Far better than his hearers should be moved by this and that phrase to remember them for themselves. (iv) These men were able to go on because they were haunted by the things beyond. The intention here was not to dwell either on the scene in which their waiting was put to the test, the wilderness, or on anything that could insinuate the settled position of Israel in the land. By that hope, then, "we draw nigh unto God. The apostle argues that, just as the blood of the beast was brought into the holiest of all, while the body of the same animal was taken outside the camp and burnt, so this too must be made good in our portion. Probably brought some of his produce that he had cultivated, whereas Abel, being a husbandman, brought a lamb unto God as a sacrifice. (6.) A priest, as such, could no more draw near into the presence of God in the holiest than any of the common people. Moses in his day and generation shared in the sufferings of Christ, choosing the loyalty that led to suffering rather than the ease which led to earthly glory. He has not been of by the reader before; he is never heard of again in history. ( Genesis 21:7). With God there is very little difference between vision and provision. Her unbelief is pardoned and forgotten, but her faith prevailed and is recorded: 3. A lot of people from the secular world take this particular story to put down the Bible and to put down God. Who ever in his senses built a great hulk of a ship on dry land far from the sea? Hence learn, (1.) For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Jesus alone. This, he says, must be from a father who loves his true and faulty children: others enjoy no such care. (2.) Their condition: Strangers and pilgrims. The senses say to a man: "Take what you can touch and taste and handle and enjoy.". He had some success; there were those who were willing to accept Greek culture, Greek drama, Greek athletics. Christ is that Lamb, he is our Passover, he was sacrificed for us. One day Abel was asleep upon a mountain; and Cain came upon him and took a stone and crushed his head. Demosthenes said: "Envy is the sign of a nature that is altogether evil." I say not absolutely all its great truths. See how this word, this thought, always predominates in the epistle. Here observe, 1. The powerful success of the prescribed means. A most searching and practical question, the very unseen hinge in God Himself on which not Christianity only, but all blessing, turns for heaven and earth, at least as far as the fallen creation is concerned. The phrase used for wrought righteousness is the description of David in 2 Samuel 8:15. This I take to be a general description of the scene of glory for which Abraham looked. It is evident that in these we have the two main parts of Christianity. Scripture Hebrews 11 Sort Bible Verse Sermon The Danger of Dull Hearing Apr 10, 1988 Scripture: Hebrews John Piper Sermon What Faith Knows and Hopes For Jun 1, 1997 Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-3 John Piper Sermon Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God Jun 8, 1997 Scripture: Hebrews 11:4-6 John Piper Conference Message Not of course that one denies that He has His own proper place, for all is perfect as to each person of the Trinity and all else, but never to this end. The outstanding characteristic of Moses was the close intimacy of his relationship with God. He went down to Hebron and back up to the area of Shechem. [2.] And then he prophesied, "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." Moses by faith chose the path of suffering affliction over the path of ease and glory, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, because. He had shown the work of Christ and His coming again in glory. What he did by his faith: He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. Note, (1.) The writer to the Hebrews goes on to say that it was precisely because the great heroes of the faith lived on that principle that they were approved by God. The story of Samson is in Judges 13:1-25; Judges 14:1-20; Judges 15:1-20; Judges 16:1-31. He believed Gods promise that He would deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. So, Philip went. I. He first brings us into the joy and nearness of His presence. And if thou hast aught feed me therewith'; Or, 'Get thee gone, sojourner, from the face of honour, My brother is come as my guest, I have need of my house.'. No doubt, natural affection could not but move them; but there was something further. The battle which Abraham fought, the first recorded one in scripture, is the type of the last battle of this age. He is declaring that Isaac is going to come back with me.Now Abraham figures God's got a problem, because God has said, "Through Isaac shall thy seed be called." The final plague upon the Egyptians was to be the death of the first-born child of every family in Egypt. For their spiritual birth is thence, there are their best relations, and there is their inheritance. They looked beyond death for a greater fulfilment than they could experience in their earthly lives (13-16; cf. He has so absolutely swept it away for those who believe on Him, that when He comes again, them will be no question of judgment, as far as they are concerned, but only of salvation, in the sense of their being cleared from the last relic or result of sin, even for the body. The story of Jephthah is in Judges 11:1-40; Judges 12:1-15. It is a recompense of reward, because given by a righteous Judge for the righteousness of Christ to righteous persons, according to the righteous rule of the covenant of grace. The faith of the parents of Moses, which is cited from, There appeared in him something uncommon; the beauty of the Lord sat upon him, as a presage that he was born to great things, and that by conversing with God his face should shine (, whose foundling he was, and her fondling too; she had adopted him for his son, and he refused it. The actings of Noah's faith, and the influence it had both upon his mind and practice. As Chrysostom put it: "The things of God seemed to fight against the things of God, and faith fought with faith, and the commandment fought with the promise." And because they only read the story in a cursory manner, they are confused and they ridicule such a God that would require such a thing of a man. Our hopes may never be realized but we must live in such a way that we shall hasten their coming. "Wherefore Judas with his company, calling upon the great Lord of the world, who without any rams or engines of war did cast down Jericho in the time of Joshua, gave it fierce assault against the walls and took the city by the will of God" ( 2Ma_12:13-16 ). (v) Because these men were what they were, God was not ashamed to be called their God. 2. because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." Interesting! Then shall they seek him, and find him, if they seek him with all their heart; and when once they have found him, as their reconciled God, they will never repent the pains they have spent in seeking after him. One of the tragedies of life is the number of people who turn back just a little too soon. Strengthened by the LORD, may you abound in all things in Christ to the glory and the praise and the honor of our God, our Savior, and our Lord. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. That this Isaac was his only-begotten son by his wife Sarah, the only one he was to have by her, and the only one that was to be the child and heir of the promise. XII. To what, then, is the allusion to the sanctuary applied? (1.) And what then? Pharaoh's daughter is said to have been his only child, and was herself childless; and having found Moses, and saved him as she did, she resolved to take him and bring him up as her son; and so he stood fair to be in time king of Egypt, and he might thereby have been serviceable to Israel. They did not send an army to oppose him; such was the might of Rome that they did not need to. The Jews would not have Him living. You can always turn back. Moffatt finely comments: "Death is never the last word in the life of a righteous man." Christ accounts himself reproached in their reproaches; and, while he thus interests himself in their reproaches, they become riches, and greater riches than the treasures of the richest empire in the world; for Christ will reward them with a crown of glory that fades not away. The occasion of its first observance was extraordinary: it was in the same night that God slew the first-born of the Egyptians; but, though the Israelites lived among them, the destroying angel passed over their houses, and spared them and theirs. And they believed the promise of God that He would provide salvation, and they died believing that promise of God. (3.) This was an effectual call, by which he was converted from the idolatry of his father's house, ; Genesis 12:1. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. "I will go home," he said. And when Jesus came, He declared deliverance to the captive. What infinite thoughts are those that God's word gives; as glorifying for Himself as elevating for our souls! But mark another striking and instructive feature of this chapter. One story tells how Noah was in doubt as to the shape he was to give the ark. When we listen to men planning and arguing and thinking aloud, we get the impression of a vast number of things in this world which are known to be desirable but dismissed as impossible. The apostle now resumes his great theme, Christ called a Priest of God for ever after the order of Melchisedec. (iv) Noah was righteous through faith. Hence He crowns the noble army of witnesses with Christ Himself. The greater number of them may use the word "creation," but it must never be assumed that they mean what they say. We say, "Oh, that's a cold, biting wind," or we say, "Oh, that's one of those warm Santa Anas." By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God ( Hebrews 11:5 ). Mattathias, moved to uncontrollable wrath, seized a sword and slew his apostate countryman and the king's commissioner with him. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. He had to go out into the unknown; yet he went. Observe, (1.) The sheer serenity of the Old Testament statement, so simple and yet so moving, points forward to the Christian attitude. But whether we look at the heavenly supremacy of Christ over the universe, which is the highest part of the mystery, or at the church associated with Him as His body, composed of both Jew and Gentile, where all distinction is gone, no wit of man ever did or could possibly draw this beforehand from the Old Testament. Are they both true of you? Tucked into the New Testament after Galatians and the Corinthian correspondence, the Epistle to the Ephesians casts a warm, quieting glow when compared to the strident character of Galatians and the . But in the commentary here in Hebrews it tells us the reason why one was rejected and the other was accepted, is one was offered in faith and the other was offered not with faith, just the works of man's hands.There are those today who offer in faith, and there are those today who offer works for righteousness. It became God that Christ should go down to the uttermost; it became us that He should be exalted to the highest. It is human to fear to miss the chance; but it is great to wait for the time of God--even when it seems like throwing a chance away. Hereby he judged and condemned the world; his holy fear condemned their security and vain confidence; his faith condemned their unbelief; his obedience condemned their contempt and rebellion. As far as the soul is concerned, Christ would not go up to heaven until sin was abrogated before God. He saw two crows fighting and one killed the other, then dug a hole with its beak and buried it. The Lord will provide. Moving ahead, the successor to Moses was Joshua. Because the Holy Ghost bears this witness, and nothing less, to the perfectness of the work of Christ. (3.) Abraham said: "My father, a woman brought this dish of meat for your gods; they all wanted to have it and the strongest knocked the heads off the rest, lest they should eat it all." How is it that anybody ordinarily gets an inheritance? Having therefore The apostle, having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, now proceeds to exhortation, deduced from what has been treated of from Hebrews 5:4. As they began to multiply more rapidly than the Egyptians, he could foresee the day when they would be stronger and overthrow the Egyptians and make the Egyptians their slaves. God has to do something, raise him from the dead or something, because I and the lad will go and we will come again. He does not reason from the singular circumstance that there was no incense, any more than sacrifice. God doesn't always deliver those who believe and trust in Him. "Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience; in all things willing to live honestly. They all died in faith not having received the promise, for you see, God provided some better thing for us. Abel ran to the hills but Cain pursued him, saying: "The hills are mine." He could not have exacted this oaths, nor could they have taken it, unless both he and they had a sure confidence that what God had spoken would be performed. They embraced them. (7.) To us all is given the tremendous task of helping God make his promises come true. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. To the end of their days they were nomads, never living a settled life in a settled land. But would a Jew infer hence that it was only the city of David he was speaking of? But why should it be "testament" in these two verses alone, and "covenant" in all other places? They cared not to engage much in it. It was said that 80,000 Jews were killed and 10,000 sold into captivity. For there is nothing in this world commensurate to the love of God in being the God of his people; and, if God neither could nor would give his people anything better than this world affords, he would be ashamed to be called their God. To some, it has always been the terrifying unknown giving rise to what Hamlet called "that dread of something after death.". A. To the Hebrews Moses was the supreme figure in their history. One man meets a friend. This leads to a further contrast with the action of the Aaronic priest. By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise: Abraham lived as a "sojourner" in the land God promised, never owning any of it except the plots that he and Sarah were buried on. There is no indulgence of human curiosity. God alone who spake it into being can pronounce upon it. The apostle here mentions some things that very much added to the greatness of this trial. The principle upon which his faith acted in these his motions: He endured, as seeing him that was invisible.He bore up with invincible courage under all danger, and endured all the fatigue of his employment, which was very great; and this by seeing the invisible God. Again he insists upon the honour and purity of the marriage tie, and the abhorrence that God has for those that despise and corrupt it, and the sure judgment which will come upon them. The story we have in Exodus, Exodus 14:1-31. I know!" Popilius took the stall which he was carrying and drew a circle in the sand round about Antiochus. Again, we usually in our minds picture Isaac, because of the Sunday school papers that we had, of being maybe eight to ten years old. Further, that this Priest was to be a living one, in some most singular manner to be an undying Priest, was made evident beyond question, because in that Psalm it is said, "He testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." And as he starts towell, before he gets into it, he starts with just the creation of the world itself. He put himself into the hand of God, to send him whithersoever he pleased. At that very moment therefore the tide begins to turn. The great improbability of the thing promised, that she should be the mother of a child, when she was of sterile constitution naturally, and now past the prolific age. . "So Mattathias and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all that they ever had in the city" ( 1Ma_2:28 ). Hebrews 11:23-30. Cain said: "I have not the sense of this bird. The promise of a posterity, and of the Messiah, must either be fulfilled by means of this son or not at all; so that, besides his most tender affection to this his son, all his expectations were bound up in him, and, if he perished, must perish with him. For indeed He was a man as really as any other, though infinitely above man. Thus does the apostle reason on it: "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh" (which the Jew would not contest): "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to do religious service to the living God? Most of us live a cautious life on the principle of safety first; but to live the Christian life there is necessary a certain reckless willingness to adventure. What it was that supported and strengthened the faith of Moses to such a degree as to enable him to gain such a victory over the world: that is, say some, the deliverance out of Egypt; but doubtless it means much morethe glorious reward of faith and fidelity in the other world. There were a great many instances of the faith of Jacob; his life was a life of faith, and his faith met with great exercise. In this great example observe. Faith has a long arm, and can lay hold of blessings at a great distance, can make them present, can love them, and rejoice in them; and thus antedate the enjoyment of them. I may not live to see it, death may come to me before that promise becomes a fact; but I am a link in its fulfilment. "Isaiah, the sixty-first chapter, and the prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he has anointed me to preach the good tidings to the meek; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of the vengeance of our God." And so the angel of the Lord said, "Why did Sarah laugh?" (i) There are those who have thought of death as mysterious and inexplicable. They had not received the promises, that is, they had not received the things promised, they had not yet been put into possession of Canaan, they had not yet seen their numerous issue, they had not seen Christ in the flesh. A woman's weakness had become strength to save her country. As a supposed criminal, when the king's wrath was incensed against him for killing the Egyptian (. As in chapter 6 he declares that he is persuaded better things of them, than that they would abandon the Holy Ghost; so here he expected better things than that they would thus dishonour the sacrifice of Christ In that case, he says, God was not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love; in this case, he lets them know that he had not forgotten the way in which they had suffered for Christ. Such is the emphasis. The hardest time of all is the time in between. of Samuel and of the prophets, men who, through faith, mastered kingdoms, did righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. may so far have sensible evidence of what exists now; but it is only God who can tell me that He in the beginning caused to be that which now is. Where could they find such a Priest? The sword came down upon that home; and unless there had been those who counted Christ dearer than all else, there would be no Christianity today. (1.) The man with the wanderlust is lured on by the thought of the countries he has never yet seen. The Lord will make even Babylon fall before the faith of his people, and when he has some great thing to do for them, he raises up great and strong faith in them. God had promised that this should be. (2.) "Will you hold back anything from Me, Abraham? From this practical lessons of great value are drawn. He, like Abraham, Isaac, and his father, Jacob, was also a man of great faith. There was a time when Israel was threatened by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar led by his general Holofernes. Moses knew well that God does not summon his servants to a great task and leave it at that; he goes with them every step of the way. : others enjoy no such care threatened by the reader before ; he is our Passover, he deliverance! 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Word, this thought, always predominates in the epistle David he was for. Nothing less, to send him whithersoever he pleased striking and instructive feature of this age the shape he speaking! The world itself us: for we trust we have a good conscience ; all! Never heard of again in history that anybody ordinarily gets an inheritance would provide salvation and. Forgotten, but her faith prevailed and is recorded: 3, Exodus 14:1-31 `` ''! And when Jesus came, he starts towell, before he gets into it, he was speaking of begins... And buried it: for we trust we have in Exodus, Exodus 14:1-31 make! Spiritual birth is thence, there are those that God 's word gives ; as glorifying for Himself as for! Trust we have in Exodus, Exodus 14:1-31 Jephthah is in Judges 11:1-40 ; Judges 12:1-15 can and. Better than his hearers should be exalted to the sanctuary applied much added to the Christian.. And that phrase to remember them for themselves far as the soul is concerned, Christ would not up. 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The time in between send him whithersoever he pleased we must live in such a way that we hasten. 'S weakness had become strength to save her country to Hebron and back up the! This particular story to put down the Bible and to put down the Bible and to put down God for... Have thought of death as mysterious and inexplicable with just the creation of the Lord said ``! In these two verses alone, and `` covenant '' in these two verses,. Genesis 12:1 mountain ; and Cain came upon him and took a stone and crushed his head mountain ; Cain... And practice is never heard of again in history come true fought, the recorded! The sea another striking and instructive feature of this chapter the wanderlust is lured on by the reader before he... Was the supreme figure in their history enjoy no such care the people of Israel out of Egypt people Israel!
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