It is a fact, and has been throughout
history, that those many women most despised by the world, most
ridiculed, most scorned, most laughed at, most persecuted,
are truly a people of whom the world is not worthy. and I want to talk to you tonight
about some of those people. Turn with me, if you will, to
Hebrews 11. We're going to look at the last paragraph of this
great chapter and look at it very briefly, but I want us to
observe some things here. While you're turning, listen
carefully. I believe this is true. If I
were a farmer, For the glory of God, I would deem it my responsibility
and my privilege, and I would endeavor to be the best farmer
I could be. I'd want to be the best I could
be. My flesh would want to be the best farmer around, but I'd
like to be the best I could be, whether I'm the best around or
not. If I were a salesman, I'd want to be the best salesman
I could be. We have a responsibility. as God's service, not to be the
servants of men, but the servants of God. So that a man or woman
who's a teacher is not serving the school system, not serving
the government, but serving God. And that's true of each of us.
As a pastor, I want to be the best pastor, the best preacher
I can possibly be with the gifts that God's given me. I labor
at it. I want to be the best husband I can be. But having
said that, in our society it is sad, but it is a fact. A man's worth, his value, is
commonly judged by his position, his power, and his property.
We are conditioned to presume that anyone who looks successful
ought to be admired. Anyone who looks like he just
stands above the crowd. He's to be admired, and anyone
who lacks what we commonly consider the obvious signs of success
must be uneducated, a little lazy, maybe both. Those who are poorer are commonly
looked upon as a little more likely to be immoral, a little
more likely to be criminal, a little more likely not to succeed. I don't have to explain that, don't
have to give examples. You've all experienced it and
probably stated it. Sad fact. Mom and pop are always
a little concerned if their daughter shows too much interest in a
boy who comes from the wrong side of the tracks. And they're
always delighted to see her marry into the right kind, you know.
That means the kind that's got a lot of money. It's amazing
how the right kind always has some association with money,
isn't it? It's amazing how, you know, the elite, the good folks,
they always live up yonder in the big house. That's just the
mentality we have. Consequently, young people and
old ones, too, put themselves into horrid debt to keep up the
appearance of success. Man, I don't want anybody to
think I haven't succeeded. Don't want anybody to think I
can't do as good as they do. Don't want anybody to think I
can't have what they have. Husbands and wives work every minute they
can work, ignore their children, turn them over to somebody else
to raise so that they can impress themselves and impress their
neighbors with how much money they can borrow. How sad. what a sad commentary those facts
are upon our society, but they are facts. This perverse, proud,
corrupt mentality is just as prevalent in the religious world
as in the secular. We've been conditioned by the
health, wealth, prosperity preachers of this age to think that if
a person is not physically healthy and strong, wealthy, prospering
materially, then there's got to be something wrong with him.
Something wrong spiritually. There's something wrong. We might
not know what it is, but you can bank on it. There's something
wrong. There's something wrong. Anything less than tangible success
leads us to think that there's something defective in a person's
faith. Anything less than outward apparent
prosperity and outward apparent blessedness leads us naturally
to suppose, well where there's smoke there's fire and you just
better watch out, something's wrong. We all tend to think just
like Job's three friends, all of us do. We all have a horrible
tendency to think ourselves something and set up ourselves as judges
over other people and decide that if somebody has not enjoyed
the good things that we enjoy, then something must be wrong
with them. The fact is, David, a man after God's own heart,
even thought such concerning himself when he was at the epitome
of God's blessing. Psalm 73, I think it is, David
sitting in his palace and he looks out in his mind's eye at
another king in a pagan land somewhere he knew. That man who
didn't know God, who worshiped stumps and stones, that man sat
in his palace dining room, his eyes bug out with faith. All
of his children are sitting around his table, all of his children,
all of his son's wives and all of his grandchildren, his wife,
they're all just sitting, everybody's just so happy, everything's going
so well. And David said, I was envious
at the prosperity of the wicked. He said, I thought within myself,
I've washed my hands, what's the use in serving God? And then
I went into the house of God and I understood their end. And
I understood that God's just fattening them like cattle to
be slaughtered. He's anointed me as his own. Oh, he's chosen me. How gracious
he is. This kind of thinking has produced
a generation of religious folks, for the most part, who have reduced
God in their minds to nothing more than some kind of a great
dispenser of creature comforts, who is to be manipulated by our
positive thinking and our positive praying and our positive believing. Isn't it wonderful how folks
come up with such phrase, we think positively, we pray positively,
we believe positively and God will bless us. Rather than a
sovereign to whom we're to bow and a sovereign we're to worship,
whether he's in poverty or riches. whether he sends adversity or
prosperity, whether he sends pleasure or sends pain. And such thinking is totally
contrary to this book. It's totally contrary to the
experiences of God's people throughout history. Let me remind you of
some of the things we've seen here in Hebrews 11. Abel, that
man who believed God, was hated by his brother. because he worshiped
God. And you need not think Abel didn't
know what he was in for. He knew just as well how King
would respond when they went to the house of God to worship
and made a sacrifice to God as you do when you stand up to your
friends and tell them that this is how God saves sinners. Noah,
that preacher of righteousness. You know what it means to be
a preacher of righteousness in an unrighteous generation? You
know what it means to proclaim the righteousness of God in Christ
to a generation that thinks they're righteous enough for God? For 120 years, Larry, he was
laughed at, kissed, mocked, ridiculed, slandered, maligned in every
way imaginable. Abraham. Abraham, come on now,
follow me. What's he got to do? He got to
leave behind Earth. That rich, prosperous, good land. That land, that's the place where
everybody wants to go when they get out of the house. Let's go
down to her, man, that's where you go to make it. You leave
it and spend the rest of your days wandering around like a
gypsy in the desert, not owning even a plot of ground to bury
yourself in. Abraham had two sons. He had to throw one of them out
of the house. And he had to sacrifice the other one to God. Isaac had
two sons. Isaac loved his boy Esau. Man, he loved that boy. Esau
was, he was a man's sort of boy, you know. He was the athlete,
he was the outdoorsman, he was the hunter, he was strong, he
was everything Isaac wanted a boy to be. Jacob was mama's boy. before Isaac left here he had
to curse Esau and bless Jacob. Contrary to everything's in his
flesh, everything. Jacob had to be brought down
to Egypt and he would never have gone to Egypt if he hadn't been
brought into such abject poverty, such utter desolation, such desperate
need that he had to go down there and ask those Egyptians for corn.
Moses had to be hid in a basket. His mama and daddy believing
God were fearful for the life of their child because they believed
God. Because they believed God, that's
all. And so they took their boy and put him in a basket and hid
him in the bulrushes. He had to flee the wealth of
Egypt and the throne of Egypt because he was God's servant.
Jericho, that cursed city inhabited by God's enemies, had to be destroyed. God's spies who were sent to
spy out the land. had to be saved in a most humbling
way. It had to be saved by heart. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
what it took for those preachers to go down to the harlot's house
and find shelter in her house? Gideon had to fight the Midianites
with a ragtag army of cowards. Beric had to go out against the
king with an army so mighty that he was terrified, and the victory
finally be accomplished by a woman. Jephthah had to sacrifice his
only daughter. And we think about our troubles. These are just things common
to God's people. They're just common. You see, faith is just
as real, just as active, just as true, when all outward circumstances
are altogether unfavorable. as it is when we walk on the
mountaintop in the brightest sunshine and the sweet dew of
heaven falls on our souls. The fact is, faith takes us through
deep waters and stormy seas, through fiery trials and wilderness
temptations, because faith, I'm not talking about Faith in faith. I'm not talking about the concept
of faith. I'm not talking about the idea of faith. I'm talking
about this gift of faith by which we live before God. Faith in
Christ. Faith is a conscious dependence
of a man, the conscious dependence of a woman upon God Almighty
in his absolute goodness revealed in his darling son. Faith is not just a doctrine.
Faith is not just an idea. Faith is not just a religion.
Faith is a conscious dependence upon God Almighty in His sovereign
goodness revealed in His darling Son. And believing Him, we can go
through the fire trial. And we can go through the temptation. and we can go through the storm
and we can go across the raging sea. Believing him, faith continues. Faith realizes, faith acknowledges
personal weakness, vulnerability, inadequacy. When we're weak,
Brother David prayed back in the office, then we're strong. When we're strong, we're terribly
weak. carries us through every possible
situation, every possible circumstance, leaning on Christ, trusting the
beloved, so that faith never fails. Never. I'll deal with
that a little bit more in a minute, but faith never fails. Never. The believer is never overcome. The believer is never conquered. The believer is never defeated.
The believer never quits following Christ, never. To the world,
to our families, to our friends, our circumstances may look kind
of sad, a little pathetic, hopeless. Well, we tried, but we gave up. Don's a total loss. He just,
he can't be taught anything. But inwardly, faith mounts up
with the wings of an eagle and walks in the midst of terrible
adversity with calm serenity, believing God. Faith fills you. Now, I don't suggest that the
believer never receives any of those things the world craves. We have examples in this chapter
of some who did receive those things the world craves. David
was a wealthy man. No question about that. Solomon
was an exceedingly wealthy man. There's no question about that.
But these things are not the end of life for God's children. Believers don't live for them.
Did you hear me? Believers don't live for them.
Religious folks do. Believers don't. Believers may
use them and enjoy them and profit by them, but they don't live
for them. The end of life for the worldly. The end of life
for the unbeliever. The end of life for the religionist
who doesn't know God, doesn't care for God, is what is in debt. That's the end of life. For the
believer, the end of life is Christ and glory. And that's
what it is for. That's what it is for. That's
what motivates you. That's what moves you. That's
what controls and that's what rules you. Faith in Christ. causes us to live having our
minds set on things above, even while living in the most distressing
of circumstances. It carries the believer through
every stage and every demand of life and ultimately delivers
him into the presence of Christ. Now, that's the message that
was needed to believers in the first century to whom Paul is
writing. And that's the message we need
today. Let's look at these verses together, and I want to show
you seven things about faith. I'm not going to try to expand
these verses. I'm just going to kind of skim across the surface
and pull off the cream, and we'll come back another time to the
other things. First, let me remind you that
we see in verse 32, there is a great diversity in faith. Not in the object of faith. not
in the doctrine of faith, but in the experience of faith and
in the people of faith. We read in verse 32, Paul says,
What shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, and of Baruch, and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. What a diverse
group of people. What a diverse group of people. Turn to Romans chapter 8, let
me show you something. We have a terribly, terribly
proud propensity in our flesh that we dare to think we set
ourselves up as the standards and measure everybody by our
yardstick and now let's talk to David about his experience,
see if it matches God. And if it doesn't, then something's
wrong with David. He don't know what he meant to the Lord or
not. Don't know if he knows God or not. In Mark's Gospel, you
remember how the Lord came to that one fellow who was blind
and the disciple said, lay your hands on him and heal him. He
said, don't tell him what to do. Just bring in the blind man
and leave him alone. He said, lay your hands on him
and heal him. The Lord took him aside, took him out of the city. spit on the ground, made a little
mud, put it on his eyes, and said, do you see anything? He
said, I see me and his trees walking. And he touched his eyes
again and said, now what do you see? He said, I see all men clearly.
And then I think it was in chapter 10, he met Bartimaeus. He said,
Bartimaeus, what do you want? He said, oh, my son of David,
that I might receive my sight. He said, you got it. And he saw
perfect. Now can't you picture Bartimaeus
and that other fellow meeting up down the road somewhere? That old fella says, Bartimaeus
said, you know the Lord Jesus? Sure do. I met him one day as
he was coming out of Jericho. He called me to receive my sight.
I was blind now. He said, me too. He said, tell
me how he did it. Did you? Did he take you outside
town? Well, I know. Did he make a little mud compact
out of his spit in the ground and put it on your eye? Huh?
He didn't do that to you? No. He didn't touch your eye
a second time? No. Man, you can't see anything. You just think you can see. What arrogance. What pride. We experience God's grace providentially
as individuals. God in his providence has brought
every one of us every man and woman in this assembly He has
brought us down a specified Divinely ordained path to bring us to
this place in the experience of his grace just for us Ultimately
to make us like his son and his purpose is not going to fail.
Look at this Romans 8 28 We know that all things work together
for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow that he also did predestinate,
look at it now, to be conformed to the image of his son. And Bobby Estes, when he gets
done, that's what he's gonna have, me and you, just like his
son. Fellas raised different. trained
differently, or not trained at all. Some raised in a house where
God's believed, and others raised in a house where God's cussed
with every breath. But God Almighty, in his wise,
unerring providence, takes all that, and he has set a path for
which we will walk to the end of our days. God does not stamp
out believers like a woman making pretty cookies at Christmas time
or Easter time, make them in certain images. And you get done,
they all look alike and they all taste alike. Oh no, we all
look a little different and we all act a little different. I
know believers are very much the same in certain things. They
seek the honor of Christ. They seek to obey God. They seek
the good of men. But believers are individuals
with their own distinct peculiarities used of God for his glory in
the way in which God is pleased to use them. Would to God we
could learn more. Now, secondly, though there is great diversity,
there is great unity in faith. Let me get ahead of myself just
a little bit. Skip down to verse 40. All of God's people are one. All these men and women named
in these 40 verses, and these that were unnamed, were one. I should have said were, they
are. They are one in Christ. You see, God's church and God's
kingdom is one. Now, I'm not talking about all
churches and all religions, you know better than that. No, no,
no. But I am talking about all believers.
I am talking about all who know Christ. They're all one. In verse
40, Paul tells us that they, these Old Testament believers,
he begins with Abel. He could have begun with Adam,
but he begins with Abel, and he goes all the way through the
end of the prophets, and he says that they, without us, should
not be made perfect. That is to say, the body of Christ
was not complete. and could not be complete until
each of his chosen, redeemed brethren has been brought into
the living union of faith within. Let me show you this. Turn to
Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. First time I saw this, I sat
back and just gasped for breath. I took a long, deep sigh and
looked at it again. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
mediator. As such, he is the head of his
body, the church. And he is not complete. He cannot be complete until all
his members are with him. And look at it, Ephesians 1.22,
God has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body. Now look at
this, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. As Jesus
Christ is all the fullness of God's purpose. And God's purpose
cannot be complete without all that he is and all that he's
done. You and I, who are his, are the
fullness of Christ. And without Don Fortner, oh my
soul, he can't be complete. He can't be complete. He cannot
be complete. If so much as one member given
him in eternity is not with him in eternity, he can't be complete. Oh God give us grace then to
live in this blessed unity for the glory of his name. To walk
in this world as what? To walk in this world as one
with his people. I received a letter years ago.
I wrote an article in Bulletin. Oh, it's been probably 20 years
ago now. A fellow wrote to me and said, when should we break
fellowship with a man? And I wrote him back and I said,
never. Never. That's not our business.
That's not our business. Break fellowship with Larry Chris? Then I ask, when shall I break
fellowship with my daughter? Break fellowship? Never. Well, I ain't
got nothing to do with him. What? One who's chosen, redeemed,
and called by the grace of God. Leave it to other fellows. You
preach the gospel of God's free grace, you proclaim the message
of God's free grace, and the religious infidels will soon
enough leave you alone. But as long as men and women
are willing to walk with us in the blessed fellowship of the
gospel, the door is wide open. Come on in. Come on in. But I don't even want to know.
Come on in. The door is open. We walk in
the blessed fellowship of the gospel and let us ever seek to
avoid every Possibility of schism and division. Everything that
might arise that would divide us from one another, put it away!
Put it away now! We're warning Christ. Warning
Christ. Let me show you something else here. Verses 33 through
38 show us plainly something that every believer learns real
quick and keeps on learning all the days of his pilgrimage through
this world. Wherever faith is found, trials
follow. Look at verse 33. 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. Others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance, that they might attain a better resurrection.
and others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stolen, they were sewn
asunder, tempted, slain with a 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. Come back to Philippians 1. Philippians chapter 1. I won't tonight discuss all these
trials and their particular details, but this is certain. Wherever
you find a man or a woman who believes God, you find a man
or you find a woman whose life is dogged with heartache. And
you can just mark it down. Oh, preacher, that's not much
of an encouragement for anybody to believe. Well, I'm not here
trying to get you to join the army. I'm not a recruiting officer,
so I don't have to lie to you. I'm here to tell you the truth.
Instead, I don't count the cost. It will cost you in this world.
to follow Christ. And it will sometimes cost you
dear. It will cost you much pain. It will cost you much heartache.
Pain and heartache that others have, that's to be expected.
But pain and heartache that others don't know anything at all about. And you heard expressed in that
man's voice as he led our congregation in prayer a little while ago.
His neighbors don't know anything about that. Don't know anything
about it. and not any pain in life like
it. 1 Corinthians 1 29 Unto you it
is given in behalf of Christ, for Christ's sake, for his honor,
because of him, for his gospel, for his people, not only to believe
on him, oh thank God for this sweet gift of faith, but also
to suffer for his sake. God gave you faith. He gave you
this too. The trial faith. And God will with the temptation
make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it, but the
temptation is going to come. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. Blessed is that man that endures
temptation, for when he is tried, after God's proved him, he shall
receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them
that love him. When the trying days are over,
glory days come. God in Israel sows the seeds
of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the
weeds that would elsewhere spread the soil. Trials make the promise
sweet. Trials give new life to prayer. Trials bring me to his feet,
lay me low, and keep me there. Bastards may escape the rod,
sunk in earthly vain delight, but the true-born child of God
must not. would not it be like? We too have roaring lions that
we must silence. We too have Egyptians and Canaanites
who constantly oppose us. We too have aliens who oppose
us, persecutors who would destroy us if they could. What do we
do? What do we do in the midst of
such things? What do we do in such heartache? What do we do
in such trouble? We just wait on God. Just wait on God. That doesn't mean you just fold
my hand and say, well, whatever will be, will be. I can't tell you how I despise
such disgusting language. That's not the language of faith,
Bob. That's the language of total
irresponsibility. Oh, no. It means my father, knows
and does what is best, always. And it is my privilege, it is
my responsibility, but oh, it is my privilege to wait on him
with expected faith to do the good he's promised to do. What do you do? Bring your heartache to him.
and you cast it on his broad shoulders, Lord, carry it. I can't. You bring your trial
to him and you lay it on his omnipotent back and say, Lord,
bear it. I can't. You cast all your care
on him. Of course, he cares for you. And the fact is, that thing never fails. It's always triumphant. So look
at this fourth thing. These same verses describe great
triumphs. Failure brought us into Egypt,
but faith brings us out. Oh yes, we fail. We fail often. We fail in everything. My God,
I've never done anything with a failure. But even our failures are graciously
overruled by God to do His will, accomplish His purpose, and do
us good. Failure brought us into the darkness
of Egypt and bondage of Egypt. Faith, Christ our Redeemer, whom
we believe, brought us out. Failure created our adversaries.
Faith makes us more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Failure,
our failure, brought death to our families. The only thing
on this earth any father can for dead certain sure pass on
to his son, and for dead certain sure does, is his depravity and
death. Faith brings the child, says,
Lord, my daughter's grievously next to the devil, and brings
us to see the dead face to life again. Failure, our failure,
brought us into unrighteousness. Faith obtains righteousness. Failure, our failure, put us
under the sentence of death. Faith gives us right to and obtains
for us a better resurrection. And then faith, faith in Christ
brings us into great blessedness. Look at verse 39. By faith, by faith, All those who lived and died
in faith in this chapter, and you and I who live in faith and
soon shall die in faith, like Enoch, look at it, obtained a
good report. Now, folks commenting on this
talk about what a good report is being obtained from the world.
Shoot, that's not what he's talking about. Read the chapter. The
world would have killed him if it could have. That's not what
he's talking about. Oh, no. No. I want to have, in this community,
in this town, a good name. I want to be blameless. I want
to live above the reproach of men. But with all said and done,
I don't expect this world to speak well of me. I'd be fearful
if they did. That's not what he's talking
about. Oh no, but a good report from God. A good report to my
own conscience. And a good report among God's
people. Now you tell me what else matters? Well, how's history going to
look at us? I wish I could stand here and honestly say I don't
give a flip, but I'm hoping one of these days not to. It doesn't
matter. It just doesn't matter. A good
report before God so that God speaks in my conscience and tells
me that I have attained a good report. I didn't earn it. Oh,
no, no, not by faith. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I didn't merit it. Oh, no. But I got it by faith
in Him. who loved me and gave himself
for me. The result of faith for these
brethren, as it's recorded for us here, was not how many things
they amassed in life. Boy, you know how much money
he had to make when he died? I'd like to leave this world
just like Martin Luther did. This is what he wrote in his
will, if I can remember correctly. He wrote down, Lord, I have neither
wealth nor estate, land nor property to leave you to my children or
to leave to my children. I can but leave them to you,
oh father of the fatherless. What a good report. What a good
report. The result was that these men
found approval in the sight of God. And without faith, that'll
never be yours. Now, one or two more things. Look at verse 39 again. Faith
has a great hope. And these all, having obtained
a good report through faith, receive not the promise God having
provided some better thing for us. Folks make fun, they deride the
little things. Say, well, you Christians talk
about living for your pie and the sweet by and by. Heapsack
more than that. And those things that are eternal, just make things here meaningless. I mean really meaningless. God's promised some better thing
for us. Don't know for sure all that
includes, but this seventh thing kind of sums it all up. that better thing that he's promised
for us, look at it, that they without us should not be made perfect, whole, complete, entire,
lacking nothing, missing nothing, holy, righteous, without fault,
without blemish, just like Christ. Now that's the end for which
they live. You like it? Told you a story about the missionary
in India told of a leper he ran across one day walking through
the jungles years ago. As they were just making their
way to another village he's out in the middle of nowhere and
heard an old man just a faint, faint cry. Couldn't make it out,
but he knew somebody was crying, somewhere close by, and he made
his way and found a little clearing. He said, that's the most pitiful,
sickening, horrible sight I've ever seen. There's an old man
who'd been taken by his family and tribe, out and left to die.
He was a leper. And the leprosy had just eaten
away his fingers. His own stubs for legs just me. Somebody help me. Help me. Somebody help me. The missionary said, I thought
to myself, if I could just walk over to that poor old man and
put my mouth on his mouth and breathe in all his corruption, just take it all. and breathe into him all my soundness." He said, that's what Christ did
for me. He took all our corruption and
gave us all his soundness. So that when it gets done, we
shall with all our brethren be made