FAITH IN THE PROMISED SON

i invite you to turn this morning to hebrews chapter 11 we continue our study in hebrews chapter 11 i ask for your patience i woke up this morning and i sneezed 20 times in a row i've never had that happen and i'm afraid that that's going to happen in the middle of the sermon and it's going to be an awful experience for me and for you so i ask for your patience my poor wife my poor wife Hebrews chapter 11 and we're going to pick up at verse 8 this morning and last time we looked at this faith that Abraham had in the city that's coming it's an interesting structure here I'm going to come back to that next time as he fills this in he introduced us to that in verse 10 for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is god and then in verses 11 and 12 he breaks into abraham's faith in the promise of the son and i don't want to pass over this too quickly so we're going to work on verses 11 and 12 today i'll read through verses 8 through 16 and then next time we'll come back and look at verses 13 through 16 this is the word of the lord by faith abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God and now our text the two verses by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore these all died in faith not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland if they had been seeking if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out they would have had opportunity to return but as it is they desire a better country that is a heavenly one therefore god is not ashamed to be called their god for he's prepared for them a city and there will end the reading of god's word so when i first got here years ago that was about a year into the call i went through the book of genesis and uh ever since then i've had many of you come up to me and say we really would like you to to to preach again on on genesis and i thought to myself hebrews gives me an opportunity to do some of that hebrews gives me an opportunity to slow down a little bit because it is really remarkable in this particular section of faith what we call the hall of faith that so much attention is given to father abraham isn't isn't it he really wants us to think about the faith of abraham he really wants us to understand and appreciate and i think what i've been really been remarkably touched by in this this passage of hebrews 11 is just how careful the author is to show us and teach us what faith looks like in all of the difficulties of life and all the trials and all the tests of life but i walked away last time this is one of the challenges of preaching you say one thing and then you think well i probably maybe over emphasize that too much and miss this aspect of things that's the challenge of preaching and i don't want to leave us thinking that this life is just meant to be burdensome. I want you all to hear me correctly. It's the most exhilarating blessing to walk by faith. To walk by faith in God and his calling for us, as we looked at last time. Remember the call upon Abraham's life. And to think about where that calling takes you what an exciting and i know the word is overused but what an exciting word um journey that the lord brings us on in this life to fulfill his purposes where he takes us and what he accomplishes i mean look where you've been already in life many of you look i was just talking with anna vanderwell the other day and she was telling me she was up in in oakhurst and And I knew the pastor at that time, her old pastor. It's amazing to see where the Lord brings us in life. Where you end up, where you die, where you're going. God in his providence and in his sovereignty has mapped it out for us. I mean, there's a reason in Acts 17 he said, the times and the boundaries of your dwelling are appointed by God. no but i'm a freelancer to do what i want right god is really in control of that a man plots his way but the lord directs his steps there's nothing happening to you by chance i mean that's that's one of the great themes of hebrews that is helping there's nothing happening everyone here is going to have their own course in life planned out by god and that course will take you in different directions and that that will come with different challenges and different scenarios and that you will have to face in God's providence, his sovereign directing of your life. It's really remarkable to think that God does engage this personally with the lives of his children. God has a calling upon each one of you and it's important. And I don't want to miss what the author is saying to us that even though it's faith in the hardships of life he doesn't want us to miss what faith accomplishes in this life i mean he's got he's about ready to break it open if you will but through faith some conquered kingdoms through faith some enforce justice in this life which is a remarkable thing because we don't often see a lot of justice through faith some obtain the promises they i mean through faith They obtained the promises. Some stopped the mouth of lions. We know who that was, boys and girls. Some quenched the power of fire. Some escaped the edge of the sword. Some were made strong out of weakness. Some became mighty in war. some put foreign armies to flight women received back their dead by their by resurrection we're going to look at this but do you see what he's doing here so you can say faith in all the difficulties of life but miss that there is real power given to us by faith yeah life's hard but what a blessing to live by faith you see that's the tension here that we don't we want a strike. Life is hard. Life is full of difficulty. We're not health and wealth people. But what a blessing it is to live by faith. Because God's directing our lives. And great power is given to us to live by faith. That's what's being shown to us. And that is most needful for us. It's showing us what perseverance and endurance looks like when we find ourselves in the deep discouragements of these things in the deep discouragements of the moments when we haven't reached the end yet when we can't see as he's been saying the outcome or faith by faith remember what he said faith is the reality the substance of what we're hoping for and it is a strong conviction and what is yet not seen it's that in that period of what is not yet seen that's the most difficult when the circumstances are and they always have been by the way entirely outside of your control he wants you to say whatever he has appointed for you the way forward through it all is faith the way forward through it all is faith and he's been explaining that to us now that's why abraham is so important that's why abraham becomes the great study here in hebrews chapter 11 the the the person that he slows down on and he really puts the microscope abraham under the microscope to think about his life for a minute and the particular challenge that we've come to today that he wants us to think through is the life of abraham in his wait for the promised son so he's grabbing particular aspects of abraham's life to help us and notice he's going to spend the most time here we're considering the promise today then this is the section of promise this is the section where he wants us to grapple with god's promises to us so we're looking then at that promise and then the problem that abraham faced and the power that he received so there's your outline for today the the pro uh the promise the power of the problem and the let me start over the promise the problem and the power that should be simple for you hebrews 11 1 is saying to us something very important that we've been looking at of faith that it gives us what it gives to us as we wait in hope faith something god is doing and giving us the gift of faith as we wait in hope and last time we looked at how abraham was called it was the calling that he received and you remember the struggle of that he gets to the promised land and he didn't even receive it he dwelled in tents he was a stranger there with nothing but conflict but what the author celebrates is that by faith he looked for the better city the city whose builder and designer is god himself so god has built you a city you know and that's that's why the whole christian life is forward moving it's looking forward to that promise it's looking to the realization of it it's looking forward to the heavenly city it's hard for us to live that way so we studied that and we looked at that and so then he goes on now in verse 11 and this is where we move to how with the question of how did abraham go forward when everything that was promised seemed to say and have a stamp on it of impossible or was the exact opposite of what he was facing and that's verse 11 today that we come to and by faith even sarah who was past childbearing age was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise that is such an important verse there's some question here as to who's the subject here is it abraham or sarah and the whole thing is flowing and showing us the faith of abraham but he wants to bring sarah into the story to help us see that it was it was as a couple it was their faith that celebrated the promise of the son and this was a uh this is the big promise that's emphasized here the key to this that you can't miss in verse 11 is they both notice this they considered him faithful who made the promise does god lie he's already said in hebrews that by two immutable things which you cannot lie promise an oath he gave this to us does god lie he made a promise and the author wants us to stop and i want you to really think about this for a minute i want you to to meditate on this and and wrestle with this a little bit do you consider him in your lives faithful who promised so you can rebuy these verses and not really take them in do you consider him faithful who promised what would that look like what does that not look like the question is where was the promise made when you survey the old testament material and you go back to the book of genesis the heart of this is that great pinnacle of a chapter chapter 15 you remember in chapter 15 one of the most important chapters in all of the bible god had come to abraham after the great battle of the kings when abraham was worn out and discouraged and he made a glorious promise he started speaking to him in terms of promise now he had in chapter 12 made seven promises we looked at last time and that shows something about the character of god he's constantly pushing you with promise he's constantly giving promise he's restating promise he's giving more promise this is what he does to you to encourage you it's always promise and promise and promise that he comes back to encourage you with more promise fear not abraham abram i am your shield your reward shall be very great what don't fear abraham don't fear christian i know you by name i am your shield and your exceedingly great reward i am your reward i'm giving me to you abram i am a shield to you against your greatest fears in life what are they i am your refuge and your strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear what are you fearing promise if you think you've lost something in following me and you think you've given up something you think you've lost let me tell you what you've gained me the God of heaven and earth I am your reward i am yours i am committed to love you and to shield you and to provide for you and to protect you hey the author of hebrews is looking right here abraham said oh lord god it's always a puzzling sort of question after the lord said this but what will you give me right after the lord said i'm giving you me right but this is us what will you give me for i continue childless and the heir of my house is eliza of damascus abraham said abram said behold you've given me no offspring now this is a genuine wrestling. And a member of my household will be my heir. You've said this. He's really wrestling with God's promises. My inheritance is going to go to this servant because you've not given me offspring where's the offspring lord how can how can any of this promise make any sense without a son and behold verse 4 the word of the lord came to him this man shall not be your heir here it is This is Hebrews 11, 11, right here. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. There's the promise that Hebrews 11, the author's thinking about. And he brought him outside. And he said, I want you to look up toward the heaven. Go ahead and start numbering the stars if you can. So shall your offspring be. This is quite a promise. So shall your offspring be. God assured him that a son would come from his body, from a man 100 years old to his wife, through his wife's body, 90 years old. And a promise is made that, humanly speaking, listen to me, is absolutely impossible. God does something to help Abram. He says, I want you to go outside, and I think you can do this any time. And I want you to, on a Palestinian night, I want you to look up and I want you to count. Next time you go up there to Palomar, you look up. You know, there's 10,000 points of light. Go ahead, boys and girls, and pick up some sand on the seashore and begin to count it. Abram, that's what I'm promising you. Do you know the whole of your life is directed by God's promise? Why is Abraham so important to study? Because he's singling out the father of our faith and he wants us to think about how the father of our faith lived and through whom we are blessed we are the realization of the promise to abraham galatians tells us what he ultimately believed that the promise of a son the seed whom abraham believed in was the promise of christ that seed is christ that son is christ he was looking to through that line there is nothing that we will lack but what did abraham learn see this is this is where i think hebrews 11 is so important today what what is what is wonderful in studying abraham and i think is is particularly important for us is how hard life was as his life was framed around this promise in waiting for it to be realized and that's the great question and struggle of this that the author wants you to think about why did it take so long everything about receiving the promise was not easy he faced hard circumstances just the rare fact that you know of the many years to fulfill the promise it's meant to say something to us that's what the author wants us to think about today abraham was 75 when the promise was made that means that he and sarah waited 25 years till it got to the point where it was absolutely impossible for it to happen humanly speaking that then god acted and and way beyond childbearing years we're moderns this is all the more important for us um we don't think god's power can do the impossible in our day we've been trained to think this way i remember dr clark when he was preaching not so long ago he says something that i just i can't get out of my head still you know he said see we're so modern that if we see a branch outside we think there's no way it could be an angel sitting on the branch but where's the wind faith receives a promise which humanly speaking seems impossible and i think what makes it all interesting is that god would come along even at one point and change his name to keep pressing him to believe the promise to to keep abram met name exalted father and and and god changes his name to abraham means father of nations so so you are going to be the father of nations and this presses us as to what life is listen it's a testing ground to mature you to grow you that you would learn to live by faith barnhouse years ago made a big deal of this in hebrews 11 imagine how hard this was in the orient for father abraham you know abram's name meant exalted father um well and there's debate about exactly that exalted father and he would be changed to father of nations but imagine having this discussion they say we know your name meaning abraham walks up to a guy and a guy says how many sons do you have well none well what does your god say abram that my children will be as the sand on the seashore well he's getting a little late how old your wife well she's 90 i'm adding on the barn house now stuff what would you say about such a person you'd probably walk away and say that's a little off their rocker what is not living by faith who's off their rocker you know david crosby of um crosby still and nash said this week said i heard you're talking about heaven heaven is a place overrated it's cloudy you know what happened to him he died the next day He died Thursday. Said it Wednesday. I doubt he's saying that about hell. Living by faith is trusting and having strong conviction in something not yet seen. Every one of you in life will be tested this way. God comes to you and says, promise you, my son. I promise you eternal life. I promise you a city. I promise you the resurrection of the body. I promise you that we're all going to eat and drink anew in the kingdom together. But every day, the hardship seems really slow. it's like the gordon lightfoot song about the fitzgerald does anyone know where the love of god goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours that's how it fell slow and i think you have to raise here that it was not easy for abraham and sarah i think that's really important they fell apart at times they really struggled i mean genesis 16 follows 15 where they did not wait and they were not patient and they tried with human power to bring this about by going to hagar and devising this plan it was so hard to be patient They even laughed at the promises at one point. Patience in receiving the promise is hard. But it's what we're called to. Listen to me. Everyone throughout history has struggled with the slowness of God's promises. What seems to be. In light of their own hardships and the plights. With the slowness of receiving what God has promised to fulfill. And all of us have our lives planned out by God. And this is where we're tested. Right here. Right here. He's appointed for all of us crosses to bear in the journey. For a reason. Bigger than us. Abram, you'll be a blessing to all the nations. He doesn't tell you how long you'll have to bear the cross. You can look at a million scenarios today here. Some singles, one pastor said, don't connect with the church. Because everyone's married. So they stay away. Some can't have children. It's a real struggle for them when they see baptisms. Some have lost a spouse and struggle so much with bitterness. They can't be around people who don't have the same plight. See, everyone has to bear something. It's difficult. and we try to help God out on this we try to take matters into our own hands we're tired of waiting another pastor said we give in to premarital sex in order to win a man's heart tired of the seeming lack of success of the church I add we take matters into our own hands to try to manipulate God to make this thing work. Oh, living by faith. We talk about it a lot, but it's difficult. But what's celebrated in Hebrews 11? What is celebrated about Abraham and Sarah? Here it is. by faith Sarah herself also received power this is just a great verse power to conceive the seed notice that and she bore a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who promised you know i thought it was interesting that little word power is a very common word but the form of it is the same word that is used for here for this very purpose romans 9 i have raised you up that i may show my power in you that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth who was that spoken of pharaoh now that power could be exercised in judgment but beloved for you listen by faith it is a power of the blessing of god i was talking about earlier for this reason i raised abraham and sarah up to show my power that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth how was that received how was that power received by faith and i think what the author is doing here today is meant to greatly encourage you in your walks by faith in god's promise that you receive god's power faith is not the power let's make that clear it's not even about the the quantity of faith that he's talking about it's that through the instrument of faith you receive god's power it's a surprising power that connects us to the lord of power that was given that power was so powerful that it was able through the medium of faith through the instrument of faith to power abraham and sarah's bodies that this might happen that's what he's saying to us do you believe that you judge him faithful miles coverdell i was reading the other day on his letters written in 1564 and he is he was discussing all the martyrs of his age and he remarked i could it was just you know you'd think how could we ever go through those things how could we ever go through what these people went through and he was remarking how good god was at that time to give them tremendous power to face martyrdom he says they went with peace to it by faith power was given to them you see power was given it's not that our faith has any value of itself but through faith came power as they trusted in the Lord to make in their bodies happen what was impossible. That's what the author is celebrating here. And it's meant to bless us. It's meant to encourage us that there's real strength given to us when we embrace the promises. This is illustrated in the life of my father. He was dying of pancreatic cancer. In all my years, the worst death i've ever seen i told you that from 200 to 90 pounds and he said i don't think i have enough faith i've been around this enough to know how the devil attacks with doubt when people are facing these things we reminded him dad you've always had faith but I watched as faith is of a mustard seed I watched as power was given to him he died better than anyone I've ever seen and he would never have been known as the great man in the church he trusted see what the author's doing he's not even raising the failures and the doubts of abram and sarah which are all over genesis he's celebrating the big story that by this gift god had given them of faith abraham and sarah through it all they did not stop believing in the promise and that was the character of their lives and all the hardship and all the difficulty in this way they judge god faithful who would do this and you see abraham when he says they judge faithful and believe this the author is is thinking of genesis 15 6 that a he believed the lord and right then and there it was accounted to him for righteousness it was such a big moment when he believed that promise that he was justified right then and there forever that's the the verse the new testament singles out genesis 15 6 to say that was the moment of his righteous standing before god when he believed the promise what happened from one man what happened what happened from one man as good as dead were born as many of the stars of the sky in the multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore you want to look around and know if that's happened you're it you're it what a ride this life of faith abraham had faith in christ and from him the promise was realized and the author is saying to you today join in that same faith we are in the days of like abraham our strangers and pilgrims and we're going to be tested in the hardships and the promises and those promises are yes and amen to you too what is the gospel promise heidelberg catechism the forgiveness of your sins and everlasting life there's two for you to hold on to hebrew christians were giving up they were apostatizing turning away from Jesus giving up on Christ the one Abraham looked for that was who Abraham was looking they saved them what are you doing that was not the way of endurance but apostasy and the Lord says today to you I want to encourage you I am your shield I am your reward and my promise is to you is the same to Abraham I will never leave you nor forsake you when you walk through the fire you will not be burned the flames will not set you ablaze for i am the lord your god the holy one of israel your savior he who promised is faithful and be encouraged today cheer up soon says the lord i am coming to you and I will give you everything that I promised hope in the Lord you waiting saints and he will well provide for mercy and redemption full and free with him abide from sin and evil mighty though they seem his arm almighty will his saints redeem let's pray Lord thank you for faith the gift of faith thank you for upholding us by faith confess oh lord our sins and our doubts and all the struggles that were illustrated in the life of abraham it's remarkable that a love covers a multitude of sins and you encourage us by faith worlds are conquered and this is the victory that has overcome the world first john our faith we are so thankful lord that you encourage us this way give us faith to believe all of your promises and trust in christ for that work is complete that work is done may we have confidence lord in your steadfast covenant love forever in jesus name we pray amen