Moses' Faith, Part 8

We are looking at Hebrews chapter 11, verses 23 down through verse number 29 We've been here for eight weeks today And we're going to go one more week next week to make it nine weeks And I know that for some of you, for us to camp out on a man in Hebrews 11 or to camp out on a verse in Hebrews 11, it's all about the hall of faith, right? And men and women who live the life of faith, we're trying to emulate their faith We're trying to understand how it is that we believe in everything that God said and follow through on what God has said

Do we actually live a life of faith? Do we actually believe in what God has said? Well, Moses did, his parents did, Abraham did All those in the hall of faith, they believed what God said And so we have taken some time just to camp out on the life of Moses simply because there is so much about his life that helps us understand what made him Israel's greatest leader because he was And I know that for some of you, this is frustrating. I get it It's very frustrating You want to move on You want to get to the Israelites' faith in verse number 30 You want to get to Rahab's faith in verse number 31

And you want to keep on moving down the line You don't want to stay right where you're at You just want to keep going through Hebrews 11 to get through Hebrews chapter 12 to get through chapter 13 so we can get on to whatever it is we're going to do next, right? And some of you are frustrated the fact that we pause and spend time here Ask yourself, why is that? Why is it so frustrating for me to camp out and to go deeper into a text about a man who is Israel's greatest leader? For some of you, it's frustrating For others of you, it's fulfilling

That's simply because you find yourself in the midst of a desert and you want to learn more about what God is doing and did in the life of Moses so you know what he's going to do in your life So this becomes very fulfilling for you. I know that because many of you have commented to me by way of e-mails or text or phone calls or conversations about saying, were you in my living room this past week? Did you hear the conversation between me and my wife? It's almost as if you were there. I said, nope, I wasn't there But the Spirit of God was there

And so some of you are coming through this thing not frustrated but fulfilled because you're learning more and more about what God wants to do and is doing in your life So I know that when we spend time camping out on a series of verses, it can be frustrating or it can be fulfilling But there's also a third category And that's those of you who get to a point where this is very foreboding That is, you live in fearful apprehension that your desert is right around the corner That it's going to come It's going to be here before you know it, and you don't want to enter the desert

So you're sitting there with this attitude, this foreboding attitude, because you live in the apprehension that, what will happen to me and my family? What's going to happen down the road in my life? I don't want to face those things. I don't want to be in the desert as Moses was or other men and women of God in the Old Testament So you find yourself in that category And see, I know all those things because I have faced all those categories and realized that the Word of God speaks to every one of us no matter what category we're in

Because if you look at the life of those in the church, we know that Moses, he had this desert experience that would erase his independence from God to establish his dependence upon God That's the whole purpose of the desert That's the whole purpose of the brokenness of a man's life that burns out the shallowness in his life So God wants to establish your complete and utter dependence upon Him for everything And that's why Acts 7 is so important in the story of Moses because it was the hand of God that moved him It was the hand of God that caused the miracles

It was the hand of God that moved Moses through the wilderness, through the difficulties, through the hardship, because God needed Moses to look to Him every single moment of every single day, just like He does for you and for me And Moses found himself in the desert of isolation If you go on and look at the Old Testament, you realize that Job, he had his desert His desert was a desert of affliction Daniel, the apostles, their desert was a desert of persecution Jeremiah's desert was the desert of lamentation The major and minor prophets, their desert was a desert of rejection

For Paul, it was a desert of tribulation For Joseph, it was a desert of expulsion For the apostle John, it was a desert of destitution For Elijah, it was the desert of depression For John the Baptist, it was a desert of deprivation For Peter, it was a desert of desolation No matter what the desert, affliction, persecution, depression, desolation, rejection, no matter what desert you go through, God is always doing something unique and special Because God is drawing you closer to Himself God wants you to depend upon Him for everything Look to Him for all things

He wants to erase your independence to establish your dependence upon Him So no matter what your desert is today, or was, or will be in the future, God is bringing you to a point where number one, I told you last week, you adore the person and presence of the Lord God of Israel And Moses came to that point So much so he would say, Lord, show me your glory. I want to know you. I want to understand you Lord, show me your glory. I want to understand your name, your attributes. I want to understand all the things that you do He was so enamored with his God

And so he adored the person and the presence of God So much so that he said, Lord, unless your presence goes with us, we're staying put because we can't make it without you And so Moses learned to adore the person and presence of God Number two, Moses learned to acknowledge the power of God He is the great I Am, the great Deliverer, the great Savior, the great Redeemer of man

He was coming down to deliver Israel to the manifestation of the hand of God, the power of God, that Moses would need to understand as he would move the Jewish nation from Egyptian bondage to the land called the land of promise, the land of Canaan But he could only do that as he acknowledged God's power in his life to accomplish his purposes So God takes you through the desert so you will learn to adore his person and presence, learn to acknowledge his power, learn to appreciate his promises That's where we were last week

How do you appreciate all the promises that God gives and God gave Moses so many promises, I'm going to do this and then I'm going to do that. I'm going to do this and then I'm going to do that And he had to appreciate that and appropriate those promises in his life When God says he's going to do something, he's going to do it. I love the words of Dwight L Moody when he said, take the promises of God, let a man feed for a month on the promises of God and he will not talk about how poor he is any longer You hear people say, oh my leanness, oh my leanness, how lean I am

It is not their leanness, it is their laziness If you would only read from Genesis to Revelation and see all the promises made by God to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to the Jews and to the Gentiles and to all his people everywhere, if you would spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God, you wouldn't be going about complaining how poor you are You would lift up your head and proclaim the riches of his grace because you couldn't help but do so

Just to appreciate and to appropriate God's promises and this is what God is doing in the life of Moses and this is what God wants to do in your desert as well as mine Let me give you a fourth aspect today and that is this, God takes you through difficult times The most invaluable times known to man are the times of the desert where God will teach you to depend upon him and through that, he truly wants you to accept his provision To accept his provision Now this is incredibly, incredibly convicting and we have to ask ourselves, do we accept God's provision for our lives? Moses had to

If you've got your Bible, turn back with me to Exodus chapter 4 Let me show you how this happens Exodus chapter 4, God had just told him about the promises that he had given to him that he made his mouth and therefore I will be with your mouth and I will teach you what to say Don't worry about it Moses, I'm going to take care of everything Here is Moses' response Please Lord, now send the message by whomever you will In other words Lord, send somebody else Now remember, God is already speaking to him through a burning bush

This is the pre-incarnate Christ speaking to Moses through a burning bush explaining to him that he's coming down to deliver his people to Israel He's heard the cry of the nation He's coming down to deliver them. I will certainly be with you. I will watch over you And I will take you to a land of promise The land that's been promised to Abraham years, hundreds of years ago It's going to happen And Moses' response, is there somebody else you can send? Send somebody else So God says this, the anger of the Lord burned against Moses

Now I don't know about you, but you want to know why the anger of the Lord burned against Moses? Simply because he was unavailable to be used by God He didn't want to be available to be used by God And so many times in the church, we present ourselves as unavailable to God Have someone else teach the class Have somebody else take the offering Have somebody else hold the babies Have somebody else do the cooking Have somebody else do this or do that We present ourselves as unavailable

Have you ever thought that the anger of the Lord burns against those who are unavailable to God? Just because you're selfish? See, Moses wasn't fully broken yet God was still doing the work of his life He realizes the enormity of the task He says, Lord, maybe you should send somebody else. I can't speak so good Don't worry, I'll be with your mouth. I'll be with your lips. I'll teach you what to say. I'll give you everything you need Not good enough Send somebody else So the anger of the Lord burns against Moses

Simply because he presented himself as unavailable to be used by God for his purposes And so, it says, Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth And I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth And I will teach you what you are to do Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people And he will be as a mouth for you And you will be as a God to him

You shall take in your hand this staff with which you shall perform the signs God says, Moses, I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to provide for you your brother Aaron And you're going to teach him what to say. I'm going to provide for you a staff And that staff will be representative of my power and my presence among the people of Israel And I need you to accept the provision that I'm offering you because throughout your ministry, this is what you need to perform the task before you Moses had to learn to accept God's provision for the ministry that God had entrusted him

So I ask you the question, how are you accepting God's provision? Our God is the provider In fact, his name is provider Remember back in Genesis chapter 22, that very familiar Old Testament passage about the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah with Abraham And God had told him to take his only son, the son that he loved, to a place that I will tell you. A place called Moriah, a place called foreseen by God So Abraham set out on a journey, a three days journey When he got to the place, God told him, go up to the mount, sacrifice your son So he did And the pre-incarnate Christ stopped him

The angel of the Lord stopped him from sacrificing his son The Bible says these words in verse number nine Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham He said, here I am He said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him

For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it will be provided Now, the name of the Lord is Yahweh Yireh Sometimes we say Jehovah-Jireh Let's pronounce Yahweh Yireh, the Lord my provider This is the first time it's used in Scripture

And the provision for Abraham was a substitute Someone who would be sacrificed in the place of Isaac And God's greatest provision for you and me is what the Bible calls a substitutionary atonement The wages of sin is death You sin, you're going to die That's the promise of Scripture The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord So, somebody's got to die because you sin So you either die for your sins or you accept the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for your sins

You appropriate that sacrifice, that substitutionary atonement because there was a perfect sacrifice The Son of God, the sinless Son of Man who came to offer His life for ransom for many And He did And so way back in Genesis 22, Christ would refer to that in John 8-56 when He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day Abraham would rejoice to know that God would be the provider of man And the ultimate provision was the provision of a sacrifice for the sins of man And Abraham rejoiced in that

So, do we accept God's provision when it comes to substitutionary atonement? If you're here today and you're a believer, you've accepted that If you're an unbeliever, you've rejected that atonement You've rejected that sacrifice You've rejected the Christ But the very first time it's used, it's used in tandem with the sacrifice of Isaac where God would provide a substitute in Isaac's place The ram caught in the thicket And Abraham says, in the mount of the Lord, it will be provided Now, the word here used 1,300 times in the Old Testament. 1,296 times it's translated to see or be seen

Four times it's translated provide But both run hand in hand The way God provides is because He sees the need way before it ever exists He sees the need in eternity past, right? So the way God is the provider of man is because He sees the need in eternity past Therefore, He's always in process of meeting the need Think of Job God was in the process of meeting Job's needs, right? He was going to provide for Job in a way that Job had no idea

But in the midst of all of his suffering, in the midst of all of his affliction, in the midst of his desert experience, when he lost everything he owned, he even lost his own health, right? God was preparing him because God had already provided, what? Double the livestock Double the property Double the children He was going to magnify everything But Job needed to trust God to do that Because God is the ultimate provider God is our provider And so I want to help you see that this morning

Because what God is doing is taking you to this desert experience so that you will accept whatever God provides for you Because his provision is always perfect It's never imperfect The perfect God of the universe, the creator of the world, knows exactly what you need and when you need it And we have to trust Him enough to believe that what He provides for me will happen at just the right time, in the right way, through the right means God will do that He is a provider

The Bible says in the book of 1 Corinthians 4 verse number 7 What do you have that you did not receive from the Lord? Answer, nothing Everything you have The clothes on your back The hairspray in your hair The comb you use to comb your hair The shoes you wear The car you drive The job you have The money in your bank What do you have that you did not receive from the Lord? Answer, nothing Everything you have is from the Lord He provided that for you

And at the same time you need to realize that James says, James 1 verse number 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow So in other words, every gift that you have is a good gift Every gift that you have is a perfect gift Your children are gifts from the Lord Not only are they good gifts, they are perfect gifts for you Have you accepted His provision? God gives gifts We have the gift of grace and mercy and love that we have every day You are here today because of God's gift of mercy

You sinned today, you should have died today, but you didn't die because God's filled with mercy and grace That's a gift Life is a gift What you had that you did not receive from the Lord, everything that you have is from Him So take a journey with me Deuteronomy 32 Moses now is at the end of his journey He's not going to embark on the promised land God never told him he would embark on the promised land And he was not able to because he had misrepresented the cross of Christ earlier on in his ministry Listen to the song of Moses

He says in verse number 9 of Psalm 32 For the Lord's portion is His people Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance He found Him in a desert land, in the howling waste of a wilderness He encircled Him He cared for Him He guarded Him as a pupil of His eye Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them He carried them on His pinions The Lord alone guided Him He speaks of God's provision for His people in Israel You need to know that God has done for you up to this point He has provided all your needs He's taken care of you

In fact, the Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy, the 8th chapter and the 29th chapter, that as they went through their wilderness wanderings, their sandals never wore out Forty years, same sandals Anybody here worn the same shoes for 40 years? They wear out But not Israel's sandals They didn't wear out Their clothes did not wear out It's a good thing they weren't fashion conscious because they didn't have a hard time wearing the same thing every single day But their clothes never wore out You can read about it in Deuteronomy 8 and Deuteronomy 29

God says, I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to provide for you Your clothes, your shoes You saw last week, He provides silver and gold in the clothes from the Egyptians Go to them and ask them They'll give it to you God is providing for them every one of their needs Because you see, He knows they're going to wander for 40 years in the wilderness They don't know that yet, but He does And God provided for them in advance Food, He would feed them Water from a rock Everything So the psalmist would say in Psalm 23, a very familiar verse, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want

God is a shepherd Because He's a shepherd, you shall not want He makes me, He leads me, He restores me, He guides me Those are all God's provisions He prepares a table before me He's anointing my head with oil My cup overflows Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life My God is a shepherd, and my God is a good shepherd So good, that His goodness will follow me all the days of my life Because you see, because God is a provider, and God Himself is good, He only provides that which is good for His people So you read over in Psalm 34, these words Psalm 34, verse number 8

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good Because goodness will follow me all the days of my life, the psalmist now says, taste and see that the Lord Himself is good How blessed is a man who takes refuge in Him Oh, fear the Lord, you are saints For to those who fear Him, there is no want No want The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing So the psalmist says, in Psalm 23, the Lord is my good shepherd, I shall not want, therefore His goodness will follow me all the days of my life

The psalmist says, taste and see that the Lord Himself is good He goes on to say, not only is He good, but those who fear the Lord experience the goodness of God Because God is the provider of man, He wants to accept the goodness that He provides But it gets better Psalm 81 says this, I, the Lord am your God, verse 10, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, open your mouth wide and I will fill it Open your mouth wide, I will fill it Why? Because Psalm 84 says this, for the Lord God is a sun and a shield As sun He provides, as shield He protects

For the Lord God is a sun and a shield, the Lord gives grace and glory, no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly So again, the psalmist emphasizes how it is a God who is Yahweh Yireh, my provider provides only that which is good for His people, if they would just open their mouth wide He will fill it So the psalmist goes on to say these words, Psalm 107, verse number 9, for He has satisfied the thirsty soul and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good What is good

And then over in Psalm 145 it says these words, they shall eagerly utter the memory of your abundant goodness, verse 8, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in loving kindness, the Lord is good to all The Lord is good to all The Lord is good to everybody He is especially good to those who fear Him and follow His name but the Lord is good to all So much so, He says this, He sustains all those who fall He sustains the lowly

He satisfies the desire of everything, every living thing, verse 16, not only does He satisfy or not only does He sustain the lowly, He satisfies their longings It says, He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him, verse 19, He will also hear their cry and save them Our Lord is so good, He sustains the lowly, He satisfies your longings, and He saves the lost So good He is So incredibly good So let me ask you a question, do you accept God's provision? As a provider, He only provides that which is good That's going to get better, so hang on to your seats

Remember Psalm 119? Psalm 119, verse number 68 says, you are good and do good Psalm says that, you are good and do good But He says that in verse number 68 But you got to read verse number 67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word Thou art good and doest good Before I was afflicted, I did my own thing. I went astray. I lived my life the way I wanted to live Before I was afflicted, but now I keep your word Now I depend upon you Lord, you are good and you do good And He says this in verse number 71

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes See that? It was good for me to have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes Again, have you accepted God's provision of His goodness? Well, how do you know what is good? Well, the Bible says that the work of God is good For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose So we know, we don't think, we don't imagine, we don't hope We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose

So we know that the work of God in the life of man is good We also know that the will of God is good Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your logical form of worship, that you may be able to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God You see, in order for us to accept God's provision of goodness when it comes to His work and His will, there must be a submission on our part to do what He says, a willingness to follow all that He says

We know that Hebrews 6.5 tells us that God's word is good So the work of God is good, the will of God is good, the word of God is good, and therefore, God, who is good, is only going to speak good things to us through the good word that God has given to us Very important

In fact, Joshua said in the book of Judges these words, As Israel had divided up the land and was getting ready to settle in the land of Canaan, now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed Not one Because they're all good words Not one has failed It should come about that just as all the good words, it says in verse number 15, it says that the land itself is even good

Do you know that Israel is the only land called good? Only land in the universe called good is Israel Why? Because God says it's my land and God is good And because God is good, it's his land The land is good land Everything about God is good Nothing bad So let me share this with you Years ago, when my first wife passed away because of cancer, and after her memorial service, I began to pray Psalm 84 11 Lord, the Bible says no good thing will you withhold from those who walk uprightly The Bible says Psalm 119 68 You are good and you do good

So the Bible also says Proverbs 18 tells us that he who finds a wife finds what? A good thing So Lord, I'm going to do whatever I need to do to walk uprightly. I'm going to ask you to provide for me a good thing. A good wife He did And 36 years later, God has done just a magnificent work But Yahweh Yireh, the provider, knew that when I married Sandy way back in 1980, whatever it was, I remember now, that she would have cancer and die But was already working in Lori's heart because she would be God's provision for me after Sandy died And so I believed in all that God said Now listen to this

We need to accept God's provision As a husband, you accept your wife because she's a good thing He who finds a wife finds a good thing, not a bad thing She's a good thing And she's the perfect helpmate for you Have you accepted that provision that he's given to you? Because she's a good thing That stems from a good God who only speaks good words because his work is good, his will is good, his ways are good Therefore, your wife will be good for you And so the Bible says these words Matthew 7, you know the words It says in Matthew 7, ask and it shall be given to you Seek and you will find

Knock it shall be open to you For everyone who asks receives He who seeks finds And to him who knocks it will be open Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? Now, the parallel passage is in Luke's gospel, but it says it a little differently It says it this way

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to him who asks? Okay, so you have two accounts of the same situation, the same scenario, and Matthew says, God will give to you that which is good who asks And Luke says he's going to give you the Holy Spirit Now, how do you reconcile that? Well, the Jews believed in the Holy Spirit They knew the Holy Spirit was involved in creation, Genesis chapter 1

They knew that the promise of the Holy Spirit was going to come because all throughout the Old Testament there was this promise of a Holy Spirit We knew that the Holy Spirit came upon Old Testament saints to do great and mighty works, but they longed for the coming of the Holy Spirit because the great promise of the New Covenant, Ezekiel 36, was I will put a new spirit within you that will cause you to walk in my ways, to keep my statutes, to follow my will The Jews had longed for a Holy Spirit

So God says, you want to know what the goodness is that I've given to you? The goodness is wrapped up in the Holy Spirit of God because you see, you need not just to be supplied good things You need the source of all good things The Holy Spirit That's why our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit So, you go through difficult times and you plead with God, Lord, comfort me And God says, I've already given you the Holy Spirit who is the comforter

You want me to supply comfort when I've already given you my spirit? Who's the comforter? Lord, I need you to guide my thoughts, my ways. I've given you the Holy Spirit who will guide you into all truth. I've given you my spirit Lord, I need power to accomplish what it is you ask me to do. I've already given you my spirit That's not a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of love, power, self-discipline You're asking me to supply you with something that I've already given to you in the person and work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and life Talk about a good God Lord, I cannot love my neighbor

Wait a minute The fruit of the Spirit is love. I have no joy Fruit of the Spirit is joy. I have no peace Fruit of the Spirit is peace God says you're asking for me to supply something to you that I've already given to you, the source to accomplish all that in your life already Walk in the Spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh It's all right there. I've given it all to you This is the goodness of God So why does God take you through this desert experience? This desert of affliction or persecution or tribulation or desolation or deprivation or whatever the desert might be

Why does God take you through that? Because He has to erase all of your independence, all of your self-resources, all of your own personal drives and ambitions so you will look to Him, depend upon Him and follow Him explicitly without reservation That's what He wants from you He will stop at nothing to get you there So your desert will take as long as it takes for you to get to that point And God will always remind you of this because ultimately I just need you to adore me, not yourself

Adore me, my person, my presence. I want you to acknowledge that I am all-powerful. I can accomplish everything. I want you to appreciate and appropriate everything I've promised you. I need you to accept how it is I'm going to provide for you because I am the good shepherd who only provides that which is good. I do it perfectly. I do it accurately every single time And how do you know you're on your way out of the desert when you learn to accept all that God provides for you while you're in the desert? And yet there is so much more to talk about and that will be next week Let's pray

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today What a joy it is to look into your word What a joy it is for us to be reminded of your goodness You are the great provider of man You only provide that which is good because you're a good God

For those who are here today, Lord, who are experiencing turmoil and hardship and difficulty, isolation, loneliness, we pray, God, that they tap in to the truth of your spirit who resides within them and lean upon the spirit of God to be controlled by the spirit of God, the great comforter, the great truth-teller, the great leader and guide of man's life, the great convictor of man's sin You've given us your spirit, Lord, which is the ultimate good in all of our lives Go before us this day, this week, that we might honor and glorify your perfect name for you are our provider

In Jesus' name, amen.