Adrian Rogers - Victory of a Mother's Faith
Would you be finding Hebrews chapter 11? Hebrews chapter 11. We're talking today about the "Victory of a Mother's Faith". People are wondering, "What are we going to do with this generation? How are we going to rescue this generation"? I read this in the newspaper. It says this. The Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency has spent more than one billion over the last two decades, one billion, that is, dollars. Not million, but billion over the last two decades on programs to try to keep kids from turning to crime. And this article says, basically, it's just not working. "Despite all the years and all the money, we seem to know little more about preventing youth violence today than we did in 1974, and unless we try some new approaches that we know will make a difference, we will hit, in only a few years, with a youth crime wave that will make today's environment be called nostalgia".
He said if we don't do something in a few years there is coming a tidal wave that will cause us to look back on these days as the good days. Think about it. And he says we've got to find something new. He's wrong. We've got to go back to something old. We've got to go right back to the Word of God and to the truth of God's Word, in all due respect.
I want you to read this Scripture. Hebrews chapter 11 beginning now in verse 23 through verse 27, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandments. 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, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he," that is, Moses, "forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible".
Let me tell you what I have to say today in one sentence. The most powerful and influential force on earth today is the faith of a godly mother. The most powerful and influential force on earth today is the faith of a godly mother. And I want you to get that in your heart and in your soul as we think about the "Victory of a Mother's Faith". In Hebrews chapter 11, God lists all the heroes of the faith, and in that list is a woman whose name is Jochebed. Now, you don't read it here; she's just called the mother of Moses. Her name is Jochebed. It literally means, I looked up the name. It means Jehovah is glorious, and what a beautiful name and what a wonderful woman was the mother of Moses, Jochebed.
Now, in the eyes of the world she was just a hopeless, helpless, Hebrew slave down in Egypt, but her claim to fame is that she raised up a son who shook the world. Her son's name was Moses, and the Bible says she did it by faith. Look at it again, Hebrews 11:23, "By faith," the Bible says, "Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child". When God has a big job to do, faith gets the order. God says in His Word in Matthew 9 verse 29, "According to your faith be it unto you". Not according to your fame, not according to your feeling, not according to your fortune, not according to your friends, but according to your faith be it unto you. And if you're a mother today, I want you to listen with all of your heart, and I want the prayer to God to rise up from your heart this way. "Oh, God, Oh, God, make me, above all things, a mother of faith".
Again, the most powerful and influential people on earth are mothers of faith. Five things I want you to see in the Scripture that we have this morning. And the very first thing I want you to see is what I'm going to call faith's vision that sees a promise in the Word of God. Faith's vision that sees a promise in the Word of God. Now, the Word of God is full of promises to mothers. The Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse 23 that, "Moses' parents saw that he was a goodly child". Now, some translate that a beautiful child, a fair child, a proper child. It all means that he was a very fitting and a very special child, and when they looked at their child they did not see him with ordinary eyes. Every mother thinks her baby is beautiful, but this goes beyond that. Taylor's translation, "That God had given them an unusual child".
That is, they saw their child through the eye of faith and through the Word of God. Now, nobody can have faith apart from the Word of God because the Bible says in Romans chapter 10 and verse 17, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". And so, somehow, as they saw Moses, and as they took the Word of God, God put these things together in the crucible of His love and the mystery of His will, and God said this child is special. You know, the Bible had prophesied that they would be in the land of Egypt, for 400 years and then God would raise up a leader to lead them out. And I believe when they saw this little baby the Holy Spirit of God took the Word of God and said, "He is the one, he's the one. He is special. He is a beautiful child, a proper child, a special child".
But now, let me say this about your child. Every child of God is special. Every child of God has a very wonderful plan laid out by the will and the purpose of God. Not just Moses, but every child. I was a special child. You are a special child. There are no children that are not the object of God's love but what God has that child in the very center of His plan. I can remember when my first son was born, whose name is Steve. I can remember going home to the little house trailer where Joyce and I were living when I was going to college, getting down on my knees, and dedicating that child to Jesus, even before I had a chance to do it with Joyce, though we have done it together before the baby was born. But praying by myself and saying, "Oh, God, I give You my son, Steve, and I give You myself anew and afresh, to be a man of God and Lord, to set an example for my son".
And I've done that with all of our children, as has my precious wife. Every child of God is special. Let me give you mothers a verse that means much to Joyce and myself. It's Psalm 112 verses 1 and 2, "Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments. His seed," that is, his children, his descendants, "shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the upright shall be blessed". I want to be upright so that my children will be blessed. Joyce is a godly mother and her children are blessed. And what we have to do when God gives us these little children, is to look at those children and say, "God, they are beautiful, they are wonderful, they are a gift from God". Sometimes they are exasperating. A father and his son were having an argument, and the son said to the father, "Well, I didn't ask to be born in this family". And the dad said, "If you had've, the answer would have been no"!
Well, sometimes we feel that way. But folks, they are a gift from God and we need to look at them as a great bundle of potentiality. That's what Moses' mother and father did. They saw he was a goodly child, a proper child. But they have to be developed. You know, there's an old story of a man who came to a little village. He drove up and found one of the villagers there and he said, "This is a beautiful little village. Any great men born here"? The man said, "No, just babies". Nobody is born a great man; he has to be made a great man by mama's prayers and daddy's faith and instruction. So the very first thing, mothers, I want you to see is what we're going to call faith's vision; faith's vision that gets a promise from the Word of God, and there're many in the Word of God for your child.
Here's the second thing I want you to see. Not only faith's vision, they saw that he was a goodly child, a proper child, but faith's venture that turns the promise into action. This is so very important. It's not just enough for you to say, "Well, I'm going to trust my child to Jesus, and I'm just going to pray a prayer over my baby, and then all will be all right". Look at the Scripture, "By," Hebrews 11 verse 23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents".
Now, I'm going to tell you a little more of the background of that in just a moment, but look at the verb, "He was hid," that is, when they had faith, they did something about that faith. True faith, true faith, listen carefully, must have action in it or it is not faith at all. Now, Pharaoh had said that all of the little boy babies that were born were to be cast into the River Nile and drowned, because the little Jewish children were populating so much and Pharaoh was getting afraid of them, so there went out an edict, a death warrant for the death of all little boy babies, and when Jochebed and Amram had little Moses they got a word from God, and rather than letting the authorities know that this boy baby had been born they hid the baby, and they hid the baby for three months.
Now, we're going to say something more about that, but the point is this, that because they had faith, they did all that they could have done to spare the life of this little baby. Now, there're three things that they might have done. They might have just had fatalism. They just said, "Well, you know, what will be, will be. We'll just trust God, and God, if You want him spared You spare him. If You want him to die, God, let him die. We're just trusting Your will". Folks, that's not faith, that's fatalism. That's the same thing as saying, "Well, I'm sick. If God wants to heal me, He can heal me. I'm not going to the doctor". You ought to go to the doctor unless God tells you not to. Jesus said in Mark 2 verse 17, "Those who are sick need a doctor". That's what Jesus said. Not the well people, sick people need a doctor.
You say, "Well, I'm just going to trust God to feed me". Well, fine. Pray every day; "Give me today my daily bread". But the same Bible says in Second Thessalonians 3 verse 10, "If a man won't work, neither should he eat". That's what the Bible says. And, you say, "Well, I'm going to trust my child to Jesus. I'm just going to give my child to God". That is fine, but if you don't do something, if you don't put that faith into action, it is not really faith at all. Put this verse in your margin. James chapter 2 verses 17 and 18, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, 'Thou hast faith, and I have works,'" then James says, "'Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.'"
If you want your children to be mighty for God you had better get to work. Fatalism is not the answer, and fanaticism is not the answer. I'll tell you what else they might have done. They might have said, "Well, let's just show God how much we trust Him. Let's just take little baby Moses and throw him in the Nile and see if the crocodiles get him, to see if he drowns. God, here he goes. Lord, take care of him. You see our faith". That's not faith; that's fanaticism. That's like these people who pick up snakes and handle snakes to show God how much faith they have. It is not fatalism. It is not fanaticism. It is faith, faith that works.
If you want your child to be mighty for God you had better go to work. Moses' mother and father did something about little Moses. Let me give you a verse. Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6, "Train up a child, train up a child in the way that he should go and, when he is old, he will not depart from it". If you were to look up training in the dictionary you would find it to be described as something like this: training is to prepare for a contest, to instruct by exercise, to drill, to form to a proper shape, to discipline for use.
Now, that's what God wants us to do with our children. We train them. John Bramlett, one of the greatest athletes to ever be born in the Mid-South, a mighty man of God, but a mighty man on the football field. I'll guarantee you that John Bramlett did not learn about football by hearing somebody talk about football or somebody teaching him about football. He had to be trained, no matter how much natural ability he had. He had to be trained. And the Bible does not say teach your children, though you ought to. It says to train them. Are you training your children? Are you teaching, pleading, acting? Do you have your child in a Bible-preaching church? Is your child in a Bible-preaching church? Is your child enrolled in Sunday School? Are you, by example and by precept in your home, training your child?
I watch people train their hunting dogs and it's occurred to me that they spend more time, some dads, training their dogs than they do their kids. Then they tie up the dog at night and let the kids run wild, and they wonder what's gone wrong. You need to train a child. Real faith is belief with legs on it. There's a difference between training and teaching. Listen, you can teach your children what is right, but if you neglect to train your children, somebody else will come alone and teach them something else. A child, who is taught the way he should go, can hear other teaching and he'll depart. And that's what happens a lot of times.
People say, "Well, I don't understand what's wrong. We've told them right and wrong. We've had them in Sunday School. We taught them in our home and then they went off to the university and they just seemed to rebel against everything". You know that what is wrong with you? You taught them, but you did not train them. When they are trained, when this becomes a part of their life. "Train them in the way that they should go, and when they are old they are old they'll not depart from it". Proverbs 22 verse 6. I heard about a little kid who was on his tricycle, riding round and round and round the block. A man stopped him and said, "Son, where are you going in such a hurry"? He said, "I'm running away from home". But he was just going round and round and round the block where his house was. He said, "Well". He said, "You're just going in a circle". He said, "Well, I know it," but he said, "mama won't let me cross the street". Even in his rebellion there is the restraining nature of a mother's love and a mother's training.
Now, here's the third thing. First of all, there is faith's vision; it gets a word from God. It gets a promise from God. It sees the child as a gift from God. It stands on the Word of God, Psalm 112 verse 2 that says, "The generation of the upright shall be blessed". And then that vision is turned to a venture. You do something about it. You put that faith into action, moms and dads. And then I love this, faith's vision and faith's venture results in faith's valor; they were not afraid. Look at it in Hebrews 11 verse 23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment".
Now, the king said these little babies were to be killed, but they were not afraid of his commandment. You know, that's a wonderful thing. I have people today say to me, "Pastor Rogers, these are such fearful and awful days. Do you think we ought to be having children"? Yes! Yes! The people who ought to be having children above all are godly people. We ought to be raising up in this day and in this age a godly seed, a godly generation, to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ. And moms and dads, listen to your pastor. Do not be afraid. Take a position of faith for your boys and girls. Now, you cannot imagine. You say, "But Pastor, these are such desperate days in which we live".
What do you think the days were when little Moses was born? They were slaves down in Egypt. Pharaoh had said all the little boy babies are going to be killed. They were seemingly helpless slaves. Those were dangerous days and these are dangerous days. Let me just talk to you a little bit about these days. You know the Bible says in Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1, "In the last days perilous times shall come". That word perilous is only used but one other time in the New Testament and it's translated exceedingly fierce. These are exceedingly fierce days. I pick up the newspaper and read and I'm going to tell you the truth, the honest truth before God. If I did not know the Lord I would be a first-class pessimist. I would. Look around at the situation.
You see liberalism in so many churches and many children today, and my heart breaks for them, have mothers and dads that attend liberal churches. The church is empty of faith, futile in purpose, and dangerous to be around. It would be far better for a child not to go to church at all than to go to a Bible-doubting, Christ-denying, so-called Christian church. They ought not to even go. And I'm amazed at some parents who don't even want their children in a Bible-preaching, Christhonoring, conservative, and I'm not talking about politically conservative, I'm talking about Biblically conservative church that takes a stand for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. There are parents who will send their children across the nation to get a good education, and will not drive across town to get them in a good church. There are wonderful churches. This is one, but only one. You find a good church and get in it. And friend, if you're in a liberal church, get out of it, just get out of it.
You say, "Well, grandma went when it was a good church, and grandma is buried in the backyard". Well, she'd get up and get out if she could! If the pastor does not believe the Bible is the Word of God, if he does not believe that Jesus Christ is the virgin born Son of God, if he does not believe in the blood atonement, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, don't put your children in that kind of a church. It's dangerous. And not only do we have liberalism in churches, we have humanism in the schools.
Now, I'm so grateful for godly Christian school teachers, many of them in the public system. They're fighting a battle, but many of them are good and godly people. And I know that everything is not right in all the private schools, I know that, but I know that humanism has infiltrated our schools and humanism is just a camouflaged way of saying atheism. The name has been changed to protect the guilty. Look at what's happening. I want to ask you a question. Why is it permissible today to have ear-splitting rock music played during the lunch hour in the cafeteria, but students are not even allowed to bow their head voluntarily and thank God for the food? Why is it that evolution can be taught while creationism cannot be taught in our schools? Well, they say creationism is religion.
Well, I want to tell you that evolution is religion in reverse. It is trying to explain everything apart from God. Why is it that amoral sex education can be taught in schools? Let me tell you this. I believe in sex education, if it is taught with Biblical values, but sex education, apart from Biblical values, will only and always work for harm and not for good. What happens is this. Teenagers are taught, and it's assumed that they are going to be sexually active, so they are taught how to have a sexual relationship without getting infected by a disease or having a baby. And that gives implicit approval for these things unless it is taught by values that God's Word says in Exodus 20:14, "Thou shalt not commit adultery". God's Word says, "Flee fornication". And then you look in society. I'm talking about these dangerous days in which we live. Our society is pleasure mad.
Look at what the beverage alcohol industry is doing. You just have to back off and take off your hat and give the devil his due. They're doing a wonderful job of seducing our children. They spend millions of dollars every year advertising, and that advertising, though they deny it, is aimed at the youth, especially at the college-age student. I read something that broke my heart. 95% of college students drink beer; 95%. And you know what the beer baron says? "Well, that's okay. Teach them to drink in moderation". They say, "It's like overeating. You ought not to overeat, and you ought not to drink too much". Well, that sounds good, and you certainly ought not to overeat, but have you ever heard of anybody arrested for driving fat?
Shakespeare said, "What fools men are to put that in their mouths that steals their brains away". I want to ask you a question. What would happen if one out of every 15 airliners crashed that took off? What would the FAA do if one out of every 15 crashed? Did you know that one out of every 15 people who begin to drink will be a problem drinker, an alcoholic? One out of every 15. What fools we are. Can we teach our children that the industry has designs upon their lives? What they are is money grabbers. They don't care for your boys and your girls. And then look at what they're facing on television today. To me the most dangerous thing on television is a situational comedy; the situational comedy that laughs at drunkenness, that laughs at sexual perversion, because the devil knows what you laugh at you cannot take seriously again.
And in the movies, do you know what beverage is served more than any other beverage? 10 to 1 is alcohol, 10 to 1! And 88% of the sexual activity that is shown on television is illicit sexual activity outside of marriage. Only 12% of sexual activity alluded to is within the bounds of monogamous marriage. It's frightening for our kids out there. It's dangerous. But here's the thing. Moses' parents looked past the king of Egypt to the King of Kings. And the Bible says in Hebrews 11:23, "And they were not afraid of the king's commandments". There were perilous times in Moses' day. These are perilous times, but thank God for mothers and fathers of faith. Faith's vision gets a promise from God. Faith's venture begins to act upon that. But, Faith is belief with legs on it. Faith's valor; they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
Now, I want you to see faith's victory. Look, if you will, beginning in Hebrews 11 verse 24. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter". Well, who was Pharaoh's daughter and what happened? Well, you remember that little Moses was hidden in the bulrushes and they made a little ark. After three months they couldn't hide the little baby anymore, and so they did the next best thing. They took those reeds that grow by the River Nile and they made a little ark and they put mud on the outside and on the inside they dogged it to make it waterproof. And Jochebed kissed that little baby and said, "God, this is all I can do now".
And they put the little baby there in there, floating there in the River Nile in the bulrushes, and Moses' big sister, Miriam, was standing off to the side. Oh, you know the story; it's a wonderful story. About that time, Pharaoh's daughter stops with her entourage and says, "I want to go down to the River Nile to bathe". Now folks, they have excavated the palaces of Egypt. The most lavish baths you've ever seen are in the palaces of Egypt. Why would a princess be bathing in the dirty Nile? It's incredible when you think about it. Maybe she just remembered the old swimming hole where she used to play in as a little girl, but you can see the hand of God there.
And just when she gets down there the baby cries. It wasn't a safety pin. An angel just tweaked that little baby. And the baby cries and Pharaoh's daughter sees the little baby Moses, and picks it up and there's that bonding there. God performed a miracle to put that bonding there. And then Moses' sister says, "If you want to keep that baby, I know somebody who'd be glad to nurse it for you. I know a mother who is ready to nurse a baby". And Pharaoh's daughter says, "Well, you go find her". And can you imagine, can you imagine the daughter of the King of Egypt taking a suggestion from a little girl, a little slave girl, but she did. And so when Jochebed comes to Pharaoh's daughter she says, "If I paid you, would you take care of this baby for me"? Jochebed says, "Yes, I'll do that if you'll pay me".
And so she is paid for taking care of her own little baby. And she takes that child from three months and begins to sing songs to that child, and to put into that child the love of God and the value system that he had. God gave a victory. God is so wonderful. That's the reason we don't have to be afraid of the devil and his crowd. Listen to me, folks. When we pray, when we believe God. God took a little ark and made a battleship out of it to sink old Pharaoh's kingdom. Isn't God wonderful? It's faith, though. She was a woman of faith. That's the reason she's listed here. By faith she did that, by faith she did that, folks. Oh mamas, believe God. Trust God. Be mothers of faith, day after day, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept. She is teaching and training that little boy.
Now, what was the result of that? Here's the last thing. We've talked about faith's victory. I want you to see faith's values that endure when the parents have departed. Now, notice in Hebrews 11 verses 24 to 27, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter". That would have made him the grandson of Pharaoh, next in line for the kingdom. The Bible says he choose, "Rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king".
Now, pay attention because this is the climax of the whole thing. There's a great battle going on today over values, over values. Moses had an incredible value system. Now, he could have been the king of all Egypt; Little Moses. When he came to years he was standing in line to be the next Pharaoh. But the Bible says he refused it. He refused power, possession, and position. Why? Because he chose to suffer affliction with the children of God. Why did he do that? Because he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater treasure than all the treasures of Egypt.
Now, here's how his value system worked. Now listen very carefully. First of all, he did some esteeming. He said, "Over here, over here is the treasure of Egypt. Over here the glories of Jesus". He saw this and he knew this. He says, "If I go this way I'll have power, I'll have possessions, I'll have prestige. If I go this way I'll have Jesus". He esteemed. He said, "I like this. I'll go this way". Now, it's foolish to try to get your children to make a decision unless they have something to decide, unless you have shown them the riches of Jesus. When he saw this, first of all, he esteemed, and then he chose. He said, "I'll go this way". But in order to go this way he had to leave that way, so he refused in order to choose. There must be an esteeming, then a choosing, and then a refusing.
Now folks, let me tell you something. Little Moses had gone to the University of Egypt, and the Bible tells us in Acts chapter 7 verse 22 that, "He was learned, he was skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians". Now listen to me. His mama put something in his heart that all those professors could not take away. Listen to me. Why? Why? Because she had him, she taught him, she was a mama of faith, and he esteemed, he chose, and he refused. You know what's wrong with a lot of parents today? You're saying, "Now son, don't drink; daughter, don't fornicate, don't use dope, don't do this, don't do that". What have you given them that's better? What have you shown them? You try and take a nasty bone away from a dog you'll get bit, but you lay a steak down on the ground and he'll drop that bone, won't he? What we have to do is show them the beauty of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I clipped this from the paper; just a small, little article from 1996. "Gator's Quarterback Nixes Playboy Team". "Florida quarterback, Danny Wuerffle," and by the way, he was a great athlete, "turned down a spot on Playboy Magazine's All America College Pre-Season Football Team. Wuerffle, a Christian, and the son of an air force minister, declined an invitation to be the magazine's National Scholar Athlete of the Year". And here's the part I like. He said, "It didn't take any thought at all". Hallelujah! I don't want to be in your filthy magazine. Moses said, "I don't want Egypt. I'm going God's way". Faith's Values that will last when parents are gone. And I'll tell you they're a couple of glad parents, if they're still living, who have a son, and they must be people of faith. Thank God for them.
Would you bow your heads in prayer? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. If you're not certain that you're saved, would you like to be saved, would you? Would you like to know that you really do have life? Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life". Could I lead you in a prayer? We'll call this prayer the sinner's prayer. And you can pray and accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You can do it right now. Would you pray this prayer?
Dear God, I know that You love me. Thank You for loving me. And I know that You want to save me. Jesus, You died to save me and You promised to save me if I would trust You. Jesus, I do trust You. I believe You're the Son of God. I believe you paid for my sin with Your blood on the cross. I believe that God raised You from the dead. And now I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin. Cleanse me. Come into my life. Take control of my life and begin today to make me the person You want me to be. And Jesus, give me the courage to make it public. Help me never to be ashamed of You. In Your name I pray, Amen.