Good evening everyone. This is Donnie and Gary with Bundle Life Fellowship here in Corpus Christi, Texas. July 31st, 2024. Wednesday night Bible study in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hopefully wherever you are, whatever you're doing, it is lifting up the name of God and you're having a good time. We'll go back really quickly to where We left off and last week we touched on the faith of the patriarchs. Again, chapter 11, we touched on 17, verse 17 through 29, touched on the faith of Moses, talked about some of those heavy hitters like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, hit all those, Moses, and Now we're kind of going to delve into some other heavy hitters, right, Brother Gary? Yep. And a little bit on how they relate to faith and their connection to the others here in the Hall of Faith in chapter 11. Yeah, and before we get started on tonight's passage, so we kind of talked about this previously, but it's like we're going down a corridor in heaven. and we're in this hallway and we see these portraits, right, of faith, you know, one side we see, you know, Enoch, one side we see Noah, and we continue, and it's like the writer of the Hebrews is taking you almost through the Old Testament, right? Because he started early on with Cain and Abel and then it came to Enoch and then Noah and then to Abraham and so now we've gotten into where you know we're getting past the the first five books or the first four books we talked about Moses and that's Exodus and Leviticus and now we're getting into Numbers and Deuteronomy and Joshua as we continue and then throughout the final verses, these are the additional people that he chooses to point out through the rest of the Old Testament. These are the final examples of faith according to the Old Testament. Amen. So, as mentioned, we'll finish up. We'll start with 30. to 39, and as always, we'll read the verses and then we'll go back and touch on them. Brother Gary, do you mind? Yes, read the whole. Doing the honor section? Okay. Please. Verse 30, it says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. And what more shall I say? For the time will fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still, others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." What a powerful, powerful verse. So let's go, let's go to the top, brother, and let's just kind of start breaking it down a little bit. I'll tell you, if you don't mind me just starting it off here, what I like about that and who hasn't heard about the walls of Jericho and the faith that it took, right? Of them encircling for seven days, as verse 30 says. A few things that I just I'm reminded by two that remember when they crossed the river during the flood and the flood came. So these. That was the Jordan River. The Jordan. Yes. The Jordan. That's it. They had that faith. They were there. There was really no going back to right in a way. And they they had the faith that was It took seven days. And they knew. Every day that passed, they knew, right? We got to be obedient to the Lord. This is what the Lord says. Yeah, it was a patient faith, a patient, and it was an anticipating and they knew faith because they were they were expecting. that God was going to give them the city. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's what they're supposed to shout, right? I love that. Shout for the Lord has given us the city. And so there's a little more to it, which is what we're trying to discuss, not to just read over it quickly and not remember and think back on that. And I love that. I love that, the Jericho. Yep. And then we see, too, the, right, the harlot, Rahab, And that's another story in itself. There's so much I wanna go back and forth with you on. But right off the bat, I just, what better example than, I keep bringing this up, but she was a Harley, right? And it just goes to prove that it doesn't matter who you are, God can use you. Yep. Yeah. And I, I think that there's a, uh, it's almost like shocking, like, Oh, she's a, a what? She's a prostitute. And matter of fact, there are people that have tried to, to clean up the word of God to say, Oh no, she wasn't a prostitute. That's not a good translation. She was an innkeeper. She was there cause she was in the wall. Her home was actually in the wall, but, I think it's pretty clear from the original language that no, she's, she's a woman of the night. You know, she was, that was her livelihood was a prostitute, but that changed, you know, and that's why she was admired for her faith was she forsook the gods of Canaan and began to follow Jehovah, the one true God. And her faith was commended here in the Hebrews. And she's been witnessed of, you know, ever since. That's that's pretty, pretty amazing grace, isn't it, brother? Oh, I just I couldn't have said it better. Yeah. And and just to add a little bit to that, I love how she acknowledged you said like she acknowledged the God, not not God's right. to the point where she acknowledged that she knew the land had already been had been is going to be given to them. And they were in fear. Right. They were in fear. So another couple of things that she did was that she went to the point of she was willing to to lie to save them. She hid the spies. Yeah. Right. And she also acknowledged that they had all heard the story of them crossing the Red Sea and what God had done for them. So she knew. Right. Her heart was in the right place. Yeah. And she she lied. But it wasn't a selfish lie. It was to protect these spies that God had sent in. And so, that's a good kind of a side discussion is, is it okay, are there certain times when it's okay for us to lie where it's not considered sinful? Right, protection. That's a good question, isn't it? It's a great question. I have another good question I'm gonna ask you here on your thoughts of, because I just find it very interesting. She went to the aspect of, we can get into the minute details, right? how she had been told the guards, or who it was, you know, she misdirected them, just to help them, right? But I like where they threw out, they made that promise to each other, and they said, you have to have this scarlet. The cord. The cord, right. So I just want to ask you, your thoughts on the scarlet cord. Yeah, it's definitely something that I think is prophetic. You know, it's almost like that cord that just continues throughout the Old Testament to be woven. You know, it's that cord of redemption. So, you know, Bible theologians from a long time ago believe that that is showing you that theme of redemption that's from Genesis to Revelation. And what's so cool is Rahab is mentioned in the genealogy of Christ. She is one of the, I think it's four women or five that are listed in Jesus' genealogy in the New Testament. How cool is that? As a matter of fact, I think there were more than one prostitute that were listed in. And then Bathsheba, who was, you know, committed adultery. So again, there's that picture of New Covenant grace that, you know, we're not saved by being a good person. If we are, we're in big trouble, you know, because none are good according to Romans. No, not one. So thankfully God sent Jesus who is good to be our substitute and he is the the righteous one and so we are able to obtain his righteousness so but again I think she starts off this picture of God's grace and the fact that faith does not necessarily mean perfection. You know, there could be flawed individuals that still are commended for their faith. And that even goes back to, like, remember Abraham. We talked about that with Abraham. He was a flawed man. He was commended for his faith, You know, there's no mention in Hebrews 11 about him, you know, having the sin with Hagar and Ishmael or lying and saying Sarah's his sister. Right, right. You know, God chooses to focus on his faith. And that gives all of us hope, right, that, you know, we too can live by faith despite our imperfections. Yes, sir. I love it. Yep. Well, let's let's move down. Let's go down the list. Who's next? So Gideon? Yes. Oh, there's so much. I love all these stories. What stands out to you with Gideon? So there's so much. But I think one of the probably the biggest thing that sticks out to me was when the Lord called him, even though he may maybe didn't believe in himself. Yeah. The Lord calls him, you know, a mighty man of valor. Yeah. It's like he saw his future potential or his transformation before, you know, he actually lived it out because he was kind of a coward, wasn't he, at first. He had quite a few doubts. He needed to be, what was it, have confirmation a few times. even after the Lord told him, right? Like with the police and whatnot. But that's probably the thing that sticks out the most to me with Gideon. And then Beric is mentioned next. So something that gets me with Beric is how he had to be encouraged, right? by Deborah. And I just find it interesting that it was in a woman that encouraged him and maybe got him to muster up the courage, the faith. If you go right, I'll go. But from that point on, right, I mean, he does what he has to do and he ends up conquering the Canaanites. Of course, with the Lord, right? Yeah. But again, another picture of grace, because he had an imperfect head of law and faith. Right. He had to have the woman, Deborah, right? Take lead. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I love it. I love it. And I just love the fact that these are all flaws, human flaws that we all have. What about Samson? I always go back to, what would I do? Right? That's it. I think that's kind of WWD. How often would that be? What would Donnie do? Oh, my goodness. I tell you that. That's just unbelievable. Yeah. So with him, that's just what I go back to when I hear Samson, I go back to the story, I think. How I if I had that ability, how would I use it? Yeah. Right. What can I what can I do to glorify the Lord? But again, the human aspect of it. We all are flesh, right? He's submitted to God to be used to bring vengeance against these pagan Philistines, right? It was again, it was in flawed, flawed faith. You know, he succumbed to Delilah, this Philistine woman, probably out of, you know, desire, lust. And then also the fact that he, you know, he had struggles with pride. You know, I think he, the strength thing kind of got to him. And despite that, he believed in God. He trusted in God to deliver and to return that strength. Right. Because he lost the strength of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. Apparently the Spirit left him when he got his hair cut. Right. Well, he asked for a return of that. And so that's a little hint of that faith, I think, that he's Probably why he's mentioned here in this passage. And that tells me that you know how they treated him after his strength was gone. And the fact that he knew, I can go back to the Lord. I can maybe finish something that I should have done a long time ago. So he had faith. He did, absolutely. And then we get to Jephthah. So, unfortunately, when I hear and I think of Jephthah, I think of that promise that he made concerning his daughter, right? That vow, and he kept that vow. And I just don't know, I don't understand it, but it's just something I ponder when I read that. Why would he, why would he make that, vow, especially knowing, like, if the God, if the Lord tells you, I'm going to deliver, you know, who was it at the time? It was the Ammonites, right? Yeah. The Ammonites into your hand. And then you make a vow the way he did, which was that he would, it was, to keep it short, was sacrificed his daughter, basically, right? Whoever comes running out of my home to greet me. And it's just, I just don't understand that part of it. But I know that the Lord used him. I know that he had, he showed faith. He's in here. And it's also just another example of the flaws that we have. Flawed faith, yeah. And at this point, it's almost like he's going like, like it's time to wrap it up. He's like, he's looking at the clock, right? It's like, boom, boom. He's just throwing names out there, right? And so, um, he mentioned Jeff, uh, didn't give any details. And then he talks about also of David and Samuel and the prophets. He kind of throws in the prophets at the end here, but David and Samuel, um, I know Samuel was, you know, he was a godly man, you know, he was a prophet. Uh, he, he's the one that kind of, I mean, I guess he was a priest, right? But David though, the fact that David is listed, again, I think the fact that he's listed with this group of people, it's showing even though he was a man after God's own heart, and loved God, had these beautiful psalms he wrote, he still was not without flaws. The fact that he had the adultery with Bathsheba, covered up the pregnancy with murder. You know, and then he had consequences of that with his family dysfunction. His sons turned on him. You know, he had to flee for his life from Absalom. And so again, that shows you that. You know, we can still be admired for our faith despite our flaws. And that's what we see with these Old Testament figures. But then we get to the next section, because he says, and the prophets. And now he begins to, instead of talk about names, now he's talking about what they did. So it's kind of like back to the whole action verb and the phrases that describe So can we identify on some of these by what the activity is being admired here by the writer of the Hebrews? Right. And let's go through it. Let's talk about some of these actions and let's see. Some of them, I think, are going to have, you know, two or three people, right? Verse 33, it says, Who through faith subdued kingdoms? Who may that be talking about? So there's so many, right? You got David, we just talked about. He was a warrior, wasn't he? He was one of the heavy hitters too, right? I mean, you name it, Joshua. Yeah. And even Samson, I mean, he killed all those men with one jawbone of a donkey. Kingdoms. Yeah. So do kingdoms. Yeah. And there's more that can be thrown in there. Yeah. Work righteousness. Right. Yeah. That that has the prophets, the major prophets come to mind right away. Well, that and that we could even go back to like Joseph and and some of these even farther back, you know, Enoch and Abel. But definitely as we if we continue in the because remember, he's already made it into the, you know, the Kings and Chronicles. And so this probably is talking more about, like you said, the prophets at this point and then those that obtain promises. Who might that be? Speaking of again, Gideon comes to mind as one of them. He was given a promise, yeah. Kaleb. Okay. But I mean, we can just hit a few, right? Because how many people, if you go back and actually dig into it, there's probably a few. And then stop the mouth of lions. We know that by name. I mean, that's, I mean, Daniel, right? Daniel comes to mind. But even David, David was one that, you know, had to fight, you know, the lion to protect the sheep, right? As a shepherd, as a shepherd boy. Yeah. And then I love 34. We know who that is, right? I love it. I love it. You know, there's three names right away that come to mind. Three Hebrew boys. Yeah. Yeah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is their Babylonian names, but I'd like to call them by their Hebrew names, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael. That's a great one. And then those that escaped the edge of the sword. So many. There was a lot of the prophets that were threatened, you know, when prophets were giving the messages from the Lord. Sometimes they were warnings and the people did not take kindly to it. And so that's what we see now. These next section here, we're moving in from flawed people of faith. Now we're getting into those that maybe because of their faith, they're being persecuted. Right. Elijah right with with Jezebel. Yeah, it's one of them. I mean, yep, just to name one right David from Goliath. He escaped the sword. Yep. So turn to flight the armies of the aliens. Yep. Became strong and became valiant in battle. Yeah, those are good. And then verse 35, women received their dead, raised back to life again. I could think of two women, right, where that could be said. From the prophets. Elijah, right, when they revived. And I may butcher this. Zarephath. And then there was one more, the Shulamites. woman, I think. Yes. There was a raised him back. And that was a live show, I believe. Yes. And they both did that. Those are the two that I can think of. Yeah. So, again, just bringing back some they're talking about the action. We're trying to put names to it. And then we get into the other part, right? 35 others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection Wow, and that's pretty deep Yep, how many were tortured? And then it's talking about the better resurrection. Yeah a couple things on that. So I'm reminded of The Lord Jesus when he was talking about how all of these a lot of these prophets were persecuted by their fathers talking to the Pharisees and saying, you know, look how often this has happened where you have killed the prophets and stoned those who were the prophets. And so I can't help but think that maybe he was thinking about, you know, a lot of these same people that the writer of the Hebrews is mentioning, that, you know, these were tortured and they did not accept deliverance. because they were, you know, they were wanting to please God and they were going to be able to obtain a better resurrection. What's he talking about there, you think? Well, he's talking about everlasting life. He's talking about. That's right. Right. The Christ, knowing that that Christ would conquer death and eventually For those who don't, right, for those who pursue the race and don't give up. And in this aspect, continue with the faith. Don't lose the faith. Yeah. Despite our flaws. Yeah. We will see that better resurrection. Yeah. And I love how he says they might obtain a better resurrection. And that that you know, that just makes me think that, you know, there's going to be rewards, you know, in the resurrection and some are going to be rewarded based on their enduring to the end and their martyrdom as well. And so I love what Charles Spurgeon says about this this passage about those that, you know, face the burning, you know, the stake where they were burned, you know, to death or those that were tortured. And this is what Charles Spurgeon says about this. Many of us may never have to brave the fiery stake nor to bow our necks upon the block. or bow our necks upon the block to die as Paul did. But if we have grace enough to be out of weakness made strong, we shall not be left out of the role of the nobles of faith and God's name shall not fail to be glorified in our persons." Isn't that good? Yes. And that's Spurgeon, right? Yes. He has some very in-depth thoughts and analysis of The Bible I love. Yeah. And in 36, you know, he kind of continues that thought about still others had trial of mockings. You know, they were made fun of and and then scourgings, you know, which is the beatings that they, you know, they endured and then of chains and imprisonment as well. And now, you know, You could say that may even come up to present time, you know, at that point, because they were probably already starting to think about, even in the Bible, in the New Testament, you know, when the disciples even were facing the change in the present. I think along those same lines, because now we're getting into something that's very, very possibly happening there while this author is speaking and talking about this. They were stoned and they were sawn in two, right? Were tempted, were slain with the sword. These are still Old Testament. So those that were stoned, I think Zechariah was stoned. And I think there may have been another prophet or two that were stoned. And then Isaiah, the prophet, according to tradition, he was sawn in two as well. But then it says that there were some that were tempted. Right. And I read a little something on that. Yeah. There's some maybe some controversy over that. OK. Whether they really meant to say tempting as well. It's in there. And I can see how being tempted, you know, can be hard on someone. Yeah. It could be a challenge and it could be something that they really struggle with or. Yeah. What but what's the controversy? So what is the possible so understanding of this? They were thinking it may have they really meant to say Branded like the word was branded or maybe strangled But either way so another form of persecution as opposed to attempting. Okay. Yes, and I can see why they would say that Yeah, they were just thinking it some work on the in the writing around the scriptures that he got Miss maybe misinterpreted or something. Yeah, but I think it could fit either one anyways, and it still applies. Yeah, that's true and but I'm okay with it if it's tempted if that's the actual the correct interpretation. I'm okay with that because even in this book, you know, the writer of the Hebrews says that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses for he was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. So he endured temptation just like he endured the suffering and the shame of the cross as well. No, I agree with you 100%. That's a perfect example. And then you get to where it says that they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and the second time we see the mention of the torment as well. So, again, these are these prophets that were like Elijah, right? That were kind of castaways, right? And they dressed like that too just out of humility, right? Okay. A lot of times they did. They were very humble. Yeah. And what I love about this, though, Johnny, as he says, but the world was not worthy of these. Oh, wow. That's that's quite a statement there. That's powerful. Yeah. The world was not worthy. Yeah. Which is funny because how are people today treated? People of the faith, how are they treated? Yeah. Nothing has changed there. Yeah. Nothing has changed. Yeah. So the world was not worthy. So they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And I do think about like David who had to go into hiding to, uh, to escape, you know, first King Saul, you know, who was jealous of him. And then later, even he had to run, flee for his own life from his own son as well. And then we get to verse 39 and all these having obtained a good testimony through faith did not receive the promise. So they never in this life, they never received the promise, but here's the good ending to it. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. So as we close, what do you think he's talking about there when it says that God having provided something better for us? Well, to me, that's his son. God provided his son in grace. We had the complete salvation that the Old Testament was looking forward to, right? Right. I agree. I think that's the power of of the way he finishes is that out is that, you know, we have something better because we have just like earlier in Hebrews, you know, Jesus has been compared to the angels compared to Moses compared to other things, but Jesus is better and that continues even here into 11. that you know God has provided something better for us that he sent Jesus the Messiah for us and that it says that they should not be made perfect apart from us so they're not just because they've gone on before us you know we're going to all participate in the the rewards and the blessing and the promises that are intended for the afterlife, right? In the resurrection. And the word to the word perfect here can pretty much be changed. Amen. Complete is another word just. Yeah. So I have one more passage that I want to share from a theologian named Leon Norris is his name. And this is, or Morris, Leon Morris, this is what he says about this last verse. He says, it is what Christ has done that opens the way into the very presence of God for them as for us. Only the work of Christ brings those of old Testament times and those of the new and living way alike into the presence of God. That's a great conclusion to that verse and to one of the greatest chapters in the Bible, don't you think? This is an awesome chapter. Brother Gary, I just, I enjoyed walking through this chapter with you and I hope that whoever's out there listening got something out of it as well. There's so much to get out of this one chapter. It's unbelievable. God bless. God bless you.