You would take your vitals full of it and open the Hebrews chapter 11, and if you would stand please for the reading of the Word of God I would remind you that in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah Nehemiah chapter 8 is that great reformation begins if the people of God gather together at the water gates and there They listen to the Word of God read for six hours no nursery workers no children's church with their children there they listen to the Word of God read for six hours I say that because I just want to read all of Hebrews chapter 11 now take me about five minutes so I set you up but I want you to listen carefully and Just throughout the past week I just been reading this chapter from start to finish over and over and over again if God wills maybe I can read it clearly It seems to me that all by itself it carries with it such incredible forcefulness so Followed along would you silently as as I read aloud
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 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command So that what is seen was not made out of what was visible By faith able offered God a better sacrifice than came did By faith he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings and by faith he still speaks Even though he is dead By faith Enic was taken from this light so that he did not experience death He could not be found because God had taken him away For before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God And without faith that is impossible to please God Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him By faith Noah when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built an ark to save his family By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith By faith Abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance Obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God By faith Abraham even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren Was unable to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise And so from this one man and he is good as dead Came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the sea shore All these people were still living by faith when they died They did not receive the things promised they only saw them and welcomed them from the distance And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own If they had been thinking of the country they had left they would have had opportunity to return Instead they were longing for a better country a heavenly one Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them By faith Abraham when God tested him offered Isaac as a sacrifice He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son Even though God had said to him it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead And figuratively speaking he did receive Isaac back from death By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and he saw in regard to their future By faith Jacob when he was dying blessed each of Joseph's sons and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff By faith Joseph when his end was near spoke about the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones By faith Moses his parents hid him for three months after he was born Because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the kings eating By faith Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as a greater value than the treasures of Egypt Because he was looking ahead to his reward By faith he left Egypt not bearing the kings anger He persevered because he saw him who is invisible By faith he kept the Passover in the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel By faith the people passed through the red sea as on dry land But when the Egyptians tried to do so they were drowned By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around them for seven days By faith the prostitute Rahab because she welcomed the spies was not killed with those who were disobedient And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barik, Sampson, Jepha, David, Samuel and the prophets Who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised Who shut the mouths of lions quench the fury of the flames and escape the edge of the sword Whose weakness was turned to strangle and who became powerful and battle and routed foreign armies Women received back their dead raised to life again Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection Some faced jeers and thawing while still others were chained and put in prison They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword They went about in sheep skins and goat skins Destitute persecuted and mistreated the world was not worthy of them They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground
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 of the God Would you be seated please
It's an active worship just to read it Isn't it? God loves all people
But God doesn't love all people in exactly the same way
God loves all people But God doesn't love all people in exactly the same way
This Dear friends is rapidly obvious to anyone who has eyes to see
You say well, I think I know what you mean when you say this But on the one hand while God showers his common grace upon all of humanity without respect to any
His grace that saves is something he dispenses sovereignly to his own And so as you say while God loves all people he doesn't love all people in exactly the same way And yes, this is a part of what I mean It is a fact that is undeniable beloved when we allow the biblical record to speak for itself and we refrain from reinterpining it By way of the all-too-common hermeneutic of social democracy
God loves all people But God does not love all people in exactly the same way by virtue of being the holy creator This is his divine right By virtue of being the sinful creatures we could never level against him the charge of unfairness
God loves all people But he doesn't love all people in exactly the same way
And now I would like for us to take this a step further And that is that while God loves all of his own people saving me and eternally This is not to say that all the benefits he bestows will be common to all those he saves You know the words among the company of the redeemed God sovereignly grants blessings to some that he does not grant to all I believe it You must cease striving against this
You must not fuss with this truth because if you do you will miss everything the author has been working toward in Hebrews chapter 11 We have known this historically to be the great Paul of faith and to be sure We have appreciated and enjoyed all of the aforementioned references to faith haven't we the stories and the memories and the testimonies and the victories But the purpose of it beloved was not to lead us through an exercise of religious sentimentalism All of it has been carefully orchestrated and designed to now bring us to the crux of the matter namely that God is sovereignly granted unique blessings to some among the redeemed that he is not granted to all of the redeemed and as such Those who are the recipients of these unique blessings then must not only seek to be mindful of them Rather, they must seek to live lives of even greater faith in accordance with them
It's the old French sentiment no bless oblige nobility obligates greater privilege must express itself in greater responsibility And what have we ran over and over again throughout the book of Hebrews one word that heralds God's discrimination in the giving of his blessings It is the comparative adjective better better 13 times the writer of Hebrews uses this word better to speak about blessings and privileges that are quantitatively and qualitatively more significant than anything God has ever given before And dear friends all of these better things Are but the outworking of what verse 40 here refers to as God's better plan God had planned something better His plan It refers to his predetermined purpose in eternity pass In other words in the eternal councils of the triune God had there was formulated between father, son and spirit A plan a plan here qualified by one single adjective better A better plan according to the book of Hebrews that would encompass a better name Better things a better hope a better covenant better promises a better sacrifice a better country a better resurrection Everything about this glorious plan designed by God himself is captured by this one word better but or who is this better plan intended It's intended for you For all of you who are Christians Yes You see beloved God has loved all of his own people Saviently and eternally But this is not to save in all the benefits he bestows have been common to all he saves Verse 39 these these Old Testament saints who have been mentioned in the prior 38 verses These were all commended for their fate yet None of them received what had been promised
God had planned something better
I love this prepositional phrase for us for us for us You see what the author is doing? He turns his back on the historical and now he wheels on us Verse 40 is the hinge which Swings from the past into the present from chapter 11 into chapter 12 from the good privileges that belong to the believers in the Old Testament to the better privileges that are now ours one of which Is the glorious privilege of being able to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and the salvation that he has accomplished a privilege Beloved that ought to be the greatest impetus to persevering in the Christian faith Consider him who endured such opposition from simple men So that you will not grow weary and lose hard Something that an Old Testament believer could never do
Now Let me take a moment and remind us of what we said two weeks ago How did we characterize the faith of God's Old Testament people
We said it like this. It was a faith in an unfulfilled anticipation That's what verse 39 was all about These Old Testament saints had been given promises and foreshadows and religious ceremony That were but various expressions of one Old Testament promise God had made to them the promise of a coming Savior Who would deliver them from the curse and all its effects And so men like Abraham and Moses and David and Ray Haven Sarah and so many others They not only believed in God. They believed God They took God at his word and lived their lives in accordance with his promise Even in the face of the greatest personal sacrifices And at the conclusion of their lives beloved. They died. They went to heaven But without seeing the fulfillment of the promise in their lifetimes Peter Says it like this Concerning this salvation The prophets speaking of the Old Testament prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you Searched intently and with the greatest care Trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing When he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves But you when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who approached the gospel to you By the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. You hear what Peter was saying Peter was saying the prophets themselves didn't get it all They didn't understand it all they spoke better than they knew And when they sought to understand the nature of what God had given them to speak and write It became clear to them that they were speaking about a time. They themselves would not live to see
There's was always a fail In an unfulfilled anticipation
But such is not the case for you Do you realize friends that your privileges are infinitely greater than theirs ever were God has loved all of his own people savingly and eternally But this is not to say that all the benefits he bestows have been coming to all he saves at best The Old Testament saints were called to exercise faith in an unfulfilled anticipation Your privileges this morning are infinitely greater and that God calls you to exercise faith In a fully accomplished Salvation now for the rest of our time this morning I'd like to unpack this I'd like for us to answer three simple questions one What is this better plan? Two what makes this plan better? and three What is the consequence of this better plan? Well, the answer to the first question is simple A basic reading of the text Answers the question for us. What is this better plan verse 39 these Old Testament believers were all commended for their faith Yet none of them received what had been promised Now the love it as we have already made clear and I hope this is an issue in your mind that has been settled resolved these Old Testament saints were authentically saved Among other things verse 39 tells us they all received divine commendation for their faith And so you can be absolutely sure that they experienced the joy and bliss of eternal life When they died Nevertheless, we must not miss the fact that the author here cites a deficiency in their spiritual experience if you catch it They were not privileged to see the fulfillment of God's promise the promise of a Messiah who would come to save his people from their sins So when he now says in verse 40 that God had planned something better for us It is in direct relationship you see to this think that had been deficient in their experience Namely that the coming of the Son of God and his work of salvation is no longer a far off vision of a hope for end But then hours now is the distinct privilege of having seen that end realized in time through the person of Jesus Christ
To be sure God's plan for them was good Here is my promise David here is my promise Abraham here is my promise Moses I will send you a savior you can count on it You can state your eternity on this promise now For the rest of your days Persevere and faithful allegiance to me on the basis of this promise That you will never see fulfilled in your lifetime
Of a loving before you are quick to say well, I don't think God's deal with them was all that great Please remember that God is not obligated to make promises of any kind to anybody Izzy Let alone To cynical people God's plan for them was a good plan It was his promise to save them by the provision of a savior But you must appreciate this morning dear friends that God's plan for you is something infinitely better You understand friends that in the comprehensive sweep of God's design to save the human race or to say it a bit more um accurate in the comprehensive sweep of redemptive history Christianity is made distinct by this fact It is not a call to exercise faith in an unfulfilled anticipation of promise given It is a call to exercise faith in the full awareness of a salvation that has been thoroughly accomplished A promise performed Let me make a Stabbitial statement A man falls in love with a woman And for several months they talk about sharing the future together Their hopes their dreams their aspirations They talk about what it will be like to be married or Those early years and then the middle years and then the Ladder years of marriage and finally when he asks her to be his wife he makes this promise One day When we're old and gray When we're 90 years old I'll buy you that house you've always won Not a large house with so many rooms to keep clean With that small quaint house that we've talked about that's Away from all the activity and hustle and bustle they'll have a front porch and it'll have a back porch and Will wear our robes and set it on the porch in a swing and gaze at the beauty of the stars and the room
It's a good promise It's as good as his ability to keep that promise
But you see it's another thing all together to say
Here are the keys It's waiting just as I promise
Will you marry me Now beloved don't press the illustration too far because like any other illustration will break down But the point is obvious I think the first Is a promise given That's good The second is a promise performed that's so much better God's good plan for the saints of the Old Testament. There was a house coming God's better plan for us the house has been built There it is Here in the keys walk through the door and make yourself at home
Are you not a Christian this morning? Christianity is not asking you to cross your fingers and hope for the best The message of the good news is that God's son has come God's son has born to full punishment for sin God's son has died as a sacrificial lamb God's son has been raised from the dead Just as God himself had promised Jesus Christ has purchased the gift of salvation for all those who will trust in him Trusting and wanting accomplished for their eternal salvation This beloved you see is God's better plan for the Christian Not faith in an unfulfilled anticipation but faith in a fully accomplished salvation
This is the better plan
Question two What makes this plan better? What makes this plan better? I think it's exceedingly obvious But let's take a minute to spell it out a bit more specifically
What were the benefits Distinct to those living in the epoch of promise
What were the blessings distinct to those Old Testament saints Well, they have the promises themselves which was no small thing Hmm But in addition they were given various shadows and types of a salvation that would one day be accomplished in fact They have the ceremonial washings for example remember always washing always purifying always cleansing In anticipation and then they have a sacrificial offerings the the sacrificial system that never ending slaughter of bulls and goats and Blood that was so much a part of their life as the people of God and then to accompany that they had the ironic priesthood men fallen In and of themselves in their own right somehow seeking to make intercession between God and God's people
All of these things beloved were put in place by God To foreshadow to his people the saving work that Jesus Christ would actually Come to accomplish
the problem is shadows Are shadowy by definition shadows imply a lack of white
That is to say though shadows anticipate something that has not yet come their limitations exist in the fact that they don't reveal enough Sometimes We can even be deceived by shadows What you may perceive to be a butterfly Maybe nothing more than two hands crossed at the thumbs
The fact is a shadow can only be fully understood When the substance it reflects has been revealed what could the Old Testament say some really No About a tone The reconciliation of God and man by means of a sacrificial substitute What could the Old Testament say it's really comprehend about redemption the release from bondage on the What could the Old Testament say it's really understand about propitiation the satisfaction of a holy wrath of God What could the Old Testament say it's really know about being born again apparently not very much because the greatest teacher in all In Israel Nicodemus didn't understand what it meant to be born again What could those Old Testament saints believe it really know about justification by grace alone through faith alone What could they really know about bodily resurrection from the dead? What could they really know about the personal indwelling of the spirit of God
Now friends it is very important that you understand That none of these concepts are foreign to the Old Testament scriptures
All of them are contained within the pages of old covenant revelation But apart from the coming and dying of Jesus Christ it was impossible to fully comprehend any of them Jesus Christ then has become for us the ultimate hermeneutic In other words because we now read the Old Testament scriptures with new testament glasses We can rightly discern what all of those shadows were anticipating But this you see is the very thing that makes the better plan Better what makes the prior plan deficient all the limitations That accompany the non fulfillment of the promise
What makes the better plan better all the benefits that accompany the fulfillment of the promise We now know what substitutionary atonement is Because Jesus Christ has come and died in the toning death in our place We now know what redemption is because Jesus Christ has come and with his blood purchased our freedom We now know what propitiation is because Jesus Christ has come and cried from the cross My god, my god, why have you forsaken me We now know what bodily resurrection is because Jesus Christ has come He has died He has been buried and three days later was raised from the dead with a glorified body We now know what the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit is because Jesus Christ has come and purchased that gift on the cross for us We now know what a priesthood is because Jesus Christ has come and has a man Experience temptations without sin ascended into heaven and now is at the Father's right hand living to make intercession for us
We now know what it is to have intimate uninterruptible communion with the Father Because Jesus Christ has come and by his death secured our access into the most holy place
Friends God has loved all his own people Saviomely and eternally But this is not to say that all the benefits he disposed have been come to all he says You have benefits that the best of Old Testament saints never had
the richness of your understanding and experience of salvation is far more expensive than there's ever was This is what makes the better plan better question three
What is the consequence of this better plan what is the consequence of this Better plan well there are many consequences But the writer here wants to draw our attention only to one Look at
These were all commended for their fate yet none of them received what had been promised God had planned something better for us
With this being the result With this being The consequence that only together with us Would they Old Testament saints Be made perfect Look at it again God had planned something better for us to this end With this result But only together with us would they be made perfect now friends I need to remind you of something that we've talked about but it has been several months The term perfect Is a highly specialized word in the book of Hebrews
It does not mean perfection of character as we tend to think of this word Were that the case the writer of Hebrews would be implying that the Hebrew Christians themselves had attained moral perfection Something we know not to be true from the rest of this letter In Hebrews the term tele-o to perfect perfection means The completion of God's saving plan Which at its heart Includes the decisive putting away of sin for all time in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ
So what is the author saying here
He sang beloved it when the Old Testament saints died and went to heaven They did so not because their sins had been purged in actual fact But on the ground that those sins would be purged at some point in time Some point in the future In other words entrance into heaven was granted on the basis of an anticipated Atonement they were experiencing the benefits of salvation And part from the basis For such a salvation But then the time came for God's better plan to be inaugurated God's son comes in human flesh and in the one decisive event of the cross He establishes perfection the decisive putting away of sin for all time For all of the people of God at one moment all of the old covenant saints Like Abraham and Moses and David and all of the new covenant saints by Peter and Paul and you In other words the full salvation of all God's people would take place by means of the same event So the day that is in heaven this morning For the very same reason on the basis of the very same event that you will be in heaven one day But beloved there is still Even more to this than that There was a nuance here that is absolutely incredible
Our NIDs
That they cut the force all of a sudden this thing Let me let me read it to you the way it appears in the original God had planned something better for us So that apart from us they would not be perfected In the original text it is stated in the negative the NID translates it and makes it a positive And in so doing they they cut the guts out of what the author is really trying to say here Listen to it again. God had planned something better for us So that apart from us They would not be perfected. Now beloved this is absolutely astounding Do you hear the status that the Hebrew writer is given to us You would expect him to say God had planned something better so that apart from Christ they would not be perfected But the issue here is not how they would be made perfect But when they would be made perfect and what he is saying is this
Their experience of salvation in the fullest sense was deferred By God in order to wait For us God had planned something better for us So that only together with us Would they be made perfect my friends God loves his own people Samingly and eternally but this is not to say that all the benefits he missed those have been common to all these saves Do you see how special you are? How do we get so contorted in our thinking? Beloved we walk through this life Impeded by bitterness because of such comparatively and ain't circumstances. I wish I was taller. I wish I was thinner I wish I was smarter. I wish I was prettier. Why don't I have more money? Why don't I have a healthy body? Why isn't my partner all that I want him or her to be? Why do I have to work this job? Why aren't my children perfect? Why do I have to live in this neighborhood? God help us Do you realize what a unique recipient of the grace of God you are? God is devised a better plan for you Faith in a fully accomplished salvation and what's more God himself intentionally deferred the full experience of salvation of men like Abraham and Moses and David in order to wait for you So that together as one people we might experience salvation by means of the same event The death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ We are a people of unspeakable privilege beloved And until you understand that you will miss the entire purpose of Hebrews chapter 11 It is not about them It's about you So why does the great faith chapter end here? So that we We'll see That we who are Christians Have far greater reason to persevere than even the greatest Of all the Old Testament saints
Therefore Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses Let us Through off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily intangles And let us run with persevering The race marked out for
Hebrews 11 It's not about them
It's about you Would you bow your heads with me below? Our Father
We love you and readore you this morning
We thank you humbly For the better plan We thank you this morning that we have not been called to faith in an unfulfilled anticipation We've been called to a faith in a fully accomplished salvation
We have not been called to a promise made But a promise performed Your son has come
He has born your wrath in our place
He has been raised from the dead
Sin has been purged the tomb of May Reconciliation and established
And so the gift of full free salvation Is offered without restraint to one and all
Our Father, we thank you for the better plan
We thank you for the privileges that are ours We pray that you forgive us for
Comparatively insignificant things that
Caused us to be disappointed with this liar
May we bask in the glorious benefits that are distinctly ours as people of the new covenant
And Father, I pray that it would be the greatness and majesty of these privileges
That would win the hearts of those who are here this morning who do not know you and do not have Jesus for their sake
May they cry out to you
For your grace upon them Father Show them their need And reveal to them the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ We love you and adore you In Jesus name I pray We're a couple minutes early I may just talk for a few more We've finished Hebrews chapter
You know what Have we got Hebrews exalted here? Let's sing that again Shall we have that transparency around He is exalted Conic is He that up is Let's stand beloved and let's sing