Enduring Faith - Part 2
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[00:00:00] Ah, turning your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11 for those of you who are visiting, we're going through the book of Hebrews. We're on chapter 11. This will be our second week on chapter 11. Uh, and we're gonna read a long passage. We're gonna read, uh, chapter 11, uh, all the way through, uh, verse 29 so if you are able, I would ask you to stand as we read God's Word.
And I would ask that you hear it for what it is. It's easy to take Scripture for granted. It's easy to treat it as any other book. It's easy to forget that these are the very words God wanted us to know. So hear this for what it is, the living words of God. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse one. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out [00:01:00] of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts; and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive [00:02:00] for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.
Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead As many seed as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them, having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles upon the earth.
For [00:03:00] those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desired a better home, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to call, to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. It was he to whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he [00:04:00] was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ir- ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking for the reward.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.
May God add a blessing [00:05:00] to the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to His Word. Please be seated.
We began chapter 11 last week, and I shared with you last week that chapter 11 is a very fun chapter. Uh, there are a lot of names, there are a lot of stories that can be told, and because it's a fun chapter, it's also a difficult chapter. Uh, it's... How long do you take in Hebrews chapter 11? I've known ministers who have taken weeks.
I've known some who have taken months to get through chapter 11. I don't wanna take that long. We'll take as long as need be, but I'd like to finish it a little sooner than that. If you take your bulletins and you open them up, there's a half-sheet handout in it, and on one side, there are some sermon fill-in-the-blank notes and just a, a page that you can use for note-taking.
On the other side, there's another handout, and on that handout, there's a, uh, an outline for chapter 11. So, uh, you can look at that outline and, and study it later. [00:06:00] Um, but you'll see, or hopefully you'll remember from last week if you look at that outline, uh, we made it through one through 3A. And basically, last week, we looked at faith, and we, we noted that the author of Hebrews doesn't gov- give us a full orb definition of faith.
In fact, many scholars would say it's more of a description of what faith does. You see, faith produces a different kind of life. Faith produces boldness. Faith ultimately re- produces obedience to God. And so as you listen to the sermon today, as hopefully you go home and maybe you talk about it or you meditate upon it, are you obedient?
Would you characterize yourself as obedient? More to say on that. We looked at creation, and I noted how interesting it was. We debate creation today amongst Christians, but it's interesting that the author of Hebrews tied it to his understanding of faith, to the meaning of [00:07:00] what faith does. Creation is an important doctrine.
And then we looked at those who are known as the antediluvians. We looked at, uh, Abel, and there's not much we know about Abel. We know he was born, and we know he died for worshiping God, and we looked at that last week. We looked at Enoch, and again, not much concerning Enoch. He seemed to be a righteous man.
He seemed to love God. He was an obedient man, and instead of allowing him to, to die, God took him We didn't get to Moses, or Noah. We didn't get to Noah. I'm not gonna cover Noah today. As I told you last week, what I'd like to do is I'm not gonna cover everyone in detail, but what I'm looking for, what I'd like to talk about is what I would call oddities or peculiarities, things that make me ask questions.
We've looked a little bit at Noah, but I do wanna say something about Noah because it'll tie into the rest of the sermon, and it's this Noah was a man of imperfect faith And I think sometimes we come to chapters [00:08:00] like this and we see the heartache, we see the great people of faith, and we forget that they were all very imperfect.
And we, instead of doing what the author ultimately says, and that is fixing our eyes on Jesus, we tend to fix our eyes on these saints. We tend to fix our eyes on their lives, and we tend to think that they had perfect faith, and they didn't. And there's no one sitting in this room today, and there's no one standing currently in this room today that has perfect faith.
We all fail. That's why we do a confession of sin in our service. We all fail. And Noah failed, and Abraham failed, and Sarah failed, and everyone else mentioned failed, at times miserably. So we'll come back to that. The other thing I shared with you, uh, last week was, uh, a couple of months ago, Roland Sanchez, and [00:09:00] he, uh, will on occasion fill the pulpit here.
Although, and I just wanna share this with you so you can add it to your prayer list, we probably won't get him back anymore. And the reason we're not gonna get him back is he's been asked to start a church. So he's been called as the pastor of a new church in Spokane Valley, so pray for him. Uh, he's given me some feedback, things are going well.
But anyway, he preached a, uh, overview sermon on chapter 11 of Hebrews, and he gave us four principles for understanding enduring faith, or, uh, he called it persevering faith, I've called it enduring faith, or I think you can also call it saving faith. And if you look on your bulletin handout under the outline for chapter 11, I've put those principles down, and I just wanted to again review them because I think you need to keep them in the back of your mind as we look at chapter 11.
Faith has a foundation. It's God's Word. Faith is fruitful. Faith is obedient. True, enduring, persevering, saving [00:10:00] faith results in obedience. Not perfection, but obedience. Faith, true saving faith, looks foolish. If you would've interviewed Abraham and Sarah, they would've come across foolish if they told you, "Yeah, she's 90, I'm 100, but we're gonna have a, we're gonna have a son."
And last but not least, saving faith is focused. And we'll come back to this at the end of the service, but the writer of Hebrews gets around to that focus in the beginning verses of chapter 12. And he gets to it with these words that we will come back to, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus." So saving faith has a foundation, it is fruitful, it often looks foolish, and it is focused.
Number one on your outline, on your sermon outline, is persevering faith. Persevering faith. So we're gonna look at verses eight through 22 at the, the first part of this sermon. I hope to get a little- Little further, but we're not gonna look at all of it in [00:11:00] detail. But in verses 8 through 22, we're looking at the pre-Mosaic saints.
The flood has taken place, so these are the saints after the flood, but pre-Moses. So we're gonna, uh, they mention Abraham. In fact, Abraham gets two mentions, and Abraham is mentioned because when God called him, Abraham obeyed. He went out. He left the land that he was living in. He left his family, and the text tells us he didn't know where he was going.
And then Abraham is mentioned a second time because he offered up Isaac, the promised son, the promised son who, if you remember the story, if you go home today and you reread the story, they were not waiting patiently. They were frustrated. We'll get back to it 'cause we're gonna look at Sarah in a minute.
This section mentions Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, all of whom were looking forward in faith. But I wanna focus in on Sarah. So look at chapter 11, verse 11. Chapter 11, verse 11, and it begins with these words, [00:12:00] "By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive." And I wanna stop for a minute 'cause I simply wanna remind you what these words, by faith, mean, and ultimately, if we're gonna understand this chapter properly, literally you could translate out of faith, and the idea that's being presented here is because of faith, because of the foundation of faith, out of faith a changed life takes place.
So it's out of faith, it's because of faith that even Sarah received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. And I wanna share one thing with you, and then we're gonna focus in on Sarah, okay? And the one thing that I wanna share with you, if you wanna talk to me about it later, we can talk about it, but there actually is a different way that we could translate this verse, and there are some scholars out there that think this verse has a whole lot more to do with Abraham than it has to do with Sarah.
I don't wanna get into that [00:13:00] controversy. I just wanna mention it in case you come across it somewhere, but I wanna focus in on Sarah. Because when we read these words, and this is the more traditional translation, so there are many good scholars that think we should translate it this way, but when we focus in on Sarah, and don't say this out loud, but what do you think of?
Especially when we tie it to her giving birth. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life. So what do we think about? What do you think about? I don't know about you, but the first thing I think about is she laughed. She laughed. If you'd like to, turn back to Genesis 18.
We read it at the beginning of service, so if you don't wanna turn there, you can just listen. Uh, but if you wanna turn there, I'm gonna look at, uh, verses 10 to 14 And you'll remember the story, three men come up and they, they visit Abraham, and we'll pick up the story in verse 10. Um, well, actually, before we pick up the story, three men, and we find out later in the text, one is the angel of [00:14:00] Yahweh.
One is, I believe, the pre-incarnate Christ. One is Yahweh himself, all right? And the other two are angels. And the text really doesn't tell us when Abraham figured this out, but he seems to have figured it out pretty quickly. And in the text, when Abraham addresses the three men, he only addresses one of them, and he refers to him as Adonai, Lord, which was a common saying for even addressing human beings.
But the interesting thing in the Hebrew text is Adonai is plural, which is commonly used of the true God. So he addresses one of the men as Adonai, and he refers to him as Lord. And Yahweh promises Abram, beginning in verse 10, he said, "I will surely return to you this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son."
And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. Sarah was past childbearing, and literally in the Hebrew te- text, [00:15:00] it says she was s- she had stopped the way of women. So to bring it up to our modern language, she had gone through menopause.
And I don't wanna get into a ton of detail, but I think it's important for everyone to know women know when they've gone through menopause. It's no secret. Sarah knew she was past the age of childbearing when she heard these words And so she laughed, saying, "After I've become old, shall I have pleasure?
Shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" And Yahweh, literally in the text, this is what the man is now called, Yahweh said to Abram, Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Shall I indeed bear... Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I indeed bear a child when I am old?'" And then Yahweh says, "Is anything too difficult for Yahweh?
At the appointed time, I will return to you, and at this time next year, [00:16:00] Sarah will have a son." And maybe you're thinking, 'cause I know my mind goes immediately to this, Abraham laughed also. In chapter 17 of Genesis, God tells Abraham, "You're gonna have a son," and Abraham laughed. But it seems that God got upset with Sarah and not with Abraham.
Why might that be? Well, couple of things. First of all, that's more of an inference than something specifically coming from the text. We infer that He got upset at Sarah because of what He says, and we infer He didn't get up- upset at Abraham because He didn't say it. So number one, it's an inference, but number two, there are different ways of laughing.
I don't know if many of you know Kyle McNeil. Kyle McNeil is the, uh, pastor of, uh, Mountain Springs Church. And if you know him, you'll know that several years ago, he had cancer, and he's part of the pastors group that put on the Fall Fest. And so as pastors, we were praying for him, and, uh, he came to one meeting, and he shared with us, "The cancer is [00:17:00] gone.
I am cancer-free. Miraculously. Doctors don't understand it. We've been praying. God has taken the cancer away." The first thing I did, and I remember this, I laughed, and it wasn't an insulting laugh. It wasn't, you know, a I-don't-believe-you laugh. It was a joyful God-is-awesome laugh. So we can laugh in different ways, but here's what I wanna point out.
The text is not saying that Sarah did not have saving faith. The text is saying that Sarah had, in this instance, weak faith, and there are other examples in the Old Testament of people with weak faith, people mentioned in Hebrews 11. Abraham, you know, Abraham is held up by Paul, the author of Hebrews, as the model of faith, and he is.
But his faith wasn't perfect, and if you're comparing yourself to Abraham, and if you think that somehow you're lacking because you sin, you make [00:18:00] mistakes, your faith isn't perfect, neither was Abraham. In chapter 12 of Genesis, this is right after he's praised. God praises him in chapter 11, "I called you, and you left."
And right after he left, there's a famine. He goes to Egypt, and what does he do? As a man of faith, he stands his ground, right? Take my wife. Actually, it was take my sister. And he has this private conversation with Sarah, "Hey, you're good-looking. Pharaoh's gonna notice you. I don't wanna die, so I'm gonna take my sister."
Doesn't sound like a man of faith to me Couple chapters later, as I said, Sarah and Abraham, they're waiting impatiently and they wanna have this child, so Sarah comes up with this idea. And to me, this is one of the funniest chapters in scripture to me. Sarah comes up with this idea, "Take my maid and have a child with my maid."
And Abraham's like, "All right. Sounds like a good idea." [00:19:00] Where's the faith? Because God made it very clear, and as we continue to read the story, it's very clear Sarah was supposed to be the mother of the promised seed And then a couple chapters later, in, uh, chapter 20, Abraham does it again. They go to this area, this location known as Gerar, and Abimelech is king.
And again, he tells Sarah, after God has renewed His promise, "You're a beautiful woman, I don't wanna die," and he gives her to the king. What about Moses? Moses is commanded, "Take your rod, go to the rock, command the rock to give us water." This is found in, I believe, Numbers 20. And what does Moses do? And it seems like a little thing to us because we sometimes treat God as common.
But instead of going and talking to the rock, Moses, in his frustration, and I don't blame him for being frustrated [00:20:00] But Moses in his frustration takes his rod and smacks the rock, and God still delivers the water, but what did that cost Moses? He wasn't allowed to enter the promised land. God is kind. God is full of grace, and we do not have perfect faith, even saving faith.
It's perfect in the sense that it's granted by God, but even the way we exercise saving faith on a regular basis is imperfect. And I'm not trying to bring you down, I'm actually trying to lift you up. I want you to understand that God is good, God is gracious, God is forgiving. And when your saving faith fails, get on your knees, whether figuratively or literally, and confess that sin and focus your eyes on Jesus.
Focus in on Jesus. He is your only hope. [00:21:00] He's the only thing you have to cling to, because if you cling to your own life, if you think that's the standard, you're gonna fail The saints of old were not perfect. Remember in Mark chapter 9, there's a, a father of a boy and he's, he's demon-possessed. He, he falls into these fits and these seizures, and, uh, he goes to Jesus and he says, "If you're able to do everything, heal my, my child."
And Jesus has this conversation with him and says, "You of little faith." And finally, the father cries out, "Help my faith." How often have you prayed that prayer? How often have you prayed that prayer, "Father, help my faith. I wanna believe in you. I really do. I wanna believe that this circumstance you've brought to my life, this trial that I've fallen into, I wanna believe that it's for my own good.
I wanna believe that you work out all things for good to those who love you. I wanna believe that you're sovereign and you would not allow something to happen to me that you are not in control of. [00:22:00] But you know, God, I really don't." Help my faith. Help me believe. Help me trust in you. So again, back to Sarah.
Sarah laughs, but it's... It didn't mean she didn't believe. It means she had a moment of weakness. What are some signs that Sarah had saving faith? Well, I'm just gonna share a couple. Number one, she left with Abraham. When Abraham was called, Sarah left with him. We don't read anything else. We don't read if they had a discussion, we just know Sarah left with him, and it appears that Sarah believed the promise, okay?
And like Abraham, and, and let me give you... Let me back up one minute. Remember Naomi and remember Ruth, and remember not all the sis- not all the daughters-in-law left with her, only Ruth. Sarah left with Abraham. That speaks volumes of her faith. In addition to that, she believed the promise. They didn't go [00:23:00] about it right, but when we get to Genesis 16 and Ab- or Sarah suggests take Hagar, that was proof that she believed the promise.
She believed that God was gonna bless them with a child. She just didn't believe it enough, but she did believe it, and she exercised saving faith. When Isaac was finally born and Ishmael was mocking him, Sarah goes to Abraham and says, "Get rid of this woman and get rid of this son. I'm not sharing with him."
Again, whether you judge that as good behavior or bad behavior, the point is it's evidence that she believed the promise, the promised seed, the seed of the woman, the one represented by No, which means rest, was going to come through Abraham, and she believed it. And Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 3 that he lauds Sarah because she obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, which was a common thing for wives in those days.
Men, I don't recommend it, but I've tried for years to get Stacy to call me Lord. It's not working. [00:24:00] Okay? But it was just a, a common practice in those days, and it just meant that she submitted to her husband. And what are we commanded in the New Testament? Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, be the kind of leaders that she can submit to.
And what do we do? We fail And there's two things to do when you fail. You can give up and quit trying, or you can get on your knees, you can confess your sins, and you can move on, and you can ask God, "Help my faith. Help me be the leader that I'm supposed to be. Help me be the wife that I'm supposed to be.
Help me trust this imperfect man," because we're all imperfect and we're all gonna fail Sarah laughed. Abraham laughed. In irony of irony, God says, "You're gonna name your son Isaac." And guess what Isaac means? And some of you know this, but Isaac literally means to laugh. So they would be [00:25:00] reminded for the rest of their life every time they looked at this promised son that they laughed
In verses 23 to 31, uh, this is the Mosaic generation. We're gonna jump ahead to the Mosaic generation, and here we read something about Moses' parents. We read something about Moses. We read about them. I- in the Greek it's just they, but it refers to the first generation. We read about the second generation, and we read something about Rahab.
But I wanna start in verse 23, so jump to, uh, Hebrews 11:23 And this verse talks about Moses' parents. So by faith, and again, out of faith, because of faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents. Now, for those of you that like to do Bible studies and stuff, this is the same word used in Ephesians chapter 6, but in Ephesians chapter 6, it's, uh, [00:26:00] translated fathers by most versions.
"Fathers, do not exasperate or do not make your sons angry." I get Ephesians and Colossians mixed up every so often. But, uh, it's a word that means parents. The emphasis is fathers because fathers are supposed to be the heads of their household, but it includes the mothers. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, by his mother and father, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict So a couple of things.
As I said, parents include mom and dad. Um, what was the king's edict? And you probably all remember this. In Exodus chapter one, the king's edict is if there was a boy child born, the midwives were to kill them, okay? And the midwi- wives were faithful women and they didn't kill the children. But apparently, if you read this text and you kinda read in between the lines, apparently some of the boys were being killed because it says that Moses' parents were not [00:27:00] gonna let him be killed.
They were gonna protect him and they weren't afraid of Pharaoh's edict. And it says that they wanted to protect him because he was a beautiful child and literally in the, the Greek it simply means well-formed. He was a well-formed child. And you have to ask yourself why is that included? Why is that, that included?
And some would argue that his parents knew that he was a promised deliverer. Now I don't see that in the text anywhere and I think it's a stretch. All right? What I think it's referring to is the words of Psalm one thirty nine that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I think they saw their child and they did what any good parent would do and they made the decision that I will put my life at risk but I am going to protect this child.
You see, we read all kinds of things in the Old Testament that make us scratch our head. We read of parents doing these really odd things. So remember the story of Lot and the [00:28:00] men come to Sodom and they want, they want to, they want to, they want the angels. They want the male angels and what does Lot do?
And it boggles my mind to this day. Lot offers his daughters instead. I would die a thousand deaths before I offered my daughter. And we read that story and it's like I, I don't get it
What about Jephthah's vow? Jephthah, he wins a battle and he vows, "When I come home, whatever comes out of my house first, I'll offer it for sacrifice," knowing that both animals and human beings could come out of that tent. And his daughter comes out and something happened. We don't know exactly what happened.
Either she was delegated to perpetual virginhood or she was sacrificed. We don't know. The text doesn't say it. It's uncomfortable, but why would you make that kind of a vow and not protect your daughter? Well, what about the Levi- the Levite's concubine in Judges 19? [00:29:00] Again, it's very much like the Sodom and Gomorrah story.
Uh, the men come and they want the men, but instead he throws his concubine, which simply means a slave wife, a wife without a dowry. He throws his wife out, and they ravage her to such an extent that she dies, and then he cuts her up into pieces and sends her out to Israel And I just remind you of that because I want to bring to the fore these parents cared.
And God has called us to care. God has called us to be willing to lay down our lives for our children, and we see an example of it right here. Mom and dad, faithful. Mom and dad mentioned in the book of faith. They're not going to let Moses die, at least not easily, and they're not going to go out without a fight.
So what do we see? Abel died because he worshiped properly. Sarah and Abraham believed [00:30:00] even when physically speaking they couldn't have kids, but they believed anyway. And Moses' parents trusted God with the life of their child. And just think about it. And this has happened so many times throughout Christian history.
What would you do if you were faced with losing your child? And I don't mean by death, but in persecution. Many Christians have been killed throughout history and their children taken. Or many Christians have been imprisoned in history and their children taken. Could you trust God with the life of your children?
Would you trust God? That would scare me to death. They're taken by these pagans. Are they going to be taught to hate Christ? Are they going to be taught to hate God? That's what they were facing. Now there may have been some thought that went into this and they may have known, they may have been hoping and praying that Pharaoh's daughter found Moses, but they didn't know.
They didn't even know if the wicker basket would work. But they did what parents [00:31:00] ought to do. And now the text goes in in verse 29 and, or actually in verse 24 and it mentions Moses. And I just want to say one quick thing about Moses because again, when you read this text, there are some that think that maybe there's a contradiction.
Because the text says this, look at verses 24 and 27.
Out of faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for, looking to the reward.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king For he endured, as seeing him who is unseen. And a lot of people think this is a contradiction when, because when you go back to Exodus chapter 2 and we read about the incident, and I'll just refresh your memories, but maybe later today go home and read Exodus chapter 2, [00:32:00] but...
And there's a lot that we don't know about Moses. So for instance, when you go and you read Exodus chapter 2, apparently Moses knew he was a Hebrew child. Okay? That doesn't really, it doesn't tell us that in the text, and you, you kind of wonder how he would know if he was raised by Pharaoh. If you like Josephus, the Jewish historian, Josephus tells some interesting stories about him.
He had one of the best educations according to Josephus. He became a, an Egyptian scholar, basically. He was, to quote the car- cartoon, the Prince of Egypt. He apparently had some major military victories. We don't know if those things are true, but we, we get to this text, we jump in the middle of it, and Moses knows he's Hebrew.
And he goes out and he sees an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew, and he kills the Egyptian, and he buries the body in the sand. And he goes out the next day and two Hebrews are arguing, and he intervenes, and here's where I want to pick up the story in Exodus 2:13. "He went out the next day, and behold, two [00:33:00] Hebrews were fighting with each other.
And he said to the offender, 'Why are you striking your companion?' But when he said... But he," the guy that was about to hit the other guy, "But when he said, 'Who made you prince or judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid, and said, 'Surely the matter has become known.'"
Verse 15, "When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the pha- from the presence of Pharaoh and set out to the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well." Now, here's the point of the story. The text in Exodus says Moses was afraid, and some people read that as he was afraid of Pharaoh.
But again, inference. Nowhere in the text does it say he was afraid of Pharaoh. What it does say is when his Hebrew brothers rejected him, that's what caused fear. And the Book of Acts actually helps us understand what is meant by that. So in Acts [00:34:00] 7:24, this is Stephen's speech before he gets stoned, speaking of Moses, and he says, "When Moses saw one of them being treated unjustly," that's the story we just read, "he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.
And he," Moses, "supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him. But they did not understand." So again, Moses knew he was Hebrew, and somehow Moses knew that God was gonna use him as deliverer And if you follow the context, Moses leaves Egypt, he's not afraid of Pharaoh, then he practices the Passover, and then the Red Sea.
So this would've been Moses leaving before the burning bush. So Moses wasn't afraid of Pharaoh. I think Moses, again, another example of faltering faith, somehow Moses understood he was to be the deliverer, and yet because two people didn't believe him, he lost confidence and he got scared[00:35:00]
And then we come to verse 29. And verse 29 is, is confusing to me. So look at verse, chapter, Hebrews 11:29
And again, I just wanna remind you, I'm trying to point out oddities. I'm trying to point out things that ought to make you question. Out of faith they Passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. So now think about this.
Who are the they? Well, the they are the first generation that left Egypt. Could be no other they. It's the first generation that left Egypt, and the author of Hebrews says, "By faith they did this." But you see, there's a, there's a little bit of a problem. If you remember what we studied in Hebrews chapter 3 and 4, the author of Hebrews makes explicit they didn't have faith.
They didn't have saving faith. Their [00:36:00] faith was never mixed with enduring obedience, and so they all died in the wilderness. They didn't experience the rest because they didn't have faith, and the author of Hebrews goes out of his way. They were disobedient. They were unbelievers. They were disobedient, and now the author is saying, "By faith they passed through the Red Sea."
So let me just tell you where I've landed on this passage. I, I think when you read this text, you don't have to think of the entire generation. I don't think you have to think of everyone that passed through the sea. Don't forget Caleb and Joshua. Caleb and Joshua had faith. Don't forget Moses and Miriam and Aaron.
They had faith, and they passed through the sea. But most importantly, and I think this is fascinating, don't forget the children Might not the children have had faith? And wouldn't this be ironic? Because what the author is saying is it only takes a few people, it only takes the youngest and the weakest, but if you have [00:37:00] true saving faith, God can work miracles.
God can do things that you're not expecting. What does Jesus say? You need faith as of a child, childlike faith. How ironic
Number two on your outline, on your sermon outline, what were they looking for? What were they looking for? And I want to take a step back. So go back to Hebrews 11:10. We skip these verses. I don't want to completely skip them. We're looking at the characters, but we need to understand what were the characters looking for.
And kids, this is on your outline. This is one of the fill in the blanks on your outline. So Hebrews 11:10, "For he," contextually speaking of Abraham, "For he was looking for the city." And interestingly, in the Greek, it is the city. It's a very specific city. The Greek is being very specific here. He's looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.[00:38:00]
And I would just... I want to point out a few things in the book of Hebrews because I think it's going to help us understand what they were looking for. And that is, uh, there's all these comparisons between what's taking place on Earth and what's taking place in heaven. So one example that the author of Hebrews has simply pounded home is the holy place in the tabernacle.
In the Old Testament, the holy place was closed. The high priest could only go into it once a year. And, and the, the picture that the author is painting is it was closed in heaven as well. And it wasn't opened in heaven until Christ became our high priest, and Christ offered the ultimate sacrifice that the Day of Atonement can only picture, and Christ went to heaven, and He entered the holy place, and then He entered the Holy of Holies, and He kept going to the right hand of the Father.
And what happened at the crucifixion on Earth to illustrate what was happening in heaven? The veil of the temple was ripped, and the text is very clear, from top to bottom, illustrating that no man could have done it[00:39:00]
So the holy place is closed on Earth and it's not opened until Jesus goes to heaven. And what is Abraham looking for? Abraham is looking for a city. And we find out this city, we, we can identify this city, and kids, this is on your handout as well. Listen to the words of Hebrews 11:16. "God has prepared a city for them."
And who has he prepared it for? And just so you know, the Greek text, the city's finished. It's ready to go now. God has prepared a city. What did Jesus say? "I go to prepare a home for you." God has prepared this city. It's ready to go. And who did he prepare it for? Contextually, for those who died in faith.
You see, it wasn't just an earthly city. It wasn't just inheriting the promised land in full. They were looking for something heavenly
Chapter 12, verse 22: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the [00:40:00] city of the living God, kids, this is on your outline, the heavenly Jerusalem. You see, we've come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels. And it's interesting because I've shared with you before this concept of now and not yet, and the grammar in this text, you've arrived.
You're there. You're part of this holy city. You're part of the new Jerusalem, and yet in chapter 13, verse 14, we read, For here on earth we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. A not yet. A now and a not yet. Paul talks about this heavenly Jerusalem in Galatians chapter 4, but listen to the words of Revelation 3.
And I wish I could all... I, I wish I could make you all come to Bible study because we are covering so much of similar material here. It would help you understand Hebrews. But Revelation 3:12: For he who conquers, literally in the Greek, for [00:41:00] he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore.
And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God and my new name. And then we get to the end of the book, Revelation 21:2, And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Now, I think there's some now and not yet theology mixed in here, but here's the question that I want to ask you. When did this city arrive? When did this city come? Who had to go finish the city? Jesus. This is tied to the coming of Jesus, and what Abraham and all of these Old Testament saints were looking for was something only Jesus could ultimately accomplish.
And that's why when we get to the end of the chapter, when we get to verses 39 and 40, we read these words, In all of these, all of [00:42:00] the Old Testament saints that he's been mentioning, from, from Abel to David and beyond, all of these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised.
They didn't receive it yet because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. And regardless of how you work it out, and I, I've shared some of this in the past, whether you believe that there was a, a temporary paradise that the Old Testament saints went to, or however you wanna work it out, the point is they continued to wait until Jesus.
They didn't get the promise until Jesus. The city wasn't prepared until Jesus. And what I wanna share with you, what I want you to understand, is I want you to be excited. You live in exciting times. You live during the days of the new covenant. And when we go to communion [00:43:00] today, I want you to remember that.
The new covenant is as real, and it's here, and it is present. It is as real as the bread that we'll taste, the wine that we'll drink. And the table when we go to it, it is a reminder that we are new covenant members, and that Jesus has offered his sacrifice, and that Jesus' sacrifice is perfect and complete.
So much more I wanna say about the text, but I just, I, I wanna jump to the end here, at least the way I wanna wrap up today There's nothing wrong with building something here. I think it can be very confusing when we read the Bible and we read how we should be laser focused on Jesus, how we read that our, our home is in heaven, that we're sojourners here on earth.
I think it's, it's... It seems to have become very difficult for evangelicals to also understand that we're actually supposed to do something while on earth. There's nothing wrong with wanting to build something here. It's how we build it. It's what we [00:44:00] look for. And just two things, and I don't have time to delve into them, but the creation ordinances.
We've talked about this in the past, and the creation ordinances are marriage and multiplication. Family is the default position, and we need family to move on to the next creation ordinance, which is labor and dominion. We're supposed to work hard. We Christians love to argue about the Sabbath. We love to argue about what it means, what day is it?
But we forget in the fourth commandment that the first part of the commandment is work six days. And not everybody wants to work six days. And that doesn't mean you're at your job six days, but even when you're away from your job, you're working, you're building the kingdom, you're working for your family, you're working for your home And then the third creation ordinance is Sabbath.
We do it with God in mind. We do it with worship in mind. The Old Testament tells us that we are to leave a legacy for our children here on Earth. Listen to the words of these verses, Psalm 2:8. This is God's promise to His [00:45:00] Son, "Ask of me, and I will surely give you the nations as your inheritance." God the Father gives His Son an inheritance, "And the ends of the earth as your possession."
Kids, Proverbs 13:22, it's in your, your handout to fill in the blank, and it says, "A good man," and literally in the Hebrew for emphasis, the, the Psalm actually begins, "Good "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous." And then in Ecclesiastes 7:11, "Wisdom along with an inheritance is good and an advantage to those who see the sun."
And just so you know, I got the verses confused. It's Ecclesiastes 7 that starts with the word good. Literally, it says, "Good is wisdom along with an inheritance." The point is we're supposed to do something on this earth. We're supposed to build something on this earth. [00:46:00] We're supposed to do something with our life.
We're supposed to build the kingdom. We're supposed to honor God. However, and this brings us full circle, we must have our eyes fixed on Jesus. No matter what we do, we must have our eyes fixed on Jesus. In Hebrews 12 beginning in verse 2, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the s- shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
And this Greek word translated fixing, it literally means to keep your attention focused without losing focus, to keep thinking about something without losing one's attention. Are you focused on Jesus? Do you begin your day focusing on Jesus? Do you end your day focusing on Jesus? And I'm not talking about perfection, 'cause you won't be perfect.
Focusing on Jesus means spending time every day confessing sin. [00:47:00] It means recognizing I'm not perfect and I need Jesus. That's why I'm laser-focused. I don't care if you train dogs, fight fires, roast coffee, cut hair, work with plants and animals, fix pipes, train men, if you practice construct- construction, if you practice the law, if you teach high schoolers technology, if you're starting a new business, if you do computer work, if you run an airport, if you work on maps, if you do mechanical work, if you teach music, if you're retired, are you focused on Jesus?
And maybe at the top of this list, you work at home, you raise children, you homeschool. Are your eyes fixed on Jesus? Because it's the only thing that matters, for we will fail, and in the end, my faith must be in [00:48:00] Jesus, and this is what the Old Testament saints looked for. They looked for perfection in Jesus, and this is what we need to look for
That's the legacy we should want to leave our children, but not just our children. That's the legacy we should want to leave the world. When I die, will this world be a better place? Let's pray. Father in heaven Teach us how to focus in on Jesus
Father in heaven, we've already come to you in confession. I don't think we need to repeat that, but Don't let us lose focus
As the rest of the passage says, Lord, "For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose [00:49:00] heart." Father, I pray that we won't grow weary, that we won't lose heart, that when we do imperfect things like all of the Old Testament saints, that we'll simply get on our knees and confess it, and that, that even our imperfections and even our sins will focus our minds on you because that's where our focus needs to be.
We need to be focused in on you. We need to be trusting you. Everything needs to be about you while we build something on earth, while we leave our children a legacy. Father, help us. Spirit of God, you fill us, you indwell us, help us focus on Jesus. Father, I pray that tomorrow morning, every single one of us, when we open our eyes, our first thought will be, "I'm going to live this day for Jesus, and I'm gonna do my best to learn something about Jesus.
I'm gonna spend time in your Word, Lord. I'm gonna spend time in prayer, and I'm gonna work for you. I'm [00:50:00] gonna produce for you. I'm gonna build for you. I'm gonna teach for you." Father, help us understand, help our focus be the same thing that these Old Testament saints focused on. And Father, may we praise you, and may we worship you, and may we glorify you because we are in your presence in a way they, they weren't.
There was something different, Lord. Your Spirit has come. You've poured Him out. When we die, we go straight into your presence. Something's new because you waited for Jesus. Help us understand whatever that is, and thank you, Lord, that we live in exciting days. Help us to have enduring faith. Help us to have faith that is exemplified and illustrated and evidenced by obedience.
For we ask all of this in the name of Christ Jesus, and all of God's people said- Amen. Amen. Take-
