So again, a good morning to all of you. I’m aware that there are, I mean I’m very pleased. I think we are all as well to see each other here. But I am aware that there are at least three groups of people who are not able to be with us here this morning. There are those who live far away. Those in Alor Setar, those in Rompin, those in JB, Singapore. Maybe further away- Australia, and the US. I’m sure they’ll like the join us, but no aeroplanes at the moment really flying. Then there are those, I believe who would like to join us but because they have young children like Ern Huey and Kok Leong and family. And perhaps others, now unable to join us because of health reasons.

And then the third category are those who would have liked to join us but they did not register in time alright, so they missed out because there is capacity, a limit because of the present situation. I hope you’ll understand if you are not able to join because of unable to sign up. But as announced earlier, we are hoping to increase the capacity so that you will be able to join us in the coming week. I think we still are able to increase a few more spaces. Alright so with that, let us come to consider the Word of God together. And this morning, we’re going to continue to study the epistle to the Hebrews, and we are particularly in this series looking at chapter 11.

Chapter 11, as you, I hope by now are familiar, it’s a chapter on faith. Now we hear a lot about faith and that it is a simple subject and yet it is a deep and profound subject as we have seen in our study of this chapter. And this morning we are looking at a few verses; another few verses in this chapter, and that is verses 24 through 26. Verses 24 through 26. And some of you who have joined the youth camp last year might remember that I actually spoke on this text before. And I would like to take a look at this text again. And the reason being many of you are perhaps not at the youth camp. So you have not heard perhaps me speaking on this text.

But also, the reason why I thought we should look at this text again is because we want to consider another important, we might say aspect or facet of faith. So there’s so much to say about faith as the writer to the Hebrews is trying to impress upon us. And here he says that in these few verses, he has another very important truth or teaching about faith to show to us. And that particular teaching is as I entitled it: “Faith Chooses”. Faith chooses. It was in my horror when I realised initially that someone put the title as “Choose Faith” alright. Now that is a different thing. The subject here is faith chooses. In other words, faith always involves making choices.

Now that is what the writer is trying to tell us about faith. Faith always involves making decisions or choices. Now you see for example in the gospel of John alright- the gospel of John 6:66-67. The gospel of John 6:66-67. Now look at what is written here by John alright in verses 66 of John chapter 6. It says here: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”. So there’s these people who were following Jesus. And at this point, they did not want to follow Him anymore. And so in the following verse (67), Jesus turned to His apostles or His disciples, the twelve. “He said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?””. In other words, He says what about you?

You see, it is a matter of choice. It is a matter of decision. You have to calculate. You have to think about it. You have to count the cost. Now that is what Jesus is saying here. So these people have considered the matter very carefully and they have decided not to follow Jesus. But what about you? That is what the Bible is saying about faith. Now faith always involves making choices, and Jesus is saying that. Now we can remember many perhaps other passages of the Scriptures impressing upon us the same truth.

For example, in Joshua 24. Remember what Joshua said to the people alright in Joshua 24:15 alright. And Joshua said this: Now choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we have decided to follow Jesus alright. So you see, it is a decision that you have to make. And you also remember what Elijah said to the people alright in First Kings 18. Alright in First Kings 18, Elijah said to the people you have to make up your mind. If the Lord God alright is God, you follow Him. If Baal is god, follow him. But you have to make up your mind. Now that is what the writer to the Hebrews is talking about.

And so, we have hymns impressing the same truth, like the hymn that we are going to sing later on: “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.”. Or another hymn that says: “O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee till the end”. You see, there is these hymns, there is these passages of Scripture that talks about this matter of choice or decision making. And that is the subject here, faith chooses. But what exactly is that choice? Faith chooses, but what exactly is that choice? In other words, what by faith are you choosing? What by faith are you choosing? And this is a very important subject, I mean question for us to think about.

Like I say, this is the point alright. What exactly are you choosing, in other words, when you choose to follow Jesus Christ? Now Hebrews now turns to Moses to answer that question. The question is: What exactly are you choosing when you choose to follow Jesus Christ? And so back to Hebrews chapter 11. What did Moses choose? Now he now draws attention to another Old Testament saint, Moses. What did Moses choose when he chose to follow Jesus Christ? Now some of you might be thinking: Did Moses thought about following Jesus Christ? Now we think that the Old Testament people, they have not heard of Jesus Christ alright. And they may be making decisions but not really about following Jesus Christ. Maybe about other things.

But I want to point out to you that they were all making decisions, whether it is about Abraham. Remember what Jesus said about Abraham? Abraham saw My day alright- saw My day and was glad. Abraham saw Jesus even in his days. And so here, what about Moses? Now if you look at Hebrews chapter 11 and you just look at verse 26, it says “esteeming the reproach of Christ”. You see, Moses was thinking of Christ. He is thinking about following Jesus Christ. He is choosing Christ. And so here is Moses’ decision in following Jesus Christ. But what did he choose when chose to follow Christ?

Now let me read from verse 24. It says: “By faith Moses, when he became of age (became of age means he has grown to become a matured person) refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”. Now, this is what Moses was choosing when he chose alright to follow Jesus Christ. We see that it clearly says in verse 24 that he chose, now the choice he made is to refuse something, to turn away from something alright. That’s why the writer to the Hebrews puts it this way that by faith Moses when he has grown up alright.

When he became of age, he refused. It was a definite, clear decision that he made. There was a choice before him. And then what? In verse 25: “choosing rather”. So there were options- refusing this, choosing rather to go in that direction, choosing rather that alright. So there were options before Moses here. Now if you have never encounter that in your life, I mean in your spiritual life, now you cannot really say that you have made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. In other words, what is your Christian life about? What have you decided? There are many people who say: Oh, I’m a Christian now. Okay, now what? Have you made up your mind about anything at all?

Now for many people, becoming a Christian involve no decision-making at all. Now that is not so as far as the Bible is concerned. Always, there is an option. Now, so the big question is: Now what are the options before you? You see, that is what it means to become a Christian. You have these options and you need to be clear what really are the options before you. You have to choose one over the other, and you have to consider them very, very carefully the options. Now you see that Moses alright in other sense, he saw before him, he thought about it. Now when the writer to the Hebrews mentioned that when he became of age means he has come to the point whereby he was matured enough to think.

It is not a simple decision. You have to have you know in a sense some maturity to think about it. So when he is grown, he thinks about it, he thought about it. And then he says I’ll consider that. Now the full import of the decision, that means the full implication of that decision is what the writer to the Hebrews is trying to spell out for you. Because very clearly, he is thinking of the incident recorded in Exodus chapter 2. So in Exodus 2:11, and that is that incident that writer to the Hebrews was having in mind when he mentions this. And so in Exodus 2:11, now here is what we are told about that particular incident that the writer to the Hebrews had in mind.

Verse 11: “Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown”. Grown means when he came to age alright- you know of age, “that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.”. Now, these are the options before Moses. One day when he was a matured person, he has grown up alright. He was a child before that in verse 9, and in verse 11 he was grown. And then he went out one day and he saw two people alright, the Hebrew and the Egyptian; the Egyptian beating the Hebrew. Now the option before him is this. Now he has to choose which side would he be on. He has to choose his side, to be with the Egyptian or to be with the Hebrew slaves.

Now those were the options. Now you see when you read Exodus 2, now you may not kind of sense or understand the full implications. What is the big decision? Is this a big decision, whether he sides with the Egyptian or whether he sided with the Hebrew slaves? Now it was a big decision, and Moses made up his mind. So the following verse (verse 12) said: “He looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”. By that action, he was making his decision known or clear that this is my decision. I’ve chosen to go this way rather than that way. I’ve chosen to be on this side rather than on that side. Now you see what the writer to the Hebrews is telling us, now that is the incident.

But what is the full import of this decision that Moses had made? Now that is what Christian discipleship is about. And it is always, you know the Lord Jesus when He was on earth that that is always the point He’s trying to make to the people who were following Him, that you want to follow Me? Do you want to follow Jesus? But what does that mean? You see, a lot of people never thought very carefully about becoming a Christian, about following Jesus Christ, about what that decision really involves. And Jesus never hides that, you know that from the people who were following Him. It’s a shame that today we want to hide that. We want to paint a nice, rosy picture about following Jesus Christ to people and so as to make Christianity more appealing to people.

But that was never the case in the Bible, and that was never what the Lord Jesus did. You might remember some of the things that Jesus said when He was on earth. Remember what He said in Luke chapter 9, for example, and verse 57 alright- and verse 57. And Jesus made that very, very plainly and clearly. Here He says in verse 57: “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.””. So here is another person who said I want to follow Jesus. And so what does Jesus tell him here? And Jesus is making exactly the same point that what the writer to the Hebrews is trying to say. Do you understand what that decision means?

And so Jesus said following alright- in the following verse to him: “The foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”. You say you think about that. It’s not a simple thing as it were to make that decision to follow Jesus Christ. You have to be thoughtful about it. You have to think about what it means. And He says that it means suffering. It means suffering, and that is what Jesus is saying to the person. Or in Luke chapter 14. Now it looks like Luke is also on this, is big-time on this subject. He’s really trying to impress upon the people in his days that following Jesus Christ involves a decision. An important decision, and you have to really thought about it very carefully. Yes, very well taught, well-considered decision.

So in chapter 14, Luke comes back to the same thing again when he recalls Jesus’ teaching on this matter. So in Luke 14:25, again we are told that a great multitude went with Him and Jesus turned to them. So here again a big group people thinking about following Jesus Christ. Now some say, really? Look like only now we think only today got megachurches. Now a lot of people want to follow Jesus alright. You have thousands of people who want to follow Jesus in those days. But what did Jesus tell these people, these thousands of people gathered in His megachurch? What did Jesus tell them? Sweet living, you know all these appealing messages. Listen to what Jesus tells them in the following verse.

Verse 26, if you want to follow me, “If anyone comes after Me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”. Think about it, He says. You want to follow Me? It is a big decision, that is what He’s trying to say. And so in verse 28 alright- in verse 28: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost”. In other words, following Jesus Christ involves counting the cost. This is a big decision, that’s why you need to count it you know, to count the cost alright. And so, you know in another chapter, in chapter 18, now you see that Luke is kinda coming back to this again and again in chapter 18.

And then we are told of another man. It says here in verse 18: “Now a certain ruler asked Jesus, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?””. Again it’s the same kind of, putting the question differently you know, wanting to be a Christian, wanting to follow Jesus, wanting to inherit eternal life. Now again the answer that Jesus gave made the person thought very carefully about it and he was not prepared to pay the price. And so we are told that he turned away sad. He was not ready. You see, that is what the Bible is helping us to understand about faith, about following Jesus Christ. It is an important, it is a big decision. It is a choice that you have to consider very, very carefully.

So with that in mind, we see now alright, we turn now back to Hebrews chapter 11. Now that is really what the author is saying here when he turns his attention to Moses alright in these few verses here. And so there’s just two things I want to now impress, I mean show to us about this choice, and that is the choice that Moses made alright- the choice that Moses made. So what is that decision about? I say the choice that Moses made is the same choice that we all must make in following Jesus Christ. If you have not made this choice; if you have not made the same decision, the same choice as Moses makes, I’m not sure whether you can truly consider yourself a Christian.

It means in other words, if you’ve not made the same choice that Moses made, now I wonder we can really consider ourselves to have made that choice of faith because faith chooses. If you have true faith in Jesus Christ, you’ll make the same choice. And that is what we are saying here. And so look at the choice that Moses made. And I said it is summed up so well again by our Lord Jesus Christ in that verse that I believe that by now most of you, if not all of you are familiar with. I say it’s so much in Jesus’ teaching about following Him that you know He puts it in this way and that way, and here is a verse that kind of summed up what Jesus said.

And Jesus said to them all in Luke chapter 9: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”. I think that verse sums up what the writer to the Hebrews is saying about Moses’ choice. If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. Now look at that here alright as the writer to the Hebrews tells us about Moses’ choice alright. So it is two alright. So in other words, there are two aspects alright to Moses’ choice in following Jesus. Number one is to deny himself. Number one is to deny himself. What did he deny himself of? Three things. One, power.

Now so when the writer to the Hebrews tells us that because Moses believed. Because he had faith. Because he wants to follow Jesus Christ, he denied himself of power. So in verse 24: “By faith when Moses, he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. Now from all we know alright, the data that we know, that Pharaoh only had one child alright, one daughter. And therefore Moses is the next in line to be the next Pharaoh. He would be the most powerful man in Egypt. It is all within his grasp, within his reach. He knew that. I’m sure he knew that because he’s of age, he’s an Egyptian prince. But he knowingly refused that opportunity because he wants to follow Jesus Christ. So there is the denial.

And you see, it may kind of work out in different ways in our own life, now denying ourselves of power. For some people, it may be political power. Maybe not anyone of us here. I’m sure there are some. For others, it may be corporate position or maybe any other kind of power that we may have. Now you see, it is our nature in a sense to want power. You see, everybody is fighting for power everywhere in the world. Moses had that, but he refused. He denied himself of that. And so that is the first thing alright within his grasp, but he says no. And the other one is pleasure. He denied himself of pleasure. And we are told here in verse 25: “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin”.

Pleasure. Again we know that as an Egyptian prince, we know he would again be able to enjoy all kinds of pleasure if he wanted to. What kind of pleasure? Now of course in his days, now all kind of imaginable pleasure you would have. And that is what it means to follow Jesus Christ. You would have to deny yourself perhaps of certain pleasures. Maybe sexual pleasure. You’re living an immoral life. Or alcohol, or sinful entertainment, or some kind of you know sinful music. Now you may love those music, but you know that it’s not God honouring. Or maybe some movies that you ought not be watching as a Christian. It’s not edifying. Or some sports.

Now you see, that is denial of yourself of pleasure. Again we live in a pleasure crazy world. But if you want to follow Jesus Christ, that is a decision you might have to make. And then thirdly, treasure. Power, pleasure, and treasure. So we are told in verse 26: “esteeming the reproach of Christ far greater riches than the treasures in Egypt”. So in other words, the writer to the Hebrews now writing about Moses and he probably is aware that his audience, the Hebrews are aware of Moses, of who Moses was. And they are all aware that Moses could enjoy all these things without any problem- power, pleasure, treasure. The treasures in Egypt, the treasure of this world. You had the opportunity to you know put your hand and grab hold of them, you would, wouldn’t you?

But if you want to follow Jesus Christ, you might have to make a decision to say no. No! I wouldn’t have these things. Now that is the decision that Moses made. So firstly is to deny himself alright- deny himself. Treasure means that you might have to deny yourself of an opportunity to become wealthy or maybe a lucrative job opportunity. But because you want to follow Jesus Christ, you knew that you had to make the decision, I’ll have to forgo that alright. Now the second aspect of Moses’ choice is this, and it’s to take up his cross alright. The two things summed up like I said in Luke 9:23- deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Me, Jesus said. So the second aspect is to take up his cross.

So again in Moses, in what sense he will be taking up his cross? Now one, it’s to suffer affliction with the people of God. Now verse 25: “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God”. In other words, it is not just simply about denying or I will not have power. I would give up wealth and pleasure. It’s not just about that, but that is also a life that you will have to live. The kind of life that you’ll have to live. And Moses understood that, that if I were to side with the Hebrew slaves, I would suffer like them. The people of God alright, that is how the writer to the Hebrews puts it. These are the people of God.

Who are the people of God today? They’re the church. The church. We will side with the church. We will side with the people of God. We’ll be like them. They might be the despised people of the world, but I’ll rather be despised. They may be persecuted, I’ll be persecuted along with them. They say that is my choice to follow Jesus. And so he chose the take up the cross in a sense that he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. And then another thing what taking up the cross meant for Moses, and that is to suffer the reproach of Christ alright. In verse 26 again: “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches”. To suffer reproach of Christ, what does that mean?

Now if you look at chapter 13 of Hebrews. Chapter 13, verses 12 and 13. Verses 12 and 13. Now here the Hebrews think of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12: “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”. Now here is a picture alright in the Old Testament during the day of atonement. Now they’ll sacrifice the bull, but they’ll sacrifice the bull outside the gate alright. Why? Because just too sinful to be within the gate. It’s despised, not honourable alright. So that bull had to be sacrificed outside the gate. And that bull is a picture of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, He was crucified outside the city gate alright.

And so what the Hebrew author or the writer is saying in verse 13: “Therefore (verse 13), let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”. That is what it means to follow Jesus Christ. We join ourselves to Jesus Christ, be despised, suffer the shame with Him together with Him alright. And Moses understood that. He said I’ll choose that. I’ll choose that alright- I will choose the reproach of Christ rather than the riches in Egypt. And so that is the choice that Moses made. I say the choice that Moses made is the same choice that we all must make in following Jesus Christ, that is to deny yourself and to take up your cross daily.

Now the second thing I want to say about this passage is now first, it is a choice. A choice that Moses made. And the second one, the second thing I want to mention is the reason for that. Now sometimes perhaps in our own life we have come across Christians like that. Now it’s a sad thing even to say that alright. We should be able to say that every Christian is like that. Every Christian is like that. But I say it’s a sad thing to say that that’s not true. That’s not true. But sometimes, we do come across Christians who are like this. They live a certain kind of life. They make up their mind and they deny themselves, they take up the cross, and they follow Jesus in the way that Moses followed Jesus. You know they shine. It’s so clear in their life.

Then we wonder, why? Why make these people you know forgo wealth and forgo power and forgo pleasure and live a life of shame and being despised? What makes these people live a life like that? And the writer to the Hebrews also tells us the reason alright- he tells us the reason. So if you have met Moses today, now you might say: Moses, why ah? You could have been a prince, the next Pharaoh. You have all the power, the most powerful man in Egypt. Everybody wants to be a prime minister and you don’t want to be. What kind of person are you? Everybody wants to be a millionaire and you don’t want to be.

You say you must learn something crazy about Moses. So we want to now explore the reason why. What influenced his decision? What kind of an influence is his choice in life? What is it, Moses, that made you do the things that you do? Well, the answer is simple alright- the answer is simple yet profound. The answer is this, verse 24: “By faith”. That is the answer. It is faith. You see faith, if you understand it, it is a powerful thing. It is what shapes a person. It is what makes you do what you are doing today. Why are you not doing the things that Moses did? Why are you not living the way that many of these great saints of God lived? Why? Maybe you don’t have the faith that they have. Not the same faith.

You see, there is a faith, a biblical faith. That is very special. That is very powerful. That shapes a person’s life, that drives a person to live in a certain way. And so that is what the writer is saying. It’s faith that caused Moses alright to do these things. Now you see, we must understand that faith is a conviction. Faith is a belief. It’s a deep conviction about something. And therefore, faith is what drives these people in Hebrews chapter 11. You read every one of them alright and how they lived their life. You say the explanation is only one thing alright. It is faith. It is the conviction. It’s their belief. It makes them do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done. That is how powerful faith is. It makes a person do things what he otherwise wouldn’t have done.

And so we see that that is the reason. So, how does it work alright? Now this is how it works. Now because now you know, faith is powerful because faith makes them see certain realities, certain truths that others cannot see. That’s why it makes this person different from another person. You don’t have faith because you cannot see what these people who have faith can see. So faith makes these people. Or in other words, here faith makes Moses see certain truths or realities that others could not. What truth? What truth, what reality are you seeing that we cannot see? Now sometimes your non-Christian friends might tell you say, why are you like that? Why are you so weird? Weird people, you know. Christians are weird people. They are not like us. Cannot understand them because no explanation.

They just don’t want wealth. Where got people don’t want wealth one? They just don’t want power. Crazy people. Well, because you cannot see things that I can see alright. That’s what Moses will tell them. So what is it that Moses could see? What is it that we saw the other people cannot see? Well, we can see for example what Peter says in 2 Peter 3:10. 2 Peter 3:10, and this is what the Bible says: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”.

That is what we see as Christians by faith. We see that this world is coming to an end. We see that one day everything will be burned up. All our cars, all our houses, all our treasures on earth. Everything will be gone, it will melt away. We see that. And so we say these are nothing! Nothing to be grasped. Why is that that people are holding on to these things? Because they cannot see what Peter is saying here in 2 Peter 3:10. They cannot see that everything is passing. Everything is temporary. Everything will be gone one day, will be burned up. They cannot see, and so they are holding on to these things you know dearly. What else can they not see?

Well, they cannot see what John writes in 1 John 2:15-17, where John says: “Do not love the world or the things in the world”. John is pleading with people who love the world. John is pleading with us who loves the world, with the people of this world who loves the world. And John is saying “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father”. It’s not of God “but is of the world”. Then verse 17: “For the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God will abide forever.”.

Can you not see that everything is passing away and only he who does the will of God will abide forever? Can you not see that? You see for Moses, he was utterly convinced of this truth. He was utterly convinced of the fact that all the pleasures of sin is only temporary. They are the passing pleasure. That’s how the writer to the Hebrews described those pleasures. They are the passing pleasure of sin. All the treasures of Egypt and the power of Pharaoh, they are all temporary. They’re all for a moment. They’re here today, gone tomorrow. I want to ask you: Do you really believe these things? Do you really believe these things? Can you see what Moses saw? Can you see this truth as we see them in the Bible?

Do you really believe when Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away”? Do you really believe Jesus when He said that treasures in earth is where moth and rust do not destroy (Mistakenly mentioned “do not destroy’, supposedly “destroy”)? Now treasures in heaven is where moth and rust do not destroy, but treasures on earth can be stolen. Do you really believe when Jesus said that you profit nothing if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? The reason why you are living the way you are living, it’s because either you believe this or you do not. Either you believe these things or you do not.

We can tell alright- we can tell whether people really believe, whether people really have the faith that we read of in Hebrews chapter 11, that we see in Moses by the choices that they make in life. Therefore remember, faith chooses. Faith chooses. For the Bible tells us by faith, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. By faith, Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. By faith, what are you refusing, and what are you choosing? That’s the question for us to think about.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.