One of the finest men who ever lived in Athens was Aristides, who was called "the just." He sits there continually, in contrast with the Jewish priest, who was always rising up in order to do fresh work, because there was fresh sin; for their sacrifices never could absolutely put away sin. The epistle sets before us the seat of glory prepared on high; the Revelation speaks of the bride represented as a glorious golden city with figures beyond nature. By it he, being dead, yet speaketh. The pleasures of this world, and especially those of a court, are too often the pleasures of sin; and they are always so when we cannot enjoy them without deserting God and his people. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks ( Hebrews 11:4 ). Abrahams faith caused him to set out for a promised, yet unknown, earthly inheritance. THE ADVENTURE AND THE PATIENCE OF FAITH ( Hebrews 11:8-10 ). The difficulties of Sarah's faith, which were very great. Reason is ever drawing conclusions; God is, and reveals what is. (Compare Acts 15:22.) It did not make sense. That is, the promises of the Messiah that God had given to them. 1. Isaac and Jacob were heirs of the same promise; for the promise was renewed to Isaac (Genesis 26:3), and to Jacob, Genesis 28:13. This should have been a rule to him all along, but he was rather swayed by natural affection, and by general custom, which gives the double portion of honour, affection, and advantage, to the first-born. The legends go on to tell that Terah not only worshipped twelve idols, one for each of the months, but was also a manufacturer of idols. These two last verses bear witness to the grace of God in redemption. Faith sets to its seal that God is true, and thereby settles and satisfies the soul. The taking of Jericho was the result of an act of faith. by the power and the faith of the prophets, women did receive back again their children who had died. But Christendom has wholly failed to profit by the call, and is doomed to perish by a judgment yet more solemn and wide-spread than that which swept away the ancient temple. Be assured it is of the deepest possible moment to cherish the activity of Christ's present love and care for us, the activity of that priesthood which is the subject of this epistle. The reasons will be given in a moment. But this essential difference separates between the city for which Abraham looked and the bride so symbolised in the Apocalypse. Then shall they seek him, and find him, if they seek him with all their heart; and when once they have found him, as their reconciled God, they will never repent the pains they have spent in seeking after him. (2.) The story is told in Exodus 2:11-14. What a glorious hope we have in Christ. The sting is gone. is one of several phrases in N.T. He loves the man who is ready to venture for his name. As they began to multiply more rapidly than the Egyptians, he could foresee the day when they would be stronger and overthrow the Egyptians and make the Egyptians their slaves. Thus it will be observed, at the end of all the moral and experimental dealings with the first man (manifested in Israel), we come to a deeply momentous point, as in God's ways, so in the apostle's reasoning. 3. What more can I say? 11:22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. I don't like being led one step at a time. And here also we consider. If we have lived with Christ, we may die in the certainty that we go to be for ever with our Lord. But the answer to this is, that there is not a single writer in the language, not sacred only but profane, who employs it in such a sense. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest." (4.) And when Jesus came, He declared deliverance to the captive. In the Letter of Aristeas the writer says: "It is a fine thing to live and to die in one's native land; a foreign land brings contempt to poor men and shame to rich men, for there is the lurking suspicion that they have been exiled for the evil they have done." But even the apostle felt his own need of the prayers of the faithful, not because he had gone wrong, but because he was conscious of no hindrance to his work from a had conscience. Of course it is true that Jesus took His seat there, but more is conveyed in the true form of the text ( ) here. Then comes a second exhortation as to their guides, or leading men among the brethren. The actings of Abraham's faith in so great a trial: he obeyed; he offered up Isaac; he intentionally gave him up by his submissive soul to God, and was ready to have done it actually, according to the command of God; he went as far in it as to the very critical moment, and would have gone through with it if God had not prevented him. Those who have been marked out must ever remember and acknowledge free and distinguishing grace. Now after the apostle has given this account of the faith of others, with Abraham, he returns to him again, and gives us an instance of the greatest trial and act of faith that stands upon record, either in the story of the father of the faithful or of any of his spiritual seed; and this was his offering up Isaac: 1. (7.) Through faith Sara herself received strength to conceive, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised ( Hebrews 11:10-11 ). The Lord will provide. It is excluded from syllabuses of religious education because it is held to teach an unacceptable view of God. The veil is rent: the believer can draw near, as is shown in the next chapter; but meanwhile it is merely pointed out that there is no veil now, eternal redemption being obtained. The death of Christ, both in the sense of a victim sacrificed, and of a testator, though a double figure, is evident to all, and tends to the self-same point. With reverence and obedience Noah took God at his word and so in the destruction of the world he was preserved. All their lives the patriarchs were men who had no settled place that they could call home. The world wasn't worthy of them and yet, what things they endured as the result of their faith in God.Your faith in God is not always going to bring you tremendous triumph and victories over the enemy, but your faith in God will sustain you through any kind of exigency that you may face in life. He blessed both the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh; he adopted them into the number of his own sons, and so into the congregation of Israel, though they were born in Egypt. The promise of a posterity, and of the Messiah, must either be fulfilled by means of this son or not at all; so that, besides his most tender affection to this his son, all his expectations were bound up in him, and, if he perished, must perish with him. "In the volume of the book it is written of me" a book which none ever saw but God and His Son. But the Holy Ghost's testimony is not forgotten. Although the blood on which that covenant was founded may be now long shed, when the covenant comes into force for them will it not be as fresh as the day the precious Victim died and shed His blood? The wisdom of God is so often foolishness with men. That is to say, he never doubted the success of the enterprise, never doubted that the people would be delivered from Egypt and that some day they would reach the promised land. The best way to enjoy our comforts with comfort is to resign them up to God; he will then return them, if not in kind, yet in kindness. As with the other great characters whose names are included in this roll or honour of God's faithful ones, many legends and elaborations had gathered round the name of Moses and doubtless the writer of this letter had them also in his mind. The reproaches of the church of God are the reproaches of Christ, who is, and has ever been, the head of the church. (2.) But now ours is the victory. The difficulties Isaac's faith struggled with. In a wicked and corrupt generation Enoch walked with God and so when the end came to him, there was no shock or interruption. 1. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. It is a happy thing where yoke-fellows draw together in the yoke of faith, as heirs of the grace of God; and when they do this in a religious concern for the good of their children, to preserve them not only from those who would destroy their lives, but from those who would corrupt their minds. Christ has saved the chief of sinners. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible ( Hebrews 11:27 ). And this blessed person, single-handed but according to the will of God, accomplishes that will in offering Himself on the cross. So he died, declaring: "I am dying by fiery torments for the law's sake.". Joseph too, nearing death, expressed confidence that God would in the future deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Those were now gone from the scene of their trials and labours, of "whom, considering the issue of their conversation, imitate the faith. Observe here, (1.) Hence they apply some terms to the work of God in nature similar to what they apply to His work in grace. Nor is it pleasant to nature. Reference-Verse. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, [as was Zechariah and also, as thought, Jeremiah] they were sawn asunder [or sawed in two] ( Hebrews 11:36-37 ), Isaiah, that marvelous prophet that we've enjoyed his revelations. 2. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? What he did by his faith: He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. God usually warns sinners before he strikes; and, where his warnings are slighted, the blow will fall the heavier. He had to pay an alien tax. 1. The gospel state is more perfect than the patriarchal, because more of the promises are now fulfilled. 3. We have yet another instance of the faith of Moses, in keeping. Shakespeare makes Caesar say in Julius Caesar: "It seems to me most strange that men should fear; And in Cymbeline he writes with a strange fatalistic beauty: Death is inevitable and there is nothing to be gained by struggling against it. He received his son. We belong to the holiest of all, and we act upon it, if we iet rightly, when we worship God; nay, when we draw near to God in prayer at all times. The next instance of faith is that of the Israelites, under Joshua their leader, before the walls of Jericho. The walls of Jericho fell before them. For why should there be a new covenant, unless because the first was faulty or ineffectual! His goodness consisted in the fact that he took God at his word. The wilderness generations One day he said to his brother: "Remove thy foot; thou standest on my property; the plain is mine." Jehovah sees. All the saints are heirs of the same promise. Many have suggested that that is the reason why God accepted Abel's, because he offered a blood sacrifice and rejected Cain's, because it was really the product of the works of his own hands that he brought to the Lord. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. They had looked for advance and triumph and peace and prosperity everywhere; on the contrary, they had come into reproach and shame, partly in their own persons, partly as becoming the companions of others who so suffered. The reward of his faith in this great trial (, He blessed them; that is, he resigned them up to God in covenant; he recommended God and religion to them; he prayed for them, and prophesied concerning them, what would be the condition, and the condition of their descendants: we have the account of this in. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God;" a simple but a most sublime truth, and one that man never really found out that we are entirely dependent on faith for after all. (1.) a. (ii) Abraham's faith was the faith which had patience. These all died in faith ( Hebrews 11:13 ). This is the fact. [2.] Hence he did receive him back which is a parable of the resurrection. Worse was to come. By their own confession the application of that Psalm was to the Messiah, and the very point that Jesus urged upon the Jews of His day was this how, if He were David's Son, as they agreed, could He be his Lord, as the Psalmist David confesses? How could this be disputed by one who simply believed Psalms 110:1-7? That he walked with God, that is, that he was really, eminently, actively, progressively, and perseveringly religious in his conformity to God, communion with God, and complacency in God. STREAM DOWNLOAD. When they came to Haran, he could have turned around and gone back into Babylon. Second, to see the abode of the wicked so that he might know what the punishment of the evil was like. That faith held out to the last. Works will logically automatically follow my faith. So wilt thou not have to bear the reproach of thy wandering. (3.) They expected little from the world. Holding fast the permanence of the blotting out of our guilt, may we nevertheless and besides own the need of such an One as Christ to intercede for us, and deal in grace with all our feebleness or faults. 2. Many Samaritans are believing, being baptized, being filled with the Holy Spirit. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land: and the Egyptians attempting to do it were drowned ( Hebrews 11:28-29 ). They talked; they both knew Rome and they had been friendly. And we go to the story of Abraham, where God said unto Abraham, "Abraham," and he said, "Here am I." (1.) it was: "God give you of the dew of heaven. The scripture would indicate that he's in his late twenties probably at this point. The Jews would not have Him living. "Just have enough faith and you'll never be sick. At any time it is an unhappy thing to be a stranger in a strange land, but in ancient days to this natural unhappiness there was added the bitterness of humiliation. It is the setting aside of God, and the setting up of man; it is the precursor of the apostasy that is coming, which again will issue in man taking the place of God, and becoming the object of worship, instead of the true Creator. As Sarah said: "Who would have said that Sarah would suckle children?" But where in the scripture, the Old Testament, does it speak of the resurrection after three days? [2.] An evil life it is to go from house to house. Another man writes that, however poor a home is, it is better to live at home than epi ( G1909) xenes ( G3581) , in a foreign country. To some extent this story has fallen into disrepute. In this place we are told that he obtained by his faith some special advantages; as, (1.) The apostle does not dwell on the detailed application of His Melchisedec priesthood, as to the object and character of its exercise. There are two kinds of sacrifice to which we are now called. This was in the ways of God the necessary moral consequence of his self-abnegation. Jesus sits down in perpetuity. That we will not just take that which seems to be so exciting, and temporarily beneficial, but that we'll look and find out where the path leads. The man who takes God's word may often have to adopt a course of action which looks like madness. asked Abraham. Such a sight of God will enable believers to endure to the end whatever they may meet with in the way. An instance of his faith in conquering the world. They tell how Abraham saw many flocks and herds and said to his mother: "Who is the lord of these?" By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God ( Hebrews 11:5 ). I know that God's word is faithful. There is condemnation for the sinner; but there is still greater condemnation for the man who teaches another to sin. (v) There was the great act of the crossing of the Red Sea. There was Samuel, born to his mother so late in life ( 1 Samuel 1:1-28), again and again moving alone as the only strong and faithful man of God amongst an easily frightened, discontented and rebellious people. The circumstance of time is taken notice of, when Moses by his faith gained this victory over the world, in all its honours, pleasures, and treasures: 3. He says to him: "I have decided to become a Christian." Notwithstanding their meanness by nature, their vileness by sin, and the poverty of their outward condition, God is not ashamed to be called their God: such is his condescension, such is his love to them; therefore let them never be ashamed of being called his people, nor of any of those that are truly so, how much soever despised in the world. Note, (1.) Instead of pining after that which is about to be destroyed, or repining at the call to go out to the place of Christ's shame on earth, Christianity, which replaces Judaism now, may well cause us to offer "the sacrifice of praise to God continually." 2. XIII. [3.] (Verses 8-22.). SOJOURNERS AND STRANGERS ( Hebrews 11:13-16 ). Their acknowledgment of this their condition: they were not ashamed to own it; both their lips and their lives confessed their present condition. Every one can understand, when once we find that the word means almost always covenant," how great the temptation is to translate it so in but two other occurrences, especially as before and after it means "covenant" in the same passage. I say not absolutely all its great truths. He says that it is an act of faith to believe that God made this world and adds that the things which are seen emerged from the things which are not seen. They knew the way. It is observable that the Spirit of God has not thought fit to say any thing here of the faith of our first parents; and yet the church of God has generally, by a pious charity, taken it for granted that God gave them repentance and faith in the promised seed, that he instructed them in the mystery of sacrificing, that they instructed their children in it, and that they found mercy with God, after they had ruined themselves and all their posterity. It is "the blood that speaketh better than Abel." 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