Neither Enticed nor Terrified Away from Christ (Hebrews Sermon 55)

So we come to a bit of a turning point in Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, that great hall of faith, the faith chapter. And we come to act 3 in this chapter. Act 1 was the faith displayed before the flood, with Abel and Enoch and Noah. And act 2 the faith of the patriarchal era of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. We come here to act 3, and that’s the faith of Moses and the people of God during the time of the Exodus and beyond. The author’s point through all of this has meant to show the unity of the work of God throughout all eras of redemptive history. That his people have always been saved the same way, in every era, in every generation, from the very beginning of history, from Abel onward, the people of God have been justified by faith alone, and it’s the same faith.

Now, as we come to the story of Moses’ parents and of Moses himself, in Egypt. As I was preparing this message as I was thinking about it, I realized that I had done what it’s so easy to do, and that is somewhat to miss the point. So that’s bad, I shouldn’t tell you that, right. I mean when you’re on a 747, you don’t want to hear the pilot say that he kind of missed something in his preparations taking off, that’s not a good feeling. But it’s not a major thing, but I just want to tell you some of the dangers of Hebrews 11, there are two great dangers of this chapter. And one of the dangers is as we look at the faith of godly men and women, and celebrate their faith, we will forget Christ. And you get this moralistic imperative that we need to believe like they did, and become great hearers of faith, like they were. And forget that Christ is the greatest hero of faith that has ever lived, and to forget the focus on Christ as we celebrate Moses’ parents and Moses himself. And that’s a danger, and I don’t want that to happen. I want you to focus your mind and your heart on Christ today. Christ is the lover of your soul. It’s Christ that shed His blood for you, It’s Christ that’s going to take you to heaven. Not Moses.

And we already learned that in Hebrews chapter 3. Frankly one of the points here in these verses is the author is showing us that just as Moses was simply a servant in all God’s house, so also Moses displayed justifying faith. And so Moses and Christ aren’t in competition. That’s one of the great dangers, that celebrating the faith of the heroes we’ll forget to focus on Christ, the focus of our faith is Christ. The second danger is that, as we celebrate the faith of the heroes we’ll forget that faith itself is a gift of God. And that you don’t have to go and kind of scrape together some faith, some more faith, like you’re at the store and you need $5.13 worth of faith, and all you have is $3.25, so you better go take the pillows off the couch and search the pockets of old jeans to try to find enough faith. As though it’s somehow your thing, your work, you have to scrape it together. Friends, faith is a gift of the sovereign God. He gave it to each one of these heroes of faith and He’ll give it to you too. And He gives you the faith needed for the circumstances you’re facing in your life. And you will not face circumstances like Moses’ parents faced, you won’t. But the same God that gave them faith will give you faith to face whatever you’re facing.

And you won’t need to have the faith of Moses at the time of the Exodus, you won’t face those same kinds of challenges but you’ll face your own. And the same God that gave Moses the faith to believe Him, through all of that will give you that faith as well. Now, as we come to this Act 3, we come also to some new enemies of the faith. We come for the first time face-to-face with the issue of persecution, the issue of human persecutors of the faithful. And it’s going to get more extreme as the chapter goes on. We come to the bitterness of anti-Christian government, and of tyrants who use their power to crush the people of God, so that they cannot obey the commands of God, to force them to pay for their with martyrs’ blood. We also come to probably one of the key issues and decisions we ever make in our lives. Moses was at a fork in the road, and down one path he had worldly prosperity and comfort and ease and pleasure, and down the other road he had suffering and difficulty and trouble.

And by faith, he made the correct choice. And we are placed at the same fork in the road every single day. And as I was meditating on these various themes thinking about them, I realized that as we face our culture, we face our gluttonous age on perhaps the single most gluttonous day of the year. No comments, just moving right on. I don’t know what you’re planning on eating later today, that’s between you and God. But as we face the allurements and the temptations of the world, and we have so often failed to make the correct choice. Haven’t we? Let’s be honest, time and time again, we have preferred the flesh over faith. And we cry out against ourselves and we wonder who can deliver us, who can rescue us from this body of death, as we day after day after day stand at the same fork in the road. And we’ve got pleasure and comfort and easy on one side and you’ve got what God wants you to do on the other. And it’s so hard to make that choice, the flesh is screaming against what God wants you to do. And it’s so very difficult to make that choice. Isn’t it?

Moses made it rightly, but I’ve already said how it was he made it rightly. God enabled him to make that choice rightly. But again, I say to you, our savior is not Moses and how he chose to leave Pharaoh’s palace and choose suffering with the people of God. We are being called on to make similar sacrifices for Jesus.

Now, the real hero is Jesus Himself, because it says in the next chapter, after all of this, in Hebrews 12, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning at shame and sat down at the right hand of God. His choice, not Moses’, saves your soul. And frankly His choice and not yours, saves your soul. And Jesus having chosen in Gethsemane and beyond to die for you, frees you from all of your guilts and condemnation. And then He sends you of His Spirit so you can make the same choice too. And you can say as he did in Gethsemane, “not my will but yours be done.” And He will strengthen you because you are His child.

You are being conformed to the image of Christ. There, that’s the whole Sermon in a nutshell. You may wonder why I don’t just stop here, but I want to talk about Moses’ parents, and I want to talk about Moses. Because at a lesser level, we do need these heroes. We do need examples, we do need role models, and so we have given us these role models.

I. The Faith of Moses’ Parents (vs. 23)

And so we have the faith of Moses’ parents. “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw that He was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” We have a long gap in Hebrews 11, from verse 22 to verse 23. A gap of hundreds of years in which the author doesn’t pick up anything. Now you should not think that because of that gap that there were no faith-filled believers in Egypt during that time. Remember how Elijah thought he was the only one and God spoke to him, and said, “Not so. I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” And so, in every generation, there is a remnant chosen by grace.

But during that period of time, we know what happened, it says “they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Things had turned after the death of Joseph. And Exodus 1 tells us another king came up who knew nothing about Joseph. Didn’t give the Jews any preferential treatment. And if anything, the Egyptians, in general, became increasingly afraid of the, I think, supernatural multiplication of the Jews in Egypt. They were astonishingly fruitful. And the Egyptians became alarmed, they were afraid of the population growth, they were afraid that they might join their enemies. And they didn’t know anything about Joseph, and they began to enact a very bitter policy against the Jews. They wanted to eradicate them to some degree. And so the first strategy was to make their lives bitter with hard labor, making bricks, using the bricks to make cities.

And so a life of slavery, they were enslaved, the Jews were enslaved in Egypt, enslaved the ambitions of Pharaoh but also the bitter policy to try to keep the population under control. But it didn’t work. The more they oppressed the Jews, the more they multiplied. And so they had to go to level two. And so, Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives, that they should kill the boy babies as soon as they’re born. This is a wicked, evil, tyrannical policy of murder. Nothing short of murder. But the Hebrew midwives feared God. And they would not do it. Gave an excuse to Pharaoh and they would not kill these boy baby. So they went to level three, and the command went out to all of the nation, the Egyptians, that if they saw any Israelite boy baby, they should throw him in the Nile River. And it was into this context that Moses was born.

Now, before we move on from the intervening period, the hundreds of years, keep in mind that that remnant chosen by grace were sinners too. And they had a bitter difficult life of slavery. Their father was a slave, their son would be a slave they would live their whole life, one of those middle generations, their whole lives in slavery in Egypt, with no exodus, whole life. How then, could they die as slaves and go to heaven despite their sin? The same way as you and I. Justification by faith and faith comes from hearing the promises of God, the Word of God. And so the word was passed down from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the patriarchal leaders, of the promises that God had made to Abraham, specifically this one in particular, Genesis 15, in which God had said these words. “Know for certain, your descendants will be strangers in a country, not their own, where they will be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years, but I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they’ll come out with great possessions. You however, will go to your fathers in an old age.” And so those intervening years there were Jews that all they had, as their lives were made bitter with brick, all they had were those words, and the remnant believed them. And they lived their whole lives in slavery and they died in slavery and they went to heaven, because they believed the promise of God.

But along with that came a sense of God raising up a deliverer, that God would raise up someone to lead them out of bondage. And into that Moses was born. Who were Moses’ parents? Well, we have names given in Exodus 6, a mini genealogy. Levi was one of the 12 patriarchal leaders of Israel. Levi had a son named Kohath. Kohath a son named Amram. Amram was Moses’ father. Thus you have fulfilled the words, “in the fourth generation your descendants will come back here.” God spoke those words to Abraham. “In the fourth generation.” And so it was fulfilled in Moses’ genealogy. Amram married his father’s sister, Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses, and we also know Miriam as well. Amram lived 137 years, Exodus 6:20. So they were living a life of slavery in Egypt.

Now, Aaron was three years older than Moses, Miriam older too. But focusing on Aaron, apparently there was no threat to Aaron’s life, nothing’s ever mentioned. He didn’t have to be hidden for three months. So it seems that this edict from the king, this wicked tyrannical edict, was new in between when Aaron was born and Moses was born. And so Moses was born under the time of this edict, all the boy babies to be thrown in the Nile. And so by faith Moses’ parents hid Moses for three months after he was born. By faith they defied the king. Now, scripture does not uphold anarchy, not at all. Scripture upholds God-ordained authority. And we are told in many places that we must submit ourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority, institute among men. We know that. There is no authority that exists except that which is established by God, Romans 13.

So we must submit. And people who defy that authority are defying God. Well, we know that that’s true generally. However, there are clear examples, again and again in scripture, when godly people must defy a lawfully ordained authority, because the command itself is wicked and contrary to God’s will. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, and they were right to defy. In general, they were obedient, but they had to disobey that. We have obviously the example of the apostles with the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin commanded the apostles “not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” Yes, but Jesus earlier had said, ” Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” And so they said very plainly and very rightly, “We must obey God rather than men.”

And so Moses’ parents defied the edict of the king, and they hid their baby for three months. Now, think of how difficult that must have been. How do you hide a pregnancy? You do you hide the time has come? Whatever happened to the baby, Jochebed? I mean, what did they do, what did they say, how did they hide the baby, how did they hide that it was a boy? How did they hide it from the neighbors who would have acted in sinful self-interest? Well, the scripture says right here, they did it by faith. They did it by faith, and by faith they took means to hide him. We must understand that faith is not contrary to taking means. There’s certain things we do to fulfill God’s plans.

Plain example of this, of course, is Joseph and Mary with the birth of Jesus. And the edict went out, the wicked edict, to kill all the boy babies in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the wicked command of the king. And Joseph took Mary and the baby Jesus in the middle of the night and ran for their lives. Now, if there’s any baby that’s ever going to be protected by the sovereign power of God, it’s Jesus. But faith and means work together. And God used Joseph and the dream that he warned him with and him getting up in the middle of the night and running for their lives. He used that to protect Jesus. And so also He uses these means that Moses’ parents used to hide him. And notice also that their faith conquered their carnal fear, they were not afraid of the king’s edict. They were not thinking what might happen to them.

Their desire to serve God concerning this boy baby, concerning this little baby, was greater than their fear. And so they conquered their fear. I think, as I was reading this story and meditating it, thinking about Corrie ten Boom and her family in the great story hiding place during World War II, and occupied Holland as they hid Jews in a secret place in their house, and you’ve probably seen the movie. And the amount of terror that would go through their minds as the secret police, the German secret police, were searching house-to-house. By faith, they did what God called them to do. It was by faith, by trusting in God that they were not afraid of the king’s edict. Isn’t it beautiful how faith can overcome our fear, how God can command you to do something, even very difficult and you’re afraid and fear rises inside you, and by faith, you can conquer it and do what God wills you to do.

Stories abound in church history of this, I think of Raymond Lull, a 13th century missionary to the Muslims, during the time of the crusades. When most of Christendom just wanted to kill the Muslims, this man wanted to reach them for Christ. And so he got all of his possessions and went down to Genoa, Italy. All of his family and friends there to wave him goodbye as he was sailing to Tunis to go die for Jesus at the hands of the Muslims. And as he was on that ship he became overcome with fear, and disembarked, and got all his stuff and got off. One of the low moments of church history. I love how church history tells the truth. Isn’t it great? These heroes, heroes of the faith. And so we move on from Raymond Lull. No, no, no, that would be terrible. Is that the end of Raymond Lull’s story? No. He was on the next ship to Tunis. He got all of his stuff. By faith, he overcame his fear. He went on the ship and he sailed down there and he didn’t die, not for many, many years, but he witnessed again and again and again. A trailblazer, true trailblazer in ministry to the Muslims.

I think about brother Andrew, who was part of the Dutch resistance, and then after World War II ended, a man of tremendous faith, whose ministry was to smuggle Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. One of the first times he did it, he was in line in a checkpoint in a car, to go into Romania. And his car was filled with Bibles. And every car ahead of him, they were stopping in for 45-50 minutes, they were taking hubcaps off, they were taking seats out of the car. And he’s looking, and his fear is rising. “The car is filled with Bibles, what am I going to do?” Five cars ahead, four cars ahead, three cars ahead, two cars ahead, every one of them searched, scoured for contraband. Finally, he had covered over the Bibles with a coat, he was like, “What is the point?” So he took the coat off, stacked them up next to him in the car, and he prayed. There’s no hiding these Bibles, not by carnal means will this happen, but he trusted God. And so he’s about to get out as all the other passengers and drivers have been commanded to get out, and the guard wouldn’t let him get out. Without looking at him he said, “Go on your way.” He’s like, “Yes sir.” And he just starts to accelerate slowly, expecting at any minute to be commanded to stop, looks in the rearview mirror, and they’re just working on the next car. And they’re taking the seats out of the next car, they’re taking the hubcaps off the next car, but not his. It’s an awesome story, and by faith, he overcame his fear and did what God called him to do. What’s God calling you to do? Our church is deficient in evangelism, friends. I’m not trying to say it to hurt you, we just need to be bolder, we need to be courageous, we need to take steps of faith, do something bold this week, trust God to do what He commanded you to do, share the Gospel with someone this week, invite them to church, be courageous, write your own brother Andrew or Raymond Lull’s story, or Moses’ parents story. They conquered their fear.

And one more thing the text says, “Because they saw that he was no ordinary child.” Now, this is a bit mysterious. Now, you could say, “Well, of course they did, everyone loves their own little baby.” isn’t he sweet? Isn’t he beautiful? Don’t you think he’s the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen in your life? Now, I don’t know about you, I don’t know how you are, if we could get all of the infant pictures that have been in our church in the last 10 years and spread them out, how many of you would be able to identify which one is which?

I bet you, some of the ladies could though. I bet you, that’s so and so, that’s so and so. I couldn’t do it, but that’s not what’s going on here. It’s a matter of fact, the language is somewhat unusual. There was a sense of nobility, is the Greek word, or a sense of something that has marked Moses apart as a unique baby. There’s a mark that strengthens their faith, or in some way, connects with their faith, where I think perhaps, in Calvin, and other commentators think, that perhaps there was some visible sign that he was to be the deliverer who would lead the people out of Egypt. Like Stephen’s face in Acts 6:15, “They saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” What does that mean? I don’t know. Later in Moses’ life, his face was radiant when he was in the presence of God, I don’t know. All of it just conjecture, but they saw something unusual in this baby, and they risked their lives for him. And by faith then, Moses was allowed to grow up, and then lead the people through the Red Sea into the promised land, and the story eventually ends at the cross and the empty tomb, and our salvation. And so by faith, that’s what happened.

II. By Faith Moses Refused Egypt’s Alluring Sins (vs. 24-25)

By faith also, Moses refused Egypt’s alluring sins. By faith, Moses when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

So here we focus on Moses’ faith. When he had grown up, we know the story, that after he was hidden, his parents couldn’t hide Moses any longer, he was put in a basket covered with pitch, and was set free in the reeds, and he was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, and she wanted to raise him, she knew he was one of the Hebrew children. Miriam following at a distance, connects the baby back through her own mother, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go.” And so she gets her boy back. Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s daughter sets her affection on him, and Moses in that way, gets I think a double education, Jochebed and Amram, perhaps, training Moses up in the promises of God, in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his heritage. And meanwhile, as Stephen tells us, “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” That’s what Moses was according to Stephen. He was trained and brought up, and he had all of these privileges and all of these advantages, as in effect, an adopted son of Pharaoh. But at the right time, when the time came, God forced him to make a choice.

Exodus 2:11 and 12, tells the story, “One day when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people, and looked on their burdens and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.” You see how twice in that account, he calls them his people. I think that’s pointing back to Moses, his own mind, Moses wrote those words. And his solidarity with his own people was already established by then, I think that’s why he went out to look on their sufferings. And so he had already made his choice, and his choice was a conscious one, there is a willfulness to this, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated. It’s a conscious choice.

Now, what is at the root of the will? What makes us choose? Is it not the embracing of pleasure and the turning away from pain, isn’t that what it? Isn’t that what the will is designed to do? To choose what pleases you, and to turn away from what displeases you. Is that not what God is calling on each one of us to do? And that’s what the will is. And yet, here he did exactly the opposite of what we would think. Here’s a life of pleasure, a life of ease, a life of comfort in Pharaoh’s household, and he turns his back on it and chooses instead, a life of suffering and pain. How do you do that? Well, the Scripture says, “By faith,” what does that mean? Well, by faith, God shows you something greater, an infinitely greater pleasure and an infinitely greater pain. And based on the eternity that’s in front of you, you make a choice to turn away from earthly pleasure and embrace earthly pain, because they’re just temporary.

And so it says, “He chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting or temporary pleasures of sin.” Do you struggle with that? Is that not where you are? Is that not where you live? The fleeting pleasures of sin, the world with its enticements, all the time, alluring us toward our carnal appetites. And this text is telling you how to defeat it. This text is telling you, by faith, God give me a vision of the world to come, give me a vision and the glory of the heavenly world to come, help me yearn for Jesus at that key moment of temptation. Oh, God, help me yearn to please him, and to see beyond it, and to make choices that are difficult for me to make, so I can glorify you in the end. Oh, this world is so temporary, it’s so brief.

And what are the fleeting pleasures of sin that he faced? What was it? I don’t know. Lounging on cushions and eating grapes, I guess. Less more than that. When you’re willing to compromise and enslave people so you can be at ease, when you’re willing to do that, you’re willing to do anything. And so the morality gets corrupt, and you get bored with a few grapes, so you start looking to other sensual pleasures and it starts to get more and more corrupt, and more and more wicked and gross. And Moses said, “Probably, already seen that.” And he could not go out and look on his own people getting beaten, and go back and lay on a velvet cushion and eat some more grapes. They would have been like poison in his mouth. Why? Because God showed him what was really going on. Those grapes were spiritual poison, he couldn’t eat them anymore. He couldn’t go for a life of ease and comfort and luxury in Egypt, he had to turn his back on it.

Now, carnal wisdom comes in here, the voice of carnal wisdom, “Oh, you want to help your people, don’t leave, don’t turn your back on it. Stay a son of Pharaoh, and just like Joseph, remember how he used his position to rescue the people from the famine, just stay as of one of Pharaoh’s counselors. Live the life, but speak as an advocate for your people.” That’s what carnal wisdom would say, how smooth is that speech? How alluring, how enticing? God said, “No. From the outside you will come, and you will point a finger at Pharaoh and you will say as an outsider, Let my people go.” Not as one of his adopted sons who’s really been complicit in all of the tyranny, all those many years, you will become corrupted by it. There’s a vast difference between what was going on in Joseph’s day with the famine and what was going on in Moses’ day with the tyranny and the persecution, he would have been defiled by it, there’d be no way, he had to turn his back.

III. By Faith Moses Chose Suffering (vs. 25)

And so he turned his back on carnal reason, he made a choice because of the infinite greater pleasure and fear of the infinite greater pain. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

And do you not see the satanic two-step here? The allurements of the pleasures, and if you won’t do that, then they will crush you. That’s what the world does. If it can’t entice you away from Christ it will try to persecute you away from Christ. It’s what happened to Jesus, isn’t it? Jesus was led by the devil, out in the desert, led by the devil up to a very high mountain and Satan showed Him in an instant, all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, all their glory, “All of this I will give you,” he said, “If you’ll just bow down and worship me.” Three years later, one of those empires, the Roman Empire put Jesus to death, crucified Him. So you can have Rome as a little play thing, and enjoy its pleasures or Rome will kill you. And so it was actually after Pentecost, in an early church history, Rome frequently try to entice Christian Roman noble men and women with higher positions of power, higher influences, etcetera, if they would just forsake Christ, but they wouldn’t do it, and so then it would kill them.

And so the world is trying to entice us away from Christ, or crush us away from Christ. And Moses would have neither, and neither would his parents. Next week, we’re going to talk about, by faith Moses looking ahead to Christ, and by faith Moses looking ahead to his reward.

IV. Application

What application can we take from these verses? First, I already gave it to you at the beginning, look to Christ, don’t look to yourself, don’t look to Moses or his parents, don’t even look to faith, look to Christ, and as you do it, by faith you’re doing that. See Him, see Him on the cross, having shed his blood for you. See Him say, “It is finished.” He died for you, for your sins. See Him raise from the dead on the third day, in a glorious resurrection body. Hear His promise, that, “Because I live, you also will live.” Find in that finished work of Jesus, everything you need.

And then say, “God give me an ever expanding faith. I want to see all those things, and heaven and hell, and Judgement Day, and all of the realities as you see them. Give me a clearer and clearer vision of it. God when I’m brought to the fork in the road, and I have to decide whether to go with sinful pleasure or faith-filled suffering, God give me grace, give me faith to make the correct choice. The sinful luster waging war against my soul. Help me to stand firm in this time, O Lord.” Ask for the faith of Moses’ parents, ask for the faith of Moses. Turn your back on Egypt at that moment.

After the service is over, we’re going to have a luncheon. Those of you that are RSVP we’ll have to have you. If you couldn’t make it to the luncheon, still be praying about our adoption ministry. I think one of the key verses on adoption is in James Chapter 1, the religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, “to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” That’s not all the verse says. It’s not all the verse says. “And to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In order to obey that command, you must have the faith of Moses who turned his back on Egypt. And it’s not “or,” it’s like, “Do the orphans or do the freedom from solution.” No, it’s not enough, though we take in a hundred orphans if we are corrupted by sinful lust, it’s not religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless. And neither is it enough to just fight the battle of sanctification and care nothing for those that are poor and needy in the world. It’s an “and” brothers and sisters. But that’s a key moment, isn’t it? When your flesh is being assaulted by temptation, say “God increase my faith, give me the eyesight of faith, that I may stand firm in this day of testing for your glory.” Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Satan has a very clever two-step dance to separate us from faithfulness to Christ… first, he will offer us the world’s alluring sweetness; then, if that fails, he will bludgeon us with the world’s crushing blows. In Hebrews 11:23-26, the author shows how faith overcomes both steps to remain faithful to Christ.

Our context: every day, assaulted by the alluring pleasures of sin… enticed by what Revelation calls “Babylon the Great”… that bewitching powerful concoction of Satan enticing every generation of God’s people with its magnetic menu of lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life

The stuff of this world… glittering… attractive… appealing… desirable… described powerfully in Revelation 18:

Revelation 18:12-13 cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; 13 cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.

Described also in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress with the title of “Vanity Fair”:

Almost five thousand years ago there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City….: and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long.

Therefore, at this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures; and delights of all sorts, as harlots, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not.

And moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind. Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false-swearers, and that of a blood-red color.

Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town, where this lusty fair is kept; and he that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, “must needs go out of the world.”

We live today surrounded by our own “Vanity Fair”

In Bunyan’s day, a “fair” = “carnival” … a place where merchants sold their wares, and cheats worked their cons, prostitutes plied their trade, thieves lay in wait just outside the town and robbed country people going to and fro from the Fair

Now… we have the “Mall”, where the multicolored posters assault the heart with more and more targeted appeals…

Now we have stores that keep a data base on our spending habits and entice us to buy something similar to what we bought last month

Now… we have the internet, where with a few mouse clicks and a credit card or a “Pay- Pal account, we can have anything that can be sold

Now we have movies and computer games that make us secretly lust for power or conquest…. To be kings and queens of our own domains that we rule with an unbreakable rod of iron

Now we have constant assaults on our hearts with various forms of lust… appealing to our drive for sex or food or comforts or entertainments… making us constantly discontent with the gift of God: SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST

Now we have a 21st century version of the exact same thing that assaulted Bunyan in the 17th century, that assaulted the Apostle John in the 1st century, and that assaulted Moses fifteen centuries before Christ was born

THE WORLD!!! Filled with idols, singing their enticing siren songs to come and dash on the rocks the ship of our souls… to drown in the waters of pleasure, forgetful of God’s warnings

There is only one force in the world strong enough to resist that constant assault… it is FAITH…

FAITH ALONE can cause us to prize our soul’s health above the pleasures of the flesh

FAITH ALONE can cause us to prize our unseen heavenly reward above the trinkets of the world

FAITH ALONE can triumph over the craft and subtlety of the Prince of the Power of the Air

As John himself wrote:

1 John 5:4 everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Context:

Hebrews 11 was written to first century believers in Christ… they were Jews who had made an outward profession of faith in Christ, but who were now being tempted by a constant assault on their lives to forsake Christ and return to a comfortable life in traditional Old Covenant Judaism

The world was coming at the souls of these dear believers with its two-step assault… promising enticing, appealing, worldly advantages if they will turn their backs on Christ… BUT THREATENING VICIOUS PERSECUTION if they don’t

It’s an old two-step… the velvet bag covering an iron hammer

During the Roman Empire’s attack on the church, they frequently used this two-step: 1) offer bribes and inducements to Christians to forsake their faith—positions of power, financial rewards, titles, honors, etc.; 2) threaten torture and death if they refused

Just as Satan sought to bribe Christ in the desert…

Matthew 4:8-10 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'”

So he tries to bribe Christians with the world today

If that fails, the dragon will roar at them and threaten them with the most horrible deaths… just as Nebuchadnezzar and Pilate did:

Daniel 3:15 if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

John 19:10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

In the account today, we have Moses and his parents:

Moses was offered great inducements to forsake the people of God and live a life of ease and comfort

Both Moses and his parents before him were threatened with severe punishments by Pharaoh if they did not obey… and both refused to tremble

Third act of the drama of faith

Act I: Faith displayed before the Flood

Act II: Faith displayed through Abraham and the Patriarchs Act III: Faith displayed through Moses and the Exodus

Hebrews 11:23-26 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

I.   The Faith of Moses’ Parents (vs. 23)

Hebrews 11:23-26 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

A.  Long Gap

1.  Following the death of Joseph, a long time gap between verse 22 and vs 23

2.  Time gap covered by this one verse in God’s covenant ceremony with Abraham:

Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

And this statement:

Exodus 1:8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

3.  This king was a TYRANT who oppressed the Jews and subjected them to cruel bondage to satisfy his lust for power and achievement… they were forced to build cities for his glory

4.  Four hundred year GAP from verse 22 to vs. 23… yet we should not imagine that there was NO FAITH in all that time…

5.  Always only justified BY FAITH… FAITH in the promises of God

6.  200 years in: Some Jews born in slavery would die in slavery too… all they had to live on was the oral record of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… passed down by word of mouth from their fathers and grandfathers; that was all they had to sustain them during a long life of bitter slavery

B.  Bitter Policy of Egypt toward the Jews

1.  The great fear: the astonishing population growth of the Jews

Exodus 1:9-10 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

2.  The evil remedy: kill them off by hard labor

3.  The remedy did not work

Exodus 1:12-13 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly.

4.  So the even more evil remedy

Exodus 1:15-16 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”

5.  But even this did not work:

Exodus 1:17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.

6.  The final solution

Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

C.  Who Were Moses’ Parents?

1.  Names given us in Exodus 6

Levi had a son named Kohath, Kohath had a son named Amram… Amram was Moses’ father… so Moses was the fourth generation after Jacob entered Egypt with his twelve sons

Exodus 6:20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

2.  Living a life of slavery in Egypt… they already had a son, Aaron and a daughter Miriam; Aaron was three years old when Moses was born; so the kings’ edict was relatively new, since Aaron was evidently not subject to it and Amram and Jochebed had not needed to do anything to save him

D.  What Did They Do?

By faith Moses’ parents HID HIM FOR THREE MONTHS…

1.  The King’s edict demanded that they surrender their baby boy to be slaughtered

2.  But this godly couple chose instead to defy the King’s command

3.  Scripture mandates submission to God-ordained authority… Scripture is as far from anarchy as possible…

Romans 13:1-2 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

4.  BUT there are exceptions… whenever the edict of the King contradicts the commands of God, they must obey God and defy the King’s edict

Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!

5.  Moses’ parents somehow kept him hidden from the authorities

6.  This was probably very difficult: Jochebed had been pregnant, now she was delivered; was is a boy or a girl?

7.  They concealed all news of his birth… and they concealed this little baby

8.  They did it by faith, they did it together…

a.  Notice that faith doesn’t despise the MEANS to the end

b.  They didn’t say, “God is helping us, so we don’t have to do anything!!”

c.  Jesus, God’s only begotten Son was hunted by Herod’s evil soldiers in Bethlehem; Joseph and Mary weren’t FEARLESS thinking “God would never let anyone kill His Son!” No, they ran for their lives

Matthew 2:14-15 he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod.

9.  Their faith conquered their CARNAL FEAR… faith regulated their feelings… driving away anxiety and allowing them the day by day courage they needed to defy the King’s command

10.  NOTE: “FOR THREE MONTHS…” they hid this newborn baby

a.  Hard to imagine how difficult this was

b.  The perseverance in faith… day after day after day… conquering their fears, caring for the needs of a newborn without allowing his presence to be heard or observed

c.  They had to be constantly vigilant

Illus. Corrie Ten Boom and “Hiding Place”… same kind of thing… trusting in God to protect the Jews they were hiding in their house from the Nazi Secret Police and from neighbors who would turn them in to protect their own interests

So also Moses’ parents hid their newborn baby from the blood-thirsty government

E.  Reasons for their Actions

1.  “By faith…” SO faith was active among God’s people before the Exodus

a.  They trusted in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

b.  These were merely stories handed down from their parents… but they believed those stories

Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing…

c.  The evidence of their eyes was that God had ABANDONED them in Egypt… but this godly couple trusted in God, an invisible God, and believed the words spoken about Him

2.  The text says MORE:

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

a.  What does this mean, “THEY SAW HE WAS NO ORDINARY CHILD”???

b.  Literally Greek word means “beautiful” or “noble”… as in “good breeding”, as though there were something extraordinary about this baby

c.  Stephen says he was “beautiful BEFORE GOD”

d.  John Calvin says there may have been some kind of mark on him, showing his uniqueness, a promise of the glorious future God had for him… perhaps like Stephen himself looked different

Acts 6:15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

e.  Since his parents saw this by faith, it could be that God revealed to his parents that he would be the deliverer who would lead his people out of bondage in Egypt!!!

f.  Amram and Jochebed believed God concerning this child and risked their lives for him

3.  “NOT AFRAID of the King’s edict”: their faith in God drove away their fear

a.  They were willing to face arrest, torture and death at the hands of Pharaoh rather than disobey God

b.  Like the Hebrew midwives, these two parents feared God more than they feared man!!

c.  Their faith gave them an amazing courage in the face of terrible consequences

Illus: Read the history of the church and you will see a noble heritage of martyrs and missionaries, leaders and evangelists who conquered their fears by their faith

Raymond Lull: 13th century missionary to the Muslim Saracens during the age of the Crusades; felt called by God to go to Tunis and witness to the Muslims, and almost certainly be killed; he packed all his things, put them on a dock in Genoa, Italy, all his friends and family came with tears to see him off; he was suddenly overcome by terror, and at the last moment, decided not to go!! His fears got the best of him! But God worked in him by faith and he immediately boarded the next ship for Tunis and courageously faced his fear of torture and death

F.  Summary: Faith Enabled Moses’ Parents to Conquer their Fear of the King, their fear of arrest, torture and death, to serve God’s purpose in their generation

1.  Outcome was famous: when they could hide him no longer, they set him adrift on the Nile River in a basket made of reeds; he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter as she was bathing in the Nile, and was rescued; Pharaoh’s daughter was attracted to the child… the child’s sister (Miriam) offered to get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child; this was accepted, and Jochebed was enabled to nurse him and care for him openly for a little while longer

2.  At the right time, Pharaoh’s daughter took Moses in and raised him up in Pharaoh’s household

3.  Stephen tells us the outcome of all that:

Acts 7:22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

4.  God in this way SHAPED and PREPARED Moses for his role

a.  I believe Moses received a DOUBLE EDUCATION

b.  In Pharaoh’s house, learning all the ways of the Egyptians… trained in speech, leadership, science, etc. Useful for shaping a nation in the wilderness… but also learning the decadent ways of a tyrant nation building great cities on the backs of slaves

c.  Secondly, an education in the word of God through ongoing contact with Jochebed… learning the promises of God so that, when the time came, Moses could display the same faith they did!!!

II.   By Faith Moses Refused Egypt’s Alluring Sins (vs. 24-25)

Hebrews 11:24-25 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

A.  By Faith, Moses…

1.  The author’s purpose: to show that Moses also displayed the SAME FAITH that the author wants them to display

2.  To some degree, faith in Jesus is being pitted AGAINST faith in Moses (or the Mosaic Covenant)

3.  The author has already shown that Moses was FAITHFUL as a SERVANT in God’s house

4.  Here, he goes beyond to show Moses as an example of the life of faith he wants them to show

5.  Moses grew beyond his life as an Egyptian prince to embrace a life of hardship and suffering; now the author to the Hebrews wants his readers to grow beyond their lives as Jewish adherents of Moses to embrace a life of suffering in Christ

B.  When He Had Grown Up

1.  Able to make his own decisions… Stephen tells us he was about forty years old

2.  Had received all the education of Egypt… trained in the wisdom of the Egyptian scholars, learning the worldview of Pharaoh’s household

3.  A life of luxury and ease, of comfort and of pleasure, of power and of potential

4.  The world on a silver platter

5.  BUT also he knew he was a Hebrew! Perhaps there was an ongoing connection with Amram and Jochebed; perhaps he learned who he was another way

6.  In any case, the key moment came one fateful day:

Exodus 2:11-12 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

a.  Moses CLEARLY identified with the Jews at this point

b.  Before he even went out on this journey, he had already made up his mind

c.  One verse in Exodus 2 TWICE calls the Jews “HIS PEOPLE”

d.  The Egyptian tyrants were not his people… the Jews were his people

e.  This decision he came to by faith

C.  Refused to be Known as the Son of Pharaoh’s Daughter

1.  Refused = a conscious choice

2.  He denied his own title as a Prince of Egypt!!

3.  He turned his back on all the power and pleasure and prestige and ease

4.  True faith ultimately RENOUNCES the world, all its comforts and pleasures SINS

5.  Jesus; clarion call:

Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

6.  And again:

John 12:25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

7.  This was a fateful step for this godly man, Moses… to burn his bridges

Illus. In February of 1519, Hernan Cortez landed near the Yucatan peninsula, and founded the city of Vera Cruz. He had over 500 soldiers and 20 horses, and intended to conquer to mighty Aztec empire. But in order to ensure the full dedication of his men, he burned his eleven ships. As the men stood there on the shore watching the ships burn, they realized there was no turning back… it was conquer or perish!

So it was with Moses at that moment:

Exodus 2:12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The die had been cast! Moses was casting his lot with his own people, even though it meant suffering and even death

8.  It is the same step the Author to the Hebrews wants his reader to take

Hebrews 13:12-14 Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

9.  It is the same step each of us must take as well

Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

10.  Of course, in turning his back on Egypt, he would be hurting some people in Pharaoh’s household who had been very kind to him

a.  Perhaps his adopted mother, Pharaoh’s daughter, would be deeply hurt

b.  But faith sees beyond any human allegiance ultimately to God alone

Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters– yes, even his own life– he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

D.  Faith NOT Carnal Reason!!

1.  It was by FAITH that Moses made his choice

2.  The voice of carnal reason sounds like this: “Why not retain your place in Pharaoh’s court and use your great influence to help the Jews? After all, didn’t God use Joseph in that exact same way? Joseph was the second highest ruler in all the land and used his position of influence to save his people from that famine. Why not do the same yourself???”

3.  Carnal reason is very persuasive!!! It can speak these kinds of SMOOTH WORDS… but God had a different plan for Moses than He did for Joseph

Thomas Manton: [on Joseph vs. Moses] “To remain in an idolatrous court of a pagan [king] is one thing; but to remain in a persecuting court where he must be the accessory to their persecutions is another thing.”

4.  But it was by faith that Moses made a fateful choice to refuse to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter

E.  Moses’ Fateful CHOICE

Hebrews 11:25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

1.  It was a choice… Moses made an ACT OF THE WILL

2.  But before the choice came faith… trusting in God

3.  There was attraction and repulsion to this choice

4.  But faith had reversed the normal order

a.  Pleasure vs. pain… usually the choice is obvious

b.  But Moses’ faith enabled him to see much deeper: the pleasure of sin is ultimately POISONOUS

5.  Why “pleasures of sin”… what was SINFUL about life at Pharaoh’s court?

a.  Well, inevitably people who live a life of conspicuous luxury like these Egyptians do, do so by immoral choices… like slavery itself

b.  AND such people are restlessly seeking more and more pleasures… they don’t work hard in the fields and earn the bread they eat… so they are restlessly seeking more and more sensory input… living for pleasures

c.  They become immoral… eating too much, indulging in sexual immorality, orgies, gluttony, cruelty

6.  This pleasures are TEMPORARY… “fleeting”… “for a short time”

a.  They do not satisfy

b.  The people become restless, roaming through the world like a demon yearning for some rest

c.  And their own consciences accuse them… but they still have a CONTINUAL LUST FOR MORE

d.  The judgment of God is looming, and like the devil, they become enraged

Revelation 12:12 He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

7.  Moses turned his back on that and fled the City of Destruction… he fled the coming wrath of God

F.  Faith Sees the Temporary AS Temporary, and the Eternal AS Eternal

1.  The world and its pleasures are temporary

1 Corinthians 7:31 For this world in its present form is passing away.

1 John 2:16-17 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

2.  The coming Kingdom of Christ is eternal

3.  Moses by faith looked AHEAD to the coming Kingdom of Christ

III.   By Faith Moses Chose Suffering (vs. 25)

Hebrews 11:25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

A.  The Satanic Two-Step

1.  If we reject the crown the world offers us for forsaking Christ, the world will begin to SMACK us

2.  So, Moses chose not PLEASURE but PAIN

3.  Mere neutrality was not an option… he couldn’t stay out of the war

4.  He had to be willing to SUFFER WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD

B.  It is God’s Way as Well: the Way to Heaven is HARD

Paul and Barnabas went back to all the churches they had planted in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening and them and encouraging them to remain true to their faith in Christ:

Acts 14:22 “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

C.  How Moses Chose Mistreatment

Exodus 2:11-12 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

1.  Moses was forty years old… he’d known of the mistreatment of slaves for all his life

2.  But now, by faith, he was identifying with them in their suffering

3.  At the first moment that Moses saw this hard labor, and the brutality of the Egyptian slavedriver beating a Hebrew, his lot in life was set

4.  He would RATHER suffer with them then live a life of ease as an Egyptian prince

5.  His action of killing an Egyptian was clearly premeditated and a foretaste of what would happen in large numbers during the Exodus

6.  BUT it may not have been done in faith itself… the murder was done after he “glanced this way and that”

7.  The next day when what he’d done was obviously known to his own people, Moses was AFRAID and FLED Egypt

D.  How Much Mistreatment Moses Had

1.  From then on, Moses lived a life of much greater suffering than he would have had if he’d not cast his lot in with them

2.  First, he lived the life of a FUGITIVE from justice… fleeing immediately from the comforts of Pharaoh’s court to become a WANTED MAN, a HUNTED MAN… Pharaoh tried to KILL Moses for what he’d done… any favor he had at court was forever gone

3.  Secondly, he lived the life of a REFUGEE, leaving his home country to exist in the desert of Midian

4.  Thirdly, he lived the life of an ALIEN in a foreign land… taken in hospitality in the tents of Jethro, accepting his generosity; eventually marrying one of his daughters and settling down as a stranger in a foreign country… their firstg son, Moses named “Gershom”

Exodus 2:22 “I have become an alien in a foreign land.”

5.  Thus began the life of suffering that Moses chose rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time

E.  Moses’ Estimation: It is a FAR GREATER MISERY to live in sin than to suffer with God’s people

IV.   By Faith Moses Looked Ahead to Christ (vs. 26)

V.   By Faith Moses Looked Ahead to His Reward (vs. 26)

Hebrews 11:26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

VI.   Application

A.  Come to Christ

1.  As we shall see next week, Moses did it all because he was looking AHEAD to Christ by faith

2.  Now, in the 21st century, we do it all because we look BACK to Christ by faith

3.  Trust in His shed blood for the forgiveness of your sins!!

B.  Beware of Satan’s Two-Step Attack: Enticed by Pleasure, Threatened by Pain

1.  First the velvet, then the hammer

2.  Satan offers you comforts and ease and pleasure if you will just BEHAVE YOURSELF and not make waves against his dark kingdom

3.  The bigger threat you are to him, the more inducements Satan will offer you

4.  To Christ, he offered ALL THE KINGDOM S OF THE WORLD and their splendor

5.  He will offer you far less… but still he will seek to allure you with the enticing siren song of the world

6.  He will call to your heart with lusts and comforts and advancement in the company or friendships with ungodly but influential companions… kids at school will be your friend if you will just cast in your lot with them and do the bad things they do; men in the company hierarchy will love you if you will laugh at their off-color jokes and drink with them after hours at the bars

7.  If you refuse to fit in, Satan will THROW THE WORLD AT YOU… a different kind of persecution… rejection, shunning, left behind at promotion time, insults, etc.

C.  Strengthen your Faith: Only Faith Can Resist this Two-Step

D.  Fear God More Than you Fear Man

E.  Be Willing to Burn Your Bridges

F.  Watch out for Carnal Reason… telling you you can make little compromises to do a greater good

G.  Next Week: Learn to look to Christ by faith and ahead to your reward by faith