Faith For Tough Times
Hebrews 11.30-40
Hebrews Series
8.20.14 Chester’s FBC, Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
A In all of Scripture there are few passages more inspiring than ten verses we’ll explore in this particular message.
1 The valiant exploits, overcomers, conquering victors who marched forward in faith are so numerous that the author said, “for time will fail me.”
a He doesn’t have enough time, breathe, parchment, or ink to testify to all the adventures of these great heros & heroines of faith.
b The text doesn’t go into great detail with each story, or even one story, but points to the faith of the believer over the miraculous.
2 In the passage, not every believer had their Jericho walls falling down.
a Some didn’t live to tell of their victory, deliverance . . . in fact, sometimes their faith brought death.
b In this list, “the Joshuas’, Rahabs’, Gideons’, etc.,” are in the same list as the “others” (v.36).
Hebrews 11:36 (NASB) 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.
aa Others who didn’t have walls come down, rivers part, giants slain, . . . no cute Sunday Schools for the “others.”
bb Not all got delivered, some died (very horrific deaths.)
B The author samples examples of faith from three different periods of Israel’s history; Judges, Kingdom, Prophets.
1 The author will not give great detail in the passage, but instead chooses to use very broad strokes, moves in generalities.
a He will not spend much ink on talking about titles, offices, salutations, or social class.
b He will speak to these men & women’s faith, how it manifested when hope, courage, where in short supply.
aa Faith is trusting completely in God’s Word, unconditional confidence in what He says, strictly on the basis that God has said it.
2 There are only true options (regardless if we are in good or bad times) & those are:
a We trust what God says or we trust our own intellect, instincts, and attitudes.
aa Our own way is the way of unbelief;
bb God’s way is the way of faith.
b The faith in Hebrews 11 does not ask questions, for signs, or miraculous direction.
aa Looking for signs, wonders, explanations so we can trust God is not faith.
bb Anything that demands more than God’s Word is doubt, not faith.
cc Sometimes, He gives explanations/reasons for His Word, but His isn’t obligated to give them . . . faith doesn’t require them.
c John 20:29 (NASB) 29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
aa Faith is the opposite of human nature (seeing is believing); in faith, believing is seeing.
bb Faith often requires us to accept from God what seems unreasonable/illogical.
C The Hebrews of the NT were trying to take the voyage of the New Covenant (Saved by grace through faith) will keeping their boats tied to the dock of the Old Covenant (religion & ritual).
1 The author is showing his readers that God’s faithful followers in the OT were not like them.
a When the OT faithful decided for God, they were all in for Him because they had the right view of who God is.
aa Right faith is based on right theology.
bb Faith believes and obeys God because faith knows that God cannot lie, make a mistake, do wrong, be defeated, surpassed. . . a God like this can be trusted.
b J.B. Phillips, Your God is Too Small, suggests a person’s attitude toward God is what sets the limit on their faith.
aa If we have a tiny god, we should not trust him.
bb Only the true God, the great sovereign, loving, merciful, faithful, omniscient, omnipotent, and hold God of Scripture, deserves trust.
2 Faith in God helps us face the tough times of life.
a As faith encounters opposition/difficulty, it makes something out of those who live by it.
b MacCarther says, “Perhaps the supreme mark of true faith is courage.”
aa It’s not hard to trust God when your belly’s full and your wallets stacked.
bb Most of the people around us are Christians, our faith doesn’t cost us anything.
cc For a Jew to become a Christian in the first century was always costly. (Friends, family, synagogue privileges, job, social status, community respect, sometimes their very lives.)
dd What would be the limit of how far your faith would go? What price would you be willing to pay to keep/show your faith?
c Faith is proved when it faces disaster, trial, persecution, and ridicule —and still stands unwavering.
aa Show Video
bb How many of us would have relinquished, denounced our faith to save ourselves, sons, daughters? Homes?
3 Let’s look at three incredible results of faith during the tough times.
I Faith Makes Conquerors out of the Obedient (11.30).
Hebrews 11:30 (NASB) 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
A Joshua had wondered in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the Promised Land as a direct consequence of the unbelief of the 10 spies of reconnaissance mission that he had been involved in.
1 Moses had sent out 12 men to look into Canaan to see what Israel would be up against when they got there.
a The report they came back with wasn’t inaccurate, maybe exaggerated, but not incorrect (Deut. 1.28).
Deuteronomy 1:28 (NASB) 28 ~'Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there."'
aa The walls of a fortified city like Jericho may have been wide enough to drive two chariots on side-by-side, and tall enough to thwart any enemy attack.
bb By the standards of that day, the was cities would have been virtually impregnable.
cc The scouts saw the fortified city walls, gigantic warriors.
b Moses rebuked them, not because their report was inaccurate but because of the unbelieving & fearful way it was given & received (Deut. 1.29-30).
Deuteronomy 1:29-30 (NASB) 29 "Then I said to you, 'Do not be shocked, nor fear them. 30 ~'The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
aa The real obstacle wasn’t the fortified cities, giants . . . it was Israel’s unbelief.
bb God could defeat every enemy, warrior of Canaan, topple every wall of every stronghold . . . but He wouldn’t do it until His people were ready to go with Him.
cc 40 years they went circles because of their unbelief (Joshua wondered along with them . . . ask him if other people’s unbelief can’t sidetrack you, make your journey longer than it needed to be, take you the long way to your destination!
dd A whole generation had to pass away before God would give Israel another shot at moving on His promise.
2 Joshua was Moses’ successor as leader of Israel, and he succeeded because he trusted in the same God that Moses had trusted in.
a God changes His workmen but He does not change His principles of operation.
b Joshua obediently ran after the heart of God.
3 Although our text describes the strongholds of the city of Jericho, the first act of faith was crossing the Jordan River.
a By faith the nation crossed the river just as the previous generation had crossed the Red Sea.
aa Apparently, nothing in the 40 years of wandering was worth mentioning in a chapter on faith.
bb This was a witness and warning to the Canaanite nations that Israel was marching forward by the power of God.
b After crossing the Jordan they were faced with a large stronghold blocking their entrance into the Promised Land; the imposing city of Jericho.
aa For the Land to be claimed, this largest fortified city in Canaan had to be conquered.
bb Surely, Joshua would get an elaborate military plan from YHWH on how to take the city (drones, smart bombs, . . .) Nope, I want you to watch me bring down the walls.
cc Ya’ll march around a bit everyday for a week with the priests out front holding the Ark . . . day seven, march a bit more, priests blow the shofar, ya’ll yell . . . I’ll do the rest.
dd The rest is Joshua 6.3-5.
Joshua 6:3-5 (NASB) 3 "You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. 4 "Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 "It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead."
c One of the most amazing things about Joshua’s assult on Jericho was that there was not one single word of doubt or complaint that was recorded.
aa Joshua gave Israel the plan and the people got ready.
bb All God wanted from them was faith, and this they gave, “for by faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days.” Heb. 11.30
B When we come to Christ we enter into a whole new way of life.
1 We come to Him by faith, go through the waters of baptism (symbolically crossing the Jordan), and get new life/promise!
a Doesn’t it seem funny/odd that the moment you cross from death into life the enemy puts up a roadblock in an attempt to persuade you to stop . . . or even go back to the way that you came.
b That’s what Jericho was all about . . . but Jericho needed to be conquered/laid low before Israel could enjoy the fulness of their new life in the Promised Land.
2 Any part of your life that is not surrendered to Jesus must be conquered before you can enjoy the fullness of life.
a Romans 8:37 (NASB) 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
b Obedience is the key to conquest.
c Robert Moffatt worked for years in South Africa w/o a single convert.
aa Some friends wrote asking what they could send him, Communion Set. (No other Christians there . . . seems odd, but okay.)
bb When the set arrived several months later, more than a dozen natives had been won to Christ and were served their first Lord’s Supper.
cc The faith of the obedient overcomes obstacles (direct opposition, apathy, ridicule, or whatever, every Christian runs into a Jericho.
dd If we trust the Lord, and what the Lord has called us to do, in God’s time the obstacle will fall.
II Faith Makes Saints out of the Outcasts (11.31)
Hebrews 11:31 (NASB) 31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.
A One of the most surprising names in the whole list is found in this verse, Rahab.
1 She was a prostitute in Jericho, a Gentile, from a group called the Ammorites (whom God had marked for destruction in Gen. 15.16).
Genesis 15:16 (NASB) 16 "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete."
a Yet this how God’s grace works . . .
John 1:12 (NASB) 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
aa Rahab’s entire confession of faith, what she knew about God is found in about 6 verses (Joshua 2.8-14); She knew . . . God had delivered Israel from Egypt, opened the Red Sea . . . that was 40 years ago!
Joshua 2:8-14 (NASB) 8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. 10 "For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 "When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 "Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household, and give me a pledge of truth, 13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." 14 So the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the LORD gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."
bb She also knew God had defeated the other nations during Israel’s wilderness wanderings. . . that’s all she knew!
cc (Lost people say, “I don’t know very much about the Bible: I can’t get saved.) Rahab didn’t know enough about God to fill a thimble but it didn’t stop her from trusting Him . . .
she acted on what she did know.
dd (Lost people say, “What will my family think?) Rahab’s first concerning wasn’t what her family thought but how can I get my family saved.
b When asking for mercy from the invading nation of Israel, she asked that Joshua would spare her family when Jericho was destroyed.
aa She was told to tie a scarlet cord on her window.
Joshua 2:18-19 (NASB) 18 unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household.19 "It shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.
bb Rahab received the spies into her house, welcomed them peacefully when the rest of her city wanted nothing to do with God/His people and would have killed her if they found out.
2 The Canaanites were a debauched, idolatrous and wicked people (History notes them for their grossly immoral and perverted sexual practices and general cruelty. For example, they would put live babies in jars and built them into their city walls as foundation sacrifices) . . . this was Rahab’s background.
a In the middle of all this unbelief, perversion . . . Rahab believed and confessed,
Joshua 2:11 (NASB) 11 "When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
b She put that scarlet cord over her window believing that the red cord would protect her, keep her safe.
aa That red cord was supposed to keep a pagan prostitute in one of Canaan’s most sinful cities safe? Protected?
bb If God can save a pagan prostitute and put her in the line of Christ (Boaz’s Momma), is there any doubt in your mind that He can save you?
B Faith does not shut out the sinner . . . it the sinner’s last and only hope.
1 Faith believes that God’s great love seen in the death of Jesus, and His mighty power evidenced by the resurrection of Jesus, can save from sin.
a When by faith anyone ties the scarlet cord of the blood of Jesus on his/her life they are saved. (Every time!!)
b Addicts, harlots, drunkards, skanks, rips, stoners, thieves, murders, users, abusers, liars, gossipers, back-biters, slanderers, homosexuals . . . the moment the blood is applied they are SAVED.
2 Faith is the sinners only hope . . . we are sinners and if we’re not all saved by grace through faith then there is no hope for any of us..
a Faith, is always proven by action. (Rahab’s was receiving the spies)
b Rahab shows us that ANYBODY can get saved & God can write ANYBODY into His plan of salvation history.
III Faith Makes Hereos out of the Ordinary (11.32-40).
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