Faith Endures Prosperity And Adversity - [Hebrews 11:32-40]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme of Galatians 2 verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, it was probably six to seven weeks ago that I was thinking about Hebrews 11, which talks about a faith that lasts.

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Things come up in our lives like adversity or prosperity. Will my faith last to the end?

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So I typed in a Google search, things that last. And of course, guess what came up?

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And I want you to know I'm not some kind of weird prepper, but these are things that last. And they all were foods with long shelf life.

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Things that last. Dried pasta, it'll last one to two years past the best -by date.

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Bouillon cubes, shelf life two years. Peanut butter, shelf life two years, and it'll even last later if it's dried out, no problem.

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You can just add your own oil to it. Some will be happy for this long shelf life. Dark chocolate, two to five years.

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And since dark chocolate has more cacao than it does milk, it lasts for a long time. Canned or vacuum -pouched tuna.

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Shelf life, three to five years after best -by date. Dried beans, shelf life indefinite.

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Honey, shelf life indefinite. White rice, shelf life indefinite.

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Unless you get the little rice weevils that get in there, but that's another story. I thought foods that last would be things like Twinkies.

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And I learned this week that Twinkies don't last 25 to 45 years. They only last 25 to 45 days.

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And again, that's because there's no dairy in them. I was looking for things that last like Spam. It was invented for long life.

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I was looking for things like hardtack. Remember hardtack with pirates and survivalists in the old days?

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It was just flour, water, and salt, and it was just baked two times, kind of like biscotti,

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I guess, baked two times. And the old pirates and sailors used to have to take the hardtack, and they would knock it down really hard for what reason?

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Kind of knock it on a little shelf or something, because there were so many worms in there, and they'd have to knock those worms out, tapping the crackers.

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And then the other thing that lasts super long is pemmican. You know what pemmican is? Pemmican literally means make grease.

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And so Native American Indians would take some dry meat, they would pound it into powder, add hot fat or grease, and some berries, and it lasted a long time.

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Makes you hungry, doesn't it? But what I was after was a faith that lasts.

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I believe now, I'm trusting in Jesus now, but what if so many good things come into my life,

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I just kind of forget about them, will my faith last? What if there's a bunch of adversity that comes into my life, and trials, will my faith last?

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This morning, if you take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 11, I want to talk about the faith of a

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Christian that will last you until you die, because it is God given.

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Your faith, Christian, will last because it is God given. And God gives only good gifts.

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And whether you're the thief on the cross, and your faith lasts one day, it lasts to the end.

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Or maybe you are a Christian 70 years ago, will my faith last? Yes, it will.

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The faith that God gives will sustain you both through prosperity and adversity.

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Theologically, here's how we can think about this. There's something called the preservation of God, and then the perseverance of the saints.

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God preserves, and we persevere in that order. God, the triune

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God, perseveres Christians, or preserves Christians till the end, rather.

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He keeps them. If you're a Christian, he keeps you. He will sustain you.

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He will protect you. He will guard you. He won't abandon you. He won't forsake you.

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No matter what the situation is, whether it's adversity or prosperity, he will not abandon or forsake you.

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He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. Arthur Pink was asked, how are you keeping yourselves these days?

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He replied, I'm not, I'm being kept. That is the preservation of God.

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Jesus, praying in John 17, keep them, Holy Father, in your name.

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And there's lots of theological things that could come into play here. We could talk about election. We could talk about the sovereignty of God and how he works all things together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

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We could talk about the promises of God, who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ. These are all things talking about the preservation of God, how he keeps people.

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He keeps Christians and he doesn't repent of that. He doesn't revoke those gifts because the gifts and calling of God are what?

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Irrevocable. He who's began a good work in you will perfect it until the end.

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God preserves us. That's the preservation of God. Now, our response to that, our duty, our necessity is that we persevere.

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John 8, Jesus said, if you continue in my word, then truly you're my disciple.

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Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, Christians persevere. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which

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I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you're saved, if you hold fast the word which

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I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. God preserves and we persevere.

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Colossians 1, if indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which

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I, Paul, was made a minister. Christians are kept by God and they keep themselves.

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They're preserved and they persevere through trials, through times of prosperity. And the faith that God gives, since faith is a gift,

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Philippians 1, 29, Ephesians 2, Acts 18, they believe through grace.

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Since God gives you this gift, he gives a wonderful gift, a persevering gift, and it's the gift of faith, faith in the

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Lord Jesus. So today what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at Hebrews 11 and we're gonna see how far we get in verses 32 through 40.

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Faith that God gives will endure till the end through prosperity, adversity, until every promise is fulfilled.

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That's the outline. The faith that God gives you, Christian, by a gift with the object, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the high priest, the faith that God has given you will endure through prosperity, adversity, until every promise is fulfilled.

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Super simple. The book of Hebrews, it's a sermon, it's a letter, it's an epistolatory sermon, it's a sermonic epistle.

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It's got aspects of both there, but if you read Hebrews out loud, it would probably take you about 40 minutes, 45 minutes.

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It sounds like a sermon because it is a sermon. And a sermon has one main point, and that is

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Jesus is superior. He's writing to Hebrew people, and so you know the backdrop by now, unless maybe you're tuning in for the first time.

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Maybe I'm tempted to go back to Judaism because things are so hard as a Christian.

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He's writing, no, there's nowhere to go back to since Jesus is supreme. And if you're a

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Jewish person, I want you to know, the writer says Jesus is better than any Old Testament prophet. He's better than angels.

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I mean, angels are impressive, but Jesus is superior to angels. You say, well, what about Moses? Is he better than Moses?

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Yes, chapter three, Jesus is better than Moses. Chapter four, Jesus is better than Moses.

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Yes, but what about the prophet of Moses, a man named Aaron? What about the spokesperson of Moses?

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Yes, Jesus, chapter four through seven, he's better than Aaron. Yeah, but what about the pomp and circumstance of the

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Old Testament covenant? Is Jesus better than that? Yes, chapter eight, chapter nine, chapter 10.

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Jesus is better. He's superior. I'm coming to chapter 11.

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It's called the faith chapter because if you look at the first two words of most of the verses, or many of the verses, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, these people had an object of their faith, and that was the

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Messiah who was going to come. It started off talking about Abel and Noah, and then the patriarchs, and then

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Moses. And now we're gonna look at some men and see that they're trusting in the

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Messiah to come. And these are all people in Israel after Moses. And they all understand that Jesus is superior.

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I like Cotton Mather when he said, the great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.

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And that's exactly what this author of the book of Hebrews is saying.

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And he's saying, you know, from being an apostle to the first to the last, Christ, firstborn finisher, high priest, mediator, surety, son, shepherd,

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Jesus is great, it's all about the Lord Jesus. Now, there are responses we have when we understand how great he is, but it's all about the

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Lord Jesus. If I had to just help you with kind of an encapsulation of what we're seeing here in the book of Hebrews, particularly chapter 11,

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I'll quote John Calvin. Since the grace bestowed on us, you here in this room, you watching, is more abundant, it would be absurd for us to have less faith.

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He, the writer says, therefore, that those fathers who were endowed with such a little faith did not have such strong grounds for belief as we have.

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We should know that we are ungrateful to God two or three times over if less faith appears in us under the reign of Christ than the father showed that they had under the law.

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What's Calvin's point? All these people in Hebrews 11 were looking forward to the Messiah.

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We friends have the Messiah. Why would we go back to the old covenant, the old system,

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Judaism, or any other kind of religion? Hebrews chapter 11, verses 32 through 40.

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Let me give you these faith boosters. God, number one, who gives you faith will have that faith endure through prosperity.

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Your faith will last through prosperity, good times. Verse 32 through 35a.

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And you can hear the preacher, can't you? And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection.

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This section here is all about wonderful things that God used these men to do.

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I would say these are times of plenty and goodness and prosperity. I like back in verse 32 how he says, and what more shall

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I say? Typical preacher. I could tell you more than I'm telling you, but I've got to land the plane.

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I don't think they had planes back in those days, but you know what I'm trying to tell you? This is rhetorical. I've got so many names.

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I've got so many people. We could go back to the Old Testament and look at people who frail and faithless many times, less than faithful many times, had the right object of their faith and God saw them through to the end.

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It's kind of like a rapid fire machine gun kind of staccato list of names.

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One man called it a rhythmic barrage. I don't even know what that is, but it sounds impressive to me.

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A rhythmic barrage. A bunch of names all jumped in and now it seems maybe for the first time the author includes himself.

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Has he said I in terms of the rest of the book? Has he mentioned himself in any way, shape or form?

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What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of. By the way, when you see that verb to tell of, it means to set out in detail, to recount, to describe.

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And by the way, it's a masculine word. That is to say a man wrote this book.

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I have read that Priscilla wrote this book. The Virgin Mary wrote this book.

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Mary Magdalene wrote this book. I don't know who wrote this book. Maybe Paul, probably

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Paul. Some days I think it's Paul, some days I don't. But apostolically written and a man wrote it.

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Not the Virgin Mary, not Mary. And some even have gone to say, you know what?

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It was a woman who wrote it, but she knew she better call herself a he and I and me and to tell of with masculine endings of these words and verbs because otherwise nobody would listen.

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So she's gonna lie? That doesn't make any sense. Nope, a man wrote this. We don't know who, but he's a preacher and he's got so many

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Old Testament examples. What's he say? I don't have the time to tell you. Time's running out.

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The sermon's got to close. And he talks about some judges, a king and some prophets.

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That's kind of how this breaks down, all post Moses. And these judges lived in sad times, tragic times, awful times.

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But God had these men do great things because they were trusting in Him. Gideon, we don't have time to go through every one of these issues of these people and go to the

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Old Testament, but we will look at a few of them. But Gideon, he defeated the army of the

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Midianites with what? Trumpets and jars. That's it.

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From 32 ,000 men down to 300 people. This is a fascinating victory, prosperity.

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Beric defeats the Canaanites. I mean, it's 900 chariots against you and God supplies the victory.

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Samson, who did he defeat? Of course, the Philistines. Philistines, is that how you say it, Philistines?

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Philistines. Philistines isn't too bad. Is that English way to pronounce it, British? I mean, why would you put

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Samson here? I would put most everybody but Samson. But Samson understood the victories over the enemies of God were supplied by God himself.

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It was God who supplied the victory. Jephthah, would you ever put

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Jephthah in the hall of faith? That's why this isn't necessarily some kind of roll call,

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R -O -L -E, but it's a roll call, R -O -L -L, as one writer said. It's a bunch of men, and there's some women in this list as well, who said, you know what?

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They are far from perfect, but they're trusting in the Messiah who's revealed in Scripture, the triune

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God, God as revealed in Scripture. Jephthah, remember Jephthah?

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The first thing that walks through that door, I'll sacrifice, sacrificing his only child, his daughter.

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But he did stand firm in his conviction that God would lead his people,

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Israel. This one maybe seems easier, David, because when you see and hear of the word

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David, you realize a man who trusts God, who has faith in God. Remember with Goliath in 1

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Samuel 17, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the

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Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you defile. The writer is saying, all these people trusted in God through these great times, make sure you keep trusting in God too.

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That's the point. Samuel, he was the last of the judges and he had all kinds of wonderful things that God did through him, breaking the strongholds of the

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Philistines. The prophets, probably talking about Elijah and Elisha and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they all had faith in the

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Messiah. Judges, early monarchy and prophets, they all trusted through good times.

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Verse 33, who through faith, same thing as by faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises and stopped the mouths of lions.

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They had victory trusting in who God was. They conquered kingdoms.

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If you just think, all right, how much do I know the Old Testament? Who in the Old Testament conquered kingdoms? You'd probably think

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David. You'd probably think Joshua and you'd be right. They contended for these victories.

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Who enforced justice? By the way, this might be more important than overcoming other armies.

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They worked righteousness. Who do you think of? Samuel is who I think of.

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I think of Solomon. He, in 1 Kings 3, administered justice. Jehoshaphat, he said,

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God, in God, there's no injustice or partiality. Look at the next part here, obtain promises.

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Any promises you can think of in the Old Testament that were fulfilled through these leaders? 2

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Samuel 7, David's messianic heir. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,

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I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. But not just that promise because the text says promises plural.

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And whether it's Abraham with Isaac and Jacob or David, Joshua, God kept his promises.

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Look at the text, stop the mouths of lions. I mean, everybody should probably get that. God had these men, even though they were far from perfect, trusting in the perfect one and this faith worked out and stopped the mouth of lions.

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I don't know if you know this, but you're probably defaulting to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego kind of stories and Daniel stories.

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But Benaniah killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day.

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Do you remember that? 1 Chronicles 11, he struck down two heroes of Moab.

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He also went and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. You might think of Samson who tears lions to pieces because the spirit of the

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Lord was on him. John Owen said, these instances are taken from things of all sorts to show that there's nothing of any kind, whatever, wherein we may be concerned but that faith will be useful and helpful.

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No matter what's going on in life, it's good to be trusting in this Messiah. Look at verse 34, quench the power of fire.

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That certainly has to be Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Matter of fact, we should do it.

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So turn your Bibles to Daniel chapter three, if you have a Bible handy. Daniel chapter three, quench the power of fire.

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This is fascinating to me, this whole section. Of course, you read this and you're familiar with it, but I want you to see as I read this, if you can find the faith aspect of it, the trusting aspect of it.

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Knowledge, assent and trust aspect of it. Daniel chapter three. The preacher in the book of Hebrews is just showing all these great examples of faith in the high priest.

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Verse 16 of Daniel three. I just love to read these verses because it's so extols who

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God is. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

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If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning furnace of fire and he will deliver us out of your hand,

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O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

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Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

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He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

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Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats and their other garments and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.

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Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

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And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

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You see the refrains, the names are mentioned over and over and over, burning fiery furnace mentioned over and over and over.

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Then the king Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast in three men bound in the fire?

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They answered and said to the king, true, O king. He answered and said, but I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt.

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And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

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We know who that is, don't we? Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace.

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He declared Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came.

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I mean, just think about it. They came out of the fire or came out from the fire. Satraps, prefects, governors and the king's counselors gathered together, saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men.

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The hair of their heads was not singed. Their cloaks were not harmed and no smell of fire had come upon them.

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Here's the verse I want you to see, dear congregation. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, blessed be the

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God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who has sent his angel and delivered his servants.

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What about these servants? Who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yield up their bodies rather than serve and worship any

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God except their own. What's the point? The point is there, the tender provision of God and the protection of God and these men trusted in them.

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Back to Hebrews chapter 11, please. I mean, fire, what a passage.

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And so the writer of Hebrews is just listing all these people who were in fact trusting in who

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God is and what he's done so that you trust in him as well. Will your faith fail?

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It might flicker, but it won't fail because God gave you that faith. It's the faith that endures to the end.

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What does the text say back in Hebrews chapter 11? Some escaped the edge of the sword. Through faith, they escaped the edge of the sword.

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Reminds me of Elijah who's running from Jezebel and escapes. Reminds me of David running from Saul, escaping, made strong out of weakness.

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Who comes to your mind there? Probably Samson or maybe Hezekiah at his deathbed prays for more years.

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Who became mighty in war? Well, that could be David. That could be Joshua. That could be Jehoshaphat.

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That could be many. I think of King of Judah, Hezekiah, the

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Assyrian army marching towards Jerusalem. But the angel of the Lord comes and kills how many thousand

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Assyrian soldiers? A thousand, 2 ,000, 185 ,000

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Assyrian soldiers in a night. And because of that, what's the text say? Put foreign armies to flight and women receive back their dead by resurrection.

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Of course, you're thinking of the widow of Zarephath in the New Testament. I mean, in the

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Old Testament that the Lord Jesus talks about with Elijah and Elisha and the Shunammite woman, the high priest that reveals himself and gives faith is gonna make sure that you keep trusting in God.

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I think it's probably true congregation if I could just practically think about this passage for a moment.

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It's harder to believe when things are going well than it is when things are going bad. We have a situation now across the world.

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A lot of people are thinking spiritual things, why? Because they're gonna get sick possibly, they're gonna die possibly.

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And so they think about things. But what about if you're walking through fire?

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What if you're destroying armies? What if you're doing all these things that this passage talks about?

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And you're thinking, you know what? When things are going well, it's harder to trust God. Luther said the most dangerous trial of all is not when there's no trial.

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It's when everything is all right and running smoothly. That is when a man tends to forget

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God, to become too independent and put his time and prosperity to a wrong use.

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In fact, at that time, he has more need to call upon God's name than in adversity.

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And I just want you to know, if God starts to work in you, he will protect you and keep you even through times of plenty.

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Number two, through times of adversity. God -given faith that he gives to every

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Christian, trusting the Messiah will endure through not only prosperity, but adversity.

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And now in verses 35B and following, there's a shift. And now we don't see conquering language, we see torture language.

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There's a shift. And it too is rapid fire, machine gun -like.

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It too is rhetorically powerful. And there's gonna be suffering talked about like we never know and probably will never know.

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If you think about your most sober situations in most difficult time, you will not hold a candle most likely to any of these things.

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Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.

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Others suffered mocking and flogging, even chains and imprisonment. They're stoned, sawn in two.

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They're killed with the sword. They went about in sheep's skins and goat skins, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy.

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Wandering about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. He, the writer, wants you to see that these people kept believing even in good times in the

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Messiah. And he wants you to keep believing in good times, but also what about difficult times?

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You're going to see this faith perseveres because God preserves. We would all give up our faith with these things unless God was protecting us and keeping us and guarding us.

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Can you imagine tortured, refusing to accept release? I don't know what kind of beating this was and what kind of torture.

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Some say put on racks, stretched out on a frame, beaten to death. Others say this is on a torturing kind of large wheel where they spin you around.

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A typanium is what it's called. I don't know what it was, but these people who were beaten and tortured, they didn't give up their faith.

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Some say this could be of the Maccabean times. Now we don't believe in first and second

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Maccabees to be in scripture, but it certainly tells us something about history.

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There was a priest named Eleazar who was 90 years old and in second Maccabees six, he's described as not going to eat pork no matter what.

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So they beat him to death. Maybe that's what they're thinking about here.

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Second Maccabees six. I don't know, by the way, Charlie, have I ever quoted second Maccabees from this pulpit ever? All right, well,

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I'm just going to do it just for today. It's not scripture, but it's history. It is clear to the

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Lord in His holy knowledge, said Eleazar, that I might have been saved from death. I'm enduring terrible sufferings in my body upon this beating, but in my soul,

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I am glad to suffer these things because I fear Him. And for the first and last time, second

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Maccabees six, verse 30. We aren't even going to put up any kind of fight about it because we're looking for a better resurrection.

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The hopeful resurrection. We're going to live again. So let's not try to get out of this and accept release.

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And we know this was all purchased by the ultimate resurrection, the Lord Jesus. And look at some of these things, mocking and flogging, chains and imprisonment.

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See what he's trying to do, the author? If you go back to chapter 10, verse 32, but recall the former days when you were enlightened, you endure a hard struggle and sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partner with those so treated for you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

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What's the writer trying to do? Hey, you become a Christian and you think life is going to be easy.

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Then it becomes difficult. Maybe I made a bad decision because I've got some of this prosperity thinking in my mind.

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All those TV preachers that say, come to Jesus and everything is going to become great. And by the way, if you do come to Jesus by faith, your status before God is great.

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You're a son or a daughter. You're legally counted righteous based on the work of Jesus. You're forgiven.

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You have the hope of heaven, but sometimes there are trials. And these Jewish people who had this letter from Paul or whoever the apostle was started to be tempted.

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Maybe if I go back, it'll be better. Life was easier when I wasn't a Christian. He said, don't go back.

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These people that you essentially almost worship and adore in the

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Old Testament, your favorite saints in the hall of faith, they kept believing no matter what.

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And they were thinking, you know what? A better resurrection is going to come. They were mocked, flogging, chains, imprisonment.

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It says of Jeremiah, they put him in stocks. They were in the upper Benjamin gate.

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Jeremiah 37, the officials were enraged at Jeremiah and they beat him and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan, the secretary.

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Second Chronicles 36, they kept mocking the messengers of God despising their words and scoffing at the prophets.

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Jeering is the verbal abuse. Flogging is the physical abuse. I don't see anything here about emotional abusiveness, but that's probably happening too.

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The brutality of it all. Flogging, ever seen flogging?

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I've never seen it in person, nor do I want to. These brutal scourging with whips. And at the end of the whips kind of cat of nine tails with glass and metal and scraping people's backs.

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Old Testament believers in God, they were offered things like forgiveness, yes, but bonds and prison as well.

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And it shouldn't surprise us that of course, the ultimate prophet one day, the Lord Jesus, experienced both mocking and flogging as well as he suffered under Pontius Pilate.

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Even chains and imprisonment. These are the, this is the apple of God's eye.

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His beloved ones, his children, and this is what they get? Yep, this is what they get.

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The suffering servant, the Lord Jesus, has servants who suffer. They, verse 37, were stoned.

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And why did they stone people back in the old days? Well, if you want to be flippant, because there are a lot of rocks in Israel, that's true.

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But that was mosaic law for people that blaspheme God. You stone them,

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Leviticus 24. Even the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 23,

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O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

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And not only that, this one was the shocking one. Whenever I was younger, I read this and I thought, this is unbelievable.

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I mean, the lion thing and the flogging thing, but they were sawn in two.

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Now, we don't have any biblical recollection in the Old Testament of someone getting sawn in two, but we do have tradition, several traditions that talk about King Manasseh, who sawed or had

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Isaiah sawn in two. And this is found in the book called The Martyrdom of Isaiah.

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Not a book in the Bible, but a book about the Bible. Sawn in two. And Manasseh was tracking down, according to this tradition,

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Isaiah. And they found him hidden in a tree. So Isaiah is trying to run for his life because of his preaching of the gospel, that is the good news that Yahweh saves.

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And he hides in a tree. And so Manasseh, according to tradition, said, I want you to cut the tree down and saw the tree in half with a wooden saw while Isaiah is in it.

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You can just imagine the sights and sounds of that. The Martyrdom of Isaiah reads this way.

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And he sawed him asunder with a wood saw. And when Isaiah was being sawn in sunder,

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Balchera stood up accusing him and all the false prophets stood up, laughing and rejoicing because of Isaiah.

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And they seized and sawed in sunder Isaiah, the son of Amoz with a wood saw.

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And all the false prophets and princes and people all stood looking on. And when Isaiah was being sawn in sunder, he neither cried aloud nor wept, but his lips spake with the

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Holy Spirit until he was sawn in twain. And even

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Justin Martyr said, if your teachers had understood them, they would have most assuredly expunged them from the text as they did the words describing the death of Isaiah.

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Whom you Jews sawed in half with a wooden saw. And not only that, killed with the sword.

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And you should be thinking, by the way, here's what I'm thinking. If they persevered through those things, how must

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I persevere through lesser things? I thought knee surgery was a big deal.

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I thought being on blood thinners was a big deal. When you start thinking from lesser to greater and greater to lesser, you realize, you know what?

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What's the same? Trials are trials, that's true. But it's the object of your faith. And you're thinking, this is the

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Jesus I'm trusting in. And he said, he's forgiven me. He loves me. He's better than prophets. He's better than angels.

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He's better than Moses. He's better than Aaron. He's better than the Old Testament system. He's better than any religion that I came from.

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And I can trust in him, even though he slay me, yet I will trust in him. Even if he saws me in two,

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I will trust in him. These people trusted in him. And therefore the point is, you keep trusting in him.

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You have to keep believing. God doesn't believe for you. And what's more, what's the text say?

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Killed with a sword, murdered.

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First Kings 19, Jeremiah 26, Uriah from Egypt. They took and brought him to King Jeconiakim who struck him down with a sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

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And these people go around in skins of sheep and goats, wandering around homeless, destitute, afflicted, mistreated.

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That's what they get. I mean, there's something built into us that if you believe

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God, you get all the good stuff. And he gives us wonderful things, that's true. But these people, their faith persevered because God was preserving them even through this.

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And if they can do it, so can you because the object of faith is the same. And then what a verse, verse 38, you could have a whole sermon on this.

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Steve Pru told me this is one of his all time favorite verses. And I understand why. Of whom the world was not worthy.

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The world was saying, these people aren't worthy to be here, let's kill them. Let's eradicate them.

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It's the Holocaust for them. Wandering around in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.

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Calvin, although the world may reject the servants of God as rubbish, the fact that it cannot bear them is to be thought of as its penalty because along with them goes some blessing from God.

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It's like common grace the world gets for having Christians on earth. The world wasn't worthy of these kind of people.

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And it's the same for every Christian. The stature and honor that God gives to these people for trusting in them.

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It's amazing to me, it's wonderful to me. One writer said, by subjective the faithful to abuse, floggings, imprisonment and death, the world that is humanity is in rebellion against God.

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They judge them to be unworthy. Now here's the point, listen. But for Hebrews, the reverse is true.

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The world was unworthy of them. That's why when

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I read this, I can't stop thinking of Romans 8. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

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Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, getting sawn in two if I might add that?

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As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

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No, in all these things, we're more than conquerors through him who loved us. And the world isn't worthy, if I might add that.

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The triumph of faith through adversity and prosperity. He, the pastor is trying to get the people ready.

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Things are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen. Keep believing. This is God's perspective. They're worthy because they're trusting in the worthy one, the

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Lord Jesus. Faith endures, you're gonna make it through persecution, trials, viruses, and more.

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And then lastly, found in verses 39 through 40. Christian, your

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God -given faith will endure until every promise of God has been fulfilled. The best is yet to come.

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In all these, though commended through their faith, right in the object of the Lord Jesus, that shorthand, did not receive what was promised.

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Remember, because Jesus wasn't even arriving yet. He hadn't arrived. They didn't receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us.

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And now you see the hook where the preacher is talking about the Old Testament. Now he's talking to you, the listener, the reader.

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He's got something better for us because we're on the other side of the promises of God that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

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What a great preaching device, taking the truth of God and showing its relevance to the people.

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Is the Old Testament relevant? Yes. Should you be reading the Old Testament? Yes. Say, well,

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I'm gonna make the scriptures relevant. No, you're gonna show how relevant they are. And all these people, they didn't receive what was promised and you have something better.

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What a great way to preach. Go back to chapter 11, verse two, if you will. The same kind of language.

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Here are the bookmarks. We call them an inclusio. But they're technically inclusio, but offhandedly, we'll call them bookmarks.

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A book, what do you put at the end of your books? Bookends. I knew that. Took me a second, but I knew it.

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The bookends. Here's the front part of the bookend. For by it, people of old received their what?

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Commendation. So he's saying the same thing at the front of the chapter and the back of the chapter.

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Though these people through faith were commended. Commended chapter 11, verse two, and commended at the end.

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Passive voice, by the way. What's passive voice mean? They didn't commend themselves. God commended them.

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And how could God commend sinful people? Answer, the Lord Jesus purchased them with his own blood and cleansed them and has the spirit of God indwell them.

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And so they are commended by God because they're trusting in the Lord Jesus. How do you gain approval in God's eyes?

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Good works, baptism, some kind of going to church? No. By trusting in what

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God said. By faith, no matter what, in the object, the Lord Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, and king.

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Gained approval. This is not faith in faith, dear friend.

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Faith is not your savior. Faith didn't die on a cross. Faith wasn't virgin born. It's faith in the savior, the

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Lord Jesus. And here's what faith says. Everything in the book of Hebrews that talks about Jesus and extolling him and everything else in the book,

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I believe, amen. I say amen to what God says in all the Bible about Jesus.

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When the Bible says there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother, I say amen. When the Bible says don't trust your own righteousness,

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I say amen. When the Bible says Jesus earned righteousness for you, I say amen.

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When the Bible says repent and believe and you'll be forgiven, I say amen. It's a hearty trust, a deep -rooted assurance that everything that God has done, as one person said, has been earned for you by Christ by sheer grace.

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Who'd wanna turn their back on that? Faith in Christ Jesus. That's why we have the language of resting, accepting, receiving, believing, trusting, in the promises and word of God.

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Verse 39, you can hear him, he's just a preacher. All these, commended through their faith, didn't receive what was promised.

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I mean, Jesus hadn't even come yet and they believed and they went through that for him and they were only trusting in Old Testament promises to be fulfilled, the best was yet to come,

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Jesus was gonna arrive but he hadn't arrived yet and now you have known Jesus has arrived.

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If they believed before Jesus appears on earth, you should be believing because Jesus has already appeared and he said,

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I'm gonna come back. Since God has provided something better for us, that is the

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Lord Jesus incarnate, that apart from us, they shall not be made perfect. And you see the unity there of the people of God in the

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Old Testament and new, one people of God that the son goes to rescue. Something better for us.

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One writer said, if those on whom the great light of grace had not yet shown, showed such surpassing constancy in bearing their ills, what effect ought the full glory of the gospel to have on us?

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So dear Christian, you go through hard times, you go through good times. I want you to know that your faith will last because God provides perseverance.

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I want these verses to just roll over your mind. The Lord loves justice and does not forsake his godly ones.

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They are preserved forever, Psalm 37. Who keeps us in life and does not allow our feet to slip,

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Psalm 66. The Lord will not forsake his people, nor will he forsake his inheritance,

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Psalm 94. Who preserves the souls of his godly ones, Psalm 97.

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The Lord sustains all who fall. The Lord keeps all who love him, Psalm 145.

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And then the Lord Jesus, the one who comes to me, I will certainly not what?

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Cast out. The faith that God gives perseveres through adversity and through prosperity because God preserves that kind of person, not to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy.

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Being kept by the power of God through faith for his salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

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I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him until what?

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That day. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I'm thankful for these men and women in Hebrews 11 that trusted in the promises of God, from Sarah and Rahab to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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Thank you. And we know they're not the heroes. The Lord Jesus is the hero because they were trusting in him and now we have him and we have the apostolic record of him.

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Give us that kind of persevering faith as well. Help us out. Help us work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

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And we know it's because of what you've done. I pray that in the midst of this modern adversity, that you will keep us and that you will guard us and that we will have ourselves trusting in your good provision in that very thing.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.