[0:00] Hebrews chapter 11. We've been talking about living by faith, and we've been talking about how faith is played out, demonstrated, described, and everything for us here in chapter 11.
[0:15] It's one of the great chapters of the Bible. I remember back when I first became pastor, I spent, I don't know, five, six, seven weeks on Hebrews chapter 11.
[0:27] And it was a good study. So he's been talking about the fact that faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[0:43] And then faith, verse 3, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
[0:55] And then he gets into, okay, so this is what faith is. Let me give you some examples of faith. He talks about Abel, and the faith that he had. And the thing we learned from Abel was the fact that don't figure out what I can get by with, but what is the best that I can give to the Lord.
[1:20] So many people think, oh, what can I do just to get by? And he says, no, no, no. You give your best. Then he talked about Enoch. And we talked about the fact that Enoch walked with God. And he demonstrated his faith in that way.
[1:33] He walked with God every day, 365 years. He walked with God. And then we got to, thank you, Noah.
[1:45] Trying to flip pages here. And Noah, same thing. In Genesis chapter 6, verse 8, it says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And these are the generations of Noah.
[1:57] Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. We talked about the importance of our walking with God in everything that we do. Then we got into the faith of the patriarchs.
[2:10] And Abraham in Genesis 12, where he's given that covenant with God. And in verse 3, which we'll talk about in the morning service as well. I'll bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee.
[2:20] And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. In fact, Abraham, everybody was going to be blessed because of Abraham.
[2:31] And what he did. By his obedience, all of us had been blessed. Which makes us stop and think. What will our obedience accomplish?
[2:45] When we walk with God and do what he has asked us to do, what can our obedience accomplish in the lives of people? Because of Abraham, all the families of the earth be blessed, he said.
[2:56] And then we talked about, you know, all the different things that Abraham went through. And finally he had a son when he and Sarah were past the time of having children.
[3:10] And he wound up being told to sacrifice his son. But the faith that he had, he said, even if I do this, God has promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed.
[3:23] He has promised that I will have a longevity in the fact that my family will be like the sea, sands of the sea shore and the stars of heaven.
[3:34] So even if I sacrifice Isaac, God is going to have to raise him up because God made a promise. We're going to talk about that in the morning service as well. The promises that God has made to us.
[3:47] And he didn't give us snapshots. As he goes on of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, beginning in verse 20, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning upon them.
[4:06] And then Joseph, I read 20, 21, 22, by faith, Joseph, when he was died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones.
[4:21] You know, again, it's just amazing. God had said that they would be in a captivity for like 400 years. So here's Joseph. He's there. He lives to be 110.
[4:32] He showed up there when he was a teenager. So another 300 years before they're going to leave there. And yet he says, when you leave, take me with you.
[4:44] Faith and promises of God, because God had promised them a promised land. And so Joseph even is going, when you leave, take me with you. And then we get to verse 24, of 23.
[5:06] Verse 23. And we talk about faith in the conquest. Faith in the conquest. You think about, he's going to start talking about Moses.
[5:18] Two of the greatest men in Israel's history, Abraham and Moses, both shining examples of faith in what God has done and can do in people's lives, if they will just trust him and obey him.
[5:32] You see a theme that keeps going through all this. That's part of having faith. Trusting and obeying what God has for us. He's, Abraham's going to have faith that's going to encourage the other patriarchs.
[5:45] Patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, all of them. They're going to keep trusting God based on Abraham and what he did and how he trusted God.
[5:57] They may not see all the things that they'd been promised. None of them saw a great nation, but they knew it was coming because God had promised. And then we come to Moses.
[6:09] Moses and Moses encouraged an entire nation because now they are a nation. Now there's a bunch of them. And Moses encourages them all to keep trusting God and following him.
[6:22] You all know the story of Moses. He was born while they were in the captivity there in Egypt. And they were having all the Israelite boys killed. And his parents, after three months, hid him away.
[6:33] And he was found by Pharaoh's daughter. And he's raised there. But notice verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child.
[6:48] And they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, the season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasure of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
[7:12] Moses and his family didn't fear the king. They trusted God. They, he later refused to become, called the son of Pharaoh's daughter because he trusted in God.
[7:26] You see a recurring theme. He says, look, I'm going to follow God no matter what. I'm going to do what God wants me to do. He goes on. He says, look, if I weigh the facts here, I can have a good life here.
[7:43] Now, doing what Pharaoh wants, what Pharaoh's daughter wants, or I can have a good life following God, which is far greater, and trusting in him.
[7:53] So he does. You think about those verses 20, look at 24 again. 24 says, by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the riches in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
[8:20] Moses made a tremendous decision. I'm giving up everything that Egypt has to offer. I'm giving up all the fame, all the prestige, all the ability to rule, everything, all the riches.
[8:35] I'm giving it all up to follow Christ. Why is it just, go ahead. Right. We're talking back way before Christ was born.
[8:47] Way before Christ was born, but he had been promised. Yeah. We'll talk about that this morning. In the morning service. A lot of things we're going to talk about in the morning service today that relate back to here. Where was I going?
[9:02] Oh, question. Why is a decision like Moses made so hard for us today? Think about that for a second. We live living our ordinary lives, going through things, find it hard sometimes to follow Christ and what he's asked us to do.
[9:20] And here's Moses. He has the chance to be a ruler in Egypt. He has a chance to have all the wealth of Egypt. He has all chance to have all the prestige that goes along with the positions that he would have.
[9:33] And he says, no, I'm going to follow God. Remember who Pharaoh's daughter hired to be, to be his nursemaid?
[9:54] His mom. So that early teaching is super important. Well, was it? Yep, that's okay. Think about, you know, what is it?
[10:04] Is it the Catholic church and somebody else? Give us a child until they are five. And we'll have them for the rest of their lives. And you know, there's a lot of truth to that.
[10:15] A lot of what a kid learns those first five years, formative years, makes a big difference in what they believe from then on. Do you think that his mother, nursing home and taking care of him, that she also taught him that who he really was and where he actually came from?
[10:37] Probably. So that by the time she was done with him, he still knew his roots. Yep, I think so. I think she did. So again, Samuel was like that, yeah, because he got, he was raised by his mother.
[10:58] Then he went to Samuel, and that was reinforced. Moses wasn't reinforced, but Samuel was. And you think, again, why do we have such trouble when Moses had all of this offered to him?
[11:10] He said, no, that's not what I want. He chose that choice that he made, set up all the rest of his life, how he was going to do things and how he was going to handle things.
[11:31] Eventually, you know, Pharaoh let the Israelites go, and when they left, they left with all kinds of stuff from the Egyptians, gold, silver, clothing, all kinds of things. And Moses led the nation in obeying God, keeping the Passover, doing all those things.
[11:47] They passed through the Red Sea. The Egyptian army was drowned. Verse 29, it talks about that. And they come to Jericho. Verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had compassed about seven days.
[12:08] Again, trusting God. And sometimes God's things that he wants us to do don't seem to make any sense whatsoever, do they? Why does God want me to do this?
[12:20] Why is God leading me in this direction? Why is God leading me here? Why is, we ask a lot of whys. And here's one. March around the city once a day for seven days.
[12:32] But on the seventh day, march around it seven times. And then when you do that on the seventh time, blow the trumpets and holler. What? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
[12:45] But God said do it. And they did it. And what happened? Look at verse, verse 30. Thank you. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down and they passed about seven days.
[13:01] By faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace. Okay, so he talks about Rahab in there.
[13:14] Rahab's not an Israelite. But Rahab had faith. Rahab believed what God had told her. She believed in what God's people were doing. And one of the great things, I don't know if you've ever taken time, I know you've probably been pointing it out to you, but hold your finger there in Hebrews and go to Matthew chapter 1.
[13:37] Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1 and verse 5.
[13:49] I want you to look at those verses.
[14:15] He says, God can't use me. I'm too bad. God can't use me. I'm too sinful. God can't use me. I just, I haven't been.
[14:28] And yet he says here, Rahab and then David who had a son, Solomon, because of a relationship with Bathsheba. They weren't necessarily the best people in the world.
[14:42] Rahab the harlot. David the adulterer. And yet God names them in this passage of scripture. No big deal. Well, go down to verse 16.
[15:01] And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus. who is called Christ. So here's two people that we know were sinners, wicked sinners.
[15:16] David did more than just had adultery with Bathsheba. He had her husband killed. And yet there are two people named in the lineage of Jesus. God can use anyone who will surrender themselves to him.
[15:30] He can use anyone who will follow him. What you did in the past doesn't matter. Are you following Jesus? Have you given your life over to Christ? Is God your primary focus of your life now?
[15:46] Are you living for him? I think this is the first place where Rahab's name is not followed by the harlot. Yeah. It could be. One of the first places her name is not followed by Rahab the harlot.
[15:59] It just mentions Rahab in this passage. So God can use us if we trust him. Although Moses himself did not enter into Canaan, he led the people to that promised land.
[16:25] And then, after he led them there, they got ready to go in. And you notice now, faith in the times of crisis.
[16:36] Faith in the times of crisis. Look at verse 32. And what shall I say more than, more say? Of the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jethan and David also and Samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of the wickedness were made strong and waxed valiant in the fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
[17:17] Stop there for a second. He says, okay, look, I don't have time to talk about all the others who had faith. There have been so many people who had faith and trusted God and it was as with Abraham kind of done to them for righteousness and then God worked in their life and did great things for the nation of Israel because of the faith that they had.
[17:43] He goes on there and he's talking about all those different people and all the things that accomplished. Some made it through well. Others faced some of the cruelest forms of death that there are.
[17:56] But they all did it because they could see in faith God was working. Things were going to happen. Things were going to take place.
[18:07] That kind of faith. Faith led to great triumphs for some or great trials for others. But what did they all learn?
[18:18] As we went all through this and they looked at everything that's happening here as the writer of Hebrews is telling all these different things about faith and all these examples of faith, what did they learn? They learned with faith, faith lets God be God.
[18:35] I think that's up there, isn't that Angela? Okay, maybe not. Faith lets God be God. Aha, there it is. Faith lets God be God.
[18:47] You know, even though their own world scorned them, they mocked them, they ridiculed them, remember back in Noah building the ark?
[19:01] They all received God's approval. Look at verse 39. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.
[19:13] They all obtained a good report through faith. They all did great things. They all accomplished exactly what God wanted them to accomplish. They did not see the promise fulfilled, but they knew it was coming.
[19:29] We may or may not see the second coming of the Lord during our lifetime, but do we know it's coming? We'll talk about that in the morning service as well. This is a good introduction for the morning service.
[19:43] He says, look, they saw what was going to happen and they trusted God to fulfill his word. What an encouragement to us.
[19:54] Do we trust God to fulfill his word and do what he says? You know, they lived in Old Testament times. They didn't see God's greatest work. Jesus is coming.
[20:08] But, they took God and what he said and they said, if God said it, it's going to happen. You know, Christians living in a New Testament age, us, should have a whole lot more reason to have faith in God.
[20:27] As, again, and we'll see in the morning service, he is going to make promises. And you're going to see promise after promise after promise after promise after promise fulfilled when Jesus comes the first time.
[20:42] And then there's more promises. And we'll see promise after promise after promise after promise after promise fulfilled when Christ comes again. God keeps his word.
[20:54] So, they may not have seen God's great work in Jesus Christ, but they trusted God's word and what he said. So, us, as Christians, living after the coming of Christ that first time, after his death, burial, and resurrection, after his ascension back into heaven, after the things that he has fulfilled time and time and time again, after the answered prayers that we have seen, why do we have so much trouble following him and doing what he asks us to do?
[21:28] God's people today have every reason to live by faith. We have Christ. We have him in our life. We have him guiding us, directing us.
[21:45] Why should we ever doubt what God is going to do? By faith, all of these different things happen. How is our life going to be impactful for the Lord Jesus Christ when we learn to live by faith?
[22:02] Okay? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you.