Real Biblical Faith Will be Vindicated in the Victorious Lives of God's People
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Real Biblical Faith will be Vindicated 3
Hebrews 11:32-38
October 19, 2008
Series 3 Sermon 59
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Introduction
It is a natural human desire to be successful. Everyday when you pack up your coffee and your sandwich for lunch and head out the door you do so because you have a desire not just to get through the day and make a paycheck but to be very good at what you do. You want to get promotions. You want to get pay raises. So you work hard, you work smart, you work overtime, you work at home when needed in order to be successful. And in the world of business and commerce that works very well. Those who show up on time, work the whole time are just by the nature of employment far more successful than those who simply go through the motions.
Those of you who are homeschool and stay at home moms work extra hard but for a different kind of reward. Your success is in maintaining your household and home and making sure your children can read, write, do math, and one day function well in society. You love to see your children learn and when that little one learns to read it’s like you just got the biggest promotion anyone ever could have received. You know what success feels like. We all enjoy the feeling of a job well done. It is nice when we see how well we have done our jobs and we know that the job we have done is recognizable to others.
In the world success is measured by achievement. Hard work produces good results and these results are visible. At one time a person could work a job for thirty years and retire and they received a gold watch and a pension. Now we have 401k’s to look forward to at the end of our work career. And there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with the God given desire to be successful in what God has called you to do whether that be a truck driver, a project manager, a meteorologist, a convenience store clerk, a stay at home mom, a homeschool mom, or whatever your calling happens to be.
But when it comes to the
But in the Kingdom things are different. In the world the powerful, the wealthy, the comfortable are the happy successful people. But listen to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:2-11.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Success in the
What we have seen thus far is that real biblical faith often can get you killed, it will have you doing difficult things, living in foreign lands, denying the wealth this world offers for the greater joy of the reproach of Christ. Faith will be tested in the fires of adversity and as we have seen over the past two weeks ultimately this life of faith will be vindicated.
Already we have seen from verses 29-31 that real faith will be vindicated in the obedience of the people of God and also real faith will be vindicated in the judgment of the wicked.
This morning we turn our attention to a group of people whom the writer only has time to mention in passing. I want you to look at verse 32 with me. The writer says:
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—
He begins with a rhetorical question about how much more he could say about the lives of faith that we have exemplified for us in the Old Testament and the answer to that is a whole lot. And the reason he does not write more is because by now you should get his drift. The stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets should be or could very easily become very familiar to you. If you think about it for a moment this was a ragtag bunch. One of the most helpful things to me as I have studied Hebrews 11 is that this lineup of faithful people were not perfect. The Bible presents them, with the exception of Abel who was killed and Enoch who was taken by God early, warts and all. So true biblical faith does not equal sinlessness or perfection. If you go back to the Old Testament and read about men like David and Solomon and Gideon and other what you would soon find out is that they are not even qualified to hold the office of elder in a New Testament congregation because of their sins.
This ought to tell us something very important this morning. Real biblical faith is a gift of God first and perfection will not happen this side of Heaven. It should be strived for and worked toward but one of the greatest gifts of God in our sanctification is our ever growing awareness of sin in our lives. Some of you may say, “I don’t want to be so aware of my sin! I want it to go away!” I am with you on that but what happens as the Lord peels back the layers of self righteousness that we all plaster on ourselves we are continually reminded that we are in desperate need of Christ’s righteousness, the righteousness that comes by faith and not by works. So real faith is not sinless perfection it is an enduring faith that holds on to the Lord in every circumstance waiting for its final vindication. And that is what I think is so very important to see as we close out this study of Hebrews 11.
PNP
This morning from our text I want you to see one more way that God has decided to vindicate the faith that He gives His people. Previously we saw that God vindicates faith in the obedience of His people and last week we saw that God vindicates faith in the judgment of the wicked. This morning I want you to see that:
3. Real, Biblical, saving faith is vindicated in the victorious lives of God’s people.
This is going to be broken down into two sub points that I will deal with this morning. In the victorious Christian life there is much testing. There are many days of walking through the valley of difficulty and trouble in order to finally achieve that mountaintop of success. That mountaintop of success will be the final vindication of faith by God in Heaven. And in the Christian life there are several paths that God may call us to follow on our path to that mountaintop.
Purpose
And that is my purpose for preaching this passage this morning is to show you that God has already marked out the path for your life and in that path there is vindication at the end but trials and discomfort on the way. So no matter if you are successful beyond anyone’s imagination or you look like a dismal failure to the world God has called you to that and your job is to remain faithful in that calling.
RPNP
So look with me at the third and final way that God has decided to vindicate the faith that He gives His people.
3. Real, Biblical, saving faith is vindicated in the victorious lives of God’s people.
Look with me at verses 32 through 34.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
The first subpoint is this.
A. God sometimes will vindicate the faith of His people in what the world would view as real success.
All of what we read in verses 32 through 34 would be very pleasing to the ears of the world. The whole concept of conquering victors in war is popular with the world. And sometimes in the calling of God these things are necessary to accomplish His will and purpose. But they never come easy and easy is the way most people want life to be.
There is this notion in our society and in the church that thinks life should be smooth sailing all the time. But life has its storms and it has its trouble. Even the Lord Jesus confirmed this when in Matthew 6:34 He said:
34 "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I want you to understand this morning that success in the
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—
Remember Gideon? He is in his father’s winepress beating out the wheat where you do not normally do that because he is trying to keep the Midianites who have enslaved the Israelites from stealing their food supply. The angel of the Lord comes and sits down under the oak or the terebinth which was often used for idolatry. Now here is Gideon sneaking around in fear of the Midianites and the Lord says to him, “The Lord is with you o valiant warrior.” You guys can read the rest of the story in Judges 6 and see that at best Gideon was a reluctant soldier but in the moment when God decided to use him the call was unmistakable and even though reluctant Gideon obeyed the Lord and the Lord gave him victory.
Barak in Judges 4 was called by God to deliver the Israelites from the Canaanites but needed Deborah to go with him because of his timidness. Samson had all the God given ability in the world and squandered it but the Lord allowed him to redeem himself in that final act of faith. Jephthah in Judges 11 was the son of a harlot whose half brothers would not allow him to stay in his father’s house. But when trouble came they went to the
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
All of this was done by faith. God vindicated Himself and the faith of His people by these wonderful victories. These are great stories to tell of the majesty and power of God. It is wonderful to talk of God delivering His people from slavery and death and disease and poverty and injustice.
And even the world likes to talk about these things. Victorious lives are popular lives. Everyone wants to live this type of victorious life where things just seem to go your way. But in all these stories what you would soon find out is that after the victory is when the trial comes. After the mountaintop experience comes the downward slope into the valley of testing and trial. Many times that leads the Christian into great sin. We see that in the life of David.
So a word of warning is necessary here. If your life is marked out by greatness in the
Beware the spiritual victory. The only one that has ever handled that well was the Lord Jesus Himself. For some reason our human frailty does not respond well to victory. Often after a great struggle depression, despair, anxiety, and even temptation seems to come at us like a flood.
My point is this. Even when the Lord decides that He will give a preview of the vindication to come we as frail humans have a hard time handling that very well. So if you happen to have the privilege of falling into this camp then be warned. Many have failed miserably before you and you are susceptible to that same failure.
But it is a sovereign God who chooses the path. Verse 35 serves as a transition verse for us to our second sub point. Look at verse 35.
35 Women received back their dead by resurrection.
What the writer is highlighting here in this phrase is the temporariness of this spiritual victory. Even though a woman may receive back her dead child or husband by resurrection the person who was resurrected and the woman will still die. Just like Lazarus, this type of resurrection is temporary. Just like the great battles that were won in the previous verses, they leave a great legacy of faith but they were temporary victories. Which leads us now to our second sub point.
B. God sometimes will vindicate the faith of His people in what the world would view as utter failure.
I want you to notice the first word after resurrection in verse 35 and the first word of verse 36. Your translation may say “and others” or it may say others and then in verse 36 it may say “still others.” My translation says others and in verse 36 it says “Some.”
The reason I point this out to you is because of the meaning of these two different Greek words. The word for “others” in verse 35 is the Greek word “halloi.” It means a different kind or a different class of people. And in verse 36 we have the word “heteroi” where we get our prefix hetero from which means a different kind as well.
When God created Adam and Eve He made them hetero. Or we could say it like this. Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Boys are made of pots and pans and garbage cans. In other words, there is a difference.
The difference here is ultimately in the sovereignty of God. Remember who the writer is sending this letter to. Here are a group of people that had suffered and probably would continue to suffer greatly for their faith. Some sort of physical battle with great victory would have been a very nice thought indeed but that was just probably not going to happen. Their victories came in remaining alive or even out of prison for that day.
And I am sure that there were times when they cried out to the Lord and wondered why they were having to endure all these trials and tribulations.
So often our whole mindset is warped by the thinking of the world which makes it very difficult to appreciate the suffering that we sometimes are led to endure. I talked about success in the introduction for a reason. What the world views as success is not always real success.
I had an interesting conversation with a man this past week. He was telling me that in his church his pastor always has this one guest preacher that comes in and preaches prosperity to them. And he has really started to wonder if this is real Christianity or not. I could have gone after this other preacher but instead I asked the man I spoke with if he thought those same messages that were being preached to him in the United States would also be relevant to folks who live in mud huts and eat two or three times a week. Then I pointed him to the unnamed people in our passage this morning. Look at verse 35 and verse 36 and 37.
Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
Notice what is in direct opposition here to the prosperity message today. Look at the end of verse 37 again.
They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
They were not finely dressed. They were destitute, which is a much harsher word than just poor. They were afflicted both physically and emotionally and the world around them mistreated them. This other class of Christians did not live lives of wealth or ease but rather what their Lord led them through was great difficulty.
Now why would the Lord do this? Why would He treat His children like this? This runs counter cultural. This does not make sense to our finite, corrupt, human, sinful minds. What we want is a life or wealth and ease and a painless death that ushers us unscathed right into the throne room of Heaven to forever be with the Lord. That is what a lot of churches are selling these days and folks it works.
But here in verses 35 through 37 we have this other class of believers. Listen again to Matthew 5:10-11.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I want you to look again at verses 35 through verse 37 one more time.
Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
Keep in mind here that we have two different resurrections juxtaposed in verse 35. We have the temporary one where women received back their dead and then we have the eternal where the Lord receives alive forever those who were dead. Look at verse 35 again.
Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
This class of faithful was already willing to die instead of deny the Lord and His Word. They understood that this life is temporary and life with God is eternal. This truth would have been particularly relevant to this original group. After all they knew those who had shrank back and were now to be destroyed. So in this passage is great encouragement for pressing on.
But there is more here. When you put all this together and understand that the Lord sovereignly controls the lives of His people and some are given to victories and others are given to persecution and suffering you begin to see the big picture. The big picture is that we do not know what tomorrow holds. We don’t know if any of us will ever experience what these faithful people of old experienced. But we do know that there are those in our day in other parts of the world who have been killed, maimed, and are even today in prison for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it is entirely in the hands of our sovereign and good Lord whether or not we suffer or not. But let me tell you this morning that it does not matter whether you are on the mountaintop of victory or in the valley of despair or are sitting in prison waiting your execution your duty as one of God’s chosen vessels of grace and mercy is to be faithful and to hold fast.
So whatever the Lord takes you through, whatever He calls you to endure, He has first called you to be faithful and hold fast. You see, you can walk away. You can deny the faith. You can seek a temporal reward here on earth of an abundance of things but in the end you lose. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”
But to be faithful whether in victory or martyrdom puts you in another class. Look at verse 38 and notice the first phrase.
38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
This class of faithful, those who are faithful unto death, are in a class by themselves. You see the world appreciates the conquering hero. The world appreciates the rich and powerful. The world appreciates the driven successful business person who has for their ultimate goal wealth. The world appreciates the prosperity message because they want exactly what the world wants; prestige and material wealth.
But the world is not worthy of those who by choice will wander about in deserts and live in holes in the ground. The world is not worthy of those who will suffer torture rather than deny the faith. The world is not worthy of those who would be sawn in two or murdered with the sword because of their faithful witness to the Word of God.
The world can tolerate prosperity preachers. The world can tolerate “Your Best Life Now” and your “purpose driven life” nonsense. The world can accept the watered down message of most of today’s church and can live in Mr. Roger’s neighborhood together.
But what the world can not accept and will not tolerate is a faith that lives with an eye toward eternity and a life that is not focused on the here and now and caught up in the remedial things of life. The world is not worthy of the faithful person who says that they would rather die than to bring disgrace on Christ by their lifestyle.
And this type of faith which is real faith comes at a price. And thanks be to God that He is the One who sets the price and not us.
So how do you get here? How do you get the type of faith that says I would rather suffer as a Christian than experience all the wealth that this world has to offer? How do you get to the point in your walk with Christ that when your health leaves you and your wealth is gone and you are being threatened at every turn to switch off the self preservation and live to God by faith?
First, this type of faith is a gift of God and He will provide it in that moment when you need it. Real faith will be vindicated even in martyrdom.
Even though this is a gift the life of faith must be approached in a particular way. There are two aspects to this approach. First we must understand that our lives are not our own. We have been purchased from the slave market of sin, redeemed from the dungeon of depravity and have been set squarely in the
So we need to learn to live this way and I will confess to you that I have not learned this yet. I am trying and striving but I have not done so yet. So what is this way? The One who purchased us with His own blood has given us these instructions. I want you to turn over to Matthew 6 and look in verse 25 and following. Keep in mind that this is after the Lord’s Prayer which we pray every week together congregationally to our Lord. And in that prayer we are asking our Lord to provide for us as His children. As Christians we are to be as dependant upon God for all that we have as a little child like Quinton or Elizabeth Grace or an infant is on their parents. Our children grow up and become more and more independent but this is not the case for Christians. We grow up and become more and more dependant upon the Lord as we mature.
So how do we get more dependant? Look at verse 25.
25 “Therefore I tell you,(Who is telling us? The One who bought us. The Lord Jesus.) do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
(Don’t we worry about all these things? Are we not burdened by gas prices and food prices and how much clothing costs? But the Lord says not to be anxious about those things or even our lives. Let me speak from personal experience here. The weight of responsibility as a husband, a father, a Christian, a pastor, a fellow elder, a fellow church member, a homeschool dad, etc can be a heavy weight. But I am not telling you anything you don’t already know. We all carry our burdens. We all have our anxieties. We all have our questions. Will everything work out like it’s supposed to? Will my children be successful? Will I keep my job? Will my health remain? Will my retirement account stay strong? Will I be able to buy gas to get back and forth to work? And that answer to all those questions is found in the comforting words of the Lord Jesus Christ when He said and still says, “Come unto me all you that labor and are heavily burdened for I will give you rest.” You see I don’t know the answer to these questions. I can see into the future about as far as the end of my nose. But the Lord is the One who has taken the burden off of us and placed it on Himself and what we do when we worry or are anxious is to go right back over to the Lord and we take that burden back and put it where it does not belong and that is back on us. The Lord doesn’t just tell us not to worry or be anxious but provides to us the proof. Have you ever heard the term bird brain? When you call someone that what you are saying is that they are not very smart. Birds have little heads with small brains but yet they understand something that our pumpkin sized brains don’t get. Look at verse 26.)
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
(Isn’t that comforting? The Lord knows we need them all and has promised to provide all that we need. Now this is not a call to laziness or sloth but a call to trust in the hand of God. While you are in the position of being able to work you do so with the best of your ability as unto the Lord and leave the results to Him. You put seed in the ground and you can get down there and talk to them and plead with them and worry about whether or not they are going to sprout and it does not help at all. It is God that makes the seed sprout. He has called us to till the soil and put the seed in the ground but we can not make it grow. So what is our job? Look at verse 33.)
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
May the Lord help us to walk this way whether we are called to victory in battle of suffering a martyr’s death. When God’s people look to Him that is when the Lord is most glorified.
Let’s pray.
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