(1.) Sometimes, not always, the countenance is the index of the mind. So, he ordered all of the baby boys to be drowned in the Nile. In the end even the guards were moved to wondering compassion. Earlier God had promised Abraham that his descendants would return to Canaan after the fourth generation: (1) Abraham, (2) Isaac, (3) Jacob, and (4) Joseph: And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. In each case it was the faith of a man to whom death was very near. But whether the one or the other, all was by faith. We will remember that everything in it is God's and will try to use it as God would have us use it. 2. Here the words "for us" had better be left out. But far from this, it is the simple fact Of the gospel. Hebrews chapter 11 New International Version 1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. The Christian regards himself as the pilgrim of eternity. We shall not want opportunities to revolt from God; but we must show the truth of our faith and profession by a steady adherence to him to the end of our days. Fascinating statement!Now he begins to list those men of faith from the Old Testament. On the altar of the burnt offering he offered sacrifices of swine flesh to Zeus; and he turned the Temple chambers into brothels. These people heard God's promises and believed them in spite of waiting a very What had immediately preceded this, The cross. He was big enough and brave enough to wait until God said: "Now is the hour.". God gave witness to the righteousness of his person, by testifying his acceptance of his gifts. 27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. For Christ is not entered into holies made with hands, figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.". Coincidental? 11:30-31 It was by faith that the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. Such was the Priest of whom God spoke. The story of Gideon is told in Judges 6:1-40; Judges 7:1-25. This it was of all consequence to have stated first. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet ( Hebrews 11:7 ). Those with whom they sojourned would have been willing enough to part with them. The consideration of this should inflame the affections, enlarge the desires, and excite the diligent endeavours, of the people of God after this city that he has prepared for them. 4 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 speaketh. He prayed for them, that they might both be blessed of God. 3. Its force implies that it is not merely what He did once, but what He is also doing still. They cared not to engage much in it. Early in history then God is testifying of righteousness through faith. 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. Though believers are chiefly concerned for their souls, yet they cannot wholly neglect their bodies, as being members of Christ and parts of themselves, which shall at length be raised up, and be the happy companions of their glorified souls to all eternity. such power and prosperity as, was never reached again. The next instance of faith is that of the Israelites passing through the Red Sea under the conduct of Moses their leader, XIV. W. S. Gilbert wrote in The Yeomen of the Guard: Robert Burns wrote of the early death of Highland Mary: There are those who have seen only the grim terroriser and despoiler in death. How excellent are Your works towards us your children. This is natural and pleasant to the flesh, no doubt; but it is precisely what opposes the whole object of God in Christianity, since Christ went on high till He come again, and therefore the path of faith to which the children of God are called. He did this leaning on the top of his staff; not as the papists dream, that he worshipped some image of God engraven on the head of his staff, but intimating to us his great natural weakness, that he was not able to support himself so far as to sit up in his bed without a staff, and yet that he would not make this an excuse for neglecting the worshipping of God; he would do it as well as he could with his body, as well as with his spirit, though he could not do it as well as he would. Secondly, All true believers desire this better country. "Isaiah, the sixty-first chapter, and the prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he has anointed me to preach the good tidings to the meek; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of the vengeance of our God." Far better than his hearers should be moved by this and that phrase to remember them for themselves. Now Joseph gave this order, not that he thought his being buried in Egypt would either prejudice his soul or prevent the resurrection of his body (as some of the rabbis fancied that all the Jews who were buried out of Canaan must be conveyed underground to Canaan before they could rise again), but to testify, [1.] For those who knew the scriptures well in their Greek version, phrase after phrase would ring a bell in the mind. (2.) God's arm is not shortened; his power is not grown less. He, like Abraham, Isaac, and his father, Jacob, was also a man of great faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going ( Hebrews 11:8 ). The sting is gone. It is sometimes necessary for the Christian to take the way to which the voice of God is calling him without knowing what the consequences will be. Every one of them refused what the world calls greatness and staked everything on God--and history proved them right. It was, parabolically, like that of Christ himself. Those with faith look beyond what they see. The reason appears to be, because he is going to tell us of the Old Testament saints. The reproaches of the church of God are the reproaches of Christ, who is, and has ever been, the head of the church. i. The call of Abraham is told with dramatic simplicity in Genesis 12:1. (1.) Biblical References: Hbr 11:23-30 . Pharaoh's daughter is said to have been his only child, and was herself childless; and having found Moses, and saved him as she did, she resolved to take him and bring him up as her son; and so he stood fair to be in time king of Egypt, and he might thereby have been serviceable to Israel. This true faith makes sin bitter to the soul, even while it receives the pardon and atonement. [2.] It may be observed, too, that the Holy Ghost appears but little in this epistle. An evil life it is to go from house to house. He contrived the model; he accordingly made it, and he has laid open a new and living way into it, and prepared it for his people; he puts them into possession of it, prefers them in it, and is himself the substance and felicity of it. [3.] I like the faith that brings me over the top, that brings me the victory, that subdues the aliens, and I like that. 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. (5.) Many times a person is trying to shortcut himself into fellowship with God. As the old story tells it, so it happened. One further effort, a little more waiting, a little more hoping, would make the dream come true. For he was looking for [the eternal city of God,] a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It has been said of Noah that "he threw the dark scepticism of the world into relief against his own shining faith in God." I'm just a stranger and a pilgrim here. And when Jesus came, He declared deliverance to the captive. Hence He crowns the noble army of witnesses with Christ Himself. Its wonder is that both Abraham and Sarah were ninety years old, long past the age of begetting or bearing a child; and yet, according to the old story, that promise was made and came true. But the bodies of those beasts were burnt without the camp: my place, so far as I in the body am concerned, is one of shame and suffering in this world. A woman came in with a dish of meat for the gods. There is then the solemn admonition of the account they are to render by-and-by. "Oh, He'll tell me. He had good company with him, and they were a great comfort to him in his sojourning state. Upon his mind; it impressed his soul with a fear of God's judgment: he was moved with fear. VIII. The treasury was sacked. And so the angel of the Lord said, "Why did Sarah laugh?" By faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; the grace of faith will help us through all the dangers we meet with in our way to heaven. First, to die and come back again so that he might know what death was like. The principle upon which his faith acted in these his motions: He endured, as seeing him that was invisible.He bore up with invincible courage under all danger, and endured all the fatigue of his employment, which was very great; and this by seeing the invisible God. She was a Canaanite, a. and had but little help for faith, and yet she was a believer; the power of divine grace greatly appears when it works without the usual means of grace. [2.] This passage (Hebrews 9:11-22) also sheds light on the question of why Christ had to die. And he lists them in chronological order, as far as their appearances in the Bible, until you get to David and Samuel, and only there does he reverse the chronological order.The first to appear on the scene of faith was Abel. Above all, let them take care that they be not a shame and reproach to their God, and so provoke him to be ashamed of them; but let them act so as to be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. I am not going to enter into any statement of facts as to this now, but there is no truth in its own place more important than that with which the apostle commences in this chapter, namely, that "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." They were not afraid of the king's commandment. Here is the very point the writer to the Hebrews wishes to make. If we examine the historical facts as found in the Old Testament story, what is it rises up before all eyes as to Zion? Greek Interlinear Layout for Hebrews 11:39 (TR KJV) Line-By-Line Order: Verse-Reference. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do, thy will, O God." (2.) For although outwardly, no doubt, the prosperity lasted in the time of Solomon, it was mainly the fruit of David's suffering, and power, and glory. Bishop Newbigin tells of the negotiations which led to the formation of the United Church of South India. 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