with you this morning, I invite you to open and turn with me again to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews chapter 11. We'll be reading verses 32 through 38 this morning. Hebrews chapter 11 verses 32 through 38. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 32 through 38. Please hear the word of our God. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced 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. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so 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 a 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. As far as the reading of the Lord's word, may he bless it. Please join me in prayer. O gracious and merciful Lord, as we come now to open your word, we thank you for these truths. We pray that you would grant us the spirit that we need to hear these words, to apply them, to rest in Jesus Christ, who alone is our salvation. We pray that in all things, he would be lifted up and magnified and exalted, whether by life or by death in our lives. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, amen. As you know, we've been working our way through chapter 11. This is actually our twelfth week. That's three months spent here in this single chapter. And there's a lot that could be drawn out of verses 32 through 38 this morning, but I want to be very pointed. So here's where I propose that we go this morning. As we read through these verses, perhaps you notice that it wonderfully divides itself into two different sections. We first have verses 32 through the first half of verse 35, and then we have from the second half of verse 35 down through verse 38. And as we look at this division, it almost seems that what the writer of Hebrews is doing here is giving us two contradictory perspectives. We're going to come to that. We're going to come back to that. But if we look at these verses here, verses 32 through Eight, we have this almost seemingly contradictory perspective that in the life of many often causes an immense tension. And so as we look at these verses this morning, all I want to do is try to address this tension that we are about to talk about. So what we want to do this morning is divide our sermon into three points. I want to first look at the prosperity of faith. That comes in those opening verses, verses 32 through the first half of 35. And then we want to turn and look at the adversity of faith. That comes from the second half of verse 35 down through verse 38. And then as we bring these two together, we want to thirdly this morning look at the resolution of faith. So we have the prosperity of faith, the adversity of faith, and the resolution of faith. So we come to our first point here in verses 32 through the first half of verse 35, we have what I have termed the prosperity of faith. You see that as the writer makes this transition in verse 32, that he opens with this rhetorical question, what more shall I say? Perhaps you remember that three months ago as we began this chapter and we looked at verses 1 and 2, we noted that this repeated phrase, by faith, had a double reference to it. It had a double reference along with the entire book of Hebrews, that is that by faith first has a theological emphasis. And the writer of Hebrews brings up all these Old Testament characters, and he does it in order to theologically point us to Jesus. In theological terminology, we might say that all of these characters were types, or they were shadows of the person and the work of Christ. But not only did by faith point us to Christ in theological emphasis, but we noted that by faith had a second, that is a practical emphasis. Not only does the writer of Hebrews want us to think about Jesus, but he also wants to use these characters to exemplify to us what does a life of faith look like. And as the writer has detailed out a number of these characters beginning with Abel and ending as we did last week with Rahab, he comes here in verse 32 with this rhetorical question which simply means that the writer could do this all day long. We have spent three months looking at these verses and the writer comes here and he says we could continue doing this. We could continue looking in the Old Testament to see how people and even institutions and events pointed to Christ. And we could continue looking into the Old Testament and seeing how these saints were models or examples to us of how we ought to live in these different circumstances or situations in life. As the writer is nearing the end of this chapter, that note there in verse 32 is that in reality, he's just warming up. And what a reminder it is to us That there is no end to finding Christ in the Old Testament. And that there is no end of being encouraged by the people and the stories that we read in the Old Testament. What a reminder it ought to be to us that we should immerse ourselves in the Old Testament Scriptures. There are some people who think that in living on this side of the cross, that we ought to only be New Testament Christians. That the majority of our reading and our meditating and our reflection ought to be reserved for the 27 books of the New Testament. And the writer of Hebrews would respond there and say, you are missing out. You are missing out on so many pictures of Christ and so many encouragements to your life of faith. And so the writer, as he transitions here, He asks, what more shall I say? And then almost like a machine gun, he says here that time would fail me. And then he lists six individuals here. Time would fail me to tell you of Gideon and Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets. He could go on and on and detail this out even more clearly for us throughout the entire Old Testament. And then you note there in verses 33 through the first half of verse 35 that he makes this general statement. He speaks of these individuals who through faith conquered kingdoms, they enforced justice, they obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the power of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword, they were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection. What is the thread that holds all of these stories that he alludes to here? What is the thread that holds it all together? We read verses 32 through the first half of verse 35. The thread that holds all of these characters together is that the writer of Hebrews is talking about the prosperity, or the victory that faith has. You note these stories, and many of these we know very, very well. Stories in the Old Testament where God miraculously and wondrously or providentially intervened into the life of His people, into the difficult situations and circumstances in which they were living. sovereignly intervened and turned these things out into immense blessing, into victories, into prosperous graces that these people experienced. We read here that the writer speaks there of those who through faith conquered kingdoms. And we think of the Book of Judges and of all these judges that God raised up to deliver Israel from her enemies, and we read these wonderful and miraculous stories of how God raised one up like Ehud, a left-handed man who slayed the king of Moab by taking that sword and stabbing it through his belly fat. And God wondrously delivered the Israelites from the bondage. Or we think of judges, the more well-known ones, like Gideon, who there conquered the Midianites and put them to flight with his small army. Or we think of Samson as he destroyed the Philistine kingdom. We read further of these people who enforced justice. And as we think of the Old Testament, you think of men like David. who God had providentially raised up to be the king over his people. David, who not only put these foreign armies to flight, but established a kingdom that was based on righteousness and justice and integrity. David, to whom all the earth flocked and stood in amazement, and whom Israel adored and loved. And we read of these characters who obtained promises. Perhaps a reference to David's son Solomon. Remember in 2 Samuel 7 that God made a covenant with David and told him that as long as you are obedient you will never lack a child to sit on the throne of Israel. And here Solomon comes and he takes the place of his father and we read In the Old Testament they're of the reign that Solomon had a kingdom, not only of righteousness, but also of peace, having received the promise from God. We read here of this character who stopped the mouths of lions. Even children know who is being alluded to here. The miraculous story of Daniel who defied the Babylonian kingdom and openly prayed and confessed his faith before a watching world and for that was cast into this pit. We see how God wondrously, miraculously intervened and he shut the mouths of those lions so that Daniel, spending an entire day in that pit, came out unscathed. We read of those who quenched the power of fire. We're reminded again of that glorious story of those three Hebrew youth of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who refused to bow down to that statue of Nebuchadnezzar and were therefore thrust into the midst of this fiery furnace. Kids love these stories because God appears. And He intervenes and these flames don't even scorch the clothes on the backs of these men. And we read of God's people who escaped the edge of the sword. We think of men like Elijah who daringly defied the kingdom and the rule of Ahab and Jezebel, of whom there was a bounty put on his head, and yet Elijah escaping from the midst of this murdering king and his wife. And we read of those who were made strong out of weakness and we think again of Gideon, his little band of a few hundred soldiers taking on the entire Midianite army. Or you think of Samson as the Lord gave him that last bout of strength to destroy those pillars and bring the temple of Dagon down upon all of the Philistines' heads. What a miraculous intervention this must have been to see weak and impotent Samson with his eyes plucked out. And God miraculously intervening and saving his people. And we read of those who became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. And you think of David's general, Joab, who seemed to have military success everywhere he went. Even when he was fighting against all odds. Or you think of King Hezekiah, you remember when the Assyrians came and surrounded them. And Sennacherib breathed threats against them and said, no God has ever delivered his people from my hand in Israel. I will destroy you as well. And Hezekiah putting this army to flight and praying to the Lord. And the Lord miraculously intervened. And he sent his death angel over the camp and 185,000 Assyrians died in one night. When they woke up in the morning, they ran back to Assyria like a dog with its tail between their legs. We read of these women in the first half of verse 35 who received back their dead. We think of the days of Elijah and Elisha. Remember when Elijah went and he visited that widow of Seraphath and her son had died. And she was mourning and grieving, and God, through the prophet Elijah, miraculously intervened, providentially intervened and brought the son back to life. We see that as well with Elisha, the widow, the Shunammite widow, as he restores a child to life again. And in all these things and stories, You see how God throughout history has wondrously intervened in the difficult circumstances and situations of His people. And He's worked wondrous grace. And He's unleashed His power, so to speak, and He's delivered His people over and over and over again in the course of history. Such that even the pagan nations were left to ask, what has the Lord worked here. And when we think of our own lives and the testimonies of those around us, we hear similar stories, don't we? Of the way in which God miraculously or providentially interrupts the difficult situations of our life. When he pours out all of this prosperous grace How many times have you heard from the mouths of a Christian that they knew somebody or perhaps they themselves have been diagnosed with incurable cancer? And they sent them to assail the throne of grace and to plead with the church, pray on behalf of me. And they go in and they get their scans done again and the doctors stand there completely baffled. Your cancer has not only gone into remission, we can't find it anywhere in your body. And even pagan doctors can be led to say, undoubtedly this was a miracle. We've heard of stories of couples who have marriages that are on the rock and they're falling apart. And it seems like divorce is imminent. And God wondrously intervenes. And He opens the eyes of the husband or the wife and He brings them back together again to deep-seated commitment and faithfulness and repentance. There are times even in our own lives when we know great triumph over temptations. Perhaps in our former life, before we became Christians, we were given to all manner of ungodliness and unworldliness and sins, and yet when Christ came, He so intervened in our lives and destroyed even the power of those things that used to tempt us, and we sit there and we can only thank the Lord and stand in awe and praise for what He has done. And you likely know as well as I do that there are some saints who seem to have a direct line to God. That every prayer that they pray seems to be effectual. That God seems to be overly pleased to answer their prayers in whatever it is. We hear stories of women who for years and decades, whose wombs were closed to infertility. And suddenly God in his marvelous and infinite grace opens this womb and a child is conceived and these parents now hold the child they longed for. We read of people who experience prosperity even in the harshest of times. Think of a George Mueller who often cared for the oppressed and the poor. You read his stories that over and over again as people gathered at his table he didn't know how he would feed them but he prayed to the Lord and suddenly there'd be a knock on the door and somebody would come with a big chicken and give it to him and say the Lord showed me that I needed to bring this to and the Lord wondrously provides in the midst of harshest times, or we look and we see that God has been faithful to our teaching our children, and they're being raised in the faith, and they're not departing from the truth that we've given to them, or we pray and we see that God strengthens His church, even in times of darkness and perversity. So often and in so many ways, God gracefully intervenes for the sake of His people. And He works this wondrous, this prosperous grace as we make our pilgrimage journey. See, the first point that we have here this morning in these characters, the first thing that holds them together is the note of prosperity. It's the note of victory. It's the note of God graciously intervening in the lives of His people to work wonders and to alleviate their hardships. But then we come to the last half of verse 35 through verse 38 and we get a different picture. We read there in those verses that 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. This isn't the prosperity of grace. This is the adversity of faith. And we read these stories and we wonder, where's that note of victory that we just read about? Where's that triumph? Where is God intervening in the difficult situations and circumstances here? We read these difficult words that of some brothers and sisters in Christ, that they were tortured. that others suffered mocking and flogging, chains and imprisonment. Some were stoned, some were sawn in two, some were killed with the sword, some were destitute and afflicted and mistreated. They weren't living in palaces and castles like David and Solomon. They weren't clothed in the garments of prosperity. and riches, but they were wandering about like beasts in the earth. They were running for their lives. They were afflicted. They were abandoned. They were harassed. And we wonder, God, why didn't you intervene? Why did God not intervene when Cain rose up against his brother Abel to kill him? Where was this note of victory when Josiah went out to make war against the Egyptians and he was killed? Or what of that weeping prophet Jeremiah, who was harassed and ridiculed and imprisoned and threatened? Or what of Isaiah, as church history tells us, that he was eventually captured and he was sawn in two? Where was the prosperity of faith? Where was the victory of faith? Or you think of men in the New Testament. Why didn't the Lord intervene and stop the Sanhedrin from stoning him? Why didn't the Lord turn back the sword that pierced the Apostle James and caused his blood to run in the streets of Jerusalem? Why didn't God stay the hand of those who time and time again persecuted Paul? You see, the contrast between these two sections is meant to be stark. And the stark reality of it is that as we read these verses of 35 through 38, God could have intervened. God could have sovereignly stepped down in a great display of His power and His might and His indignation against those who would even dare to touch His loved ones. He could have turned the hearts of those who wanted to torture His people away from torture and into causing them to embrace these people. thwarted their plans, he could have brought to nothing the threats and the afflictions of these godless people against his people. He could have redeemed them like he had redeemed Israel from Egypt and from the clutches of Pharaoh, even if it had meant that he had to part a sea once again. and cause that TC to swallow up all the adversaries. He could have intervened in the way that he did in the time of Esther when he put this Persian army to flight. He could have intervened like he had in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or of Daniel, but what we read in verses 35 through 38 is that he didn't. He didn't. The contrast is sharpest when we read in verse 34 that some escaped the edge of the sword. And we read in verse 37 that they were killed with the sword. Times without number that God could have intervened as he has done a million times before, but he didn't. And how often we see the adversity of faith, even in our lives. How often have you known people, or perhaps even you yourself, have asked God a question like this. Why does everything seem to go well for that person, and everything seems to go so poorly for me? Or you've shaken when you've seen the affliction of the Lord's people, when you've heard these accounts of Isis beheading the people of the Lord, and you go, why didn't God intervene? When He intervened in the days of Daniel, even the king was brought to repentance. Why doesn't He intervene with Isis and cause these torturers to turn back in order that people might say, what has the Lord worked here? Or how often have you known people who have prayed for years for their marriage, or perhaps even for your own marriage? And it's fallen apart. And you think, but I know this couple. God heard their prayers. Why doesn't He hear my prayers? Or you have pled with the Lord a million times. Open my womb that I might conceive a child. And He doesn't. and he doesn't intervene, he doesn't providentially or miraculously come and intervene. You don't understand why the world always seems to be against you or you look at your children, they're now grown and they've abandoned the faith and you think, I did everything right. Why are my children unbelievers and John Doe, who's a worthless person, why are his children saved? Why didn't my dad get that job promotion that we needed to put food on the table? Or why didn't God save my mother when she was dying of terminal cancer when I was younger? Why didn't God cause that car to hit a post before it creamed into my car and brought immeasurable pain and agony into my life? Why didn't God spare you from this or that calamity? hundreds, thousands of times in your life when you wonder, why didn't God intervene? Why didn't He intervene in His grace and His mercy and His power and display Himself and snatch me from the paw of the lion? He's done it a million times before. Why not now? And the contrast that we have in these verses, it's sharp. And if we're honest with ourselves, this causes a tension in our hearts and in our faith. Why is it that God sometimes acts and at other times he doesn't? Why does God at times in his providence bring a smiling face and at other times bring a frowning face. See, when we hold these verses together, it creates a tension. And how many have made a shipwreck of their faith because they don't know how to resolve this tension? What is the resolution? You see the tension that these verses create, perhaps you even feel the tension in your life and you're thinking, yeah, I know exactly what's being spoken about here. These verses seem to be light years apart. But is there a resolution? You know, some sadly have attempted to find the resolution by insulting a person and say, well, God didn't intervene because you didn't have enough faith. Remember in growing up, we had one of these faith healers come to our church And there was a boy there who was having difficulty with his leg, and I think he had had some surgery, but he was looking to be healed, and this faith healer prayed over him, and his foot wasn't miraculously healed. And the faith healer looked and said, well, it's not my fault. You don't have enough faith. And other people try to resolve this tension by saying, well, let's just name it and claim it. The power of positive thinking. Just declare that it's yours, and it's going to be yours. Or others who abandon their faith in the midst of this tension, they say, clearly this is a sign that God doesn't love me or that God has abandoned me. Or we counsel people and say, well, just pray a little bit harder. Or we think, well, God must be a flip-flop, almost a schizophrenic who doesn't know when he's going to respond positively or when he's going to respond negatively. Or people level this accusation against God. Well, then that means either God isn't all good or God isn't all powerful. You can't have both in this trying and difficult world. Well, try telling those things to Paul. Paul, who said, three times I prayed that the Lord would take this thorn from my flesh, and he didn't. You see, this tension is at the heart of many. And you note that what these verses don't do, As they don't say, well, look at all those who were victorious, they had a lot of faith. And look at those who weren't so victorious, they lacked faith. It actually says the exact opposite, doesn't it? It says that even those who were victorious and those who were not, that they all lived their lives by faith. You could insert here that by faith, some escaped the edge of the sword, but by faith, others were killed with the sword. See, what the Bible teaches us is that neither prosperity nor adversity are opposed to the life of faith. But that faith flourishes both in prosperity and in adversity. That both to have prosperity and adversity is integral, that it is necessary to the life of faith. And this is why, as biblical Christians, we hate the prosperity gospel. The gospel of health, wealth, and prosperity that says, when you become a Christian, everything ought to work out well for you. And if you don't, it's because unbelief is still lingering in your hearts or in your minds. And we say, that's rubbish. Faith embraces adversity. But also, as biblical Christians, we equally hate poverty gospels. And those people who tell us, if you're a Christian, you need to walk around like a monk, and you need to forsake all the good things of life, and you can't receive the blessings that the Lord brings to you. And we say, rubbish! Faith embraces prosperity. Faith embraces victories and the blessings and the graces that the Lord, in His kindness, gives to us. And if we're not given over to self-pity, we realize, don't we, we experience both of these. There's not a single person here who only experiences the prosperity of faith. We don't only experience the adversity of faith, but we experience both and faith embraces both. And faith learns to love both. I want to push this just a little bit further this morning and ask why? Why is faith sometimes prosperous and why is faith sometimes seen in suffering? Why can't it be that I can just come to Christ and everything will work out for me? You remember as we've been working through this chapter that we've noted, by faith has a theological emphasis. That is, we could insert in here for by faith to point to Jesus. And as we read this long list of stories and their implied characters here, We note that these characters that we have just read about, just like Abel, just like Enoch, just like Noah, just like Abraham, just like Isaac, just like Moses, that theologically they point us to something about the person and the work of Christ. They're types of Christ. We ought to see Christ when we read these characters. Old Testament, as we've said over and over, the whole Old Testament bears witness to Christ. And so when we read these characters and we ask why does faith need to embrace prosperity and adversity in answering this, we note first that there is a theological emphasis here that the victories of these individuals and the sufferings of these individuals both point us to Jesus. What is it that they point us to what about Jesus? When we read there in verses 32 through 35 of this prosperity of faith, when we read of God miraculously and wondrously intervening for the salvation of His people and giving them victory, what it does is it points us to the victory of Christ, to His exaltation over all things. When we read here of these individuals who conquered kingdoms, We're to think Jesus has conquered every kingdom. He's conquered more kingdoms than David ever did. He conquered more kingdoms than Solomon ever did. Christ is the conquering king. When we read of David enforcing justice throughout the land, Christ enforces justice even greater than David ever did. When we read of the closing of the mouths of beasts, or the triumphing over death, or the resurrection of the dead, Our minds are to see that these are stories of Christ's greater victory, of His resurrection from the dead, of His exaltation over all things, of Christ's conquering power. These characters, these first characters in the victory of faith, they foreshadow a time when a greater than Samson, a greater than David, A greater than Hezekiah would come and he would turn back the effects of the fall and he would forever save his people. And when we get to verses 35b through 38, what do we have? We have a picture not of Christ's victorious kingdom. We have a picture of His death and of His suffering. These characters who experience these losses and this adversity, they point to the sufferings of Christ. Of the greater afflictions that Christ bore on that cross in His body for the redemption of His people. These characters foreshadow a time when a greater than Jeremiah, a greater than Abel, a greater than Isaiah would come and one who would be cut down by the sword of justice for the sins of his people and suffer and die a horrendous death on the cross. And so in asking why does faith have to embrace prosperity and adversity in 32 through 38, we have this double-sided picture of Christ. Christ in His exaltation, and in His glory, and in His power, and in His might, and we have a picture of Christ in His humiliation, and in His suffering, and in His death, and in His agonies. And this is where we begin to understand the resolution to why is it that God sometimes intervenes and God sometimes doesn't intervene. We not only have this theological emphasis to point us to Jesus, but you remember that by faith has a practical emphasis. It shows us the lifestyle of faith and the life of faith is one where we have the distinct privilege of being conformed to the image of Christ, both in his life but also in his death. To be a Christian is to share in the victories of Christ, and it is to share in the sufferings of Christ. Paul put it so plainly and simply there in Philippians chapter 3, that I may know him. and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." To be a Christian is to share in Christ's life, and it's to share in his death. And that's how Paul viewed When Paul was given great successes and prosperities when he was triumphing, he knew that this was the triumph that the resurrected Christ was giving to him. We read of that in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 8 through 11, when Paul says, the Lord has delivered me from every difficulty in order that I might learn to trust in the God who raises the dead. You ask Paul, why do you succeed? Why is your faith victorious and prosperous? Paul would say, because Christ is victorious. And at the same time, when Paul viewed his sufferings, Paul knew that he was suffering Christ's sufferings. A passage in Colossians 1.24 where Paul says, I rejoice because I am filling up in my body what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ. And if you were to ask Paul, Paul, why do you suffer as you do? Paul's response would be, it's not because God doesn't care. It's not because God isn't powerful enough. It's not even because I don't have enough faith. The reason I suffer as I do is because God in His grace is conforming me into the image and the suffering and the death of His Son. And that's the lifestyle that faith embraces here. That's what's being commended to us here. This is the way that this tension, this tension of why does God sometimes intervene and why at other times does God not intervene, this is where this tension begins to be answered as we look to Christ and we see that in Him we are conformed both to His life and to His death. And what a comfort this is to those who are suffering by faith. What an encouragement it is to know that you are being conformed into the death of Christ Himself. That you are filling up what is lacking in His affliction, so that when you assail that throne of grace, and God seems not to answer, and you bear this cross, you say, I am following in the footsteps of One who loved me. and gave himself for me and in this I rejoice. And what a call to persevere even through sufferings. What a reminder it is to those of us who also prosper in faith to be reminded that these blessings in this life aren't an end in themselves. We are only beginning to partake of the life of Christ by faith. So that whether we have a prosperous, victorious faith, or whether we have a faith that is assailed by adversities, the writer of Hebrews says, you conduct your life in the exact same way. You live by faith. and the hope of the future fulfillment of the promises of God in Christ. You keep your eyes on Christ, to whom you are being conformed into his life and into his death. You see, faith is what we need when we live in prosperous times, to see that there are better things yet in store. And faith is what we need to live by in those times of suffering and adversity to be reminded that there are better things yet to come. We thank the Lord for the prosperity because it shows us the power of Jesus. And we thank the Lord for the adversity because it shows us the death of Jesus. Amen. Please join me in prayer. Oh, our gracious and our merciful Lord, how kind you have been to grant us a faith that indeed overcomes the world. And we acknowledge that often throughout the course of our lives, we live in different circumstances, that here, as we have presented before our eyes in your word this morning, that there are times when we experience great victories of faith and prosperous faith. And there are other times when we endure great adversities of faith, and great suffering, some that are unbearable to even think about or to mention. And yet we thank you that through all of these, that you have called us to rejoice, because we are being conformed after the image of our dear and precious and adorable Savior. We pray that you would help us by faith to be conformed after His death, or that, as Paul said, by any means possible we might be conformed after his life and so obtain the resurrection from the dead. Strengthen us in these hours, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.