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Part 1c: The Faith of Heroes Proved
Hebrews 11:17-28
by Samuel E. Ward
June 9, 2013
You might be a Hero of Faith if you. . .
A. Offer God what He asks of you instead of only what you are willing to give or part with. (Abel)
B. Live to please God rather self. (Enoch)
C. Take God's warnings about judgment seriously and seek deliverance His way. (Noah)
D. Leave your comfort zone to go places or do things armed only with the promise of God's presence and guidance. (Abraham)
E. Believe that God can do the impossible if necessary in order to keep His promises. (Abraham)
F. Do not to withhold from God what you treasure most in your heart when He asks for it (Abraham)
G. Communicate your hope in God's eternal inheritance to your children. (Isaac and Jacob - Heb 11:20-21)
H. Live your life preparing for your future in heaven rather building for comfort on earth. (Joseph - Heb 11:22)
I. Experience the persecution and wrath of men in order to be obedient to God. (Moses' parents - Heb 11:23)
J. Choose suffering and disgrace for Christ's sake rather than the pleasures of sin. (Moses - Heb 11:24-26)
K. Obey God rather than fear the threats of men. (Moses - Heb 11:27)
L. Trust God to deliver you when there does not seem to be a way out. (Moses - Heb 11:28)
There are more examples of Heroes of the Faith in Hebrews eleven that we now consider.
M. You Might Be a Hero of the Faith If You Follow God's Directions for Gaining Victory. (Israel - Heb 11:30)
(Heb 11:30 NIV) By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
The foe at hand for Israel was Jericho. God's purpose for the battle of Jericho was at least two-fold. First, it was God's judgment upon its inhabitants for the enormity of their wickedness.
Rick Wade of Probe Ministries has written,
In the worship of their gods, the Canaanites committed other evils. They engaged in temple prostitution which was thought to be a re-enactment of the sexual unions of the gods and goddesses.
An even more detestable practice was that of child sacrifice. Under the sanctuary in the ancient city of Gezer, urns containing the burnt bones of children have been found. They are dated to somewhere between 2000 and 1500 BC, between the time of Abraham and the Exodus.
(http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.6479725/k.687C/God_and_the_Canaanites.htm)
For a fuller perspective on why God had to destroy the Canaanites, see the following article by Jim Denison at http://www.godissues.org/why-did-god-tell-the-jews-to-kill-all-the-canaanites/
Second, it was the first step in the fulfillment of God's promise to give the children of Israel the land of Canaan. Here He would establish His nation where He would be their God and they would be His people.
(Gen 15:18-21 NIV) On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-- {19} the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, {20} Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, {21} Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
It all began with a simple and seemingly implausible plan.
(Josh 6:2-5 NIV) Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. {3} March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. {4} Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. {5} When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."
Victory over the enemy came not because of Israel's strength, but faith in God's plan and His power. Christians should remember when engaged in life's battles that God is able bring victory to us according to His immeasurable power and oftentimes in unimaginable ways for the sake of His glory.
(Eph 3:20-21 NIV) Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, {21} to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Scripture teaches that humanity has three main enemies which each of us will have to engage on a continual basis throughout our lives. The Word of God also teaches that none of them need have victory over us. Consider . . .
1. Death
(1 Cor 15:54-57 NIV) When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." {55} "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" {56} The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. {57} But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The world system
The world system is all about pleasure. It is the spirit of the age. It entices us to make pleasure our purpose and leave God out of the picture when seeking real meaning and true blessing in life.
(James 4:2-4 NIV) You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. {3} When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. {4} You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
There's no need to fear. Victory is promised to the obedient, to those who apply faith in God's ways and then discover that His commands are not too burdensome. If we obey, we will not be destroyed with the world but delivered from its tragic destiny.
(1 John 5:2-5 NIV) This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. {3} This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, {4} for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. {5} Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
3. The spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms
(Eph 6:12-13 NIV) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. {13} Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
It is my view that we spend too much time fighting the foes we see and not the invisible evil powers that are fueling them. History has taught us that if we remove one tyrant, another will soon be seeking to take his place. The world is not better in any way except technologically; and even technology is being used by some to empower evil to be more pervasive, controlling, and destructive. Satan and his demons are at work in their grander purpose to undermine God's rule and to destroy His people. We must learn to resist the devil, flee from sin, and show others the way to escape the coming destruction.
N. You Might Be a Hero of the Faith If You Risk All in Order to Do the Right Thing. (Rahab - Heb 11:31)
(Heb 11:31 NIV) By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
Hopefully, when we finish our journey on earth, we will not be remembered so much by what we were but what we became in Christ. Rahab will not forever be remembered as a prostitute, but rather because she did not remain one. She gave herself to a higher calling when she recognized the power and moral goodness of the Israel's God to His people. Rahab decided to seek the mercy of Israel's God Who then responded with His grace and thus she escaped the judgment which fell upon her people in Jericho.
We all have a past. Paul reminds us of this fact in Colossians.
(Col 1:21-23 NIV) Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. {22} But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- {23} if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
O. You Might Be a Hero of the Faith If You Attempt Anything God Asks and Are Ready to Endure Any Consequence of Obedience to Him. (The Faithful Multitude - Heb 11:32-33)
1. The names of some deserve to be honored, Heb 11:32
(Heb 11:32 NIV) And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
Dr. R. T. France summarizes well the intent of the rest of this passage in light of what the writer of Hebrews has been highlighting in the other examples given so for.
The writer does not go into detail about what these men did. But if we examine the OT record, we find that each man battled against overwhelming odds so that, humanly speaking, there was little chance of his coming out on top. For men in such positions faith in God was not a formality. It meant real trust when the odds seemed stacked against them. They set worthy examples for the readers in their difficult circumstances.
--Expositor's Bible Commentary, The - The Expositor's Bible Commentary – Volume 12: Hebrews through Revelation.
Like the others, none in the list of the faithful were perfect. They did manifest the demeanor of faithfulness to the point where their faithfulness overshadowed their failures. May it be the case with all of us as Christians.
2. The conviction of all of them deserved to be remembered, Heb 11:33-37
(Heb 11:33-37 NIV) who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, {34} quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. {35} 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. {36} Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. {37} They were stoned ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—
The difference between a conviction and a preference, according to the U.S. Supreme Court: A preference is a very strong belief, held with great strength. You can give your entire life in a full-time way to the service of the preference, and can also give your entire material wealth in the name of the belief. You can also energetically proselytize others to your preference. You can also want to teach this belief to your children, and the Supreme court may still rule that it is a preference.
A preference is a strong belief, but a belief that you will change under the right circumstances. Circumstances such as: 1) peer pressure; if your beliefs are such that other people stand with you before you will stand, your beliefs are preferences, not convictions, 2) family pressure, 3) lawsuits, 4) jail, 5) threat of death; would you die for your beliefs? A conviction is a belief that you will not change. Why? A man believes that his God requires it of him.
Preferences aren't protected by the constitution. Convictions are. A conviction is not something that you discover, it is something that you purpose in your heart (Daniel 1:8). Convictions on the inside will always show up on the outside, in a person's lifestyle. To violate a conviction would be a sin.
--David C. Gibbs, Jr., Christian Law Association
It appears to me that Roy Coster IV may have shown that his faith is one held by conviction. The Christian Post reported in an interview with senior high school valedictorian Roy Coster, IV that . . .
[Liberty High] School officials required him to submit the text of his speech for approval prior to graduation, and Costner turned in a draft with no religious content. But when the moment came for him to deliver his speech, Costner confidently approached the podium, took his approved speech out of the school notebook, and ripped it in half for all to see.
"I first want to say that I turned in my speech to Ms. Gwinn [the principal] which she somehow seemed to approve, so obviously I didn't do my job well enough. So we're going to get rid of that and use a different one," he began.
"Those that we look up to, they have helped carve and mold us into the young adults that we are today. I'm so glad that both of my parents led me to the Lord at a young age," he continued. And I think most of you will understand when I say…" he said, pausing briefly and stunning the crowd of several thousand with the words he spoke next. "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."
Just a few words into his recitation of the Lord's Prayer, massive applause and cheering erupted from the audience, so loud in fact that Costner had to raise his voice to be heard.
3. The testimony of God concerning them deserves to be recorded, Heb 11:38-40.
(Heb 11:38-40 NIV) the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. {39} These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. {40} God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
a. The world was not worthy of them.
b. Their faith is to be commended.
c. Though they did not witness the full fulfillment of what God had promised them, this was so that all the faithful, Old and New Testament saints alike, would experience our perfection in Christ together.
As John MacArthur has commented on this verse. . . "The ultimate promise was of a redeemer, the Messiah, and of His covenant that would bring righteousness before God."
John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Hebrews.
Conclusion
The question that has been formulating from the beginning of this chapter to its end for each reader is this. Is the faith you profess a preference or a conviction? One is not saved by preferring Christ over some other means of salvation, but only by the conviction that He is the only Way of Salvation and that they are ready to die rather than deny this fact.
Remember what Jesus said to his disciples.
(Mat 16:24-26 NIV) "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. {25} For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. {26} What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"
In which kingdom will you live? The world's or God's. You cannot live in both for both require complete allegiance and are in direct opposition to each other.
Joshua demanded that Israel make a choice as they stood on the banks of the Jordan River poised to enter the land of God's promise.
(Josh 24:14-15 NIV) "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. {15} But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Any who are double-minded in their commitment to Christ should know that they can't live in both kingdoms—the world's and God's. They may try. They may even fool some people into believing that they have made a choice for Christ, when in reality they merely prefer to associate with Him as long as it does not require much from them.
(James 4:4 NIV) Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
