Finding the Faith of Our Heroes
Part 9: Never Give Up on God!
Hebrews 11:30-40; Joshua 2:1-13; Joshua 5:13-15; Joshua 6:1-5
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 21, 2023)
BACKGROUND:
*We have been going through Hebrews 11 to study the faith of our Old Testament heroes. And through them all, God's Word has given us great lessons on the faith we should have in the Lord today. God wants everyone to have great and growing faith in Him. That makes sense, because He deserves our complete trust!
*Here in vs. 30-40 we will reach the end of the chapter. These last verses cover about a thousand years of history. God's Word takes us from Joshua leading the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, then through several centuries in the Book of Judges. Those years were marked by idolatry, anarchy, civil war, oppression from their enemies, and God rescuing His people. But today's Scripture also covers the rise and fall of the Hebrew kingdoms, and the warnings of the prophets. (1)
*In vs. 32, the Apostle Paul summed up these verses by saying, "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets." Naturally, Church, the time is also too short for us to cover everyone listed in these verses. But there is a great message for us here: Never give up on God! We should never give up on the Lord. Let's get started by reading Hebrews 11:30-40.
MESSAGE:
*In 1941, during the darkest days of World War II, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill went to visit his old boarding school. It was the Harrow School founded in 1572, and Churchill went back to hear those high school boys sing.
*On that day, he gave a speech where he famously said: "Surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: Never give in, never give in. Never, never, never, never, in nothing, great or small, large, or petty, never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. . ." (2)
*The only way that I could improve on those words is to say: "Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never give up on God! This is the essence of the faith we find here in Hebrews 11. These faith heroes never gave up on God, and neither should we!
1. FIRST BECAUSE HE CAN BREAK GIANT BARRIERS DOWN.
*Verse 30 says, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days." The walls of Jericho were an invincible fortress as far as the Children of Israel were concerned. There was no way they could ever bring down those walls in their own strength.
*But no wall is too big for Jehovah God! And He told His people what to do. Listen to part of the story starting in Joshua 5:13-15.
13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. (Church: That was no ordinary man. That was an Old Testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.) And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?''
14. So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.'' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?''
15. Then the Commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.'' And Joshua did so.
*Next in Joshua 6:1-5:
1. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.
2. And the LORD said to Joshua, "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.
3. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.
4. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
5. Then it shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.''
*Joshua and the Children of Israel believed in the Lord's promise, so they followed the Lord's instructions. And Joshua 6:20 from the New Living Translation says, "When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it."
*Christians: Some day we will face a wall too tall for us to get over, and too big for us to knock down. I am talking about any problem too big for us to solve on our own. Often it's a wall between family and friends. Satan does everything he can to build up walls between us, so the walls go up: Between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between Christian friends.
*But in Ephesians 2:12-14, Paul talked about the giant Old Testament wall that existed between Jews and Gentiles. There Paul told those Gentile Christians: "At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, AND HAS BROKEN DOWN THE MIDDLE WALL OF DIVISION BETWEEN US."
*Church: If Jesus was able to break down that giant wall, then He is surely able to break down the walls between family and friends. I have seen it happen many times. And no matter what the problem is, if we will take that problem to the Lord, He will show us what to do.
*Then, by faith, we just have to do what the Lord tells us to do. What if Joshua had said, "LORD, we've already been walking around the wilderness for 40 years. Why do we have to walk around this city? LORD, you can knock those walls down right now! Why do we have to wait?"
*And what if the Children of Israel had stopped after 6 days? Or after the 6th time around the city on the 7th day? They would have completely missed the victory that God wanted to give them. So by faith we have to do what the Lord tells us to do, even when it doesn't seem to make sense to us.
2.NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD BECAUSE HE CAN BREAK GIANT BARRIERS DOWN. ALSO BECAUSE HE CAN TURN SINNERS INTO SAINTS.
*I love this truth, because I am a sinner, and so are you. We know this because Romans 3:23 tell us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." But faith in the true and living God can turn sinners into saints. And faith is the only thing that can turn sinners into saints.
*In Hebrews 11:31, "By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace." This happened before the walls of Jericho fell down. Joshua 2:1-6 begins to tell what happened:
1. Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho.'' So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.
2. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country.''
3. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country.''
4. Then the woman took the two men and hid them; and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
5. And it happened as the gate was being shut, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went I do not know; pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them.''
6. (But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof.)
*After Rahab sent the king's men in the wrong direction, in Joshua 2:9-13 she told Joshua's spies:
9. . . "I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.
10. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
11. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
12. Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token,
13. and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.''
*Rahab's house was built into the top of the wall around Jericho, and she helped them escape down a bright red rope tied to her window. That same rope was tied to the window when almost all of the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. But Rahab's house was protected by the blood-colored rope, and she became part of the family of God. In fact, Matthew 1:5-6 tell us that Rahab was King David's great-great-grandmother.
*But Rahab had been a prostitute. There's not much of a way to sugar-coat that. It's not something you'd want on your resume. But God put it on Rahab's resume. And the Lord did that, because He wants us to know that He can turn sinners into saints!
*That is great news for all of us, because though no one here is a harlot, we deserve to go to hell as much as the worst harlot who ever lived. The good news is that God loves sinners like us. And through the cross of Jesus Christ, God can turn sinners into saints. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul explained that on the cross, God the Father made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
*So Rahab was saved by God's grace through her faith she expressed to the spies by saying, "the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." Rahab was saved by God's grace through faith in the promise of the coming Messiah. And in Matthew 1 we learn that by God's amazing grace, she even became one of Jesus' earthly ancestors! Why did God do that? Because God wants us to know that He can turn the worst sinners into saints.
3. NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD BECAUSE HE CAN TURN SINNERS INTO SAINTS. ALSO BECAUSE HE CAN TURN US INTO GODLY HEROES.
*Verses 32-35 lists more of God's Old Testament heroes:
32. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
33. who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34. quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35. Women received their dead raised to life again. . .
*Many of us have heard of Gideon from Judges 2-8. At first he tested the LORD, but then Gideon followed the LORD by faith, and saw his little army of 300 men defeat an enemy army of 135,000. God had reduced Gideon's army from 32,000 soldiers to only 300 men. And in Judges 7:2, the Lord explained why: "The LORD said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, "My own hand has saved me."'" Gideon was a hero for the Lord. But all of the glory goes to God, because all of the glory belongs to God!
*In these verses we see other famous Bible heroes like King David. Others are less well-known or unknown altogether by us. But by faith, these unnamed heroes are well-known to God, and by faith we can be heroes in Heaven too! But again, all the glory goes to God, because all of the glory belongs to God!
4. NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD BECAUSE HE CAN TURN US INTO GODLY HEROES. ALSO BECAUSE HE GIVES US STRENGTH WHEN WE SUFFER.
*We see this truth starting in the last part of vs. 35:
35. . . Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
37. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented
38. of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
*By faith these believers went through terrible suffering for the cause of Christ. And by faith, we can too, because God will give us the strength we need. Christians all over the world are suffering for the Lord today, especially in places like Communist China, Pakistan, and Iran. And if you have been paying attention over the last 30 years, you can see a growing tide of hatred toward Bible-believing Christians in our country.
*Unless there is a true revival in the United States, that tide of hatred and persecution will continue to rise. But have faith in God! -- Because God will give us strength for our suffering.
*Of course there are many other reasons why people suffer: Sickness, heartache, grief, and loss. But God will give His people all the strength we need. Charlie Greer was a great example for me. Charlie went home to Heaven three days after Christmas in 2004. I got to know him best when his daughter, Denise, came to serve as the Children's Director at Emmanuel Baptist Church. Charlie came with the family, and he was like a grandfather to our daughter Katie.
*My dad died 10 years before Katie was born, and Mary's dad died when Katie was 2. But "Papaw Charlie" was a "papaw" to our baby, and we will always be thankful for that. He was a treasure to us. I don't think Charlie consciously tried to encourage me. He just did.
*He loved the Lord, He loved the Bible, and he loved to come to church. Charlie also loved to pray. We had a Prayer Room at Emmanuel, and Charlie came like clockwork. He also brought our Katie and his own granddaughter, Amber. They were best friends, and I found out years later that Charlie taught both of them to pray, using the Lord's Prayer as a model!
*Another great thing about Charlie was his tremendous attitude in the face of terrible health problems. Charlie had a brain tumor, but he kept going. He had several surgeries that took his leg, and Charlie had to limp along, but he kept going along with a smile. He was trusting the Lord through every crisis, and that's what God wants us to do.
*Whether Jesus heals us or not, we must never give up on the Lord! Often, we won't understand why something terrible happens in life. But Jesus came into this mixed-up, messed-up world to suffer with us, and for us. Now He will give us all the strength we need. I have seen it happen many times.
5. NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD BECAUSE HE GIVES US STRENGTH WHEN WE SUFFER. AND BECAUSE HE PROMISES US A PERFECT ENDING.
*Verses 39-40 say:
39. And all these (that is, all of these Old Testament heroes), having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
40. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
*God's Word is speaking to New Testament believers in vs. 40 when it tells us that God has "provided something better for us." And we may not usually think about it, but Christians, we are already much better off than the Old Testament believers. In fact, one of the main reasons why God gave us this Book of Hebrews is to show us that the New Testament is far better than the Old. That's because Jesus has already come to earth and died on the cross for our sins, and He is risen again forever from the dead.
*By God's grace, you and I have gotten to live on the resurrection side of the cross! And that is infinitely better, so Hebrews 1:1-4 says:
1. God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.
2. has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
3. who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
4. having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
*With our crucified and risen Savior, everything is better. In Hebrews 1:4 Jesus is better than the angels. In Hebrews 7:7 Jesus is better than Abraham. In Hebrews 7:19 Jesus is better that the Old Testament Law, for "The law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God." Hebrews 8:6 tells us that Jesus has "obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises."
*And in Hebrews 9:22-24, Jesus is the better sacrifice, because:
22. . . according to the law almost all things are purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
23. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
*Church, we are infinitely better off to live on the resurrection side of the cross. We are much better off than Old Testament believers. But God's not finished yet! Verse 40 tells us that one day all believers, both Old Testament and New, are going to be made perfect! But all of these things must come to us by faith. There is an infinite, perfect future in store for everyone who believes in Jesus.
*Dr. R.G. Lee was the much loved pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis from 1927-1960. He was born in 1886 to poor, sharecropper parents. One day when R.G. was a little boy, he asked his mother what was the happiest day of her life. Her name was Elizabeth. And she thought back to the time she was a little girl during the Civil War.
*Elizabeth's father had fought for the South. And while he was away, her mom had to do all the work in the fields. One day a letter came saying that her father had been killed in battle. Elizabeth's mother didn't cry much during the day. But the children could hear her sobbing at night in their small house.
*About 4 months later it was summer, and they were all sitting on the front porch shelling beans. A man came down the road and Elizabeth's mother watched him for a while. Then she said, "Elizabeth honey, that man coming yonder walks like your father."
*The man kept coming down the road, but the children thought, "It can't be him." Then as he came to the break in the fence, he turned in. Her mother jumped up and cried, "Children, it is your father!"
*Elizabeth's mother ran all the way across the field and kissed and cried and held him for the longest time. And many years later, Elizabeth told her son, "It was the happiest hour I ever knew." (3)
CONCLUSION:
*That's just a taste, just a hint of the joy-filled future in store for everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. So have faith in God. And never, never, never give up on God! Call on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) Sources:
-HALLEY’S BIBLE HANDBOOK by Henry H. Halley - Copyright 1965 - Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids MI, p. 168
-GotQuestions.org - "Summary of the Book of Judges" - https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Judges.html
(2) "Never Give In, Never, Never, Never" - October 29, 1941 - Harrow School - Sources: The Churchill Centre - Sir Winston Churchill - Speeches & Quotations - Speeches - WinstonChurchill.org - And: Harrow School - Wikipedia 09/04/2015)
(3) Adapted from "Illustration Digest" by Jon H. Allen, May-June-July 1994, p. 9 - Personal note from Jon Allen: R.G. Lee, long time pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis Tennessee, and my father were friends. He visited in our home and ate at our table many times. In 1965, I heard him preach in Fort Worth, Texas. This is from that sermon.
