Faith Of The People Of God

Hebrews 11 and the Faith of the People of God

You'll turn with me, please, in the Scriptures to Hebrews chapter 11. We continue on. We press on with our study from the book of Hebrews. Picking up where we left off this morning in verse 29, Hebrews chapter 11.

Once again, let us beseech the Lord for his assistance to us as we study his word. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, as we look to your word once again, we do not want to treat it in any way other than that in the way that shows the deep respect we have for what it truly is.

It is your word, the very words of God. And Lord, as we hear once again about these men and women of faith, may you give us understanding as to how we might live in such a way that those who would come after us would be able to see in us that we were faithful to you, that we sought to be obedient to the revelation you had given to us.

Bless us now with your presence, by your Spirit. We pray in Christ's name. Well, I would imagine that the true Reformed Baptists amongst us are somewhat disoriented after this morning. How many verses did we cover?

I mean, the speed at which we moved through that passage is truly disorienting for Reformed Baptists. I remember one of the things that eventually led to my coming here was years ago, I was teaching an adult Bible study at a non-Reformed Baptist church.

And they had quarterly material. And we were supposed to cover the entire book of Romans in one quarter. And at one point I was supposed to cover Romans 9, 10, and 11 in about 22 minutes. And I couldn't do that.

And so we took a little extra time. We actually sort of departed a little bit from the published materials. And, well, I got in a little trouble for doing that. But now we've gone to the other extreme, where very frequently a single verse is more than enough for us for an entire time of gathering together.

This morning, I think we, if I recall correctly, we got through about eight verses, something like that. That's, for us, that's a lot. And if I stop talking now and get to the text, we might finish this chapter today.

It's a possibility. It's a possibility. We have been working through the faith chapter. And I think even as the author accelerates, then we can as well. We were looking at Moses at the end of our time this morning.

We looked at verse 28. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. It would have been useful to expand upon the whole concept of the Passover and read all the relevant texts.

But we did not do that. That might be a good study for a future time. But as I mentioned, this verse sort of provides a bit of a transition into the next section. Because Moses begins to sort of fall aside here.

And now we move into the people of God as a whole. Verse 29, through the end of the chapter. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land. And the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish long with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

And what more shall I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect. Well, there are a lot of places there I can see that I could stop and camp for a while, but we'll see what the Lord has for us.

Faith at the Red Sea and the Fall of Jericho

We start with the discussion of the passing through the Red Sea, and it cannot help but suggest itself to us that given the way our author expresses this, that he's intending to communicate a contrast to us.

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land. And the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Of course, the Egyptians could not attempt it by faith, now could they?

No, these are idolaters, they reject the God of Israel. But even at that, I don't know how many of you have seen The Ten Commandments, I remember that when I was a kid, still a classic movie. I would almost be afraid if someone tried to...

Well, first of all, only Charles and Heston could play Moses anyways, but I would be afraid of what they would do with it. But do you remember, the special effects were not back then what they are today.

Let's just put it that way, okay? And do you remember what the ocean looked like, or the sea looked like as it was there, and the people were walking through? I thought they did a great job, given that that was, what, 1970s or something like that.

I didn't look it up, but it was 1950s? Seriously? Wow, that's amazing. That was even before my time, but I just remember seeing it as a kid. I guess it would have been the late 60s that I saw it, but I guess it played a lot on television.

Anyway, it did give you a sense of just what it was like to wake up in the morning and see what God had done to open the way for them. And yet, remember, the group that passed through was a mixed group.

A large portion of those who passed through did not enter into the Promised Land. And we know in the Old Testament text, we become very familiar with the phrase, the remnant. There were many who were not of faith, and not true saving faith.

They may have obeyed what Moses said, but because they were with the people of God, God brought them through, though many would die in the not-too-distant future. For example, at the foot of the mountain, when the commandments were given, and the plagues strike, and the people show themselves idolaters, and all sorts of things like that.

But the contrast is between those that God called to go through, and then used the very same mechanism to bring judgment upon the Egyptians. But what must it have been like? I have to wonder if we'll ever, in eternity to come, get to watch this, get to see this, get to see what that was like, to walk through that dry land, and then to see it come back over the Egyptians.

What an amazing thing that must have been. And it certainly gives the lie to those people who say, Well, if I could just see a miracle, then I would believe. How many of those who saw the miracle did not actually end up believing?

Think of all the miracles that the people of Israel see, and yet they remain hard-hearted. It's not the external evidence. The external evidence is clear and compelling. It's all a matter of the heart.

It's all a matter of God opening the heart and the mind through regeneration. And so you have those who passed through the Red Sea by faith, and then not too long after that, though many of those had already fallen in death by that time, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

Now, what do you mean by faith? Well, by faith on the part of the people of God, there certainly would have... When we think about what happened to Jericho, it's real easy for people to say, Well, you know, what it was is this large army tromping around for seven days, and it caused weakness in the foundation of the walls, you see.

And then the specific sound of the trumpets, the exact frequency, and we do all this trying to find naturalistic explanations. And I'm not saying that God does not use means like that. He obviously used some means to bring those walls down.

But the reality is it was an act of faith on the part of the people of Israel. I don't know about you, but especially the military guys probably thought this was the zaniest thing they had ever heard of.

Let's go marching around the city. Let's show off for the people in the city. Let's show them exactly what our armies are made of and how many people we've got and what kind of weapons we have. And let's march around and then go back to our camp.

You know, for the first few days, maybe a show of force or something, I suppose. But we're not doing anything. We're not building any siege works. We're not firing any arrows. We're just marching around.

And there again had to be so many who were just saying, This just does not seem right. But it required faith to be obedient to the God-ordained leadership that had been given to them. But even then, remember, even then, was there not sin in the camp as soon as the walls came down?

Remember Achan? We see in all of these instances, even when matters of faith are presented to us, we recognize that there were people who were imperfect. We recognize this morning the problems in the various families we looked at and the fact that sin exists in this fallen world and that faith, we are called to have faith even in the midst of evil and this kind of failure, even upon part of those who call themselves the people of God.

Interestingly enough, within that same context, we have Rahab. Now, Rahab is one of the characters in the Bible that really proves that God likes to do things his own way. I mean, when you think of just how focused the ancient writers were upon a patriarchal system, for them to include the story of Rahab, who is a prostitute, who is a pagan and is a woman, and to exalt her in the way that she is not only in the Old Testament text, but then in the New Testament text.

My goodness, to include her the way that she's included as a tremendous example of faith goes against every fiber of the being of those who would be writing at that time. If this was a man-made book meant to just impress men, this is not how you do it.

This is not how you do it. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Now, you remember the story, you remember what she did and the fact that God was faithful in not destroying her and her family because of her obedience to the commands that were given to her.

But once again, the exaltation of a woman in this context, especially a woman of ill repute, is something truly to take note of. And it really shows that Rahab's faith was not in the Israelites, it was not in men at all.

It was truly in God, and given how little light she would have had, what an amazing thing that is. I mean, what revelation did she have? And yet her faith was so strong that she is presented to us as a tremendous example.

As we look at all of these, remember how little revelation they had in comparison, scripturally speaking, to what we have today. I mean, we stand on the backs of giants, we have all these great men of old who have looked at the scriptures, we have the entirety of the Bible and yet these people believed God on the basis of so much less than we have and yet their faith was real.

How much deeper, how much richer should our faith be in light of the revelation that has been given to us? Now, up to this point, we've been pretty much moving along in a chronological fashion. But the writer realizes, as any good preacher should, you can only give so many sermon illustrations, and your sermon can only be so long.

When I travel and I speak at churches, I always ask, now, when do you normally get out here? What's the normal time? And it's always the same, it's always the same. In fact, I think there's someone in the audience here this evening, I've preached at his church, and I think I asked, and it's always the same, oh, oh, oh, James, don't worry about the time.

I always get that. You just go as long as you want. Now, first of all, that's not really what they mean. Okay? I don't know if they think it's a spiritual thing, you just let the spirit lead. You mean if I'm here at six o 'clock tonight still going, you're going to be okay with that?

Probably not. You know, I really don't know why people say that. And I just go, no, no, no, I want to know when you normally end your services. Because I can sort of tell. If I start going along, you know, there's always the people down there that start doing this little number, you know, and then this little thing, except most watches are electronic now, so that's sort of irrelevant, but it still gets the message across fairly clearly to the speaker that he's gone a little bit beyond the normal time that people are accustomed to.

So any good preacher knows you only go so far, you only go so long, and so the good preacher of the book of Hebrews says, and what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of, and then he starts to, as I said, accelerate.

He's not saying that the faith shown by these people is somehow less important than those by the patriarchs that he has spent so much more time, I mean, we're looking at, you know, 30 some odd chapters worth up to this point in time.

He's not saying it's less important, but hopefully if the illustrations you've given up to this point are fairly good, you've started to make your point. And so what he does is he really sort of runs through the history of the people of Israel first by giving a list of names, but then by switching over to, in verse 33, the actions that faith brought about that people would be able to identify in the history of the people of Israel.

And interestingly enough, he even goes into the intertestamental period, the period after the Old Testament, and it seems fairly clear, makes some references to the Maccabees, which again, the Jewish people would be very familiar with their exploits and what had happened in their wars and things like that.

So he mentions some of the pre-Davidic names, Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah. And I'm not going to take the time to look at each one. You know the stories of each one, but you might want to consider just briefly how some of them really fit into a faith chapter.

But hopefully by now you'll then be able to answer that question for yourself because we look at Samson and go, whoa, some major failures there. But you see, we've already seen that the author is not trying to present to us an unrealistic picture of faith.

He's showing us that these people had faith, even though they were fallen individuals just like you and I, as we've seen over and over again. So you look at Samson and you go, well, yeah, right at the end he managed to pull things together, but wow, there was a waste of tremendous talents and power.

Yes, but he still had faith to accomplish what God called him to accomplish in that final act. And then you look at Jephthah, and I don't know, if I were to be asked to sort of put together a list of great examples of faith, Jephthah would not be the first person at the top of my list or even anywhere on my list to be perfectly honest with you.

But when you think about that, what it made me think about was how dark times were during the periods of the judges. I mean, can we be honest that reading the book of Judges is frequently very depressing?

I mean, it's troubling. It's troubling for a lot of people who come to the Bible with the idea that, well, as long as it's in the Bible, it's being recommended to us. No, not really, especially when you get to the judges.

I mean, you're talking about the low point. I guess maybe Manasseh later on is going to get down to about that same level too, but wow, the level of the depravity of Man that is revealed during that period of time is simply shocking.

And I'm honestly, you know, we're in Leviticus right now. We're headed for Judges. And if you haven't read it for a while, you're going to hear it. And it's going to be a test to us as to how committed we are to this reading through the entire Bible thing.

I mean, Brother Cross did skip a few of the genealogies, which is okay, but we're going to have to work through some of those things. And it's tough. It's hard. It shows Man in his sinfulness. And yet, the point is that even when there was great darkness, very little light and revelation, God still had people of faith.

Now, did their lives live up to the level of a Paul or someone like that? No. But even in the midst of darkness, God continued to grant the gift of faith to people. And that's why Jephthah is mentioned there.

And, of course, we know of David's many failures and Samuel's many failures, especially in his family life. And the prophets are just simply mentioned as a group and thrown out there as examples of faith, though we could have certainly multiplied the examples of faith.

We just finished studying through Jeremiah, and there were many times when you saw his faith. But then he stops with the names, and he starts talking about the things accomplished by faith. Who by faith conquered kingdoms?

Well, there are a number of places where there were military victories and political victories that are recorded for us by men of faith. Performed acts of righteousness. Well, again, if they were truly acts of righteousness, that requires faith in God.

Acts of righteousness that are not done in faith are not pleasing to God. They are religious hypocrisy. Obtained promises. Well, which promises? Because at the end of the chapter it's going to say, they didn't obtain the greatest promise apart from us, which is going to be a very interesting thing to consider.

But there were obviously smaller promises or more time-based promises that people obtained from God by faith. They shut the mouths of lions, probably primarily a reference to Daniel, but there might have been other incidences similar to that.

Quenched the power of fire, probably most obviously refer to the three Hebrew children in the fire. It's probably what's being referred to. Escaped the edge of the sword. Well, it's interesting. When you look at this, there were others who were tortured and put to death by sword.

Here others escaped the edge of the sword. And both are accomplished by faith. The problem that we frequently have is, well, I'm going to believe God to protect me. And so they escaped the edge of the sword.

So they were delivered by God. Does the person who says, I am going to believe in God's promise to protect me, who then becomes a martyr? Is that person's faith misplaced? You see, the author doesn't even have that concept in his mind.

We tend to have that type of concept in our mind, but the author doesn't have that concept in his mind. He can put those two together in the same list without any feeling of conflict whatsoever. Because it's the attitude of dependence upon God, not whether our faith can change God's plan or change God's decree.

It's the attitude that we have toward God and the acceptance of His promises and our desire to walk in the light of His word. Escaped the edge of the sword. From weakness were made strong. There would be numerous examples of that.

You think of Elijah. But in almost every life that you look at in the Old Testament, there are going to be those places where from weakness they were made strong to accomplish things in God's sight. Became mighty in war.

Certainly there were numerous examples of that. But there were also, of course, times during like the Judges when the people basically were under slavery. So, again, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection.

Well, we can only think of a few specific examples of that in the life of the prophets, for example. But there were those places where there was the act of resurrection and bringing back to life again, just as we see in the ministry of the Lord Jesus as well.

And others were tortured. That's why I say, in the writer's mind, there is no contradiction here. Escaped the edge of the sword. Others were tortured. All by faith. The idea is that faith is not what causes us to be able to somehow control what God's decree and will is.

But faith is the means by which we, when we experience God's providence, honor and glorify Him, whatever His will is for us in a given situation. And so, others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Now, some feel that now this is looking at some intertestamental period. There is, for example, one story amongst the Jewish people of a family, basically, that were tortured. They were commanded to break God's law.

They refused to do so. Their tongues were cut out, and eventually they were fried in a huge pan. Can you imagine that as a means of execution? But they would not go against what God had commanded them to do.

And they lost their life in the process. But it says, so that they might obtain a better resurrection. In other words, they knew what God's will was. They knew what God's law was. They knew exactly why they were being commanded to do this.

And they refused to do so, knowing that the resurrection they would receive, having been murdered by these individuals, would be the better resurrection, the resurrection they would receive if they dishonored God, obviously not the better resurrection.

Others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. We can think of instances like that in the Old Testament, of course. But also, again, there were numerous intertestamental examples of people being put to suffering, being imprisoned for their faithfulness to the God of Israel as well.

They were stoned. I'm not sure if Pastor Fry mentioned this, but Jewish tradition is that Jeremiah was stoned at the end of his life by the Jews in Egypt. You may recall those final chapters in that final situation where Jeremiah was saying to them even what they did not want to hear, even down in Egypt.

And eventually it was like, look, we've had enough of this guy. And possibly there is a reference to Jeremiah there being stoned. They were sawn in two. Well, don't look in your concordance for that one.

This clearly takes us to the Jewish story and it was well known to the early church fathers as well, but the story of Isaiah. By tradition, Isaiah was executed by being sawn in two with a wooden saw. Now, it would be bad enough with a nice steel saw, but a wooden saw would not be a fast execution and I can't even imagine what that would be like.

But that's the only example that I am aware of of something in reference to this. And again, that's only found in Jewish tradition. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword. So, there's the complete contrast right there.

They escaped the edge of the sword by faith. By faith they were put to death with the sword. Both fit perfectly in the same list as long as we recognize that faith is not a human instrumentality to try to change God.

It is the acceptance of God's sovereign decree and our creatureliness and the fact that He is going to be faithful to the promises that He has made to us. That truly is, I think, important to see in this list.

They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated. Now, how does that fit into a phrase by faith? Well, again, I think especially the persecuted church wouldn't even ask the question.

It is a life of faith that would cause a person to remain faithful to the God of Israel in the midst of such destitution. Why was it that they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated?

Because their faithfulness to the one true God of Israel was extremely offensive to the people around them. Even when the major world powers started coming into Israel. You've got Alexander, then followed by the Romans, and things like that.

The Jewish people were considered to be reprehensible. They were reprehensible because they made the outrageous claim that their God was the only God, and everybody else's God didn't exist. And how arrogant is that?

Their practices, their sacrifices, their unwillingness to engage in the common behaviors of the people made them reprehensible to the world. And yet, by being faithful to God, frequently that resulted in their mistreatment.

In their not having much of the world's goods in any way. And yet, because of this, they're described as men of whom the world was not worthy. From the world's perspective, these people didn't deserve to live.

From God's perspective, the world was not worthy of their presence amongst them. Surely that should remind us that if we find ourselves in agreement with the world as to what is good and proper and holy and just, we've missed a turn someplace.

And we need to go back to God's Word to find out what the true directions really are. Wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. Yes, God's people have often not had the easy way of life.

They have often not had the rich houses and the wonderful clothing. The very things that the world constantly concerns itself with. God's people frequently have not had. And they have not had it because they were faithful.

That really gives the lie to the people running around that if you'll just have faith, then you'll have everything your heart desires. That's true. If your heart's desire is solely for God. But the problem is, so much of the teaching today is, well, your heart's desires can be for the big houses and the fancy clothes and everything else.

Christ the Fulfillment of the Faith Chapter

And that is not the message of the faith chapter or any place else in Scripture for that matter. Then we have the conclusion of the chapter and this is where I wanted to have enough time to handle it appropriately.

And all these, brings them all together. And oh, there were some very different people in there. I bet there were some people in that list that wouldn't have gotten along very well with each other. But all these, having gained approval through their faith, notice through their faith, not through the perfection of their works, not through their accomplishments or anything else, they gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised.

Well, wait a minute. Didn't it say they received promises? Again, we have to keep in mind what promise is in mind here. Did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.

Now, what does that mean? They did not receive what was promised. Well, from the very start of the chapter, we had this promise of the land. Well, many of these people went into the land. Maybe there's something more than just simply a physical land that was being promised there.

In fact, you go all the way back and the first promise, the protevangelium in Genesis 3, you follow that all the way through. The fundamental promise is Emmanuel. God with us. The provision of the Gospel, the fulfillment of all those promises and the law and everything else comes in Jesus Christ.

And the point of the author is we now upon whom the end of the ages have come, we have received the better thing, something better for us. They all faithfully followed God. They followed the promises that He had given to them because of them and because of God's work in them.

The Messiah is brought into the world. And now we, upon whom the end of the ages have come, we now know and see the fulfillment of that promise. And in us and in our faithfulness and in the continuation of the building of the church, they are made perfect.

In other words, they believe the promise that God would bless the world through them and now He has. Now He has. Do you see how God's people are together as a whole? We look back and we recognize in looking at what God has done for thousands of years, His faithfulness, even the people who had not received anything near what we have received.

We have the whole revelation of God in Christ, the Gospel, the New Testament, the founding of the church, the fellowship of the saints. We have all these things, but we realize we're not alone in this.

And you see to those persecuted Hebrew Christians, those who are being tempted to go back to the old ways, can you see how powerful an argument this is? That you stand in continuity with these people as the people of faith trusting the one promise that if you go back, you lose it all.

You lose it all. All of those old ways were pointing to this fulfillment. And all of those great names from Abraham and Moses and David on down, all of them are pointing to this fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

If you just walk away from this, you have nothing. You have nothing. Can you see how strong the argument would be to those whose families replacing such pressure upon them to go back to the old ways, offer the sacrifice, blaspheme this name of Jesus?

You see, he says, all these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because it wasn't time yet. Because God had provided something better for. We live in the age of the fulfillment.

We live looking back upon the very center point of time on Mount Calvary. So that apart from us, we who look back and appreciate their faith, we who are the body of Christ and dwelt by the Spirit of God, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.

They would not be completed. What completed their faith was the fulfillment of the Gospel. And that then is what leads into one of the most well-known texts in all of the Bible, which we're not going to cover this evening.

But remember, chapter and verse divisions are arbitrary. In our minds, they're not, unfortunately, but they're arbitrary. Having said that, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also, as they did, lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter, the beginner and the completer of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

That is the fulfillment of the faith chapter. That is its summary statement. Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, let us be faithful. That truly is the exhortation that is found here in the faith chapter.

I'm looking forward to taking chapter 12, verses 1 and 2 apart and listening very carefully in a more Reformed Baptist way, slowly, to what it has to say. And Lord willing, that's what we'll be doing on the next Lord's Day.

But certainly, as we consider this hall of fame of faith, take away a few things. One, we cannot help but look at each one of those instances and we see here we're faithful people, but they were not perfect people.

They were not perfect people. God works with His people where they are. And He calls us to faithfulness in the context of who we are, what we've been given, and where we've been called to serve. But what unites us all together is that God has always had a people who has said to Him, Yes, You are God.

I am Your creature. I will follow You. I will obey. I will be obedient. I will follow. And here we are today. And it doesn't matter what technology we have. It doesn't matter what society we live in. We're called to the same kind of faithfulness.

And when we are called, we can always look back and say, God's been faithful to those who have believed Him. And He'll be faithful to me as well. Let's pray together. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we pray that You will, in our hearts, convince us once again of Your faithfulness.

When we sing the great hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, may it flow from a heart that is convinced. Give us eyes to see, Father, the faithfulness that You have had toward us. May we see over the course of our lives that steadfast love that has been Yours for us.

May we see it every day. May we not just look for the great events, but may we see in Your faithfulness to us day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, Your great love for us. And in light of it, warm our hearts to praise, to worship, and to service.

Even this coming week, we pray in Christ's name, Amen.