Hebrews chapter 11. And I would
like to read from verse 20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he
was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped,
leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he died,
made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he
was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw
he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's
commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as
seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. 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. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. Our Lord Jesus Christ often spoke
about faith during the years of his ministry. He would commend
it where he found it. And on numerous occasions, we
discover that the Lord noted faith in the lives of those that
approached him, and he was always ready to acknowledge it and to
encourage it. especially if it was weak faith. The Lord was ready to speak words
of encouragement and comfort to those whose faith was weak. And he would applaud it. He would
applaud faith. He would rejoice in faith. He would indeed marvel at faith. when he discovered it in unusual
places. And it's lovely to read about
the way in which the Lord reacted to men and women who came to
him exhibiting faith. He discerned it, he saw it, and
he was aware of the nature, he was aware of the quality, he
was aware of the kind of faith that he was encountering. and
he was ready with a word which would both sustain and comfort
and encourage it and rejoice in it whenever he did encounter
it. There was even an occasion when
the Lord Jesus Christ prayed to his father that a believer's
faith would not fail. He wanted to have it sustained. He wanted to have it strengthened
and equipped because he knew that it would be tried. He knew
that there would be issues that would arise in the life of this
particular individual that would cause his faith to be challenged. even to the point of its breaking
and its destruction, if that were possible. But for the sake
of that precious faith that the Lord Jesus Christ so loved, so
admired in the life of this individual, he praised to his father that
their faith would not fail. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
prays for one of his children, for one of his sheep, he prays
for all. He prays for the whole flock.
He prays for the whole bride. Isn't that a lovely thought?
That the Lord Jesus Christ prays for your faith. That the Lord
Jesus Christ has your faith in view. And that's pretty amazing. I'm so pleased that the Lord
Jesus Christ knows all things and sees all things, because
sometimes I wonder where my own faith is, and I search for it,
and I look for it, and I say, well, where is it? Is it even
here? Do I really believe? Is this
true faith? And doubts creep into our hearts
and into our thoughts, and that old devil is always ready to
attack the people of God, but Christ himself has prayed that
our faith will not fail. I think that's a lovely thought.
And yet there are other times when the Lord's dealings with
the faith of his people is a challenge to us. In Luke chapter eight
and verse 25, we read that he admonished those who were afraid
in his presence. And he said to them, where is
your faith? Where is your faith? He asked them, as one who commanded
the wind and the waves, Where's your faith? Look at whose company
you are in. Look at whose presence you are
in. Look at what I have shown you
of who I am. Look at the wonders that flow
from the words of my lips to the point where the very forces
of nature subside. because I tell them to do so. And you're telling me that you're
afraid? You're telling me that you have doubts? You tell me
that anxieties that rise in your soul and in your spirit are allowed
to continue there? Where's your faith? And these
words come to us as well. These words spoken to the disciples
in the ship in the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the storm. were
a challenge to them, their faith was challenged and they doubted
and they became afraid and the Lord says to them, where is your
faith? This faith is precious, this faith that the Lord has
given us is a faith which we are to hold fast to and maintain
and exercise because we are to understand that it is faith,
not as something that is commendable in us, but faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, faith in his power, faith in his authority, faith
in those things which he is able to accomplish. And as weak as
we are, so his strength. is magnified and enlarged and
increased in its evidence of the deliverances that he gives
to his people. Who shall harm us when his armies
camp around us? Who shall lay a hand upon the
people of Christ when the very holy angels of glory are given
to us as our defenders in this world. We have seen in a previous
study, we called it the history of faith part one, so I guess
this is the history of faith part two. We've seen in a previous
study how faith is giving credit to the testimony of God. What does God say? Well, then
we believe that. What does God say to us? Then we will hold that as true. It is giving credit to the testimony
of God. It is relying upon His faithfulness
for the fulfilment of the things that He has said. It is believing
His word. It is trusting His promises. It is resting in his wisdom that
he will do us good despite the outward evidence to the contrary. I remember hearing a story once
about a liberal clergyman who was trying to challenge an old
saint's faith, the faith of an old saint. And he said to her,
you don't really believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale,
do you? Och aye, she said. She was Scottish. Och aye, I believe it because
the Bible says so. And what's more, she said, I'd
believe it if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale. The last time that we spoke on
this subject, we learned how that by faith Abel knew about
blood sacrifice and how he saw and foresaw Christ in that symbolism
of offering a lamb before God. We learned how that Enoch enjoyed
a personal relationship with God and a close walk with the
Lord Jesus Christ. even in those faraway days of
those earliest manifestations of the purposes of God amongst
his chosen people. Enoch was a man who walked with
God and there was that evidence of a personal relationship. And
we see here how that in the history of faith, each lesson builds
upon another so that with the benefit of looking back, hindsight,
Someone once said, with New Testament eyes. With the benefit of these
New Testament eyes, we can look back on these evidences of how
God revealed himself to men and women in days gone by and understand
something about the way in which he unfolded, step by step, stage
by stage. the beauty of the plan of salvation,
and how the Lord Jesus Christ would be that one who would come
and redeem his people from their sins, shed his blood for their
salvation, and forge a personal relationship between God and
sinners, a holy God and sinners, through the sacrifice which he
made. We saw on a previous occasion,
how Noah saw judgment flooding in upon this evil world, but
how he obtained grace. He obtained grace in the sight
of God. And these very principles, these
principles of blood offering, these principles of personal
relationship, principles of judgment for sin and wickedness and God's
holiness being manifested and revealed, these principles from
the earliest times of the history of faith continue to be the great
underlying principles of God's dealings with his people, now
personified most clearly, most excellently in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And to Abraham, we learn that
this man to whom much was revealed, these things he received through
the generations that had gone before him, and other truths
were granted to him. This faithful man followed God
out of his home to a better place, out of a place of idolatry, a
place of godlessness, to a better place. He followed the promises
of God. Abraham believed God and he proves
to be an example to the people of God who are called by God
the Holy Spirit to leave these things behind, these things that
once we loved, once we cherished, once that took our passions and
motivated us and drove us on, to leave these things behind,
to go out and follow Christ. and to look for a city, and to
look for a resting place, and to look for a home which God
has promised to them who love him. Promises were made to Abraham,
covenants were established with him, assurances were given to
him. The Lord said to Abraham, Fear
not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. What a beautiful phrase for that
man to hear and what a lovely privileged position we have to
be able to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and see that he is our
shield and our exceeding great reward. From these things, Scripture
speaks about the children of Abraham, and it speaks of them
as being the children of faith. Abraham believed God. Abraham
followed and those who are the children of Abraham are those
who are like Abraham, men and women of faith, the children
of faith. Because they are, let us say,
we. We who trust in Christ, we who
believe God, we who have been given this gift, this grant,
this privilege of faith. We believe as did our father
Abraham. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. That's a lovely statement also.
He saw it. He saw the day of Christ. He
saw the day of the Redeemer. He saw as it were by faith. He saw Christ. He saw Christ's
coming. He saw, but he based these things
undoubtedly upon the testimony of those who had gone before,
about the blood offering, about the personal relationship. He
knew, as Job knew, that he believed that one day his Redeemer would
stand upon the earth and he would see him with his own eyes. And
these things entered into Abraham's understanding. And he saw. the day of the Lord, and he was
gladdened by it. And so we, we to whom these things
are made manifest, these things are revealed, to whom the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ comes, as Peter says, we too gladly
believe on him. to the saving of our precious
souls. I'm right, am I not? There is
a gladness in our hearts when we see the Lord Jesus Christ.
There ought to be the joy of the Lord in our life's experience,
a sense, an awareness, a knowledge, a deep profound hope that enters
into our soul, that gladdens our hearts even in the midst
of our deepest trials, that these things are true, that we have
a Deliverer, that there are things laid up for us that are beyond
telling and soon very soon we are going to see the Lord. These things gladden us. Abraham
was gladdened to see Christ's day and we are gladdened to have
the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us and to have him manifested
in our presence and in our company. So Galatians 3 verse 7 says,
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith The same are the
children of Abraham. But the history of faith doesn't
end with Abraham or Sarah. And here we discover in Hebrews
chapter 11. that the writer to the Hebrews
continues upon this catalogue of believers, each building upon
the testimony of the previous generation, each hearing the
witness that was made one generation to the next, each telling children
and grandchildren and ministering these things and informing these
things and bringing this gladness to the knowledge and the heart
and ultimately by God, the Holy Spirit's ministry to the faith
of a succeeding generation. And we've thought a little bit
about Abraham, just as it were, by way of introduction here,
but let us move on and let us think of Abraham's son, Isaac. Isaac is another link in this
wonderful chain of faith. Isa was, according to Paul, as
he wrote to the Galatians, the child of promise. And we know
something about that story, how that the child was promised to
Abraham and to Sarah, and how they wondered, even to the point
of laughing, as to how could this possibly be? But he was
the child of promise. And he was a man of faith. in
his own right. He honoured God in his own life's
testimony also. Yes, he received a testimony
from his father, but he believed God for himself. He knew God
himself. And that reminds us that faith
is a personal thing. It may be observed in others. It may be attested in others. It may be witnessed to in others. But you have to experience it
personally. You have to know the Lord in
your own life and in your own heart. These things are intimate. Abraham's life was full of drama
and crisis and he's going here and there, he's engaged with
this king, he's fighting this battle, he's having trouble with
this family member, he's in many ways his life is an amazing high
and low successively as he goes through his life's experience. And in all of it he proved God
to be faithful. He trusted the Lord and he proved
God to be faithful. Isaac, on the other hand, appears
to have had a very calm and contented life. Abraham travelled many,
many miles. Isaac was hardly out of the shadow
of his tent. He didn't seem to travel very
far at all, just occasionally we encounter him, maybe because
of a famine or a shortage, moving a little bit away, but not far. And it does appear as if Isaac's
life was much calmer than Abraham's had been. with rarely an incident
to trouble him. But he too trusted in the Lord. He too trusted in the Lord. Abraham,
in the midst of all of the excitement and the drama and the crises
of his life, trusted the Lord and found him faithful. And Isaac,
in the calmness and serenity of his life, trusted the Lord
and found him faithful. What does that tell us? It tells
us that faith is independent of circumstances. Mull that over for a little bit,
if you will. Faith is independent of circumstances. We prove the Lord in whatever
providences He brings to us. A peaceful, quiet life or a troubled
existence, faith granted, faith exercised on the Lord brings
His people to Himself. I know some of you have had hard
experiences in your life. I know that some of you have
had great loss in your life's experience. Hardship and trial
and things that have caused you to examine your faith, your trust
in the Lord and have thrown you back. And I know that others
of you have had relatively easy lives in comparison to the things
that other people go through. And I count myself in that category. I wonder, could I stand? Would I stand if these things
that happened to others happened to me? And yet the Lord is pleased to
sustain faith in his people and to equip them and to provide
for them in every eventuality. Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau,
we're told, concerning the things that were to come. Here's another
aspect of faith. Faith looks forward. Faith looks
forward. to the fulfilment of the promises
of God. It anticipates those things which
God has promised. It looks eagerly, it waits. There's
a sense of urgency and expectation in the heart and the life and
the mind of those who have faith as their personal possession.
And we wonder how the Lord is going to reveal himself in our
lives in the days that lie ahead. God has spoken and those things
which he has revealed, those things which he has told us will
surely come to pass and in the life of those of faith we have
an eager expectation. So Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau
and one key aspect of Isaac's faith is that he made a mistake with respect
to the person that he thought he was blessing. I wonder if you remember the
story of how Jacob got a little bit of help and he covered his
arms with kid skin and he put on a jacket that wasn't his and
he made a pot of soup which was so savoured to make it smell
and taste like something someone else would make. And he went
into his father and he got a blessing from him. As a supplanter, as
a deceiver, as one who got the blessing that Isaac had intended
to give to someone else. What do we say of that? Isaac designed to bless Esau,
but God so ordained it that the blessing would be Jacob's. The
Lord testifies in his word, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And even the deception of Isaac
proved to be the fulfilment of God's purpose. God designed that
Jacob would be blessed, even though that blessing was founded
upon a deception. And this shows us that the purposes
of God will be accomplished even upon the mistakes that his people
make. I think that ought to give us
a little bit of reassurance because how often do we go through life
worrying about the mistakes that we've made? worrying about whether
or not we've frustrated the purpose of God by the things that we
do and the things that we say. And sometimes to the extent of
beating ourselves up because we've failed in this thing and
we've got this wrong and we're not adequate for the tasks that
seem to be given to us. And how often do we feel as if
if this was somebody else, they would do it differently? And yet the Lord is pleased even
out of his people's weaknesses to accomplish those things which
are according to his purpose. What about Jacob then? Here's
another man of faith that we see and again Jacob's history
is much fuller and more eventful than his father's. Jacob was
a little bit more like his grandfather than he was his father. And yet,
it seems that for all of the highs and lows of Jacob's life,
and much could be said about Jacob, the writer to the Hebrews
draws one small, and in a sense relatively insignificant, it
would appear, incident from the life of this man in order to
speak of his faith. And that which we are given concerning
Jacob in this history of faith is that he exhibited gratitude
and thanksgiving to God. At the end of a long life, he
was grateful to God. It says that this gratitude,
this thanksgiving characterized the end of life of the old patriarch. He saw Joseph, his son, his son
that he thought he had lost, his son that he loved, he saw
him there. And as he saw Joseph, Joseph
had brought him to the presence of Jacob as he was on his deathbed,
his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And Isaac, prophesied upon these
grandsons, witnessing God's goodness, witnessing God's faithfulness,
witnessing to the provision that had been granted to this man
according to the promises of God for all of those years, and
the covenant faithfulness which he saw evidenced in these two
young men's lives. And we're told, and I think it's
a lovely picture, that this old saint, Jacob, leaned upon his
staff and worshipped God. It was very simple. For all of
the excitement, for all of the doing, for all of the to's and
the throwing of the life of Jacob, At the end, he rested upon his
staff, the staff that, as it were, held him up. He rested
upon his staff and he worshipped God because he saw that God had
been faithful. Whatever it is that the Lord
calls you to go through in this life, You children of faith,
you children of Abraham, whatever it is that God calls you to go
through, do you know what I'm going to tell you? That at the
very end, at the very end, despite all the tears, despite all the
hurt, despite all the hardships, You will rest in Christ, you
will lean upon him and you will express your gratitude for his
faithfulness to your soul because that's the testimony of faith
in the life of a believer. Joseph's entry in this heroic
list of faithful men and women concerns his bones. It's a very interesting way in
which the writer to the Hebrews has gathered these instances. Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, it seems
that out of these men's lives so much could have been gathered,
so much could have been employed to evidence the work of faith
and yet in some respects it was small, almost incidental things,
circumstantial things that nevertheless were drawn upon to evidence this
testimony of faith. And Joseph's entry in Hebrews
11 has to do with his bones. And as he, as an old man, was
preparing to die, he drew from his brethren an oath, a promise,
that they would carry his bones with them out of Egypt into Canaan,
the promised land. Notice he didn't say, carry my
body. That's significant because what
he was doing to his brethren, to the generations that would
follow, was he was telling them that it was going to be a long
time before the Lord took them up out of Egypt. The children
of Israel were enjoying good days. Oh, they were happy in
Egypt. They had the best land. They
had the most fertile fields. And those things that they turned
their hand to prospered beyond the wildest imaginations of the
best investment bankers that you could imagine. They were
well-to-do people. And the last thing that they
would consider was leaving all this behind and heading off into
the desert again. What? No, we're quite happy where
we are. Joseph says, Joseph says, when
the time comes, take my bones with you when you leave this
place. And so it is that we discover
that the Lord prepares his people by these things which he reveals
to them. And this showed Joseph's faith,
that he understood that the promises that had been given down through
the generations of his grandfather and his father and those that
went before, that there would be an inheritance bestowed, there
would be a land given, there would be a nation established,
and out of that nation, one would come who would be from God, who
would deliver his people. So Joseph spoke of these things
which yet would take place. I don't want to make a big thing
of this at all, and I just throw it out as a little incidental
thought that crossed my head and I've nothing to substantiate
it whatsoever so if you say well you shouldn't be saying it then
I would have to take that as a valid criticism but let me
say it nevertheless. Do you remember when the Lord
rose from the dead in Jerusalem after his crucifixion that we
are told that the tombs of the saints were opened and that the
people walked around in Jerusalem. Nothing is said of the identity
of who those people were. And I simply leave it at that.
But I wonder if Joseph was amongst them with his bones brought back
to the promised land. It is an eminent testimony of
Joseph's faith that he taught Israel that they would not be
remaining in this land but that they were to look forward to
another time and another place and that there would come a time
in the experience of the people when they would have to pull
up sticks and they would have to go away. It had to be that
a Pharaoh arose that didn't know Joseph. It had to be that a time
of persecution unfolded upon them. They would never have left
the land of Goshen with its fertile fields and its fat cows. They
never would have done until that time of tribulation was brought
forcibly upon them. And they were taxed beyond measure. So it is sometimes that the Lord
has to Peace by peace, remove from us those comforts and blessings
that we have built around about us, which are the good providences
of God to us, but which keep us attached to this world when
his desire is that we look beyond it to see that promise which
is laid up for us. Moses' parents are those next
ones who are acknowledged in this passage, and it's a lovely
detail about the parental care that these two godly saints demonstrated
for their children. And there's little is said of
them really in the grand scheme of things. There's a little bit
particularly about the mother of Joseph, But what we are told
is that the things that these people did, the things that these
people said, their actions were prompted by faith. Moses' parents
had faith in God. Now, believers have a duty of
obedience. to a secular authority. God has placed kings and governors
over us and we have a duty of obedience to those structures
of authority that God has placed over us. And yet only in so far
as these things are consistent with obedience to God. Pharaoh
demanded that these Jewish boys were given up and they would
be slaughtered. And something in this child's
appearance, something of this child's appearance, he was a
proper child. He was a goodly child. Something
about this child drew these two people to trust in God's will. And so the amazing story of Moses'
life unfolded upon a remarkable beginning. He was put into this
little cradle of bulrushes and tar and floated on the river
Nile. He was hidden away by his parents
perceiving in this child something that they were willing to lay
their life upon, the preservation of this goodly, proper child. Let me just mention for a moment,
if I may, fear. It is a common experience for
us, fear. And maybe we won't face the fear
of a battlefield or the fear of a debilitating disease. Or maybe we won't face the fear
that others and some people have had to deal with in their life's
experience. We do have means and ways of
cosseting ourself these days and protecting ourselves from
the worst issues that arise in our lives. And yet, faith fosters
boldness. These parents were, we're told,
not afraid of the King's commandment. Their life was on the line for
what they did with that boy. And yet, because of faith, they
were not afraid of the King's commandment. Brothers and sisters,
let us not be afraid of men. Let us not be afraid of what
men can do to us. The Lord Jesus Christ emphasises
this repeatedly to his church, repeatedly to his people. When
he said to his disciples there in the boat, where's your faith?
Why are you afraid? These are words that we should
take to heart. The Lord tells us in chapter
12 and verse seven of the book of Luke, the very hairs of your
head are numbered. That's an easier job for some
of us than others. But the very hairs of our head
are numbered. That's how the Lord knows us.
That's how much detail of our lives is in his control, is in
his purpose, is the object of his care and concern for us. If we lose one or two, He knows. He knows that. Because he's numbered
every single one of us and yet we worry. And yet we become anxious
and yet we become concerned about what the future holds. And whether
we'll be able to do this or whether we'll be able to do that or what
terrible things might be coming down the line to meet us. Don't
fear. Don't be afraid. These things
cannot touch us. The one who loves us will only
allow such things to happen to us as will be for our greater
good and his greater glory. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Fear
not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the
soul. Moses. What can we say of Moses? That little baby in the basket
of bulrushes. Perhaps I might just mention
a little bit more than is said concerning him by the Holy Spirit
here in this passage. We're told that he was a faithful
servant in the house of the Lord. That's a very interesting phrase. Moses was a faithful servant
in the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord is the
church of God. Moses was a faithful servant
to the elect people of God, to the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it simply means that as a
faithful servant, he ministered to the people of God. He pastored
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And often in the Old
Testament narrative concerning Moses, we see him revealing Christ
to the men and women of his day in a hundred different ways.
The brass serpent, the waters of Mara, the striking
of the rock, the manna that came down from heaven. So many pictures,
so many metaphors, so many symbols, so many types granted to us of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the life of this man, Moses. And
in such ways, he ministered to the Church of Christ, a faithful
servant to the people of God. And Moses, we're told, chose
by faith to identify himself with the people of God. It was
because he trusted Christ. It was because he believed in
God that he was a man who was so used as a faithful servant
in the Church of Christ. We're told that he saw Christ.
We're told that Christ was manifested to him. And having seen Christ,
and having seen eternal salvation, having seen the reward of Christ,
he saw him who is invisible. That's what Peter has been talking
about in our Lord's Day studies when he has been speaking about
the revelation of Jesus Christ who was manifest for you. The revelation of Jesus Christ
who was manifest for you is what Moses saw by faith. Christ was
manifested for Moses. And this speaks of the election
of grace. It speaks of that purpose of
God to gather his people into himself through the person of
Christ. Moses saw these things, just
as much as you and I, who are the children of faith, the children
of promise, those of us who have been given these glimpses of
Christ. Moses saw these things and he saw their worth. He saw
how valuable they were. And he chose, therefore, to follow
his saviour. He turned his back on the riches
of Egypt. When he came to age, he identified
with the people of God, the poor, the downcast, the impoverished,
the slaves, the servants, the ill done to. He said, I've got
to stand with them because I've seen something. I've seen something
more wondrous than the luxury of the Egyptian lifestyle that
you're offering to me. I think there's every possibility
that Moses was being groomed to be Pharaoh over that whole
people, that whole nation. Read the story for yourself at
your leisure. It's pretty evident to me that
he had been tutored from the earliest days and provided for
in order to be the man who would someday take over at the very
top of that dynasty. But he saw something that was
invisible. He saw something by faith and
he chose to identify with the people of God. Let's just go
to verse 28, 27 of chapter 11. Oh, 26. Ah, 25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him
who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. You see, he understood all the
way back, right from Abel and the offering of blood, he understood
the significance of this Passover lamb. And so it is that we see this
testimony given to us, Moses, a man of faith, a man who was
a blessing to the Church of Jesus Christ, a man who looked forward
to that recompense of reward which he saw in the salvation
that Christ could give him. You know what they did there?
They offered him the best that this world could offer. They
offered him the very peak, the very pinnacle of what this world
had to give. And Moses by faith saw beyond
those things the pleasures of sin for a season, and he saw
the reward which was to be found in Christ, seeing him that is
invisible. And so it moves from Moses to
the children of Israel. And it says there in verse 29,
by faith they, so now we're speaking about more than just Moses, we're
speaking about the children of Israel. They passed through the
Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do,
were drowned. Now I'm not suggesting that all
the people of the children of Israel, as far as that mixed
multitude, that's what they're called, that went up out of Egypt,
were true men and women of faith. And yet amongst these people,
truly there were believers in Christ who saw like Moses and
understood these spiritual things in the midst of the types and
the symbols and the pictures. And still it is. even today,
even amongst the Church of Christ today, that the Lord's people
are called to pass through the Red Sea, to face the challenges
of our pilgrim journey. We are heading to glory, but
in order to enter into those promises, we have to encounter
the hurdles and the problems and the difficulties. But our
God is faithful. and he will not leave us, and
he will open oceans and cause us to pass through on dry land
in order to accomplish his will and demonstrate and prove his
faithfulness to his church and to his people. Still, still,
the walls of Jericho will come tumbling down. This isn't just
an incident from years ago. This is to tell us today that
even although those insurmountable barriers are set before us, we
wait on the Lord. We march around about them blowing
trumpets because our God has promised that he will give us
the inheritance and whatever it takes, These barriers will
fall. He who has numbered the hairs
of our head will open the oceans to allow us to pass through. Faith moves mountains. And that's a pretty significant
old range that's out there on the front. But faith moves mountains. even if it's just the size of
a mustard seed. Rahab, Rahab, what a blessed
character she is. She was an inhabitant of Jericho,
that city whose walls fell down. We're told that she was a harlot
and there have been many attempts to mollify, is that the right
word? To dilute and diminish the title that she's given. She was
like a trader. She was a lady that ran a tavern
She was in the entertainment business. She was a harlot. Okay, now I'm guessing that we
all know what that means. So this is the kind of lady that
we're speaking about. She was a Canaanite. She was
an idolatrous Canaanite. But she was a trophy of grace. Got a couple of quotes that I
want to give you with respect to this lady. My friend, Dr. Gill, says this. This woman was
a wonderful and singular instance of the free, sovereign, distinguishing,
powerful, and efficacious grace of God. being one that sprung
from Canaan and was of the nations that were abhorred, but being
called by grace became an eminent believer. She believed that the
God of the Israelites was God in heaven and on earth, that
he had given the land of Canaan to them. She received the spies
and hid them through that faith. She caused them to swear by the
Lord that they would show mercy to her and her family, and gave
credit to them, and observed their instructions. And so she
perished not with them that believed not. And Mr Hawker, he says,
her history is as great and striking in the illustrious actings of
her faith as any in the records of truth. From cover to cover,
the record of truth and Rahab's testimony is as grand and as
illustrious as any that are quoted. Of the disadvantages that this
lady experienced, and yet, he says, with all those disadvantages,
this Rahab, this harlot, was a believer in the Lord God of
Israel. Oh, the wonders of distinguishing
grace. And what tends yet more to raise
our views of the Lord's peculiar manifestation and love to this
poor harlot is the consideration that from the stock of this woman,
after the flesh, the Lord appointed the future advent of his dear
son. By her marriage to Salmon, from
whom sprang Boaz, and by the marriage of Boaz to Ruth sprang
Obed, and from Obed, Jesse, and from Jesse, David, and from David,
after twice, 14 generations after the flesh sprang Christ. sprang Christ. Now you see, isn't
that beautiful? Isn't that lovely that this woman
was taken out of Jericho, taken from that room that she had on
the wall of Jericho and preserved and delivered and redeemed out
of that corrupt city and made to be a partaker not only in
the inheritance of the Israelites but in the very genealogy of
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This is the testimony of truth. This is the history of faith. It is the witness of grace in
the lives of the people of God by which they saw beyond their
immediate circumstances and they perceived Jesus Christ. They
saw him to be the Lamb of God. They saw him as the Saviour of
their souls. And these are they of whom Peter
speaks, when he says in the verse that we looked at a couple of
weeks ago, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that would follow. You see, these are people who
saw the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow.
These two great things were seen in these Old Testament saints
by faith. And what are we called upon to
see today? but the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that would follow. That's all just the same, just
exactly the same. They saw beforehand by faith
and we see in hindsight by faith the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that will follow. Old Testament believers they
were, but make no mistake, the spirit of Christ was in them. and in all their actions and
in all their testimony which has been bestowed to us in these
New Testament writings, whether it's their public ministry, whether
it's their private meditations and reflections on the things
of God, these saints beheld by faith the two great features
of our Lord's life and offices and ministry, his sufferings
and the glory that would follow. And we do well to be followers
of Christ as they were, witnesses of his sufferings as they were,
faithful in our course as they were, and looking steadfastly
for the glory that will follow, as they did. May the Lord grant
us to be found amongst this great crowd of witnesses in the history
of faith, who look beyond the here and the now and see Christ's
suffering and the glory that will follow. Amen.