Hi, this is Pastor William. On behalf of the members of Providence Baptist Church, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and thank you for joining us. It is our joy to share God's truth, and we trust that the preaching of God's Word will always bless His people. But we humbly remind you that no recording can ever replace biblical corporate worship or true Christian fellowship. So we encourage everyone everywhere to commit themselves to the service of God's kingdom in a local church. And we pray that the Lord keep and bless you as you continue to earnestly seek him. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. Owen, would you give me a cup, please? So it's been three weeks, has it, since we looked at Hebrews? Because I know we paused, I wasn't able to get the last few verses of this chapter exactly divided how I wanted to divide them, but I have now. So if you would please open to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11. We're gonna look at verses 29 and 30. 29 and 30. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. So here in Hebrews 11, the entire book of Hebrews is about encouragement. The author is trying to encourage the Hebrew believers in their faith. They're facing persecutions, they're facing difficulties and challenges, and the author is trying to encourage them. And in the same manner, the book is preserved for us, to encourage us. So chapter 11, although you could make this argument for every chapter of every book in the Bible, chapter 11 is key in this regard because it's giving examples about faith. And the very opening verses, we get this really kind of poetic and profound definition of what faith is. Faith we are told is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. And as we read through it, we see that it is the lens through which these faithful saints of old navigated the uncertainties and the challenges of their life. They were confident in the promises of God. They were confident in the faithfulness of God. And so as we go through the next 20 or so verses, we see that faith in action. We see Abel's sacrifice. We see Enoch's translation because of his walk with God. We see Noah and the tremendous task that he took on in building the ark. We see Abraham in turning away from the idols and his family and his sojourning in a foreign land. And all of this echoes that same theme throughout scripture of trust and obedience, trust and obedience. The author here highlights the challenges that were faced by these heroes of the faith, underscoring that faith is not immune to trials, but in fact, it is often refined and strengthened through the trials. That's important, let me say that again. Our faith, the Christian faith, is not immune to challenges and trials and tribulations. In fact, Christ promises that we will have them. But it is refined and strengthened by those trials. We saw the faith of Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, each with their unique circumstances, and we saw how they acted in faith, and it demonstrates that God's faithfulness endures through the generations. Moses' parents defied the most powerful man in the world at the time, and Moses chose affliction with God's people over temporary pleasures. And the Israelites' faith led them to pass through the Red Sea and to conquer Jericho. And that's where we are this morning. As we come to these two verses, we see that the author now turns our attention from the faith of individuals to the faith of a nation, which is built upon the faith of the individuals. So as the focus shifts to the nation of Israel, first standing at the Red Sea, and then encircling the walls of Jericho. And these are pivotal moments. These pivotal moments in the history of Israel. These moments underscore the collective faith of not just one person, but an entire nation by trusting in God's guidance, they were able to witness the miraculous interventions of God that go far beyond anyone's natural expectations. So, we want to look at those. I want to look at those. We'll look at the verses again and then we'll look at what the author of Hebrews is pointing us to. So, verse 29. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do so, were drowned. So we see this nation here gaining victory through their faith in God. By walking through the Red Sea, the nation of Israel gains victory through faith over Egypt. And we read this story from Exodus. I'm going to read a few passages here from Exodus chapter 14. This one is verses 21 and 22. This is Moses here. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back. by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry land and the waters being a wall to them on their right and on their left. So Israel is caught in a moment of imminent danger and they are called to trust God. Israel stands at the edge of the Red Sea. They've been pushed there, running from Pharaoh's army. And now they've got this expanse of water in front of them, and the most powerful army in the world behind them, pursuing them. And the command from God is to go forward. Go forward. a call to step into an unknown, trusting, just trusting in His guidance. He's telling them, keep walking. And if you choose, the Red Sea can be seen as a symbol for us of those seemingly insurmountable challenges that we face in life, things that we don't know how we're gonna get through it, but we just keep walking, we keep moving, we keep trusting the Lord. And by Moses' one act, One act of obedience, and in verse 16, when he raises his hands, God calls him to raise your hands, and he's gonna divide the waters. And it brings, that one act of obedience brings divine intervention for an entire nation. And they witnessed, they witnessed the miraculous parting of the waters as the people walk on dry land. And you imagine being there watching this. This was again, God's power on display in the midst of an impossible situation, which had begun for them before when Moses first come to the people of Israel and said, you know, we're going to go out of here. God is going to bring you out of here. It seemed impossible. And so this seems impossible, getting away from the army. But in each case, Moses was obedient to the Word of God. And that obedience is significant. Taking steps of faith when the path seems uncertain, it's significant. It shows trust. It shows faith. Crossing the Red Sea not only showcased God's power to help those who are faithful and obedient, but also revealed the consequences of disobedience, which disobedience is essentially unbelief. Consider what happens after the Israelites cross the Red Sea. And the story continues in Exodus 14, verses 23, it says, the Egyptians pursued and went in after them in the midst of the sea, all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen. And in the morning watched the Lord in the pillar of fire and the cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic. clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from Israel. For the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained." This is telling us the big, broad picture. We're not following every individual. We're seeing this as a nation. Moses is the one individual representing the nation. Pharaoh is the one individual representing the nation of Egypt. And the Lord brings mercy and compassion upon one who's being obedient and brings destruction upon the other. Now I can imagine there may be some in the nation of Israel who were doubtful, but they went with the flow. There's blessings to that. But the Egyptians allowed themselves to be blinded by their desires, especially Pharaoh and their own lust for power. and they were blinded by their pursuit. In that blindness, they entered the same path that the Israelites had entered. But for the Egyptians, it was not a path of salvation. It was a path of destruction. God's justice and deliverance demonstrated as the waters returned, destroying Pharaoh's army and finally completely severing the ties of that slavery that the Israelites were bound in. Who is going to pursue them now? God had promised them freedom, and this is where it is unequivocally given, it's fulfilled. Who's going to pursue them? Who's going to enslave them now? Pharaoh and all of those soldiers saw the same thing that the Israelites had seen, all the plagues that God had used to destroy the nation of Egypt. These soldiers saw that. Pharaoh had experienced it. But we see two different responses here. Two different responses on the behalf of the nation, of the nations, and two different responses on God's part. In one, you have Moses, and if I recall correctly, there were some Egyptians that left out with him. They left out with the nation of Israel because of what had happened. Just as I can imagine, there were probably some Israelites. Well, we know there were some that weren't pleased with leaving because they grumbled about it in the desert. But it is a sobering reminder of the consequences of unbelief and disobedience. The contrast between the faith of the Egyptians and that of the Israelites is striking. It is an example of a major theme that goes throughout the Old Testament. In fact, it goes throughout all of Scripture, but it's particularly, it particularly stands out to me in the Old Testament because I see it as that, you know, the laying out, that history of giving us examples and showing us everything that the New Testament teaches in action. God offers mercy to those who believe Him and trust Him, and He promises judgment upon those who continue in their rebellion, especially knowledgeable rebellion, like Pharaoh was in at the time. We see that God is faithful to those who trust Him. He is faithful to those who trust Him. And this should give us comfort as we reflect upon these stories. You know, it's not just that the author of Hebrews is writing and reminding his audience of these stories and these people. This is the Holy Spirit working here saying, look, this is what God did for His people then. His promises have not changed. His power has not changed. His wisdom has not changed. He is the same. He is the God that we worship. And we can see, we can see this. This is why he preserves it for us. We can see the assurance of God's protection in the face of these trials. And the Red Sea Crossing not only marked a physical deliverance, but also left a lasting mark on the spiritual life of Israel. This is another blessing of the Old Testament. We can see the very things taught by Jesus and the apostles played out in the lives of the Old Testament saints. At that time, it was very marked, very powerful examples coming out of Egypt. All of this foreshadowing redemption through Christ Moses being a shadow pointing to the reality of Jesus Christ. Pharaoh being a shadow pointing to all of the enemies that we face. And we see that God has been faithful to them. And so we have cause, we have reason to trust. The very things that Jesus and the apostles teach in the New Testament are played out in the lives of the Old Testament saints. In 2 Corinthians 5, verses 6 and 7, we read, To walk by faith and not by sight. We are called to walk by trusting God's Word, and not by what we see, not just by what we see, but by His Word, trusting that God sees further than we can, both in time and space. He sees further than we can. So when we trust in His Word, we're trusting in His foresight and not ours. And we learn to trust in God even when circumstances seem overwhelming. I mean, how many can agree that that seemed like an overwhelming situation? The most powerful nation in the world, that army is bearing down upon Israel, and they have nowhere to go. There's an open sea in front of them. But the Lord had promised And so it was an act of faith, Moses raising his hands up as the Lord commanded him to, and the people stepping forward and crossing the sea, reflecting on the areas in our lives where we need to exercise faith beyond sight, beyond what we can see. This is what we are called to do. This is what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. God sees more than we do, He knows more than we do, we can trust Him, even when we can't see the reality that we're looking for. And in James 2, verses 14 through 17, it says, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to him, go in peace, be warmed and be filled, Without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. What James is saying here is pretty clear. He says that you will see a true faith worked out in obedience. You will see it worked out in life. Obedience is an act of, an expression of faith, especially obedience in the face of fear, in the face of uncertainty. I mean, a certain way, if you had been standing on that shore with the army coming up behind you, there'd have been one certain way you know that you could have got out of that situation alive, and that'd have been a turn around and kiss the boots of Pharaoh, or the sandals of Pharaoh. But God had something better planned. We learn, we learn to overcome fear through trust and obedience. You can bet that after that had happened, the next day if there had been another seed across and another army behind them, they wouldn't have doubted for a minute. They would have just started walking off through the water, trusting that the Lord was going to get them through it. So we get through things, we read this, we remember these stories, and we get through difficulties in our life. And so we can encourage others to take that next step in obedience, knowing that God goes before us, that God has gone before us. And then Hebrews 11.30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. So we have Israel's victory over Egypt in verse 29. Victory through their faith. And now the author of Hebrews is giving us another example at Jericho, the walls of Jericho. We read of this in Joshua 6. Verses 1-5 it says, Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the LORD said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and its mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all of the men of war going around the city, once. Thus you shall do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets, and when they make a loud blast with the ram's horns, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the walls of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him. So this is the city of Jericho, a formidable city with walls that seemed insurmountable. This is the first city to get through to go into the promised land. And I don't know if you've read the history, but this was a huge city with a huge wall. It was big enough that there were apartments in the wall. You remember that's where Rahab lived. There were apartments in the wall. Oftentimes, these cities would be built with two big walls close by, and they would either just fill them with dirt on the inside, which made them tremendously difficult to get through, or they would have apartments in them, storage bins in them, different things. But this one was significant, this city, these walls were significant. And so the challenge that lay before the Israelites right here was to destroy the walls and take over the city. but they had no physical means of doing that. So again, they come to another test of faith and obedience. We are often faced with challenges like this in our own lives, challenges that seem insurmountable, where we have something pursuing us and nowhere to go, or some objective to get to and no way to get there without some divine intervention. And God is prepared to help us if we simply trust Him. But we fail often because we don't see it. We don't remember that God doesn't always work in the ways that we expect. Until God spoke to Moses, I'm sure he wasn't thinking, well, God's gonna split this water for us and let us walk across. God's gonna make a bridge. God's gonna do something. What idea would come to his mind? He had no history with that other than he just saw God's power in Egypt, so he was trusting God for that. He was trusting God for what he knew. So we miss out when we forget that God can work beyond our expectations. Joshua and the Israelites, they had no idea how God was going to make the walls fall flat, but he had promised that he would. So they simply trusted his word. They took him at his word and they trusted him. And it's true. We read through scripture and we often see that God works in unconventional ways. He works in unconventional ways. Sometimes we call those miracles when they defy the nature of reality as we know it. And sometimes it's just amazing coincidences. We call providence because God is working there. But it is true that God works in unconventional ways, in ways that we do not expect. And God had given them, and so he asks us to trust him, even when we don't know what lays before us. And that's what he did with the nation of Israel here at the walls of Jericho. He gave them some divine instruction and said, simply trust me, do this. I want you to march around the city once each day for seven days. And then on the seventh day, we're gonna do something different. They had no siege engines. They had no battering rams. They had no catapults. There's not even evidence that they had anything more than maybe some swords or spears. They had no way to get through these walls themselves. And they had no idea of what God was going to do, how he was going to keep his promise. But they just trusted him. He said he would. And so they believed him. They didn't have any of the things that men would use to tear down these walls. God told them, just follow my commands and trust me, I'll take care of it. You do what I'm asking you to do, I'll take care of the walls. And they trusted that God would. God's ways are not our ways. and trusting, he calls us to trust in him, to trust in his wisdom. And that's what we do, we trust in his word, we're trusting in his character, we're trusting in his divine attributes, and we're trusting in his word and his wisdom over our own. I'll give you an example of this. this recent debate with the about abortion in the the proposed abortion laws uh... with the louisiana baptist convention we're called to rightfully faithfully these men are most of these men are pastors or they are delegates from their church, they are called to rightfully and faithfully proclaim the word of God, period, end of story, no compromise, nothing else. But instead of simply trusting in that, they try to think of every little contingency that may arise in a courtroom that they should have to deal with now. failing to realize that God has not put them in that place, has not called them to do that. He simply says, be faithful with my word. Let the judge worry about it. You make sure the judge understands what my word says. And then the judge, the Holy Spirit can work in the judge's heart to figure out how to deal with all the contingencies. You make sure that the lawyers and the lawmakers rightfully understand what my word says. And then you let the lawyers and the lawmakers decide how they're gonna handle all the contingencies. My Holy Spirit will work with them as well as it works with you. But they don't do that. Instead, they try to rely upon worldly wisdom. And in pursuing that, they make fools of themselves. Because they fail to do the one thing that God has called us to do, and that is to be faithful with what His Word says. The priest was the priest, the king was the king. They had two different realms that they were supposed to take dominion over. And the only one that can handle both is Christ. So we are to trust his word even when we can't think of how everything could possibly fall out. And brothers, sisters, it's not an everyday experience that you're gonna have the walls of Jericho before you or the Red Sea before you, but there will be times in your life when you will simply have to trust God's Word for what you cannot do, for what you cannot see, and for what you cannot handle. This story that the author of Hebrews brings to our attention, the story of Jericho, challenges us to consider, to reconsider our dependence on our human strength and our human wisdom. How far has it gotten you? The people of Israel were called to simply act in faith. And that's what this whole chapter in Hebrews is about. It's an example from many centuries ago recorded to show us God's character and to encourage us to trust and obey as they did. The people of Israel trusted, and God responds to that obedience. They marched around the city once each day for six days, and then on the seventh day they marched around seven times, they blew the trumpets, they shouted for victory, and the walls came tumbling down. How many stories, how many movies have you seen where the protagonist pleads with someone in his circle, just trust me. I need you to trust me. I don't have time to explain all the details of my plan. I just need you to trust me in this moment. How many times have you heard that from somebody you work with, somebody you know, and they just say, look, I've got it, just trust me. This is not a foreign, crazy concept to just take somebody at their word, especially when they've proven themselves faithful to you. People do this in many ways in everyday life. Yet, when we explain this simple aspect of our Christian faith, we are mocked for it, for being gullible. It's nothing unusual to the human experience to take somebody at their word. a call to examine our own obedience to God's commands, even in the face of life's challenges. That's what we have here from the author of Hebrews. Look at Israel, what they faced at the Red Sea, what they faced at the walls of Jericho. How do you stand up to that? but it's not so much a call for us to examine our own characters in those situations, but to examine God's character in those situations, which is far more important because your faith will never measure up to what it needs to be. That's why when you read through the Old Testament Psalms and you read of that faithful servant, Yes, it is often pointing to men that were alive at the time, but it's pointing to Christ. It's pointing to Christ. There's also a lesson in this story about perseverance. I mean, really, what was the purpose of the repetition of those first six days? Except to persevere, get up and do it again. Get up and do it again. Get up and do it again. Be faithful and obedient. God does respond. And sometimes God lets us dwell in that repetition simply to strengthen our own resolve to obedience. When you come again to pray or to read scripture, and you've got a thousand things on your mind, you're ready to get your day started, And the Lord says, well, just sit down and read with me. Start your day like this, or include this at some point in your day. It's a call to strengthen our own obedience. So in both of these stories, I mean, the peak there, the climax of the story, the apex of this is the miraculous intervention of God in response to Israel's faith and obedience. Now, we don't often need miraculous interventions in our lives. The truth of the matter is, a lot of our troubles would fall out of our own behavior, our own habits, and if we could just change those, it would probably solve a lot of our problems. We don't often need miraculous interventions here, but we can still read about them. We can still read about them. I get this little magazine, I think once a month, called Voice of the Martyrs, And it talks about people who are struggling in other countries with trying to worship God. And while we don't often read of things as dramatic as splitting a sea or tearing down walls, we can definitely see the hand of God in the lives of these people. And if we pause enough in our own life, we can see it in our lives. We can see it in our lives. It's definitely the hand of God that brought us up here. I had no desire to be living in Pineville, Louisiana when I was 30 years old, when I was graduating college. But I wouldn't be any place else at this time. And it is important, brothers and sisters, especially right here in verse 29 and 30, it's important to remember that we got two different generations here you know the the people that stood with moses on the shore of the red sea that was a different generation than the people uh... that stood with joshua before the walls of jericho so Joshua and that later generation, they would have certainly had time to remember the stories, the triumphs. Some of those, yes, I believe were probably young enough that they may have crossed the Red Sea. Maybe they would have remembered that. but they would have remembered that time in the desert and how God preserved them in that. So they would have had time to contemplate the triumphs and the failures in the lives of their parents. They would have had time to consider those things. They would have remembered the stories of Egypt and the plagues there. That was probably a big topic of discussion around the dinner table during those days. So they would have been able to really understand this call to victory or victory through this call to faith. Joshua and his generation knew that Moses and his followers acted against human wisdom and trusted God and his wisdom. And God came through for them. So they followed that example at the walls of Jericho. They trusted God and God came through for them. and the author of Hebrews is encouraging us to do the same thing, to remember these stories and remember that God is faithful and that victory through faith is only achieved by acting faithfully. In both cases, Moses and the Red Sea, and in the case of Joshua and the walls of Jericho, God responded to Israel's faithful obedience. that in both cases, God's people achieved that victory over the world by trusting in God, by simply trusting in His word, in His wisdom, in His attributes, in His character. So when you're reading this on your own, I would encourage you, don't just listen to the stories. Don't just read them and remember them. I'm not recalling all of this so that we can simply recall the facts. Remember the facts and the details of the story and which generation and which leader. Now, the author of Hebrews is trying to encourage us. And I'm saying, let it be so. Be encouraged. Let yourself be inspired by the faith of the Israelites at the Red Sea. Let their example challenge you to trust God in the face of what you think is impossible, to obey His commands even when the path of those commands are uncertain how they're going to come out. Let that example encourage you to walk by faith and not by sight, which is what Paul tells us to do in 2 Corinthians. And then we see how the Israelites did it and how God was faithful in it. Let yourself be encouraged to move forward with confidence, knowing that the God we worship is the same God that part the Red Sea to save his people. Let yourself be inspired by the faith that brought down the walls of Jericho. Don't pass over the story too quickly. Let that story challenge you to embrace God's unconventional ways when you may not know what's gonna happen. Let it encourage you to walk in obedience and to persevere in faith, even when it just seems like repetition, like just bland, rote repetition. God promised Israel freedom. He promised them a homeland. And when the Red Sea and the army of Pharaoh stood between God's people and that promise, God destroyed the army. And when the city of Jericho stood between God's people and God's promise, God tore down the city. Brothers and sisters, you don't have to worry about whatever it is that stands between you and God's promises. Whether it's the world, whether it is Satan, whether it is your own sinful nature, God is always faithful to get you through it. And it's probably not in a way that you're going to expect it to happen. It'll be in a way that you can say only God did that. Remember when Hollywood makes a movie about Samson, Samson's always the biggest, strongest guy in the room. But they forget that Gideon destroyed an entire army with 300 people who had torches and clay pots. I venture that Samson was probably an ordinary guy. He may have been like Brother David back there. Not the biggest guy in the room, you wouldn't think that that's gonna be the guy that tears out the gates of your city. But he does things in a way, God does things in a way that if you don't give him credit for it, because it's obvious he did it, God is always faithful to get us through these things. He simply asks that we trust him. Just like anybody that you know at times will say, trust me, trust me, I'll take care of it. In the relationships that you have with those around you at work, here at church, in your family, your faith in those people are built up when you do trust them. you begin to trust them more. When you trust them and they see that they are faithful, you begin to trust them more. God is always faithful. God is always faithful. And just like we started this morning with Psalm 37, verse five, when it says, trust in him and he will act. That is what this author of Hebrews is encouraging us to do. Trust in him and he will act. Let us pray.