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Faith Values the Greater Reward from God, part 1 (Hebrews 11:23-28)

Stephen Davey opens our discussion of our next hero of faith, Moses, with this story:

In a recent publication I was given, I read the fascinating story of the history of the automotive industry and the personal fortunes that were won and lost in the early 1900’s.

One of the most interesting characters among them was an entrepreneur by the name of William Durant.

Billy Durant was the owner of a carriage business in the 1880’s and he built it by controlling everything that it took to put a buggy together. And that’s exactly what he did later with his engine-powered buggies – and a corporation he called General Motors.

In 1905, he rescued financially a car maker from bankruptcy by the name of David Buick.

Billy would form a partnership with Buick and together they would create an empire by buying out smaller car companies – also named after their founders; names like Ransom Olds – of the Oldsmobile; a man named Walter Chrysler.

Durant teamed up with a French auto maker named Louis Chevrolet. Then a French Canadian joined the group who’d named his company in honor of his ancestor’s last name – Cadillac; the same ancestor who founded the city of Detroit, Michigan in 1701.

At one point, Henry Ford agreed to sell his young automotive plant to Billy Durant, but Henry Ford refused stock options in General Motors and insisted on cash, instead. They finally agreed on a price, but Billy Durant missed the closing deadline and Henry Ford changed his mind – which, of course, changed the course of automotive history.

Over the next few decades, Durant and his partners made a fortune. In fact, I read that more than 70 men became millionaires by joining or supplying General Motors – and that was in the early 1990’s.

But Billy Durant would lose his fortune and regain it and then lose it again. His last attempt at car making ended in bankruptcy on the eve of the great depression (Adapted from Orrin Woodward, Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE (Obstacles Press, 2011), p. 269).

In 1936, this ingenious creator of a billion dollar industry, was penniless, managing a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan. In fact, before he and his original partner, David Buick, died, they were both too poor to own one of the tens of thousands of automobiles they had actually created.

That’s what you call going from riches to rags.

Frankly, that fall from fame and riches to obscurity and rags is nothing compared to our next hero of faith.

And you’ll discover one of the key differences between Moses and Durant – and most everyone else – for that matter, will be the fact that Moses walked away from it all – willingly . . . in fact, he walked away, because of his faith.

What motivated Moses to do this? It was because he evaluated his options and decided to go with the rewards that God had promised, rewards which could not be seen, choosing pain over pleasure, eternal treasures over temporary gains. Moses believed that God’s reward was worth sacrificing for.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Moses was considered to be Israel’s most famous prophet (Deut. 34:10-12; Numbers 12:6-8) and when he talked with God, his face shone from the glory of God. Moses was the great lawgiver—bestowing on Israel the five books of the Pentateuch. Thus, he was also Israel’s greatest historian, grounding their history in the patriarchs going all the way back to creation. He was the greatest saint. When challenged by rebellious people, God recorded for all posteriority that Moses was the most humble man on earth (Numbers 12:3).

Thus, the book of Hebrews had already said of Moses that he “was faithful in all God’s house” (Heb. 3:2) and was “was faithful in all God’s house as a servant” (Heb. 3:5). Thus, Adolf Saphir says, “Of all the great men whom God raised up in Israel, there is none whom the nation regarded with a more profound veneration than Moses” (Saphir, The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Exposition, 2:620).

Significantly, in regard to Moses’ deliverance of Israel from Egypt, his liberating work was a huge act of faith from beginning to end. And this is what the author of Hebrews focuses on in verses 23–29 in the great Hall of Faith.

Our text tells us of two choices that were made that literally changed history. The first choice was relatively routine at the time. Two slaves in ancient Egypt chose to defy the king’s edict to kill all male Hebrew babies by hiding their son. That son turned out to be Moses, the great deliverer of his people.

The second choice was that of Moses himself, and it was more difficult. He chose to give up his position of influence and wealth in the Egyptian court in order to side with the enslaved people of God. Both choices were motivated by faith and their lessons have eternal consequences for us. Both choices teach that choosing eternal blessings often involves short-term pain and loss.

Here we have the anatomy of a faith that delivers others and sets them free. This insightful teaching had special relevance to the ancient church suffering in its own inhospitable “exile” in the Roman Empire. But it also shows us today that we are likely to face times when we have to give up present pleasures and treasures in order to gain what is truly lasting and genuinely best.

First, we see in this passage that the choice of Moses’ parents to obey God by faith resulted in short-term suffering, but also in eternal blessing (11:23). The initial faith we are shown is not Moses’ faith, but the heroic faith of his parents: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict” (v. 23).

Both parents were from the tribe of Levi (cf. Exodus 2:1), and Exodus 6:20 tells us that their names were Amram and Jochebed and that they also later had another son—Aaron, who would be high priest. They also had a daughter—Miriam, the prophetess, who was their oldest child.

Amram and Jochebed were living in a very difficult time in Israel’s history. There had arisen a new king “who did not know Joseph” (Exod. 1:6) and fearing that Israel was growing rapidly and could become an internal rebellious enemy, began to make life hard on the Israelites. They were afflicted with “heavy burdens” (Exod. 1:11) in building cities and buildings, ostensibly to make them too exhausted to engage in normal sexual relations. But instead “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad” and so the Egyptians were filled with even more dread (Exod. 1:12). “So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service” (Exod. 1:13-14).

So the new king decided on Plan B—kill all newborn male children. So they instructed the Hebrew midwives “”When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live” (Exod. 1:16). Some believe, ironically, that Pharoah was asking these women to toss these newborn boys into the Nile to become crocodile food.

This is the difficult situation into which Moses was conceived (Exod. 2:1). Interestingly, Josephus says the pregnancy was accomplished by Amram’s obedience to a vision in which God told him he would have a son who would deliver his people. Says Josephus:

These things revealed to him in vision, Amram on awaking disclosed to Jochabel(e), his wife; and their fears were only the more intensified by the prediction in the dream. For it was not merely for a child that they were anxious, but for that high felicity for which he was destined.

Although Josephus’ writings are by no means inspired Scripture, was something like this what engendered faith in Amram and Jochebed?

However that may be, when baby Moses came, his parents’ faith was in full force: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful.”

Does that sound odd to you, that this was the reason they believed God and acted to preserve their son’s life? Doesn’t every parent think their child is “beautiful”?

Obviously, there was something about him that was more than beautiful. Possibly there was something unique about his presence that confirmed God’s word. John Calvin wisely remarked:

It seems contrary to the nature of faith that he says that they were induced to do this by the beauty of his form. We know that Jesse was rebuked when he brought his sons to Samuel in the order of their physical excellence, and certainly God does not hold us to external appearances. I reply that the parents of Moses were not induced by his beauty to be touched with pity and save him as men are commonly affected, but there was some sort of mark of excellence to come, engraved on the boy which gave promise of something out of the ordinary for him.

Stephen (Acts 7:20) calls him “beautiful to God” (literal translation). John Calvin points out that since Scripture forbids us from making judgments based on external appearance, Moses’ parents must have seen something in this baby boy to make them hope that he would be the promised deliverer of his people (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on Heb. 11:23, p. 292).

They saw something in the child. Maybe they could see destiny in this young child (like Mary did with Jesus), something extraordinary that sparked their faith, some indications that God had great things in store for this child.

A. W. Pink offers another alternative, since “faith comes by hearing.” He says, “Most probably the Lord made known to these parents that their child was to be the promised deliverer, and furnished them beforehand with a description of him.” Stephen seems to be saying (Acts 7:25) that Moses grew up seeing himself as Israel’s future deliverer.

By the way, notice that Amram and Jochebed regarded God’s will concerning the sanctity of life as more important than obedience to the state, when national law required disobeying God’s will (cf. Acts 4:19). God honored their faith.

So Moses was born, but the Hebrews midwives feared God and didn’t do as instructed. So chapter two opens with Jochebed, saying “The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months” (Exodus 2:2).

Now, we might ask ourselves, why did they do this if they were “not afraid of the king’s edict” (Heb. 11:23). Steve Cole reminds us “Faith is not opposed to using prudence. Trusting God does not mean taking reckless chances. While they did not fear the king’s edict in the sense that they defied it, they no doubt did fear not only for the life of their baby boy, but for all their lives. If Pharaoh’s guards had caught them, they would have executed the entire family for insubordination to the king. So their “by faith” choice to hide their son exposed the entire family to the risk of death” (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-40-faith%E2%80%99s-choice-hebrews-1123-26)

Imagine the tension. If you saw the movie Silence, where an alien creature could hear even the slightest of sounds and find you, you know the anxieties and terrors that must have seized their heart when their boy began to cry. Who knew if state police were not out on patrol?

She cannot hide him long at home, so “she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank” (Exod. 2:3). Miriam kept watch among the bullrushes.

In God’s providence Pharoah’s daughter came down to the river and was bathing. There she spied the basket with Moses in it. She saw that it was “one of the Hebrews’ children” (Exod. 2:6) but took pity on him. Miriam offered herself and her mother to look after the baby. So Jochebed got her son back and nursed him.

The end result is found in Exodus 2:10: “When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, ‘Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.’”

So Moses was preserved by his parents’ heroic faith. But there is more, for he was also nurtured by their faith. There in the slave hut of his parents Moses was surrounded by the pure atmosphere of faith. There he became aware of his own origins. There he was taught to fear God. And there he was made conscious of his call to deliver his people. Stephen informs us in his great sermon (Acts 7:25) that when Moses made his first attempt to defend his people, “[Moses] supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand.”

So Moses’ parents obeyed God by faith, believing that preserving Moses’ life was necessary not only for their sakes, but for the sake of the nation. Moses would grow up to be the greatest leader in Israel’s history, to be their deliverer from enslavement to Egypt. He would author the first five books of the Bible, foundational books for the Jewish people. The seemingly small choice to save this one little life had huge consequences for world history! We may never know what eternal blessings will flow from our choice to obey God by faith.

R. Kent Hughes applies this to our lives today. He writes:

What encouragement there is here for any who are attempting to try to raise a godly family in today’s secular desert. Moses was preserved by his parents’ faith. Their faith, their prayers, their bravery, and their creativity saved him. And more, he became a great man of faith through their faith. His experience was exactly that of the preacher who gave his mother the tribute, “My mother practices what I preach!” Moses preached and practiced the faith he saw at home as a child. Those of us who are parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and teachers not only have great power, but also immense responsibility to the children in our lives. Israel’s deliverance began with an obscure couple believing God in the midst of darkness. Think what a faith like that could accomplish today!

Charles Spurgeon was the most phenomenal pastor of the 19^th century. Thousands packed his church each week. They measured attendance by how many were turned away! Thousands came to faith in Christ under his preaching. Hundreds of pastors were trained at his pastor’s college. Orphans were cared for at his orphanages. He has more books in print by volume than any other author in history, and God still uses them greatly. What preacher wouldn’t want to be a Charles Spurgeon?

But Charles Spurgeon was the son of John Spurgeon. Who was he? He was a faithful pastor in a small English town. If he had not been the father of a famous son, John Spurgeon would be unknown in history. There have been thousands of godly, faithful pastors like him, but only a few like his son.

So I hope you parents will take heart. You may never become famous, but perhaps your child will. Build into them a life of faith, courageously believing what God has promised and living faithfully. Do what you can to prepare them to live in a world that is alluring and dangerous, and launch them into a life of ministry where they can be “beautiful before God.”

Faith that Holds on for God’s Best, part 3 (Hebrews 11:16)

We are in Hebrews 11, verse 16. Let me read this whole passage about Abraham’s forward-looking faith.

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

We have noticed throughout this passage that it is faith produced by grace that redirects our affections from this world to the next, from earth to heaven, from now to them.

This is basically one way we can determine whether we are practical atheists. I’m not talking about theological atheists, who argue that there is no god, but rather Christians who live like there is no god. They value man’s authority over God’s authority, they believe more in the material world than the spiritual world, and they value this life more than eternity.

Abraham wasn’t like that. He took God at His word, by faith saw the rewards of heaven, and lived his life for eternity.

And this leads us to our second point in this text. First, faith produced by grace redirects our affections. Second, faith produced by grace also arouses God’s affection for us.

Look at verse 16b, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

“Therefore,” on the basis of this kind of faith that focuses our hearts and minds on God’s future, heavenly rewards, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

This is so incredible! To think that God not ashamed to be referred to as my God. It doesn’t bother him that I claim him as my God, rather it delights him!

When I served as a hospice chaplain I would sing hymns to my hospice patients. Over the years I sang many of the hymns in The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration. I found six hymns, and I never would have expected this, that talked about God’s smiling face.

For example, the hymn Jesus, I Am Resting Resting by Jean Pigott, begins the fourth verse with “Ever lift Thy face upon me As I work and wait for Thee; Resting ‘neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus, Earth’s dark shadows flee.” Yes, when we see His smile all the pain and heartache of life begins to disappear.

Or take the hymn He Keeps Me Singing, by Luther B. Bridgers, where the third verse joyfully exclaims: “Feasting on the riches of His grace, Resting ‘neath His shelt’ring wing, Always looking on His smiling face—That is why I shout and sing.” You can shout and sing and claim the sweetest name of Jesus because you keep your eyes focused on “His smiling face.”

In the hymn O That Will Be Glory by Charles H. Gabriel, he talks about the joys of heaven: friends will be there, joy will overflow, “Yet, just a smile from my Savior, I know, Will through the ages be glory for me.” That smile will be our joy and delight throughout eternity.

Other hymns that have that concept—the smile of God—are Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts, Sunshine in My Soul and Trust and Obey. Look them up and let these songs edify your heart.

Far too many Christians feel that God’s countenance towards them is a frown, not a smile, laboring under the false supposition that God in his wrath is about to rain down lightning bolts of anger toward them. Nothing could be further from the truth as a Christian.

There’s no doubt that God’s heart must be grieved by sin and evil in our world but that is not the main headline! God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son for us!

The image of God’s smiling face first appears in the priestly blessing of Aaron mentioned in Numbers 6:24-26: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

The image of God’s face shining upon someone paints a picture that signifies God’s divine favor. Like warm rays from the sun, God’s favor is shining upon his people. When we read “the Lord make his face shine upon you” it shows God’s radiance warming our lives with love, grace, compassion, guidance, joy, and all other attributes that flow from him. Again, we see the abundance in which God blesses his people.

To “be gracious to you” shows that this isn’t something we deserve; rather it’s unmerited grace that God is giving us. Because God loves us, he gives us what we need and not what we deserve. That’s grace.

God was not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, even though Abraham faltered and failed numerous times. In fact, God later proclaimed to Moses, “I am [present tense] . . . the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). The most notorious weasel of them all was Jacob, and God delighted in calling Himself Jacob’s God. And did you know that God refers to himself three times more often as the “God of Jacob” than of Abraham or Isaac?

“Not ashamed” (cf. 2:11) is a litotes implying that God is willing and happy to be called their God. Our author uses this figure of speech in the negative “not ashamed” to emphasize the more positive: God is proud to be my God. He delights in associating His name with mine.

No higher tribute could be paid to any mortal. But God proudly claims whoever trusts and obeys him, and they can humbly insert their name in the divine proclamation, “I am the God of __________!”

We all have seen or heard of family members who turn their backs on a member of the family that is erring and rebellious and who has caused them shame. Do you realize that Jesus would never, never do that of you? He would NEVER do that to you.

Jesus said to Mary, after his disciples had all abandoned him, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).

Did you hear it? “Go to my brothers…” My brothers! Even though they had abandoned Him in His greatest time of need, he still regards them as brothers. Back in Heb. 2:11 we read that Jesus Christ was “not ashamed to call us brothers.”

It is faith, not perfect obedience, that brings pleasure to God. It is our dependence upon Him, recognizing that we are weak and needy and powerless. It is trust that does manifest itself in obedience and endurance, but it is primarily the faith that pleases God. Remember Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God].” So the reverse is also true: God is pleased with our faith. That is what delights his heart.

On what basis does God delight in calling himself my God, or Jesus calling himself my brother? The answer is right there in v. 16. Notice that God “has prepared for them [and for us] a city” (v. 16b). This is the New Jerusalem that will come down upon the New Earth. This is a reference to our eternal home.

And what was their response to this marvelous promise of a New and Glorified City that would be established on the New and Glorified Earth? They “desired” it! The word “therefore” in the middle of v. 16 points back to the first half of the verse. In other words, it is because these OT patriarchs “desired” a better country that God is not ashamed of them. Faith focuses the heart and the mind on those future promises of God.

So how is it that God is not ashamed of us when we are so often ashamed of ourselves? It has to do entirely with His grace! I remember reading a few years ago about a pastor in his early 30s who was diagnosed with cancer. After many tests, the doctors gave him the worst possible news. He was dying of cancer—sooner rather than later. It turned out exactly as the doctors predicted. He lived for a few more years and then he died. But as long as he was able to preach, he spoke to his people about what he was learning. The young pastor was given an insight that he shared with his congregation. It went something like this.

Twenty seconds—and the clock is running!

When you begin your Christian life, you realize that you have a long way to go, but you think to yourself, “I’ve got a lifetime to grow in grace.” Even though you know that you’ll never reach perfection in this life, you assume that over the years, you will grow much closer to God. And while you struggle with various sins, bad habits, and a long list of negative tendencies, you think, “Someday I’m going to be a better person.” After all, when someone points out a weakness to us, what do we usually say? “I’m working on that,” which means, “Give me time and I’ll get better.”

But what if you don’t live long enough to make even the elementary progress that you planned on making? That’s the dilemma this young pastor faced, knowing that he didn’t have much longer to live. And it was precisely at this point that he gained wisdom from God.

He realized, “I’m not going to live long enough to get any better. I’m going to have to die the way I am right now.” That’s a shocking and sobering truth! Suddenly you look up at the scoreboard and where you thought you were in the middle of the second quarter, with plenty of time left in the game, to your dismay the clock shows 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter. And the clock is running!

What do you do then? It’s either the grace of God or it’s nothing at all. The young pastor shared with his congregation a fresh insight from Romans 5:8, a verse we normally use in our evangelistic efforts with the unsaved, the Romans Road: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Did you notice the word “still”? “Still sinners.” Jesus gladly gave His life for us while we were “still sinners.” That word “still” comes from a tiny Greek word—eti. Christ died for us while we were “still sinners.” You and I, we were and still are “sinners.” The dying pastor got up and said something like this: “I realize for the first time that I’m going to heaven because of that little Greek word eti. I am still a sinner, and I don’t have any time left to get better, and when I die, I’m resting my hope on the fact that Christ died for me while I was still a sinner.”

Near the end, William Jay visited his friend John Newton (the composer of Amazing Grace), who was then barely able to speak. He wanted some advice on being a pastor, a successful pastor. But Newton said: ‘My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.’”

That is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what “being saved” really means. That is our entire hope of heaven.

All of us who believe in Jesus Christ, even the very best among us, have so far to go that we’ll never live long enough to measure up on our own. Someone else has to do the work for us. And the good news is that Jesus Christ did. He lived a perfectly obedient life and then died a sacrificial death in the place of those who did not and could never live that perfectly obedient life.

That is why Paul says, in Philippians 3:4-8, that all those things he had counted on and depended upon for righteous standing before God before, he now counted “as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [and then notice verse 9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith… (Phil. 3:7-9)

That is what pleases God, our faith, our total dependence upon His grace and goodness towards us. It is this kind of total dependence that brings a smile to God’s face.

And why is God smiling? What makes God proud to be called my God? He gives two reasons, one at the beginning of verse 16 and the other at the end. We’re going to look at the latter one first.

“God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared for them a city.” As John Piper says, “The first reason he gives why he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has done something for them. He made them a city—the heavenly city “whose architect and builder is God” (verse 10). So the first reason he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has worked for them. Not the other way around. He did not say: “I am not ashamed to be called their God, because they made for me a city.” He made something for them. That’s the starting point. The pride of God in being our God is rooted first in something he has done for us, not vice versa” (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-unashamed-god)

We also called that “city” heaven, or the New Jerusalem. God has prepared it, but not for everyone, only for “them” who live and die in faith. All preparations have already been made, as Jesus promised His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3) It’s a “prepared” room in a “prepared” city” in a “prepared kingdom” (Matthew 25:34). It’s just like C. S. Lewis said, in The Last Battle, everything prior is but the title page. From the time of death or the rapture everything will just get better and better from this time forward.

But such is not the case for all people. For those who refuse to believe a different prepared ending occurs: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41)

And that brings us back to the first reason why God delights in being called our God.

It goes like this: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” “Therefore” signals that a reason has just been given for why he is not ashamed. The reason is their desire. They desire a better country—that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in, namely a heavenly one. This is the same as saying they desire heaven, or they desire the city God has made for them.

So two things make God unashamed to be called our God: he has prepared something great for us, and we desire it above all that is on the earth. So why is he proud to be the God of people who desire his city more than all the world? Because their desire calls attention to the superior worth of what God offers over what the world offers.

In other words, the reason God is proud to be our God is not because we have accomplished something so great. But because he has accomplished something great and we desire it. (John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-unashamed-god)

Heaven has been prepared for you and God delights in being your God IF you believe that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient for your forgiveness. If you go back to trusting in yourself and your own goodness, then it is not heaven that is prepared for you and God will say, “I never knew you.” If you don’t possess this kind of faith, then cry out “Help my unbelief.”

Let me summarize four lessons from this paragraph in Hebrews 11:13-16: First, see God’s promises fulfilled in the future tense. Bank on them. Second, embrace your foreignness on this earth. Remind yourself that this is NOT YOUR HOME. Third, redirect your conscious thoughts and yearning desires toward heaven. And fourth, revel in God’s delight in you…and delight in Him.

Each example of faith that the writer has cited so far is a positive one involving a believer who kept on trusting God and His promises in spite of the temptation to stop trusting. That is what the writer was urging his readers to do throughout this epistle: Keep on trusting and do not turn back. In every case God approved and rewarded the continuing faith of the faithful.

Faith for the Impossible, part 1 (Hebrews 11:11-12)

Nothing strengthens us so much as isolation and transplantation. What do I mean by that? Well, let a person be thrown upon their own resources and like McGyver and he or she will be forced to develop ingenuity and powers that would never have developed and of which there would have been no trace under the ease of home.

This is also true of faith. So long as we are quietly at rest amid favorable and undisturbed surroundings, faith sleeps as an undeveloped sinew within us. But when we are pushed out from all these comfortable surroundings with nothing but God to look to, then faith grows suddenly into a monarch oak. As long as the bird lingers by the nest it will not experience the joys of flight. As long as the trembling boy clings to the bank or toes the bottom, he will never know the delights of swimming.

Abram would never have become Abraham, the father of the faithful, the mighty exemplar of faith, if he had always lived in the comforts of Ur. No, he had to journey into the unknown and march off the map so that faith could rise up in all its glorious proportions in his soul.

It may not be necessary for you and me to withdraw from home and friends, but we will have to withdraw our dependence upon all earthly props and supports if we are ever to learn what it is to trust simply and absolutely on the eternal God. It seems, in the life of most Christians that there arise occasions when God benevolently takes away what is precious, even necessary to us, so that we might more fully recognize Him as our most precious possession.

Job knew that God both “gives and takes away.” He might take away our business, possessions, friends, our influence, our spouse or parent or child, our health—all in an effort to help you find Him to be more precious than it all. He is most precious of all. This is the conclusion Asaph came to in Psalm 73. Looking around at all the good things in life that the wicked were enjoying, he became envious. But ultimately he “understood their final destiny” (Psa. 73:17, NIV) and came to realize that the nearness of God was his highest good (Psa. 73:28). Here’s what he says in vv. 25-26, some of my favorite verses in all of Scripture:

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

But we don’t often come to this place of valuing God above all things until we have faced the loss of some of life’s good gifts. Abram left the comforts of Ur, left most of his family behind and all of his friends. Whatever “job” he had there was a thing of the past. After 75 years of comfort and ease, now Abram was marching out with nothing but the promises of God—promises for a future destiny with many sons. As yet he had none.

Developing faith in Abram was important. Both obedience and faith are vital, but for different reasons. Jerry Bridges, in his book Trusting God, says: “It is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him. When we disobey God we defy His authority and despise His holiness. But when we fail to trust God we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness. In both cases we cast aspersions upon His majesty and His character. God views our distrust of Him as seriously as He views our disobedience” (Trusting God, p. 18).

So God made Abram into a man of faith. He wasn’t that always. He became a man of faith by taking away “all earthly props and supports so that Abraham might learn to trust completely in God alone.” (F. B. Meyer)

There is an old poem by that prolific author Anonymous that goes.

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.

This is what God did with Abram and what he will do with you and me to help us become men and women of faith.

Abram’s faith and obedience, remember, were based on God’s grace. It was God’s grace that produced such faith in Abram, just as he does in our lives. It is a faith that by grace displays itself through obedience and endurance.

“The root and the sap of the Christian life are hidden; but the fruits of this life must be manifest before the world.” (Donald Bloesch)

What does this faith look like?

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen that it is a faith that obeys. So surrendered to the word of God that he didn’t pause to make sure everything made sense for his future. When a sinner is transformed by God’s grace and given eternal life as a free gift when a person believes, it is now his heart’s disposition to be devoted to Jesus Christ, to give his complete allegiance, which means following his orders.

That great old hymn by Charles Wesley says it well: “Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed Thee.”

When faith is the product of grace, it doesn’t misuse its freedom to live for oneself, but rather it obeys its new, benevolent master, Jesus Christ.

We also noticed that faith produced by grace endures, year after year after year, even through a whole life of not receiving what was promised. Verse 9 showed us that Abram still lived like a wandering camper even though this land had been promised to him. The land promise wasn’t even fulfilled in the lives of his son or grandson, not even in Joseph’s life, not for 500 years!

So why didn’t Abram just wash his hands of this thing and pack up the camper and go back to Ur? The reason is that the land prefigured something else, something greater, it was the “land of promise.” Abram looked forward to something he considered more sure than the very ground he trod upon.

And that points to the third thing we learned in v. 10 about Abram’s faith, faith produced by God’s grace, is that it is forward looking, it looks heavenward. That aspect will be developed in even more detail in vv. 13-16. Abram’s faith was not just tied to the geography inhabited by the Canaanites, but to all the benefits of eternity in the heavenly city. This was the secret to Abram’s “long obedience in the same direction” in the words of Eugene Peterson.

Genuine, biblical faith is forward looking. It anticipates the fulfillment of God’s promise. Luther says “faith is the wedding ring by which we have pledged ourselves to Christ.” It is more what we would call an engagement ring, something given in anticipation and surety of the best that is yet to come!

Now, in vv. 11-12, we find that genuine faith is a faith that relies—that stakes its confidence on the character of God revealed in the promises of God.

Having explained how Abraham’s faith worked in relation to the promise of the land, the writer now begins to explain Abraham’s faith and the obtaining of a promised son:

11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Some other translations along with the ESV make Sarah and her faith the subject of verse 11—for example, the RSV: “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive. . . .” But this is implausible because the phrase “received power to conceive” literally is “power for the deposition of seed/sperm” (dynamin eis katabolen spermatos), a patently male function. Thus, Abraham has to be the subject of the sentence.

Most believe the misunderstanding is due to a wrong accent mark in the Greek that incorrectly renders “Sarah herself” as a nominative and not as dative. The corrective dative translation gives the right sense: “By faith he [Abraham] also, together with Sarah, received power to beget a child when he was past age, since he counted him faithful who had promised.”

The NIV reads, “By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.”

This view also alleviates another problem, namely, that in the account in Genesis 18, Sarah is rebuked for her unbelief rather than commended for her faith. When the Lord confronts her, she denies, rather than confesses, her unbelief. Probably, in spite of her initial doubt, she eventually came to believe God’s promise as Abraham did. But if Abraham is the subject of 11:11, then the emphasis is on his faith, not on Sarah’s faith.

The point is, it was biologically impossible for Abraham, as well as Sarah, to be able to conceive a child at this time. Abraham was 75 years old when God first promised him a son. Eleven years later, Abram tries through self-effort, to gain a son for himself through Hagar, but God told him that this was not the son of promise. And then finally, 13 years later, at age 99, God says, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son” (Gen. 18:10).

The impotence of Abraham was not the only issue. Sarai had always been barren. Menopause had come and gone. Sarah herself says, “I am worn out, and my lord is old” (Genesis 18:12). These were two major problems!

Abram had been expressing some faith way back when he was 75 because he did believe God’s promise for a son even though he knew Sarah was barren. But now that Abraham was almost a hundred years old and Sarah almost ninety, the promise seemed totally out of reach.

Sometimes God stacks the odds, just like when he trimmed Gideon’s army down from 32,000 to 300, making it even more impossible to face the mighty Midianite army. Why did God do that? So that the Israelites could not boast that their might had defeated the Midianites (Judges 7:2). And think of the time when Jesus and His disciples received word that Lazarus was sick and dying. Instead of rushing to his side Jesus waited…and Lazarus died. In fact, when Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the grave four days. Jewish folklore held that a person dead four days was REALLY DEAD! But Jesus used this to show His miraculous power and raised Lazarus from the dead.

The assertion that he was “as good as dead” (perfect passive participle) in verse 12 is exactly the same in the Greek as in Romans 4:19, where Paul said that Abraham “considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.”

But God had made promises to Abram. In Genesis 15:5 God told Abram:

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

And notice Abram’s response: “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).

In Genesis 22, after God tested Abram’s faith by asking him to sacrifice that one and only Son, that promised one that he loved so much, God said, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,” (Gen. 22:17).

Later that promise was fulfilled, but not in Abram’s lifetime. So, what sustained his faith as he saw each year clip by? 5-10-15-20-25 years. With each passing year the possibilities were dissipating.

What sustained Abram’s faith? Not just the fact that there was a promise, but faith in the One who made that promise. Abram knew God well enough to know that he was trustworthy, that He was faithful. Notice how verse 11 says that Abram “considered him faithful who had promised.”

You and I can always trust God to keep his promises.

Charles Spurgeon, a preacher in England back in the late 1800’s, had this great insight. “If God had meant to run back from any promise, he would surely have run back from the promise to give his only begotten Son; but having fulfilled that, what promise is there he will ever break?”

Thus, Romans 8:31-32 reads: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In other words, if God has already done for us the thing that would have been the hardest for Him to do—sacrificing His own Son for sinners—then we can believe that He will fulfill all His promises and plans for us.

Sure, Abram was a man just like you and me, prone to doubting. It took time for his faith to grow strong (Romans 4:20). That promise of a son was first incredible, but over time it became “impossible.” However, when Abram refocused the eyes of his heart upon the God who had made that promise, all difficulties disappeared.

The word “considered” indicates that Abram came to this conclusion after much thought and careful search. It wasn’t a leap in the dark. According to Paul in Romans 4 Abraham “faced the facts.” He considered the obstacles that were in the way. And his conclusion didn’t arise based upon any external circumstances or in his own ability to figure out how things might work out. As Jerry Bridges explains: “God’s plan and His ways of working out His plan are frequently beyond our ability to fathom and understand. We must learn to trust when we don’t understand” (Trusting God, p. 20). It was still a mystery to Abram but after weighing all the evidence—both the biological impossibility AND what he knew about God, he trusted God that He would and could do it.

Abram weighed the human impossibility of becoming a father against the divine impossibility of God ever being able to break his word and decided that since God is God, nothing is impossible. In other words, he believed that God “exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6b).

Faith that Marches Off the Map, part 3 (Hebrews 11:8-10)

We’ve been talking about the faith of Abram, a faith that first obeyed.

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Secondly, we see from this passage about Abram’s faith that it was a faith that endures.

Abram had been told that he had “an inheritance” (Heb. 11:8) in this land that he was going to. It was a “land of promise,” promised to him by God himself. God had said: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Now, the promise that Abram’s descendants would inherit this land didn’t come until Abram was already in this Promised Land. Because Abram had responded to God’s Word with believing obedience, God tells him in Genesis 13:14-15, The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” It was reaffirmed to him along with the promise of an heir (Gen. 15:18-21), and again after the bestowal of the covenant of circumcision (Gen. 17:8). The divine bidding was sufficient for him at his first call, and he went out, “not knowing where he was going.”

But that was never fulfilled in Abram’s lifetime. He waited all his life for God’s land promise to be fulfilled and it never was. He waited twenty five years for a son, and that promise was finally fulfilled. The point is, Abram waited, a long time, for God to fulfill His promise.

Waiting is never easy. We don’t like to wait. We don’t like slow lines or traffic. We don’t like waiting for appointments. I don’t like waiting. I find, however, that no matter how short the line I choose for check out, it always takes longer than I wanted.

But I’ve never had to wait 25 years, or never to have received something I waited for. Some of you have. Some of you have prayed and hoped and waited for healing of some sickness for a long time, or have prayed and hoped and waited for a mate, and it never happened.

I hope you can find something in Abram’s example to encourage you.

Isaiah, in writing to a nation in exile, who may have thought the day of relief would never come, gave them these encouraging words: “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).

So, Abram enters the Promised Land armed with this promise from God. But do all the pagan Canaanites show up at Abram’s doorstep once he settles in and offer him the keys to their cities? Absolutely not.

There was…

No “Welcome Abram” sign.
No discount coupons from the merchants.
No housewarming party.
No visit from the Welcome Wagon. Is that even a thing anymore?
No mayor offering the key to the city.
No band playing “Happy Days are Here Again.”
No ticker-tape parade.

Nobody expected him. Nobody cared that he had come. Nobody gave him anything. Instead,

9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

By divine right this land was his, but he lived in it “as in a foreign land.”

Notice that “by faith” Abram turned his back on Ur and left his homeland. But faith didn’t stop the moment he stepped into the land of promise. Like our lives after the faith that receives salvation, we still need faith as we await the fulfillment of all God’s promises.

In fact, going to the promised land thrust Abram into more severe tests than he had experienced just from leaving Ur. It was going to be harder to live in the land of promise, to live in anticipation of a dream that wouldn’t come true right away. Somehow, when you know that something is yours, waiting for it becomes even harder.

Imagine that God has promised to you the land of Guatemala. So you pack up your camper and head south. But when you arrive there you receive no reception. You can’t speak the language, use your currency, or eat the food. All you have is your camper. That’s where you have to live. And in this camper you have to move from one place to another. Your children and your grandchildren also have to buy and live in their own campers too.

But this is your land. God has promised it to you.

You read Genesis and you see that Abram is always on the move. “He lived in tents,” symbolizing the transitory, impermeant lifestyle of Abram. Isaac and Jacob lived the same way, even though they were “heirs of the promise.”

I know lots of people who like to camp out on vacation, but I don’t know anyone who likes to live in a tent as a permanent resident. All of us have a natural desire to settle down someplace and create a nest of our own.

But 5-10-15, 20, 30 years later, Abram is still living in a camper.

In many ways this is even more remarkable than him leaving Ur in the first place. As long as he was on the road traveling across the desert, he could dream about his future ranch and his palace. When he actually got to Canaan, all those illusions disappeared.

Had Abram misheard or misunderstood God?

John Calvin asks, “Where was the inheritance which he had expected? It might have indeed occurred instantly to his mind, that he had been deceived by God” (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], Hebrews, p. 279).

This is quite a natural response that we have when we step out in faith and then don’t receive what we thought we would—when deciding to follow Christ makes life harder than it was before, or not receiving the answers to our prayers for months and even years.

Some of the promises God eventually did fulfill in Abram’s lifetime, but not this one. This promise for a place to call his own never happened. When Abraham died, all he owned was a little plot on which he buried Sarah.

Stephen, in Acts 7:4-5 says “Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.”

Still, Abram held on to the hope that it would one day be his, that it would one day be enjoyed by his children. Jacob and Joseph, at their deaths were so sure that this land would one day be theirs, that they told their descendants to take their bones back to that land to be buried. It wasn’t theirs yet, but they were assured of it.

Again, it proves Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

John Calvin points out that just after Abraham arrived in the land of promise, there was a famine that drove him from the land. But later he returned and lived in the land by faith alone.

Abram could have thrown up his hands and said, “Why don’t we move back to Ur? All our friends are there. We loved the food. Our money bought things. They have so much more in the city.”

But when faith is the product of God’s grace, it is willing to endure any inconvenience and wait for God to fulfill His promises.

If the decision had been made on the basis of economics, he would have stayed at home. If the decision had been made to secure a better quality of life, Ur would have won hands down. But if the decision was being made on the basis of what was best for Abram’s eternal wellbeing, the Promised Land proved to be the best option.

Faith says, “though I cannot see it now, I stake my destiny and its fullness upon God’s Word.” Elisha Coles once said, “Faith is your spiritual optic.” In other words, faith allows you see something that isn’t there yet as if it already exists.

A faith that is the product of God’s grace endures when obedience to the Word of God requires persevering.

Faithfully persevering in a difficult marriage when other options become attractive occurs only because we believe God’s promises.
Faithfully enduring as a Christian single when men entice you into sexual relationships is only possible because you hold on to God’s promises.
Faithfully holding on as a Christian student when the academic world seeks to undermine your faith demands that you must have a firm grip on God’s promises.
Having a resilient faith as a Christian businessman when opportunities to make more money by compromising your integrity, is only possible by holding out for the better promises of God.

A faith that is the product of grace endures when obedience to the Word of God requires persevering.

How do you know if you’ve experienced God’s saving grace? How do you know if you’ve been transformed by the sovereign grace of God? Because you will have faith that obeys and obeys enduringly.

Kent Hughes summarizes:

The word for Abraham’s existence was dissonance —he never fit in. His religion was different and far above that of the land. He was a monotheist, and his neighbors were polytheistic pagans. His standards of morality were rooted in the character of God, while theirs came from the gods they themselves had created. His worldview invited repeated collisions with that of the inhabitants. He was always living in conscious dissonance.

What a lesson for us! The life of faith demands that we live in dissonance with the unbelieving world. A life of faith is not anti-cultural, but countercultural. Thus, a vibrant faith is always matched with a sense of dis-ease, a pervasive in-betweenness, a sense of being a camper. This does not mean, of course, that Abraham was separate from culture. To the contrary, the Genesis record reveals he was deeply involved in the politics of the land. But there was always that dissonance. He was never at home!

The parallels between Abraham’s experience and that of the Christian are easy to see, because the Christian has the promise of an ultimate land. In fact, every believer is called to step out in faithful obedience and to follow Christ as he leads on to that land. All of us are, by faith, to obey and go as God directs, though we do not know where the path will take us. All of us are, by faith, to become willing sojourners, living in constant dissonance with the world as we await our final inheritance. It is a dangerous thing when a Christian begins to feel permanently settled in this world.

Have we stepped out in obedience to our individual call? Are we living in such a way in this world that there is the discomfort of dissonance?

As Peter says, we are “sojourners and exiles” in this world. We will not easily “fit in.” Oh, we might try to live like the world, but we won’t be comfortable doing it, not if we are true followers of Jesus Christ.

Actually, Lot did choose to go out and live like the world. It didn’t really work out for him, though, did it?

As believers, our homeland is in heaven, and our thoughts and affections should be regularly directed there, as Paul says in Colossians 3.

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Like Abram, we need to keep our eyes on the heavenly city and allow these future promises to produce in us the holiness that pleases God. Several of the New Testament writers speak of the impact our belief in future promises have upon our current life.

11 Since all these things [heavenly bodies and the earth, creating the new heavens and earth] are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be [today] in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God [like Abram we wait], because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3)

Or think of what the apostle John said in 1 John 2 and 3. At the end of chapter 2 John encourages us to live righteous lives…

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Who wants to shrink back from Jesus in shame at his coming? Wouldn’t we rather be excited at His coming and welcome Him with open arms? If we prefer not to shrink back in shame, we better watch over our lives now and live in a way that he would be pleased to catch us doing what is right and good and loving when He comes.

Then in chapter 3 John says…

2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

When Jesus Christ appears we will be suddenly transformed and become like him in righteousness and purity. But having that hope means that we will purify ourselves now, today.

So let your future hope of being someday with Christ excite your heart to become more and more like Him today.