"The Holiest of ALL" part CVII

MOSES, AND THE DECISION OF FAITH.
Hebrews 11: 24 - 26  By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to be evilly entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked unto the recompense of reward.

Continuing in the SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters  10:19 - 13: 25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.

Now in the TENTH SECTION
Hebrews  11: 1-40.
The Fulness of Faith.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We all live by trusting in a God of some kind, when this trust is placed in the right source it becomes His faithfulness that we trust. What we love and live in we believe in. He that trusts and yields himself to the visible and the temporal lives an earthly, fleshly life dealing with and touching only the external world. He that looks to the unseen and the eternal, and joins himself to it, lives a Divine, a Heavenly Life a born again spiritual person. Between these two forms of trusting and faith has ever to make its choice. The clearer and more deliberate, the more conscious the decision is for the unseen, the more will the trusting become a faith in God and God will strengthen and reward this kind of faith. The great difficulty in making the right choice lies in the fact that, by the victory which things seen and sensible gained in paradise (the land of Canaan found in Christ Jesus and therefore Heavenly emphasis added), our eyes have been blinded to, and the things of time, even where we acknowledge them to be of less value, have acquired, in virtue of their continual presence and their pressing claims, superior power. The great work faith has to do, and the best school for its growth and strength, is the choice of the unseen.

Of this choice Moses is a striking illustration. Just see what there was on the one side. The lust of the flesh: the pleasures of sin for a season. The lust of the eye: the riches of Egypt. The pride of life: to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And, on the other side, to be evilly entreated, to bear reproach. And what was it that enabled him to make a wise choice? He saw that to be evilly entreated with the Hebrews of God is to have God as his portion and defense. He bore the reproach of Christ, in the power of the Spirit of Christ from Heaven, lifting his heart above earth. Even as Christ, for the joy set before Him,endured the cross, so he looked to the recompense of the reward. Faith in the blessing of God on the people of God; union in spirit with the Christ of God; the assurance of a coming world, with its Glories being far greater than the rewards and the judgments of earth;--- no wonder that all this guided and strengthened him to the choice he made--- the Better part never to be taken away.

We are studying this chapter in its connection with this Epistle, and its teaching as to a life under the leadership of Christ--- a life in the New and Living Way of conformity to Him, leading into the Holiest of God's presence. We long to know how we can grow strong, and live in the full exercise of a faith that inherits the promise and enters into the Rest of God. Moses witness is clear: Let trusting prove itself in choosing, once for all and for always, at any cost, the unseen--- the reward will be sure and large because our trust becomes God's FAITH. In Abraham we saw this choice when there was no special opposition or persecution. This is the feature in Moses choice we must notice: with the danger threatening us of being evilly entreated, and bearing reproach, and having to face the loss of all, our trusting must not hesitate or halt. To be evilly entreated with God's people, to bear Christ's reproach, and count these greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt (i.e....the world, and its religions ),--- this is what our trusting will become in Christ's faith an enables a man to do, this is the spiritual discipline which makes faith strong. Faith looks at everything in the Light and greater Truth of Eternity, judging of it as one will do when the judgment day is past, and the glory begun; everything is seen in its True Value, and Sacrifice and Suffering and loses and trials are welcomed as the teachings and training in which the glad decision, and the firm will, and the strong character, and the victory of faith are attained.

We have here the great cause of the weakness of faith in our days. There is no separation from the world. So many Christians seek to have as much of its pleasure and honor and riches as they possibly can, consistently with their profession of religion. In such an atmosphere faith is stifled. Many hardly believe, or never remember, that the world, with its arts and culture and prosperity, amid all its religious professions, is still the same world that rejected Christ and is still rejecting Him. The disciple who would be as his Lord, " not of the world, even as He was not of the world, "seeks to say with Paul, " Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Or may we put it this way, through which the world's lusts has been crucified in me and I to the influences of the spirit of the world. For we battle daily to keep it under to power of God's working in me. emphasis added)

How wonderful is the place Moses occupies in the Kingdom of God. A pattern of Jesus as a prophet, as a mediator, as an intercessor, in his meekness and his faithfulness, there are few of God's servants that stand higher. And what fitted him to take this place? Just this--- the choice to give up everything for the reproach of Christ. Christian, would you live in the Grace of God, and enter into His tent to meet Him as Moses did? Would you be an instrument and a power of Blessing, a man strong in faith?--- Seek to be perfectly Separated from the spirit of the world, refuse its pleasure and honor and riches; count the contempt of God's people and the reproach of Christ your treasures. Ask for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit to teach you what true conformity to Christ is, in your relation to the world, its culture, its possessions, its friendship. Beware of judging of what is lawful by any human standard: Christ alone can teach you what it means to forsake all, to sell all, to deny yourself, and take up His cross, and follow Him through the gate on into the presence of God. Count all things loss to be conformed to Him. It was in bearing the reproach of Christ becomes our character like that of Moses was formed. This is the sure path of our trusting in the faith of God unto power and to blessing.

Follow as Moses did, accounting the reproach of Christ your riches, and you shall share with him the recompense of the reward. Let us therefore go forth to Him, bearing His reproach. Are you one of the willing to forsake all the world and its religion has to offer in order to pass through the veil and receive the sprinkled Blood of Christ upon your heart and mind? Or are you one who have turned your back toward Him as the Hebrews did as recorded in the book of Acts no less than three times and by so doing refused so great a salvation? Are you one with the Hebrews to whom this epistle was written who have once tasted the righteousness of God and through neglect become slothful while still attending some kind of religious ceremony or custom of church attendance and through that practice have forsaken the LORD and His Blood? If so it is to you we have addressed our efforts to help awaken you to your choice of pitfalls and short comings, repent and turn back to God and seek Him with all that maybe in yourself and come out of your stupor. emphasis added

1. Examine very carefully where your danger lies. Is it the friendship and honor of men? Is it the pleasure, or the spirit of the world? Is it the cares of the world? Whatever it be, give it up. It is only an unworldly spirit that can be strong in faith.
2. What is the faith that enables a man to bear all and to sacrifice all? Nothing but an eye that sees into the true nature and value of things, that judges of them as God does. Yes, rather that we see God to be all, and the creature nothing except as it leads to Him.
3. Exercise yourself in this faith by retirement into solitude and intimacy with the invisible. Beware of too free intercourse with the literature of this world: its spirit entering into you. The world knows not God: make your choice and maintain it.