Hebrews 11:30-40

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning, we're at Hebrews chapter 10, verses 30 through 40. We got a long line of people who have walked before us. So we're going to finish up this hall of faith. I don't know if you were with me last time when Ellie was here. It might be a fun one to look back at. Man, she is full of life and distractions. She's fun to be with. Anyways, why don't we have some coffee?
We'll pray and we'll talk about walking in faith like those who have gone before us. Let's pray. Oh God, we thank you so much for blessing us with being able to read your word. We thank you that's in a language we can understand and we pray that you would please help us. As we work through this, Lord, we pray that it would be an encouragement to us that we would fix our eyes on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Help us, Lord, that even though we have not yet seen Christ, yet we love him. Strengthen us in our love through your word. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, here we go, we are at Hebrews 10, verses 30 through 40. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, also of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith subdued kings, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned the fight, turned to flight the enemies of the aliens.
Women received their dead, raised again to life. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trials of mockings and scourgings. Yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wondered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in the deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Well, what an amazing passage. How much encouragement is there? We need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So what is this about?
Well, the author of Hebrews ain't got time to tell you about all the Old Testament, right? He's gone through a whole bunch of these, just finished up with Moses. And he says, look, I don't even got time to talk to you about Gideon and Balak and Samson and Daniel. He could go on, he could mention Hezekiah and Zedekiah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Haggai, right? He could go on about Obadiah, and he can go on and on about all these different amazing people who walked by faith. And he says, look, some of them, they had amazing things happen to them, right? When they entered into the promised land, when they, by faith, they marched around Jericho.
They knew that they didn't need to fight against the city, right? They didn't need to throw stones at it. They didn't need to build a siege ramp against it. They could just march around it because that's what God said. So they did it for seven days and then they blew the trumpets and the walls came down. The only reason why they did that is because they believed the Lord. And the only reason why Rahab, who was in that city, lived was because she had faith. She received the spies and she had peace.
And he could go on and we could talk about Gideon, right, with the battle that he fought. And he winds down his army and winds down his army until he's only got like a small group of ragtag guys. And then they go, not even with much, they go with like fire pots and a sword and a trumpet, right? There's not much. And yet God gives them a great deliverance. You think about Samson, right?
One guy filled with faith at the end of his life. crying out to God. And he kills more in his death than he ever did in his life, fighting for the Lord. And so there's these amazing deliverances, so much so that Keith says there's even ladies who they had so much faith in God that their dead were raised again to life. But there were others that in their faith they died.
Just like Moses. Remember, do you remember that? In verse 26, Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he looked to the reward. These people looked to their reward. And so even if you were like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing before the king and he says, you know what? Even if we do die, yet we know that our king still reigns.
And there were all sorts of people of the faith throughout the Old Testament and throughout the testimony and the history of the people of Israel that were believing and yet tortured. Believing and yet they were mocked and they were scourged. Believing and yet they were chained and imprisoned. They believed and yet they were stoned and sawn in two. They believed and yet they were tempted. They believed and yet they were slain with a storm. with a sword. They believed and yet they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They were destitute, afflicted, and tormented, yet they believed.
And the world wasn't worthy of such ones as those. Why? Because they were not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. They knew that the pleasures of this life, like Moses in Pharaoh's house, weren't to be anything compared to the glories and the joy and the presence of God forever. They were sojourners, they were pilgrims on earth looking forward to a better life, a better resurrection, a better hope.
And all these having obtained a good testimony, how did they get this good testimony? Through faith. They didn't receive the promises. They all died. They all died living out what faith is. Remember Hebrews 11, verse one, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. They hoped for these things. They hadn't seen these things, and yet they believed them. It were as good to them as money in the bank. Even though they died not seeing them, God, having provided something better for us, that we should be made perfect apart from us.
God's given us such a huge blessing that we have faith in Christ. We know that He has come, that He did live a perfect life, that He died a substitutionary death for us, that He was accepted before God because He was raised again for our justification. We know that he ascended up into heaven and he sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty And he is coming again to judge the living and the dead so even though we have not yet seen him yet We love him and we have an even more sure hope than they do but yet we have not seen, and yet we hope, we believe, because He is God, and He is good.
So hope and believe, that's what this calls us to do. Well, let's go ahead and pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing of getting to read your word, and Father, we pray that you might indeed work in us faith, that we would trust in you, love you, and follow you all the days of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you have the hope and the confidence of things hoped for, and that you would have the evidence of things not yet seen, that you would look to Christ and you would have assurance for your soul. I'll see you next time. Bye.