Moses' Faith, Part 6

Today, as we continue looking at the life of Moses, even though it's kind of been extrapolated from the book of Hebrews, I think it's so important for us to understand what happened in this man's life. Here is a man who preferred the imperishable because he perceived the invisible, who performed the impossible simply because he passed through that which is invaluable. And that which he passed through was the desert. The desert experience for Moses was a long, trying, hard time. It was not easy. But on the backside of that time, when he comes out of the desert, he is a different man than when he went into the desert.

He comes out a changed man. And so we're able to see that God is doing something in the man's life, just like he wants to do in your life and in my life. Now, you need to understand that as I study for the fall, for the book of Job, which we're gonna study on Wednesday nights, it's a fabulous study. Because when Job goes through his desert experience, which is quite an experience. I'm not so sure that if Job was alive today, that he would take a selfie, post it on Instagram and say, pray for me. I'm probably 100% sure he would never do that.

Because you see, he walked with God. He talked with God. He wanted to honor God with his life. He was committed to his God. But interesting about Job is that as blameless as he was, Job one, as God fearing as the man was, Job one, as shunning evil as he did, Job one, as upright as he was, at the end of Job, on the backside of his desert, on the backside of his pain, Job 42 tells us, I have heard of thee with the hearing of my ear, but now I have seen thee. That's what happens when you go through the desert.

You come out the other side, having seen and understood the true and living God as you never have before. Happened with Moses, happened with Job, happened with Elijah, happened with David, with Daniel, Joseph, you name it. Every great man of God in scripture went through the desert experience. Because God had to erase all of their independence from him to establish their dependence upon him. And that's what God does in your life and mine. And some of you here today are going through that dry, hard, hot desert.

It's lonely, it's painful. It's a situation that causes you to even ask questions about who God is and why God has allowed these things to happen in my life. I'm sure if we are involved in every conversation with Moses throughout those 40 years he was on the backside of the desert, there might've been many times he cried out to God. We don't know all that took place. We just know how he was when he went in and the change that took place in his life when he came out. And that's what the book of Exodus is about.

Exodus chapter three, Exodus chapter four. But before we get there, once again, time permitting, I need to help you understand something that God is doing to drive this home even all the more. One of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Isaiah. It's a fabulous book. Isaiah prophesies about 100 years before Israel, Judah is taken into Babylonian captivity. He sets the tone for what's gonna happen if they don't repent. They don't turn from their idolatrous ways, their iniquitous ways. If they don't turn and follow the Lord, he's a prophet that warns them of the impending judgment of God.

He also tells them about the coming Messiah, how the Messiah is going to comfort them, how the Messiah is going to come and rescue them. So within the prophecy of impending judgment comes the promise of a savior that's going to release them from all of their bondage and all of their captivity. But at the same time, he tells them that from this time forward, until that Messiah comes and you're crowned with glory and honor by him, there will be peril upon peril upon peril in the life of this nation.

And there has been. And there continues to be peril upon Israel until the Messiah comes again. It explains it in just two verses. And those two verses set the tone for how we understand that Moses would pass through that which was invaluable in order for him to perform that which is impossible. It's impossible to release Israel from bondage. It's impossible to embark in a wilderness experience with all these Jewish people who are grumbling and griping and complaining. It's impossible to lead them through the Red Sea.

But with God, all things are possible. And so for him to perform the impossible, he must pass through that which is invaluable because once he does, his independence is erased and his dependence is established upon the true living God. And God wants to do that with every one of us in the room today. I don't care how old you are, how young you are. God is going to do that in your life because God will stop at nothing to make sure you depend solely upon him. That's what he wants. And so whatever your desert experience, whatever your suffering experience, whatever your crisis, whatever your trial, whatever your turmoil, whatever your difficulty, whatever your hardship, no matter what it is, God is using that to teach you something very, very valuable because if you're going to perform the impossible, you must pass through that which is invaluable.

So in two verses in the book of Isaiah, the Lord tells Israel something extremely unique. Isaiah chapter 43. If you got your Bible, turn there, please. Isaiah 43, verse number one, but now thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob.

Do you know that God created Israel out of nothing? God created Israel. He emphasizes that so that they understand that this creator was involved in making them. Their origin rests in him and everything about their life is created by him. For Isaiah 45, verse number seven, he says that he is the creator of calamity, right? So not only is he the creator of calamity, he's the creator of Israel. And every calamity that comes upon Israel is for a divine purpose. And so he says, but now thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob.

Says in verse number seven, everyone who's called by my name and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made. God made them, God formed them. Verse 15, I am the Lord, your holy one, the creator of Israel, your king. He emphasizes the fact that he is their creator. I wanna let you know today, if you're here today, God is your creator. God created you. You were in the mind of God in eternity past. You were created in the womb of your mother. You were fashioned by God.

You were fearfully and wonderfully made in the womb of your mother by the hand of almighty God. From the moment you were conceived, you were alive. You weren't alive when you came out nine months later. You were alive when you were, the moment you were conceived, that's life. And the Lord says, I created you, O Jacob. And he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I've redeemed you. I've called you by name. You are mine. Isn't that great? I've called you by name, you're mine.

Israel is God's. He says over in verse number 10, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. I've chosen you, I've called you, I've created you. I've redeemed you. It's who I am. And then Isaiah 62, verse number three says, because I've chosen you, called you and created you, I'm going to crown you.

I'm gonna crown Israel. One day they will be crowned by God himself because they're his. So important. But here's what you need to understand. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you, for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy one of Israel, your Savior. In one verse, he outlines the perils of Israel from Isaiah's day to Messiah comes and crowns them. Isaiah 62.

And he tells them, what you're going to go through, number one, is inevitable. What you're going to go through is absolutely inevitable. When you pass through the waters, not if you pass through them, when you pass through the waters, when you walk through the fire. In other words, this is inevitable. There's nothing that's going to change about this. This is not a maybe, this is not an if, this is when this happens. James said it this way, when you pass through your trials. Consider all joy, my brethren, when, not if, when you are tried, because you will be.

Israel had to know that their trial was going to come. It was going to come in the form of 70 years of Babylonian captivity, but that wasn't going to be the end. Oh, that was just the beginning of the end. Their whole life was going to be filled with inevitable crises, inevitable waters, inevitable fires. It's going to come because I've designed it that way. I'm your creator. That's why Solomon said, when I walk through the valley of the shadow of a death, I will fear no evil. Not if I walk through that valley, but when I walk that valley, because it's inevitable.

Do you know that what you're going through today is inevitable? God created it, God purposed it, God designed it. You need to rest in that. But he says, not only what you're going to go through, is it inevitable? I'm gonna tell you this, it's insurmountable. It's insurmountable. He says, when you pass through the waters and when you walk through the fire, you're not gonna be able to build the bridge to go over the water. You're not gonna be able to dig a tunnel to go under the water. You're not gonna be able to enter a boat to go over the water or through the water.

You're not gonna be able to have on some kind of fireproof gear when you go through the fire. No, you're going to be scorched. You're going to be water damaged. You're going to be ruined to some degree. Water is very, very forceful. How do you think the Lord decided to use the water to destroy the earth? Why do we have mountains today? There were no mountains when the Lord created the heavens and the earth. This was a flat earth, not flat in terms of this way, but flat all the way around. There were no mountains, there were no valleys.

There was just the earth. And when God caused there to be floods and water, everything sprang up, mountains came up, valleys came up, canyons came up, all that through the flood. All that happened because God designed it that way. But water is a very forceful, damaging, insurmountable power that ruins. And the Lord says to Israel, not only what you're going to go through, is it inevitable? It's going to be insurmountable. And notice what he says, he doesn't say water, he says waters.

He doesn't say anything other, doesn't say river, he says rivers, right? There are many waters you're going to pass through. There are many rivers. It's not going to be one river or one body of water. These are going to come end over end, time after time. And certainly from the very beginning, Israel has gone through all these kinds of difficulties. So when Isaiah is prophesying about Israel's future, before they're ever crowned, they must know that they've been chosen. They've been called, right?

And because they have been created by God, all this calamity will come upon them until they're ultimately crowned by the living God. But they need to be aware of it. Now, a lot of it is because, and most of it is because of their own idolatry and iniquity. They sinned against the Lord. And the consequences of that sin were devastating. But there are times we go through calamities, and it's not because of our sin, ask Job. He never sinned as to why God did what he did. And God had no, and Job had no answers as to why things were happening to him, because he knew he hadn't sinned against God.

Doesn't mean he wasn't a sinner. He knew he was a sinner, but he knew he didn't do anything so bad that God would cause all this calamity to come upon him. But you got Bildad and you got Zophar saying, hey dude, man, you have sinned so bad because things are so bad in your life. No, that's not the way it happened with Job. But there are times when we sin and we go through devastating circumstances, insurmountable. And yet there are times we wake up and there's a tragedy. No fault of our own, but God has brought it our way to let us know that when you go through the fire, certainly I will be with you.

Isn't that great? Certainly I'll be with you. He's there. Remember the promise God gave to Moses? Certainly, he says, Exodus chapter four, I will be with you. I will be with you. And we talked about how Moses had to learn to adore the presence of God, right? Because God was gonna be with him. And he had to learn to lean upon that God who was always present with him. So Isaiah says, because God has given him his word, that when you go through these difficulties, they're going to be inevitable, number one.

Number two, they're gonna be insurmountable. And number three, they're going to be inescapable. Inescapable, inescapable. You need to get this. You can't escape them. You can't run in the hide from them. You're not fast enough to run from them. You're not smart enough to hide from them. They are absolutely inescapable. He says, when you pass, when you walk, this is going to happen. Then you must go through them. You can't go around them. You can't go over them. You can't go under them. You must go through them.

They're inescapable. Not gonna be able to put out the fire. Not gonna be able to calm the flame. You can't even wait till the flame dies down because you're gonna have to go through the fire. It will scorch you. It will be hot, incredibly hot. It will be wet because there'll be waters. You'll be drenched, but you're going to go through it because it's inescapable. You're gonna want to escape it. You're gonna wanna run in the hide. Job wished he could escape his tragedy, but he couldn't. There was nowhere to go.

He had boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. He couldn't sit, stand, walk, sleep. Couldn't do anything. He couldn't run anywhere. Sometimes you can't go anywhere because God has designed that you go through it, through it. So Isaiah says, look, before it ever begins, because I'm warning you, it's going to come. Impending judgment is right around the corner. Know this. These perils are gonna continue, not just in your 70-year captivity. They're gonna continue on. They're going to be inevitable.

They're going to be inevitable. They're going to be insurmountable. They're going to be inescapable. And number four, they're going to be, listen to this, incapable of two things. Incapable of number one, separating me from God.

They can't. They cannot separate you no matter how hot the fire, no matter how deep the water, they are incapable of separating you from God. Why? For the Lord says, I will be with you. Over in Psalm 124, listen to what the psalmist says. He says, had it not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, had it not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive. When their anger was kindled against us, then the waters would have engulfed us.

The stream would have swept over our soul. Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul. But blessed be the Lord who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper. Snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. You see, the psalmist knew that no matter how hot the fire, how deep the water, it could not separate me from my God. Moses was never separated from his God. Although he's in the backside of the desert for 40 years, God was with him.

God was always there because God is omnipresence. He wants you to adore his presence. At the same time, he wants you to acknowledge his power. We talked about this one last week as well. Acknowledge my power. There is power in the name of God, right? He is the great I am. If it had not been for the name of the Lord, we would have perished, the psalmist said in Psalm 124. It's the name of the Lord that gives us power. My friends, listen, we either believe in the power of God or we don't, right? Either God is all powerful or he's not.

And I'm afraid that so many times we don't believe that the great I am is powerful enough to handle my situation. Let me ask you a question.

Is God powerful enough to take you through a temptation without falling? Absolutely he is. Absolutely. Is God powerful enough to heal a broken marriage? Absolutely he is. Absolutely he is. But we live as if he can't. Or we live as if he won't. We so easily give up. But God says, you need to depend upon me.

It's the power of my name. When you go through this difficulty, I'm still gonna be there. I'm not going anywhere. Because no matter how hard your trial, no matter how deep your suffering, no matter how great the crisis, it's incapable. Of separating you from me. And it's incapable of stopping you from following me. You're going to follow me. Why? Because no one stops the onward march of the soul to whom the Lord said, whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to his image. No one stops us.

Because we continue on with our God. Because with a true believer, it's incapable of stopping me from continuing on with my God. The unbeliever stops. The believer doesn't. Because he can't. Because he knows that God is with him and God is in it and God is a creator of that calamity and God is moving through. So the writer, Isaiah himself, through the inspiration of God himself, says, listen, know this. I am your creator. I've redeemed you. I've called you. I've chosen you. And I'm going to crown you.

But before I crown you, know this. You are going to go through all kinds of perils. They're going to be inevitable. They're going to be insurmountable. They're going to be inescapable. But they will be incapable of stopping you from continuing on and separating you from me. But then he says this. Know this. Know this. That what you go through will be invaluable. Invaluable. Look what he says. When you walk through the fire. Who walks through fire? When there's fire, what do you do? You run. You run as fast as you can.

You don't want to get burnt. But no, he didn't say, when you run through the fire, he says, when you walk through the fire, why would you walk and not run? Now think about this. Why would Israel walk through the fire, not run through the fire? Why would Israel pass through the waters, not over the waters? Because when you are walking with the Lord, and certainly he is with you, you are never in a hurry to leave. You are never in a hurry, but you walk patiently, courageously, boldly, fearfully, dependently upon the true and living God.

That's why Isaiah said, a few chapters earlier, Isaiah 28, verse number 16, he who believes in me will never be in a hurry. So he says, hurry to do what? Hurry to leave. Maybe your text says, he who believes in me will never be disturbed. Both are true. That's why Peter quotes in the first Peter two, verse number six.

When Peter says, he who believes in me will never be in a hurry, or he translated it this way, will never be disappointed. You see, when you believe in God, you're never disappointed. You're never disappointed in God. You're never disappointed in the plans of God, because he's your creator. He called you, he chose you. He's going to crown you. The unbeliever, he'll be disappointed. He'll be in a hurry. But the believer, no, he's not in a hurry, because he's never disappointed. That's why he walks through the fire.

That's the pace you take when you're not in a hurry to leave. That's why, as Tim read earlier, the psalmist said, Psalm 90, Psalm written by Moses, make us glad according to the days in which you afflicted us. Really? We were glad in the days you afflicted us? And then he says, in the years, in the years we experienced evil, because there was something about that trial, that hardship, that difficulty, that fire, that water, that was evil, that did something to Israel. It erased their independence and established their dependence upon God.

It made them no longer in a hurry to leave. They wanted to stay, because there is that time in the midst of your hardship, your difficulty, your desert, your trial, where you are communing with God, walking with God, living with God, loving God, dependent upon God as you never had before. And when you understand that, you never ever want to leave that place. There's something there that says this is the way the Christian life truly is to be lived. And the psalmist said in Psalm 34, verse number 14, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.

He would go on to say, Isaiah 43, verse number 10, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me. This is why. You need to know me and believe me and understand that I am. Before me, there is no God formed, and there will be none after me. I've chosen you. You're gonna go through that which is inevitable, insurmountable, inescapable, incapable, and invaluable. Why? Because you must come to believe and know me. Let me tell you something.

We are in to knowledge, okay? Knowledge puffs up. Be careful about that. We are a society that's into knowledge. So we begin to accumulate all kinds of information, but knowing God is not about the accumulation of information. Knowing God is about the appropriation of that information, the application of that information, and the alteration that that information brings, because God is designed to conforming you into his image. If what you know does not conform you to look and act like Christ, you know nothing.

You know nothing, because true knowledge conforms you to the image of the living God. It rubs off on you in such a way, it transforms the way you think, the way you speak, the way you walk, the way you live, the way you handle crisis, the way you handle temptation, the way you handle your marriage, the way you handle your children, everything. It affects everything you do. That's knowing God. It's not about accumulation of information. The world does that. It's about the appropriation and the application of that information.

So there's a complete alteration of your life. God wants to conform us to his image. That's what he's looking to do. He will stop at nothing to do that. So you will pass through the waters. You will walk through the fire, but certainly God is with you. Why? Because when it's all said and done, as one is called and created and chosen by God, you will know me and you will believe me. For Moses, he came to know his God. For Job, he certainly knew his God. For Joseph, Daniel, David, Elijah, Elisha, all of them.

They passed through the inevitable, the insurmountable, the inescapable. But no matter how deep the water, how hot the fire, it was incapable of separating them from their God. Why? Because he was teaching the one lesson that was invaluable. He didn't know me and believe me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day and all that you've done. The opportunity you give us to study your word. May it impact us deeply today to live for the glory and honor of our King. In Jesus' name, amen.