Good morning, you would take your Bible's brothers and sisters and open them to Hebrew's chapter 11 and if you would Stand please for the reading of the Word of God Hebrews chapter 11 Reverses one and two and then the final two verses of the chapter verses 39 and 40 he brews Chapter 11 it's good to be with you He brews 11 now faith is being sure of what we hope for And certain of what we do not see This is what the ancients were commended for Verse 39 These were all commended for their faith Yet none of them received what had been promised God had planned something better for us So that only together with us Would they be made perfect? So needs the word in the living God. Would you be seated please?
Shortly after the time of the resurrection of Jesus Christ The Roman Emperor Nero established an elite group of fighting men that came to be known as the Emperor's wrestlers They've been selected from among all of the empires the finest the strongest the most courageous of men Over against everything else they were to serve the emperor as a symbol of Roman prowess and pride As such a kind of creed was composed for them to recite publicly it went like this We the emperors wrestlers Wrestling for the o'emperer To win for the the victory and from the the victors crown We the emperors wrestlers wrestling for the o'emperer To win for the the victory and from the the victors crown It was their task to accompany the emperors in his travels to appear at various events of state Occasionally they were actually put into use as a kind of high-level security force that would be dispatched to squelch small uprisings against the empire On one such occasion when the emperors wrestlers had been sent to deal with the skirmish in a local province Some of them were exposed to the message of Christianity and miraculously a number of them were soundly converted to faith in Jesus Christ Well when word of this reached the years of Nero he became enraged with anger and Demanded that these men renounced their new allegiance to Christianity If they were to refuse then by Nero's own decree they were to be put to death immediately By the hand of their leader a man by the name of a Spasian Now a Spasian himself had heard of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Interestingly enough he felt himself strangely compelled by this message But to forsake the lordship of the all-powerful Nero for a sake of the lordship of a crucified Messiah seemed foolish to him. It seemed all together impractical and And yet his foolishness such a thing might appear the contrary Horrified in the thought of taking the lives of his own men was beyond what he could imagine Nevertheless, an obedience to his orders. He assembled together all of his men and read to them the imperial decree including its threat of death He then asked how many of you refused to renounce your devotion to this Christ and Do a Spasian's shock forty of his men step forward? Well recognizing the implications of all of this Spasian then said to them I will give you until morning to recant at which point in time I will carry out my orders if you persist in your refusal When the next morning arrived the men were assembled once again and once again a Spasian posed his question How many of you refused to renounce your allegiance to this Christ? And to a Spasians dismay the same forty men step forward
What would he do? He couldn't bring himself to take their lives with his own hands So and said he decided to leave them to the elements He ordered all of their clothing to be removed and subsequently banished them to a nearby lake that had been frozen over with ice There in the bitter cold of the winter all for you would freeze to death But a few moments later something happened to profoundly change the heart of a Spasian As he and the others were keeping themselves warmed by a fire They heard a familiar chant coming from the direction of the frozen lake only now with a noticeable alteration
Forty wrestlers wrestling for the O Christ to win for the the victory and from the the victors crown Over and over the banished wrestlers recited this newly devised creed and yet his time passed it became evident to the years of a Spasian that their chant was becoming more and more faint as the elements began to take their deathly toll It was during this time that a Spasian was Startled by the sound of rustling bushes and so he turned his head to see what it was It was one of his men one of the forty that had been banished to the frozen lake But one who would not regard it allegiance to Jesus Christ as worthy of the greatest sacrifice
It was then that a Spasian detected the sound of the condemned men once again Only now their faint cry reflecting the apostasy of this one who had come to warm himself by the fire
39 wrestlers wrestling for the O Christ to win for the the victory and from the the victors crown 39 wrestlers wrestling for the O Christ to win for the the victory and from the the victors crown And right there at that very moment A Spasian was so profoundly moved by the loyalty of these men to Jesus Christ That he stood to his feet stripped off all of his own clothing ran to the center of that frozen lake and cried at the very top of his voice 40 wrestlers wrestling for the O Christ To win for the the victory and from the the victors crown
It is the influential power of a persevering thing
The influential power of a persevering faith The effectual power of a persevering faith in the life of one person Used by God to awaken or intensify the faith of another person. I don't know if you've ever thought about this before friends But it's something that in fact is almost axiomatic and that is that faith often But yes, faith Faith often gives birth to faith manifestations of Christian faith on the part of one often aroused further expressions of Christian faith on the part of others There are some of you who are here this morning who could gladly acknowledge that one of the means God used to bring you to trust in Jesus Christ Was the steady and constant display of faith you observed in the life of another Christian Maybe it was the faith of your mom and dad Maybe it was the faith of a grandparent or a friend or a neighbor or a co-worker But the point being this then in addition to the listening of their words you watch their life And what seemed to persuade you as much as anything else Was the unrelenting nature of their faith in Jesus Christ through all of the very circumstances of life It's not that they were perfect people It's in the midst of all of their weaknesses and strengths you saw this riveted attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ and such faith affected you It had a way of drawing out your faith Well, beloved The very same thing continues to be true after we become Christians, doesn't it? The persevering faith of one Christian is often used by God to arouse greater Persevering faith in the life of another This is one of the reasons by the way friends why we like to expose you so frequently to missionaries I don't know perhaps I'm speaking for myself at this particular point But I can tell you I never feel more enthusiastic about sacrificing for the gospel Than after I listen to the testimonies of those who have given up everything for the sake of Jesus Christ Their faith arouses my faith that stimulates my faith This I might add is one of the great values one of the great benefits of reading Christian biography For my money, I think next to your Bible reading the most influential thing you can do for your own soul is to read good biographies of Past Christian leaders men and women That's a great objective, I think for the year 2000 find yourself one good Christian biography and commit yourself to reading When I read of Hugh Latimer or John Olin or Jim Elliott or Dietrich vonhofer I find myself filled with a greater desire to have my life count for something on behalf of the gospel Those are the moments I feel like doing something most radical for the sake of Jesus Christ It is you see the influential power of a persevering faith
There are some of you here this morning
Who need to recognize that this is one of the divinely ordained purposes behind the experience of suffering On the part of Christian while me to say this without seeming insensitive Your suffering Is not your own Not if you're a Christian Not if you are a member of the body of Jesus Christ Rather it is a divinely appointed means of grace for all of us That is the same dear friends when we watch a brother or sister Persevere in faith through an experience of suffering such a thing is powerfully used of God to strengthen the faith of all of us Is this not the case Many of you have yet to consider the corporate value of individual suffering that in fact This is a real ministry that God calls some people to in the body of Christ to suffer for the benefit of the rest It's the influential power of a persevering faith while you see It is this friends this reality That is the underlying presupposition that is holding together everything the author wants to say in Hebrews chapter 11
You remember how chapter 10 concludes He finishes chapter 10 beginning verse 36 by saying You need to persevere In the midst of your trials and tribulations and persecutions you must not fall away from Jesus Christ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised For in just a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay But my righteous one will live by faith and if he shrinks back I will not be pleased with him it is an exhortation to perseverance He is calling these Christians to remain faithful to Jesus Christ even if doing so costs them everything But then you see dear friends to now take these readers On the heels of this exhortation and to push them toward this greater faith He Reminds them of some of the greatest displays of faith from their own religious history He opens up chapter 11 by saying Remember able Remember Eden Remember Abraham remember Noah remember Moses remember Rahab remember Gideon and David and Samuel and all the prophets My dear friends chapter 11 is not a history lesson. It is a motivational exhortation The author knows of the influential power of a persevering faith That's why he's listing these names in front of these people and reminding them of their displays of faith Now of course we understand as we read these names not one of these men and women are perfect people Flaws are to be found in each of their lives But what we are intended you see to see is that by the grace of God Each was characterized by an abiding faith in the promises God had made to them A faith that persevered through extremely difficult circumstances Now friends as the author comes to verse 39 He is bringing his discussion to its climactic conclusion His objective at this point now is to appeal to the logic of his readers in the prior 38 verses He's been stirring our hearts He's been appealing the history and the stories that we all know so well to affect us emotionally But now as he comes to the cause of his discussion he sets before us a line of reasoning An argument a logical argument that seeks to move from the lesser to the greater And his point Is simply this of all people We who are alive at this moment in history We who live this side of the cross and open to Have greater reason to persevere than all the others who have gone before us didn't think It's just this simple friends you have greater reason to persevere than Abraham ever had
You have greater motivation and impetus to persevere than King David ever had We all should expect from one another a faith that should outstrip even the faith of people like Moses Now your response to that probably would be as mine would initially be you've got to be kidding How can I be expected to persevere in a way greater than Abraham and Moses and David And the answer below it is because in the providence of God in his gracious providence You now live in the age of fulfillment While all that Abraham and Moses and David ever knew Was the experience of anticipation They lived in the ethic of promise pledged we live in the ethic of promise performed And as such you see the privileges that are ours are infinitely greater than theirs ever were at his this very fact That ought to make for more diligent perseverance and our faithfulness to Jesus Christ Now these greater privileges are an expression of something that the writer here refers to in verse 40 as the better plan He says in verse 40 God had planned something better for us that is in contrast to them And he calls it a better plan And so to understand what this better plan is and we'll do more of this next time And and to understand why it is that this better plan ought to compel us to more fervent perseverance We need to see first and foremost the primary difference between faith in the era of the old covenant and faith in the era of the new Faith prior to the coming of Jesus Christ faith subsequent to the coming of Jesus Christ Now to state the first half of this matter as simply as I can The faith of men like Abraham and Moses and David can be characterized in these terms It was a faith in an unfulfilled anticipation It was a faith in an unfulfilled anticipation Now what do I mean by this? We'll take a look at verse 39 You'll notice very simply the verse really is made up of two halves First half he makes a positive statement The second half he makes a negative statement. Let's look at the first half of it verse 39 these were all commended for their faith These were all commended for their faith right here what the author is doing is he is tying everything in chapter 11 together in a nice neat little package Let me tell you what I mean look back at verse one and two chapter eleven one and two He says at the outset of this discussion faith is being sure of what we hope for in certain of what we do not see This is what the ancients were commended for Now we come to verse 39 and we find the very same language these were all commended for their faith He begins and ends with the same ideas what we call grammatically an inclusio. He is Framing his discussion on either end by saying these people received Commendation and the thing that's fascinating about this beloved is that in both cases these verbs are in what we call the divine passive Meaning simply this that this commendation they received was commendation they received from God himself God is the one doing this Commendation verse two this is what the ancients were commended for by whom were they commended by God himself Verse 39 these were all commended for their faith by whom who was the subject of this Commendation God was
Well, you see what the author is doing You see what he's saying He's intending beloved to bring some encouragement to us
in other words beginning with the righteous able and extending throughout all the redemptive history to the very eve of the coming of Jesus Christ God has never lost sight of one display of faith To the contrary whether it's the faith of someone known or unknown someone famous like Moses and Abraham and Noah or Those who have persevered in anonymity like those mentioned in the prior paragraph God has seen their faith He remembers their thing according to what the writer has told us earlier in the chapter such faith brings pleasure to God and as a result of this It is now the delight of the heart of God to commend these people To testify on behalf of these people To speak well of these faithful saints as he has right here in Hebrews chapter 11 In fact friends the word here translated commend Is the word from which we get our English word martyr The point being this These faithful saints were God's martyrs now in response God himself has become their martyr to testify to them To bear witness to them To commend them It's a beautiful thing here the image that the writer is setting in front of us In fact friends, it's reminded me this past week of something that the author said back in Hebrews chapter 6 When he says this God is not unjust or stating it positively God is just God is righteous and this is how he expresses his righteousness He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them This is a fascinating thing the writer of Hebrews is saying to people who were involved in Christian ministry Who give themselves to the point of exhaustion in Christian ministry be encouraged God is not unjust God is not in righteous He sees what you do on behalf of this people and he takes it personally You've served them and in so doing you have showed your love for him God's not unjust the implication being he will reward you he sees it
It's almost as though the writer of Hebrews beloved is trying to say to us God will not be in your debt God will not be beholden to you You can't out give God you can't out serve God you can't out reward God You can't out testify God These saints Hebrews 1139 says Have been faithful in their testimony to God God is now taking it upon himself to testify to them
It's an amazing thing is it not the love to think about God in these terms I mean more comfortable with the opposite perspective aren't we We know that it is our duty and our privilege to speak well of God But how utterly amazing it is that God himself should
Speak well of people, but this you see is such a clear indication of how much they pleases him True makes such people the object of his common vision And my friends the writer mentions this initially primarily to provide encouragement for these Hebrew Christians Who are on the brink of facing the most violent persecution they had ever known He is saying to them God notices faith. He always has He understands and appreciates the nature of the sacrifice to faithfully persevere And he has taken it upon himself to commend those who are faithful and the implication you see beloved in all of this is God still is experiencing pleasure by your faith And he will continue to commend you and of course the person who states this most simply but most directly Is Jesus himself What will be our reward of the great and final day beloved At least in part these words of combination well done Good and thankful
Can you imagine hearing those words spoken by Jesus To you Speaking about the old covenant thankful the writer of Hebrews makes this positive statement these were all Commended for their faith God hasn't missed a fee but notice That this is now followed by a statement phrased in the negative These were all commended for their faith yet None of them received what had been From now friends It is true That God himself made many promises to the people of the old covenant
And that he fulfilled those promises that he made to them
In fact if you recall from verse 33 The writer talks about people who by faith gained what was promised and literally that reads of the original they obtained promises plural promises plural God made promises God kept his promises God promised to deliver his people out of Egypt God kept his promise God pledged to lead into the promised land God kept his promise God made and fulfilled many promises But friends the Hebrew writer now at this point in verse 39 is not concerned with promises plural He's concerned with one promise In fact in verse 39 unfortunately our English text kind of obscures this a bit The text literally reads these were all commended for their faith yet None of them received or they did not obtain In a very strong language The
Singular the preeminent The preeminent That is they did not obtain The fulfillment of the promise what promise is he referring to He's referring to that often repeated promise Of the coming Messiah And the full salvation that he would bring to a world of sinners Friends we just spent the last few weeks seeing this very thing haven't we It had been promised to them that the seat of the woman would crush the serpent's hand It had been promised to them that the seat of Abraham would bless all the families of the earth It had been promised to them that the seat of David would establish an everlasting kingdom It had been promised to them that a child would be born a son would be given whose name would be wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace throughout all the Old Testament There are these various Restatements of the promise each one growing out of the first the promise But my friends you need to understand that these Old Testament faithful died without seeing any of the fulfillment of this promise Not to be sure they died in faith and they entered into heaven But when they entered into heaven it was with an unfulfilled anticipation still in their hearts
You recognize friends they had not seen what we just so metaphorically celebrated
God in Jesus Christ
They had never seen his sinless life They had never seen his displays of supernatural power They never had seen his death on the cross They had not witnessed his resurrection from the dead they had not observed his glorious ascension into heaven They themselves had not experienced the profound blessing of the outpouring of the indwelling spirit of God on the day of Pentecost Now yes when they died they entered into heaven free from all sin and suffering and death But still blooded with an unfulfilled anticipation bearing a promise Not yet performed I would remind you that while heaven grants to us Sinlessness it does not grant to us omniscience greatest benefits of eternity Is that we will be learning about the glory of our God throughout all of eternity We are not granted divine omniscience when we go to heaven below it and so is Abraham Moses and David And the likes of those Old Testament men and women beheld the glories of heaven the splendors of heaven all around them. They must have wondered to themselves
Why are we here? Why are we here? I mean our God is gracious. Yes, we know that in our God is merciful Yes, we know that but but but but what about our sins? I was a prostitute for the earliest years of my life where I have could have bought to herself Kill the man an explosive act of an uncontrolled temper Moses would have fought What about our sins? Yes, God is gracious. Yes, God is merciful But God is also uncompromisingly just and holy we were guilty and God had been very clear to us in his word from start to finish The soul who sins will not not just physically but eternally on what basis can we be here?
You know the Bible itself tells us That even the angels did not understand God's plan of salvation until it was executed We have no reason to assume that the Old Testament saints in heaven prior to the actual coming and dying of Jesus Christ Understood or appreciated the gift of eternal salvation any better than the angels did Some of them waited in heaven for thousands of years with this unfulfilled anticipation
In the fullness of time the eternal second person of the Trinity said to the Father Sacrifice an offering you did not desire But a body you prepared for me With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased Then I said here I am It is written about me in the scroll I have come to do your will oh
And so He divests himself of his divine glory He surrenders the independent use of his deity to the will of his Father He is born a man in the most humble of circumstances He matures into adulthood. He lives a sinless life He bears the wrath of his father against sinners at Calvary. He is buried in a tomb He is raised the third day He appears on several occasions to numbers of eyewitnesses and 40 days later He ascends into heaven and it is their friends at that moment When the triumphant Godman returned to the thunderous worship of the hosts of heaven That the Old Testament faithful could finally understand and enjoy the fullness of this salvation that God had provided for them
It was at that point that they could answer the question Why are we here? It's because God fulfilled The promise was at that point that their worship must have taken on a far greater and more profound dimension
What's the music that we like to sing of the most?
The music that speaks to us of the outworking of our salvation
Those songs that unpack for us God's salvation plan in Jesus Christ It's one thing you see to know that we are saved It brings us peace and comfort but beloved
To know how it is that God has saved us is to fill our lives with an overwhelming sense of an infinite kind of love
God's love Romans 5 says Shit abroad
These were all commended for their faith Yet none of them received what had been promised They lived They died They entered heaven by a faith in an unfulfilled anticipation Now my friends this ought to be two obvious conclusions
One such a faith speaks well of them Doesn't we can understand why God would commend them We can understand why God would testify on their behalf All they ever had was the unfulfilled promise of God That's it and yet they so took God in his word that with the eye of faith But whatever they could actually see the fulfillment of the promise Remember what the writer says back in verse 13 He says all these people were still living by faith when they die They did not receive the things promised But watch with the eye of faith they saw them and welcomed them from a distance In other words, they so took God at his naked word That they shaped the whole direction of their lives on the unfulfilled anticipation Noah spends 120 years of his life Building an ark, preaching to people without there ever being any fruit Abraham Turns his back on the security and prosperity of earth to wander like a nomad in the desert for the rest of his days Moses for six all of the pleasures and treasures of Egypt to bear in his life the reproach of Jesus Christ
some were tortured Some faced jeers and thawing some were chained some were put into prison some were stoned Some were sought into some were put to death Someone about in sheepskins and goat skins destitute persecuted mistreated Some wanted in deserts and mountains and caves and holes into the ground Beloved this list is amazing and what we have to appreciate more than anything else Is that all of these people never knew the fulfillment of God's great promise in their lifetime
All of it was a faith in an unfulfilled anticipation Not by the way because of any defect on their faith It didn't come about because of some lack on their part as though somehow they didn't believe hard enough and thus bring it into existence
It's because There is something that transcends even the greatest display of And that is the eternal purpose of God himself God's better plan God had planned something better for us We'll see what this is next time What we need to appreciate beloved is that theirs was a faith in an unfulfilled anticipation It's not that God's plan for them was bad and God's plan for us is good It's that God's plan for us is better which means that God's plan for them was not as good as it is for us
As a result God commends them God marks them out for such such faith speaks well of them all of this you see then beloved Wheels back on us All of this leads us to an obvious second conclusion that we'll develop more fully in the weeks ahead
And that is this That an even greater faith ought to be forthcoming from us Uneven greater faith ought to be forthcoming from us. Why? Because of God's better plan Namely that you and I would have the privilege of living in the epic of promise performed Which means practically speaking that the faith we are all called to exercise is not drawn out by an unfulfilled anticipation but by an accomplished event We possess something beloved infinitely far greater than the Old Testament faithful ever had The promise has been fulfilled And so what does that mean for us on a practical level where we're no longer Expected to look for the fuller meaning in in in types and shadows and sacrifices and ceremonies and washings and tabernacles The substance has come in Jesus Christ invalidating all of the shadows The Messiah has come salvation has been purchased Sin has been atone for the gift of the Holy Spirit has been given there is a better plan for us with greater privileges And as such that ought to compel us to persevere with greater fervor A greater fervor than Moses David or Abraham could have ever known
They had shadows We have substance if you were not a Christian this morning Allow me to be very very clear The good news is this We're not calling you to an unfulfilled anticipation We are calling you to a real person who has really come Through whom there is real forgiveness of sins and really turn alive We do not merely declare to you that God will save sinners one day We declare to you that God is presently saving sinners through the salvation already accomplished in the coming dying and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ My dear friends these communion elements do not call us to place our faith in something yet to occur These elements call us to place our faith in something that has already been accomplished
Jesus himself said it best Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear For I tell you the truth Many prophets and righteous men long to see what you see but did not see it And to hear what you hear But did not hear it You were living at the time of greatest privilege If you are not a Christian and you most certainly are not if you have failed to state your eternity upon the finished work of Jesus Christ Then you must understand that you bear an infinitely great responsibility this morning for this reason God's definitive saving act has taken place in Jesus Christ
And it has been made known to you You have heard all there is to hear all there ever will be to hear You have seen all there is to see and all there ever will be to see
God Has kept The promise the Savior has come Salvation has been purchased Will you Respond to would you buy your heads with me please our Father and God we complain about so many trivial things
Too many pounds not enough pounds
Not enough money all of the things that Consumas are so poultry God help us
You have granted to us the privilege of living at The most glorious time in all of human history In the sense that we live in the epic of
God's promise perform We live in the age of fulfillment When the totality of God's saving plan has come to pass in Jesus Christ
When we can declare to men and women and boys and girls that God saves through the death burial resurrection of his son Jesus
We can announce to people that there is salvation found in no other name
Father we thank you for such an instable privilege
And I pray this morning especially for those who are here who Who from whatever reason Have persisted in the refusal to embrace the Savior you have provided. I pray If they would recognize this morning their culpability The grave responsibility that you have put before them
That they have been given the greatest white
Father I pray that even this day you would be so merciful to them that by your spirit you would change their hearts And they would find themselves filled with gratitude and thanksgiving for the Savior you have provided And they would come to rest their faith in him alone For the gift of eternal life Father effectiveness work among men today We love you and we thank you and praise you for these elements before us which remind us that salvation has been Accomplished we praise you this morning and the great name of our Savior Jesus