Hebrews 11:35-40 — Don McClure

Faith Through Life's Battles

Well, as we have been going through Hebrews 11, and I'm not going to begin to attempt to, you know, recount any of that particularly. We've got a number of tapes you can go back and look at if you want.

But looking at so many, essentially thus far, of the profound blessings of faith through all of the various battles of life. You can't be a Christian for very long without beginning to learn the practical aspects of taking our faith and our relationship with God and applying it to our lives.

And life for everyone. The Bible says the rain falls in the just and the unjust. We all have battles. We all have trials. We all have many, many things that we go through in life and God uses them to temper us, to strengthen us, to deepen our fellowship and our relationship with him.

To strengthen our dependence upon him, teaching us to require him more and more and more. How we, in so many times in life, the hundreds and thousands perhaps of battles that a person goes through in their life as a Christian.

Some of them are very clear and obvious where they're crying out to God desperately like when a hurricane would come through or something. And many of them are just simply sighs and a cry and a tear. God help me here.

Help with my child. Help with our health. Help with this job. And just almost a prayer that's just shot up asking God to bring us through. And yet he does again and again and again. Life is full of them.

And all of these little things, sometimes very profound, leaving a very strong mark on our heart. We can remember a day and an hour that we cried out in a miraculous work that God did sometimes. And there's kind of the tip of the iceberg of the great memories of the life of faith.

But for most people, there's just constantly kind of being delivered again and again. And God allows life to be full of a lot of close calls of which we've all gone through. And we've all lived through them.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. But sometimes we don't know if we're going to live through them. How many times have we been through? I don't know if I can make it through this. This might be the one, the crisis, the trial that I'm not going to make it through.

Close Calls and God's Deliverance

Sometimes we're a little bit maybe like the old story of the cowboy out west. Driving his pickup truck down the road. And he's got his dog in the back. And he's pulling his prize horse in the trailer behind him.

But he's going too fast to make a turn. He loses it. A terrible accident happens. And a little while later, a highway patrolman shows up on the scene. And he's an animal lover himself. But as he gets there and he sees this horse with its broken legs and the terrible things that happened.

And he just, you know, just out of mercy there, he pulls out his service revolver. And he puts the horse out of its misery. And then he walks over and he looks and there's this dog. Just, you know, critically hurt itself.

Whining and terrible pain. And he looks over at the dog and he takes his revolver and puts it out of its pain. And then he looks and he goes over and here's this man laying over there in the weeds. And, you know, with multiple fractures himself.

And he comes over and here's this guy moaning and groaning. And he looks at him and he says, are you okay? And the fellow looks after hearing the shots and seeing the smoke come out of his service revolver.

He says, never felt better. You know, but a lot of times, I mean, we're so close. We think we've had it. We think this is it, you know. And yet we go through those things often times in life and God brings us through.

Some way that we go on to live. But hopefully through those close calls and through those struggles and those difficulties. There's been this abiding knowledge and reality of who God is, of his love. And how great it is and how wonderful it is.

The Blessings of Faith in Hebrews 11

And as we've been through Hebrew so far. There's been these wonderful stories of deliverances essentially. Wonderful ways in which God, whether taking Abraham and showing him his life and his future and his identity.

All through faith. Giving him the land. Sarah and having their children by faith. As God miraculously provided a home and a place for them. And a future and an identity. And then as you'd go on, you know, with one such as Moses.

And the battles of life and the confrontations of life. And of learning by faith to trust God through all of these things. Or Joshua as he brought the children of Israel into the land of rest. And they found a peace and an abiding victory.

As they learned to trust God. And their lives took on a fuller, richer identity. And there he put around them the houses that they didn't build. And the vineyards they didn't plant. And the olive yards they didn't plant.

And the wells they didn't dig. And yet God gave them to them. And they began to realize, God you have given me everything. It's by your hand. That every good and precious gift comes from above. And they're the person that is going through in life of faith.

They begin to attach God's work and God's deliverance. And God's blessing and God's hand. And God's amazing grace upon their life. And realizing, God you have truly done it all. And you've brought us through these things.

Time and time and time again. And so, so far through Hebrews. Many a wonderful story of God's protection. God's preserving. God's guiding. And yet here as he goes on. In verse 35. Now he doesn't just tell us some of the blessings you might say of faith.

But some of the buffetings as well of faith. Women receive their dead. Raised again. To life again. And others were tortured. Not accepting deliverance. That they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourging.

Yea, moreover, chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. Were tempted. Were slain. With a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. Destitute and afflicted. And here is, you know it begins verse 35 there.

With talking about, you know, no doubt Elijah there. And the widow of Zarephath that were his daughter. That he, Elijah, raised from the dead. Or perhaps Elisha. After Elijah. Who there with the Shunammite woman's son.

On how that these women there. Believed God that could raise from the dead. And God did. These wonderful things. You know for them. But yet at the same time there's the great suffering. That then goes on.

Not only here. You know when of course these mothers losing their children. And this agony and this sorrow that filled their heart. But their pain was alleviated for a time. There as God raised them back.

But then there's still the great afflictions. Then he goes on and he gives us this list of buffeting. These lists of afflictions. These lists of trials. That some of which were short term. Some of which were long term.

Some of which were lifetime things. Ways that people lived. In the way that they would wander about in their lives. In the difficulties that many a life went through. But God gave his power. Sometimes God gives us power to get through a trial.

And sometimes God gives us power to stay in a trial. And by nature we all want to get right out of one. God I want delivering faith. Through the trial. Out of the trial. But what the greatest faith I suppose of all.

Resting in God During Suffering

As we arriving here. As we're watching faith build and build and build. Through Hebrews 11. The greatest and the most important of faith. Is a faith that totally rests. Whether I'm in or out of a trial or not.

Whether I'm delivered from the trial. Or God delivers me in the trial. But my life there finds a rest in him. Not because I am out of the trial. But even in the trial. God's great capacity to give somebody a rest.

And a patience. And an endurance. An ability to live in a dimension of faith. That regardless of what the circumstances are. Instead of saying I have to get out of it. There's the thing of no God. I don't have to get out of it.

You have to get into it with me. That's what I want. There's a whole dimension I believe that God wants to bring us into. That the greatest issue of life is not deliverance from trials. But that the greatest experience that faith really has.

Is that all that it needs is God in the trial with us. That the Christian would come to the place. That realize God I don't care whether I get in or out of it. All I care is that you're with me. And wherever I am with you.

I'd rather be there. And if it's in a trial I want to be in it with you. If it's out of the trial I want to be out of it with you. But above all else I want to be with you. And there's a whole dimension of life.

That God ultimately brings a person to. That this perhaps is the greatest dimension of faith that we have. And where we can come to a rest that totally is in him. And that is where we can literally learn perhaps to suffer.

And to handle suffering. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 .12 he says yes. And all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer. There is the promise essentially. God tells us there that as we would live and walk and serve before him.

That God literally promises. I want to give you a new Bible promise today. Go home and put this one on your refrigerator. Put this one in your promise box. You usually won't find these in your little promise boxes that you get.

But what know you not that all they that live godly in Christ Jesus they will suffer. That there is something there that the Christian realizes Lord. I want to live in you and when these times do come.

I want to choose you. And to rest in you and to find something in you. In the midst of whatever suffering that there may be. Because I don't care about the suffering. I care about being with you. Isn't that not the greatest aspect of any relationship?

Suffering and Faithfulness in Marriage and Christian Life

When you would look at a marriage that you would say is a wonderful marriage. Isn't a marriage that is just there because there's two people that are just happy with each other. And hey you're great I'm great.

Hey let's hang out as long as we're both great. You know or something. And then as soon as you know something happens. Not so good any longer. You break a leg. Pull out the service revolver. Sorry you know I got to go get somebody else that's great.

What kind of a relationship is that? What it is is that when two people have come to the place that when the inevitable sufferings of life do come. That there has been something so cemented in their heart and in their life that they choose one another.

And say I'd rather be with you. And whatever it is that we would go through together. Because of who you are and what we mean to one another. Than anywhere else in the world with anybody else. What I have found with you.

Is that not the proof of a love? And of a relationship? So also with God. When there is something in the Christian life where I've come to the place. Say Lord I don't care about any suffering. Alan Redpath used to say God has had one son.

Without sin. But none without suffering. And everyone that really in the issue of our sonship or daughtership with God. That we find their God. I do not care. The issue of suffering as much as I want to go through life with you.

And sometimes I think it takes far more. Courage to hang in there through the suffering. And through a trial than it does simply to get out of the trial. But it is also something that purifies the love in the relationship.

It is something that cements that relationship and makes it all the more wonderful. And here there is something that. I suppose as well the person of any real faith. What happens if somebody really has real faith.

Biblical faith. There is no affliction. That no matter how escapable it may be. If it would require me. To deny my fellowship or my relationship or my commitment to God. Or compromise my relationship with God.

There is nothing. That I want to. I don't ever want to escape that. My faith will never allow it. What I have. In my relationship with God. I must have. And wherever it leads me. That is more precious to me than anything else.

So any trial I am in. I would rather be in the trial with him. Than out of it. Without him. Here I suppose is where faith reaches its highest. And its purest plain of all. To where it is something there.

That even as it tells us. Back here in verse 35. Now I just lost it here. But. I had it turned the wrong page. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance.

That they might obtain a better resurrection. Here some took death. Chose death. Rather. Than being delivered. And here is where faith really is. They look there and realize. This is not a hard decision to make.

I made the decision long before. You know. Do I love the Lord? Do I want to follow him? Do I trust his word? Will I stand for his word? And when somebody realizes that. That is where faith reaches its purest.

And its highest. Just as our love and human relationship. So much the same. And here that there are ones that it says. Others they were tortured. This terrible aspect. This was a referring here. The Greek word that is actually used.

It refers to a form of torture. That involves stretching. A victim essentially over a large drum like instrument. And where they would literally tie their hands. Tie their ankles. And then they would stretch them over this.

Often times. There as they would beat them with clubs. To weaken all their bones out of joint. And their muscles as they would just stretch. And literally pull their inner bones and muscles. And nerves and tendons apart.

And the terrible pain as they would beat them. Through this. Often times it was either done. Leading to and preparation for death. Or they would die in it. Being beaten in it. But it was something there.

That they would rather do that. Than compromise their faith. They would look there. And they were given the option. Here you can either deny your faith. Or you were going to tie you to this drum. What do you want?

And to have them look and say. This is not a hard decision. This is not a hard decision at all. Others endured their terrible. And it says mockings and scourgings. Some people there. I mean sometimes there in your faith.

There is mocking. It was just mental. Sometimes it's physical. The scourging. And we live in a country. Where so often a lot of our. You know the accusation. It's mental. You go to work. And if you take a stand for Christ.

You live in the neighborhood. Or where everybody else is living and doing this. You go to school. And there is the mocking. There is the you know. That you are not part of the world club. Of mockers. And of partiers.

Or of rebels. Or of selfish carnal people. And you take a stand for Christ. And I want to live for him. I want to honor him within my heart. And within my life. And then people want to mock you for that.

Martyrdom, Counting the Cost, and Standing for Christ

But here. This is part where faith. Sometimes has some of its greatest things there. Others were sawn in two. Literally here. This is where history records for us. And believes this was Isaiah. That because of his continuous stand.

For the cause of Christ. While the whole world is going spiritually lukewarm. They are following false prophets. Leading them after all sorts of carnal worship. And here Isaiah is standing firm for it.

And the conviction that he brought. They literally. He was sawn in two. There. For his faith. But it was something to him. Regardless of whatever it was. There he continued to give his faith. A place within his life.

That it was never up for discussion. And this is something I suppose is wonderful for us to ask ourselves. Are we ones there that whatever the affliction may be. Have we really ever counted the cost? Jesus said if a man is going to go to war.

He ought to count the cost. Assess the strength of the other army. According to the strength that he has. Can he win? If not. Jesus said you better go negotiate some sort of a treaty. He says if a man is going to build a house.

You ought to sit down and decide. Can I afford to do it? Otherwise I'll get halfway through. Run out of materials. And they'll laugh me. Off the map. You know. And here. And Jesus says you know. When you are going to follow me.

You might look around and really determine. You know there. Are you willing to follow me? Is it something there to where you would look. And with all of your heart. This is set in stone. This is rock solid.

My life belongs to Jesus Christ. I don't care. What the negotiations may ever be. What the cost may ever be. What the price may ever be. What the battle may ever be. Whatever it is to continue building my life in Christ.

I will pay it. And that is something you can determine long before the battle comes. There can be something. You can sit here today. I believe with all of your heart in my face. Say Lord I don't know at all the battles that are ahead of me.

But I do want you to know. I want to pay whatever the price is. To keep in fellowship with you. Whatever it may be this week at the office. And the tensions. It may be mocking. It may be ridiculing. Whatever it is.

You know some of the suffering or the pain or the disappointments or the losses. That can happen in life. But Lord. Who you are is not up for negotiation. And we live in a day and age I think where a lot of people think.

You know there's nothing worth dying for. But a Christian says oh there is. There is truly something worth dying for. In fact to tell you the truth. My heart goes out for people that have nothing worth dying for.

That they look around. There is no relationship with God worth dying for. There is no relationship in the world worth dying for. There is no cause for which their life is. There's more precious than everything else in the world.

We live in a world like that. Where people say nothing worth dying for. Stay alive no matter what. But when the Christian says wait a minute. Anybody who created me. Who loved me. Who redeemed me. Who shed his blood for me.

Anybody who gave me any and every other relationship. I have in all of life. For every good and precious gift comes from above the Bible tells us. And that I would look there and realize that for my wife.

For my children. For my grandchildren. And to realize there's a lot of things I'd die for. And the body of Christ. The testimony for Christ. And hopefully there's something that we would have within us.

Factored within. Who knows whether we could get to a day and age where it would be needed. Right now in many places in the world. People die every day for their faith. You're a Christian. You're dead.

In many places. You go out and you begin to share Christ. You're dead. Right there. Right now. And yet it can be something that we like Paul can say. But I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy.

To be compared with the glory that will be revealed. That there is something to say. Lord I don't care what it is. That may ever happen in it. And you know that. This is I suppose the ultimate aspect of faith.

Faith That Accepts “But If Not”

Where it really comes down. We get all of our little lessons in life and faith. We learn to trust God as a little child. Where our mom and dad say pray. And we'll ask the Lord to help you with this. And help you with this test.

Or get you through here. And then all the little things that go on through life. Where Lord help us get a home. Lord help us through this trial. Help us through this. Help us through that. And all the things that he helps us through.

All of our life. You realize how many things he's brought you through. And yet the ultimate thing is when faith comes to its great abiding place. Where it's willing to look and say. Thank you for all the blessings.

All the times I've recovered. All the times you've restored it. All the times it got better. But I am also fully prepared for any day that it does not. I am fully prepared to whatever the sufferings may come to.

Whatever they may be. Jesus said a servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have hated me, they will hate you. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you. And when there is something that happens within our life.

As Peter says rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings. For when he shall be revealed. That you may be glad with great joy. Exceedingly great joy. And on how to realize Lord I want this kind of faith.

I want a faith that lives for you. That trusts in you. That walks in you. That knows you can do anything. I love Shadrach. Meshach and Abednego. They're kind of favorites to me in a sense. I love it when there they come and they stand before the king.

There when they're told there that now that they're going to be thrown into a blazing furnace. It's been heated seven times hotter. And there is that they're being brought before it. But they're perfectly confident that God is able to save them from the blazing furnace.

And they say in Daniel 3 .17 it says. But it be so. That our God who we serve he is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of thy hand O king. Here they look there. And the king says you go in there.

I mean you either bow down or you are dead. They said this is not a hard thing to decide. They had decided this a long time. There was this furnace seven times hotter than normal. And as it's all heated.

They said here's your choice. You're either going to go in there or you're going to bow down. Not a hard decision O king. Our God we also want to tell you. Our God is able to deliver us. He's fully capable of doing it.

But then in the next verse. But if not. But if he doesn't deliver us be it known unto thee O king that we will not serve thy God nor worship. The golden image which thou hast set up. Here there was something where they had already made the decision.

He is able to deliver us. We know this. He's done it again and again and again and again through time. But we all know that ultimately there will be the day that God doesn't deliver us in it. And from it.

He will take us home through it. And this may be it. They said God's able to do it. We don't even question that whatsoever. But if not. I've always wondered how much the three of them talked with each other before they actually got up there.

I always felt like there's probably one of them that's kind of the spokesman. Maybe Shadrach. You know and hey. You know you're the eloquent one. You speak. You know and then we're all together and prayed up and they'll go in and he says God is able to deliver us.

This is that we are not even careful how to answer you O king. We're not going to do this. God's able to deliver us. But if not. And then maybe the other two. Oh just a minute. Sidebar. Wait a minute.

Let's go over here. We need a little chat. What do you mean? We never talked about the but if not. I thought he was going to deliver us. Didn't you pray and think that. Well he can. But he may not. Have we got a faith there that we can just say one or the other.

We can say God is absolutely able to do anything he wants to. Anytime he wants to. Anyhow he wants. He's done it so many times. I don't even record most of them. I don't even many. Remember them. He says many are they thoughts.

The psalmist says towards us O Lord. I cannot be. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. Your blessings. You know I can't even recount them in order to you O God. The deliverances. The things that you have done.

I can't even. I've forgotten far more than I'll ever remember. But have we one there that God is able. But if not. That is just as good of an answer. As all the other ones I've ever had. I am at peace with it.

I am excited about it. And when we have that. Then I believe we've got something. Martin Luther once said if he has faith the believer cannot be restrained. He confesses and he teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself.

And of course Martin Luther did that. Spent his life doing it. And he looked there and he realizes but what is life for. If it isn't for the to live for the things of God. You can't restrain a believer who has faith in the things that God has given to him.

Katrina, Loss, and the Hope of Heaven

And I'll tell you to me. I may ask you do you have faith like this. You yourself have faith like this. It's something there you know as you look here. I just think of this last couple of weeks here. Hurricane Katrina.

And today of course the celebration of 9 -11. Almost overshadowed now by Katrina. But here you look at the thousands that millions of people that are the hundreds of thousands now still displaced. Everything they have is gone.

Literally there I mean everything that they have ever lived their life for up to this point. It is disappeared. It will never be found again. It is entirely been washed away and consumed and destroyed.

They have lost loved ones. They are losing their health many of them. They have every possession that is gone. And ultimately this is going to happen to every one of us by the way. Not that a hurricane may.

It may. It's funny I go to Florida. In fact I'll talk about being insensitive. When I literally got there and it's windy. You know I'm saying hey this is great. I always wanted to be in a hurricane. I said I've been in earthquakes and I've been in fires.

Never been in an earthquake. The people looked at me like their eyes are as big as saucers. You got to be kidding me. We've been in hurricanes. You don't want to be in an earthquake. In a hurricane. You know and I say well just a lot of wind in it.

You know sort of a thing. I mean just it's funny. See they don't want to be in earthquakes. You know I mean they look. How can you live in earthquake country. That's what they say when they're there. They've learned how to live with hurricanes.

Somehow or another. How can you live in earth in earthquake country. That's scary. I look at them as I'd rather be in earthquake country. Earthquake country happens it falls down and breaks. Hurricane happens you go to Missouri to find your stuff.

You know sort of a thing. But here. But at the same time people have lost everything in this life. And every one of us will. Every one of us one day you know we will be laying on a bed. With life flickering out of us.

And either something will have happened within this experience we call life. That there's something more precious than all of life itself that we've got. That we are going to a greater reward. That we look and we are now the greatest delight.

The greatest the thing that we have anticipated. Prayed about. Longed about. Wondered about. Heaven. We're at his threshold. And the excitement and the joy and the crown of it will never be taken from us.

That's what God longs for. That's the greatest of all of faith. Not just a faith that gets you restored and gets you back what you lost. Or you want again. But do we have a faith there that is so rich and so strong and so precious.

That we have this. And we know this. And then lastly here. The great you know the benefits of faith. That when somebody has this. We're told in verse 39. Oh actually I skipped verse 38. It says of whom the world is not worthy.

They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. That those who had this kind of faith. That they could be the mockings and the scourgings and stone and sawn asunder and tempered and slayed with a sword.

Wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. And they did all of these sorts of things for their faith and their trust and their surrender to God. The Bible looks at them and says the world was never worthy of them.

They were way beyond it. They were strangers. They were pilgrims. They live for another world another kingdom of which God looked at them. And loved them for it. And the world was never even worthy of such people like this on it.

The Better Promise for New Testament Believers

But here we're told all these. Verse 39. 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.

Here now the interesting thing is. Is we are now told that though they obtained this good testimony through faith. They all died in hope in the Old Testament. They knew very little about the real power of salvation.

They had never really heard the words of Jesus. They weren't given to them. Jesus had not yet come. The Savior that they looked forward to. The Lamb of God that they longed for. They all gave up their life for history that had not yet happened yet.

A Savior that had not yet come. Words that had not yet been heard. A sacrifice that had not yet been offered. You and I. They all were just in holding. They all died in faith not having received the promises.

They are waiting to become apart. The Bible says with us. And here it is something there. Where they went through all of this and had this great faith and trust. In something that had not even yet happened.

We know it's happened. We know he came. We know he lived. We know he died. We know he suffered. We know he took the sins of the world upon himself. We know he rose from the dead. It isn't something that we are still.

This is going to happen. Going to happen. We know it happened. It has happened. And here the Bible tells us that God. All these having obtained a good testimony. Through faith. They did not receive the promise.

God having there provided something better for us. That they should not be made perfect apart from us. That here there was something that they knew what it was. With their heart and with their life. To trust God without even history.

You and I have Jesus Christ. We know him by name. We know him by message. We know him by his touch personally within our life. We know who our very intercessor is. Our intermediator. The one who died for us.

And they were able to live like this. How much more should we? How much more should we have a life that desires. No matter what the price would ever be. I'm yours. And when we look at these through this great cloud of witnesses.

How ashamed. Sometimes it can make us. One of the things to me when I just think back in. To give you a little history in my life. Not that it's important particularly. But my name is McClure obviously you know that.

But I'm a descendant of a fellow named John Rogers. Who was born in 1498. There was eight generations of Rogers. And then in 1721. The Rogers family and the McClure family. And another family Morrison.

Won't get into that one today. But some other families came from Londonderry England. To Londonderry New Hampshire. They were very close friends. All of them Christians. But as they landed. One of the McClures married.

After they were here. One of the McClures married one of the Rogers. Thus that's how I'm going. 16th direct grandson of a fellow named John Rogers. John Rogers he was. When he grew up he was educated in Cambridge.