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Dear heavenly Father, we thank You so much that You truly do love us,
that You care for us, that You've done everything in Christ
to meet every need of our hearts. Help us
to really understand all that we have in Him.
Help us to know the fullness of this New Covenant, and to live it out
in our day to day lives. Thank You for this, and we praise You for it,
in Christ's matchless name, amen.
Well, Hebrews chapter 11, we're actually going to jump back
just a couple of verses and pick up in Hebrews 10:38
and 39; before we do, again, the proposition
of this book is one simple thing, and it is this:
The New Covenant is superior to, and takes the place of the Old Covenant.
We as believers today live in the New Covenant.
This New Covenant was ushered in by Christ, it was ratified
by His blood shed on the cross, and it's the covenant
that governs our relationship with the Lord. The Old Covenant was
set aside; the Old Covenant was made obsolete by
this New Covenant. So we live in the New Covenant. This New Covenant
is superior to, and takes the place of, the Old Covenant.
Now, in this New Covenant, it is
experienced by faith. The Old Covenant was a covenant
of Law. It was meant to point people forward
to Christ, but so many folks just looked at it and said,
"These rules, these regulations are to govern us,
and that's all that we have." But Christ
always spoke to them back in the Old, saying that there's something better coming
along. There was a number of people back in the Old Testament
that caught wind of that. They actually expressed
a heart of faith towards the Lord. That's what we're going to see
in this particular chapter; chapter 11.
Now, back in chapter 10, verses
38 through 39, let me just read that.
"And, but my righteous one will live by faith. I take no pleasure
"in the one who shrinks back. But we do not belong to those who shrink
"back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith
"and are saved." So last week, Richard kind of walked us through
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
and how it compared to the Old Covenant sacrifices.
The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins,
they merely covered sins. Christ's blood took away sins once
and for all. Christ's blood made us holy, set us apart for God's
use. Christ blood perfected us, delivered us to God's
desire for each and every one of us. God, Christ's blood
is the confidence we have to enter into a relationship with God.
To be able to boldly call Him, Daddy, Father.
He says, don't shrink back from this.
Don't shrink back to those Old Covenant sacrifices. They couldn't do
what you envision them doing. Only the blood of Christ
can do that. So to move forward with Christ, takes faith.
And that's why he ends this particular chapter with this verse. "Now faith
"is being --or my Righteous One will live
"by faith." Now, this particular verse is
repeated three times in the New Testament.
It was first delivered to the people of Israel by the prophet
Habakkuk. Habakkuk 2:4, "But the righteous
"will live by faith." Paul repeated it in the book
of Romans. Romans 1:17.
He repeated it again in the book of Galatians.
Galatians 3:1, then the writer of Hebrews picks up on this particular verse
right here in this section, Hebrews 10:38.
When you look at the three places that this particular verse
is used; in Romans, Paul emphasis
the righteous. The book of Romans is about
God giving us His righteousness in Christ.
So, through faith in Christ, we have become the righteous
ones. In the book of Galatians, Paul emphasizes
the word lived; but my righteous ones, or the just, will live
by faith. The letter
of Galatians, and here in Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews
emphasizes the word, 'faith'. But my righteous
will live by faith. So, this has been
threepeated. You've seen that word used.
I think Riley, Pat Riley
the general manager of the Miami Heat, when he was the
coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and they were about to defend their
title for the first--the third straight year; he actually trademarked
the word, 'threepeat'. He had T-shirts made for the Lakers
Threepeat. Well, the writers of the New Testament
have threepeated this particular phrase. Why? Because it's important.
Whenever they repeat something,
it's for emphasis. Here in Hebrews, we're seeing the emphasis
placed on faith. Now,
in this particular passage, we see two groups of people.
We see the shrink-backers, and we see the faithers.
The shrink-backers are those who hear the message,
and they see the benefit of the message,
but they shrink back. They go back
to Old Covenant living.
Then there are the faithers. Those who hear the message,
who see the benefit and whose hearts respond
by faith. So, the writer of Hebrews is trying
to encourage the Shrink-backers to become a part of the
faithers. To change their jerseys.
To give up wearing the loser
shirt, and put on the winner shirt.
Because there's no victory in the Old Covenant. There's merely
condemnation and death. No matter how hard
you try, the Old Covenant still condemns,
judges, and renders death.
That's just the Old Covenant. So the writer is saying
take off that jersey! You don't want to be part of
the shrink-backers. You want to be part of the faithers.
Because those who have faith in Jesus take on His
victory. The victory He won at the cross becomes your victory.
The victory He experiences in resurrection becomes your victory.
The victory He has seated on the right hand of God
the Father, becomes our victory, because that's where we will be in Christ.
Shrink-backers; God takes no pleasure
in those who shrink back in fear. Why do you shrink back?
Why do these folks not move forward
Well, we all hate change, don't we? Nobody likes
change. We like small
little bitty itty changes, but not broad
scaled changes. I like
my shrink-backer jersey. Maybe if we changed the color
of it, but it is still the shrink-backer jersey. I'd be alright.
But to actually take that off, and put on a new Jersey,
we don't like to do that. Why? Because we're afraid we don't know
what the future might hold. What will people think?
Is it the right thing? Is God really leading me
to do that. So, we get bound up in fear, and so we shrink
back. When we shrink back, God takes no pleasure in that.
He doesn't like the Shrink Backer Jersey.
So He doesn't take pleasure in that.
Here's the reason.
Because the end for those who are part of the shrink-backers team
is destruction. Every time
they get on the field, they lose.
And it's not just that the
scoreboard shows that they lose, the end is destruction.
Their end is eternal separation from God.
Why? Because they choose
to put their destiny on
their shoulders. They continue
to offer up the works of the Law
that never meet the standard for righteousness.
So the Law keeps
saying, 'You're guilty,
you're guilty! You're guilty! That's the only word
the Law knows! Well, it knows condemnation
and it knows death. So it knows three words.
But those three words are the only three words are the only three words that the Law speaks.
So God takes no pleasure in those who
shrink-back, why? Because their end is eternal destruction.
But what about the faithers? What does God say about the faithers?
Well, the faithers believe.
They live by faith. They hear the message of Christ;
they recognize the value of His shed blood on the cross. They recognize
the victory that was obtained in His resurrection. Their hearts
respond in faith. They believe!
They believe.
When they believe, they're saved. The victory
of Christ becomes theirs.
So the writer of Hebrews is going to be asking the question: which group do you belong
to? Are you wearing the shrink-backer jersey?
Or are you wearing the faither's jersey?
Because only one is going to win.
Those who have faith are saved.
Now what does God say about faith?
Well, He says this. Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is being sure of what
"we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."
Richard did a series on faith in the summer.
Four messages. Powerful
stuff, and I think we have that as a set, don't we?
Not yet? Okay. Well, soon, it will be available
as a series and if you missed some of that, I would encourage you
to pick it up. He did a fantastic job of laying out what it means to
walk by faith in Jesus Christ. A lot of what he said centered
on this very verse: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain
of what we do not see. One of the commentaries
that I will look at occasionally is done by a guy named
Kenneth Weast. He does a really
remarkable job at looking kinda underneath the hood
to reveal what the writers are really saying in
the word choices that they make. One of the people he
researched had this to say about faith: Faith is
the title deed of things hoped for. So, when we respond
by faith, God gives us the titled deed, assuring us
of our eternal inheritance. That title deed
belongs to us forever. The word
"certain" in many renderings is the word
evidence. It's the proof of unseen things.
We can't see our eternal inheritance, we can't even see God.
God is spirit. Our eyes can't see Him.
But, through faith, we know He's real.
Faith is the evidence that these unseen things are real.
Faith is that, by which invisible things are proved, and we are
convinced of their reality.
Look down in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 27.
It says this about Moses: "By faith, he left Egypt,
"not fearing the king's anger, because he was looking ahead
I was reading verse 26,
I got messed up. "By faith he left Egypt, not hearing the king's anger,
"he persevered, because he saw Him, who is invisible.
Pretty neat, isn't it?
Moses looking forward, saw Him who is invisible.
Think back in that story in Exodus 34 where Moses said
"God show me Your glory," God said, "okay" and He put Moses in the
crevice of a rock. And the glory passes by. Moses sees
just the tail end of the glory of God.
By faith he saw what was invisible.
That's what faith does for us. It enables us to see the invisible
realities, which are truly the only realities.
So faith is being sure of
what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.
We can't see all of the wonderful benefits
of the New Covenant.
But by faith, we know they're true.
It says that we all know God.
That God's laws have been written on our hearts and minds.
We can't see those things, but by faith we know they're true.
And as we abide by faith, we see them manifested
in our day to day living. That's what faith does.
Now faith pleases God.
Those who shrink back,
back to the Law, back to the works of the Law,
those folks don't please God.
Only through faith can we please God.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Because anyone who comes to Him, must believe that He exists, and that He
rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
What does it mean to please? What does it mean to please God?
It means to gratify Him completely.
God created us to live in dependence. We're not
independent beings, as satan would have us think.
That was the lie in the garden, "You can be like God, you don't have to do
"depend on Him. You can be independent"
But God created us to be dependent.
And a life of faith, expresses that dependency.
When we're living as God created us to live,
it gratifies Him completely. Why? Because
we've been delivered to the goal that God had in mind for us.
It's always been a life of faith.
It's never been a life dictated by Law or
rules or regulations. That's never been God's purpose.
That's never been in God's mind for His people.
It's always faith. Why? Because faith is what
pleases God, because anyone who comes to Him, must believe that
He exists. Must be able to see that which is invisible.
Then, He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
When we see the invisible God,
He proves Himself to be a rewarder.
A rewarder of life. We who were dead
in sin, received the greatest reward of all, when Jesus Himself
makes us alive, raises us so that we can live
in the newness of life. Life characterized by
faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God
Now, the purpose
of Hebrews chapter 11, is to show
the writer's audience, that this has always been the case.
They believe that the Mosaic Covenant
was to govern their relationship to the Lord. "If you obey my
"commandments, then you will be my people." So the responsibility
was on their shoulders. It was a covenant that they believe
that was made up of human effort.
That was made up of trying your very best.
and in hopes, that when you came to the end,
that your good deeds would outweigh your bad deeds.
That's never been God's purpose.
It's always been about faith. So he goes back
in time to show us these great men and women
of faith. He commends them.
You know there's this passage in
the gospels where Jesus says, 'Well done, My good and
"faithful servant." And I think that anyone who knows the Lord,
I think anyone who has come to Him by faith
anyone who is born again of God's Spirit, hopes beyond
hope that those are the words
we will hear when we go to stand before Him. "Well done,
"good and faithful servant." Well in the book
of Hebrews 11, that's what he's saying.
Well done. The saints of old were commended for
their faith. And guess what? God is going to commend
you for your faith. It's not going to be
for all the wonderful things that you have accomplished. All the things
that the world may look at, and say, "Wow, what a wonderful person
this guy or gal is." God is going
to commend you and me for our faith in Him.
Our faith in Jesus Christ. That's what matters.
When you read the New Testament, you see this theme
repeated time and time again.
The only thing that counts, Paul wrote to the Galatians, is faith
expressing itself in love. What matters to God? Faith!
The heart that is living by faith is going
to manifest the love of God in this world today.
John, in his first letter, wrote about that as well, "The commands are this,
"to believe in the Lord Jesus, and to love others as Christ has loved you."
Faith. That's how
we express our love to God, and for God.
There were men and women in the Old Testament
who lived by faith.
In this chapter, God commends them for that very thing.
Couple of points to make before we dive into some of the
stories. First, Hebrews 10:10
17 & 18, "And the Spirit tells us,
that in this New Covenant, God remembers our sins no more.
and where these sins have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice.
So, in this New Covenant, what do we
know? We know that God remembers our sins no more.
Hebrews 11 is the perfect proof
for that being the truth.
Not once does he mention the sins of the people.
in the Old Testament. Not once. Their sins were many,
Moses was a murderer.
David. We know about David and Bathsheba
we know about him sending Bathsheba's husband, Uria to the front lines,
so that he could be killed in combat. We know about Abraham
lying about Sarah. We know the things that he
did. We can just go down and look at every single person
and their sins would be many. But right here, in Hebrews 11, God remembers
their sins no more. So
the point is this: When God tells your story,
yours is going to be a story of faith.
God tells your story to the next generation, not one
of your sins will be mentioned. When you go and stand before God,
when you are in His presence. God is not going to pull out that video
camera; projector; and project your life
and all your many sins to the heavenly host.
Why? Because Jesus took them away, once and for all.
He remembers your sins no more. This chapter
is proof positive of that aspect of the New Covenant.
That's good news, isn't it? That is good news.
Now, does that mean
that in our day to day lives, when we blow it, that God just winks at it?
and puts it under the carpet? Absolutely
not. God deals with us in love.
Why? Because our choices have consequences.
in the lives of other people.
When we look at sin,
us, through the New Covenant lens,
we don't look at it in terms of violation of Law.
Oh, I violated, I
violated, I transgressed this Law, so punishment is forthcoming.
That's not the New Covenant view of sin.
That is one definition of sin that speaks clearly
to the lost world. But to those of us who are in
Christ, we begin seeing sin in a different way
We begin asking the question, what did that act
do, in the life of another person? What consequence
did it bring to those that it impacted?
Husbands, guess what? You do things
in your marriage to hurt your mate.
Maybe none of you in this room.
But you do, don't you.
And when that happens, if you know that you're in Christ, if you know
that you're living out this New Covenant, you're not sitting there, pleading your case to your wife
saying, "I didn't mean to do that!"
You're looking at her in the eye, and saying, "I am so sorry
that my actions hurt you.
I am so sorry
that my decisions to put my needs and my wants and my desires
over and above yours, brought a consequence of pain
and suffering in your life." That's the New
Covenant look, and that's what this relationship, this abiding in Christ
leads us to. So we can see outwards, always,
How the life of Christ manifested through us, brings positive wonderful things
in the lives of others.
How our lack of faith can cause damage.
That's the present aspect of abiding in Jesus.
When He tells our story, He remembers our sins no more.
What are we going to learn about faith?
I'm not going to read through the particular chapter.
I encourage you to do so. But I'm going to point out some things about faith
that the writer reveals to us.
First, faith understands that the universe was formed by God.
aspect of faith. Faith understands that the universe was formed by God.
Can we see this?
As much as science would like to prove another origin
of the universe, it will never get there.
Because at some point, God has to enter the picture, and God is
unseen, and if you don't know Him through Christ, He is unknowable.
So we have to
by faith, understand that the universe was
was formed by God. By faith,
we rely on a substitute for forgiveness of sins.
Abel was that. He brought a sacrifice
a better offering than Cain did, and by that offering
he was made acceptable in the sight of God.
So we have to understand that faith relies on a substitute.
There's nothing that I can bring that's going to satisfy
God on my behalf. I'm going to have to rely
on the sacrifice of Christ. I'm going to have to rely on the fact that He stood in my place
that He became my substitute, and that He took my place.
that He took the punishment of sin. Faith trumps
death. Love the story of Enoch. He was just walking along,
and *poof!* he's gone! Went into God's
presence. He never experienced death.
Boy that would be great, wouldn't it? If we could just be walking along and all of a sudden
*poof* we're in the presence of God. Who would vote for that?
I think we all would, wouldn't we? But faith trumps death.
Faith trusts the plan of God. Put yourself in
Noah's shoes, and you hear God say,
"Build this ark, and here's the specs for it, here's how long it's supposed to be,
"and how wide, and here's the type of wood you're supposed to have, and
build it"
Would you? I think a lot of people would say,
that's crazy stuff. Really? There's going to be a flood?
It's going to destroy the world, and only those on this particular boat are going to be
saved? Noah didn't care what people were going
going to think about him. He built the ark.
What's the plan of God for us? Well, it's not a boat, it's Jesus.
The world thinks we're crazy to trust Jesus.
The world thinks we're crazy to have all devotion
to Him. But He's the plan of God, and faith trusts
the plan of God. Faith longs for a heavenly home. Abraham
picked up stakes, and he left his home.
Didn't know where he was going. Even when he got there, he
said, "I know this isn't my home, there's something heavenly for me,"
So you and I, by faith, long for a heavenly home.
We're just strangers; we're just aliens in this world. That's who we are.
The way people look at us sometimes, we really feel that, right?
Faith longs for a heavenly home, faith
reasons that, God can raise the dead. Love the story
Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22.
Here's this son of promise, and God says, "Sacrifice him"
Hold up, Trigger! He's the son of promise, why would I sacrifice
him? The writer of Hebrews says that Abraham
reasoned that God could bring him back to life.
that if indeed, Abraham had sacrificed
Isaac, had killed him as God had said, that God
could actually raise him back to life.
That's the story of the gospel, isn't it? Jesus died, was buried, on the third day was raised
back to life. That's our story by faith.
We die in Christ, we're buried in Christ, and we're raised to walk in the newness
of life. Ours is the story of resurrection, and so,
we believe that God can raise the dead. Faith says no to the temptations
of the world. Moses had it all in Egypt.
Everything the world could offer. Was raised in the palace.
Yet, he chose to say 'no'
to the things of Egypt. Faith enables us
to say, 'no' to the things of this world. As Paul wrote, Grace teaches us.
to say 'no' to sin and say yes to the Lord. That's what
faith does. Faith stands firm in a new identity.
Moses, again, was an Egyptians
not by birth, but that's how he was raised.
He had everything the Egyptian world offered.
Yet, he chose to stand with his Jewish
brothers; to let that become his identity. Why? Because
that identity was given to him by God.
So faith enables us to stand firm in a new
identity. Faith impacts the world's stage.
As it says that, David and Samuel
and some of these other guys conquered kingdoms and ministered justice
gained what was promised. Made a difference in the world.
They were put into positions where they could impact the world's stage.
William Wilbaforce
fought for 20 years to end slavery in England.
Guess what? Through his efforts, slavery came to an end.
Through faith, he impacted the world's stage.
There are people put into position today to do that as well.
Faith gives us strength to withstand trials and tribulations
Not everybody is going to impact
the world's stage. There's lots of us who are going to experience
the weight of this world; the trials and the tribulations
and it's going to be hard, and difficult. Paul was one of those guys. But by
faith, he was able to overcome, and say with all confidence,
if God is for me, who can be
against me? That's the nature of faith.
And all of these guys
in the Old Testament was commended. It says God had planned
something better for us, so that only together with us, would they
be made perfect. They didn't get to
the gift of God's spirit. They didn't get the benefit of being born
again like we do. They didn't get the benefit of having
God's Laws written on their minds and on their hearts.
But they did look forward in faith. When
Christ finished the work, when Christ
did what God sent Him to do.
Christ went back and ushered them into His presence.
Along with us, they were made perfect.
So the writer is saved.
to his Hebrew audience,
Got a history of faith; this isn't something new.
This isn't just a total
rethinking of what God has been doing.
Faith has been there all along, and now, with Christ,
you can experience the fullness of faith,
move forward. Let your hearts respond.
Don't straddle the fence. Take off that shrink-back
jersey. Put on the jersey that says
Faither. Because there is where you have
victory. Well, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father,
thank You for Jesus.
Thank You that, in Him,
that You have given us the plan of salvation,
that in Him, we can experience forgiveness and life.
That in Him, we can walk in a new identity.
That in Him, we can
make a difference in this world. We can learn to say no to
temptation and sin.
Through Him,
we can experience all that you've desired for us.
I thank You for that.
I pray that if there's anybody here, or listening
on the internet, that's been standing back,
that today will be the day that you move forward.
That faith will become a reality.
Will be evidence to all those wonderful blessings
that are unseen, that are true and real,
in Christ. Let this be the day
that you move forward in faith. Lord, thank You for Your work
in our lives. Thank You for what You're doing now.
We look forward to seeing the benefits of that,
we pray, in Christ's name. Amen.