Now Hebrews 11. This is an inspiring and instructive chapter filled with Old Testament examples of faith, real life people who lived long before our time, but yet were people of like passions as we are, who followed the Lord. It's a wonderful passage, you could just Spend a long time here. This is our 13th message through this chapter so far. But I want you to be encouraged because that's lightning pace compared to Thomas Manton, one of the Puritan preachers. He preached a series of 65 sermons on this one chapter. So, I mean, we're flying like lightning. His editor actually had the temerity to call that series of sermons that was published together a clear and succinct opening of gospel mysteries. So if that was succinct, I don't know what the exhaustive version was. It was probably exhausting. But in a way, of course, I can understand because the Bible is, it is a mine that you explore and you see amazing beauties and you come out and you say, that's astounding. But you know, there's a little dark crevice in the corner that you never quite probed before. And so you kind of get down there a little bit further and it just keeps going. And then you see another and another and then the passageways begin to connect and then you really have a mind-blowing experience. And it's just this vast treasure trove of subterranean wealth buried under this text for us to delve into and to see the God who revealed himself in this word. This is true as we come to examine the men and women of faith of the Old Testament, you know? Consider this, the writer of this letter has, so far in chapter 11, only briefly touched on the lives of 10 individuals from all of church history, and he's really only focused in all of their lives on one or two or maybe three incidents in each of their lives. And we're three quarters of the way now through this chapter, and we've only come to the sixth out of 39 Old Testament books. And he's talking about the lives of these people. And even then, he's being very selective on what he says. No wonder then that when we come to verse 32, he just says, what more shall I say? Time would fail me. And of course, that's the constant complaint of the preacher. When he gets about three-fourths of the way through his sermon, he thinks to himself, time will fail me. Because, not only because the word of God is so deep and rich, and you know, it's not that the writer here is just rambling on, and he doesn't manage his time well, and so he says time will fail me, that's not the reason. The reason that time will fail him is that faith and its manifestations in the lives of God's people isn't just characteristic of a few sort of super-Christians here and there, a kind of a few different, you know, specific saints. Faith is what animates every true believer from Adam to us. It's not just the well-known names, it's the obscure Christian, it's not just dramatic public acts that are acts of faith, it's the everyday decisions. I mean, you could go on and on and on. You are not a true child of God if you don't exercise faith, persevering faith in Him. The kind of faith that resists temptations and endures affliction and withstands pressure, and though it falls, it rises again to continue on. And I think you could read this chapter and come away with the wrong impression. You could go through this chapter, and because it outlines particular feats of faith that are so extraordinary, that you could come away with the impression that faith only operates in a few sort of select Christians and unusual circumstances like that. But the truth is that you could go on and on and on throughout the entire rest of the Old Testament. Indeed, you could go on through the entire rest of church history and you could go on and on around this room and find example after example after example after example after example after example after example of the way that people of faith act on God's word. Even when they can't see how it's going to work out, even when the fulfillment of that word seems so far off, they just believe it and they act like it. That's not unusual. Don't think these are here because these are unusual people. These are here because this is the way Christianity works. They trust God. Christians trust God in spite of any challenge, in spite of danger, in spite of opposition, in spite of temptation. in spite of their doubts. Christians have doubts. In spite of their fearfulness, in spite of their failures, believers believe. They entrust themselves to their God and they act on faith. All believers do this. This is the distinguishing feature of the people of God. And so, The writer is left to say then, now beginning with me in verse 32, what more shall I say? Time would fail me. Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, all these four are what we call judges in the Bible, deliverers of God's people and rulers of the people. Time would fail me, he says, to tell of David. who of course was the greatest of all Israel's kings. Or to tell of Samson and the prophets. You know, verse 32 is like a one-sentence survey of the entire rest of Old Testament history. He's just like, now you remember this guy and this guy and this guy and this guy, and I've got through the first six books of the Bible, and then just remember all the rest, okay? All of God's people, all of God's people, this is the way they live. When they come up against obstacles, against difficulties, They hold on to God, they hold on to Christ. And these people, verse 33 now, through faith, they conquered kingdoms, enforced 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 their dead back by resurrection, through faith. And that's as far as we're really gonna focus today, but I think in order not to, you know, to make sure we don't get a skewed picture, let's just keep reading here. And some, verse 35, 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 a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in caves, dens and caves of the earth. And we'll stop our reading there for this morning. Now, to be sure, many of these acts really were extraordinary feats, the things that we've read about in verse 33 especially, really extraordinary feats. And this is because many of these people were uniquely positioned by God in church history to move the story of redemption towards its completion in Christ. And so God had a very specific purpose for their lives and it was manifest in some unusual ways, but the application for us is found in the fact that every one of God's people exercises persevering faith in doing whatever God gives him to do or her to do, whatever God commands you. And God's plan in this world is advanced. by very imperfect people trusting and obeying His Word. And the point is not then, so if you really have faith, then you're going to do something extraordinary, something that's just amazing to people. And if you don't accomplish something spectacular like that, then you just don't have enough faith. No, the point of the text is that if you do have faith, you will do whatever God's Word commands you to do. and through the people of faith, God is slowly but surely, and sometimes dramatically, moving his purposes forward. So then I want you to take note of three things in this text this morning, if you would. It'll really be a help, I think, and encouragement to you as we just sort of ransack this text for what it has to say. But what I'd like to do is kind of go backwards a little bit, just for the purpose of emphasis here in the text. So I wanna start with this. Let's take a note, first of all, of what these people did. This is verses 33, 34, 35, the exploits that were accomplished through faith. Through faith, they conquered kingdoms. Think about that. You know, Barak defeated the Canaanite king. And remember, the Canaanites were a mighty people. But by faith he defeated the Canaanite king Sisera. Or Gideon who won the victory over the Midianites. Or Jephthah who defeated the Ammonites. Or Samson who accomplished great exploits over the Philistines, we know that one. Or David who was a mighty man of war over many of God's enemies. They conquered kingdoms. And of course God's people today make war. We looked at this last week. We make war on the devil, on our own flesh, on the sinful world out there. And 2 Corinthians chapter 4 tells us the nature of our warfare and of the weapons that we use when he says that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, we wield the sword of the The Spirit, which is the Word of God, that sharp two-edged sword. Listen, I want to tell you about that weapon. It's a great weapon. Do you know it can pierce even to the intentions in a person's heart? It can lay those bare. I mean, we're talking about a powerful weapon. So our warfare is with a weapon like this. And by that sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. How many of those are out there? Lofty, you talk about people who have lofty opinions. There are a lot of people who have really lofty opinions. Their arguments, they believe and press on everyone else. And we take every thought Every thought, every idea, every argument, every philosophy, every lofty opinion, we take every thought captive to obey who? Christ. That's what we do with the sword of the Spirit, conquering kingdoms with the Word of God. Not because we're great, but because the Lord is great and the Word of God is capable Through faith, they conquered kingdoms, and secondly, they enforced justice, or it could be translated, they administered righteousness, justice, right judgments. This is, of course, the calling, was the calling of the judges and the kings of Israel, not only to defeat God's enemies, but to establish righteousness and justice among people. To ensure that God's law was the rule of the land, and oh how we need a return to that today, amen? In our homes, that the law of God is the rule, that it trumps everything, the Word of the Almighty God, that that were true in our homes, and in our churches, and in our nation. that we would be ruled by the moral law of the Almighty, the principles of true justice enforced, not the changing whims of whatever passions of the flesh are currently in vogue in the moment. That will always lead to injustice every time. And together, I think these first two feats of faith remind us that faith is never just merely personal, like it stays inside my own little head, but God's people acting in faith shape their homes and their churches and their world. And then through faith, they obtained promises. For this is really, of course, where faith operates, right? In the realm of the future. which is exactly what a promise speaks to, it speaks to the future. This is where faith operates and God promised, He promised people like Barak through the prophetess, Deborah, that God would give the enemy commander into His hand. His job was to believe God's word and go do what God said. Then angel of the Lord came to Gideon and promised him victory over the Midianites. The Lord promised Samson's parents that before he was even born that he would begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. And David, of course, received a great promise from the Lord. It's not that because of their faith God made them these great promises, but that through their faith they obtained the thing that was promised. And that's the way promises work. God's promises, listen, God's promises always are made in anticipation of faith that will embrace them. That's the way the promise has an effect for good in the life of that person. It's not that God's promises will fail to come to pass because Some people may not believe them, but it is that those who do not exercise faith will not be blessed in their fulfillment. And these brothers of ours who experienced the great blessings of God, they did so in receiving the fulfillment of those promises. What about you? Are you obtaining the promises? Not just receiving, not just having the promises, but obtaining. That word was in one of the symbols we sang, right? Obtaining, are we obtaining the things that God has promised? Experiencing the blessing that has been purchased for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. If you're gonna obtain those blessings, if you're actually going to experience those blessings, you know what it's gonna take? Guess what? Five letter word that starts with the letter F. Yeah, faith. It's gonna take faith. Keeping on believing in that certainty of outcome that's way, way out there until I obtain it. Not taking any rest or giving God any rest until He does what He has determined to do. That's what faith does. And by it, obtains promises. Faith shuts the mouths of lions. Wow, what a testimony that is. You know, of course, we think of people like David and Samson, who slew lions with their bare hands. Or, of course, it's hard not to let your mind run to Daniel, who was cast into a den of these wild beasts and was preserved by God. God himself shut the lion's mouths, as it were, through Daniel's faith, even now, the Bible says that the devil walks around like a roaring lion looking to seeking whom he may devour. You know what, it's a small thing to wrestle a lion and win compared to really grappling with the temptations and the afflictions of the evil one and coming out the conqueror. That's what God's people do by faith. And then we read that faith likewise quenched the power of fire. And of course, mine has to go to who? Three dudes, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, of course, right? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as they're known, who were preserved in the fiery furnace of Babylon. This happened through their faith. And just like God preserves those who trust him through the fiery trials that they may go through. You know, and isn't it a great thing? We don't even have time. Time would fail me to tell of their faith. And the word of their faith. Listen, God is able to keep us, he's able to bring us out of the fire unscathed. But if he doesn't, we trust God no matter what. I mean, that's the way Christians talk. That's the way they quench the power of fire. And what do we do as Christians? We take the shield of with which we are able to quench the fiery darts. You think that's accidental language in light of these things? No, God, this is meant not only to say these people did these great historic things, including not getting burnt up in the fire in Babylon way back a long time ago, it's saying, hey, this is what God's people do. They live like they believe God's word, and by that, defeat the evil one with all of his fiery darts of fearful compromise with the world, They do so, they quench that fear by confidence in Christ. And then through faith they escaped the edge of the sword. Our brother read Psalm 144 this morning. There's that comment or that prayer, I can't remember, that God would deliver David from, or had delivered David from the edge of the sword, from the threats against his life, and of course that was true of some of the prophets as well. They believed in God's promise. David in particular believed God's promise that he would preserve him so that he would be king. While he's running from Saul, while he's afraid that he's gonna get killed, he knows that that cannot be, for God has promised that he will be king, and that his line will be established, and that from him will come Messiah. And so he escaped the edge of the sword. And so many of these men of faith were, in the next words, made strong through weakness. Made strong through weakness. Some were healed from physical weakness and infirmity. People like King Hezekiah, who was delivered from terminal illness through the prayer of faith. or others who were strengthened in spite of personal or circumstantial weakness that they faced, like David who was, you know, the least in his family and was the king according to the promise of God, but who in his youth and inexperience was yet strengthened to defeat the giant of Gath. Out of weakness, this is the way faith works. Because there's a God who works in a way that gives him only all the glory. Or think about Jephthah, who, you know much about Jephthah? You might have to go back and re-read. Jephthah was the illegitimate child of a prostitute. You remember that? Talk about somebody who started in weakness. And yet he was, though he was, you know, excluded by law from the congregation of Israel, he ended up being a great deliverer of those people. Or Gideon, who complained, please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the very least in my father's house. And even then, God decided, you're not weak enough yet. I'm gonna take your army, your 30,000 man, 32,000 man army, and I'm gonna whittle it down to 300 guys. Now you're weak enough. Now you're weak enough to do great exploits for the kingdom of God. Do you know some deep weakness in your life, personally, circumstantially? Well, I tell you, then that makes you the perfect candidate to do mighty things for God. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul said, and you know it well, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. And why did God do it this way? Why did He cause through weakness, men to be strong and exercise a strength that was not there. The answer is this, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. That's exactly why God does it. God is intent that we would see his glory. That's what we need more than anything else in all the world. It's not to be able to look up to somebody and say, boy, what a great man he is. What a great woman she is. only the next day to see them fall and fail. And all our hopes come crashing down. No, the reason he uses the weak and the foolish and the unwise in the eyes of the world is so that all of the world, all of humanity might recognize that it is the work of God and God alone in furthering his purposes and building his kingdom. He uses his people, he does, and it is his delight to be used. But it is the power and the grace of God. Through faith, they were made strong through weakness. And then it says that these weak people became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. Such is the story of redemptive history that a visibly mighty world is being gradually subdued by an apparently weak and marginalized minority. And then it says their women even received their dead back by resurrection. They received the dead by resurrection, like the widow of Zarephath, remember, in Elijah's day, or the Shunammite woman in Elisha's time. And this will be the final blessing of the people of faith, they will receive all their dead back by resurrection, amen? Not merely to temporary resurrection to mortal existence, but eternal resurrection to immortal life. And the resurrection day is gonna be like the capstone of all of the exploits of faith that were ever accomplished through God's people. But it is vital to recognize, secondly, not only what they did, but how they did it. How they did it. Every one of these feats was accomplished through, say it again, through faith. Through faith. Through faith, they did these mighty exploits. And I'm not talking about just like a positive attitude, like believe that you can do great things, and you can do great things. Or somebody just, if I'm just optimistic enough, then I can just accomplish the extraordinary. Look at myself in the mirror and say, you got this. And then, of course, if something spectacular doesn't happen, they're told, well, you just didn't have enough faith. No, no, faith is trusting God enough to obey what He commands us to do, His revealed word, that's faith. Faith is taking God at His word. You think about other people in history have vanquished lions, besides people who did so by faith. Other people in history have conquered kingdoms. Other people have put armies to flight. But these were commended by God because they did so by trusting Him and relying on what He said He would do. They banked on it. And then they just acted in light of it. This is what Barak did to obey God's directive. Deborah said to him, has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you to do this? He said, I will do what God has commanded. Or what Gideon did. You know, God said, go save Israel from the hand of Midian. And the Lord said, and I will be with you and prosper you. And of course, his faith was tested when God made it harder by whittling his army down to nothing. And of course, isn't that the way God works with us sometimes? He takes you when you're in a hard position and he says, okay, I don't think it's hard enough yet. Because, you know what, people could probably say, well, he was in a tough place, but he really pulled it together. That guy's, he's just really resourceful. She really knows how to just keep her wits about her, even when things are off. No, he doesn't want it like that. He wants people to say, wow, God is doing an amazing work through that person. And so sometimes he does, he really does it that way. He just takes a situation that's difficult and he makes it more difficult, and Gideon accomplished great things by trusting God. and what God said. And this is of course what David did. He acted on faith in the revealed word and will of God about his future, about his kingdom, about his seed. He trusted the word of God and he acted in light of it. That's what faith is. That's what moved and inspired and energized all of these acts. Great things are always accomplished by saying, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. I will act on the basis of what he's said. And even though we can't see how things are gonna work out, or though It's the kind of, we live in a kind of world where God has promised something, but it seems impossibly far away. Great feats are always accomplished by people who take Him at His word. That's what Christians do. It's what you're gonna do, right? I mean, your own little battles, your own endeavors for the kingdom of Christ. your own obedience, by faith. I'm gonna take God at his word. Listen, you all say that you believe God, you trust yourself to God. He's gonna put it to the test, and I'm just gonna say, brother, sister, let us say, okay, God, I'm really gonna believe you today. I'm gonna believe you on this. And in spite of whatever I see, I'm just gonna press on, obeying what you've given me to do. My part may be spectacular, or it may be mundane, but I'm going to obey. And then I want you to notice not only what these people accomplished and how they accomplished it, but thirdly, let me remind you who these people were in themselves. I mean, look at the list again of the people that are named here. Besides the fact that they all exercised faith and they were all Old Testament figures, what else do they have in common? Well, while the point, while this point that I'm about to make is not, it's left unspoken by the writer of Hebrews, in the context of the Old Testament narratives, I think it's unmistakable. And it really makes the bigger point, I think, that is being made in this whole thing. Consider these specific names, all right? Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel. I'm definitely not the first one to take note of the fact that one of the striking features about this list of names is the weaknesses and the sins that are recorded in Holy Scripture about these people of faith, right? Just think about them. In fact, a couple of the names on this list, at least one of them, one or two of them, probably sort of almost surprises us that they're in this list. of people who did great things by faith, right? Which one would be most surprising to you? I would say one of the ones that would probably come to our minds would be Samson. You look at this man. I mean, his sexual infidelities, his selfish ways were nearly infamous. In fact, it led to a lot of ruin in his life. His life ended very tragically. And it was not really until the end of his life that he really turns back to the Lord. And it's the first time you have recorded in his life that he prayed. I mean, I'm sure he prayed before, but the Holy Spirit records this is when he prays. I mean, he comes to the very end like that. Here's a man, think about this guy, what you know about him from the Bible. Here's a man who's wasted and squandered so many years of his life in selfish immaturity, and now here nearing the very end, he turns back in repentance and faith, and maybe that's why he's included, right? Here's an example of faltering faith, failing faltering faith, but that nevertheless perseveres and turns in repentance at the end. And the Bible records that he did more to deliver God's people in his death than he ever did in his whole life. That's the kind of person who's held up to us as an example of faith. Or consider Jephthah. What do you know about Jephthah? Most of us don't know much about Jephthah. I mentioned earlier his birth background. But if there's one thing that most people remember about Jephthah from their Bible reading, it's his what? Well, maybe it's not the one thing that most people remember. It's the one thing that came to my mind, and that is his rash vow, right? Jephthah's vow. Everybody remember that, right? He makes this vow foolishly to sacrifice to God, and it ends up being his own daughter. And that's what we remember about him. Or what about Gideon? Well, God called this man to deliver this people. And here he is hiding out. He's hiding from the people that God said for him to deliver Israel from. He's threshing out his wheat in the bottom of this wine press. And God comes to him and says, you know, do what I've called you to do. And he said, I'm a nobody, I can't do this. And even after the Lord commands him and the Lord assures him of his presence, he does what? He asks again and again and again for some kind of confirmation, some kind of sign. Listen to the way he says it. Then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said. God said he would do it. Shouldn't that be enough, right? God said it. I believe it. That settles it, right? And yet, I mean, he believed, but oh God, he needed help with his unbelief. And the Lord was merciful and graciously reassured him, even timidly and reluctantly, yet he acted on God's word. Or what about Barak? He also timidly and reluctantly did the will of God. Deborah came, the prophetess, and said that God had called him to this, and he said, I'll only go if you'll come along with me. And she said to him, well, God will. God will deliver the enemy into your hand, but you won't be seen as much of a hero. Or think about David. Great King David, the man after God's own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel, who yet fell, as we know, so infamously into grave, grave sins of adultery and theft and murder. And of course, it brought a lot of pain and suffering on his house, on his nation, on himself. And yet this man of faith penned words that have been the most sustaining words for God's people throughout generation after generation after generation, including one of the most poignant prayers of repentance in all the Bible. Or think about the great prophet Samuel. Yes, even Samuel. While there's nothing in scripture that directly impugns him, both of his sons, you know, in the end, turned really their own way, turned away from the Lord. And the Bible says that they lived for money. They took bribes from people who came to worship God. And in the course of their work as judges, they perverted justice in order to make some money. They did not walk in the ways of their father, the Bible says. What a heartbreak that is. Many of us have known those kinds of heartbreaks. And whether Samuel chose to ignore their wicked character or whether he was ignorant of it, he chose to install these boys in his place as priests over the people of Israel. I'm just saying, friends, that these facts cannot have been lost on the Hebrews who first read this letter, who were steeped in these accounts. And so the unspoken point is perhaps the most powerful, and that is, friends, simply this, that God uses weak, fearful, failing people to further his kingdom. No matter what his failure, if a man repents and returns to the Lord in faith, he is approved by God. Who cares who approves of you if God approves of you, amen? And God speaks of these men in such a generous manner, doesn't he? Wouldn't you say it's pretty generous what the writer of Hebrews wrote about these guys here in chapter 11? Would you say that? I'd say it's pretty generous, given what we know about them. You know, that's the way God speaks about you. Do you have faith in his son? How generous. I mean, he doesn't even mention their failures in this chapter. Only their faith, their final, sometimes reluctant, sometimes fearful, sometimes failing obedience to what he said to do. I mean, this is extravagant, almost reckless graciousness from God. It's the kind of grace that found Gideon hiding in fear and addressed him by saying, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor. Talk about a gracious way to speak to somebody. That's the Lord, isn't it? Don't you know how gracious he is? He's the one who brothers and sisters, when you who trust the Lord, when you are yet held back, from obeying him out of fearfulness, or when you realize that you have acted rashly and now you regret what you've said or done, or you look back maybe on the raising of kids and you just have a heartbreak about that, or maybe you even wish you could do it over again, or maybe you're a kind of person, a Christian who's just paralyzed by some great past sin and failure that maybe you even feel like has just tainted the rest of your life, or maybe you're a person who is even nearing the end of your life and you look back on what seems like the majority of your years that were just squandered in selfish immaturity. A person who looks to God and you say, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. Whatever my failures, Lord, my hope is in you. In fact, it can only be in you. I want you to hear now the tenderness in the Father's voice as he speaks. All these, all these are commended through their faith. Amen? What a tender, gracious, gentle, forgiving, loving way to speak. This is the kind of way of speaking about somebody that doesn't take into account just their record, but something far more, the nature of the one who proclaims their story in union with the one in whom they trust. And that's the way he speaks about them. Somebody may say this morning, oh, but can God ever use me still in spite? And I just want you to consider the great feats, great feats that move forward the history of redemption that were accomplished by your brothers and sisters here, in spite of their failures, through faith in God's word and obedience to what he said. And of course all of this is a testament to the fact that there are no great people in the household of faith, really. There are only weak and failing people who trust in a great God. And the instrument for accomplishing these great things is not courage, ultimately. It's not perfection, certainly. It's faith. It's just reckoning on the faithfulness of God and stepping out fearfully, failingly, weakly, but stepping out and saying, I'm gonna do what God told me to do. because faith does nothing but rely on the power and the perfection of another. So turn, brothers and sisters, from your doubts and your fears and your failures today and trust the Lord, His power and faithfulness and His mercy and His steadfast love. Set your eyes on Him who accomplishes great feats through undeserving people. Amen.