Winners & Losers BY FAITH! Hebrews 11:29-40

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1 Winners & Losers BY FAITH! Hebrews 11:29-40 Main Idea: Faith that meets God s approval guarantees neither winners nor losers in the world s eyes, yet it persists trusting God s promises, irrespective of the outcome during one s lifetime. Intro: A few weeks ago, we finished the part of Hebrews 11 on Moses. Then Pastor Stan preached on chapter 12:1-2 with a sermon that introduced the next focus of the book of Hebrews. Today we are going to go back to finish up Hebrews 11. In verses the author draws our attention to heroes of the faith in the history of Israel as a nation from the death of Moses through the Maccabean period, just before the time Christ was born. Even the casual observer will see that the author talks about people of faith who are winners and who are losers. In fact, you will see that the only factor that God considers noteworthy about their lives, the only element which they were able to contribute to their success or their failure, is faith! But because we are talking about people of faith, that might seem a little puzzling so we need the Holy Spirit to be our teacher this morning. Let s turn to Him together as we start. Let s read Hebrews 11:1-2, 6, (NASB) Congregation: 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it, the men of old gained approval. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Leader: 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. 32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. 1

2 Congregation: 39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Let s start off taking a look at the heroes, those big winners in life! First of all in V 29, the faith of the Israelites is highlighted in passing through the Red Sea. Seeing the miracle of the waters separating and leaving a dry path on the ocean floor would make it impossible to deny that God was at work. But it still took faith to step between the towering walls of water. Notice how Israel followed leaders who lead by faith. Joshua had taken over Moses position of leadership and he trusted God implicitly to lead Israel through the Red Sea. So he didn t send them on ahead to see if the walls of water would hold. Those walls of water came crashing in on the Egyptian chariots following Israel. It was by faith in verse 30, that Israel walked for seven days around Jericho s walls. This was a never before seen method to military victory, and after nothing happened on the first day, Israel must have been subjected to increasing ridicule by those inside Jericho as each of the seven days went by. So Israel had to persist in faith, and God responded to their faithful obedience over those seven days by bringing the walls down on the seventh day to give them an absolute victory! In verse 31, we see that Rahab the harlot, a loser at first in everyone s eyes, was made a winner by faith! By what virtue was she spared when the walls of Jericho fell down? The only virtue she had to commend her to God was that she believed that the God of Israel was going to destroy Jericho and she was saved because she threw herself on God s mercy. It is interesting to me that in this faith chapter, she is identified as a harlot, rather than as the great great-grandmother of King David and in the line of Jesus the Messiah. The author is obviously emphasizing that the only virtue that she could offer is that she believed! By the time the author gets to verse 32, he says that he can t go into that much detail anymore because the list goes on and on, so he just names some individuals. But just as did the original readers of Hebrews, you also remember these characters. Gideon was an insignificant, fearful man who became a hero by faith. The account in the book of Judges makes much out of him being a very ordinary and a very unimportant man trying to eke out a living doing subsistence farming on the sly to save his harvest from the Midianites who were destroying everything. Yet God gave him a great victory using only 300 men to come against the great Midianite army. Gideon had nothing to offer but obedient faith! Barak was a fearful man who became a hero in a way I don t quite understand. He was too fearful to go against Sisera s nine hundred iron chariots and his huge army unless Deborah, the prophetess went with him. Why didn t Deborah get some credit? Why is Jael, the woman who actually put Sisera to death with a tent stake, not even mentioned in Hebrews? But Barak is a hero of faith, not because he was an incredibly courageous general or a brilliant strategist, but because he believed the word of the Lord that came through Deborah and he acted upon it. Sampson was a weak-charactered body builder type man. He was very much concerned with the flesh. But by faith Sampson died a hero s death pulling down the Philistine temple on himself and the 2

3 Philistines. His only redeeming quality was that at the end of his life he finally believed God and did his last act, pulling down the pagan temple by its pillars, relying only on God. Jephthah was the first of Israel s judges. He along with his father in law, Caleb, took Hebron from the giants, those sons of Anak. But apart from faith he would have been a nobody. King David was another nobody, the youngest son of Jesse, and just a lowly shepherd boy. But because he believed God, he became a giant killer, then a hunted man and eventually a great king, the first of an eternal dynasty. But remember that David was one who sinned greatly as an adulterer and murderer. In the end he still had a heart after God that brought him to humble himself before God in repentant faith. Samuel, the prophet who first heard God s voice as a little boy, who followed God and led His people, was a failure as a father. His sons abused their priestly office. One can only wonder why God would choose to include him in this list of heroes of the faith, except that he did rely on God implicitly. The prophets, those mighty spokesmen for God, were also flawed individuals, some seemingly illsuited for the task God gave them. They suffered greatly because of the message they delivered, yet they believed the God who sent them to proclaim His message. Verses 33 through the first part of verse 35 speak of those in the Old Testament times but they also mention some of those great heroes of the faith, unnamed in the Scriptures, who lived during the inter-testamental time of Jewish history. Look at the great things these heroes did. By faith they conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight, and women received back their dead by resurrection. Great heroes of the faith! Yet if you examine each one up close, you can see that these heroes had no inherent greatness in themselves. There is only one reason they did such great things. Their one virtue was that they believed God and acted upon that belief. They were triumphant achievers by faith! But then there are the losers in verses 35b through 38! These losers were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. They were mocked and scourged, they suffered chains and imprisonment. They were stoned and sawn in two; they suffered temptation and were put to death by the sword. They wandered about in deserts, mountains, caves and holes in the ground, dressed in sheepskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated. These were the losers at life by anyone s measure, except by God s! Look what He says! The world was not worthy of these men. Losers at life? For sure, but not losers in God s opinion which is the only opinion that matters in the end! It really is true, faith that meets God s approval guarantees neither winners nor losers in the world s eyes! But here s a good question. What did these losers have to commend them before God? One 3

4 thing, and it is the same thing that the winners, the heroes in the previous verses had to commend them to God. It was that they had faith. They acted on their belief in what God said. You see, faith is linked to prodigious exploits and faith leads to abject failure. Faith accomplishes marvelous deliverances for some, and faith delivers others to face death! Faith gives resurrection life, yet sometimes condemns to death. Faith leads us to victory, and leads us to defeat. Faith brings us to the place of safety, and exposes us to danger. Faith saves us from the edge of the sword, and faith condemns us to be sawn in two. Faith saves us from temptation, and sometimes puts us right in temptation s path. Some of those mentioned in Hebrews 11 trusted God fully, and as they obeyed Him, the outcome was remarkable. Others trusted God completely, and as they obeyed Him, the result was appalling. So we see that the outcome in their lives didn t really depend on the people themselves or even the size or intensity of their faith, but rather on God s sovereign purpose in each of their lives. It seems that many of us Christians look at faith as a tool, maybe a lever, to move God in the direction we desire. We look at faith as a means to achieve personal goals, or get what we want in life. When you start to look at faith that way, remember God s approval of the losers by faith listed in Hebrews 11! Notice now that both the winners and the losers are included when verse 39 says, all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised. The first thing to notice about this verse is that both winners and losers are approved because they exercised faith. All had witness given (note Greek being born witness of ) of their faith. Faith, that common denominator, was what God was looking for in them. God was not at all impressed with the amazing deeds of the heroes of the faith nor was He at all put off by those who because of their faith, were failures in the world s eyes. You see, for us to be successful in God s sight, things like our status or our commonness, our accomplishments or our failures, our strength or our weakness, and our greatness or our insignificance make absolutely no difference. Our faith can lead us down different paths. And only God knows what will someday be celebrated or what will be forgotten about our lives. But that leaves us all on an equal footing before God. He only wants to know, do we or do we not have faith? Do we or do we not believe and act on His promises? The second thing to notice out of verse 39 is that neither the winners nor the losers received what God had promised. You might be thinking, well some of them certainly did; look at how God blessed their lives! But those heroes success was not the focus of God s promises. The focus of God s promises is always Jesus finished work in bringing those of believing faith into relationship with a holy God so that in the words of Hebrews 4, they can enter into God s rest. For the Old Testament saints, that rest was tied up in the Promised Land and God s relationship with 4

5 His people. But that was just a foreshadowing of Messiah and God s rest that still awaits all of His people. Today we too by faith await God s fulfilled promises. That same qualification, faith, is God s requirement for entering into that rest to which the people of God still look forward. There is an old chorus we used to sing that describes this type of faith. Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees And looks to God alone. Laughs at impossibilities, and cries It shall be done! And cries It shall, it shall be done! And cries It shall be done! Laughs at impossibilities and cries, It shall be done! So then, the faith that meets God s approval guarantees neither winners nor losers in the world s eyes yet it persists trusting God s promises, irrespective of the outcome during one s lifetime. You see, those who walked by faith knew that God had provided something better for them that was yet to come. What God had provided would perfect them. It would fulfill them. It would complete them in a way that would otherwise not be possible! But notice something really remarkable that verse 40 affirms! They did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect (that is complete; fulfilled). The author is not saying that we are the cause of their perfection. These Old Testament saints had to wait centuries for the birth of Jesus, the Messiah to come. Today we look back at His birth, His life, His death and His resurrection. They looked forward with faith to the work of God through His Messiah, Jesus Christ, and that gave them approval from God. Today looking back with faith to the person and work of that same Messiah, Jesus Christ gives us approval with God. Both their perfection and ours were accomplished at the same time, when Christ by one offering perfected forever those who are sanctified (Heb. 10:14). The completeness, the fullness, the perfection of God s promises comes to fulfillment as the Old Testament and the New Testament saints are joined by faith in Messiah Jesus! I want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, this morning that if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, your faith is not in vain. Even if you rely on God s promises and have encountered failure, pain, sorrow, or tragedy in your life, don t despair. There is every reason to keep on believing, to not lose hope. Remember who the God we serve has revealed Himself to be. Let me remind you! The God we serve is the omnipotent sovereign. His is an absolute rule. No being or thing can stand against Him accomplishing His will! The God we serve is eternal. He is not like a man who makes promise and then dies before he can accomplish it. 5

6 The God we serve is omniscient. He is not like a person surprised by the unexpected. He is always in simultaneous possession of all knowledge, past, present, and future, and He even knows all possibility. There is not even a shadow of change with our God. That which He determined before the foundation of the earth is His will today, and He absolutely will carry it to completion in eternity future. God is good. He is on the lookout for His children to lovingly give them ultimate blessing. Glorious heavenly bliss in His presence is an ultimate reality for those who have put their trust in Him. And God is true. He cannot lie. What He says always squares with full reality. God doesn t change His Word to fit shifting circumstances in our lives. So God s Word can be trusted. The question is, do you trust this God who has revealed Himself? In 1521, young Martin Luther had the anger of the Pope and all the Roman church against him because of the doctrines he was preaching. He was preaching that you couldn t buy salvation but that it was by grace through faith, not by works. Luther was called before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the city of Worms, Germany. Luther wasn t able to defend the books he had written and for which he was on trial in the way he had anticipated doing. Charles would only accept an unequivocal recantation from him. So what Charles got was Luther's defiant "Here I Stand" speech. I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen. Faith in Jesus Christ counts more than anything else, even life itself. Martin Luther is a hero of the faith to us today, but he came so close to being a loser by faith! His refusal to recant his writings resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation by the Emperor. He escaped while the authorities tried to figure out what to do with him. Martin Luther indeed found that God Himself was the only sure refuge and safety when he wrote the hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God. He had personally experienced a measure of what his words communicated in that hymn, words of faith that need to be ours too. He wrote: Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God s truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever. 6

7 Winners & Losers BY FAITH! Hebrews 11:29-40 Main Idea: Faith that meets God s approval guarantees neither winners nor losers in the world s eyes, yet it persists trusting God s promises, irrespective of the outcome during one s lifetime. Winners by faith (11:29-35a) Losers by faith (35b-38) Common denominator in their approval by God (39-40) Application: 7

8 Family Life Groups Sermon Discussion Questions Winners & Losers BY FAITH! Hebrews 11:29-40 Main Idea: Faith that meets God s approval guarantees neither winners nor losers in the world s eyes, yet it persists trusting God s promises, irrespective of the outcome during one s lifetime. 1) Identify some times during the past week in which you have inadvertently linked faith and success in this life. 2) Describe some practical changes that you need to implement in the way you view people to conform to how God views them and then relate to them for real edification. 3) In the light of this passage, in what practical ways can you influence your children and/or grandchildren to view success and failure as God does? 4) Could you mention some answers to prayer that have disappointed you because you linked faith and success? What difference will reflecting on this passage make in the way you pray for yourself and your brothers and sisters in the Lord? for the persecuted church? (Lk. 22:31-32) 8