02-06-2022 – “Obedient Faith”

Bible Text: Hebrews 11:8-19 | Speaker: Pastor Mike Hale |

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February 6, 2022
“Obedient Faith”
Hebrews 11:8-19

 

See Hebrews 11:1-3…

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

 

Hebrews 11:1-3 is an awesome description of faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

 

God’s people, whether in the days before Christ’s coming, during the days He walked on this earth, or since He ascended back into heaven, have always lived by faith.   Genuine faith in God trusts and believes Him, and is expressed through action.

 

See Hebrews 11:4-7…

4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.

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.

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

 

In Hebrews 11:4-7 we are given examples of faith in action: Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable to God; therefore he was considered righteous; Enoch pleased God and was taken up into heaven; Noah found favor in God’s eyes and it was counted to him as righteousness.

 

 

In Hebrews 11:8-19 we find a lengthy section devoted to the obedient faith of Abraham, of whom

 

Genesis 15:6 says,

“He believed in the Lord; and He [the Lord] reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

 

The writer of Hebrews gives examples of faith meant to encourage all who read this letter, from first century A.D. until the end of time.

 

See Hebrews 11:8…

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going

 

Abraham called out from his family and culture, was told to go to a new land where he would receive a promised inheritance that he could neither see nor comprehend; and yet, he obeyed and went.

 

Chuck Swindoll wrote an article titled, Going, Not Knowing [Where]. How about you?  When God called you out of sin into salvation, did you have any idea where God would lead you or where you would end up?  I sure didn’t!

 

When I came to Christ on 8.01.78, I was in a 28 Detox Program in a VA Hospital in Los Angeles.  In 9/79 I went back to college, where I met Nancy, proposed to her 3/80 and we were married 12/80. Then came children: Hannah 1982, Joshua 1985, Benjamin 1987, Ruth 1994.

 

I have been teaching/preaching since 1981; I was ordained in 1986.  Together, Nancy and I have had several Going, Not Knowing experiences like Abraham, where we left familiar and secure surroundings, trusting God to provide, from: California to Ohio, Oregon, Maine, Idaho, and back to Oregon. God has always been faithful.

 

See Hebrews 11:9-10… 

9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;

10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

 

It is very likely that the early Hebrew recipients of this letter, because of their belief in Christ, felt like strangers in their own land, unable to fellowship with their families, rejected by their culture, having become outcasts, in order to follow Jesus.

 

These Jewish believers were meeting together in houses, rather than synagogues, living apart from friends and families and the culture they had been raise in.

 

As Christians, we can understand that somewhat, for we live in a nation that was founded upon the teachings of God’s Word, a nation where, until the 19th century, the majority of its citizens professed to believe that God exists and that the Bible is His Word.  That is not true today; in fact, true Christians are a minority in America.

 

But then, God doesn’t want us to be too comfortable in this world

 

(cf. 1John 2:15),

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 

for it is not our permanent home; He has something much better for us.  We should be like Abraham, looking beyond the cities and houses of stone and wood

 

(Hebrews 11:10),

“for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

 

See Hebrews 11:11-13… 

11 By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE.

13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

 

Both Abraham and Sarah were old when the promise of children was given to them by God; they both thought it was funny

 

(see Genesis 15:1,

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying,

“Do not fear, Abram,

I am a shield to you;

Your reward shall be very great.”

 

Genesis 15:5-6;

5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

 

Genesis 17:1-8,

1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him,

“I am God Almighty;

Walk before Me, and be blameless.

2 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you,

And I will multiply you exceedingly.”

3 Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,

4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you,

And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

5 “No longer shall your name be called Abram,

But your name shall be Abraham;

For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.

7 I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

8 I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

 

Genesis 17:15-17;

15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

16 I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

 

Genesis 18:10-15).

10 He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.

11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing.

12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’

14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

 

But God did just as He had promised to Abraham and Sarah.  God is faithful, and we can trust Him to keep all His promises to us, especially forgiveness and eternal life.

    

Just as God made the universe from what could not be seen, He made the nation of Israel out of one old man and his barren wife, just like He said He would.

    

Hebrews 11:12-13… 

12 Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE.

13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

 

The author of Hebrews, in verses 12-13, interrupts his list of the obedient faithful, in order to summarize some lessons from their lives, for all who read this.

 

Think about it, we will not realize the fulness of God’s blessings in this life.  We are granted eternal life, yet we will most likely die; although some of us may very well not see death

 

(cf. 1Thessalonians 4:16-17).

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Our permanent home is in heaven.

 

Either way, God’s blessings are real and His promises to us will be kept; but we must trust God to bring it about by His own power and authority, in His own timing.

 

Our life on earth is temporary and we don’t really belong here; our permanent home is in heaven and we can only get there through Christ, not by heritage, works,  law-keeping, or religious rituals, but in Christ alone!

 

See Hebrews 11:15-16…

15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

 

We have no reason to believe that Abraham wanted to go back to Mesopotamia, but he could have gone back, if he had wanted to.

 

Have you ever wanted to go back to the life you had before you believed in Christ as Savior and Lord?  Have you ever wanted to go back to a different time or place or situation in your past, to exchange where you are now for what you had before you knew Christ?  I doubt it!

 

It is possible that some the early readers of Hebrews were tempted to return to what they had known all their lives, Judaism; with all its ceremonies, rituals, traditions, and heritage, the called out people of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Twelve Tribes.

 

God, through this book, told the Hebrews, the same things He is telling us; there is something much better waiting for those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

 

We will live in God’s presence in a perfected world, forever; but we must trust God with our here and now, if we expect to trust God with our eternity.

 

See Hebrews 11:17-19…

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son;

18 it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.”

19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

 

So, how much do you really believe in and trust God?  By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac (his long awaited for son) as a sacrifice. Think about it, God said to Abraham

 

(Genesis 21:12),

“Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.”

 

Abraham believed God, and although Abraham did not know how God was going to make a great nation out of Isaac if he was dead, Abraham trusted that God would keep His promise, even if it were necessary for God to raise Isaac from the dead

 

(Genesis 22:1-18). 

1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

2 He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

14 Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”

15 Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son,

17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

 

When Abraham took Isaac up the mountain, he told his servants

 

(Genesis 22:5)

“we” (both he and his son) will return; he clearly did not expect Isaac to stay dead, although he had no idea how God was going to fulfill His promise of descendants through Isaac.

 

God provided a substitute sacrifice for Abraham’s son, i.e.,

 

(Hebrews 11:19)

“He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which [figuratively speaking, he did receive him back from death].”

 

In Abraham’s mind, Isaac was as good as dead, the knife was raised to kill him, then God rescued him, never intending for Abraham to harm his one and only son.

 

Perhaps some of you were as good as dead to your parents, your spouse, your children, “figuratively speaking,” before you repented and believed in Christ to save you and grant you eternal life?

 

God has a marvelous plan and purpose for all those who will believe in and seek to obey Him

 

(Ephesians 2:10),

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

 

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.”

 

Galatians 3:6-9,

“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

 

Galatians 3:26-29,

“For you are all sons [& daughters] of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ [immersed, placed in, buried with Christ] have clothed yourselves with Christ [put on Christ, i.e., living for Him, following His example]. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one [as children of God] in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants [offspring by faith], heirs according to promise [salvation’s blessing].

 

Saving faith begins and ends with Jesus Christ, God’s One and Only Son, Lord of all, but Savior only to those who believe in and receive Him.

 

Romans 4:16,

“the promise [forgiveness & eternal life] comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all of Abraham’s offspring.”

 

Romans 10:13,

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

 

Romans 10:17,

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

 

Listen!  Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all revere Abraham.  Both Islam and Judaism consider Abraham as the patriarch of their race (Arabs & Jews); but only Christianity reveres Abraham as the patriarch, the father, of all who, by faith, believe in God through Jesus Christ, from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

 

Jesus died for us, but He didn’t stay dead!

 

John 11:25-26,

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

 

John 14:6,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

 

1John 5:11-13,

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

 

If you believe that Christ’s death has provided you with forgiveness for you sin, and His resurrection has granted you eternal life, then should proclaim, along with every true believer and follower of Christ, as does Paul in

 

Galatians 2:20,

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

 

 
Pastor Mike
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