Bull, Geoffrey: Faith-02 ~ Life Of Faith-2 Tim 1

Well, very nice to be with you again. At our first meeting last night, we embarked upon what could be called a series concerning the life of faith. But on the other hand, each talk can be viewed as separate in itself. Last night, we really talked upon the source and measure of faith, and we thought of people who had but little light and yet answered it with great faith. And we thought of those, and maybe we are amongst them, that have great light and yet answer it with little faith. And then we thought of the ideal to have great light, yes, but answer it with great faith. And so we thought about the source of faith, the word of God, for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But to every man there's a measure of faith. And so we thought of these things yesterday evening. Now, in my second talk, we're going to think of another aspect of faith. And I want to speak to you today about a first-hand faith. And to do that, we're going to look, first of all, in the second epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy. We're going to read in chapter one. There we see his greetings, and then in verse three of chapter one, we come to our theme. And Paul looks back, and he's looking on. He is reaching the end of his course. He's passing on the torch to Timothy. Faith must be first had. So, two Timothy one and verse three. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. May God bless to us this passage that points to a first hand faith. Now, I'm not just too sure how it is in Australia, but I can assure you, away back there in England, we are passing through what you might call a nostalgic period. People are looking back to quieter days, to how their fathers and grandfathers lived, and you know, they're beginning to collect the bric-a-brac, as we say. Of course, I know people can be interested in secondhand books and in secondhand cars, but when it comes to just pots and pans, you know, to be interested in them, well, that's really quite something. But that's really what's happening just now. And as for grandfather clocks, they're really at a premium. People seem to be most nostalgic, thinking back to those more peaceful times, perhaps, in this day of rush and uncertainty. It's a kind of psychology, I suppose. But what we have to be sure of is this, that when it comes to the question of faith, while standards and values and convictions, yes, of our forefathers may linger in our families and in our society, and in a sense come down to us to this day. We must be assured of this, that God, on the other hand, never deals in the secondhand market when it comes to faith. We may have our nostalgia, we may think of the old days, we may think of the old ones, but God has no grandchildren. He deals directly with every generation. We must each one today be able to say, I know in whom I have believed, and I am not ashamed. Sad to say, however, this is not always the case. When we look back into the Old Testament, we find certain people there who certainly had a secondhand faith. We think of a man like Gehazi. Now you remember he was the servant of a great master, that man of God, Elisha. And you know that woman, the Shunammite. Well, she had that very sad experience of losing the child, and she came forthwith to the man of God. But what happened? Oh, when she met him, she was so distressed. It would seem that the man of God and the woman would go together, and so he sent on Gehazi before his face. And he gave him his staff, and he gave him instructions. And you remember how he placed the staff on the face of the child, but returned dismayed, for he said, there is neither voice nor hearing, the child is not awake. And in that critical hour, we find that the secondhand faith of Gehazi was insufficient. It needed his master and his master's faith. You see, it's one thing to be a servant of a man of God. It's something quite different to be a man of God and serve God himself. Well, that would be one illustration. Uh, in the course of that same narrative in second Kings, we think of the sons of the prophets. Again, they said to their master, the man of God, uh, we would like to go down to Jordan. The place where we're living now, far too cramped. We really need some new property. Let's go down to Jordan. And so they did. He said, well, on you go, but then they perhaps were a little diffident. They said, you will go with us, won't you? Oh yes, he said, I'll go with you. They certainly needed him. Sometimes the younger generation doesn't realize how much they need the help and example of the older generation. And sometimes, of course, the older generation don't quite realize how much faith a young person sometimes has. However, it's lovely to see that the old man of God and the young sons of the prophets worked together, and down to Jordan they went. And they started chopping down the trees, and of course we know what happened. Off went the axe head from the heart of one of the axes, and it went down into the water. But there was no faith sufficient for that amongst those young men. It was something that took them across the frontiers of the impossible, and so they had to call on their master, the old man of God, once again. Where did it fall, he said, and the young man pointed it out. And so we find that the faith of the older generation operated where the faith of the younger generation failed, and the iron did swim, and you might think that was just an archaic expression from the authorized version, but may I say this, that that is a very correct translation. It did just that. It did not just float. The word is not the word for float. It's the word for swimming. It actually resisted the down current and took its place on the, uh, surface of the water and and held its its place there in spite of the current, you could say. The iron did swim. You say it was a miracle. That's right. Faith has to do with that which man cannot do, but which God alone can do. Faith has to do with being fully persuaded that what God has promised, God is able to perform. A first-hand faith has to do with a first-hand dealing with God. It's no good just being a servant of a man of God or a son of a prophet. We've got to know God for ourselves. It's one thing to be a son of a prophet, it's another thing to be the prophet of the son of the Messiah, and the prophets were certainly that. And so these Old Testament illustrations do challenge us, don't they? How possible to be in the midst of divine things, and to operate with spiritually minded people, and to be out with the stream of divine power, because we have no firsthand dealings with the Lord. Of course, there were people like this in our Lord's day. There were the scribes and the Pharisees and the lawyers and the priests and the Levites. They had a form of godliness, but they denied the power thereof. And so far removed had they become from true dealings with God that when God came manifest in the flesh, they crucified him for blasphemy. Oh, when we think how great our form of godliness can be, with all our routine and regulations and services and observances, religion and tradition, and yet we can deny the power thereof. We can honor God with our lips, and yet our heart can be far from him. Oh yes, there were many in that day. Our Lord's ministry came forcefully to them, however. Their comment concerning his word was this, that he spoke not as the scribes. He had firsthand dealings with his father. He said, I, we speak that we do know, and we testify that we have seen. He said, I speak those things which I have seen with my father. He could have told us the age of the rocks and the distance of the stars, but no, he told us that which was uniquely his as the only begotten of the Father. He came forth and he declared the Father. He alone knew him, and he alone could communicate him through the Spirit of God that was his without measure. And thus with our Lord, he spoke that which was firsthand, that which was uniquely his. And whilst in his case, that is a ministry that cannot be repeated, the principle of witness of ministry is there. If it's a question of the angels, why Gabriel says to Zechariah, doesn't he? I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak unto thee these glad tidings. The angels, you see, stand in the divine presence, heartening to the voice of his word, and they heed his commands, and they speed o'er earth and land and sea. They are the servants of the heirs of salvation, but their word is not their own. It comes from God, and yet receiving it, they give it. And so all ministry needs to come from God's presence, from a firsthand dealing with him, yes, even in the case of the angel. We thought of the prophets. What did these men like Elijah and Elisha say in their day? As the Lord liveth before whom I stand. They could stand before the Lord through grace. Receiving from the Lord their word, they learned how to stand before kings. Because they had a firsthand experience of God, they could speak firsthand of God, and even monarchs trembled. And so the angelic ministry and the prophetic ministry all proceeded out of God's presence, out of firsthand contact with the Most High. Supremely, the Messianic ministry, as we say, was essentially that. I speak those things which I have seen with my Father. And when he sent forth his disciples, when they became apostles, what does Paul himself say? He says, I delivered unto you that which I received also of the Lord. The gospel that I preached was not after man, neither was I taught it. He says, we believe, we therefore speak. As of God, as of sincerity, as of Christ, so we speak. A ministry and a witness born out of God. I know, he says, in whom I have believed. I am not ashamed. I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. This ministry he had received of the Lord. It is better for us to speak five words with our understanding than ten thousand in an unknown tongue. So you and I today need to come back to this very basic concept of faith, that it needs to be firsthand. It's one thing to be sound in the faith, meaning that we hold the tenets of our belief accurately and properly and biblically. But it's another thing to have a faith that is sound, a faith that is not ailing or sick, a faith that roots in God, has Christ as its object, and does not waver in affliction and temptation and opposition. We need today more than ever a first hand faith. And thinking of those who had first hand faith in the New Testament, it brings us to second Timothy and chapter one. Here is dear Paul. He stood for God. He's trusted in God. He's triumphed in God, and he's gone through, yes, that long period of Christian service, and he's seen, as it were, mountains cast into the depths of the sea. He's seen people transformed until they simply had to be called a new creation. He has seen the barriers between Jew and Gentile broken until they have gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus, until such have become a habitation of God through the Spirit. The most impossible things have been achieved. He has trusted in God for salvation all the days of his service. He has trusted in God, but now he's handing on the torch. He's in prison. He's awaiting execution, it would seem. No one stood by him, for the Lord stood by him. His trust is in the Lord. So he writes from his prison cell this last letter to his young friend Timothy, who is going to carry on the work that Paul has begun. And yet it would almost seem here that whilst in one sense Paul has confidence in Timothy, there are perhaps aspects of Timothy's temperament that cause Paul some concern. He thinks of timid Timothy, perhaps in a way as, as a man that, yes, has great qualities, but is just a little bit timid. And so he's seeking to encourage him and, and to tell him how he ought to take up the charge, and in the sight of God and angels, go forth with that gospel that is given to him. And so, as he talks about this, he comes to this question. He won't have Paul anymore to rely on. It's one thing to go with Paul into these heathen centers or into synagogues and face the bigotry of the Jews. It's one thing to go into these various towns of the Roman Empire and face the hostility of the populace when you're going with a man like Paul. Paul may have been small, but he was like a lion. That's what his heart was like. But now there would be no Paul by his side. Sometimes it may be Timothy would have to go along, and so Paul writes to him, concerned that he might stand for the Lord. And as he does so, he looks back on his own life. He looks back on the faith of his forefathers. He says, the God that my forefathers served, that's the God that I serve. One paraphrase puts it like this, he is my forefather's God, and he is mine. Yes, that's how it was with Paul. The faith of his forefathers had indeed become his own, and that to which they stole, Paul had embraced in the hope that is in Christ Jesus. But what of Timothy? Oh yes, Timothy had forebears too, who believed, and Paul reminds him of this. He says, I recall and bring to remembrance your grandmother Lois. She believed. Her faith was unfeigned. It wasn't that she just went along with others. Her faith was real and personal and vital. It was firsthand, Timothy. It was a faith unfeigned. Yes, your grandmother had a faith like that. And I remember your mother too, Eunice. Oh, she had a great faith as well. And I'm sure you do have faith, Timothy, but I'm just reminding you about your grandmother and your mother. That is your heritage, not that their faith is sufficient for you. Your grandmother believed it was personal to her. Eunice, your mother, believed it was personal to her. Now, Timothy, you've got to operate with a first hand faith. Stir up the gift that is in thee. Don't be afraid. God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Don't waver. Don't be ashamed, Timothy, of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Be thou partaker of the affliction of the gospel according to the power of God. I'm not ashamed. I know whom I've believed. Don't you be ashamed. You need to know in whom you've believed, like your grandmother and like your mother, Timothy. I'm passing on the torch. I'm giving you my charge. Or when we look back in the earlier generations, even here in Australia, some of those early settlers who came out here and had to work from morning to night, and perhaps through the night, who had a firm and strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who, in the midst of great odds and difficulties and pressures and privations, established churches and assemblies and preached the gospel in the midst of their hard, hard labor, and bore their children and had their sorrows too. But they were sturdy, weren't they? And many of them truly believed they had a first-hand faith. We go back earlier into our common heritage, away back there in Britain, and time and again, in the dark days of our history, there were those that kept the flag and the standard of the truth flying, not simply as as laboring past concepts or old traditions, but who had a first hand faith and who prepared, were prepared to seal their testimony with their blood by sword and flag. You and I today will not perpetuate that faith, nor will we see that kind of progress and develop in our part of history if we are merely content to sit in our meetings, uphold our routines, and not be freshly exercised day by day, night by night, week by week, before the face of God as to what is the need of the hour, what is the word that we should preach today through our own experience from the Bible, that which we've received of the Lord, that which is given to us, say, day by day in our own particular families and streets and factories and offices and hospitals and colleges and sugarcane fields, that we might have that which is contemporary and up to date, that which we've learned of God today for the people of today. It's not sufficient to be secondhand. It's got to be firsthand. It's got to be up to date. Yes, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but you must prove him as the same today. The God of yesterday, your God today, the God of your forefathers, the God of you today. Yes, only then will we have something for the people of tomorrow, if the Lord tarry yet a little while. We have the charge today. Ours must be a first hand. Against that background, may I again now set certain rather special characters. I trust that what I've said has touched your hearts, has begun to prick your conscience, has begun to awake an awareness that perhaps not all is well with us in our easygoing way of religion. In the foreground, now may I place one or two biblical characters that are very well known. Known as men of faith. Known as men of a first-hand faith, and yet it was not always so. And so, as you might say, against that backdrop, making the emphasis, may I now give particular illustrations of men of faith, of first-hand faith, who were not always so. I want to speak of an old man, of a young man, and of a middle-aged man. First of all, the old man. I refer to Isaac. Isaac, the son of Abraham. Now, when we come to think of Isaac, he was a man who really said, what my father did, that's good enough for me. You might say, well, that's not altogether an untoward maxim. But when we see it applied in Isaac's case, we see him rather doggedly following his father's footsteps. And yet, whilst Abraham was called the friend of God, nobody called Isaac the friend of God. You see, he had Abraham's blood in his veins, but it was a long time before he really had Abraham's faith in his heart. And we find that Isaac, following in his father's footsteps, committed his father's mistakes, as well as held to his father's habits. So that, for instance, in regard to the marriage, Abraham's Sarah was barren, and indeed Isaac's Rebecca was for quite a while. And they both resorted to the same subterfuge as they traveled around. Abraham called Sarah his sister, and Isaac spoke in that way too, really, of Rebecca. How can God give a man and a woman who call each other brother and sister a child? And the testimony still they maintain. No, that lie had to be scorched. Now Abraham recognized that lie. It was dealt with, and after it was dealt with, but not before, they had Isaac. Only then would God trust the seed, only to a man of faith. But you would have thought that Isaac would have learned from that experience, but not so. So that whilst he very much built altars like Abraham his father, and dug wells like Abraham his father, and covered much the same ground as Abraham his father, and lived in tents like Abraham his father, and as far as we can see, very much kept his father's pilgrim character, but he didn't seem to learn from his father's mistake. What a pity. In a sense, he had his father's faith. In another sense, perhaps it's hardly true to say he did. We wouldn't brand Isaac as an unbeliever. But, you know, it was only in the latter day, when it came to the blessing of his boys, that somehow a firsthand faith really came out in the open, and Isaac took his stand with God and his promises in an open way, in such a way that it was recorded in heaven and written in this wonderful book, the Bible. And so we think of that incident, and Jacob comes, yes, I know, supplanting, but with a greater sense of the purposes of God, of the birthright and the inheritance than Esau ever had. And so he gets the blessing. Isaac's eyes are dim. We know the artful way in which Jacob came. But in comes Esau. And oh, what a scene. Oh, what crying, what trembling. And E- Isaac, he, he can hardly, uh, cope with it. It's a wonder that he, he didn't have a stroke and fall down. He was so disturbed and, and amazed. And Esau, all that dreadful cry, he could never now inherit the blessing. And yet the amazing thing is that Isaac, in spite of his, his agitation, in spite of his trembling, in spite of, of his mistake. In spite of his, his somehow incompetence in this matter. Yet, the word of God to Rebecca comes, as it were, flooding into his aging memory, and he recalls how God said that the elder would serve the younger, and suddenly he exclaimed concerning his blessing of Jacob. He said, yeah, and he shall be blessed. You know, it's almost as if a little light went on in heaven, and God said, write it down. And we read in Hebrews, by faith, by faith, there's the word, by faith, Isaac blessed. Blessed whom? Esau and Jacob? No. Jacob and Esau. So here we see the, the shallow earlier, shall we say, almost traditional belief of Isaac. Oh yes, he had his moments. We wouldn't call him an unbeliever, but oh, this is the moment when he shines. When, by a decision, a personal decision of faith in the recognition firsthand of the promises of God, he comes out in the open, and he stands with God in his purposes. And God marks it and records it. God is looking for that. Yes, even in an old man. Maybe some of you older folk have been jogging along for years. It's a long time since you took a positive step of faith for God's sake, for his name's sake, for your family's sake. That's a long time since you really stepped forth in some matter pertaining to your later life that takes the courage of a personal faith, the daring with God. Oh, we can sink down into the doldrums. Many who began well in the, in the Bible had a poor finish. Oh, to fight the good fight of faith and to fight it to a finish, to go out with the flag flying, strong in faith, giving glory to God, the ones like Isaac. Think about that. God is waiting to record it. It's not too late to be firsthand in your dealings with God. But then I want us to think of a young man, and this brings us to another very renowned character, to Joseph. You know, Joseph is introduced in Genesis at the age of seventeen. One of the very striking things about Joseph is this: we read about him at seventeen, we read about him at thirty, and we read about him at a hundred and ten. Three ages are mentioned in connection with the life of Joseph. And at seventeen, he takes his stand as a teenager for God. Maybe you're a teenager here today. Oh, I know it's something to be able to play games well. It's something to be able to be top of the class, to be brawny or brainy, but Joseph was spiritual. He was a man who did not just tell tales on his brothers. That is a very poor and unspiritual interpretation of his stand for God in those days. He was sent out by his father to the sons of Dan and Naphtali, to the sons of Bil- Bilhar, that is Dan and Naphtali, and to the sons of Zilpah, that is Gad and Asher. They were a bad lot. Bilhar, of course, was an immoral woman. She had that affair with Reuben. And when Joseph went out to report on the flock and the doings of his brothers, he found them in sin, and he brought back an evil report, a report of their evil, and he would not stand with them in that evil. He would speak against it. Family loyalty, brotherly loyalty? No, it was loyalty to God, and he would stand with God, and he came back and he brought an evil report. He would tell the truth regardless of the cost, and it cost him almost his life, you remember. That was Joseph at seventeen. Oh, to take our moral stand as teenagers, to have a first-hand faith. And you know, when you take a moral stand because you believe in God, because you believe in his word, because you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and at school or at work, you take a moral stand, and you will not go with the evil, and you'll stand against the evil, and you'll live your life in the goodness of God and expose the evil. Oh yes, you will be persecuted. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. You belong to him. Take your stand at seventeen, Joseph knew that the family of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that was God's bridgehead in the earth. He had a sense of the seed and of the inheritance. He was a young man, but he was old for his age. Yes, Joseph, he had that coat of many colors, or many pieces, as I think the word is, the sheikh's coat. Jacob recognized in this son of his was a boy, not so much a son of his old age, but a son old for his age. And this young man had all the characteristics of, of one who would, would be a prince amongst his people. In this, Jacob's discernment was not mistaken, and he loved him. But as Jacob grew, the promise of these early years was to be made good. God spoke to him. He had first-hand dealings with God. The secret of the Lord, says the scripture, is with them that fear him. And as God had said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? So God did not hide from Joseph the things that he was going to do. And he became a man in the secrets of God. At thirty, he stood morally again. That evil wife of Potiphar, the chief executioner of Pharaoh, sought to seduce him and then malign him. The result is Joseph was capped in irons. They hurt his feet with fetters, the Bible tells us, but thank God, though he came into irons, the iron did not come into his soul. He kept his faith in God and his contact with his Lord. And when at last he was brought back out of the prison and into the court of Pharaoh, and he spoke the words of God in the presence of the king, what was Pharaoh's, uh, reaction to this event? It was this: Can we find such a man as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? What a testimony. But you won't be like that at thirty unless you take your stand, perhaps as a teenager at seventeen. And when we come to him at the end, he's one hundred and ten. Good age, wasn't it? And what's he doing at one hundred and ten? I tell you what he's doing. He's still bringing forth firsthand information from the presence of God, and he says, God will surely visit you, and you will carry up my bones from hence. Isn't that lovely? You see how the seeds we sow in youth bring forth fruit in old age. What a wonderful thing as a young man, as a young person, to have a first-hand faith in God. Not just to believe because your dad believes or your mother believes, but to come out in the open for God, believing on him and daring to take a moral stand in a world of filth and corruption and decay that's on the brink of ruin and on the fringe of hell. Now we come to a middle-aged man, Moses. Moses was middle-aged. You say he was forty. That's right. He was middle-aged. Now, you know, some people come through life and their bread is pretty well buttered. Some have jam on it too. Moses was like that. Oh, I know when he was a baby, he was drawn out of the river. That was God's destiny for him, that he should be the boy that came out of the river. Pharaoh had said, throw all the baby boys of the Hebrews into the river, but it was the one baby that God brought out of the river that desolated the dynasties of Egypt. God is not mocked. And so, whilst God had chosen Moses, it wasn't really until Moses was middle-aged and at the age of forty that Moses chose God. Oh yes, we love him because he first loved us. He sees us in Christ from before the foundation of the world, but there comes a moment that though God has chosen us in Christ, we must choose for ourselves. And this is how it was with Moses. God had chosen him. He was a child of destiny. God had chosen him, but the moment came when he must choose his God. He lived in a two-tier society, the haves and the have-nots. He lived amongst the Egyptians. They had a slogan, you might say, Egypt for the Egyptians, and they were very down on this alien race in their midst, the Hebrews. The Hebrews were made the slaves, and oh, what a discrepancy between these two departments of society. It was a real apartheid situation. And so it was in that kind of situation that Moses lived and grew. And he was an educated man, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in word and deed. For many years later, that's not how he talked. He said, I haven't been eloquent, no, not from yesterday, even to today, he said. Ah, when God puts his stroke on a man, after those long years of discipline in the backside of the desert. He didn't shout about his wisdom, the wisdom of Egypt, nor did he think that he was mighty in word and deed. Ah, how divine discipline changes a man. At forty, though, Moses was formidable. Even in secular history, you can read about Moses and the knowledge that he had and his exploits and all the things that he did in the realm of science and in the realm of things military too. But in the Bible, it's all brought together in this one expression, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. But, though he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he was still very much ignorant of the wisdom of God. And some of us can become so cultured, you know, and so intellectual and so qualified, and yet unable to declare a first-hand message from the living God for the salvation of men. What a tragedy. We're learning with all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and we still can't spiritually speak five words with the understanding. God have mercy upon us. And so it was with Moses. He had not yet come to a firsthand faith, but the wonderful words of the Lord that his mother, and perhaps his father too, we can't just say, but Jochebed and Amram, the parents of Moses, as his mother nursed him, could it not be that she whispered into his ears the wonderful story that we find in Genesis? And so it would seem that the word of God, the seed sown in the young heart in those tender years when he was just a boy, eventually grew and broke the overlaid culture of Egypt and came forth and at last gave forth its fruit for God. And at forty we read, when he was fully forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. God was bringing conviction to him. He could no longer be silent to their cry. And then we read in another place, when Moses was grown, he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens. The thought came into his mind, and now his affections were moved, and he began to sense an identification with his people and their people and his people's God. And when Moses was grown, he went out unto his brethren and he looked on their burdens. It almost infers that he'd never looked on them before. Just imagine living in that place of groaning and crying, so much so that it had gone up into the ears of God. There, that man had been content for decades to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but now it came into his heart to visit his brethren. It would seem he hadn't visited them before. To go out and look upon his brethren and see their burdens. God was working in the heart of Moses in a mighty way. Then we read in the third place, by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. It looks as if he'd been enjoying too. What does it say? By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Oh, here is a work of God in the heart of this man at the age of forty. You know, it's possible to have had virtually a secondhand faith, to have paid lip service to evangelical Christianity for decades, but live with the Egyptians, thinking like the Egyptians, adopting the culture of the Egyptians, this Egyptian world. You know what Egypt is? It's the place, says John in Revelation, where also our Lord was crucified. Jerusalem was called Sodom and Egypt. That's the kind of world we live in. We live in Sodom, and we live in Egypt. It's the place that has no time for Christ, no time for God, no time for his word. It's the place where our Lord was crucified. We've drunk that in, the Egyptian culture, the present evil age, its thought, its spirit, its goals, its ambitions. We've been content to have it so, but at forty, God can speak to a man, and the living seed sown in your heart can break the overlay of that degenerate and unregenerate culture. And so we find with Moses something happened. He becomes conscious of need, the need of his brethren. He becomes conscious of their burdens, and he decides as an act of faith, no, not of fear, as an act of faith to forsake Egypt, to judge it, to acknowledge it for what it is, the enemy of God and his people. And you might say, but I did think that that that Moses ran away, you know? Ah, but whilst we have the account in Exodus of his going forth from Egypt, God looks on the heart. People might say, oh, when he killed the Egyptian, it was found out, and so he ran for it like a scared rabbit. You know, that is a wrong conclusion. God who looks on the heart, he says, by faith, Moses. A faith in what? In whom? He endured as seeing him who is invisible. He looked beyond the panoply and splendor of Egyptian power and culture, and there was a great sense for him of the God of Israel, of the God who is invisible but real, and he put his faith firsthand, personally in that God, and he went forth from Egypt. Fear has legs and runs for its life, but faith has hands, and Moses laid hold on the promises of God, and he endured as seeing him who is invisible. God was more real than Egypt to Moses, and he forsook it, and he went forth, and he fulfilled his destiny. But that great event in his life, where he came to a first-hand faith, took place at forty, in his middle years. You know, a friend of mine, when I was speaking like this some years ago, about this middle period of life and God doing a work in us, then, you know, for him it meant leaving his job, and he had dozens of people under him and a good salary, going out in the work of the Lord. It may not mean that to you, it may, and he's in the work of the Lord today. But what it would mean is this, that if your faith has been merely nominal, or shallow, or unexperimental, simply traditional, oh, when was it last that you acted on moral principle? When was it last that you dared to venture across the frontier of the impossible and lay hold on God? When last did the invisible and the unseen things be to you more real and eternal than anything else? Oh yes, the middle years, we can say we've done it all. You know, we've studied, we've got our job, we've got our promotion, we've got our wife, we've got our children, we've got our home, we've got our car. You come to your forties, maybe you even have grandchildren. You've done it all, yet it may be you've never even really begun to do what God has for you to do to fulfill your destiny in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, when we think of Moses' place in history, amazing words, the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Or Moses was a servant in the house. Christ is over the house. But notice the position in which the Bible puts him, bringing that law that shut us up to Christ. How strategic. Oh, what a word from mercy. So may God bring these words to us. Yes, we need to have a faith begotten by the word of God. It needs to grow until we're full of faith, giving glory to God. But whatever that faith is, first and foremost, it must be. May God bless this message to our hearts and grant us a faith that works. May his name say. Amen. Hymn number four hundred and twenty six, as perhaps the sisters get ready for tea. 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him ore and ore. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more. Four hundred and twenty six. Our blessed God, we thank thee for this session together over thy word concerning living by faith, and we pray that each of us, whether we're older people or young people or middle-aged people, that we might go from these times together today back into our places of responsibility, enabled to say by thy grace, I know in whom I have believed and am not ashamed. O God, we thank thee for the word of that great missionary long years ago when he said, if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for me to make for him. Oh God, make us venturers in faith we pray to do with thee those things which only thou canst do through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.