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 Endtime Ministries...
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HEBREWS CHAPTER ELEVEN.

This chapter begins with one of the most abused verses in the whole Bible!

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1.

HEBREWS 11:1 has been used to booster up the false claims of the Hyper-faith Movement. This is the excess of “faith” movement, which declares that faith is the greatest thing Christians have, and that faith is rather like a POWER in itself. People are being, in our modern times, virtually urged to have faith in faith itself!
In so-called Christian churches. HYPER-FAITH is a disaster doctrine. Very New Age, this belief has seen faith in the same way that the New Age envisions magical powers from the “god” that is supposed to live within human beings, or WE are GOD! This error sees Hebrews 11:1 as saying, in essence, “faith is like a substantial reality that creates the things we want, and our powerful faith turns the unseen [goods, money, power ministries etc] into actual existence.”
This is mere witchcraft, which is as ancient as Nimrod!

Others versions of this apostasy are, “name it and claim it” and “what you say is what you get.”
FAITH becomes a power, this time through faith in the power of your own WORDS,
not faith in GOD and in GOD’S Word.

What is the verse above about, then?
It is describing the kind of belief in God that makes His promises as good as done already. So much so that His promises are real and already present. It is the faith that takes what God offers, and this makes the invisible things visible in our spirits.

How does this work in our lives?
Well, God has given to every saved person FAITH as a gift by the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever seen Jesus Christ, or seen Heaven,
or were you there when God created the earth and all that is in it?

Can you see and touch the angels, see the spirits of the dead leave their bodies,
encounter with your own eyes the indwelling Holy Spirit

Who came to impart the Life of Christ to the redeemed?

NO, as real and vivid and glorious as these matters and Persons seem to the true child of God, their reality has only come about by FAITH.
 

Hard to believe isn’t it?

So REAL has God made His Truth to be to us. We believers live our entire lives trusting in what is UNSEEN by the eye and UNFELT by the hand and UNHEARD by the physical ear!

Does that make those things and Persons less real?

No, a thousand times no. The faith given to us by God, when we stepped out and trusted in Christ Jesus as Saviour, is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

 Chapter eleven of Hebrews is all about that fantastic and grand pilgrim that we people of faith are all on.
FAITH in itself is nothing, faith in “WHO” is the important part. Jesus Christ is the centre of Christian living, not faith. FAITH is about trusting and believing GOD the Father and His Son Whom He has sent. Faith has no more power than my FAITH has when I say, “post this letter for me, I trust you to - it is urgent!” It is YOU, who will post my letter, just as it is GOD Who will honour His promises if I trust Him – or have faith in Him.

VERSE TWO tells us that “the elders obtained a good report” by faith. God was pleased with them when they trusted Him. Chapter eleven shows us the heroes and heroines of the faith trusting in God through their often battle-scarred, difficult and distressing lives – and sometimes-violent deaths! These Old Testament men and women were not failures in the FAITH BATTLE because they did not have “prosperity” and all their material and greedy prayers answered. The “elders” heralded in this passage have a GOOD REPORT from God Almighty, and He declares that He is not ashamed of them!

   READ 11:13-16.
   COMPARE this with Hebrews 2:11.

The word “called” in 11:16 means “surname” in Greek.
God Himself is not ashamed to be surnamed by the brave ones’ names who trust Him. He has surnamed Himself with Abraham’s name, Isaac’s and Jacob’s names. Look at Exodus 3:6. The word is epikaleo, to be surnamed or called by a person’s name!

Is God ashamed of you; is He ashamed of me?
Would He be willing to be called by our names?

The marvelous truth is that Jesus Christ is never ashamed of those who He has redeemed by His Precious Blood. This is what verse 2 is telling us. Christ and His redeemed are ONE.
This is our POSITIONAL PRIVILEGE. But there is another side to the coin.

What about our PRACTICAL WALK?

God can be ashamed of us in our practical walk on this earth. Nothing escapes God’s All-seeing, All-knowing inspection of our motives, hearts, thoughts and actions.

What is God looking for in us, predominately?

Hebrews chapter 11 is telling us plainly, He is looking for FAITH in Himself and His purposes for His redeemed. Every time you and I do not trust Him, we let Him down. It is sometimes difficult to have faith in God, but when we turn from our SELF-centered foolishness and come humbly, God will make it easy for us to trust Him. Take the first baby step towards Jesus in the midst of your trouble, and find yourself running like a champion of faith in an instant. I want to share with you my own experience here.

Recently I was sick physically, down emotionally and wanted to go to Heaven as soon as possible! I was giving up, and also delving back into the past with my many regrets. No way to get out of a black mood of despair. It was awful. Then I took one step back to God, He showed me what He wasn’t pleased with (self-pity, self-seeking, grudge, unforgiveness) and I put my faith in Him with all my heart. INSTANT restoration, happiness instead of misery, peace and delight in life again - with Him.  If we don’t have faith in Him, He has every reason to be ashamed of us. If we live disobedient lives that dishonour Him God should be, and is, ashamed of us. Worry and misery are the opposites of Faith!

NOW, HOW DID THE HEROES AND HEROINES IN HEBREWS ELEVEN MANAGE?
 HEBREWS 11:
The most important thing to remember is that chapter ten finished on these words:
“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”  Hebrews 10:38.

The above are NOT New Testament believers! These people tie in with the rest of Hebrews 10, they are Jews trembling on the brink of going further into full faith in Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
Scofield tells us about 10:26-39:
“The wavering warned: the Jewish sacrifices have lost their efficacy: it is Christ or judgement.”

Then verse 38 is tied to Hab.2:3,4.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak,
and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”

What “vision”?
It refers to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and promises that He will bring the knowledge of the glory of God to the whole earth.
READ verse 14. Until then “the just shall live by faith.”
This means you and me too! We cannot draw back and lose our salvation, as in 10:38, but we can make God ashamed of our lack of trust.
Who are the heroes and heroines of Hebrews eleven?
 

ABEL;
ENOCH; NOAH; ABRAHAM
SARA;
ISAAC
JACOB;
JOSEPH;
MOSES &
HIS PARENTS; JOSHUA ISRAEL;
RAHAB
– and many  other

NOTE: God does not judge people here on their works, but on their FAITH.

These believers had an utter assurance of the Lord keeping His promises and so became aware of unseen realities. These realities were often in direct contrast to the visible happenings and natural viewpoint, which would, in a worldly way, contradict their confidence in the Lord God! The one reality they regarded as being certain is the Living God and HIS faithful handling of their lives. They had DISTANT promised rewards, which they would never ever encounter in this present life on earth! They counted these DISTANT promises as so precious that they were worth losing everything else on earth for! Moses, for an example, could have had worldly enjoyment, wealth, power and honour beyond our wildest dreams, yet he considered the reward of God in the next life as being vastly more important, and allowed himself to suffer reproach and loss on earth! What are we like? Do we consider the enjoyment of worldly things; money here and now, and men’s praise on earth as being better than the “pie in the sky” rewards of God in the next life? Consider carefully, who are you living for, really, self and the world or God and the rewards of Heaven? NONE of the people of faith in Hebrews 11 had the ultimate rewards down here on earth! The extreme Pentecostal churches often present the opposite, as though we must have the rewards here on earth, or we are lacking in faith!

The keys to the chapter are verse thirteen, and also verses 26,27. READ carefully.
Do you see something remarkable about verse 26?

ABEL:
came to God by way of sacrifice, by faith, and God declared him righteous because of this. By faith he offered a proper sacrifice, one which pointed on to the Blood sacrifice of Christ the Son of God.
Genesis 4:4.

ENOCH:
was translated or Raptured. This happened because of his faith, not because of works. We also will be Raptured because of our FAITH in Christ as Saviour, not because we deserve to be. We are declared “spotless” because of faith in Him alone. SEE Ephesians 5:27. Genesis 5:22,24.

NOAH:
was saved because of faith in God and he prepared the Ark which is a TYPE of Christ. Even though there was no sign of rain or flood or any such happening! Rain didn’t occur on earth until the Flood. Only mist watered the plants. SEE  Genesis :5. The first mention of rain coming is in these words to Noah from God! Types must always be shown to be such in the Bible itself, by the way. We cannot just “see” types here and there for ourselves. 1 Peter 3:20,21. Genesis 6:14,22.

READ Hebrews 11:8-21.
ABRAHAM:
viewed up ahead the city that has foundations, the city whose maker and builder is GOD.  Abraham had very difficult commands from God to obey. He had to leave his native land, to offer up his beloved son, read again the remarkable words of verses 17-19.
REMEMBER this: at that point in history there was no precedent for physical resurrection either by a promise or an example!
It has been said that Abraham obeyed God when he did not know where (11:8-10) when he did not know how (11:11,12) and when he did not know why (11:17-19).

How about you?
Can you have faith in Him like that?

SARA:
had faith in a remarkable way as well. She became the mother of many nations because she had the faith to CONCEIVE when she was past age; Abraham had the faith to RECEIVE the son of promise she brought forth. Genesis 17:15-19 also 21.
Isaac was THE LINE OF CHRIST, but Abraham wanted Ishmael instead at first!
“Ishmael died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven years, but where and when are unknown (25:17). He had twelve sons, who became the founders of so many Arab tribes or colonies, the Ishmaelites, whom
spread over the wide desert spaces of Northern Arabia from the Red Sea to the Euphrates
(Gen. 37:25, 27, 28; 39:1), "their hand against every man, and every man's hand against
Them." (Easton’s Dictionary).

ISAAC AND JACOB:
God is not ashamed to be called by the names of these men because of their faith!
They saw they were not of this world, only strangers here and pilgrims. Verse 13. In Genesis chapter 47 we see Jacob confessing before Pharaoh that he is on a pilgrimage on earth! SEE Genesis 47:9.

READ Hebrews 11:22-29.
JOSEPH:
he made great predictions concerning the Exodus of the Chosen People of the Old Testament. He was concerned that he should not be buried amidst the wealth of Egypt, but in the land of Divine promise. SEE Exodus 13:19 and Joshua 24:32. Joseph had regard to God’s SURE PURPOSE, and had faith in it not in the world and all its charms. Both Jacob and Joseph saw beyond their own deaths and anticipated the “departing” or Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and their return to Canaan. Likewise we should look beyond our deaths, and see that we will be in the “Promised Land” of Heaven. ALL will, who have become the Bride of Christ through FAITH!

MOSES AND HIS PARENTS:
Moses parents saw that God had a role for Moses, and were certain God would preserve him. Moses was willing to suffer rather than commit to the evilness of Egypt (a type of spiritual and worldly apostasy and evil, see Revelation 11:8). The Chosen People, because of the leadership of Moses believed in THE SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD. In JUDGEMENT and SALVATION God shows who are His, as it is right now as we await the time of Tribulation on the earth. We are saved because of Christ’s Blood, those who are not will suffer judgement on this earth! SEE Exodus 8:22,23. Exodus 12:12,13.

READ Hebrews 11:30,31.
JOSHUA AND ISRAEL:
by remarkable faith in God the walls of Jericho fell down. The people had to wait and endure seven days, according to God’s time slot. They acted in accord with the UNSEEN promise of God, and by faith saw it already fulfilled by their eyes of faith.
They had a SURE EXPECTATION. Joshua 6:1-6.

RAHAB:
was a woman who acted by faith in God’s power, and was certain of the victory of His people of Israel. She has been pictured as an open sinner by many (there is some doubt about her actual role) and was a Gentile in O.T. times. So her inclusion here in Hebrews 11 is truly remarkable. She is in the company of saints who are saved by faith! SEE Joshua 2:8-13. She rejected the SEEN for the UNSEEN, and accepted the things unseen and the things future as being greater than the “here and now” of sight.

A  MIGHTY SUMMARY.
READ Hebrews 11:32-39.
Forced to now summarize, the writer of the Book of Hebrews brings before our eyes a list of amazing characteristics and great exploits

 NOTICE: these brave saints had the faith to hold on through outwardly unrewarding circumstances, through imprisonment, torture, and as fugitives and exiles.

NOTE: some had part of their reward in this life – their dead were restored to them. 1 Kings 17:17-24; 11 Kings 4:17-37.

NOTE:
it is remarkable that in Scripture the recorded raisings from the dead mostly happen for WOMEN.
Luke 7:11-17; John 11:1-46.
BUT, the true reward lies in a better (a heavenly) resurrection in the life beyond this world! These saints of God could not accept an earthly deliverance because it would have been only delighted in at the enormous price of denying their FAITH.

NOTE in particular verses 39-40.

God has reserved FOR US Christian believers the crowning blessing. He has ordained that the O.T. saints should not enjoy the CONSUMMATION until we have been brought in to partake in it. We will all be called to the one company of God’s purpose. SEE Hebrews 12:22-24. This refers to the great future gathering of the saints on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Christ will have returned to earth right at the close of the Tribulation period. SEE 1 Thess. 3:13; Revelation 19:14. The still-living redeemed saints from the Tribulation will be there, including the 144,000 Jews who will witness on the earth.

The Bride of Christ, the N.T. Church, has rights in the heavenly Jerusalem, we are enrolled as citizens (Luke 10:20; Rev.21:27).

FAITH DESCRIBED:
The sum and substance of FAITH consists in RECEIVING what the Lord God has revealed in His Word, it is trust in Christ as Saviour and Lord, and that trust urges us on to obedience through the power of the Holy Spirit.  GOOD WORKS which are only by FAITH (John 1:12; James 2:14-26). Hebrews 11 shows us the WORKING PRINCIPLE IN LIFE that is FAITH. In prayer FAITH is shown in thrilling reality as in 1 John 5:14,15.

Hebrews 11:1-3 – FAITH gives substance to the unseen world of God all around us, of which Scripture tells us, and in the unseen world above us so that we ACT UPON our conviction of their reality.
 
 

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