Still in the 11th chapter of
Hebrews. And we looked down through about verse 28,
29. We read there, speaking of the
children of Israel, it says, By faith they passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians a saying to do
were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the
harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David,
and Samuel, and of the prophets. who through faith subdued kingdoms
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received
their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had a trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, they 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. And these
all, having obtained a good report through faith, receive not the
promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect." Now, as we have
mentioned, and of course this is considered to be the faith
chapter. I've heard some say it's the
hall of fame. of faith, you know, and usually
the emphasis is placed on what these people did, how great they
are, and they did these things. And surely there are great men
who have been raised up by the Lord, but that's the one thing
we need to keep in mind is that's what made them great. is that
the Lord raised them up. They weren't great men who God
recognized, as it is often the idea is God's looking for men
of faith. And He's looking out here in
the world, and there's one over there. He found one, and He says,
I'm going to use this man. But that's not the picture at
all. I mean, speaking of Moses, Moses was wandering around in
the desert. He wasn't trying to do anything for the Lord.
I mean, he was just trying to get out of Egypt so they wouldn't
kill him. He was afraid to go back. And the Lord said, Moses
wants you to go back. I don't imagine he was too excited
about that, do you? Because he knew what was in Egypt,
because he'd been there. But the Lord, you know, He deals
with His people and He causes them to be great in the times
that He purposes for them to be great. Peter was, on the one
hand, a strong man among the disciples,
was he not? I mean, he got out of the boat
and he was right in the forefront of all of the things that were
going on. Peter was a man among men. He was the one that pulled
out his sword in the garden to cut the man's head off. And,
of course, the Lord directed the sword to only cut the man's
ear off just to show you the inability of the flesh. I mean,
here's Peter, a great strong man. He can't even cut a man's
head off because the Lord directed the sword to do exactly what
he wanted it to do. And he wanted to show Peter.
Now, you know, I can kind of, I think sometimes about Peter.
He's got in his mind, I'm going to kill this guy. Whack! And
all of a sudden, he can't, you know, he can't do it. You ever
had a dream when you was in a dream and something was coming after
you or you knew you needed to do something and you were just
trying to do it and you know you needed to do it and you wanted
to do it, but you just couldn't do it? Well, that's just exactly
how the Lord brings a man to the place to show him what he
is by nature. And that is what the Lord's doing
here. But you see, Peter was a man
whom... The Lord didn't choose Peter
because of who Peter was. He chose Peter because He loved
Peter. And He made Peter to be what
He wanted him to be. And He wanted to teach Peter
some things. And He wanted to teach His disciples
some things. And so Peter was on the one hand
whimpering and denying that he even knew the Lord, and then
on the day of Pentecost he was standing up in front of this
crowd of thousands of people testifying to the risen Savior. Now what was the difference?
Was it Peter just got hold of himself and said, you know, I'm
going to just be strong? No. the Spirit of God came upon
him, and he made him great. And Peter rose up in greatness
before the people in the might of the Lord. But that's what
this chapter is about. It's about those whom God is
pleased to use. And surely These were men of
faith, but they were men of faith because God wrote that faith
in them, just as we talked about Sarah and Abraham, who against
hope believed in hope. It wasn't of the flesh. It wasn't a possible thing. By
faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land. Now think about that for a minute
because the children of Israel What did they say when they saw
the Egyptians coming? Did they say, Oh, brother, let's
just believe. We can get through this red sea
and escape these Egyptians. No, they said, Oh, no! Moses,
you brought us out here into the desert and now you brought
us out here so we'd get killed. They didn't believe anything,
but once the Scripture says, by faith, by faith, they passed
through the Red Sea as by dry land. Because you see, what did God
do? He opened up the Red Sea. And when that sea opened up,
what did they say? Bam, we can make it. Yeah, we
can get away. But you see, it was what God
did. that brought that to pass, was it not? They were sitting
there believing so strong that God said, Oh, I see them believing,
now I'm going to open up the sea because of an answer to their
faith. No. God brought that to pass
and He caused them to believe. See, because what Moses said
to them, he said, Stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord. And they did, did they not? When
they saw that sea open up and they went through it on dry land,
which it says the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. Why? Because they weren't given
faith. You see, the avenue of faith was not theirs. Now it
looked the same to them. I mean, they saw the dry land
just as much so as the Israelites did, didn't they? And they went
on in there for a ways. See, man in the flesh, he can
go a ways in what he calls faith. There's nothing more common than
those that say, Oh, brother, we believe and we're going to
do wondrous things and they do great things, attempt great things
for God and do great things for God and all of that stuff. But
you see, the Egyptians weren't given faith. And even though
they walked in the same pathway that the Israelites did or they
rode in the chariots in that same channel down through there,
the waters came in and swallowed them up whereas the children
of Israel passed through by faith. Now was it their faith or was
it the work of God? We know what the answer to that
is. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down. after they were compassed
about seven days. Now, do you imagine that all
those guys walking around those walls for seven days when Joshua
said, All right, I want you all, we're going to go march around.
He said, Come on, man, we have marched around this thing for
nearly four or five days. I've lost count. What are we
doing? This is a waste of time. They
weren't all saying, Brother, we've just got four, two, three
more days and we'll have it. No, but it says by faith, by
faith the walls fell down. Why? Because God caused the walls
to fall down. And that's the faith of God's
people is He gave it to them. When did they believe the walls
would fall down? When the walls fell down, didn't
they? They said the walls fell down. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down after they had come past about seven days. Now if
they had went around them six days, would the wall have fell
down? No, because God said you are going to go around them seven
days. It was not a matter of could
they have gone around it six days and quit? Could they? No. Now, in the free will world,
people say, oh, well, they might have just overturned the will
of God. I mean, God said, we're going to make the walls of Jericho
fall down after you go seven times, but they only went six. You know, God would have done
great things, but they didn't let Him. No, by faith these things
fell down because, you see, God was the worker of these things,
and He brought it to pass, and He caused His people to believe. As a result of those things that
he did by faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed
not when she had received the spies with peace. Now what was
it that caused Rahab to believe? Why was she different than all
the rest of them? Can you answer that? There is
no rational reason that should have been, was it? except that
God gave her faith to believe. And by faith, she pairs not with
them that didn't believe when she had received the spies. And
what shall I more say? He said, I could go on and on
and on and on with this. He said, the time would fail
me to tell of Gideon. And Gideon, was he a man of faith? I mean, the Lord said, Gideon,
get up and go down here and do this. He said, well, how do I
know that you're going to do this? And do you remember he
put out the fleece? And he had, I don't remember
which came first, but he had, I believe the fleece was wet
and the ground was dry. And then he said, well, he said,
that was pretty good, but how about this? Let me put out the
fleece, and this time you cause the fleece to be dry and the
ground to be wet. And the Lord did those things.
But you see, Gideon did that by faith, did he not? Because
the Lord moved him to do those things. And of Barak, now you
remember Barak, he's kind of In our minds, I kind of be one
of those insignificant figures, but Deborah, the prophetess,
believed that God gave her grace and faith to believe that the
enemies of God were going to be destroyed, and she gave the
prophecy. And Barak, he didn't want to
go, but he finally gave in and said, okay, you know, we're going
to go. But yet the Scripture says, by
faith, Barak and of Samson. Now, if you had to think of a
man of faith, would you name Samson among the men of faith? I mean, Samson, if you look at
the life of Samson, he appears to be just a man of the flesh,
does he not? I mean, the things he did, but
yet the Scripture says by faith. Because you see, when Samson
had come down to the end of himself, And he had no strength of his
own. Now he really didn't have any to start with, did he? Not
really. But the strength that Samson
had was the gift of God. But when Samson came to the place
where he recognized that, and he was between those two pillars,
and he asked the Lord for strength. And the Lord brought down that
house. Now by faith Samson did those things. And of Jephthah,
You remember Jephthah? Remember he made a vow that if
the Lord would give him victory that the first thing that came
out of his house when he was coming back home that he would
offer it unto the Lord. And remember what happened? His
daughter came out to greet him and he says, Oh, woe is me. As a sidelight to that, I think
that as you study that and if you get involved in it, Jepha
did not offer his daughter as a burnt sacrifice. But he gave
her as a servant unto the Lord and she was to be unmarried and live out
her days in the temple service. Some have tried to say that this
was a matter of Jephthah actually burnt his daughter as a burnt
offering unto the Lord in a literal sense. and to make it so that
God would be pleased with such a thing. Now God said from the
beginning He wasn't pleased with such things. One of the things
that He said made the difference between His people and the heathen
was that they did not give their infants unto the fires of Molech. that is, offer human sacrifice. So that was not what Jephthah
did, but he did sacrifice his daughter even as Samuel's mother gave her son
unto the Lord in that same fashion. And of David also and Samuel
and the prophets, Who through faith subdued kingdoms without
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions?" I mean, all of these things, these things came to
pass. Who through faith did these things? Stopped the mouths of lions.
Now, Daniel, I think that's probably speaking directly of him. What did he do? to keep the lion
from eating him. I mean, what did he do? I suspect
he was probably cowered up in the corner of the thing just
hoping that that lion didn't eat him. He didn't do anything
to keep the lion from eating him. But you see, through faith,
those lion's mouths were stopped. Because you see, it was by faith
that Daniel believed God that whatever the Lord would have
would be right, and he would not bow the knee unto any but
the Lord. And by faith, he didn't know
what the Lord would do. He didn't know if the Lord would
stop the mouths of the lions, but the Lord did. And the Lord
stopped the mouths of the lions. Who threw faith? Quenched the
violence of fire. Escaped the edge of the sword.
Out of weakness were made strong. Waxed valiant in fight. Turned
to flight the armies of the aliens." I mean, over and over again we
find these examples given to us in the Scriptures of how the
Lord delivered His people, not because they believed Him, because
half the time they didn't believe Him, or more than half the time. Most of the time they were, well,
this can't ever be. How could that possibly be? Women received their dead, raised
to life again. You remember the Shulamite woman
that the prophet came and raised her son to life again as she
had sent for the prophet, remember? He said, Is it well with thee?
She says, It is well. Because you see, she believed
that whatever God did would be right. If He didn't give her
son back to her alive, that would be right. But she received her
son back to life again, not because she believed, but to demonstrate
the work of God. And that is, as we see it, you
see, it causes God's people to believe, does it not? When we
see the miracles, it causes us to believe. Now, a lot of people
saw the miracles and they didn't believe. We see the miracles
that are recorded in the pages of Scripture and we believe.
Now, there are people today that that's why they believe somebody's
going out here doing all these different miracles and things.
things that people can see, and they say, oh, well, we believe
because, oh, did you see old brother so-and-so, and he was
doing this, that, and the other? No. We believe God. We believe
what God did. And if God sees fit to heal somebody,
we believe God. If God sees fit to take somebody's
life, we believe God. That's what Paul said. He said,
whether therefore we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
It doesn't make any difference. And others, women see their dead
raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Think about Stephen. He was tortured. He was stoned
to death. What did he do? He said, Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge, because you see, he believed
God. Why did he believe? Because God
caused him to believe. He couldn't do anything else.
He couldn't have stood up before those men and denied that he
knew the Lord Jesus Christ. He couldn't walk away and not
testify of those things that God had burned in his heart. Because you see, it was the work
of God. How could a man forgive those who were stoning him to
death except it be the grace of God? Tortured. for the faith of Christ, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Now, there's not two or three
different kinds of resurrections. When it's speaking about a better
resurrection, it doesn't say, well, you've got four or five
choices. You can have just a plain old resurrection. Or you can
have a resurrection with a fiery chariot. Or you can have this
kind of resurrection or that. So in order to move up the scale,
they did these things. That's not what it means. It
means the same thing that Paul said. He said, I count not myself
to have apprehended. I have not arrived yet. But this one thing I do, I press
to the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ.
He said, I have not obtained it yet. I have not got there.
But these died because they desired a better resurrection. Do you
not desire a better resurrection than simply just to be raised
in the natural sense? I mean, would being raised like
Lazarus was raised from the dead, would that satisfy you? It would
satisfy 95% of the people in the earth. If they could just
live forever in this world, they'd be happy with that. Because this
world is what they're looking for. But you see, the people
of God are looking beyond this. This world is not our home. It's
just like He said here, these confess that they were strangers
and pilgrims in the earth. We don't want to... This world
is not a place that brings us enjoyment. in the strictest sense
of the word. I'm not saying there are not
enjoyable things in the flesh in the world, because there are,
but those are not the things which our life is made up of.
We seek a better resurrection. You see, we're looking beyond
the present time. And others had cruel mockings
and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sown asunder. were tempted, were slain with
the sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins." Think
of John the Baptist. Being destitute, afflicted, tormented. People say, well, you know that
guy, something. I mean, he's strange. He lives
out in the wild and he's eating locusts and wild honey. and going
around in old skins and stuff and people said, well, he's a
wild man. The Lord said to the Pharisee,
well, what did you expect? He said, what were you looking
for? I said, would you have believed him if he had come in a fine
suit of clothes and was a rich and wealthy man? Would you have
believed what he said? No, because you see it's not
in those things, but it's in that which God is pleased to
bring to pass. And so they wandered about being
destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And these all,
having obtained a good report through faith, received not. the promise. They died in the
faith not having received the promise. God having provided
some better thing for us that they without us should not be
made perfect. Now, what that really boils down
to is that the Lord is saying here in this chapter of faith
that all of these things were done by faith, by those who believed
God. just as he had exhorted these Hebrews in the verse just
prior to this chapter starting, but we are not of them who draw
back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. He said these all believed. He
said, now you having heard the gospel and believed it, there
are some among you who are going back into the ways of Judaism.
He said, these people, by the grace of God, to demonstrate
to you what faith is, they wouldn't accept anything but that which
they looked for. And he says here, these all having
obtained a good report through faith, they didn't even receive
the promise. But he said, brethren, you have
received the promise. And we are not of them that turn
back into perdition, but we are those whom God has by grace through
faith caused to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we will
move on, he said, because God having provided some better thing
for us. They suffered all those things
and they didn't even see the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
They didn't see Christ come as the substitute for sinners. They
didn't see that clearly. They didn't know who he was.
They didn't know what God was going to do. John the Baptist,
who was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, who having
looked upon Christ and said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world, dear brethren, he did not receive
the promise because he died in prison still expecting that there
was coming a Messiah that was going to set him free from prison.
But you see, he died in faith, but he did not die having received
the promise. But you and I, you see, we received
the promise. God having provided some better
thing for us. Now, if God wants to give something
better to somebody, than he did to some of his other children,
what could we say to that? Does it mean that he loves us
more than he did them? No, it's just what he decided
to do. That's how he ordained it to be. That the Old Testament
saints would die without the full knowledge of the same things
that you and I count to be simple. And I've used this illustration
many times. John the Baptist, the greatest
of the Old Testament prophets. The Lord said, I tell you, he
that is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John
the Baptist. That is, he that has seen the
unfolding of the gospel in the person of Jesus Christ as that
revelation of God come in the flesh and walking among men and
taking our sin and taking it away as far as east is from the
west and proving it by rising from the dead. The man that has
seen that is greater than John the Baptist because John never
saw that. And God has provided better things
for us that they without us should not be made perfect. You see,
the whole purpose of God in the creation of the world is to bring
to light the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament saints, they believed that God was bringing
these things past, but they didn't see how it was going to be. Brethren,
we have been blessed to see those things. And that's what he says
here in the first verse of chapter 12, and we'll close with this. in light of that. Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, all those men that's gone before us, these are the
witnesses that have been given to us down through time. Let
us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that's set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God."
How can we turn back? How can we turn back? He said,
Look at all these witnesses in time past who endured all these
things, not having seen what we've seen, but now we have seen
it. Dear brethren, let's press on.
Not looking to ourselves and saying, well, boy, we're favored
of God. No. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, because He is the one in whom our confidence
is placed. We have received the promise,
dear brethren. It cannot be said of us that
these all died in the faith not having received the promise.
We die in the faith having received the promise and expecting, expecting,
that the same One who redeemed us will come again to receive
us under Himself, that where He is, there we may be also.