Faith and the Promises of God

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Hebrews 11:30-40
• Sermon
• Prayer of Closing

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Sermon Title: Faith and the Promises of God

Scripture: Hebrews 11:30-40

I. Faith Believes God's Power

A. The walls of Jericho — Hebrews 11:30

1. Corporate Israel trusted God's command to march for seven days, doing nothing militarily impressive
2. The walls fell not by human strategy but by God's power; Israel could boast of nothing
3. John Chrysostom: "The sound of trumpets is unable to cast down stones though one blew for 10,000 years — but faith can do all things"
4. Application: Will we trust God's power, especially as demonstrated in Christ and the cross?

B. Rahab the prostitute — Hebrews 11:31

1. A Gentile pagan living in Jericho, she declared: "I know that the Lord has given you the land" (Joshua 2)
2. She used the covenant name Yahweh, showing genuine belief in God's promises, not mere hearsay
3. She was spared while those who were "disobedient" — those who did not believe — perished
4. Unbelief is identified as disobedience; faith is the call before every hearer

C. The sweeping gallery of redemptive history — Hebrews 11:32-34

1. The writer pleads limits of time: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets
2. They conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises (initial fulfillment of the land given to Abraham)
3. "Stopped the mouths of lions" — Daniel in the lions' den (Daniel 6)
4. "Quenched the power of fire" — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3)
5. "Made strong out of weakness" — Gideon (least of the smallest tribe), Samson (strength restored), David (shepherd boy), Jeremiah (fearful at his call)
6. God is the main character through all of this history; these mighty deeds are the Lord's doing
7. Application: Will we trust God's power to grow his church through the ordinary means of grace — preaching, sacraments, and prayer — rather than taking matters into our own hands?

II. Faith Believes God's Preservation

A. The theme of resurrection introduces and frames the suffering — Hebrews 11:35

1. Women received back their dead: Elijah raised the widow's son (1 Kings 17); Elisha raised the Shunammite's son (2 Kings 4)
2. Both stories foreshadow Christ's resurrection work
3. Some were tortured, refusing release, believing they would "rise again to a better life" — resurrection hope is the necessary perspective for enduring trials
4. The "but if not" posture of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: God can deliver us, but even if he does not, he will raise us on the last day

B. The catalogue of terrible suffering — Hebrews 11:36-38

1. Mocking, flogging, chains, imprisonment, stoning, being sawn in two, killed by the sword
2. Wandering destitute in sheepskins, in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves
3. The world was not worthy of them — God's valuation of his suffering people stands against the world's judgment
4. These verses are to be read through the lens of God's preservation and the promise of resurrection life

C. The hope of resurrection as God's public declaration of preservation

1. Revelation 20: "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne" — raised to new life to stand before the Lord
2. Resurrection will reveal and declare to all that the Lord kept and preserved his people
3. Believers today already possess new life by the indwelling Spirit; the bodily resurrection remains the certain future hope

III. Faith Believes God's Perfecting

A. The closing verses bookend the opening definition of faith — Hebrews 11:39-40

1. Verses 39–40 correspond to verses 1–2: the commendation (declaration of righteousness by faith) given to the people of old
2. All these were commended through faith yet did not receive what was promised

B. What was promised? Christ and his benefits

1. The word "better" is a key word throughout Hebrews: better word, better priest, better covenant, better sacrifice, better home — all found in Christ
2. The Old Testament saints saw Christ only in shadow — through sacrifices, tabernacle, and priesthood — but were saved by faith in God's work through those means
3. We have the full revelation: the cross, the perfect life, the personal ministry of Christ

C. How are the people of old made perfect through us?

1. The law and sacrifices never made perfect; they could not perfect the conscience (Hebrews 10)
2. Perfection — wholeness, completeness — comes through Christ's atonement alone
3. Hebrews 12:22-23: "the spirits of the righteous made perfect" — we are already declared justified; guilt is removed
4. Because Christ came in the fullness of time, the Old Testament saints are now made perfect along with us; had our redemptive age not come, they would still be awaiting the Messiah
5. Rick Phillips: "If these Old Testament saints could believe not seeing Christ, knowing only shadows and not the reality… how much more faith ought we to have than they? Our greater privilege brings a greater responsibility."

D. The purpose of Hebrews 11 in its context

1. The chapter is not an end in itself; it points forward to Hebrews 12:2 — fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith
2. If they endured believing through shadows, how can we fall away having the full revelation?
3. God is a keeping God and a perfecting God; the call is to endure in faith to the end