Participants: James Rafferty, Ty Gibson
Series Code: BOTB
Program Code: BOTB00011B
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00:01 Welcome back to our continuing study
00:03 of the book of Hebrews. 00:04 We're in chapter 11, of Hebrews, and we've been 00:06 noting this hall of faith, James. 00:08 And it's an incredible hall of faith, isn't it? 00:10 It's really, you know when you look at the experience 00:12 of God's people here, you realize that they are 00:15 encouraging or exhorting us, and their lives are 00:18 a testimony of the power of faith and grace. 00:21 The motivating, energizing power of God's love. 00:24 And that's what we see as we look at each one of these. 00:26 They are encouraging us, like for example Sarah, 00:30 who it says, received strength and was able to 00:33 deliver a child long after her age. 00:37 In other words, she was past the age of child bearing. 00:39 You know, Sarah is encouraging us today, 00:41 and she is saying if you think it is too late. 00:43 If you think that you have gone too far. 00:47 That you are too old for God to bless you, 00:51 remember what God did for me. 00:53 I was past age when it was no longer possible for me to 00:55 bear a child. 00:57 God bless me with a child. 00:58 God literally did a biological miracle here James. 01:01 I mean she could not bear a child, her womb was dead 01:04 and God intervened in her situation. 01:08 In that intervention, this elderly woman was able to 01:13 become pregnant and bring forth a son. 01:15 This is an amazing spiritual lesson, 01:18 for us as well, because spiritually. 01:20 our were womb is dead. 01:23 We are incapable of bringing forth righteousness. 01:27 We are incapable of producing good things 01:29 out of our lives. 01:30 God intervenes in our behalf and brings into our 01:34 lives through Jesus Christ the necessary strength 01:37 and empowering. 01:38 So it says by faith said Sarah received strength. 01:42 Ephesians 2 says, we're dead in trespasses and sin. 01:45 We are dead, literally, spiritually dead. 01:48 The next example that we have here is Abraham again. 01:52 He returns to Abraham and her first 17 by faith 01:56 Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. 01:59 Now this is an incredible manifestation of 02:03 confidence in God. 02:05 Here is Abraham who came out of a Babylonian city, 02:09 the city of Ur with definitely its Babylonia worship 02:13 system in which human sacrifice was common, 02:15 no doubt. 02:16 Here he is called out into a wilderness wandering 02:21 wherever God is going to lead Him. 02:24 And then God says now that your wife, Sarah, has had this 02:27 child, whom I promise you would have and you 02:31 doubted, but here you have one child. 02:33 And this child is going to be the heir of promise. 02:37 Now what I want you to do Abraham, is I want you to offer 02:41 Isaac as a sacrifice. 02:43 This is unbelievable. 02:46 You think about this you have to think about the times 02:49 when God calls us to make sacrifices. 02:51 The times we are called to make sacrifices that, perhaps 02:54 are going to really great. 02:56 I can't think of a greater sacrifice than this one. 02:59 And what I believe Abraham wants to say to us what 03:02 he wants to exhort us to is trust God no matter how 03:05 great a sacrifice God is calling us to make, 03:07 to trust God. 03:08 At times, we put our hope in human things, in fleshly 03:11 things and God at times has to take these 03:13 things from us. 03:14 Or at least test us and bring us to a place where we 03:17 are willing to allow Him to take these things from us. 03:19 So that we can continue to put our faith and our hope 03:22 and trust in Him. 03:23 Now here's the thing with Abraham, James. 03:26 Abraham was told by God to sacrifice Isaac, 03:29 his only son, the son of promise. 03:32 He also had another son, as we are well aware of. 03:36 But Ishmael was not the child promise. 03:38 So here Abraham is called upon to sacrifice Isaac. 03:42 He comes right up to the point of fulfilling this command with 03:46 the knife lifted over his child. 03:48 God stops him short of making the sacrifice and just 03:53 absolutely eradicates from his heart. 03:56 Any sense of appeasement or human sacrifice, and says no, 04:01 I'm going to make the sacrifice. 04:02 I'm going to provide the sacrifice Abraham, this is not 04:07 something you can do, you are not sufficient, the human race 04:10 can not provide the atonement for their sins. 04:13 Later on, it's very interesting that God told Moses that human 04:18 sacrifices was an abomination to Him. 04:20 This is as a good point Ty, because you think why 04:23 did God do that. 04:24 Well He did for the very purpose of removing from 04:27 our understanding in any kind religious aspect, 04:30 especially towards God, the idea that He requires 04:32 human sacrifice. 04:34 Well two things had to be here first of all there had 04:36 to be at least an Abraham. 04:38 A confidence and trust in God, were He would be 04:41 obedient and follow through and in that pay path 04:45 of obedience is where we find that God will reveal 04:48 greater truth to us. 04:49 So that we can perceive and understand His character 04:52 more fully, but in disobedience, there is not greater light. 04:56 God can't communicate to us when we're turned away 04:59 from Him, walking away from Him. 05:00 Abraham follows through, he does as God says, and God 05:04 communicates to him I will provide the sacrifice. 05:07 You know, I love this in on a love as it continues on 05:10 because we find Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau 05:13 We find Jacob, when he was dying blessing both his sons. 05:16 Even the though he was worshiping leaning on the top 05:19 of his staff. 05:20 We see here people who are elderly, who people are 05:22 old people, are crippled people who are 05:24 leaning on staffs. 05:25 Today we might say they are in wheel chairs, and we find 05:28 that God is using them to bless others. 05:30 In other words, it doesn't matter how old you are. 05:32 It doesn't matter if you have to come to church in a 05:35 wheelchair, is yet to come to church with your 05:37 walker, or your cane, God can use us to be a blessing 05:40 to someone else. 05:41 God is encouraging us, exhorting here in His word 05:45 through Jacob He is exhorting us in His word through 05:49 Isaac that we can be a blessing in our old age. 05:52 Look, at verse 23, James, the next example is Moses 05:54 and a lot of said about Moses here. 05:57 It says by faith Moses, and then it goes on to 06:00 describe his experience, but I want to highlight the 06:03 active parts of what is happening here. 06:05 In verse 23 by faith Moses. 06:08 He when he was born was hidden for three months 06:12 by his parents. 06:13 So it's his parents, who are exercising the faith 06:17 here to hide him because they saw that he was a 06:20 beautiful child. 06:21 And they were not afraid of the king's command. 06:25 Then it says in verse 24 by faith Moses when he 06:28 became of age, refused to be called the son of 06:31 Pharaoh's daughter by faith in verse 25. 06:34 He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people 06:38 of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. 06:43 Then over in verse 27 by faith he forsake each ship, 06:47 and he endured seeing Him, Who is invisible. 06:50 So let me just highlight this Moses, by faith was 06:54 hidden, and his family was not afraid of the King. 06:58 Moses by faith refused, Moses by faith choose, 07:02 Moses by faith forsook. 07:05 Moses by faith endured, all of these are active words 07:09 that are describing an active, aggressive faith. 07:12 I like this to because you have parents who are not 07:15 afraid of the king's commandments. 07:17 Now parents today, we are afraid. 07:18 We are afraid for our children. 07:19 We are afraid for society, were afraid for their influence. 07:22 And so Moses as parents as encourages us to not be 07:25 afraid to what is right to what is proper 07:27 for your children. 07:28 So Moses' parents are involved here and we got 07:31 Moses himself. 07:32 Moses could have chosen to be Pharaoh he could've 07:34 chosen the riches of Egypt. 07:36 We are allured by the riches of the world by the 07:39 prosperity of the world so Moses is exhorting us. 07:42 You can lay those things aside. 07:43 What if Ty, what if Moses would have chosen to be a Pharaoh? 07:48 What if he would have chosen to be a prince in Egypt? 07:52 Where would Moses be right now? 07:54 Where would we be right now? 07:55 Moses would probably be in a museum along, with King Tut. 08:00 He probably be lined up with all of his treasures 08:03 we would be paying, we be lined up to paying 08:05 big bucks to see Moses. 08:06 Where is Moses right now? 08:07 Moses is in heaven, 08:09 Moses is in heaven, we know that because Jude tells 08:12 us that Michael came down and resurrects Moses 08:15 and took him to heaven. 08:17 We know that because when Jesus was transfigured 08:18 Moses and Elijah, who was translated without seeing death. 08:22 Were there by His side as He was transferred we know 08:25 that Moses is in heaven now think about that! 08:27 He refused the pleasure of sin for a season. 08:30 That's the problem with sin friend, it's only seasonal, 08:33 so that he could have an enduring, and non-ending 08:35 pleasure in heaven with God for all eternity. 08:38 Moses is encouraging us it is worth it. 08:41 It's worth it. 08:42 This list of individuals here in Hebrews chapter 11. 08:45 Everything that we have read about them just fills 08:49 us with awe. 08:50 I mean, we are very impressed by all that they have 08:53 achieved and then we have to pause and remember that 08:56 these were faulty weak human beings who were 09:00 incapable of achieving any of this in and of themselves. 09:04 In fact, each on of these individuals, 09:07 If their lives are examined have a record of sin upon them. 09:12 Have a life of sin in their history is incredible 09:16 that these are the individuals that were called upon 09:19 to look to as examples. 09:20 Well look at verse 31. 09:21 By faith the harlot Rahab, the prostitute Rahab. 09:24 Yes right there, what have we seen here? 09:27 She exercised faith, and you know there are many of us 09:30 who do not feel worthy to look to God. 09:32 We don't feel worthy to be excepted of God. 09:34 We don't feel worthy to be a part of God's plan of 09:39 rest and she was its not about worthiness friends. 09:43 It's faith in Jesus Christ, who is worthy. 09:46 Who makes us worthy, who accepts us because we look 09:49 to Him and we don't look to ourselves. 09:50 Rahab wants to encourage us, its not about being worthy. 09:53 Yes, none of these individuals were worthy 09:55 No and look at it, he goes on and mentions Gideon who 09:58 basically just needed one fleece after another. 10:03 One sign after another. 10:04 Barack who needed Deborah to go out with him. 10:06 Sampson who messed up over and over again. 10:08 You know sometimes you mess up so many times. 10:10 We think, can God still use me? 10:12 God still use Sampson and Sampson 10:14 is one of the faithful. 10:15 Look at David King leader and then he commits 10:17 adultery with a Bathsheba and kills Uriah, her husband. 10:21 And what is God saying, he's among the faithful. 10:24 What is that mean? 10:25 We can mess up big time, we can really fail. 10:28 But God will count as there. 10:30 David wants to encourages us. 10:31 Sampson wants to encourage us, place your faith and 10:33 your trust not in your self but place your faith and trust 10:36 in Jesus Christ. 10:37 By faith these individuals subdued kingdoms in verse 33. 10:41 They worked righteousness. 10:43 They obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of Lions. 10:48 They quenched verse 34, the violent fire, they escaped the 10:51 edge of the sword and out of weakness they were made strong. 10:55 They became valiant in battle. 10:58 All these rascals did all of that. 11:00 I mean and it's interesting because we're running 11:02 out of time and it says right here in verse 32. 11:04 What shall I say more for time will 11:05 fail to tell. 11:07 Time will fail to tell, friends of all these imperfect 11:10 human beings in the Old Testament, who by faith were 11:13 conquerors, time would fail to tell, but friends 11:16 we need to have faith, confidence in God's word. 11:19 Hebrews chapters 11 closes on a powerful note 11:22 informing us that God has provided something better 11:26 for us that they. 11:28 The faithful of all ages will not be made 11:31 perfect without us. 11:33 We have two groups of people hear James, the 11:35 faithful of all ages and then there are God's people 11:39 post Christ. 11:40 Those who live in the light of the new covenant that 11:44 better thing. 11:45 That is provided in Jesus, 11:46 is held out to you and me my friend. 11:49 Please take hold of Christ! |
Revised 2014-12-17