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In Hebrews ...Jesus,
is our High Priest!
...6And without faith it is impossible
to please God (v.6)
>Related PAST POSTS: OUR GREAT SALVATION ~ FAITH |
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New International Version ~ Faith
in Action
1Now
faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not
see. 2This is what the
ancients were commended for.
3By
faith we understand that the
universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not
made out of what was visible.
4By
faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was
commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith
Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5By
faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death:
“He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”a For before he was taken, he was commended
as one who pleased God. 6And without faith it is
impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to
him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek
him.
7By
faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark
to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of
the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8By
faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his
inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By
faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign
country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him
of the same promise. 10For he was looking
forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11And by
faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children
because sheb considered him faithful who had made the
promise. 12And so from this one
man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the
sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13All
these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive
the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,
admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14People
who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If
they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had
opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were
longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to
be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
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Note on
v.16: The spirits of the OLD Testament saints could not go into heaven
until Jesus died for their sins, so they went to Sheol (Hell). Jesus taught that
Sheol was divided into two parts, with Abraham the head of the part for those
who believed in God's promises (Luke 16:19-31, Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew
27:52,53) ~ Pastor Chuck Smith's explanation. (he has prepared a city for
them.~ v.16)
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17By
faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had
embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even
though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be
reckoned.”c19Abraham reasoned that
God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive
Isaac back from death.
20By
faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21By
faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped
as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22By
faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites
from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23By
faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they
saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24By
faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter. 25He chose to be
mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting
pleasures of sin. 26He regarded disgrace
for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt,
because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27By faith he left Egypt,
not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is
invisible. 28By faith he kept the
Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn
would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29By
faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the
Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30By
faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for
seven days.
31By
faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed
with those who were disobedient.d
32And
what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson
and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33who
through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was
promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of
the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to
strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women
received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were
tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.36Some faced jeers and
flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were put to death
by stoning;e they were sawed in two; they were killed
by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute,
persecuted and mistreated—38the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living
in caves and in holes in the ground.
39These
were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been
promised, 40since God had planned
something better for us so that only together with us would they be made
perfect.
Footnotes:
a 5 Gen. 5:24 b 11 Or By faith Abraham, even though he was too old to have children—and Sarah herself was not able to conceive—was enabled to become a father because he c 18 Gen. 21:12 d 31 Or unbelieving e 37 Some early manuscripts stoning; they were put to the test;
4So Abram went, as
the Lord had told him;
and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from
Harran. 5He
took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated
and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of
Canaan, and they arrived there. 6Abram traveled
through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At
that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringc I
will give this land.” So he
built an altar there to the Lord,
who had appeared to him. ~Genesis 12
As the
years go by, there seemed to be no heir in sight. Neither Abram nor Sarai
were getting any younger! ....yet Abram continued to wait on God
....because Abram knew God was faithful to his Word! He was very old
now as was Sarai (the mother to be). Perhaps they wondered aloud
at night as they drifted off to sleep, "....is this going to really
happen?" Abram knew it would but perhaps he began to have doubts
it seemed, because the text shows he began to include Eliezer in his estate
planning!
In Genesis 15 we see more of
Abram's faith, and God continuing to promise Abram that He would fulfill what
God had promised many years prior.
"...
the word of the Lord came
to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,a
your very great reward.b ”
2But Abram said,
“Sovereign Lord, what can
you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inheritc my
estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3And Abram said, “You
have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4Then the word of
the Lord came to him:
“This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood
will be your heir.” 5He
took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed
you can count them.” Then he
said to him, “So shall your offspringd be.”
6Abram believed
the Lord, and he credited
it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15
Abram was indeed a wealthy man.
In this agricultural society, his wealth was measured in terms of his
abundance of livestock. Abram had it all in this society. However
in this society, if one didn't have an heir (son), it meant that at death the
wealth would pass to the steward (manager) of the wealth. Nowadays,
wealth by law passes to the family, but at some point, it seemed to Abram,
that Eliezer his manager, was going to inherit all of Abram's mighty wealth.
Can you hear Abram's frustration at the thought of it all just slipping
through his fingers when he died?
““Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and
the one who will inheritc my
estate is Eliezer of Damascus? (God)...You have given me no children; so
a servant in my household will be my heir.”
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Hebrews 11: "A Gallery of Faith"
Probably no subject is so glibly
misunderstood as faith. Nearly everyone professes to have some of it. Many
people would like to have more. The writer to the Hebrews takes faith out of
religious theory and clothes it with flesh and blood. The author does this
with what we today call role
models. These models inspire us to go on believing in Jesus.
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Faith is confidence ... (v.1)
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We have never seen the wind.
We see the effect of the wind, the evidence for the wind on trees,
blowing dust, blowing our hair, feeling it on our face.
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We have never seen magnetic forces. But we only see evidence of it, we haven't actually seen
the force.
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We have never seen God. Yet we see the evidence of God all
around us. Faith in God helps us to realize
God because of the evidence all around us.
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God said, "Let there be light"; God said, "Let the
waters above the firmament be divided with the waters beneath the firmament";
God said, "Let the earth bring forth herb-yielding fruit after it's own kind".
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by Faith we learn that the world was made by God's command!
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Abel (v.4) Abel's
sacrifice was offered in faith, Cain's was not. Cain
got angry that his offering was rejected!
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Gen 4:2 ~ Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In
the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering
to the Lord. 4And
Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his
flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his
offering, 5but
on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry,
and his face was downcast.6Then
the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast? 7If you do what is right, will
you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at
your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” 8Now Cain said to his brother
Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”d While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother
Abel and killed him.
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Enoch (v.5) ...he was commended as one who pleased God. Just as Enoch was spared from the judgment
of God upon the earth during the Flood, so the Church will be spared from the
tribulation.
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Noah (v.7)
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Abraham
(v.17) Abraham is called the father of those who believe.
·
·
The birth
of Isaac was based on God's faithfulness in performing that which He had promised
- not on Sarah or Abraham's faith.
·
Sarah (v.11) was past childbearing
age (over 90) and Abraham was over 100 years old, "as good as dead,"
and yet God gave them a child and innumerable descendants.
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In Genesis 12 we read the (famous) Abrahamic covenant (promise)
that God held with Abram (later called Abraham). God's promise to them
concerned giving them the child (later named Isaac) they always wanted to
have. Remember at this time Abram and Sarai his wife were elderly when God
gave this promise to Abram. Track with me as we observe Abram's faith,
and what it means to us in today!
1The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from
your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show
you.
2“I will make you into
a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.a
3I will bless those
who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”b
Just when
it seemed to Abram that the promise wasn't going to be fulfilled in his
lifetime, he had a fresh word from the Lord......God reminded Abram again of
His earlier promise! God reminded Abram of who put the stars in place!
God reminded Him that yes indeed, a son would be born to Abram and
Sarai even in their old age. God always keeps his promises !
4Then the word of
the Lord came to him: “This man (Eliezer) will not be your heir, but a son who is
your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5He
took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed
you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspringd be.”
Here now, we can fast-forward to
the New Testament and then find that we can lay claim to the fruit of our
faith!
7Understand, then,
that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8Scripture
foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles (gentiles...that would be you!)
by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to
Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”d
Here in these passages, we see we humans easily have a tendency to let doubt creep in, even though the very God of Heaven offers us His promises. This is a classic case of God's man trying to work things out his own way, even after God had given him a promise! Abram began making plans for Eliezer to take over Abram's estate, until God took him aside and reminded Abram of the promise he'd make to him earlier.
Genesis 15:1-6.
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
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Isaac (v.20)
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Jacob (v.21)
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Joseph (v.22)
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Moses (v.23)
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Rahab (v.31)
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Gideon (v.32)
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Barak (v.32)
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Samson (v.32)
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Jephthah (v.32)
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David (v.32)
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Samuel (v.32)
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The Prophets (v.32)
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Sep 15, 2015
Hebrews 11 ~ The Gallery of Faith
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