Sunday Morning Service (Hebrews 11:17-40)

Hebrews 11:17-40      

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“The Deductions Of Faith” • 3.4.18 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro

- Our text is known as the "Hall Of Faith." When it was penned, it was our author's intention to review the history of redemption with his hearers, to illustrate that the "just" have always lived by faith.

- Faith is the foundation for what we expect and the confidence that accompanies what we can't explain. It's founded on specific content, agreement and commitment.

- In that respect, the actions of these individuals are incredibly rational, quite unlike the modern conception of faith. That seems to be a special part of our passage today.

- How does a person act in life when he or she factors God into the equation? Let's continue our journey at verse 17.

Text

• Hebrews 11:17-19 : "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called,' concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." : Abraham was willing to follow the Lord to an unknown locale earlier in his life. One would think that this would have given him a pass! That is not the case.

- Decades later, God purposed to inspect his faith by commanding him to offer up Isaac, the one and only son in whom all the promises of Messiah would be fulfilled!

- Faith must remain current and it's testing is necessary to refine it. Christians live from faith to faith. It is never "outgrown."

- Abraham's faith pertaining to Isaac wasn't merely his own predisposition to consider Isaac special. God had specifically spoken to him! "In Isaac your seed shall be called!"

- This was a personal word of assurance and it is recorded as scripture in Genesis 21:12. Understand that all of this background knowledge is necessary and indeed pivotal to his response.

- Isaac was quite literally a miracle baby, born from the faith of Abraham and Sarah. He holds within him the hope of the nations, in which the entire Earth will be blessed!

- When God called Abraham to act, the Patriarch intended to go forth, having come to a conclusion. Our word "logic" comes from this Greek word.  

- It's the term that an accountant would use in the presentation to a family regarding the reality of their actions against the reality of their accounts.

- Abraham added up the facts and was forced to conclude that if he were to sacrifice Isaac, then it had to be that God would raise him from the dead!  "He has to live!"

- This commentary then, shows us that his decision to sacrifice Isaac was based upon his belief in the resurrection! He walked with Isaac to Moriah for three days and considered him dead!

- But as he and Isaac left the servants, he asked them to remain, stating that they would both return! (Genesis 22:5) When God stopped the sacrifice, Isaac's life was returned to Abraham!

- He had received him from the dead in that respect. For the Hebrews, they had to consider this against their own circumstances.

- Our author is saying, "Even if God has to do something unheard of, He will do it to fulfill His promise!" Our faith lets us know that even death cannot annul the promise of God! Verse 20.

• Hebrews 11:20-22 : "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones." :  It was faith that caused Isaac to bless both of his sons.

- This story is quite convoluted, especially because it seemed that Isaac was intent upon blessing Esau instead of Jacob.

- Esau was the natural choice, being Isaac's oldest and most favored son. The culture demanded that the eldest receive the blessing, but God had clearly appointed Jacob.

- When Jacob stole the blessing by deceit, Isaac trembled with fear, realizing at that moment that he could not fight against God, so he gave a blessing to Esau that reflected Jacob's dominance.

- God overruled the Patriarch's wishes and put Israel into the position of election!

- Later in Jacob's life, on his death bed, Jacob responded the same way. He blessed the younger son, even while Joseph, the second in command of Egypt protested!

- Jacob understood his objection, but knew that he was declaring God's way! That was the lesson that he had learned and even the reason that he leaned upon his staff!

- God had wrestled with him and put his hip out of socket! He worshipped the Lord, acknowledging on his staff, that God's decision to bless Ephraim over Manasseh was right!

- And then there was Joseph, who literally prophecied about the Exodus four hundred years in advance! When they left, he made sure that they took his bones with them.

- Joseph declared, "I want my body to be where God is! Don't leave me here in Egypt! I don't want to be associated with this world!"

- Faith caused these men to buck tradition, to choose contrary to culture and famliy. What a message for these Hebrews to hear!

- A faith response to God is often going to put you on the wrong side of tradition and culture.

- That is the way it has always been! These men are glad they went with God's way! Verse 23.

• Hebrews 11:23-27 : "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. " : Our author moves into Exodus and the life of Moses, whose parents, Amram and Jochebed, were people of faith.

- Every person who has the blessing of believing parents, is thankful for the heritage that is left to them. For Moses, their choice to believe God was the difference between his life and death!

- Their faith caused them to defy the order of the Pharaoh to drown each of their sons in the Nile River!

- Imagine a pregnant Jochebed and a stressed out Amram trying to figure a way out of their situation while she carried their son, who was a born beauty! This is a terrible translation!

- There are various translations, ranging from "proper" to "unusual." The NIV uses the phrase, "no ordinary child." When used of an adult, the word refers to polished manners.

- It's very likely that Moses was an unusually compliant and quiet baby. Every parent knows that this is a gift from God! They figured that this wasn't simply a coincidence. God made him mild.

- That's why they hid him! By faith, they hid their infant for the first three months of his life! Don't think for a moment that that faith was wasted on Moses.

- At a certain time in his life, Moses made a similar choice to his parents. They set the tone.

- Moses could not be what he was intended to be while living in the luxury of Pharaoh's daughter's home. He knew he wasn't an Egyptian from heritage or worldview!

- He refused to be known as her son! That choice alienated him from his adopted family and set him right into the pan of suffering that God's people were enduring!

- Faith always means leaving something to move toward something else!

- The way he saw it, it was present reward and eternal suffering or present suffering and eternal reward? Which would he choose? Hebrews, which would you choose?

- For Moses, his faith led him to choose to suffer affliction now and to forsake the passing or fleeting pleasures of sin.

- He said, "I'd rather have what comes with the insults hurled toward Messiah, than to have the empty pleasures of Egypt!" To him, it wasn't even a question!

- It would have been sin for him to seek to save himself from the suffering of God's people. That would have been to put a greater value upon the riches and treasures of Egypt.

- The world's treasures are ever before us and the temptation to choose their comforts now is real. Those who do are forefeiting the treasure that will long outlast any worldly pleasure!

- How did he come to this decision? By looking to the reward! He kept the eyes of his soul on the wages that were promised to him by God! He lived in the present by seeing clearly his future!

- That's why he was able to forsake Egypt! He saw his reward and he saw Him who is invisible! - There was a profound pressure that came from that which was visible to him. The treasures, the comforts and the Pharoah. Moses lived by seeing past all of that!

- He made His decision, knowing who was truly worthy of his fear! Verse 27.

• Hebrews 11:28-29 : "By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned." : Once again, you would think that Moses could sit the first passover out! His last act of faith in Egypt was to observe the first Passover.

- Even he, the leader of the Jews, sprinkled blood upon the doorpost knowing that it was the blood that would save his own family! He obeyed knowing that God doesn't make exceptions!

- He certainly makes distinctions! Look at the Red Sea. One nation passed through as if on dry land, quickly, without much attending struggle. The other nation drowned in the attempt!

- When you read the passage, you won't find tremendous faith in the people of Israel, but the little faith that they had led them to safety. Verse 30.

• Hebrews 11:30,31 : "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace." : As our author moves from the Penteteuch to the book of Joshua, his intention is clearly to establish practice.

- The elders, the "Prebrews," the Patriarchs and Moses all gained God's approval by faith. In Joshua's time, the story line continued.

- Now, instead of a person having faith, we see the effect of faith through an entire nation!

- Jericho was the first city that Israel was to attack and the battle plan was admittedly unorthodox. The people were to encircle the city by marching around it once, silently, for 6 days.

- On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times and on that day alone, the Priests were to blow their trumpets and the people were to shout aloud.

- At that time, the Lord told Joshua that the walls would fall flat before them. (Joshua 6:1-5)

- Imagine the faith that it took for Joshua just to relay that plan to the waiting warriors!? And it seems from our text that it took seven days for their faith to grow.

- There is a lot of confusion regarding the balance between faith and the work of an Almighty God. Jericho was doomed to destruction by God.

- He could have employed a thought or a feather and those walls would have crumbled! He chose instead to march His people around the city. Why?

- Something in the repitition brought faith into full flower. A collective whole believed that God was at work. It did not happen right away because God's people are rarely convinced quickly!

- If you wonder why you must continue to attend to your faith, it is because without tests, trials and walls of stone before you, your faith would be the casualty!

- God brought Jericho's walls down and God's people were allowed to participate in His work by faith! Along those same lines, the harlot Rahab had her life spared because of her faith!

- Rahab's home was built into the walls of Jericho! The world was literally crumbling around her, as her home stood it's ground on that day of judgment.

- Faith in the God of Israel was the difference between who lived and who died! That remains an unchangeable fact. Faith in God is very much the dividing line between death and eternal life!

- How did Rahab come to her faith decision? It wasn't a leap! In Joshua 2, you can see a woman that has been watching the story develop from the morning headlines of the Jericho Gazette.

- She has been watching the news for 40 years! She knows about the Red Sea as well as the current events of Israel's defeat of Sihon and Og! Listen to her confession in Joshua 2:11.

• Joshua 2:11 : "And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." : Rahab rightly interpreted historical events as being directed by Israel's God and she trusted Him! Verse 32.

• Hebrews 11:32-35a : "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again." : Our author could go on and on because the entirety of the Bible is built upon the faith relationship between the righteous ones and their God!

- He provides here a simple synopsis of what faith accomplished through these people.

- It's fascinating to me, especially here, but throughout all of the "Hall of Faith" that God calls these flawed people faithful. Abraham was a liar. Moses, a murderer. Gideon, a coward.

- Barak wouldn't go into battle without Deborah. Samson. Well, you know how he loved his women! Jepthah had a big mouth. David was an adulterer.

- Samuel is the most pristine of them, but even his kids were not trustworthy enough to take his place! I don't bring this up to shame these men.

- The Bible plainly presents our heroes with all of their warts! This doesn't preclude God from working mightily through them!

- In II Corinthians 5:21, the Apostle Paul tells us that when we come to Christ, all things become new and old things pass away. This is illustrated well here.

- God chooses to remember what faith produced in the lives of these men and women. And what a list! Look at the victories that accompanied their faith!

- What oppressive Kingdom could stand before the people of Israel? These men and women did what was right in the sight of the Lord and received great promises from the Lord.

- Think of some of the predicaments that God's people were in. Whether it was natural, the use of lions or fire, or if it was the proximity to the enemy's blade, by faith, these escaped unharmed!

- When they wanted to quit for the sake of their own weakness, God turned that into strength and saved the day, ridding Israel of her foes. Think of the many men who went out to these battles.

- In almost every one, there was an inequality that was marked, not by numbers, but natural comparison! Their enemies "were like locusts," or "as many as the sands on the seashore!"

- The men left to fight thinking that they were as good as dead and their wives thought the same thing, until they looked out the door after the battle!

- In many instances, the men, presumed dead, didn't even look as though they had been in battle! That's because God had fought the battle for them!

- These are such wonderful stories, but being filled with faith doesn't always end happily for the one with faith. Verse 35.

• Hebrews 11:35b-38 : "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth." : For as many stories of victory where the valiant comes home, there are just as many stories when the faithful goes home! Were they less faithful? Not for a moment!

- These remained faithful to God through torture, refusing to be ransomed. Why? So that they could obtain a better resurrection! There is something better than having your present life restored!

- There were those that were brought before tribunes, only to be mocked and beaten. Some were led away as prisoners and were never freed.

- Their last vision was of a stone coming their way. Their last experience was the cutting away of their flesh, laying their lives down to a heathen's sword.

- They wandered around, seemingly in the same way that a vagabond does and dressed in much the same way! These men of faith were destitute, literally arriving too late.

- All of the resource was gone when they showed up. How does that affect a person? These were afflicted. The word speaks of being pressed in upon and plagued with anguish.

- The world that watched them thought that they were nothing, but from the Lord's perspective, it was the exact opposite! The world was not worthy of them!

- These were men without proper homes, living out away from the comforts of the cities the ministered near. Quite a picture, isn't it!? Verse 39.

• Hebrews 11:39,40 : "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." : When you think about the exploits of these heroes of the faith, consider that they lived this way on promise, on speculation.

- Whether in victory or in the last moments of life, everything that mattered to them was in front of their eyes and invisible to the rest of the world.

- They were commended by God but did not receive the promises given to them in the course of their lives. Even here, we are even more highly favored! We were given something better!

- They had, and were, heroes of the faith. We have what their faith pointed to: Jesus!

- They had a good covenant written on stones by the hand of God. We have His covenant written on our hearts!

- They had a great High Priest who oversaw the sacrifices of millions of animals. We have a greater, more efficient, eternal High Priest, who is both the single offering and the Mediator!

- They sought a Messiah. We look back in history through the lens of the New Testament and see THE Messiah, Jesus Christ! They knew His title. We know His Name!

- They won't be made perfect apart from us! Said another way, all the benefits that are theirs in Christ, had to first be ours in Christ!

- The access, the peace, the love, the redemption and the inheritance has been apportioned to us and them! They died without fully understanding what is plainly ours to receive today!

- What a statement to make! To think that we have the privilege of knowing intimately the Messiah who they only believed would one day come! That is astounding!

- And yet, may I also mention what a rebuke this was to the Hebrews! It's as if he is saying, "They did all that we have just talked about without the benefit of knowing what you know!"

- How can we not be at least as faithful as they were!? We have no excuse!

Conclusion
- Faith sees the reality behind the visible, values the future over the present and is willing to add the facts up to trust that God plus nothing is everything! It was true for them.

- Will it be true for you? Will you value what God values when you can't see another way naturally? When it opposes your thinking culturally?

- May He give you and I the grace to experience what it means to live by this faith!