The Endurance of Faith (Overlooking Life’s Hardships)
Hebrews 11:32-40
February 28, 2016
Well this morning we come to final leg of
This famous 11th chapter of Hebrews.
The writer has been carrying his readers on a very important journey.
He has been stressing the importance of faith.
And with good reason…
These Hebrews were contemplating losing faith
And shrinking back from Jesus.
The writer has been imploring them
To be people of faith; not people of fear.
We saw THE REWARD OF FAITH
Abel, Enoch, Noah all earned God’s approval and received righteousness because of their faith.
We saw THE FOCUS OF FAITH
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph all stayed focused on God’s promise even though none of them received it this life.
We saw THE COURAGE OF FAITH
Amram, Jochabed, Moses, Israel, and Rahab all demonstrated the courage it takes to face life’s scariest moments and push through anyway.
This morning we come to final point
And the examples come even more rapidly.
This morning we see THE ENDURANCE OF FAITH
And the importance of Overlooking Life’s Hardships
LET’S FACE IT, LIFE IS HARD.
Ever since the fall in the garden
Man has been subject to a life of extreme difficulty.
God told Adam
Genesis 3:17-19 “…Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
God told Eve
Genesis 3:16 “To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
And that is just the basic expectation for all humanity.
I’m always reminded of Jacob’s estimation of life when he stood before Pharaoh.
Genesis 47:9 “So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”
Or the sunny outlook of the writer of Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes 9:3 “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”
Life is hard.
It doesn’t come easy for anyone.
In addition to that we have the promise that this world
Will pursue a life of sensual lust and pleasure
And will hate anyone who challenges that desire.
If you try to live this life in a manner that convicts the world
Then you can expect to have persecution added to your list of difficulties.
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:24-25 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!”
I think you get the point – LIFE IS HARD
You literally hear it at every stage.
It’s hard to be kid
Too little to do what you want, families are guaranteed anymore
It’s hard to be a teenager
Temptation at every corner, busyness, the pressure to succeed
It’s hard to be a young adult
Out in the world for the first time, find a job, who are you going to marry?
Marriage is hard
It takes two people being unselfish; meeting one another’s needs
Having a baby is hard
You don’t sleep, They’re needy
Raising a teenager is hard
Rebellious, demanding, ungrateful
Letting your children leave the nest is hard
Turning them loose on the world, hoping they make good decisions
Getting old is hard
The body doesn’t respond or heal like it used to, doctor’s visits, medication
THERE IS NOT AN EASY PHASE OF LIFE – IT’S JUST LIFE
And one thing you’ll have to learn if you are going to participate is ENDURANCE
James said:
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
The writer of Hebrews said:
Hebrews 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”
This is such an important point to have driven into our brains.
There is no way to live this life, especially for God
Without faith and the endurance it produces.
Adrian Rogers said:
“Men are like rivers, they grow crooked by following the path of least resistance.”
• You can’t just always take the easy way out.
• You can’t just always run.
• We are called to endure, to push through, to face the difficulty.
And it requires faith to do that.
Well that type of faith is what seems to be on display
Here in the final section of this faith chapter.
(Only here the writer speeds up even more.)
1) THE MIGHTY WARRIORS
2) THE MIGHTY MARTYRS
#1 THE MIGHTY WARRIORS
Hebrews 11:32-34
Obviously everyone on this list filled that “mighty warrior” role.
They represent some of our favorite victory stories from the Bible.
“Gideon” was a judge in Israel.
• During his days the Midianites oppressed Israel
• Midian was said to be like locusts…innumerable
• Because of the Midianites, the Israelites had actually abandoned their homes and begun living in caves and holes in the side of the hills.
• Midian would come in and destroy all the produce.
And God raised Gideon up to face these Midianites and be a deliverer.
Judges 6:11-16 “Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The LORD looked at him and said, ” Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” But the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”
He is most famous for the whole “lay out a fleece” concept.
Judges 6:36-40 “Then Gideon said to God, “If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken.” And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, ” Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.” God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.”
My whole life people have been using that as a “good example”,
But Gideon wasn’t walking by faith there.
Gideon wanted proof (twice)
Now granted God obliged Gideon’s request and calmed his fears,
But God did not let Gideon escape the necessity of faith.
You may remember that God forced him
To whittle his army down to nearly nothing.
Judges 7:1-8 “Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him, rose early and camped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. The LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’ “Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘ Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.'” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained. Then the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.” Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The LORD said to Gideon, “I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.” So the 300 men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.”
God may have answered the fleece request, but God still required faith.
Gideon gave it and God used him to defeat the Midianites.
“Barak” was a military man in Israel.
• Deborah was the judge.
• In their day Israel was oppressed by Sisera, the king of Canaan who had an enormous army containing 900 chariots.
• For 20 years Sisera had oppressed Israel.
Until God decided to deliver and bring that deliverance through Barak.
Barak gathered 10,000 men and God used this warrior
To defeat Sisera and deliver Israel.
Most of you are familiar with “Samson”
• Samson was a judge of Israel when Israel was oppressed by the Philistines.
• God had given Samson incredible strength.
• Samson basically went around picking fights and then finishing them and thus through Samson God was delivering Israel.
Samson did have some hiccups in his life,
But primarily he is seen as a man who trusted that God would deliver through him and thus Samson typically fought alone.
“Jephthah” was also a Judge in the days that the Ammorites afflicted Israel.
• Jephthah trusted that God had given this land to Israel and by faith in God he defeated the Ammorites.
Jephthah is probably most remembered for promising to sacrifice to God
The first thing that walked out of his house when he got home
(many wonder if he came home yelling the name of his mother-in-law)
It was his daughter and Jephthah carried out his vow.
None the less, Jephthah walked by faith in defeating the Ammorites.
The stories of “David” are everywhere.
• Most notable was his confrontation with the giant Goliath in which David boldly defeated this unthinkable foe with nothing but faith a sling and a stone.
David famously saying:
1 Samuel 17:45-47 “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. “This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
It was a victory of faith.
David would go on to be king and subdue many nations which surrounded Israel.
“Samuel” was the last judge and the first prophet.
• It was Samuel who anointed both Saul and David.
• Samuel was a man with an intense view to obedience and holiness.
• He is remembered as the man who “hacked Agag to pieces” after Saul had disobediently spared his life.
And the common threat is that
All of these men faced mighty battles in the name of the Lord.
• They faced giant opponents
• They faced innumerable armies
• They faced terrifying opponents
• But they faced them in faith and God gave victory.
Of them and people like them, the writer says:
(33-34) “who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”
They are remembered because their faith
Produced some of the greatest victories in all the Bible.
• Certainly Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah “conquered kingdoms”
• Samuel “performed acts of righteousness” like hacking Agag to pieces
• David no doubt “obtained promises” that God had made him regarding his reign as king.
Implied by the list would also be people like:
• Daniel who “shut the mouths of lions”
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego who “quenched the power of fire”
• Esther who “from weakness [was] made strong”
It is a list filled with the most amazing victories
From the most amazing warriors.
The common thread is that every one of them had faith.
They are the types of victories that teach us to look at our OBSTACLES
As tremendous OPPORTUNITIES for God to do something amazing.
We wouldn’t remember any of those stories if the odds hadn’t looked overwhelming.
• If Gideon’s army had numbered 1 million…
• If Barak’s enemy had only had 20 chariots instead of 900…
• If Goliath had only been 5’ 6”
• Of if Daniel had only been threatened with a night in solitary confinement.
Those stories remind us that there is no enemy too big for our God.
And that with God anything is possible.
From them we learn to view the most difficult moments of our lives
As opportunities to express faith and see God do great things.
They are the Mighty Warriors
But they aren’t the only ones listed here.
#2 THE MIGHTY MARTYRS
Hebrews 11:35-38
While the first segment was one victory after another,
This segment is a little more sobering.
This segment represents one tragedy after another.
It is true that the first one ends well
“Women received back their dead by resurrection”
• We are reminded of the Shunamite woman whose child died
• And Elisha raised him from the dead.
• That one did end well, but the woman still had to endure the agony of losing a child.
But in this list, that is the only one that seems to end well.
“others were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection;”
These were people who could have been free
Had they only denied the LORD, and yet they refused to do it.
They stood through horrific circumstances but would not deny the faith.
They were looking at the next life, not this one.
“and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.”
• Who could forget the type of ridicule that Jeremiah endured at the hands of Israel? And Jeremiah never saw relief.
“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”
These are much less popular stories.
1 Kings 18:1-4 “Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.” So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. Ahab called Obadiah who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly; for when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.)”
It’s just a foot-note in Scripture.
How many prophets lost their lives under the wicked reign of Jezebel?
• 400 survived and were forced to flee to caves.
They aren’t the glamorous stories
They aren’t the stories we read in our children’s Bible story books
They are the ones that look like tragedies
AND YET THE STORIES ARE TRUE AND GENUINE AND REAL.
These are the Mighty Martyrs of Scripture.
• Multitudes of people who faced opposition just as terrifying as
those in the first part of this list,
• But people who were not delivered in this life.
It would be like:
• Gideon battling the Midianites and losing…
• Or Barak or Samson or Jephthah not being granted victory…
• It would be like Goliath killing David…
• Or the Hebrew boys perishing in the fiery furnace…
The outcome would not have changed the fact that
Their faith was genuine.
In fact, do you remember those Hebrew boys?
Daniel 3:16-18 “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
I’m sure they were grateful for the favorable outcome,
But their faith was there regardless.
How many more had faith just as strong and yet weren’t delivered?
Many times I’ve heard people mention the apostle Paul as
“The greatest Christian who ever lived.”
(and certainly I’ve got no complaint against Paul,
nor would I even come close to measuring up)
But what about Stephen?
• A man with just as much faith
• A man with just as much boldness
Both were stoned, God just delivered one.
But both had faith.
And where we look at that First Group of people as a reminder that our greatest obstacles could be great opportunities for God to deliver…
We look at this Second Group and remember that
Faith is just as necessary when things aren’t going as we hoped.
The charismatic movement today has tried to teach people that
Faith is only real if it ends in miraculous victory.
After all, if the healing doesn’t come or the miracle doesn’t happen,
Then the problem must have been that your faith was too weak.
Try telling that to the people represented by this list.
Their faith was so real their deeds were mentioned in the faith hall of fame
And yet they didn’t get the great deliverance.
BUT THE POINT TO BOTH OF THESE LISTS IS THE SAME:
LIFE REQUIRES FAITH
In life you face all sorts of situations.
• Hard things
• Painful things
• Scary things
• Unexpected things
• Unexplained things
There is no way to live this Christian life apart from exercising faith.
• There are promises to believe
• There are dangers to face
• There are hardships to endure
• There are decisions to be made
If you think you can skate through life as a Christian
And never have to walk by faith
YOU ARE SORELY MISTAKEN.
That is the point that the writer is making to these Hebrews.
• Where they in a tight spot? Yes
• Was it hard? Yes
• Was it unexpected? Most likely
But this was their time and this was their battle.
It was time to endure; it was time to have faith.
CAN I ENCOURAGE YOU HERE AS WELL?
• Do you suppose that your life or the struggles you face is some sort of mistake?
Listen to the sovereignty of God:
Psalms 139:16 “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
Acts 17:26 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”
When you live and where you live and what you face
Is not some sort of accident.
You are a modern day Esther
Esther 4:14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”
God knows what He is doing.
He knows all about the things you will face.
He is asking for faith in the midst of it.
That is the message to these struggling Hebrews.
• Do you suppose your situation is any harder than Gideon’s?
• Do you suppose you are any more afraid than David before the giant?
• Do you suppose your struggle is any greater than those who were sawn
in two?
They didn’t shrink back, they didn’t give up, they had faith…
And that is what God wants from you.
He wants THE ENDURANCE OF FAITH
Then the writer brings out his most powerful point of the chapter.
(39-40) “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.”
The “all these” here does not just refer to those most previously listed.
The “all these” refers to the entire chapter, going all the way back to Abel.
Every person listed in Hebrews 11 have two main things in common.
• Every one of them “gained approval through their faith”
• Every one of them “did not receive what was promised”
You won’t find a single person in the history of the world
Who ever pleased God apart from giving Him faith.
It is the universal requirement for pleasing God.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Every person on this list gave God faith.
Some of them had some pretty significant hiccups in life too,
But God wasn’t measuring them by their failures,
He was measuring them by their faith.
The other thing is that not one of them received “what was promised”
• But didn’t Noah see the flood and survive?
• Didn’t Moses see deliverance from Egypt?
• Didn’t Joshua get the land?
• Didn’t Jericho fall?
• Didn’t David kill the giant?
Some of them received the promise didn’t they?
SOME OF THEM DID HAVE GREAT VICTORIES,
BUT NONE OF THEM RECEIVED THE MAIN THING.
The writer alludes to the promise he is referring to
By telling you the outcome of the main promise.
At the end of verse 40 he tells you what the main promise does. He is talking about God’s promise that would make everyone “perfect”.
He wasn’t talking about land or descendants or a victory in battle.
God had a promise of how He would make His people perfect.
God had a promise of how He would justify His people.
That promise was of total salvation.
And if you’ll remember that promise was never fulfilled in the O.T.
Do you remember earlier in the book of Hebrews?
Hebrews 10:1 “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.”
Hebrews 10:4 “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
All of these people had faith,
But none of them were ever made perfect before God.
That was a future promise that none of them received in their life.
Not one “received what was promised”
And here is why.
“because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.”
GOD KNEW SOMETHING BETTTER WAS COMING
Peter said it like this:
1 Peter 1:10-12 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.”
God wasn’t about to let any of those people settle
For land or descendants or victories.
If those where the rewards then God sure blessed some and overlooked others,
For they didn’t all receive those things.
God’s view was always to “something better”
• Something the Spirit indicated
• Something prophets searched for
• Something angels were mesmerized by
God had the ultimate prize still to come.
There was “something better” on the way.
Even Jesus said:
Matthew 13:16-17 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. “For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
God was asking those saints of old to trust Him and to believe that
One day they would see why it was worth it.
Of course that “something better” was Jesus
And His atonement on the cross.
On the cross Jesus provided the perfection
That Old Testament saints trusted God for and had not yet received.
To a certain extent their faith had not paid off until the day when Christ died,
And all of a sudden it was all worth it.
BUT HERE IS THE WRITER’S POINT.
• We are here on the backside of the cross.
• We know exactly what benefit we receive from trusting God.
• We know that we are declared righteous
• We know that we are forgiven
FAITH SHOULD BE EASIER FOR US
If the people in this chapter could offer God such great faith,
Then certainly you and I can.
BECAUSE WE HAVE SEEN THE BENEFIT
We know what the Hebrews were facing
(prison, poverty, persecution)
But surely they could trust God
Because they could see what they received in return.
They could see Jesus, they could see what He accomplished.
• The One greater than the prophets
• The One greater than the angels
• The One greater than Moses
• The One greater than Joshua
• The One greater than Aaron
• The One who was a sufficient sacrifice
• The One who brought a new covenant
If David can face a giant without knowing who Jesus was,
Then surely we can face our struggles having known who He is.
The implication then is huge.
You have received the greatest promise God ever made,
And now you are contemplating walking away from it.
(The saints of old certainly never did that)
• By all means stand firm…
• By all means have faith…
• By all means cling to Jesus…
DON’T WALK AWAY FROM HIM
It reinforces what he said to end chapter 10.
Hebrews 10:36-39 “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”
Be a person of faith.
