Fellowship in the Word

Guest (Male): They were tortured. They endured mocking and scourging. They experienced chains and imprisonment. They were stoned and sawn in two. They were tempted, they were put to death with a sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, they were destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated, and they wandered in deserts and mountains, and caves and holes in the ground.

I don't like that. You see how this works? The outcome of faith. You see, it may be temporal, and God may, and clearly may, reward your faith in this life, but I guarantee the greater reward will be the eternal reward. God will never forget your faith. You'll be rewarded heavenly for eternity because you evidenced faith. You see, that's the whole point that he makes.

Bil Gebhardt: Verse one says then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim and said, "Go view the land, especially Jericho." So they went and they came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and they lodged there.

And it was told to the king of Jericho saying, "Behold, men from Israel have come here tonight to search out the land." And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab and said, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out the land."

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And it came about that when it was time to shut the gate at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them."

But she brought them up onto the roof and hid them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. And so the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan and to the fords. And as soon as they were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gates.

Now, before they lay down, he said she came up to them on the roof. And she said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you." Her first statement of faith: "I know you come from the Lord."

It's interesting. A very pagan country. He said, "For we have heard that the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you came out of Egypt." That was 40 years ago. She already knew about that in Jericho. Word, I imagine, that's big news anywhere. Those people are wandering around the wilderness for some reason, but I'm telling you, God opened up the Red Sea and swallowed the Egyptian army there.

We know that. If he could swallow the Egyptian army, how are we going to stand before these people? She said, "I know that." And she said, "What you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed." There are two sets of Amorite kingdoms on the other side of the Jordan. You destroyed them.

"And when we heard it, our hearts melted and had no courage remained in any man any longer because of you, for the Lord your God, He is the God of heaven above and on the earth below." And then she makes a deal with them. She said, "I'll protect you if you protect me." And so in verse 14, it says, so the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell the business of ours, and it shall come about that when the Lord gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."

So what did God think of this? Spare her family? She marries Boaz. She has Boaz, who marries Ruth, and she's in the genealogy of Christ. I'd say it was okay with God, whatever it was.

Guest (Male): So let's go back now to chapter 11 verse 32. "And what more shall I say?" He's coming to the conclusion of this whole idea of faith. He says, "For time will fail me if I tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets." He just rolls right through these. He said, "You realize all these stories?" And these stories, in their own right, are just amazing stories again.

Gideon is a judge of Israel, appointed by God. And he has a tremendous inferiority complex. He said to God—God said you're going to be the judge—"I don't think so. I mean, you know my family? We're like nothing. And I'm the most nothing guy in a nothing family." And God said, "Right. That's why I picked you."

You see, so Gideon's going to go fight. Gideon's going to have to do battle against the Midianite army. And the army that he's going to do battle against has 135,000 men. Gideon's able to raise 32,000 men. And he's going to do battle against the Midianites.

And God says, "Hold it. No, I don't think so. You have too many men." What? 30,000 against 135? Yeah, too many. Here's what I'm going to do. Everyone's going to come down and get a drink at the pond, lake, whatever, river. And anybody who drinks normally, get on your knees, put your hands out, and just lap at the water. Or you can get on your knees and put your hand in the water and do it like this, lap it with your hand.

He said, "What I want is only the ones who put their hand in the water and put it to their mouth." So they did it. 300 men. God says, "Perfect. That's exactly what I want." 300 against 135,000. What are the odds if God is on your side? Now what are the odds? Did God need 300? He didn't need any. You see, that wasn't even the issue.

So Gideon becomes this great judge and he wins the victory. The next person is Barak. He's in Judges 4. And Barak was told by God that he had to attack a Canaanite iron chariot brigade. Now the iron chariot would be equivalent in the modern day tank. Iron chariots were the scourge of that world. There was no way to fight against them. They had 900 of them. He has foot soldiers. So imagine an infantry battalion just attacking a tank force. You see the way it's going to go? He said, "Yeah, you go attack. You go attack them directly." They ravaged them. They won it.

And so what ends up happening is Barak has this tremendous total victory. Then he says the third name, which is kind of surprising to us. He says, Samson. Did you ever think of Samson as a great man of faith? God did. But do you? See, what do we know Samson for? He made a lot of bad choices. He married a Philistine. That's not good. And he shackled up with Delilah. That was worse.

And she finally got him to talk about where her strength came from. But the other thing about Samson, he knew where his power came from. Samson knew it came from the Lord. And even in his dying, he'd killed a lot of Philistines driving them on the land. So he gets in there and he has a victory.

And then after Samson, he says Jephthah. Jephthah's an interesting character. A lot of Christians don't know much about Jephthah, but Jephthah has an interesting story. He's what they call ill-born. His mother's a harlot. So the rest of his family, his brothers, hate him. And they put him out, just like with Joseph. They hate him, they put him out of the family.

Well then, after they put him out of the family, the Ammonites attack them. The Ammonites are very warlike, a portion of Canaanites. They're very warlike. And so they say, "Hey, look, Jephthah's our best guy. Let's go and get him and bring him back in the family." So they bring Jephthah back and he takes on the responsibility. God gives him a total victory through Jephthah.

Bil Gebhardt: Then David. Whose life showed more courage than David? I mean, David, just an amazing thing. We often forget the idea behind that story, but you have the Philistines on one side of the valley and Israel on the other side. And usually a champion would go against the champion, and Goliath starts down this side and begins taunting the army.

Everyone in Israel, including Saul, are terrified of Goliath. And he keeps moving across the valley until he gets almost to the bottom of the hill and he's ready to come up. And so David, he takes some food from Jesse to his brothers who were in the army. And he sees what's going on. He doesn't like it. He's about 15 years old. He's just a kid. And his brothers are like, "Look, what are you?" You remember the story.

So David ends up convincing the army and Saul, "I'll do it." Now, Goliath's nine feet nine inches. Gigantic shield. He has a shield bearer whose only job is to try to hold up the shield. You know, this gigantic guy terrifies a whole army. David's a kid. He has these spears and a sword. And David, he has a slingshot. Actually, put a rock in the thing. That's what David has.

And David's defiant. He just looks at him and says, "Who are you to taunt the armies of the living God? Who do you think you are?" See, he has no fear. He's only got courage. "You can't taunt the armies of the living God."

And then he trashed talked him. I mean, he said, "I'm going to—I'm just going to rip you apart. I'm going to leave your body here for the birds to eat." In fact, he so trashed talked him that when he finally killed him, he took Goliath's sword and cut Goliath's head off. He said, "I'm going to do that to you."

No fear at all. Why? He just believed God. You see, everyone else in the army said don't believe God. Here, look at that guy. That's a big problem. David said, "I don't see a problem."

So David handles that just right. After David is Samuel. He never fought anybody in that way. He is the high priest and a prophet. And Samuel's an amazing guy. He has a worse thing to deal with. He has to fight idolatry in Israel his whole life. It's everywhere. And he never compromises.

And then after that he says, "And the prophets." All the prophets. Now, something I want you to understand. All the prophets are all unpopular. Prophet, we think of prophets as like, "Boy, they speak for God and people must have loved them." People hated them. See, the only time a prophet showed up is when the country was becoming apostate.

So they would talk to the country and say, "Look, if you don't stop this, this is what's going to happen to you." Well, no one wants to hear that. Now, we know for a fact, like what Jeremiah, God told Jeremiah, "I'm going to make you a prophet. You're going to prophesy. No one will ever believe a word you say and everyone will hate you. Now go get them." And that's what he did.

You see, and that's all the prophets, I think, from Samuel all the way to John the Baptist. Did the leaders of Israel like John the Baptist? No. In fact, the great prophet is Jesus Christ Himself, and did the leaders of Israel like Jesus Christ? No. He said, "All of them."

So after he runs through all of that, he says, "Let me tell you the things they did." He says here, who by faith they conquered kingdoms, they performed acts of righteousness, they obtained promises, they shut the mouths of lions. That's Daniel. They quenched the power of fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That's what they did.

They escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, and they put foreign armies in flight. Women received back their dead by the resurrection. In 1 Kings 17 with Elijah, the widow of Zarephath received back the dead. Also in 2 Kings 4 under Elisha, the dead son of the Shunammite woman was resurrected from the dead. These are great stories until right there.

And others were tortured. Wow. Others were tortured. That word is *tumpanizó*. It comes from a noun which is *tumpanon*. That's a wheel of torture. These people, because they believed in God, were put on wheels and stretched till their arms and legs came out of sockets. That's what they were. They were tortured for their faith.

Not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings, scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two. Now, the sawn in two is interesting. That's a great Jewish tradition. Isaiah the prophet was sawn in two with a wooden saw for being this great prophet. Let's just cut him in two.

They were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they went in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains, and caves and holes in the ground.

It's interesting. You see in the beginning, sometimes when you evidence faith, you get to see the results. Sometimes they're supernatural. Sometimes in this life. Sometimes immediately after you step out in faith and sometimes within months or years, you see the results and it's like, "Wow, isn't this great?" But also says for a lot of them you never see the results. You leave this earth and have never seen the results of your faith. That's an interesting thing, isn't it? You don't see it.

Notice, though, he says in verse 39, "And all these, and all these, having gained approval through their faith, they did not receive what was promised." Who approved it? God. God loved their faith, and they didn't get anything. Because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

That verse is an interesting verse and I'll try to explain it with another verse as we close. Go with me to 1 Peter, chapter 1, just a few pages to the right in verse 10. 1 Peter 1:10. Peter's writing this and he says—and remember the context of 1 Peter: they're suffering enormously. The whole church is suffering. And that's a tough thing to go through as you know, if you suffer yourself.

He said, "As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look."

The analogy he looks at says this: that's why Christ came. You see, Christ is the faithful son, without sin. And the point of it is, though, did He ever receive everything that He was promised? No. He said, "Yeah, that's for you and for me, because that's Christ."

Guest (Male): Listen to Hebrews 12:2 as I read it. When we live our life, fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. The worst suffering in human history.

But Jesus knew on the other side of that there's a joy. That's us, a bride. He suffered, He left this earth without a bride. He's raised from the dead and He has a bride. In other words, suffering often is rewarded later rather than now. That's the point that he wants to make.

You see, I think so often we hear so many people in our culture talk about if you have enough faith you get everything you want now. You just get it now. And they'll cite some stuff in Hebrews 11: "Look, they got it, you got it, you're going to get it." They ignore those verses. Why? You may not get it.

You see, I may trust God. I could trust God with a terminal disease of a loved one, and He may heal them and He may not. The question is do I trust God the whole way through this process? See, do I keep trusting God? That's the real test. It's not much of a test if it actually could become self-serving: "Well, I want to do it so I get what I want." That's up to God.

You see, that's up to God. And even in this Hall of Fame, you see this. Think of these things. These are the things you can get if you have faith. They conquered kingdoms, they performed acts of righteousness, they obtained promises, they shut the mouths of lions, they quenched the power of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness they were made strong, they became mighty in war, they put foreign armies in flight, and they received back their dead from resurrection. Amen. I like that.

Here's the other side. Same faith: they were tortured. They endured mocking and scourging. They experienced chains and imprisonment. They were stoned and sawn in two. They were tempted, they were put to death with a sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, they were destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated, and they wandered in deserts and mountains, and caves and holes in the ground.

I don't like that. You see how this works? The outcome of faith. You see, it may be temporal, and God may, and clearly may, reward your faith in this life, but I guarantee the greater reward will be the eternal reward. God will never forget your faith. You'll be rewarded heavenly for eternity because you evidenced faith. You see, that's the whole point that he makes.

Bil Gebhardt: I'll close with the words of John MacArthur. He says here, "All these," he's talking about the whole chapter, "all these lived by faith, a courageous faith. So courageous was their faith that they conquered in struggle, they continued in suffering, and they counted on a salvation yet to come. They never saw it, but they believed God and received it on credit. The world wasn't worthy of these people. I pray that we would live so that we might have that said of us also. Are we people of faith?"

When we close the service today, we're going to sing a song called "The Jesus Way." And what you're going to see are things that Jesus said. As you're singing the song and these are about things in your life, ask yourself, "Do I believe this? Do I live this way? Do I follow what Jesus said? Or do I think differently?"

Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for this great chapter. Thank you for the point that faith is the epistemology of heaven. It's faith that gives us knowledge. It's faith that secures our relationship with You. It's faith that allows us to live the triumphant Christian life. It's faith that gives us the assurance of heaven. Father, I thank you for these words. I pray that we can apply these words into our lives for the rest of our lives, that we can use these words to spiritually strengthen ourselves for our good and for Your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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