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Well, it will not be a surprise to anyone that we continue in our studies this evening in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Before we continue in this tremendous text, let us ask the Lord to bless our time together.
Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we would ask that once again, as we open your word, this final time on the Lord's Day, that you would be with us by your Spirit, that you would give guidance, that you would help us to understand.
May we honor your word this evening, may you gather together with us to make it profitable for us as well. We pray in Christ's name. This morning we began the section on Abraham, and I will be honest with you, I had really no idea how far we would get.
It is sometimes difficult when you are dealing with a text of this type to know exactly how far you are going to be able to go because it depends on how much application you attempt to make of the points.
But there were two difficulties in the text that I did not get to this morning. Now, if I were taking classes at most Bible colleges or even seminaries, I would probably be told in those classes to, well, skip the problems.
Don't raise the issues, just give your best understanding and move on. Don't mention that there's a difficulty. Don't mention that there's different viewpoints out there on a particular issue, and certainly not on issues like, well, as you already know, I'm going to be telling you.
But that's not how we do things around here. At least that's not how I function as I look, especially at the book of Hebrews. We've struggled with some pretty difficult things in this text, and I do so because I think that you as Christians, as individuals, as members of this church, need to be aware of what's in the text, need to be aware of the challenges that are there, and need to work through these things for yourself.
I really think that that is a part of handling the text properly, and I know sometimes people are like, well, you know, I'm really not certain that I want to know about some of those difficulties. Well, I figure it's better that you work through them here than run into them in the midst of an unbelieving conversation with an unbeliever someplace, and you're challenged, and I don't know why the pastor didn't mention that when it worked through the text or something like that.
Well, I think it's best to deal with it here. The first one is really a translational issue of the next verse we're looking at, which is Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11. Let's look at it again. Hebrews 11, 11.
By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Now, think back with me for just a moment. Think back to the story of what happened when God promised the birth of Isaac.
What was Sarah's response? She laughed, and it was a laugh of unbelief. She thought that's ridiculous. And so, what is the author saying here? And there have been many people who have gone, is Sarah really the best person to put forward here as an example of faith, especially in how she responded to the promise that was given by God?
I will return next year, and Sarah will have a son. And Sarah's like, yeah, right. I don't think so. But there's more to it than that, because when you look at the technical language, the technicalities of the language in verse 11, specifically for those of you who have been studying the Greek language, that phrase, in any meaningful interpretation of the language, is only used of the male aspect of conception, not of the woman at all.
There are people who say it just doesn't make any sense at all. It just doesn't fit. And so, there are a number of scholars that would say, well, now some have gone into conjecture, saying that the text has been changed, that Sarah shouldn't even be there.
And they will point out, if you just took verses 10 and 12 together, notice verse 12, therefore there is born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, it's back to Abraham. Where did Sarah go?
If verse 11 is actually about Abraham, it just remains consistent all the way through. And so, some have said, well, Sarah just needs to go out there. Others said, you don't need to do that. Sarah is a parenthetical statement.
It's all still about Abraham. By faith, and then you have a parenthetical statement, along with Sarah, he received ability to give seed, to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since then Sarah, being the one who receives this seed, considered him faithful who had promises.
So, there are some people who say, well, the topic really doesn't change. Sarah is just sort of a side statement here, and Abraham remains the focus of everything that's here. Okay, but then there are others who go, no, no.
I mean, yes, initially Sarah laughed, but there's no evidence that she became a thorn in Abraham's side, saying, oh, this couldn't happen, or anything like that. And we aren't totally certain that those terms could not be used of the woman.
And obviously, the problem really was Sarah. She was well past childbearing years. Abraham had kids even after Sarah was gone. So, there's arguments on both sides as to what you're to do with verse 11.
And I will be honest with you, in having listened and read both sides very, very carefully, I'm pretty much persuaded by whoever I'm reading at that point in time. Okay, so it could go either direction.
There are strong arguments to be made on either side of this particular issue. We know that it's talking about the fact that this promise was given to a very elderly couple. And hence, the faith either of Sarah, or of Abraham, or both of them together, in light of this promise, would have to be a faith that could go against what seemed, from our perspective, from a human perspective, to be the only reality of the case.
I mean, honestly, if you came along and you say to an older couple, I will make of your seed, of your offspring, and they don't have any offspring, of your offspring, a great nation with descendants as great as the stars in the heavens and the sand by the sea.
They're going to go, well, it's going to require a miracle. It's going to require something way out of the ordinary. And yet, that same God who had called Abraham and had caused him to dwell in the tents for all that time, you have to wonder, was Abraham going, so, here I am, Lord, I'm in the land.
And exactly how am I going to possess this? Because generally the only way to do that was through your family. And it has only been in recent, literally, decades in Western culture that we have gotten to the point where we don't think about the future in the sense of our offspring.
Well, except for the Broyles. But most of the rest of the Western culture has completely lost that. Completely lost the idea that we are in any way connected to the future, that we have in any way a responsibility to the future.
I mean, it's really a very, very, very modern thing. And that's why there are people warning, excuse me, but Japan, Russia, Germany, the United States now have such low fertility rates that 40, 50, 60 years from now, the whole world's going to be completely different.
Because these people will have basically disappeared. They won't have, the next generations coming up will be so much smaller that there's no way they're going to be able to take care of the older folks in the first place, even if they wanted to, as if they thought that was a duty or something, or something good to do.
And these cultures and these people will simply disappear. They will give way to those who actually have children. That certainly was much more of a thought in the days of Abraham, much more of a thought for the vast majority of human history.
You look back at almost any period of time in history, and especially during the time of the Reformation, before that, you go back to the time of the plague, through most of human history, you would have to have 10 live offspring to get even a small number through to maturity.
It would be very, very unusual to be able to have a large family. It was a great blessing from God, if you had 12 offspring, oh my goodness, that was sure a sign of blessing from God. And frequently it would take more than one wife to be able to even do that at that particular time in human history.
And so, whatever the situation is to whether this is talking about Sarah or Abraham, the point is that this promise required of Abraham a continuation of that patient faith. Because he'd been sitting there in the land, and he'd probably been wondering, how am I going to possess this?
And we know he even tried to sort of find a way to help God out, which really didn't help God out in regards to his bond woman. And that wasn't what the promise of God had been. And yet there had to have been those questions in his mind.
And even a man who had been patient for all that time could still try to run ahead of God as he did in the Hagar situation. But here you have a faith that says, well, everything seems to be going against the promise of God.
And I've acted on this promise. I've invested myself in this promise. Here I am. I've given up all these years, all these decades. I could have had an Ur of the Chaldees and could have had a much easier life.
And what am I going to do now? Once again, the only thing sometimes you have is the very character of God. And even a man like Abraham, even his wife could say, really, really? God's going to fulfill that promise now?
You're going to have a child? Well, of course, that's exactly what happened. So verse 12 says, Therefore there was born even of one man and him as good as dead. At that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven and number and innumerable as the fan which is by the seashore.
And so clearly we know that this fulfillment is not merely, and this is important, I think, for New Testament Christianity, for Christianity as a whole in seeing prophecy and fulfillment. Clearly, this is not just the number of offspring of the Abrahamic race as far as genetically is concerned.
The Jewish people have never been a huge people. They've never been at the stars, the heaven or innumerable as the sandwiches by the seashore. Clearly, we have here a spiritual fulfillment in the blessing of all the nations, and we're not in any way playing with the text when we see that.
That's part and parcel of the promise that is given to Abraham from the beginning. There is clearly a blessing to all the nations of the world that is right there in the language itself. But the point is that God made a promise and Abraham recognized that God was capable of that.
And that very same theme is going to come up when we start talking about Isaac and what happened in Genesis chapter 22. And 18 and the whole story leading up to that, which we'll get to the next time we can continue our studies in Hebrews.
So, there's the first problem and that is verse 11. Is it about Sarah? Is it about Abraham? How do we understand what's going on there? But I said there were two problems, didn't I? Yes, I did. And we've got to look at the second one as well.
And I've sort of been hinting at it and seeing this coming from the time I started Hebrews. So, here we go. Get a deep seat in the saddle. Notice verse 13 says, All these died in faith. And I've said from the beginning, when we look at what the writer to the Hebrews is saying about faith, we have to allow him to define the aspect of faith of which he's speaking.
But one of the questions that comes up, and it's a question that has been addressed before, not by me, but I know Pastor Fries addressed it. And that means all of us remember exactly what he said about it.
Actually, I imagine Pastor Fries going, What did I say about this? I'm going to be interested in what goes on now. The question runs across many people's minds. When did Abraham have what we would call saving faith?
I don't know if that's what the writer of the Hebrews is trying to answer. I really don't. But it's a question we have to at least think about for one simple reason. And that is that Abraham, since he's used as an example of faith for us in the New Testament, has become somewhat of a locus of dispute and debate.
Why? Well, let me tell you. I've done many debates, as many of you know, on the subject of Roman Catholicism. And you may be aware of the fact that Roman Catholicism teaches that you can be justified many times in life.
You're initially justified by your baptism and placed into what's called a state of grace. But you can commit what's called a mortal sin. There's two different kinds of sin in at least historic, Orthodox, Roman Catholic teaching.
You have mortal sins and you have venial sins. Mortal sins destroy the grace of justification. Venial sins do not. Both have punishments attached. The mortal sins have eternal punishments. The venial sins have what are called temporal punishments.
And so in Roman Catholicism, you can be justified and then commit a mortal sin and lose that grace of justification and need to go through the sacrament of penance and reconciliation and be re-justified.
So you can be justified, unjustified, justified, unjustified multiple times in your life. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine. To substantiate this, one of the arguments that is made by Roman Catholics is that Abraham himself was justified multiple times.
How is that? Well, he was initially justified when he responded to that first call in Genesis 12 and he leaves and he obeys God. Then he's justified again in Genesis chapter 15 verse 6. And then he's justified again when he offers Isaac upon the altar.
Because James chapter 2 specifically makes that statement that was not Abraham justified when he offered Isaac. And so you have at least three justifications of Abraham himself. Now, I've always found that to be a rather strange argument for one simple reason.
What were the mortal sins he committed in between time? That must have done something really bad because mortal sins destroy the grace of justification. And I wonder what mortal sins Abraham was committing that would cause him to lose his status of justification.
There's nothing in the text that even begins to indicate that he did anything like that at all. But that's the argument that has been put forward. Now, I wrote a book a number of years ago called The God Who Justifies.
And in that I address this particular issue. So I'm not going to spend the whole evening. We only have a few minutes left anyways. But I do want to direct your attention to Romans chapter 4 for a second.
So you've got a little bit of a context for how I understand this particular issue. I understand that Abraham was justified in Genesis chapter 15, verse 6. Now, I mentioned this morning that that is the first time that the word faith is used in the Bible.
It's Genesis 15, 6. And this is where God has, for the first time, given to Abraham in their fullness the promises that then Abraham places his trust in. And I think that I have apostolic basis for this.
Because in Romans chapter 4, beginning at verse 6, just as David also speaks, the blessing on the man to whom God credits... Now this is, by the way, let me back up. This is talking about Abraham, first of all.
You'll see Genesis 15, 6 is quoted in verse 3 for what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That is the key text there from Genesis 15, 6. I'm just going to go ahead from there instead of verse 8.
Now, to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor but as what is due. But the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. And so Paul is saying this is the nature of saving faith.
It's the empty hand of faith. It's not the faith that brings anything with it. And then he uses, as an example, David. But he doesn't leave the theme of Abraham as we'll see. Just as David also speaks, the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account, quoting from the Psalms. And so what's he saying? Well, this justification by faith involves the non-imputation of sin. Hence, it also involves the imputation of our sin to Christ.
He's talking here about the entire beautiful doctrine of justification. We've talked about that many times. That's not my focus here. Here's the point. Verse 9. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also?
For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Now, here's where Paul is making an argument. He's saying, all right, I have my Judaizing opponents, and they want to argue that to be right with God requires a person to experience entrance into the covenant by circumcision.
But this blessing, this crediting of faith as righteousness, again, quoting from Genesis 15, 6, was it on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
And then there's the question, how then was it credited while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. The whole argument of the apostle is, Abraham was justified before he received the law of circumcision.
And he quotes from Genesis 15, 6. Now, the law of circumcision comes later. So, in Paul's mind, there is a point in time where you can say, this is when Abraham was made right before God, and it was before circumcision was given to him, which comes a couple chapters later.
And it's important for him that there is an order, there is a temporal order here. And some of them say, well, that conflicts with what James said. No, it doesn't. Once you understand what James is talking about in James 2, 24, he's not talking about being justified before God.
He's talking about being justified before men. He's talking about obedience there. Wrote a whole chapter on that in the book as well. That's really not my issue this evening. The question is, when is Abraham justified?
And it seems to me that the apostolic interpretation for this argument to be valid has to be, at minimum, he was justified prior to the giving of the law of circumcision. Now, Genesis 15 is before the law of circumcision, and so is Genesis 12, so is the original call in the Ur of the Chaldees.
So, does that really answer it? Well, for me, it does, because the text that is quoted in verse 9 is Genesis 15, 6. It's not going back earlier than that. And the very first use, again, of the word believed, faith, and that's what Paul points out here, even paraphrases, Abraham believed God and was credited him as righteousness, becomes, in verse 9 of chapter 4, we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
That's a paraphrase. That's bringing out a meaning. And I think the fact that this is where faith is first used in the Bible, in the Genesis account, is very, very significant. And so, my understanding of the issue would be that, clearly, some of the aspects of faith that are going to be discussed here in the book of Hebrews have really nothing whatsoever to do with an inquiry into such things as, well, was that saving faith or non-saving faith, anything like that.
It does not seem to me that the writer is even trying to address some of these things, because when you think about what is said later on, you know, Isaac, for example, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
What does that... How would he even begin to ask the question, well, when was Isaac justified? That's not what he's talking about. By faith, Jacob, if he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph.
Well, obviously, he had had faith long before that. So, I just don't think that that's what the writer of the Hebrews is addressing. But if we ask the question, where does the New Testament seem to indicate that saving faith takes place with Abraham, I would argue, at least in regards to justification, from Romans 4, that that's Genesis 15, verse 6.
Some would put it earlier than that. I think that whatever conclusion you come to on that, you need to at least wrestle with the fact that Paul was willing to use an argument based on the order of the things that happened.
It was before circumcision, therefore, you cannot add circumcision to these things that has to be kept in mind, lest we have a problem with that particular text. And so, those are the two troubles that we needed to deal with.
And at the very least, if you're sitting there going, well, I'm glad we got through those. I'm not sure exactly what that's going to mean for me for the rest of my week. If you're wondering, why did you spend that time?
I hope, really, really, really, I do hope that somewhere in the back of your mind, you go, you know what? I'm glad we don't skip. I'm glad we don't just pass over lightly. And I'm glad that our elders actually think that we as Christians should know about these things, should struggle with these things.
I'm glad that we really work through the text because when we finally get done with Hebrews, if we ever get done with Hebrews, I'm going to be able to say, we didn't skip over anything. We didn't dodge the tough stuff.
We dealt with it. And as a result, I sort of feel like I've actually wrestled with this book and made it mine. And hopefully, it has become more of a treasure to you than it was before we started this particular journey through it.
So, with that, we have just enough time to introduce the next section and hopefully make some type of encouraging application. And that is to just lay the foundation of where we will eventually go next time with verse 13.
All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. I would challenge you to maybe even consider making these words a part of those verses that you have committed to memory, because there's much here.
There's a tremendous amount of value, benefit, gold in those hills, shall we say, because these died in faith. Just because they did not receive the final fulfillment of the promises, these people died in faith.
They did not rebel against God. There were no words of complaint and bitterness. And I know one thing. Our society may not value aging, may not value the elderly any longer, but as the decades pass for me as I have now transitioned into the second half of a century, I know one thing that is often on my mind.
And that is finishing well. Finishing well. I see far too many men as they enter into older years and they don't finish well. It's not a good thing to see. It's something I pray about a lot. I want to finish well.
I want to leave something for the generations that come behind me. I want to have some kind of impact upon those who come behind me. And these died in faith. I want that to be said of me. And I hope you want it to be said of you as well.
Because obviously not one of us knows when that day is going to be. Not one of us knows. Even those of you who are young, you are not immortal in that sense. We can all be cut off at any point in time and I want to die in faith.
And so we want to look at that concept. Not going to flesh it out this evening. But I also want you to look at that phraseology that is used at the end of the verse. Having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Let me just make one application and then make application of it again the next time I preach. This doesn't seem to be something that Christians want to be anymore. It seems we want to move in. We want to be comfortable.
We don't want to stand out. The world is not afraid of those people. In fact, I saw a quote just yesterday. It's very interesting that it fit with this. A man who has just recently voted the most influential thinker of our day worldwide.
Richard Dawkins. Who I do not consider to be much of a deep thinker at all. If you've actually read any of his stuff. But Richard Dawkins did say something that certainly caught my attention. He said, I'm not afraid of most religious people.
The only ones I'm afraid of are the ones who actually really believe what they say they believe. I don't know about you, but I want Richard Dawkins to fear me. Because see, Richard Dawkins recognizes that those words actually don't describe the majority of religious people.
Majority of religious people don't believe what they say they believe. And he recognizes there's a vast difference between what they say they believe and how they live their lives. If we really believe what's in this book, then we are going to live as strangers and exiles on this earth.
We're not going to be looking to be comfortable. We're not going to be looking to fit in. We're going to go in the other direction. We're going to stand out. Just as Abraham stood out. Abraham, powerful man.
Abraham, lots of servants, lives in a tent. He's weird. I bet you he didn't get the invites to all the parties in the cities. Because we don't want the strange guy who lives out in the tent. Because clearly he doesn't want to be one of us.
He doesn't want to be one of us. He's got other priorities. Let me ask you a simple question. Those of you getting ready to go to work tomorrow. Simple question. Do the people you work with realize that you have a very different set of priorities?
How? How do they know? Are you trying to fit in? You trying to look like them? Or are you a stranger and exile on the earth and you embrace it and you realize it's important for me to be a stranger and exile on the earth now?
Because you see, I'm looking for a heavenly city. And the people who put down roots now here, they're not going to be in that heavenly city. I've got a choice to make now. Do you embrace being a stranger?
Well, he's pretty strange. The world looks at us differently. But the world recognizes that there are Christians. Oh yeah, they may go to church on a Sunday. But they're really like us. They think like us.
They respond like us. They talk like us. They dress like us. They may think for a while, they may do their religious thing, but not worried about them. Not a challenge. Richard Dawkins isn't scared of them.
He's scared of the people. They say, I'm a stranger. I'm an exile in this world. The city I'm looking for, the house I want to have, doesn't have foundations built by men. I'm looking for something better.
My eyes aren't focused on the things of this earth. I'm not talking about being so heavenly minded, or no earthly good. I'm not talking about that. No matter what happens, my eyes are focused well down the road toward eternity itself.
Is that where we are? By God's grace, may it be where we are, even tomorrow, as we go into the workplace. Strangers. Let's keep that in mind. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word, and the fact that sometimes we must struggle.
Sometimes we must consider things. But when we do so, once we come to a conclusion, once we hear what the message of your word is, it's far more precious to us because we struggled with it, than if we had just tried to find the easy answer.
We thank you that you've given us a word that causes us to think, that causes us to struggle, and Lord, as it gives us a message this evening, may we embrace its call to us to be exiles, strangers, pilgrims in this land, to recognize that everything the world offers to us is temporary, has no eternal value.
May we value that which is eternal. May we know what is eternal over against what is just passing away. Protect us, Father, in this coming week. Cause us to shine as lights in a dark world. May we bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray in His name. Amen.