Some Visible Results Of Faith Series

HEBREWS 11:28-31

SOME VISIBLE RESULTS OF FAITH

[Colossians 1:19; 2:9-10]

We have been learning how to leave a legacy through faith lessons from God’s heroes. These men and women became more than they could have imagined because their faith attached them to God. God therefore built His enabling into them so that they could accomplish God’s will in the situations in which they lived.

Faith stands out as the quality the New Testament mentions most- 483 references to faith, belief, believe are found. Jesus pointed to it as man’s only hope. The apostles centered the gospel around it. Furthermore, we have been learning that something extraordinary occurs when people live by faith. The faith connection we make with God is far more potent than even changing our DNA. It makes us more in a most spectacular way by bringing us into the “fullness of God.”

Jesus said that mustard seed faith can uproot trees or cast mountains into the sea. That is what faith in God can do in and through us, if we live by it. Living by faith grows, matures and multiplies us. By faith we tap into God’s presence and power. To test and demonstrate the power of our faith God often places us in circumstances where our faith can manifest itself in the physical, in the tangible realities of this world and this world system. When we step out by faith in God, led by the Spirit of God, grounded in the Word of God, we see visible answers to our faith (CIT). These answers act as verification for our faith in the unseen spiritual realities and encourage its growth.

Our passage today contains multiple different events in which people demonstrated their faith in God.

I. FAITH DEMONSTRATED BY KEEPING THE PASSOVER, 28.

II. FAITH DEMONSTRATED BY PASSING THROUGH THE SEA, 29.

III. FAITH DEMONSTRATED BY ENCIRCLING THE CITY, 30.

IV. FAITH DEMONSTRATED BY HELPING THE OBEDIENT, 31.

The first demonstration of faith is drawn from the obedience of Moses and enslaved Israel in verse 28. “By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.”

By singling out Moses as “the one who kept the Passover” our author, indicates that he made arrangements for the Passover. He believed God and acted on his belief, thus the Israelites believed Moses and acted on God’s Word (Ex. 12:12-45).

So they made the un-leaven bread, slew the spotless lamb and applied the blood of the lamb to the door posts of their dwelling place so that the death angel would see the blood and pass over that house and not slay the first born.

Right here I must ask, have you been born again by the Spirit of God? You too need to have the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world applied to your life. When the angel of death comes, he will cut off from the land of the living those who only have been born by flesh alone.

Did simply hearing the story or even believing the story was true keep the death angel from their dwelling? No, only when they acted in accordance with the instructions that God delivered through Moses and applied the blood did the death angel pass over. Have you believed and demonstrated the validity of your belief by acting on it?

[Exodus 12:23. See Pentecost, p 200.]

[The Passover was a type of Christ. The sacrifice was a substitutionary lamb, and in allusion to it Christ is called “the Lamb of God.” It was taken out of the flock, so Christ was taken out of the flock of of mankind; it was shut up separate from the flock, so Christ was separate from sinners; it was without blemish, so Christ is declared to be a “lamb without blemish;” it was to be slain, so was Christ slain for us; it was a sacrifice, and so Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us; it was to be roasted with fire, which signified the fiery wrath of God that Christ underwent; not a bone of it was to be broken, this is expressly declared to be the manner of the death of the Lord Christ; it was to be eaten wholly an entirely, and so Christ is the spiritual food of the Church in the communication of the fruits of His mediation to us by faith.]

And then by faith Moses “kept the sprinkling of blood” (Ex. 12:22–23). Though this belonged only to the first celebration of the Passover it reflects the significance of blood in God’s covenantal relationship with His people (e.g., Heb 9:12–22; 10:4, 19, 29; 12:24). The application of the blood of “the” Passover lamb is still available by faith. Still today we are taught by it that whoever comes to the cross and is sprinkled with the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain and sacrificed for us, is covered from the anger and displeasure of God; and that it is this alone that gives us security from Him who has the power of death and Hell.