FBC Morning Light – September 28, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. I hope your week is going well thus far. Today, we're reading in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 is a famous chapter in the Bible. It's called the roll call of faith because there's so many people, you know, their expressions of faith are recorded for us and we'll see later on how they serve as an example.

I was going to bring that out in chapter 12. And so the writer of Hebrews is recording or rehearsing for us all of these people and the way they showed their faith in God as examples for us.

And I just want to take a few minutes today and highlight five or six of these expressions of faith, these works of faith, and apply them to us today.

So for example, in verses 17 through 19, faith trusts

God no matter how difficult the task he calls upon me to do.

And these verses talk about the task that Abraham was given. God came to Abraham and told

Abraham to offer up his son, his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to him.

And Abraham, by faith, when he was told to do so, he followed through as, you know, all the way up to the point where there would have been an execution.

But he did so believing that God would bring him back to life if that's what, you know, he was told to do.

And he believed that because there was a promise that God gave to Abraham. And the promise was that through that son,

Isaac, he would have a plethora, a multitude of generations that come from that son.

So, you know, think of the rationale, think of the reasoning of Abraham's faith.

God made me a promise. And that promise is that through Isaac, I will have descendants as vast as the stars in the sky.

And now God is telling me to offer that son as a sacrifice? Okay.

Well, he's gonna have to do something to bring that child back to life if he's gonna fulfill his promise.

And Abraham, by faith, obeyed. And God, of course, intervened.

And the sacrifice never occurred. But faith trusts God, no matter how difficult the task.

Secondly, faith continues to believe in the promises of the future, even though I know that I will not see them in my lifetime.

And this brings up verse 22. It says, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones.

And that departure was nowhere on the horizon. But it was promised.

And Joseph knew that eventually was going to come to pass because God said it. God will fulfill his promise.

Well, likewise, I've known many believers in Christ who, on their deathbed, realized they were not going to see the fulfillment of some of the promises of God's Word.

They would not be alive, for example, when Jesus returned. They would not see that return of Jesus with their own eyes, at least from from earth.

But they still believed it. They still counted on it. And they spoke to us to be faithful until Jesus comes.

Thirdly, faith willingly accepts a more difficult life following Christ than accepting the so -called pleasures or the enjoyments of life apart from Christ.

And this is referred to in verses 24 through 26, where we're told that by faith

Moses 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.

Yes, Moses could have had a life of ease, relative ease and luxury, a life of prominence and fame, a life of power and prestige in the

Egyptian court. But he forsook all of that to identify with God's people.

Faith willingly accepts a more difficult life following Christ than what could be supposedly enjoyed in the paths of sin.

Fourthly, faith believes in the efficacy of the blood of an innocent victim shed for others.

See this in verse 28. This is by faith Moses kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

That Passover in Egypt was to be a picture of the redemption of the believer in Christ, that the blood of Christ would redeem the believer from a certain destruction caused by his sin.

And yes, faith believes in the efficacy of the blood of an innocent victim.

We believe in the efficacy of the blood of Jesus who knew no sin that we might be made righteous and have his righteousness imputed to us.

And his blood was effective in paying the penalty for our sin. And then fifthly, faith obeys the seemingly absurd directives from the

Lord for the experiencing of victory. We see this in two different ways in verses 29 and 30.

Verse 29, you know, the people of Israel are standing on the west side of the

Red Sea and they're fearing for their lives because the Egyptian soldiers are right behind them.

And Moses sticks his staff up and the seas part the ground under the water becomes dry and Moses says,

God tells us to walk through. We're to walk through this. And he starts to lead the people through.

And it is by faith that you enter into such a thing. Can you imagine walking through that that path and looking on either side of you and seeing the heaps of water and thinking that at any moment they could come crashing down.

But God has said he will deliver us by this means. And indeed, that's what happened.

By faith you walk through that path that God has given to you for victory.

And the second way is in verse 30 where it says, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.

Remember that seemingly absurd directive from the Lord to conquer

Jericho by marching around the walls for seven days, once a day for seven days, seven times on the seventh day and then blowing the ram's horns and and then the walls will fall down.

Really? Really? Well, why did they, why did they start marching around the walls of Jericho on day one?

By faith, believing that this was the method that God was going to use to secure victory.

Yes, faith obeys the seemingly absurd directives that God gives for the experiencing of victory over the enemy.

So I trust that these are encouraging examples for us to exercise our faith.

So our Father and our God, we thank you for these heroes of the faith and days gone by that serve to point us in the right direction for the exercise of our faith.

I pray that you would help us to be people of faith and we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your day today, and I trust the Lord will bless you richly.