If the Lord will enable me, I
want to speak to you tonight about faith enduring. Oh, God give us grace to endure
all things believing him. Our text will be Hebrews 11,
verses 35 and 36. Now, in this chapter, the Holy
Spirit is encouraging us to persevere. The word simply means endurance,
to endure all things, believe in God, to endure all things
adverse to faith in faith, to endure all things contrary to
faith in faith. He does so by giving us numerous
examples of faith in Christ. He has shown us examples of great
devotion, great sacrifice, great consecration and great triumph. Here, in these two verses, he
gives us examples of faith enduring tremendous trials, trials almost
beyond our conception. The Holy Spirit's object here
is to show us that true faith must and will be tried. It must and will be proved by
divine providence through trial, adversité. difficulty. Proved
not to God, he doesn't need it. Proved to you. Our faith is tried,
it's tested by the things we endure. Our faith is strengthened,
grows, and is made to mature by the difficulties that God
in his wise and good providence puts upon us that we might honor
him in it. Let me see if I can illustrate
what I'm trying to say for you. Sometimes people say, well, why
would the Lord allow difficulties. He doesn't just allow them, Bob,
he brings them. And why would he do this? Why would he call
believers to endure hardship and difficulty in trial? Because
it's good for them. You take your children, and as
you raise your children, you try to protect them, but not
from everything. Your object is to protect them
from any real danger, but expose them to such things as are necessary
to make them grow and mature, to make them responsible. You
exercise discipline to guide and direct them, and sometimes
you know something will cause them pain, but they must endure
it, they must deal with it, because this will prepare them for other
difficulties later on in life. And we are very poor parents,
because we don't know much about what's going on later on in life.
Our father not only knows, he has ordained. everything he has
for us in this world and in the world to come. And he wisely
and graciously exercises a father's loving care and discipline, forcing
us to grow in grace and in faith and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, in these two verses, let
me read them with you here just a second, but listen carefully.
All the evil all the problems, all the trials, all the hardships
that are described in these two verses, that these men and women
of old endured, were brought upon them for only one reason,
because they believed God. That was all. Read with me, verse
35. 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
trial of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. It is ever the portion of faith,
it always has been, it is now, it will be tomorrow. It is ever
the portion of faith in this world to suffer trial and temptation
by the wise hand of God Almighty in his good providence. This
world is never the friend to faith. And when I say this world,
I'm not talking about the folks in the bars and the brothels
and in the prisons. That's a given. This world, the
world system, the world as it stands, the religious world,
the political world, Earthly relationships, this world, is
never the friend to faith. It has always been the portion
of God's people, as they live righteously in Christ Jesus,
as they live godly, for that reason to suffer persecution.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There are no exceptions. Now,
that doesn't mean all that will live in some obnoxious way and
self-righteously look down their nose at other folks and and behave
in such a way as it causes others to retaliate against them. That's
not what it's talking about. It's talking about men and women
who live before God and confess faith in Christ. He's our only
hope. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you for righteousness' sake. That's
not talking about persecuting you because you don't cheat on
your taxes. That's not talking about persecuting you because
you don't cheat the grocer. That's not talking about persecuting
you because you're moral and upright. That's not it. Men revile
and persecute you because you declare evidently that Christ
alone is our righteousness before God, and any other is not at
all. I can't tell you how repugnant
that is. In the eyes of religious men,
I get letters every day through email, somebody accuses you of
hardness, mean-spiritedness, bigotry, divisiveness, all kinds
of things, for only one reason, because we insist that Christ
is the way. That's all. Well, then what you're
saying, Christ is the way, that's what I'm saying. There is no
other, and men won't stand for it. Listen to the scriptures.
You don't need to turn to these, but you might want to jot them
down and look at them later. In 1 Peter 4 verse 12, Peter said,
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.
Oh, but preacher, you don't know what I'm in doing. You don't
know what others have been doing. You don't know what I'm going
through. You don't know what others have gone through. As I prepared
this message today, My heart, my mind, my conscience kept beating
me, just beating me because of my tendency to complain about
little insignificant nothings that I think are trouble. Think
it not as though some strange things happened to you. This
is the common lot of God's people. First Corinthians 10, 13, there
hath no temptation taken you. No trial, no temptation to abandon
Christ, no temptation to forsake the gospel, no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to men." Folks say, well, this is
such a bad day. This day's not any worse than
any other day. It's such a hard time, folks, to live for God.
No harder than it was when Paul lived, and no harder than it
was when our Lord lived on this earth, and no harder than when
David lived on this earth. Oh, no. There is no temptation
taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful.
who will not suffer you to be tempted, above that you're able,
but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you
may be able to bear." What way to escape? There ain't but one.
Christ is the way. And the only way to escape any
temptation, the only way to escape any trial, is looking to Christ,
clinging to Christ, holding to Christ, esteeming Christ above
all else. The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians
129, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. That
is what it means. If God gave you faith, David
Burrage, God gave you trial with your faith. That's what it means. Listen to this. Galatians 4.29,
Paul says, As then he that was born of the flesh persecuted
him that was born of the spirit, even so it is now. Always has
been, always will be this way. Those who are opposed to free
grace despise the message of free grace. They despise the
God of free grace, and the nearest they can get to God is you. And
they're going to fight you just as Ishmael did Isaac, and it's
going to be that way through the end of time. We read in Lamentations
3 a little bit ago, Jeremiah said, I was a derision to all
my people. A derision to all. Our Lord declared
in Matthew 10 20, he that endureth to the end shall be saved. He that endures to the end of
what? To the end of everything. He
that endures to the end of this trial and the next one and the
next one endures to the end of his days, endures to the end
of whatever adversity, affliction God sends him, he that endures
to the end shall be saved. And anything that gets you before
you get to the end proves that you didn't know him." Now, that's
the long and short of this thing. You see, faith in Christ, yes,
it wavers, it falters, it falls. It's mingled with our weakness,
but faith in Christ endures. Faith in Christ goes on. Faith
never quits. Faith never gives up. But preacher,
you know, he had such a great difficulty. Something worse than
David had? Something worse than Paul endured?
Something worse than these things we just read about? Oh, no. Faith
continues to the end. And whatever it is, be it the
world, be it the allurements of the world, be it the persecutions
of the world, be it physical adversity, be it the heartache
with your family, whatever it is that finally gets a man or
a woman to give up Christ proves that he didn't have it. They went out from us because
they were not of us. If they'd been of us, they would have stayed
with us. That's the language of the book. Our Lord promises
this, if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his
throne. Well, Pastor, why talk about
this? Because honesty demands it. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, when men came to him and said, we would be
your disciples, he said, you better sit down and count the
cost. Because you're not fixing to join the country club, you're
fixing to join an army. And you're not fixing to join
an army that's sitting in the base with no fear of war, you're
fixing to join an army actively engaged on the field of battle.
And you sit down and count the cost first. Count the cost because
it's going to cost you to follow me. If you would follow me, you
must take up your cost daily and follow me. What does that
mean, take up my cross and follow him? Well, I've got this bum
arm, that's my cross. No, you didn't have any choice
in that. Well, I've got a wife that just despises me, that's
my cross. No, you didn't have any, well,
you did sort of have a choice in that, but you still stuck
with it. That's not the problem. What is it? Take up my cross
and follow him. Well, this is what it is. I see what his will
is, what his glory is. What's honoring to Christ, honoring
to the gospel, I see what he would have me to do, and regardless
of cost, I say I'm going to go do it. Oh, but this costs me. Oh, I can't pay that. Bobby,
I can't not pay. I told you many times what my
brother Harry Graham told me when I was just a young man. He was, I forgot the exact circumstance,
I remember sitting on his heart and hearing him make this statement.
Someone had suggested, well, after all, we have to live in
this world. And Harry was about my age at that time, and he said,
oh no, that's the one thing I don't have to do. I don't have to live
in this world. I have to follow Christ. I have
to worship Christ. I have to have Christ. What about
you? What do you have to have? What
about me? Oh, my soul, what do I have to
have? Whatever I have to have, I'm
willing to sacrifice everything else for it. Is that true, Lindsay? Whatever I've got to have, whatever
I've got to have. You look at material things. If your life's at stake and you
have reasonable hope that somehow by selling every piece of property
you have and taking every dime you might have stored away in
the bank, and you give this to a doctor, and he says, now, all
right, I can take care of you now. Well, you don't think about
it. I don't have to have that. I've got to have my life. I've
got to have that. I don't have to have anything
else. I've got to have him. I don't have to have any comfort.
I've got to have him. I don't have to have anyone smile.
I've got to have him. And this is what we're seeing
in this text here. It is criminal, it is absolutely criminal what
preachers do in our day, calling men and women to faith in Christ,
to a profession of faith in Christ, without being honest with them,
and telling them what the Lord demands and what they should
expect. But preacher, how can men and
women be expected to endure tribulation? How can we be expected to endure
these temptations? How can we be expected to say
no to the world and no to the flesh and no to our pleasures?
How can we be expected to just go on in the midst of great hardship? How can that be expected? Nobody's
that strong. You're right. Nobody is. But
the strength of faith is not in us. The strength of faith
is not in faith. The strength of faith is in the
giver. The strength of faith is in Christ who gives it and
sustains it. And it is only as we look to
him, leaning upon the arm of omnipotence, that we are strengthened
in all things to do his will and honor him. So faith in Christ
gives believing sinners steadfastness of purpose, nobility and courage,
tranquility of mind, even in the midst of great adversity.
As Arthur Fink put it, faith makes the righteous as bold as
a lion. causing them to refuse to deny
the gospel, though horrid tortures are the option, and the result
may be even a martyr's death. These men and women, through
faith, endured these things. Now, let's look at them. These three things described
in these two verses All of them with the exception of the first,
these women who received their dead raised to life again. That
seems to be sort of a transition between what's gone before and
what we have here now. All the rest of these are events
for which we have no record in Scripture. There's no record
of what transpired in these other things in the Old Testament.
There is record of them in history. Now, the Holy Spirit has not
told us who they were, so I'm not going to engage in guesswork
concerning it. I'm going to give you the lessons
from it. But these events all transpired during the horrid
persecutions at the close of the Old Testament era during
the days of Antiochus. This shows us these three things. These examples of faith were
examples of faith enduring great hardship when they had nothing
to go on but the word of God, the written word. The canon of
Old Testament scripture was closed. There was no more writing of
scripture done. Not in the Old Testament, it was done. So that
these men and women who endured these things didn't have any
special revelation from God. They didn't have any special
wonders. They didn't have any prophet
to come and give them a new word from God. All they had was what
God had written in his word. And that's enough. Not only that,
as far as we can tell, as far as the record of scripture is
concerned, There was no prophet, no extraordinary prophet for
certain, but no prophet. From Malachi to John the Baptist,
God did not speak through a man for 400 years. They were men and women of faith,
persecuted and tortured without any extraordinary gifted prophet,
without any new revelation from God. They lived before God on
their own, and they were faithful. I can't think of anything more
difficult. I tell folks all the time, we
need each other. Believers need the fellowship
and the strength and the help of one another in a local congregation.
Sheep can't survive on their own. They're just men and women
who do without a pasture, and the fellowship of an assembly
bring upon themselves great havoc. But here are men and women who
believe God, and the Lord God in His providence had left them
without a special prophet, without the assembling of His people.
He just left them, wandering as it were in the wilderness,
subjected to horrid persecutions, and they remain steadfast because
faith can't be destroyed. As the persecutions raised by
Antiochus against these Old Testament saints were the most horrible
persecutions known in the Old Testament, they were typical
of the persecutions raised against God's people, his church, and
his gospel in these last days. All right, now let's look at
the first one. Women received their dead, raised to life again. This is the last of the records
given of faith in great exercise and great trial and great difficulty
in the Old Testament history. The accounts refer, obviously,
to that woman whose son Elijah raised from the dead in 1 Kings,
or perhaps to the woman whose son Elisha raised from the dead
in 2 Kings, probably refers to both. As these women, by the
word of God's prophet, committing their children to God Almighty
and to the word of his grace by the prophet specially anointed
of him to minister to them as they received their dead sons
raised to life again. They had endured the loss of
their children and they continued believing God. And now they see
their children as they commit them to God's hands raised by
God's power to life again. I've said this repeatedly as
we've looked at this verse. You and I, as believers, we cannot
save our children, nor can we guarantee the salvation of our
children. Our children have no claim on
God. They deserve the wrath of God just like anybody else. But
it is our responsibility to believe God, to commit them to his grace,
and to call upon him for mercy on their behalf. Likewise, it's
our responsibility to put them under the sound of God's word.
under the sound of God's word through whom the prophet, the
Lord Jesus Christ, speaks to dead sinners, and wait for God
to be gracious. But there is another more personal
application than that. When I say personal, I mean another
application that applies to us personally, individually. You
and I as believers, oh my soul, faith has many daughters in the
believer's life and heart, and how they languish. Love and grace, hope, devotion,
how they languish and die. And so we must constantly look
to Christ to have these languishing graces revived and renewed through
faith. thereby we strengthen those things
that remain and are ready to die. Our Lord says to us, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise in the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light. And oh, how it is that when God
our Savior is pleased to do so, when he is pleased to revive
our languishing souls, when he is pleased to refresh our dead
hearts in how quickly we languish, how quickly our very light seems
to flow from us. He causes us to arise, and he
gives us light. And yet, even looking to him, Lindsay,
is just not something we can muster. Tell me, you who are born of
God, when your heart is inked to heaven, what do you do to
give it? When your heart's as cold as
ice, what do you do to inflame it? When your devotion languishes,
what do you do to revive it? You can do all that lies within
your power, and you ought to. Read and pray and come to the
house of God and hear the word and sing his praise, and still
your devotion dies, but just death in itself. until the Savior
comes and draws you, then you run after him. Until he comes
and turns you, then you turn to him. Remember the passage
in the Song of Solomon chapter 5? He knocks and you say, don't bother me
now. I'm comfortable, everything's
all right, don't disturb me now. And we would put him off, but
he puts his hand in our hearts by the hole of the door and moves
us toward him, so that we are compelled by his grace to run
after him. All right, second. And others
were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Turn
over to Acts 20, if you will. The apostle Paul, who wrote these
words, was once himself a persecutor and a tormentor of God's church.
After God saved him, he endured the cruelties he once inflicted.
He tells us about it in 2 Corinthians 11. And here in Acts chapter
20, he chose those things for Christ's sake, taking up the
cross and following Christ, Acts chapter 20. He's at Ephesus, and the disciples
begged him not to go, knowing that he's going to go to Jerusalem. Agabus comes by the Spirit of
God, puts bonds around his hands, said, this is what's going to
happen. And Paul said, how mean you to break my heart? Oh, no,
no, no. Now look at verse 20, verse 22,
rather. And behold, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. not
knowing the things that shall befall me there, except this,
save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds
and afflictions shall abide there." Now, Paul, if you go over here
and preach, they're going to persecute you, they'll put you
in bonds, they'll put you in affliction, they'll put you in
prison, they'll put you to death if they can. Paul, if you go
over there, this is what's going to happen. If you go to Jerusalem,
later Agamemnon says, by the Spirit of God, this is what's
going to happen. And Paul said, none of these things move me. That's not going to dissuade
me. How come? Neither count I my life dear
unto myself. And Bobby, that's where our trouble
comes. We count our lives far too dear to ourselves. Neither
count I my life dear unto myself. so that I might finish my course
with joy. What's that? God sent me to preach
the gospel, and I'm going to do it. God sent me to preach
the gospel right here, and that's where I'm going. And nothing's
going to stop me, no matter what comes. And the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. The word torture used back here
in our text means rapt. It was a favorite method of persecution
in the Old Testament. under Antiochus, as history tells
us. It was also a favored method
of persecution with the papists, those representatives of his
holiness, the Pope, his unholiness, the Pope, and his horrid persecution
of God's church. When papacy reigned everywhere,
the whole world was under the influence of papacy, so the kings
did what the Pope said do. And men and women were persecuted
because of the faith of the gospel. They would be put on these racks.
with huge winches, and a fellow standing by with a crucifix in
his hand and rosary beads repeating nonsense. And men would be stretched
and pulled until their joints were ripped apart, tortured,
wracked, because of the faith of Christ, because they believed
the Son of God, because they would not deny the gospel of
God's grace. You see this next line? Not accepting
deliverance. It was offered to them. Deliverance at a price, but it
was offered to them. All you have to do now is deny
the gospel of God's grace. Deny, in the Old Testament sense,
deny your hope of Him who is to come, the Son of David, the
Messiah. Deny that He alone is the Savior of Israel. Deny that
He alone has come to save people from their sin, by the sacrifice
of Himself, particularly in our day, in this age in which the agents of papacy attempted to
destroy the faith of God's saints in those horrid days of persecution. All they had to do was accept
that the Pope, after all, was not so bad. And Mary, it was
all right to pray to her. Don't have to deny anything.
Just concede some things. That's all. That's all. Just
make some concessions. That's all. It doesn't take anything
else. But the concessions are a denial of the gospel. To concede
that which is false is to deny that which is true. They were
offered deliverance, but they wouldn't take it. Now, here's
the test. Which did they esteem more highly?
The present comfort and ease of life in this world, or the
eternal interest of their souls? Oral preacher, this is the test. Which do you esteem more highly?
Present comfort and ease for your body or your everlasting
soul? And it's a test we have to face
every day. Not accepting deliverance. They
had bought the truth at a price. They bought the truth at a price
very high, bringing upon themselves the scorn and reproach of the
world, the enmity of family and friend, and they dare not sell
it for anything, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain
a better resurrection. The comparison is just this.
It seems to be an allegorical thing. Deny the gospel. If you'll give
up Christ, look what you can have. You'll be relieved from
these tortures. You'll be relieved from this
imprisonment. Your family won't be hurt. They'd say to Bunyan,
you can go back to your family. You go take care of that blind
little girl of yours. All you got to do is just give up. Be
raised up as it were from the dead. Your life will be given
back to you again. But they had hope of a better
resurrection than that. I have hope of something better
than anything anybody can offer me in this world. I have hope of something better
than anything I can gain for myself at any time by anything
I do in this world. Something better. A higher elevation
than the world can offer. A higher pleasure than the world
can give. A higher nobility than the world
can set before me. They refused to accept deliverance
because they had hope of a better resurrection. Now one more thing,
look at verse 36. And others had trial of cruel
markings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. No stone was left unturned. The
merciless efforts of Ishmael to destroy Isaac, the merciless
efforts of the Egyptians to destroy Egypt, the merciless efforts
of the unbelieving to destroy the believing, the merciless
efforts of the persecutor to destroy those who follow after
Christ. Nothing is left unturned. The
sneers of men the unkind words of puny mortals that we endure, the difficulties we may bring
on ourselves by obedience to Christ, the cost we may bring on ourselves
by following Christ, shoot, that's nothing. Look what these folks
have endured for the gospel's sake. And we, when I say we,
I mean this religious generation, is willing to rob themselves
and their families of the gospel so that rather than buying their
clothes at Walmart, they can buy them at the local nice shop. So that rather than not being
decked with silver and gold, they can go down and we can be
saved. Look at us. Look here. Look here. and yet we call this faith. No,
not so. The Lord of glory, oh, what trial
of mockery. What bonds, what imprisonment,
what humiliation, what scourging he suffered for us. What glory he has promised us. God give me grace and give you
grace to learn what he taught us. Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. were so persecuted lay the prophets
before you. Now let me give you one more
passage. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Peter chapter 1. Let's follow our Lord's steps. By whose stripes we are healed,
who endured all things for our sakes, for his sake, for the
glory of his name, let's patiently endure whatever trial he brings,
believing Look here in 1 Peter 1, 2. He let, according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible. Every man wants to leave his
family and inheritance on him. No matter what you leave him,
it ain't going to be much. But he begotten us to an inheritance
incorruptible, incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power
of God through faith under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, you are in heaviness through many temptations, through many
trials. That the trial of your faith
being more precious, 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, whom having not seen you love,
in whom though now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith."
Now, this is the end of it. Oh my God, yes, I believe I can,
for Christ's sake. Take a little more. I believe
I can, for Christ's sake, endure this too. I believe I can. Give me grace, for Christ's sake,
to overcome this. For the end of my faith is salvation
of my soul. Now then, what's worthy? being compared
to that. Father, give us grace, oh give
us grace, for Christ's sake, to be steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of our God, in the service of your kingdom,
in the interest of your glory, knowing our labor and our lives
are not in vain in the Lord. Amen.