Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. We are continuing our series today, “Christ Supreme in All Things.” And today we are going to see the faith of a murderer named Moses and a prostitute named Rahab. 

You might think to yourself, the God of the NT is a God of grace and mercy, but the God of the OT was a God of wrath and judgment. Actually no. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he’s always been in the business of rescuing sinners. Abraham was an idol-worshipper in the Ur of the Chaldees. Noah got drunk and undressed, and he embarrassed himself in front of his family. Sarah laughed at God when he said she would have a baby in her nineties. Jacob was a trickster, and he deceived his father and brother. 

Joseph was a prideful little cuss; that’s why his brothers got angry at him and sold him into slavery. All of these men and women in Hebrews 11 are flawed and failure-ridden sinners. And even though we don’t have explicit evidence in the Bible that Enoch or Abel sinned before God. Let me assure you that they did. Because the Bible says that no one is without sin, no not one (Rom 3:10-12). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).  

And if that discourages you or makes you uneasy, let me just give you some good news in that. God only saves sinners. Isn’t that good? That was true in the OT. It’s true in the NT. It’s true also in San Antonio, Texas in 2023. 

“How does God save sinners, Pastor Tony?” Well it’s not by good works or by being perfect. That’s not possible for the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We’ve got sin inside of us that can’t be blotted out by our good works. We’re not saved by good works. OT saints weren’t saved by good works. We’re saved by faith, and we’re saved by grace. Sola fide and sola gratia. By faith alone we are saved. Paul says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). 

You know sometimes I wait till the end of a message to challenge people to put their faith in Christ. But today, I don’t want to wait. If you are here this morning, and you don’t know Christ as your Savior, then let today be a day of salvation for you. God only saves sinners. And let me assure you that you qualify! God saved a murderer and a prostitute in the OT. And God has saved numerous murderers, prostitutes, adulterers, liars, coveters, idolaters, cheats, and other sinners ever since (see Rom 5:8; 1 Cor 6:9-11; 1 Tim 1:15). And if you want God’s grace, if you want God’s forgiveness for your sins, then you do this… you believe. You put your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. You believe in Christ’s death as payment for your sin, and you believe in Christ’s resurrection as victory over death. That is where your salvation is found. 

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So, back to the passage. Hebrews 11:22-31. Let’s talk about the faith of a murderer and a prostitute. Write this down as #1 in your notes. Faith in God is exemplified in four ways in our text today. Here’s the first.  

Our Faith in God is a Faith…

1) that triumphs over fear (11:23) 

The author of Hebrews says in verse 23,

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 

Now the subject of the verb “hidden” is “Moses.” But it’s a passive verb not an active verb. So the faith that is being demonstrated here initially is the faith of Moses’s parents: his mother Jochebed and his father Amram (see Exod 6:20; 1 Chr 6:3). And if you read the book of Exodus, you’ll see that this book in the OT doesn’t start with Moses. It starts with his parents. And actually it starts with a despotic pharaoh who wants to diminish the Israelite population of slaves. So he utters an edict to throw all Hebrew baby boys into the Nile River. The Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, wouldn’t stand for that. And Moses’s parents wouldn’t stand for that. Why?

because they saw that the child was beautiful

Not “beautiful” in the sense of Moses was baby Fabio with high cheek bones who was destined to be a male model. No. The word “beautiful” (Greek: ἀστεῖος) here has the sense that Moses had a divine marker and was made for a divine purpose. And this is a reference to Exodus 2:1-2 where it says, “The woman [Moses’s mother] conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.” The Hebrew word used for “beautiful” or “fine” is the word טוֹב (tov) which generically means “good.” But that word has a wide semantic range. It can mean “delightful” or “precious.” And the idea here is that baby Moses, as all babies are, was “beautiful” in the Lord’s sight. But even more so, Moses was destined for a beautiful and divine purpose. And besides, it was wrong to murder a child in obedience to a despotic king. Even the Hebrew midwives who protected the lives of the Hebrew babies by lying to Pharaoh were considered upright by the Lord.

And the faith of Moses’s parents outweighed their fear of the king and his edict. The faith of Moses’s parents in the God of the Universe dwarfed their fear of Pharaoh. Here’s one way to say it: “They feared God more than man.” Their faith led them to fear God more than man. And they hid that child for three months. Speaking of fearing God more than man, Jesus said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in [Gehenna]” (Matt 10:28). The worst thing that man can do to you is kill you. And if they do that, you win. And because of that, faith in God ultimately triumphs over the fear of man.  

By the way, there’s a time for civil disobedience among followers of God. There are times when our faith requires us to disobey governing authorities. If doctors in our country are mandated to violate the Hippocratic oath or to kill babies in the womb or to prescribe puberty blockers for children or mutilate the flesh of healthy people, they must object. They must obey God rather than men. I think we need the examples of people like Amram, Jochebed, Shiphrah and Puah in our day! 

Now let me say two things here about Hebrews 11:23. This is important. First notice that they had faith in the Lord. But that faith didn’t make them do things that were reckless or falsely courageous. It’s not like they took Moses out into the streets and yelled, “Look at us! Look at us! We’ve got a baby! We’re defying Pharoah’s edict!” No. That would not be wise, and that’s not necessary in demonstrating a fearless faith. They hid the child. And that was enough. And by the way, that would have been enough to get them executed by a tempestuous and tyrannical ruler if they were found out. So they risked their lives with this act of faith. 

The second thing I’ll say is that these parents did something unusual after that three month period was over. They made a basket for the baby and floated him down the river. There’s no mention of that here as an act of faith. I’m not saying that their actions lacked faith. I’m just saying that there’s no mention of that here. And yet, God still used that act to preserve this “beautiful” baby, by means of Pharaoh’s daughter, and to bring up baby Moses in an Egyptian household. That becomes strategic later. We’ll get to that. 

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Go ahead and write this down as #2. Our faith in God is a faith that triumphs over fear. It’s also a faith… 

2) that triumphs over comfort (11:24-26)

And by the way, those who promote the prosperity gospel are really sneaky deceptive about this. They think that faith in God leads to creature comforts and prosperity, when in fact, faith in God leads to the jettisoning of creature comforts in order to obtain eternal rewards. We don’t put our faith in Christ in order to be prosperous and comfortable in this world. God is not a genie in a bottle waiting to grant us whatever we wish for. That’s not Christianity. That’s paganism. True faith in God triumphs over the human desire for comfort. Case in point, look at Moses in the OT.  

And just a nota bene here, we can see examples of this in the NT and throughout church history. Paul went to prison multiple times for his faith to Christ. And he died a martyr’s death. The Apostle Peter got crucified upside down by Emperor Nero for his faith in Christ. The Apostle James got put to death by King Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:1-2). The church father Polycarp was burned at the stake. The two Christian women, Perpetua and Felicity, were killed by wild beasts in a coliseum. The second century theologian and apologist Justin Martyr was beheaded by the Roman Empire for his faith. And we don’t have time to mention Jan Hus, Hugh Latimer, William Tyndale, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jim Elliot and others. 

That’s what bothers me about prosperity preaching. Have they even read the NT? Have they even read church history? They just read the OT and talk about the prosperity of Abraham. Okay, well let’s talk OT. What about Moses? 

Look at verse 24.

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 

Why would he refuse that? Because he was a Hebrew. He was a God-fearing Israelite. Even though he was raised in Pharoah’s household, he was influenced by his Hebrew mother who nursed him and cared for him and told him the old stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

And therefore, Moses…

25 [chose] rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 

Moses could have had riches. Moses could have had luxury. Moses could have had wives and mistresses and concubines. Moses could have enjoyed the benefits of having slaves as an Egyptian prince. He could have lived a life of luxury rejecting God and the people of God. Why would he give that up?

Here’s why. Because… verse 26.

26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 

That, church, is an amazing verse. We can’t move passed this too fast. Let me read it again.

26 [Moses] considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 

Three things about verse 26. First, this is the only reference to Jesus or to Christ in all of Hebrews 11. That’s amazing to me. It’s amazing because the author of Hebrews has spent ten chapters detailing how Christ is greater than anything this world has to offer. He even goes into detail about how Christ is greater than Moses (see Heb 3:1-6)! But now it’s like he goes radio silent on Christ in Hebrews 11 as he’s talking about faith. And then all of a sudden in verse 26, he mentions Christ. And it’s just a little reminder here that Christ is in the background for all this talk about faith with the OT saints. In fact, the author of Hebrews is going to draw a line from “faith” to “Jesus” at the beginning of Hebrews 12. I’ll cover that in a few weeks. 

The second thing I want to say about verse 26 is in reference to the “reproach of Christ.” What does that mean that Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt? Well the word “Christ” in Greek is Χριστός. And it means “anointed one.” It’s synonymous with the Hebrew “Messiah.” And the idea here is that Moses took on the reproach of the “anointed one.” He became in a sense a Christ-like figure. He was a mediator between God and the people. That was no picnic for Moses. He brokered the release of the Israelites from bondage with Egypt. That was no picnic for Moses either. He rescued them from Egypt. He was used by God to defeat the armies of Egypt including their indestructible chariots and horses. He traipsed through the desert with the Israelites listening to their bellyaching and their murmuring. That was no picnic for Moses either. So in that way and others, he shared in the reproach of Christ. 

And thirdly, why would he do this? Why would Moses jettison the power, the prestige, and the treasures in Egypt for this? Why would he turn his back on his adoptive mother and his Egyptian family and the pleasures of sin that he could enjoy in his cushy, comfortable, and copacetic life in Egypt to traipse around the desert with a bunch of whiny Israelites? 

Remember, the Israelites eventually wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt. They wanted to go back to their leeks and onions and cucumbers. Moses never looked back or regretted his move, even though Egypt, for him, wasn’t a place of slavery. It was the lap of luxury. Why didn’t he stay in Egypt? Why didn’t he go back? Why didn’t he pine after the leeks and onions in his original homeland? Because look at the end of verse 26.

26 … [because] he was looking to the reward. 

He was looking forward in faith. He was looking, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for a better country. He had the promises of God in mind, and those outpaced for him the pleasures of Egypt. 

Let me just ask you a question, church. When you read verse 26, what does it make you think of in terms of a NT parallel? What words of Jesus does this verse make you contemplate?

26 [Moses] considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 

Here’s what it triggers in my memory bank. Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19-21).

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So faith in God triumphs over fear. It triumphs over comfort. Write this down as #3. It also triumphs over human power. 

Our Faith in God is a Faith…

3) that triumphs over human power (11:27-29)

Let’s talk about the exodus. I love the exodus! I’ve loved the exodus ever since I first heard Charlton Heston tell Yule Brenner, “Let my people go!” Let see what Hebrews has to say about this.

27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 

Now some people think that this is a reference to when Moses left Egypt the first time and went to Midian. That’s possible, but I don’t know how to square that with the explicit statement in the book of Exodus that Moses was afraid of Pharaoh (see Exod 2:14-15). He was afraid of Pharaoh, because he had killed an Egyptian who was persecuting a Hebrew slave. And word started to circulate about what he had done. And because of that he had to high tail it out of Egypt. 

But here’s the thing—Moses had two “leavings” from Egypt. The first one was in fear. The second one was in faith. So when I read, “By faith he left Egypt,” I don’t see the first leaving; I see the second leaving, when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. 

Because when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt during the exodus, he was supremely confident in the God of the Israelites. And with good reason, because the God of the Israelites had unleashed ten devastating plagues on the Egyptians. Their land was decimated. 

And so Moses wasn’t afraid of the king that he could see. He rightly feared the God who he couldn’t see. Notice also the ironic statement at the end of verse 27.    

for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

Remember Hebrews 11:1? “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Moses’s faith in the unseen, invisible God, was so strong, it’s as if he saw him! He, metaphorically speaking, saw the invisible God. He saw him with the eyes of faith! And Moses left Egypt with a whole bunch of Israelites believing in this God whom they couldn’t see. They saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. But they didn’t see the full manifestation of the invisible God, because no man can see God and live (Ex 33:20; see also Deut 4:12; Rom 1:20; Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17).  

And Moses’s faith continued. Look at verse 28.  

28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 

Can you imagine how ridiculous that Passover would have sounded to an Israelite at that time? God says, “I want you to smear the blood of a lamb on your doorpost in order to keep the angel of destruction from coming and killing your firstborn” (see Exod 12-13). Smear lamb’s blood on our doorpost? Really? 

Now they had just seen God do amazing and terrifying miracles in Egypt, so maybe it didn’t sound ridiculous to them. Nevertheless it was an act of faith. The ones who had their doorposts smeared had their firstborn sons spared. The ones who didn’t, didn’t.

And by analogy and NT fulfillment we would say, the ones who are saved followers of Jesus who have put their faith in the blood of the lamb are spared from experiencing God’s wrath and the penalty of eternal death. The ones who aren’t, aren’t. 

Look at verse 29. The faith continues.

29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 

Now how was this by faith? The Israelites walking on dry ground? You might say, “Yeah right! Maybe Moses had faith! He lifted his hands and split the sea. But the Israelites didn’t have faith.” But yes, they did! They didn’t always have faith in God in the wilderness. But they did then.

Because God told them to step out on that dry land and walk in the midst of the Red Sea. And the Hebrew of Exodus 14 uses the word חוֹמָה (ḥô·mah), which indicates a “great wall” of water to their right and to their left. And they could have died at any moment. And they could have turned back at any moment. But they didn’t. They didn’t try to negotiate with the Egyptians. “O please, please take us back as slaves.” No! They went through that terrifying Red Sea with their wives and their children and all their possessions. Why did they do that? Because God said so. How is that an act of faith? Because faith is believing in God’s Word. God said it. And they did it! 

And that’s why the Egyptians died, by the way. God didn’t tell them to go through the Red Sea. Their chasing after the Israelites was presumptuous. It wasn’t an act of faith in God’s Word. God didn’t want them to chase the Israelites. And so they drowned. 

Now let’s do some theologizing here, because I know that these stories all together create a bit of cognitive dissonance among Christians. Because you might say, “Well Tony, how does faith triumph over human power? You just said earlier that Christians were put to death by human power. You just gave us examples from the NT and church history of people who were put to death.” And some might ask, “Why doesn’t God save us like he did the Israelites? Why doesn’t he split the Red Sea again? Why can’t I walk down to the Gulf of Mexico and call upon God to split the sea for me so that I can walk on dry ground?” 

Those are good questions. And here’s the answer. The faith that God has called us to is a faith in his Word. God told the Israelites that he would split the sea for them. God told the Israelites via Moses, their mediator, to walk through the Red Sea. God hasn’t told us to do that. It’s the difference between what we call descriptive and prescriptive passages of Scripture. The Red Sea is descriptive. It’s not prescriptive for us as Christians. 

But here’s what’s prescriptive about that passage. And we need to think this through, because “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). All Scripture isn’t prescriptive for us. But all Scripture is profitable for us. And here’s how this is profitable. 

God told the Israelites to walk on dry ground. They believed and obeyed his Word. What has God told us to do? What’s his Word to us? God has told us to put our faith in Christ. We put our faith in the past work of Christ. We put our faith in the present work of Christ in our lives. And we put our faith in the future work of Christ, his return. We have faith that is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1).

And that faith triumphs over human power! That faith triumphs over those who even kill our body. And that’s because no matter what they do to this body, they can’t touch this soul. No human power can alter the course of my destiny. They can’t touch that! 

You know some Christians struggle with what theologians call an over-realized eschatology. Have you heard that term before? I call this the “Belinda Carlisle complex” among Christians. Christians think, “Ooh, heaven is a place on earth.” They want it all, and they want it now. They want heaven now. They want full deliverance now. They want rest now. They want pleasure now. They want comfort now. They want a peaceful world now. They want sinlessness now. They want security now. They want everyone to get along now. They want spiritual warfare to cease now. They want a painless existence now. They want hardships to cease now. They want tears to evaporate now. They want heaven now. Listen, Belinda Carlisle lied to you. Heaven is not a place on earth… not this earth as presently constituted. 

And I talked already about the prosperity gospel and how deceptive that is. But you know what, there’s a little prosperity gospel in all of our hearts as Americans. And we’ve got to purge that. We think sometimes when life is hard or when we go through trials or when brothers and sisters of ours die in faith, that somehow God screwed up. Or that God owes me something for being a good Christian!

Some Christians struggle with “Why is my life so hard as a Christian? Shouldn’t it be easy?” No! Look, nobody ever promised you a cushy, comfortable, Christian life. And sometimes trials and persecution in this world are a result of faithfulness to God. Our faith in God will ultimately triumph over human power, but that’s the long game. That’s our eternity. 

Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). And Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). That’s a promise. But he also promised you an eternity with him that is absent of trouble. Put your hope in that. 

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Finally, write this down as #4. Faith in God triumphs over fear. It triumphs over comfort. It triumphs (ultimately) over human power. And finally, our faith in God is a faith…

4) that triumphs over disobedience (11:30-31)

In verse 30, we move away from Moses. But we are tracking historically with the movements of the Israelites. They crossed the Red Sea. They crossed the Jordan. They are being led by Joshua into the Promised Land. And their first course of action in the Promised Land is to take the city of Jericho. 

And the author of Hebrews says, 

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

And once again God gives them a ridiculous command. Walk around the city of Jericho for seven days! They circumnavigated Jericho one time for six days, and then on the seventh day they did it seven times (see Josh 6:1-27). So thirteen times total, like NASCAR and the Daytona 500, they took multiple laps around the city. And they did it. They believed. And sure enough, God was good to his word and the walls fell down in Jericho.

By the way there were moments of disobedience in the midst of this great act of faithful obedience. If you remember Moses got barred from the Promised Land because of his disobedience. God said speak to the Rock, but he struck it (Num 20:10-13). That caused him to be on the outside of the Promised Land looking in. 

Moses’s brother, Aaron, also was disobedient and was unable to enter the Promised Land. A whole generation of Israelites were unbelieving and disobedient to God and so they had to wander in the desert for forty years. Only Joshua and Caleb were allowed from that generation to enter in. Even after Jericho, there was this knucklehead named Achan who disobeyed God and took plunder from the city of Jericho (see Josh 7:1-26). He got punished for that as well as the Israelites as a whole. 

The Jewish Christians that the author of Hebrews was writing to, they knew all about this. They didn’t need a history lesson on disobedience. What they needed was an encouragement to believe and obey God’s Word even when it’s hard. And Jericho is the perfect example of that.

But there’s also this amazing example at the end of this passage. In this list of sixteen men and women who are recorded in the “Hall of Faith” there’s probably no one more surprising than Rahab. She is the most unexpected “Hall of Famer” in this list. Not just because she’s a woman. That’s surprising. But Sarah’s on this list too. What’s really surprising about her is two things: 1) her ethnicity and 2) her profession. 

31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, 

That statement about the “disobedient” is a reference to the wicked people of Jericho. But you can add Achan to that list too. In fact as you read the book of Joshua, it’s amazing how the author of Joshua juxtaposes side by side the stories of Achan and Rahab. Here’s this respectable Jewish man who disobeys God and gets destroyed. Here’s this unrespectable, Gentile woman who puts her faith in God and is saved.

Can I just say, “God is no respecter of persons”? Jesus told the religious leaders of his day, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matt 21:31). And for the benefit of those of you who are here this morning, let me say, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Anyone and everyone is welcome to put their faith in Christ no matter what your background is. It doesn’t matter your age, your race, your gender, or what you’ve done in this life. It doesn’t matter the color of your skin or which side of the tracks you grew up on. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The Bible also says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). And the great OT example of a Gentile sinner saved by faith is Rahab. 

31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. 

Rahab, if you remember tied a scarlet cord in her window (Josh 2:19, 21). That was a sign of her faith. Actually that action was preceded by her actions to house the Hebrews spies and protect them from harm. Rahab said to the Hebrew spies in Joshua 2:9, “I know the Lord has given you this land.” That was her statement of faith. The apostle James also references Rahab in his letter. And he speaks about her faith demonstrated through obedience (James 2:25). Rahab, unlike the other people of Jericho and the “Achans” among the Israelites, was a person of faith and obedience, not disobedience.

And I want to say this, as well, because this is important. Rahab was a prostitute when she was saved. But she didn’t stay a prostitute. Rahab like others in the OT era was brought into the nation of Israel. And she became part of the people of God. So much so, that she actually married a Hebrew man and had Hebrew babies. 

How do I know that? Because Rahab is listed in the genealogy of David. She’s the mother (or grandmother?) of Boaz. She’s even—brace yourself for this!—listed in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:5). “Jesus has a Gentile in his genealogy, Pastor Tony!” Yes, he does. In fact, he had at least three: Ruth the Moabitess, Rahab the Canaanite, and Tamar the Canaanite (see Matt 1:1-16). 

“Jesus has a prostitute in his genealogy, Pastor Tony?” Yes, he does. One of Jesus’s ancestors was a “madam” in a bordello. She was a sinner. But let me let you in on a little secret. Jesus has a lot of sinners in his genealogy. In fact, Jesus has only sinners. So just as a review for this message—Jesus has only sinners in his genealogy, and Jesus only redeems sinners. That’s good news for us, isn’t it? 

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I’ll close with this and then we can take communion together. In the year 1759, a London pastor named Joseph Hart wrote a hymn called “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” It goes like this:

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,

weak and wounded, sick and sore;

Jesus ready stands to save you,

full of pity, love, and power.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,

lost and ruined by the fall;

if you tarry till you’re better,

you will never come at all. 

I will rise and go to Jesus!

He will save me from my sin.

By the riches of his merit,

there is joy and life in him.