Jesus, the Object of Faith

A lot of what we learn, we learn by examples. So as a parent, this is often very embarrassing when we notice that our children start to pick up the bad habits that we have and some of our more colorful phrases, and I won't share those with you all this morning. School works this way, right? A lot of your early education is simply watching a teacher as she writes, handwriting properly, learn mathematics or phonics that way. Exercise certainly works this way. I don't know how anyone, if you had never been to a gym, would go in and have a clue what to do with any of the equipment, right? You need a trainer. You need somebody to walk you through to show you what that's for. And there's a whole industry around fitness videos where you watch and follow people's examples. Most of us, when we get a job, we go through a period of training where we watch somebody do what we're going to be expected to do. It may be bagging groceries. It may be customer service. It may be some craft or trade. And it always looks easier when you watch somebody else do it than when you actually have to get in and do it yourself. And that's part of the point. That if we have the same abilities, once we have the same training, by following the person's example, we'll actually be able to do that thing with the same ease. In each case, it's the teacher or the trainer saying, watch me. Follow my example. And what we're going to see this morning is that one of the purposes of the Bible and all the narrative and the examples we have in the Bible are examples of faith that God has given us to learn from. It's as if He's given us people who have lived in a certain way before and He says, watch them, follow their example. For those of you who are joining us maybe for the first time this morning, we are continuing a study through the book of Hebrews. So we've been working through it piece by piece as I've preached occasionally. This is a sermon written to Jewish Christians in the first century. And the author has made the case for who Jesus is as the Son of God, the last revelation from God, the true King who is ruling over God's people now and will rule in the age to come. How he is the great priest who brings God's people actually into the presence of God. He's the fulfillment of everything that the Old Testament looked forward to. And the author is encouraging and reminding them of the urgency that they have to maintain their hold upon Jesus as the only way to God. And so what I hope for us to see this morning is that God's people are and must be characterized by faith in God's Word. We've heard that by faith numerous times as we heard the passage read. And so we'll look at this morning first what faith is in verses 1 to 7, and then to the specific examples of faith that the author gives us. So Abraham, Moses, and then a general look at God's people. So let's spend some time thinking about first what faith is in verses 1 to 7. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Now when it comes to something as important as faith, right, one of the pillars and bedrock of who we are and what we understand ourselves to be as Christians, it's important that when the Bible says, faith is, fill in the blank, that we stop and that we pay attention. So he tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So that idea of the assurance of things hoped for points to their certain reality. So there are things that are hoped for, and they're out there somewhere in the future. And faith makes those future things part of the present reality, part of the current consideration of what is real and true. And likewise, the conviction of things not seen points to the evidence of a reality that we don't experience through our senses, but is nonetheless real. It makes the future, the unseen future, a factor in present reality and current experience. And so it's like being promised, if you were a young person, that you'll inherit a fortune when you turn 50. It would change the way that you work, change the way you live, the way you plan for your retirement. It's a future consideration that affects the current circumstances. Now, in this way, faith is not something that's unique just to Christians. Lots and some may even argue that all people act in faith. They live by a system that explains the world and answers questions like, why is there something rather than nothing? What's wrong with the world? What can be done about it? And where is all this going? We don't get those answers just empirically through our experience. We accept some source for them. And it's not something that's just intellectual. We act on it. The source of those answers shapes the trajectory and the contours of each of our lives. For Christians, the source of those answers is God. And not just any God, but the God who has revealed himself through the Bible, through his word. God has provided this for us and preserved it for us so that we have what we need in order to answer these questions. So Christians understand that God created the world by his word. He created it good, and what's wrong with it is that man rebelled. We rejected him as our king, as our ruler, as our authority, and we went our own way, and that's what's wrong with the world. But that what can be done about it is that God sent his son into the world at infinite cost to himself to live the life that his people owed him, to die the death that they deserve for their sins, to be crucified and buried and raised again so that we could have life, so that God could accept us on the basis of faith in Jesus. And where it's all going is that God will one day send Jesus to return, and he will judge sin, he will sentence those who rebel against him to eternal condemnation, and he will save his people and usher them into his eternal kingdom forever. That is the message of the gospel. And if you have questions about that, friends, please talk to me or someone after the service. For Christians, faith means accepting God's word and acting on it. To be a Christian is to have your whole life oriented around the word of God. Verse two, for by it, the people of old received their commendation. So we see here that God commends or God accepts people on the basis of their faith. And we saw that at the end of the sermon last week, the righteous shall live by faith and preserve their souls. Faith here is not their feeling of confidence, their subjective sense of confidence. Faith is on the basis of hearing and accepting and living on the basis of what God has said. And the commendation that the author is referring to is something that we actually see recorded in scripture. The unfolding argument that we're going to be looking at this morning is that the author is pointing to these key Old Testament examples of people who were saved by faith. And we know they were commended because they're in the record. That's what he's saying. And this is part of why the stakes are so high for us now, church, for the heroes of this letter then and for us, because God's commendation is on the line. Being accepted by God is on the line. The author has already told us God has spoken in many times and in many ways, but in the last days, the final thing he has to say to us is through his son. And to reject Jesus is to reject God and to abandon all hope of salvation. Verse three, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible. So as we heard, creation is the starting point of understanding who we are and where the world is going. And this statement is somewhat controversial. These days there's several different views in this room, but here's the thing Christians have to agree on, is that the creation came about by the word of God. God's Word is this invisible power that produces visible results. We may disagree on exactly how that happened, how long it took, but if we discard that truth, we discard all of God's Word. Again, this is not something that we accept on the basis of some sort of indisputable evidence, that there's proof out there that makes this undeniable. We accept it because God says it. We see that the author is walking through the Old Testament narrative. Genesis 1 and 2 have to be true in order for the rest of the story to make sense. In order to have Jesus, the second Adam, we have to have the first Adam. It doesn't mean that we completely understand it all. We don't. But we have to accept it and we have to base our lives on it. He then gives us two early examples of faith, Abel and Enoch. So verse 4, by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. So Genesis 4 records for us the story of Cain and Abel. They were the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel, there comes a time, there comes a season where they sacrifice. And one sacrifice is accepted and one isn't. We have to believe that they knew and understood why that was the case, even if we don't. And Cain became angry and eventually murdered Abel. But the text tells us that because Abel was obedient, he was commended by God, and he still speaks. And that's what the Genesis 4 record is for us. His story is still told as maybe the earliest example of God accepting someone on the basis of his faith. Verse 5, by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. Enoch shows up in Genesis 5 in the genealogy of Seth, another son of Adam and Eve. And what's interesting about this passage is this repetition of this person was this old, he fathered this person, he lived so many years, and he died. And that refrain goes over and over again. And he died, and he died, and he died. Except for Enoch. Enoch did not die. God took him. And Genesis tells us that he had a life of walking with God. It was a life characterized by faith, which pleased God. And so God saved him from death. Verse six, and without faith, it is impossible to please him. Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So he's further explaining what faith is and how it works. He states the principle both negatively and positively. You can't please God without faith. And those who would draw near to God, those who would aim to please God or be accepted by God, must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Of course, it makes sense to say that if you're going to have a relationship with God, you have to believe in the existence of God. But what he's talking about is faith, except that this God, the God who has spoken in the Bible, is the one true and living God, as he says he is. And not only that, but we see that faith believes that God rewards those who seek him. This is not just accepting, but embracing God, believing that relating to God will be infinitely worthwhile for us. And the reward here, we use reward as kind of an afterthought. But the reward here is the very center of life. The reward, as we'll see, is a relationship with God himself, the very thing that we were created for, the very thing we need more than anything. The last worldview question that I talked about earlier, where is all this going? And that answer to that question in the Bible highlights the forward-looking dimension of faith in this verse. Faith takes hold of God's promises despite present circumstances and leads God's people to build their existence around a coming day of vindication, a day of judgment of evil and a day of reward for faith, eternal reward for faith. Verse seven. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. So here is yet another example, early in the story, next in the sequence of Genesis, and most of us know the story of Noah, that God told him a flood was gonna come, told him to build an ark, gave him very specific instructions as to how to do it, and Noah did so and saved his family. And the author tells us that he condemned the world. And so this story highlights a divide that exists among all of humanity. Those who are on God's side and those who aren't. Noah was an heir of the righteousness by faith. And that's language that our author has already used in the book of Hebrews. Those who are going to inherit the reward of righteousness. God's eternal favor and presence. What's interesting about Noah is that we actually have some new revelation as the story is unfolding. The main verb describing Noah's faith is that he constructed. He built something. It's what God told him to do and he did it. So that's going to be true. That example will be true for the rest of the story. Faith is accepting and applying the specific promises God has made to a particular people at a particular time. Abel didn't build anything. He didn't construct anything. Neither did Enoch. And yet all three are accepted by God on the basis of their faith, according to his specific commands in their context. And that's the principle that's gonna hold true for us as well. We have to find our place in the story. None of us have been called to build an ark. The principles and examples are here for us to learn and follow, but we have to do so in our particular context. We see also here that faith and obedience are not exactly the same thing, but they do go together. Faith involves the necessary inward resolve to act in obedience, despite whatever your personal feelings or reservations might be. Faith is a challenge because God's voice is not the only voice out there, right? There are other rival claims, there are other rival instructions, and yet God's voice has to be the most authoritative one. When God speaks, we listen and obey. Something else just to note at the outset, we'll see this played out a few times here. Abel was accepted by God and he was murdered. Enoch was accepted by God and he was taken up. Noah was accepted and then he was called to live a long life of suffering, building the ark before being delivered through the flood. Acceptance by God is not a guarantee that things will go well for you in this life. Sometimes it might, but faith is the resolve to trust God despite the circumstances of this life, trusting in what he has in store for us in the next. So now we'll transition here to look at the rest of the chapter, and it's built around two main examples of the faith, Abraham in verses 8 through 22, and Moses in verses 23 to 31. Two of the most important figures in the narrative Abraham is the father of God's people and he's the focus of God's saving plan. It's his family that God zooms in on to bring about his salvation. And Abraham is also the first one to hear God's commendation that he believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. That specific phrase shows up first with Abraham. Moses was the leader of God's people, bringing them out of captivity and all the way up to the edge of the promised land. And we see in these two men that their faith and its legacy becomes an example for us. So let's look second at the faith of Abraham. Both of these examples are structured around four very specific acts of faith, and then three kind of follow-up legacy examples. So we see four specific acts of faith that highlight Abraham's life. In verse 8, he obeyed and went out. In verse 9, he went to live in the promised land in tents. In verse 11, he received power to conceive. And in verse 17, he offered up Isaac. So we'll take a brief look at those. Verse 8. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. So in Genesis 12, God calls to Abraham. After Noah, the humanity had multiplied, spiraled back into evil, and that kind of culminates in the Tower of Babel, where they unite together to show their greatness apart from God. God confuses their language and scatters them throughout the earth. And then in chapter 12, God comes to a specific man, Abraham. And it's his individual story that really is the focus of the rest of the Bible. God told Abraham to go out from his home, out from his land, his family, to a land that God was going to show him. And God promised him to make him into a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great, and to bless all the peoples of the earth through him. It's an amazing set of promises. But at the same time, you consider where Abraham was at the time and what this meant for him. He was a man with a family, a community, a livelihood, security. And yet when God's word came to him, he received it. He received God's promise and he went out. God told him to go and he obeyed and went. Verse nine, by faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. And verse 10 then explains how he did this. Verse 10. He was looking forward to the city that had foundations, whose designer and builder is God. So Abraham's faith meant that for him, he could respond to God's promise, he could go live in this land, and he could die in a tent, still believing that God was going to bring him into the permanence of a great, eternal city. That was faith operating in Abraham's life. Verses 11 and 12, by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive even she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. So a second dilemma for Abraham wasn't just the land, it was the promise that he would be made into a great nation. It was a problem because he and Sarah were old and they were childless. But when Abraham was 100 and sexually as good as dead, is what the text tells us, Sarah was 90 years old, past the age, she gave birth to her son. Even though it sounded too good to be true at first, so much so that each of them laughed when God told them this is what was gonna happen, eventually, they got to the place where they considered God faithful, and that he would bring about his promise, and he did. And so from Abraham eventually came the nation of Israel, like the sand of the sea and the stars in the sky. And just imagine the Hebrew audience, the original hearers of this letter, hearing those words, reminded that they are the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. They sit there thousands of years later, God having answered his promise, kept his promise. We'll circle back to 13 to 16 in just a moment, but let's skip down to 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. So Abraham's story didn't end happily ever after when Isaac was born. In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham. He spoke to him just as he did in Genesis 12, told him to go to an appointed place, but this time to sacrifice the son he lost. And the author tells us that he offered up Isaac because God had to stop Abraham in the act, literally knife in hand, as he was getting ready to sacrifice Isaac. Now, I think all of us can feel something of the emotional weight of a situation like that, a parent looking into the eyes of the child that he's about to sacrifice to God. But for Abraham, there's even more going on than that, because all of the weight of God's promise, what he was going to do for and through Abraham, rested on Isaac. God had made it very clear, I'm going to bring this about through Isaac. And verse 19 tells us how Abraham was able to obey. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. This is so helpful because this is information we don't have in the Genesis narrative. We have an insight into Abraham's thoughts. By this point in his life, God had told him many things. Sometimes they seemed impossible. Sometimes they seemed contradictory. But the burden was not on Abraham to explain how it was going to work out. It was on God to work it out. So death, if it hadn't been an obstacle for Isaac to be conceived, it certainly wouldn't be an obstacle for Isaac now. And so Abraham was prepared to follow through with the sacrifice God provided the ram at the last minute. And figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back. Abraham was ready to go through with it. And it was like he had received him back. And we also see in Isaac a picture of the resurrection that is to come for all of God's people. Again, I think it's important for us to note here that apart from God the Father sending God the Son into the world to die a death for sinners, there's nothing else like this in all of Scripture. Right? Everywhere else in Scripture, something like this, child sacrifice, is prohibited. It's an abomination before God. But Abraham was responding to very specific revelation at a very specific context in his life that was true for him. It's not true for us. Let's look at verse 20. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. These verses really show us the legacy of Abraham's faith. Isaac and Jacob both blessed the next generations at the end of their lives, seeing God's promise was passed on. Joseph demonstrated very particular faith by insisting his remains not be buried in Egypt, where they were at the time, but being carried back to the promised land when God's people returned there. This was a promise God had made Abraham. He told them, your people are gonna go to Egypt, and in 400 years, I'm gonna bring them out. And so Joseph believed and acted on that promise. So now let's circle back to verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 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 for them a city." The patriarchs all died in faith, not receiving the promises. They didn't experience the blessings that God had promised to give them. They caught glimpses of them. They saw them from a distance, but they didn't get them. They didn't receive them. And at the same time, they acknowledge that they were strangers and exiles on earth. Literally, the text says they confessed it. They owned it. They embraced it as their identity. And the author is making it clear that they were looking for a home, but not just any home, because if they had wanted to go to just a comfortable, familiar place, they could have done that. They had that opportunity. But instead, they wanted a heavenly country. And so they live lives of faith, trusting that God would fulfill his promises to them even beyond the grave. They embrace this exile identity because they had a heavenly identity. They lived as the people of God, and because of that, God is not ashamed to be called their God. They identified with him by faith, trusting his word, so he identifies with them. The text tells us that God has prepared for them a city, a city of perfection, of permanence, of pleasure and comfort and security like nothing else we could ever imagine. It's a city where God dwells with his people. This text is requiring us to ask ourselves if we're prepared to die in faith. If we're prepared to die with unmet expectations, with unrealized dreams, with unfulfilled potential, Faith may require us to give up what we love the most, like Abraham giving up Isaac, may require us to leave the comfort and security and familiarity of a particular situation or relationship. It certainly means for all of us as Christians that we will live a life of an exile, a life out of step with the world around us, a life where we have different values and priorities and customs, a life where, if we're honest, we stand out, we don't fit in. I think all people experience a bit of dissonance that things aren't the way that they're supposed to be. Even the best experiences fall short and are short-lived. But Christians know that the reason for that is because we were made for a relationship with God. Nothing will satisfy us apart from Him. And so we give up the futile quest to find meaning in the things of this life and we exchange them for the pursuit of God. If you step out of your kind of Christian shoes for a minute and just look into this story from the world's perspective, it doesn't make any sense. The patriarchs seem delusional. Abraham sets out to make his own, to go his own way. He becomes an old man, finally has a son, and then he tries to kill him. All these guys are fixed on having this land, and then when they finally are big enough to actually occupy it, there's a famine and they go to another land for security. Of course we know, and we can even read in the story, God is an actor. He's acting, he's bringing about promises, he's doing miracles in the midst of the circumstances. But still, if you just look at Abraham's life, and Isaac's life, and Jacob's life, the story is quite sad, unless there's more. God's promises really don't do Abraham any good in his life. The story only makes sense, and Abraham's faith is only worth something because there is something more. because there is a resurrection and a world to come. That's what they believe. And friends, that's what we believe. Christians embrace our exile identity and we live a life of sojourning because we know there is a resurrection from the dead. We know much more than Abraham and the patriarchs knew because we have it recorded for us. They saw and they greeted him from a distance. We know that Jesus died and was raised and went to prepare a place for us. He promised that He goes away, and if He goes away, He will return to bring us there with Him. And friends, just as God was not ashamed to be called their God, so too we know Jesus was not ashamed to be called our brother. Let's go on to look at Moses 23-31. The story from Genesis to Exodus accelerates 400 years. So the Israelites multiply, the new Pharaoh doesn't remember Joseph, he doesn't regard the Israelites, and he ends up enslaving them. And God's people cry out to him for deliverance, and God raises up Moses to lead them out of Egypt. As I said with Abraham, there are also four by faith statements pertaining to Moses, followed by three kind of epilogue or legacy examples flowing out of his faith. So let's look at Moses, verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. So Moses' story begins with the faith of his parents. Pharaoh had ordered the Israelites to throw their newborn males into the Nile River. And Moses's parents didn't do it. They feared God and not the king. They saw that Moses was beautiful. They saw that there was something good about him, something worth preserving. And so they acted in faith by putting him into a floating basket and setting him in the reeds where Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe. And she saw the child and adopted him. Verse 24, by faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Instead, he identified with the Israelites pretty dramatically by killing an Egyptian and then fleeing out of Egypt. 27, by faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king. So God called Moses to the particular task of representing Israel, of confronting Pharaoh, telling him to let my people go, warning Pharaoh as God brought the 10 plagues upon Egypt and eventually leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Verse 28, by faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. The last plague that God brought upon Egypt was the death of the firstborn son. God told Moses and Moses led the Israelites to obey God's word for the Passover, to slaughter a lamb, to spread its blood around the doorframe. And then the destroyer, which is God's instrument of death, would pass over the houses that had the blood. And so Israel was delivered from the judgment that fell upon Egypt that night. And we see here both in Abraham's case and Moses, this fourth by faith statement is a sacrifice that points toward the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus. So let's go back through that text and see Moses' reasons. 27, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. See, it's not simply that Moses didn't fear the king. It's that he feared God more than he feared the king. He knew that God's anger was worse than Pharaoh's, and so it was better to be an enemy of the earthly king than to be an enemy of God. And so he was able to keep confronting Pharaoh, maintain confidence in God, even as Pharaoh's army pursued them to the Red Sea. Verses 25 and 26, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Moses's choice was a choice that all of us have to make. It's an economic choice. Moses was offered the treasures of Egypt. At that time, the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth, all the privileges of being the son of the king, all the pleasure and comfort money can buy. Or the reward of being identified with God and his people. It meant throwing away all of that opportunity. It meant a life of suffering and mistreatment, a life of exile and persecution, wandering in the desert, depending upon God for daily provision, listening to the complaints and criticism of the Israelites. From the world's perspective, it's an obvious choice, isn't it? Wealth and power and comfort are what we're all after. That's what we all want. But from the vantage point of faith, brothers and sisters, it is equally obvious. The pleasures of sin are real. Oh yes, the pleasures of sin are real, but they are fleeting. No amount of pleasure in this life is worth suffering for all of eternity. So at the same time, the reproach of Christ, the mistreatment of the people of God, even if it lasts a lifetime in this life, is not worth comparing to the glory of God's eternal reward. God gave Moses a very specific role as mediator to speak on behalf of God, both to Pharaoh and to the Israelites. And Moses acted somewhat reluctantly at first, but continued to confront Pharaoh and eventually he led the Israelites out. The author tells us here about Moses's motivation. He chose to live the life of mistreatment and reproach because he was looking to the reward. Now we don't know exactly how much of the reward Moses saw or understood, but as we hear and as we read those words, I can't help but think of the song that we sing about knowing you. All I once held dear and built my life upon, all this world reveres and wars to own, all I once thought gain, I have counted loss, spent and worthless now compared to this. Knowing you, Jesus. Knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're my rest, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. And then the third verse, oh, to know the power of your risen life and to know you in your sufferings, to become like you in your death, my Lord. So with you to live and never die. Moses knew enough to walk away from Egypt and suffer the consequences. How much more than friends do we have incentive to turn away from the fleeting pleasures of sin and trust in Christ for our heavenly reward? This idea just demolishes the demonic assertion that we hear when most people die these days, that they're in a better place. Listen, church, we were reminded last week, we believe in a fury of fire that will consume God's adversaries forever. We cannot for a second give into the lie that suffering in this life can be ultimate and that whatever happens in the next life has to be better. For those who are apart from Christ, the joys that they experience in this life are as close to heaven as they will ever get. And the suffering they face now is only a taste of what is in store for all eternity. But the opposite is true for Christians, for God's people. The suffering that we face in this life is just a glimpse into hell that keeps us focused on our eternal reward, who is Christ. And so we can joyfully suffer from cancer or poverty or unpopularity because we know the one who awaits us at our death. In verses 29 to 31, we have three more examples of faith, part of this Exodus story in the next generation. By faith the Israelites crossed the Red Sea as on dry land. And that's the account in Exodus 14. After God delivered them out of Egypt, he began to lead them and they came to what seemed to be a dead end at the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army of chariots closing in on them. And God parted the sea and told them to cross through and they crossed. Something interesting about that particular example is the Egyptians also acted in faith. Right? Because they attempted to cross too. They saw the Israelites do it. They saw the walls of water and thought, well, we'll just, we'll go ahead as well. But their faith was not based on a personal relationship with God. Because God had told the Egyptians to let his people go. And so the Israelites obeyed God and the Egyptians disobeyed God. So even though they both did the exact same thing, God's work of salvation and deliverance for Israel became an act of judgment against Egypt. Verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down. So when the next generation began to take the promised land, they faced an obstacle of this fortified city of Jericho, and God gave them a really strange military strategy. Walk around the city once each day for six days, and then on the seventh day, walk around it seven times and shout, and the walls will fall down. And they did it, and that's what happened. One of the more interesting military strategies and histories, and don't think it was ever successful again that we know of, but God commanded it in that case and he made it work. These accounts illustrate for us this dynamic of active and obedient faith. You see how the Israelites felt about the walls or the water? It didn't really matter in that moment, did it? How they felt about it. Some may have walked across with complete confidence. God told us to do it, we're doing it, I'm not worried. Some may have walked with complete fear. I have no confidence that these walls are going to hold up. But all who obeyed and crossed were saved. Because friends, we aren't saved by the quality of our faith. We're saved by the object of our faith. And this is good news for us because our feelings come and go. And what matters for us is not how we feel about God at any given moment, but that we are resolved to obey his commands and trust him with the outcomes. Verse 31, by faith Rahab did not perish. So Rahab shows up in Joshua 2 and Joshua 6, and it is an incredible example of faith. In the context of the narrative, Israel, a whole generation, has been kept out in unbelief, not believing that God was going to give them the land, too scared of who occupied it. And here you have Rahab, this Canaanite prostitute, confessing her faith that Yahweh, the God of Israel, has given them the land. And they're terrified. God's enemies are terrified because they know God is gonna work. And so Rahab commits an act of treason against her own country in order to be identified with God's people, and her faith saved her life. Let's move on to the last section here, 32 to 40, the faith of God's people. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, Samuel, and the prophets." And friends, like the author, time is failing us this morning. He lists a few more names, saying he could go on and on and on about all of these different stories. There are accounts of great triumph. So verses 33 to 35. Those who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 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. Women received back their dead by resurrection. We love those stories, don't we? And we want those stories to be ours. But there are also stories of great tragedy. So verse 35, some were tortured. refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. 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, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Again here, we are confronted with the reality that faith does not always mean happy outcomes in this life. But we are inspired by these stories of endurance and spurred on to faithfulness in our own lives. And as amazing as they are, we must never forget that these accounts are not about the greatness of these individuals. That's not the point of the story. They are always about how great God is and how he is worthy of our faith. Many times we see him working in and through and despite people's failures. But that gives us hope that God will be at work through ours as well. Some of us, friends, may have similar stories to what we've thought about this morning. Christians around the world set out from what is comfortable and familiar for the sake of the gospel. Christians suffer and are mistreated and even die for the name of Christ. And some of us may be called to that. But all of us are called to live a life as an exile, to identify with the people of God, to find ourselves out of step and even face hostility of the world because of it. I can look around this room and think of many examples of by faith. Some of you, by faith, have moved away from somewhere you wanted to be. Some of you, by faith, have stayed where you wouldn't choose to be. Some of you, by faith, have left jobs. Some of you, by faith, have taken jobs. Some of you, by faith, stay home. Some of you, by faith, have lost all of your possessions. Some of you, by faith, have gotten married. Some of you, by faith, have stayed married. Some of you, by faith, have given birth. Some of you, by faith, have adopted. Some of you, by faith, have raised children. Some of you, by faith, have gone childless. Some of you, by faith, have buried your spouses or your parents or your siblings or your children or your friends. Some of you, by faith, have made friends. Some of you, by faith, have walked away from friends. Some of you, by faith, have shared the gospel. Some of you by faith have prayed, have given, have served, as you did this morning, beautifully sung. Some of you have loved, have spoken the truth in love, have asked for forgiveness, and have extended forgiveness. And as it was for the people of God then, so it is for us now. Friends, the world is not worthy. And that's why the good news for us is that the world does not have the last word. Because verse 39 tells us all these were commended through their faith. It's God's commendation, it's God's acceptance that's all that matters for us. It was true for them and it's true for us. And the author reminds us of the great privilege, the great vantage point that we have in salvation history. They did not receive what had been promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. They got to start something that they didn't get to see finished. We get to see it finished, because we see the unfolding of God's plan. We know how he sent his son to conquer sin and death on our behalf, how he raised Jesus and established his perfect kingdom through him, how Jesus will one day return to judge the world and to rescue his people. And it was God's will to unite our stories with these stories of faith, so that He would bring about our perfection in Christ, and we would receive these promises with them, together. And so, brothers and sisters, let's end where we'll begin the next time we're in Hebrews. Chapter 12, verses 1-2, with our eyes on Jesus. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you this morning for Jesus. We thank you that he is the founder and perfecter of our faith. We thank you that your grace came to us and called us out of darkness and into light, and that your grace promises that it has brought us safely thus far, and grace will lead us home. We thank you for your great promises, which are yes and amen in Jesus. We ask that you would give us endurance this morning to run the race with faith and with joy and with hope. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.