come into the life of Moses. I'm delighted to do so this morning. Who doesn't know the life of Moses? You can go anywhere even in Northern Ireland and everyone will at least recognise something about this man, Moses. This is the man who led Israel out of Egypt and carried them into the Promised Land. This is the man who saw miraculous dealings there in Egypt with a great and mighty God. Moses served. But the Lord records the life of Moses for our instruction and for our learning. He really had a remarkable life. Right from his birth to his death, there's nobody else like him. That's the truth. Think about the circumstances just for a moment of his death. You find them here in our reading in Acts 7. It speaks about his birth and those immediate events. Remember how he was born? He was born exactly when there was the most intense wave of persecution upon the people of Israel and Egypt. There had been persecution. Their backs were being broken and beaten as they went to a labour and build for the Egyptians, some great buildings, but that persecution came to a real apex just when he was born, when the declaration came to slaughter the male children. But, thankfully, thankfully, the very midwives who were given the responsibility of slaying the children, the males, when they were born, they couldn't do it. God had worked in their hearts. These were pagan women. These were Egyptian women. Brought up in the Egyptian culture. And I don't know, maybe they had spent time with Israelites. Maybe they had come to some degree of faith. We're not told that. I'm not sure. They certainly were blessed of God. They were used of God. But they wouldn't lift a hand to harm the children. It couldn't help, you know, while I was thinking of that this week, Could not think about our own health service. We're thankful that there are many men and women, midwives and medical professionals who vehemently oppose and stand against and in many ways in their workplaces are persecuted and ridiculed because of their clear stand against abortion. But I think, you know, here's something for us to pray over, that the Lord would raise up more midwives like these Egyptian midwives. They feared, feared to put their hand against these little born children. But in such a day, Moses was born. But you know, once he was born, of course the danger didn't go away. He was born, he was preserved, but there was still a threat. Because not only were children to be killed from the womb, but there was several months and years of a window to kill male children. So they kept this little boy in their house until the point came, they were forced, as the scripture says here, they were forced to cast him out of their own home. Big challenge. And what did they do? Think about this. Think about this for a moment and we'll come back to it all being well in a moment or two here. But think about this. Take your little born son. In this case it was their third born child. There was Aaron and Miriam and then Moses. And here's little Moses, a little three month old babe. And they put him into a basket. They put him into a basket and they set him on the river and they pushed him out into the river. And the way he sails in the river, and I'm not sure what the wildlife was like in that river. I am pretty confident it's not like the wildlife here in Northern Ireland. There would have been more than ducks and billards, all right? There would have been perhaps beasts in the water there. Maybe the crocodile, maybe the hippopotamus, whatever. There were many dangers. Apart from the danger of the water itself. But in the providence of God, that little basket happened to find its way right into Pharaoh's area. It's all Pharaoh's area. But near where he lived, right at the very second, the very moment where Pharaoh's daughter was bathing herself. And in the midst of all the bulrushes, everything that's happened in the river, she spotted. That little basket made of bullrushes. Even that's remarkable. It was well disguised. But she spotted it and she opened it up. And she could have been horrified at what she'd seen. She could have been enraged. She should have cast it off as filthy. But she fell in love with the little child in the basket. And so providentially, he was there and Moses was raised in a royal home. That's remarkable. slave at birth, and by three months, he was a prince. Won't you see how God marvelously worked in this man's life? And then he grew up, he went into the wilderness, you know all the circumstances, he then led a group of approximately two million people. And when I say two million, I mean at any one time, Moses approximately had two million people. That's bigger than the whole province of Northern Ireland. But remember, All those adults died and a new generation grew up. So technically, he would have led between three and four million different individuals through the wilderness, but only two million at any point. An exceptional man. And then, of course, his death even becomes more exceptional. Do you know how Moses died? Sure you do. The Lord told him to come up into a particular mountain. And Moses ascended that mountain. And when he got there, he saw the promised land that the people of Israel were about to enter into. And at that moment, God took him. God said that. You'll see the land, and then I'll take you. And Moses died on his own, on the mountain. And do you know what Deuteronomy 34 verse 6 says? God buried Moses. That is some funeral. No man to this day knows where Moses is buried. We don't know where a sepulcher is. That's the exact words of scripture. No man knows his sepulcher to this day. God buried Moses. Why was that? Well, God buried Moses. So the people wouldn't worship him. So they wouldn't set a shrine there to come and their maybe yearly vigils and come and pray to this man who's dead. No, no. God buried him because the Bible isn't about Moses. The Bible is about God. And that's very important. Like I said earlier on there, here we are on the 12th of July. And the reality is people worship King Billy. That's the reality. People worship King Billy. And listen, I will be the first to acknowledge that he was undoubtedly, obviously, if even stated, he was undoubtedly instrumental in the hand of God in bringing about a great victory. I'm in no way decrying that. He obviously was a skillful, intellectual and brave soldier and king. But think about King Billy for a moment. We're told he was five foot six. That would be very small for a soldier. Five foot six. His wife, I just learned, was actually, you know, she was Mary, she was also royal then. Mary was five foot 11. So his wife was over five inches taller than him. She towered over her husband. And yet, of course, he loved her dearly and she was very much loyal to him. In many ways, he was small for a soldier, he was asthmatic, and the Lord used him as an instrument in his hand. The Lord can use, as we read earlier on in Acts 7, the Lord can use a bush. The Lord can use you and me. You see, the victory, sorry, the praise for victory goes to God this morning. And we're thankful for the instruments that he used, for sure, and the many lives that were sacrificed. But God gave the victory. Moses was buried out of sight so people wouldn't worship him, so that people would worship God. But, like I said, the life of Moses is given for our instruction and for our understanding to learn and to please God. I want you to see here then how every stage of Moses' life is recorded. Right from Moses' birth straight through to his death, his life was recorded. That's not The case of very many people, even Elijah, that great man of God, he came out of nowhere. We know nothing about his childhood, but yet Moses, we know virtually everything from his birth right to his death. Yet, as remarkable and all as this man Moses was, he was only a man, that's the fact. He wasn't some kind of superman, he was only an ordinary man. So, you know, what makes Moses so outstanding? Why is he so well known to this very day? Is it because of his education? He was well educated, wasn't he? Was it because of his stature? He was exceeding fair from birth and nourished up, he only got stronger. So he would have had all of those things. What quality made Moses a cut above every other man of that day right to this day? Because the Bible makes it very clear, out of all the men on earth, He was the most noteworthy. God says that about him. He was the most noteworthy. The Bible also says, from Adam to Moses, there was not a man like him. And there wasn't a man like Moses until the coming of Christ. Moses, do not underestimate the significance and the noteworthy excellency of this man. But what, this is the question I really want to deal with this morning. This is the heart of this. What made Moses so significant? What quality set him apart? And let me tell you, the answer might surprise you this morning. What set Moses apart will surprise you. Take your Bibles. And the answer is very clear. Go to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews. Chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Let's go to verse 23, well we'll just read verse 23 as well just for the context. Here's Moses parents actually. It talks about his upbringing. Verse 23, By faith Moses when he was born was head three months of his parents. So his parents by faith. It's a great wee snippet of his parents The depth of their character, by faith they had their son three months because they saw he was a proper or a goodly child and they were not afraid. See that? Not afraid of the King's commandment. Now, verse 24, here men and women is the undeniable, unmistakable key to Moses being a cut above all the rest. Verse 24, by faith, Moses. And there it is. That is the one thing that separates Moses from absolutely everybody else. His faith. It wasn't because he was better educated. It wasn't because he was physically superior to everyone else. No, it was his faith. Faith, men and women, in God, is the, the decisive, fundamental, indispensable quality which is necessary for serving God. Do not undermine faith. It is, and I'll say it again, the decisive, fundamental, indispensable quality necessary for serving God. Without faith in God, you'll do nothing. And you know what faith means. In its most simple form, it just means trusting God. It just means taking God at His word. When God says something, you do it. End of story. I mentioned this, and for those of you who were there on Wednesday nights, I suppose I was priming the pump for this, and you know what Wednesday night was about. It was about obedience and serving God, and the benefits of that. Well, here's Moses! And he just did what God said! And I love that! Moses had a real child-like faith. For example, you know, you take a child in your arms, And you tell a child, put out your arms and I'll catch you. You threw up in the air. And the child doesn't analyze it. It just puts its arms out. There's just automatic obedience. A childlike faith. Do what you're told. That's not rocket science. But that's the key to serving God. Abel. Look at these other men of faith. Go home today and feel free to read Hebrews 11. And look at all these men and women of faith, and what's the one thing that separates them? Well, obviously it's their faith. They just trust in God. Look at Abel, verse 4. By faith, Abel, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Now why was Abel's sacrifice more excellent than his brother's? The answer's blinding obvious. Abel just did what God said. Cain was thinking and analyzing, how can I do it a different way? Innovation and change and he's doing it his way. Faith is just doing what God says. Look at verse 5. Enoch by faith. Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. Here's this man who had a remarkable testimony that says that at the end of the verse. Before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. How did Enoch live? You go back in the Old Testament it says that Enoch walked with God every day. Every day of his saved life, what that means is for 300 plus years, here is a man who every day just did what God said. And God took him out of this world, he never died. He pleased God. What did he do? Was he an intellectual? Was he a super evangelist? No, he just did what God said. Look at Noah, can you get a more emphatic and clear example of faith in Noah? Verse 7, By faith Noah, Noah being warned of God of things not seen. Get the language there. Go to verse 1. When it talks about things not seen, you can't see it. You can't grab it. And yet you trust in it. That's what faith is. Verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Verse 7. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen, as yet moved with fear, prepared an ark. Forget that. Moses built an ark. Why? Because of his faith. He just did what God said. And you know, it's just worthwhile pausing for a minute here. Think about the ark. The ark, it's length was 300, it's breadth was 50, and it's height was 30 cubits. That translates to something like 155 meters long, breadth 26 meters, and height 16 meters. Let me just, you know, try and give you a picture of that. The length of it is approximately from this pulpit right to the co-op on the Lynn Road. Okay, that's approximately its length. The breadth of the ark would have been half the breadth of our church car park. The height of the ark, if you go down to the Lahorna apartments there, and I was just looking at them this week to make sure I'm right here, but you go to the top apartments there, you stand and gaze up at that, that's how high the ark was, all right? From here to the co-op, half the breadth of the church car park and the height of the Lahorna apartments. It was a monstrosity. It was massive. And yet Noah built this on dry land. Had anybody in those days even seen a book before? I don't know, they probably did. But not in the middle of where Noah was living. Noah built an ark in dry land. No water nearby. Why? Because of faith. He just did what God said. And that's why every book in this chapter is mentioned. Moses likewise just did what God said. Think about that for a minute now. I want to apply this here for a moment or two. I'm nowhere near my message yet, to be honest. I'm still in the introduction. But we'll do the introduction this morning and that'll have to suffice. But let's think about this for one moment here. We'll apply what we have done before we fly on. These men just did what God said. Remember, for example, we went through Matthew 5. Remember all those things that Matthew 5 told us? And probably the one that's most famous is later in the Beatitudes sermon. And the Lord now is beginning to deal with the Ten Commandments. And the Lord said, thou shalt not lust. That's what the Lord said in the Beatitudes there. You shall not commit adultery with your eye. So, child of God, that's it. You don't have to examine that and question it and look for, you know, what exactly does that mean and try and find loopholes and ways round it. No! You just don't do it, end of story. And every time you commit lust with your eye, you make no doubt about it, that is sin. Sin, sin, sin. Clear cut. And every time you do that you grieve the Holy Ghost and you build a barrier between you and your relationship with God. You are the one pushing God away because of your sin. Every time you sin it's the opposite to faith and you are causing an obstacle between you and God and preventing blessing and preventing God using you. The Lord went on to say, but hate, thou shalt not hate. Every time you hate someone in your heart, in your mind, that is a sin and you're preventing the blessing of God. Now the Lord says, what he tells you to do, you just do it. No questions asked. What about the Sabbath day? The Lord said, keep the Sabbath day holy. Now, you might think to yourself, well, you know, I know the Bible says that, but I'm busy. I'm busy all week. It's the only day I get off. Can I not have one day off? Yes. But take it some other day. This is God's day. And people will come and say, well, you know, I know other Christians who don't take the Sabbath day off. I don't care. God says keep the Sabbath day holy. And with a childlike faith, let's just obey. This could not be clearer. This is what set Moses apart. When God spoke, Moses obeyed. Listen, when God told Moses, take your rod and plunge it into the sea there and I'll separate the sea. What did Moses do? He just did it. You know what, I have to laugh at times at Moses because, do you understand what he did? He went into Egypt, one man. At this stage, largely forgotten about, he comes into the land of Egypt and he says to Pharaoh, Pharaoh, I'm taking the people of Israel out. Two million people. I'm going to lead them out. Why? Because God told me to. And so eventually the 10 plagues came. And you know, you have to just for a moment analyse Once the ten plagues were finished and Pharaoh said to Moses right you get out of here you and your people go go and get out of here and go and Moses says the people right we're going pack your bags get your stuff let's go and Moses began to walk out of Egypt and Moses hasn't a clue where he's going hasn't a notion Hadn't a baldy clue. I find that remarkable. Two million people and all he can do is just start to walk and hope for the best. And he gets to the edge of the sea. And he doesn't know what's going to happen next. The Lord never told him. He just did what God said. And God said, take your rod and put it on the ocean. And it opened up. And every step of Moses' life was just doing what God said. So that when he came to the end of his life, such a life of obedience and faith that he lived, God himself buried Moses for fear that people would worship Moses. What set Moses apart? Faith. Just do what God said. Really quickly, I know we read Acts 7. Let's just finish off with Hebrews 11 here. Let me point you a couple of verses and then we'll close. See here Moses' faith. Verse 24. By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And what that verse is saying is this, that by faith he refused the offers of the world and chose to live by faith. The world had offered him royal life here, the world had offered him great riches and wealth, but he forsook it all by faith. He chose faith instead of sight. Verse 27, by faith he forsook Egypt. Not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. You see, Moses forsook Egypt because he believed in God. That's why he ran. It's because of faith. Verse 28. Through faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. So Moses obeyed the ordinances of God just because God told him to do it. He kept the ordinances of his day. That's like you and me, we just keep God's ordinances. Well that's the Lord's table, Sabbath day, baptism, we just do it by faith. We just do it because God says so. Verse 29, by faith. they pass through the Red Sea. Now it says they, that's the people of Israel, but remember they are being led by Moses. Moses is the one walking before them. And so by faith, Moses led them over the Red Sea. So, as I conclude my introduction here, what is, or what was the key to Moses' great life? Was it his education? No. Was it his stature? No. It was very simply the fact. He just did whatever God said. Every step of the way, it was Moses' faith in God that enabled him to obey. Just in preparation for when we do come back, you can remember this, that Moses lived for 120 years. And so his life is very simply divided into three parts. His first 40 years as a prince of Egypt. His second 40 years as a shepherd in the wilderness. And his last 40 years as a leader of Israel. He was the mighty, the man mightily used of God. That's really the subject then for this whole story. A man mightily used of God.