If you were tied to a rack with a rope on your wrists and
a rope on your legs and stretched you out in all directions, and
tension was put on it to the point that your bones began to
pop out of joint, and you were told that all you had to do was
simply deny Christ, and you'd be set free. Would you deny him? If you were told that not only
would you be freed, but you'd be given a larger home, promoted to a position of prominence,
given riches, as you lay there about to be sawn in half by the
jagged edge of a saw, Would you deny Christ? Some have never professed Christ
in the first place. Some keep secret the fact that
they trust the Lord Jesus for fear of a mere word or look that
they might endure from worldly associates. But what if every
neighbor and every business and even the government and the religious
world turned on you so violently that all your basic necessities
were taken from you, your home, your clothing, your food, so
that you had to wander with nothing and scavenge for what little
food you could find. Would you deny Christ then? Hebrews 11 verse 35, in the middle
of the verse, it says, and others were tortured. not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection,
not that deliverance that was offered to them when they were
tortured, but the resurrection into the presence of God. And
others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover,
of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sown
asunder, were tempted were slain with the sword. They wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth." If you said,
well, I really don't know If my faith is strong enough to
persevere in the face of such affliction, then I'd ask you
this question. Is it the strength of your faith
which causes you to persevere when not faced with such affliction? Or is it the strength of the
Lord who gave you your faith and preserves you through faith
in Him? It's His strength. And in our
weakness is His strength made perfect. When God allows the
deepest depths of human depravity to manifest themselves upon the
faithful, He makes the greatest height of His grace to be manifest
in the faithful. When the depths of depravity
are manifest, the greatest, the heights of His all-sufficient
grace is manifest the greatest. That's what's put on display
in this whole book of Hebrews. That's what we've been seeing
here throughout this 11th chapter. These are real men and women
just like you and I. They have loved ones that they
love dearly just like you and I do. They have friends that
they care greatly about just like we do. They suffer and endured
pain and underwent pain just like you and I are pained by
different things in this flesh. And they would rather have been
enjoying the peace and comfort of the heart and of the mind
than to have the affliction and the the pain of the mind and
the agony that they endure, just like you and I would. Yet when
faced with the option of either being tortured or being tempted
with a great deliverance and reward, if they'd simply say,
I no longer trust the Lord Jesus Christ. When faced with that,
these real men and women said to their captors, I will not
deny my Lord. That's why true faith, true faith
is held up here for us as a gift of God through the righteousness
of Christ, strengthened and sustained by the Spirit of God. And these
believers here are an encouragement for us to draw encouragement
from them. They really did these things.
God didn't do these things for them. He did give them the faith,
and it was by Him that they had the strength to do these things. But they really did these things.
They really did these things. We're told about these things,
so that in them we might behold that our God is our great strength. And no matter how severe the
trial, the believer's strength is Christ in us. The Lord of
salvation is faith's power to continue believing it. And that's
why true faith is always bettered. It's always made better. Once
we have passed through fiery trials, it's always better. Trials merely remove the dross
that hinders the true believer from looking to Christ our strength. Do you know what a refiner's
fire is? Let me give you an example. I
saw yesterday on one of the shows on TV where they were blowing
glass, and they would take the glass and put it into an oven,
heat it just extremely, extremely hot. Well, you take gold, and
it's covered in and dross, it's black, it doesn't even look gold.
And you take it and you put it through a refiner's fire like
that, into an oven. And that gold is so pure, and
it is so, it's so, there's no impurities in it, so that it
won't melt in the hottest, hottest fire, it won't melt. But that
dross that's all mingled in there with that gold, and mingled around
that gold, when it goes into fire, That dross just melts away. So that all that's left is the
gold. The gold. Take with you this green hymnal. Do you have the green or blue
hymnal? And be turning to page 268. What is dross for the believer?
Hebrews chapter 12 there in verse 1 says, Lay aside every weight
And the sin, which doth so easily beset us, the weight that sinners
have, which is draws, is everything about this world and everything
about our flesh. That's the weight that besets
us. And the sin that weights us down
is unbelief. So that's dross. Everything into
this world and everything to do with this flesh and unbelief. That's dross. Look with me at
page 268. How firm a foundation. Let me see which verse it is.
I didn't write it down. Read there with me in verse 4.
starting in verse 4. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy
supply. The flame shall not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to consume
and thy gold to refine. Now, it's good to have the songwriter's
word on this, but do we have the Lord's word on this? Turn
with me to Isaiah, chapter 43. This is the Lord's word to the
believer. Listen to this. Isaiah 43, verse
1. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. Now look here. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior." Look at Isaiah chapter 1, verse 25. Israel, the remnant of God's
heritage, and Israel was surrounded by religious people who didn't
even know the Lord, and were in idolatry right there in their
midst. And this is what the Lord said to His people, Isaiah 1.25,
And I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy
dross, and take away all thy tin, and I will restore thy judges
is at the first, and thy counselors is at the beginning, and afterward
thou shalt be called the city of the righteousness, the faithful
city." Now one more scripture. Look with me to 1 Peter. 1 Peter
in chapter 1. What are these trials about?
What are these trials about? 1 Peter 1, 7 says, The trial of
your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The Lord sends
us through trials, And the trial is more precious than gold, just
as the faith is more precious than gold. They're both precious. Because through the trial, though
it be tried with fire, God-given faith is found unto praise and
honor and glory. at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
It's through faith that we continue state upon Him and are not found
just believing in the beginning, but found believing when He returns
or when we draw our last breath. We're found trusting Him alone.
And trials take away that hindrance. All those hindrances that keep
us from seeing Christ. Now look here with me, Hebrews
11, verse 39. It says here, And these all, having obtained
a good report through faith, received not the promise." I
want to give you three things here. In their lifetime, the
promised Redeemer that the Lord God, Covenant God of heaven and
earth promised them, didn't come. He didn't come in their lifetime
to this earth. Yet it says they obtained the
good report. First thing is they obtained
the good news through faith. Through faith they obtained the
good report, the good doctrine, the good gospel. What did Isaiah
say? Who hath believed our report? You know what that word is? our
doctrine, who hath believed our teaching concerning Christ the
Lord. Through faith they received the
gospel of Christ their Savior, and believing Christ they received
strength by the Spirit even in the most trying circumstances.
They continued in Him. By faith they not only saw Christ
their Savior, but they saw something of what He would suffer on their
behalf. They had the Lamb, They saw something of His righteousness
in that lamb. They had the blood that flowed
throughout the generations. They knew something that this
lamb that's coming, this lamb that God will provide Himself.
They knew something of the fact that this lamb was going to suffer
on their behalf. Every time they saw that innocent
lamb die in their place and his blood poured out, it was a manifest
token to them that this Messiah, the only way for us to come into
God's presence, us being awful, rebellious sinners in our flesh,
the only way we can come into God's presence is if somebody
bear God's wrath and satisfy His law on our behalf. And they
beheld that, they obtained it, and that was the prophet's message,
that was Abraham's message, that was the message of Isaac, that
was the message of Jacob, that was the message of Moses, that
was the message of Samuel, that was the message of Isaiah, that
was the message of all the prophets, is that there's one coming. He's
the one that we see in all of these ordinances that God has
given us. He's the one that this law is bearing witness to. What
does Romans 3 say? But now the righteousness of
God is manifest, being witnessed by the law and by the prophets. They looked to Christ and gave
a witness to Him all through the ages, and by faith they obtained
this good doctrine, this good gospel, this good report. And
then secondly, through faith, they obtained another kind of
good report. They obtained a faithful standing in Christ. A believer
can be said to be justified by faith in this sense that through
God's gift of faith, he brings us to believe on Christ alone
in whom God has justified us. Now, I want you to understand
that justification by faith is this, by faith, through faith,
we behold, by God's gift of faith, it's not our act of doing something
that justified us, that would be us justifying ourselves. But
through faith, we behold Christ the faithful one who by himself
justified his people and declared God just in doing so. And that's
how we're justified by faith. It's truly by the faithfulness
of Christ himself. The faith God gives us lays hold
of Christ, his person and his work, who was faithful to justify
us. That keeps a man from from obtaining
a bad report. The man who obtains a bad report
thinks that it's all by his will of believing, it was by his decision
for Christ, whatever you want to call it, but he calls it his
faith, but it's really just another branch of a work is all it is.
That's not the good report, that's not the good standing, that's
not being justified by Christ, that's claiming I did something
to justify myself. Justification by faith is beholding
Christ who paid my sin debt. It's beholding Christ who put
away my sin. It's laying hold of Christ as
all my righteousness. It's laying hold of Christ as
being my Sabbath, my rest, wherein I cease from all my labors. And
if you ask a believer, one who's given true God-given faith, did
your faith save you? They'll have to say, well, let
me tell you how. Only in the sense that By God's
giving me this gift, I'm able to lay a hold of Christ, the
one who's faithful to save me. That's the good report they obtained.
They obtained a good standing before God Almighty because they
beheld Christ in whom that standing was. And that good report, you
know what it is? Justified. That's what they beheld, justified.
And then in them, He left us a good report of what it is for
a believer to persevere through faith in Christ. They are a good
report themselves to us. We see in them a good report
of what it is to believe and persevere in the faith. So in
Hebrews 11, there in verse 32, whenever the writer comes to
that point and he says, and what shall I more say? And he begins
to give us this list of folks and tell us about how they conquered
and how they suffered. The point is made which he began
in the beginning of the chapter back in verse 1. He said, it's
been sufficiently illustrated, faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. The glories of Christ's person and of His accomplished
redemption. The assurance that He has saved
us, that He is saving us, and that He shall save us. The hope
of one day knowing Him as He knows us. This is the substance
which faith lays hold of. These are the things not seen
by the carnal eye that the eye of faith clearly lays hold of. That's evident to the eye of
faith. And so no matter how severe the
trial may be, no matter how severe the trial may be, if today, if
today our nation and this world falls so badly backwards, And
men can be taken to the rack. And you can be carried to the
rack and strung up to where your joints are pulled out of socket.
And men insist, devils in human flesh insist that you deny Christ
the Lord. You do not have to worry about
your faith sustaining you. The One who gave you your faith. the One who is the object of
your faith, He's the One who will sustain you. He's the One
who will strengthen you just like He did them. That's the
message. That's the message of the whole
book, is He's the One that does it. And we can say, in all of
these things, we're more than conquerors through Him that strengthens
us. Now, look here at Hebrews 11.40.
And it says, they didn't obtain this promise, God having provided
some better thing for us, that they, without us, should not
be made perfect. Now here's what I want you to
take home from this verse. These trials through which the
Lord takes away Christ's blinding dross. These trials through which
the Lord Jesus Christ takes away Christ's blinding dross, is how
the Lord makes perfect. His people, how He makes His
people perfect. Now listen to what I'm saying.
The draws of trusting in this flesh, of lusting after this
world, the sin of unbelief is mixed with everything we do. It's mixed with everything we
do. And it will be with us in this flesh until the end. The flesh is not getting better,
brethren. The flesh is not getting better.
It's getting worse. And it'll eventually return to
the dust. It's the product of Adam. You've
heard me say that to you. It's the product of Adam. The
new spirit within, that's the product of Christ. That's born
of the seed of God. That's born of the Spirit of
God. That's the new creation created by God. And that body's
going to be raised in glorified flesh so that it'll be the new
creation of God too after we've gone into the grave. So that
we're totally the creation of God, totally the creation of
Christ, and He'll create a new heavens and a new earth so that
everything that dwells therein is created in righteousness and
true holiness that He made. So it's not this flesh I'm talking
about. What I'm saying is that God constantly
refines the gold of faith that He's given us in the heart. He
constantly removes the dross of what we are in ourselves from
the faith He's given us to cause us to continually behold Him.
That's altogether different from this progressive sanctification
that people talk about, that where you get better in the flesh
and you just turn like a ripe apple one day and you're just
ready to be plucked off the tree. That's not how it happens. When
we're perfectly conformed to His image is when He has put
this flesh off And when it is in the grave, and He has raised
us anew in Christ Jesus, and we behold Him as He is, and we're
perfectly conformed to His image, there's nothing else left of
this sin and this body of death. That's when we're perfected forever. Eternally perfected. Fully perfected. In these saints of old, in a
very real and practical way, we see how God finally removes
all dross and brings us into perfect conformity with Christ.
When they entered this trial, they were hindered by the Christ-blinding
dross of their flesh, but by God's grace, they beheld Christ
through faith and endured even unto death. And then when they
died and they came into His presence, They didn't have to have that
old flesh mingled with their look anymore. They could see
Him and behold Him as He is. That's a very practical, very
real illustration. All these lesser trials are keeping
us continually seeing Him. And we're coming to the day when
we come to that great trial where we'll put off this body of death
and then, perfectly conformed to His image, we will behold
Him without any impurities, without anything blinding us, without
anything being in our way. And we'll be able to praise Him
and worship Him and know Him even as He knows us right now. Verse 38 says, Of whom the world
was not worthy. Of whom the world was not worthy.
That's the title of the message. The lesson is, Of whom the world
was not worthy. I thought about that. I didn't
write anything down to comment on it. I just thought that would be a good thing to
be able to, to have somebody to be able to put on your gravestone
art, of whom the world was not worthy. And if that's something
that our brethren can say about one of us, it'll be for one reason,
because God put us in Christ. Christ redeemed us. Spirit regenerated
us, kept us, and He carried us home. And the world's not worthy
of somebody like that. They weren't worthy of Him. We
weren't worthy of Him. The world's not worthy of even
His saints. I'm glad for them, aren't you?
I'm glad we got saints that the Lord saved that He used to encourage
us like this. It's an encouragement to me.
All right, I hope that's a blessing to you.