The Life f Faith David Faith Warring Hebrews 11:32-40 Reality Carp 3.15.9 Faith wrshiping Abel Faith walking Ench Faith wrking Nah Faith willing Abraham Faith waiting Sarah Faith well-tried Abraham Faith winning Mses Faith welcming Rahab In these verses we see several examples f faith warring Battle and war are the grammar f the life f faith The NT and OT verflw with the imagery 2 Timthy 2:3 3 Suffer hardship with me, as a gd sldier f Christ Jesus. Every war has its heres David stands as perhaps the mst bvius her when it cmes t warring by faith, especially when we think f his encunter with Gliath Gliath is a picture f the enemy Satan Big Gliath was abut 9.5 feet tall (1 Sam 17:4) His armr weighed ver 200 punds (1 Sam. 17:5) The head f his spear weighed abut 19 punds (1 Sam. 17:7) Intimidating Mcker A champin (war machine) (1 Sam 17:4) Shuted at and penly challenged the armies f Israel (1 Sam.17:8) Fr 40 days, every mrning and every night (relentless) (1 Sam. 17:16) Am I a dg that yu cme at me with sticks cme t me and I will give yur flesh t the birds? (1 Sam. 17:43) But David had Gd cnfidence (faith) and faced the giant Wh is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he shuld taunt the armies f the living Gd? (1 Sam. 17:26) Fr David, it wasn t abut David it was abut the living Gd He was cnvinced f the value f Gd and s the value f living fr Gd And Gd s purpses Last week we were talking abut welcming Gd s purpses int ur lives Being n missin with Christ
What we must realize this week is that there is n missin withut ppsitin! 2 When we talk abut warring by faith (r spiritual warfare) we realize: 1. Warfare is the nrmal state f Christian life a. The Christian life is a call t missin Yu d nt need t be extrardinary, t be extrardinarily used! Verse 32 Giden, thugh used mightily, was a frightened farmer, with a lt f dubt, wh questined Gd and whse faith did nt grw strng right away (Jud. 6:11 7:25). Barak wn a resunding victry ver Sisera (the cmmander f the Canaanite army wh attacked Israel frm the nrth with 900 irn charits) but nt befre Debrah the prphetess had t tell him t g (see Jud. 4:1 5:31). Bth Giden and Barak are encuragements t us wh falter in ur faith. Samsn was nt necessarily a super gdly man; he yielded t his fleshly appetites (Jud. 13 16). But he did trust Gd t help and deliver him and, in the end, Samsn was willing t give his life t defeat the enemy. Shuld nt be interpreted t mean believers tday can expect t lead duble lives and still enjy Gd s blessing. But smetimes Gd blesses us in spite f us (Nt because f ) Fr His glry (Cf. Ezekiel 36:22 abut the restratin f Israel) Therefre say t the huse f Israel, Thus says the Lrd Gd, It is nt fr yur sake, O huse f Israel, that I am abut t act, but fr My hly name, which yu have prfaned amng the natins where yu went. Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrir, but als the sn f a prstitute (Judges 11:1) He was the judge f Israel fr six years (Judges 12:7) but had run with a bad crwd (11:3), and wuld make sme really bad calls (11:30-40) David was a man after Gd s wn heart, a great warrir, the greatest king f Israel, a lin killer and a bear killer and a giant slayer, but als an adulterer and murder What can we say t these things ther than Gd is merciful, bigger than even ur greatest failures, and uses the flish things f the wrld (Cf. 1 Cr 1:26-29) And as we said at the utset f this series, if these men and wmen included in the Hall f Faith were cnsidered fr the whle f their life they culd just as justifiably included in the Hall f Shame It is nt s much that they were great men and wmen, but rather that they had mments f great faith in The Great Gd At the pivtal junctures in life, they chse t trust Gd And cmmit themselves t the purpses f Gd
Fr the glry f Gd 3 We dn t need t be extrardinary, but we d need t be walking in faith Lk at the amazing things these peple (and thers) accmplished by faith Verses 33-34 There we see the language f cnflict and imagery f war Because each f these peple (mentined and alluded t) was sld ut fr Gd s purpses Gd s missin b. There is n missin withut ppsitin In Matthew 16: 18 Jesus said: I will build My church; and the gates f Hades will nt verpwer it. That very clearly speaks f victry but it is very clearly nt withut cnflict Ntice: Jesus (and the church) are n the ffense! (Warring) Gates are defensive and retentive (they keep peple in) But the Kingdm f Gd is liberating and expansive (mving frward) Therefre, the Christian wh is n missin will live in a state f cnflict Jhn Piper in his bk Dn t Waste Yur Life In ne chapter he talks abut having a wartime mind-set He says the idea and phrase is helpful because: It tells me that there is a war ging n in the wrld between Christ and Satan, truth and falsehd, belief and unbelief. It tells me that there are weapns t be funded and used, but that these weapns are nt swrds r guns r bmbs but the Gspel and prayer and selfsacrificial lve (2 Cr. 10:3-5). And it tells me that the stakes are than any ther war in histry; they are eternal and infinite: heaven r hell, eternal jy r eternal trment (Matt. 25:46). 1 We need t be reminded f this because we slip int small peace-time living 2 Timthy 2:3-4 3 Suffer hardship with me, as a gd sldier f Christ Jesus. 4 N sldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs f everyday life, s that he may please the ne wh enlisted him as a sldier Cf. Hebrews 11:6 Faithful living Nt nly is a state f war nrmal fr the Christian, but 2. Warfare is cnsequential in the Christian life a. It results in victries As we read f in verses 33-35 a These are real and tangible and transfrmative 1 Jhn Piper, Dn t Waste Yur Life (Wheatn: Crssway, 2007), 111-12.
4 b. It results in apparent lsses There are difficulties and casualties, like in any ther war Verses 35 b -38 The transitin in Hebrews 11:35 is imprtant: nt all men and wmen f faith experienced miraculus deliverance. Sme were trtured and died! These thers (vv. 35, 36) had faith, but Gd did nt see fit t deal with them in the same way he dealt with Mses, Giden, and David. But Gd did hnr their faith! In fact, it takes mre faith t endure than it des t escape. Like the three Hebrew children, we shuld trust Gd and bey Him even if He des nt deliver us (Dan. 3:16 18). 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-neg replied t the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we d nt need t give yu an answer cncerning this matter. 17 If it be s, ur Gd whm we serve is able t deliver us frm the furnace f blazing fire; and He will deliver us ut f yur hand, O king. 18 But even if He des nt, let it be knwn t yu, O king, that we are nt ging t serve yur gds r wrship the glden image that yu have set up. They were cmmitted t Gd s purpses and glry n matter what c. Bth result in Gd s glry! If Gd was nt glrified in their deaths, they wuld nt be mentined in the hall f faith! (Cf. Hebrews 11:6) We d nt always see, r judge, utcmes crrectly the issue is faith (trust) There is a paradx in Christian thelgy and histry: That there is glry in suffering Acts 5:41-42 (When sme f the apstles were flgged fr preaching and teaching Jesus) 41 S they went n their way frm the presence f the Cuncil, rejicing that they had been cnsidered wrthy t suffer shame fr His name. 42 And every day, in the temple and frm huse t huse, they kept right n teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Imagine hw impactful that witness was then! Suffering is nt merely the result f glrifying Jesus, but it is als the means 2 1 Peter 4:13 and 16 13 but t the degree that yu share the sufferings f Christ, keep n rejicing, s that als at the revelatin f His glry yu may rejice with exultatin 16 but if anyne suffers as a Christian, he is nt t be ashamed, but is t glrify Gd in this name. 2 Jhn Piper, Dn t Waste Yur Life (Wheatn: Crssway, 2007), 61.
5 Scripture and histry reveal that when a witness fr Jesus shares the truth in lve, and meets suffering r death with jy, there is miracle that happens: The eyes f unbelievers are pened Truth is revealed, and death prven as defeated The centurin s realizatin in Mark 15:39 (the manner in which he died) Thusands upn thusands f Christian martyrdms thrughut histry have prduced the same results Tertullian, Christian aplgist and authr (197 AD) The bld f the martyrs is the seed f the church Philippians 1:20-21 20 accrding t my earnest expectatin and hpe, that I will nt be put t shame in anything, but that with all bldness, Christ will even nw, as always, be exalted in my bdy, whether by life r by death. 21 Fr t me, t live is Christ and t die is gain. But yu are nt called t die fr Christ, at least nt yet yu are called t live fr Him The call n yu is t have faith that wages war! Because there is war! 2 Crinthians 4:16-18 16 Therefre we d nt lse heart, but thugh ur uter man is decaying, yet ur inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 Fr mmentary, light afflictin is prducing fr us an eternal weight f glry far beynd all cmparisn, 18 while we lk nt at the things which are seen, but at the things which are nt seen; fr the things which are seen are tempral, but the things which are nt seen are eternal. The life f faith It is a life f missin And there is n missin withut ppsitin And ppsitin will mean sacrifice But Jesus is the ultimate winner His grace and lve is mre than enugh fr us Psalm 63:3 (NIV) Because yur lve is better than life, my lips will glrify yu. What giants are befre yu that need t be slain? Where is the enemy trying t take grund and hld peple captive? G t war tday Pray in Jesus name!