in the fourth generation.

[23:03] Oh, I have a promise. And it's ripening. And his faith laid hold of it. But then he also had all those words that were read to us from Exodus chapter 3 at the burning bush.

[23:17] Over and over God was saying, I'm going to rescue my people from Egypt. I'm going to use you, Moses. And I'm going to so work in that situation that Pharaoh will let you go.

[23:31] There was God's promised presence and power to help Moses lead them out. And God even told Moses that the king of Egypt would not let them go unless a mighty hand compels him.

[23:43] So I will stretch out my hand, he says, and strike the Egyptians with wonders. And after that, he will let you go. So you see, even Pharaoh's changing his mind all those times didn't discourage Moses.

[24:01] That stubborn hardness of heart didn't discourage him, turn him off of his path of duty. Why? Because God had even told him about that ahead of time. God's word was saying, that's the way it's going to be, Moses.

[24:15] He's not going to welcome your message of leaving, but I'll make him willing. And so he had that, so when he keeps hitting stubborn resistance, he had a word from God.

[24:28] Okay, this is exactly as planned. And he kept persevering in faith because he had the word of God to lean upon. Faith in God's word enabled him to persevere through all the discouragements and brothers and sisters, as you meet discouragement and disappointment in your life, you have far more of God's word than Moses ever had.

[24:52] You remember where you opened your Bible when Stan came and read in Exodus? I mean, that's just a little sliver of the Bible back there, isn't it? Of what Moses had.

[25:03] I mean, he didn't have a lot. A lot of that's what, well, but look what you and I have. 66 books about God and his faithfulness and his power and his word, his kindness to his children, and the Lord Jesus that he's given the greatest gift.

[25:24] How will he not give us everything else we need to get us safely home? We have so much more than Moses ever had in the way of God's word, and it's more enough to enable us to persevere through our disappointments and trials, so trust him.

[25:43] You know, he's even told you that you must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of heaven. So are you hitting hardships? Oh, yes. Everything's this plan.

[25:55] This is the way God said it would be. He's told you not to be surprised at the painful trials you're suffering as though something strange were happening to you. Oh, okay, I'm not going to lose heart.

[26:06] I'm not going to quit because this is all part of the plan. It's just as I was told I'm going to trust God's word. And he's even told you that in these troubles and in all these things he's going to work them together for your good.

[26:23] And it's faith in God's word that enables you to persevere in great troubles. Can I ask you, what did you give your faith to eat this past week?

[26:36] Was faith weak because you starved it from the promises of God, the attributes of God, the word of God? He persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

[26:55] Kids, can you see God? No, but he always sees me, doesn't he? But I can't see God, why not? Because he's unseen, he's invisible.

[27:09] Then how did Moses see him who is invisible? invisible? How can you see what is unseen? Is he just talking gibberish? No.

[27:20] He's talking about the power of faith. He saw the invisible God with the eyes of faith. And in the Bible, God tells us about himself.

[27:31] He tells us about all sorts of things that are unseen, that your physical eye has never seen. faith is being sure of what we hope for, and it's being certain of what we do not see.

[27:46] Faith is a way of knowing. Faith is a way of perceiving reality in the same way that your five senses have been given you to perceive reality. I have a sense that this pulpit is real.

[27:58] How do I know that? Well, with my eye, I see it. With my hand, I touch it. I could taste it if I wanted to bite into it. With the five senses, we are discerning reality, and faith is like a sixth sense that discerns things that are real that can't even be seen or felt or handled with the five senses.

[28:21] Faith is being sure. Faith gives a reality to those unseen things as real as if we could see them and handle them. Faith believes that God exists even though I can't see him.

[28:39] And so when Moses stood before the high and mighty king of Egypt, he was not afraid of his anger and he was not ready to quit because of his stubborn resistance because by faith he saw him who was invisible, the high king of heaven, the most high God, the king of kings who holds Pharaoh's life and the whole world in his hands.

[29:03] And because his eyes saw the invisible God, he didn't fear the visible king. Nothing looks the same with God in view.

[29:16] He's the difference maker in every scenario of your life and week. I wonder if you've seen him in your present problem. Maybe it's a problem at work, at home, your finances, your school, your church.

[29:31] do you know that the most important reality of any problem is always what you cannot see? The most important factor in those problems is something that your physical eye cannot see.

[29:46] It is the invisible God. It's him. You only see him by faith. So we've got to look away from stubborn and sinful men like Pharaoh.

[30:01] And we've got to look away from our problems and look away to him who is invisible but real and refuse to look at anything without seeing him and how he is able to meet our needs.

[30:18] And this is where faith gets its clearest views of him. Oh yes you'll see something of him in the heavens and the stars and the sun that shines in every little flower that grows but the clearest views of the invisible God are to be found here in his word.

[30:37] Here he reveals himself to the looking heart. Here he revives our drooping faith. Here he manifests himself to us. And so I wonder if you're looking gazing upon the word every day to feed your faith to see him who is invisible.

[30:56] Spend some time today with him looking at your problem. Get alone with God and turn your mind's eye to what the scriptures say about him.

[31:10] And now stand with him and look at your problem. See if it doesn't make a difference. Then when you see your problem without God anywhere in sight made all the difference between Moses quitting and Moses persevering.

[31:24] He tells us that. Seeing the invisible God by faith is the key. It's key to persevering, to not quitting. It's what kept Moses going.

[31:38] And it's what will keep you persevering to the end in the things that he's assigned for you in his word and in his providence. Well that's faith.

[31:50] Leaving Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. Second thing we see in the life of Moses today is faith sprinkling blood on doorposts. Verse 28, By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

[32:07] So we're watching and there's Moses with a knife in his hand and he's slaughtering a one-year-old male lamb without defect. And he's catching the blood in a bowl. And then he dips a group of branches of hyssop in the blood and he goes to the front door and he starts to splatter and smear the blood on the sides and the tops of the door frames.

[32:32] You say, that's rather strange. I've never seen a man do that before. He's clearly not painting his house. He's just kind of smearing it around just the door and he's using blood.

[32:42] And he's sure that by doing so his firstborn son will live instead of die at midnight. Oh, that's different, isn't it?

[32:57] Ever see that before? There's only one reason Moses is doing any of this. By faith. in what God had told him to do.

[33:12] Because once again, God had spoken and told him exactly what to do with the lamb and its blood. On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

[33:25] I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. no destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

[33:41] So receiving the revelation, the word from God, he believed it, and he acted accordingly. He obeyed. Do you know he followed the instructions to the letter? Would you not do the same?

[33:55] Be done with this idea about the letter of the law being something that's passe. Oh, we don't have to obey every letter of it, every word of it. Oh, yeah? That's not what that passage means if you think that you can be careless in obeying the word.

[34:12] No, Moses did everything as exactly as God had told him, and that was because he was acting by faith. He was certain that what he was doing, smearing the blood on the doorpost, had a connection with his son living instead of dying.

[34:31] He was sure of it. because God had spoken and said that's the only thing that would spare Israel's firstborn is if they applied the blood of the Passover lamb and stayed inside the house covered by blood.

[34:52] Then I will see the blood and will pass over you. and when God visited the land in judgment at midnight, that's exactly what happened.

[35:08] So here's faith's power to receive great blessing from God, even the deliverance of his firstborn son from death. Would you not agree that some of the things that God commands his children seem absurd to the unbelieving world?

[35:24] unbelief looks on the things that Christians do and say, that's strange. That's really different. How can blood on doorposts save your son from death?

[35:40] How can dipping seven times in the dirty waters of Jordan cleanse Naaman, the Syrian, from leprosy? How can looking at a bronze snake lifted up on a pole save the lives of those who are bitten by poisonous snakes?

[36:00] And faith doesn't demand to understand everything, but just takes God at his word and believes and acts accordingly. Even God's way of salvation can look absurd to unbelievers.

[36:15] How can trusting in one who died on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago change my eternal address from hell to heaven? Yet there is a clear revelation from God, isn't there?

[36:32] That whoever trusts in God's one and only son shall not perish but have everlasting life. Do you need anything more to believe and act accordingly?

[36:45] well, it happened just as God said it would. You know, it always does. Everything always happens just as God said it would.

[36:55] So if you have a word from God, you can be sure that's what's going to happen even if you don't see anything pointing in that direction yet. it all happened that way.

[37:10] He visited every home in Egypt taking the life of the firstborn but he passed over the house of Israel the houses in Israel because they were all stained with blood over their doorposts.

[37:22] by faith. He kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel, verse 28 says. Do you know, 1500 years later, Jesus Christ was eating the Passover meal with his disciples in Jerusalem and the next day on a hill called Golgotha, he was the Passover lamb himself.

[37:48] Fulfilling all those Old Testament Passover lamb types and shadows. You see, it was to be a lamb without blemish and the New Testament says Jesus is the lamb of God without blemish or defect.

[38:03] He was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin. He qualifies to be a Passover lamb. Indeed, the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

[38:17] It's blood shed. In 1 Corinthians 5 7 says Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Not a bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken, Ezekiel 12, or Exodus 12, 46.

[38:33] So when they wanted to hasten the death of the three men on the crosses that day, they went and broke the legs of the two thieves on either side of Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead.

[38:45] They didn't need to break his legs. And so one soldier just jabbed him in the side and water and blood flowed out. And John says this was to fulfill the scriptures that were written about him.

[38:59] Not a bone will be broken. You see, the Passover lamb was not to have a bone broken. blood had to have a blood.

[39:09] The Passover lamb was to be slain. Its blood had to be applied by faith on the door posts. They had to really believe that the wrath of God is coming and the only thing that will save me from it is if I do what God tells me to do.

[39:23] It had to be applied. The blood had to be applied. God's promise was when I see the blood I will pass over you. And so, my friend, it's not enough that Jesus has died as the Passover lamb.

[39:37] You must personally apply his blood to your heart. You must personally trust in his blood to save you from the coming wrath.

[39:51] You see what God was saying to Egypt, the Israelites? They deserve to die as much as any Egyptian deserve to die. The only thing that kept them from suffering God's wrath was that somebody else was to take that wrath in their place.

[40:11] It would be Jesus the Messiah and for now, a lamb will be the object for faith to say there's one coming, an innocent one, who will suffer in our place.

[40:23] Take the wrath of God so that I not need to suffer that wrath. But you see, you've got to apply the blood. You've got to come and trust in that blood to save you from God's wrath.

[40:37] The only safe place to be in the world is under the blood of Jesus, trusting in Him. Have you taken refuge in Jesus' blood? Or are you still exposed to the wrath of God?

[40:49] It's a frightful thing to think that people live their lives exposed to the wrath of God. At any moment, they could be in hell. But oh, what is the peace of living hidden in the Savior's side?

[41:04] I'm in Him who suffered God's wrath for me so that it can't touch me. There's no condemnation for me. There's no other way for God's wrath to pass over you and to be found trusting in Jesus' blood.

[41:20] God, how will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? Faith, keeping the Passover, sprinkling the blood.

[41:33] And lastly, faith walking through the Red Sea. Verse 29, by faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. And so here's Moses and the people of Israel walking right through the middle of the sea while the waters were divided and congealed like jello into walls on either side of them until they passed safely to the other side.

[41:57] And how did they do that? And our writer insists that there's only one answer. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land.

[42:09] Here's faith's power again to receive amazing things from God, even supernatural deliverance from enemies pursuing. You remember their journey out of Egypt had scarcely begun when Pharaoh has changed his mind once more and sets out in anger to destroy them.

[42:26] And he boasted, I will pursue, I will overtake them, I will divide the spoils, I will gorge myself on them, I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them. And all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea.

[42:42] And when the Israelites looked up, they saw them coming. And they were helpless, pinned in, you see, between a rock and a hard place. They were hemmed in.

[42:54] In front of them was the Red Sea, stretching out each way. And behind them were the pursuing Egyptians. And they were petrified and they, in fear, they blamed Moses for leading them out into the desert to die as if he had no other purpose for leading them out of Egypt than this, just to die here in the wilderness.

[43:17] But Moses answered fear with faith. It's always the answer to fear, brothers and sisters, faith. And it was his faith that rallied the troops to advance.

[43:28] He said, do not be afraid. Stand firm and you'll see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you'll never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.

[43:40] Do you see what's going on at the Red Sea? All the Israelites see is the Egyptians and the sea. Moses sees him who is invisible and he has spoken and he's given us a word that he's going to lead us out and he'll deal with Pharaoh.

[44:00] For the Lord had said to Moses, stretch forth your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. And by faith, Moses obeyed God's word, trusting him when all he had was his promise.

[44:15] He stretched out his hand over the waters. And all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

[44:31] And so by faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. So there you are. It's your turn to step into the sea.

[44:42] And there is the waters piled up. Are you going to believe that God will hold that wall of water there and there until you get all the way to the other side?

[44:54] By faith they passed through the Red Sea. And God wants us to know that none of this would have happened apart from faith. It was by faith that the Red Sea parted.

[45:10] It was by faith that it remained parted until they were safely across. You say but wasn't it a strong east wind? Wasn't it the Lord's doing?

[45:21] Yes and yes. But God attributes it in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 29 to their faith. Because faith engages God to act on their behalf.

[45:32] Faith calls God's omnipotence into the field of battle. So once again faith is given the victory that overcomes the world. Faith obtains great things from the Lord.

[45:47] Faith in what God had commanded and what God had promised. By faith the people passed through on dry land but when the Egyptians tried to do so they were drowned.

[45:59] Same action but different results. They did what Israelites did right into the same opening. Israel saved their drowned. What for the believer is the way of life is for unbelievers the way of death.

[46:15] The same gospel that saves those that believe is a word that will condemn those who do not believe. By faith.

[46:26] By faith. It's all by faith. So what have we seen this morning in the Moses exhibit at the Hall of Faith? Well three more incidents in which Moses' faith is in action.

[46:39] It's doing things. It's behaving differently just because of what he sees that's invisible namely God and what he's heard and seen the word of God to him.

[46:54] We see the great power of faith to enable a man to persevere in difficult duties to overcome the fear of man to receive amazing things from God even deliverance from God's eternal wrath.

[47:08] life. So what about you? What about you? Will you meet your difficult duties this week with faith in an invisible God?

[47:21] With faith in the word of God? This is where he speaks. Don't listen to voices in your ears, in your head. Right here. This is where he's spoken. Will you meet your difficulties with his words?

[47:36] Does your situation seem hopeless? Is hopeless as Israel before the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptians? You know there are some sins that don't let you go any more than Pharaoh wanted to let the Israelites go.

[47:51] Maybe that's your trouble when you say, oh, I just can't lick this one. There's something in front of you, some obstacle. How in the world can I ever get through this?

[48:05] Do you know that God is still the God who opened the way through the Red Sea? You know, he calls himself by that name in Isaiah chapter 43. He says, I am the Lord who makes a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters.

[48:22] You know, he has ways out or through what we know nothing about. He can open up a way through that Red Sea.

[48:33] He can set you free from that captivity. Will you meet all your discouragements and temptations to quit with a fresh look at the living God and his son, Jesus Christ and his spirit that dwells in his people?

[48:48] You know, there's everything in him to revive your drooping faith, to keep you running the race with perseverance. So Moses joins that great cloud of witnesses that's shouting to us by his example, run on brother, don't quit now sister, it's just around the band, it's just, just go on, go on and you'll find everything happens exactly like the Lord said it was.

[49:14] Run looking to him and what faith did for Moses, faith will do for you. It will engage the living God to do all that he's promised, to act on your behalf, to keep you persevering when the invisible God is the only encouraging thing in sight.

[49:35] Let's pray. Thank you Lord for knowing our troubles, the things that don't want to let us go, the things that discourage us like obstacles in our path as big as the Red Sea.

[49:52] Thank you that though you are invisible to our physical eyes, you've revealed yourself in scriptures to the eyes of faith.

[50:03] Oh, then make your word precious to us, make your promises exceedingly great and precious to us, make every command of your word precious to us and strengthen our faith by looking to you.

[50:21] bring someone here to look to you for the first time that they might be saved from the coming wrath, that trusting in Jesus' blood, your wrath might pass over them.

[50:34] Thank you for such a sweet gospel to know that we are safe in Jesus' blood. Help us to go from this place rejoicing in him and taking him at his every word.

[50:46]  We pray in his name. Amen. Amen.