The Book of Hebrews 11:8-12 By faith Abraham
Hebrews 11:8-12 · Vern Peterman · Mar 30, 2014
Hebrews, No. 47
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926422357924

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Hebrews 11, 8 through 12. And one of the things we saw in the earlier chapter there, for by it, by faith, the men of old gained approval. And this was certainly true of Abraham. This is the great hall of faith as we go through the chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews. Now one of the things I got talking to Dave Demery about is faith management. Okay? Faith management. You see, everybody has faith.

Even people who are skeptical, don't like anything that sounds like it has anything to do with religion, and I don't particularly care for religion myself, but they may even speak boldly and badly against religion, even they have faith. That's a point that we've been making here. Even those who claim, well, I'm skeptical of anything, They still have faith. They place their faith somewhere. It is only a question of where a person places their faith. Everybody exercises faith.

Even the so-called scientific materialist, the person who doesn't believe there is a spiritual realm at all, or any god, they all place their faith in presuppositions of modern science. We've got a handout we made available a couple weeks ago, we'll make it available again here because we ran out, that talks about science and presuppositions and faith. Feel free to take that, it's on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And I'd be glad to talk with anybody about it as well.

One of the things we pointed out in recent weeks is if you believe in the evolution of bats, typically from a rodent, although there have been some who propose that a bat came from a primate of some kind, there are no transitional fossils that are clear and undisputed.

And so if you believe that that rodent, or in some cases a primate, evolved into a bat, that's fine, but that's on the basis of faith, not on the basis of science. We pointed out that the evolutionists believe that an okapi-like creature, and you can find an okapi and a giraffe over at the Denver Zoo here, take a look at them, an okapi-like creature evolved into a giraffe. Now, there are no clear undisputable fossils between those two animals. And so if you believe that that evolution took place, that's fine, but that's on the basis of faith, okay, because there is no science behind it. Turtles are another one where there's no clear indisputable fossils that show the evolution of turtles. And so if you want to believe that turtles evolved, that's fine, but it's on the basis of faith that you believe that, not on the basis of scientific evidence. Bring up another one here that we haven't brought up before.

The dewclaw on a dog is often presented as a vestigial organ, a thumb-like structure on this side of the paw. It is thought to be a leftover of evolution and therefore an evidence of evolution. Here is a textbook on historical geology. This one is by Wickender and Monroe, fairly current, and in that they say no one would seriously argue that a dog's dewclaws are truly necessary.

That's page 168 in the electronic version. Beg to differ. Here's Christine Zink, doctor of veterinary medicine and also a PhD. So she's a double doctorate. She has on YouTube, you can watch it yourself, dewclaws do have a purpose. And here's one instance that Dr. Zink brings up.

And that's the dewclaws on the dog are useful for the dog in digging themselves out of having fallen through ice. They use that as a means of getting a good surface on the ice, but using the dewclaw to dig into the ice and pull themselves out. So that's what about 11 and a half minute video just showing that what happens when a dog doesn't have the do clause sometimes being supposedly vestigial taken off. At the end of that, there is then a further explanation that you're given. In that document, Dr. Zink explains that the dewclaw has five different tendons that attach to that dewclaw and, of course, muscles that go onto it as well. In addition to pulling the dog out of some situation where it's fallen into ice, The galloping dog, the dewclaw does touch the ground and when they turn sharp to the right or to the left, the dewclaw is used to change direction quickly in order not to cause torque and an extra chance of injury into the dog's leg. So it does have multiple usefulness. But at any rate, if you happen to believe that the due cause of a vestigial organ and an indication that the dog evolved, that's an exercise of faith, regardless of the facts.

So, it's just another instance. Everyone has faith. It's only a question of where someone places their faith. Everyone has faith. The Word of God urges us to place our faith in God and what He has revealed to us in His Word. So we're not exercising something that other people don't. We're simply, as Christians, exercising faith in what God has revealed and determining to place our faith in God and what He has revealed.

Where we place our faith is also where we place our hope. Our hope is in the Lord because that's where we placed our faith. Our hope is in the Lord because that's where we placed our faith. The person who places their faith somewhere else is placing their hope somewhere else.

The atheist has faith and is exercising faith. And they are hoping that they don't have to be accountable to an eternal and moral God. Right? So, what's this chapter telling us? This chapter 11 of Hebrews is telling us that what the faith that is placed in God looked like and did in the lives of a number of Old Testament saints for our benefit so that we can learn from them. We need to see for ourselves the lives of those who have placed their faith in God in times past so that we can learn what biblical faith is like and what it is not like. Biblical faith is absolutely essential, not optional, in order to be saved, have to have faith, saved by faith, to please God and to grow in grace. Biblical faith is necessary for all those things. It's not optional. It's not incidental. It's required.

So here's Hebrews 8.11.

Abraham, when he was called, obeyed going out to a place where he was to receive for an inheritance, which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. Well, that describes a lot of us. So, he went out not knowing where he was going. What does that mean? God told him the land that I will show you. He hadn't seen it yet. So he just started going and God says I'll show you the place where you need to go. Abraham was called from Ur, the city of Ur, by God.

And this is actually, it's been excavated. It's a fairly substantial city. There's a fairly sophisticated lifestyle there. They've gotten, for example, cosmetic boxes with all kinds of jewelry inlays in there. I mean, people actually had a fairly sophisticated life there. And so now, can you imagine, here is Abraham telling Sarah, hey, we're going to go traveling. Where are we going?

Oh, I don't know. to a place where he had never been based on promises God had made to Abraham. So God repeated and expanded those same promises that he'd said to Abraham all the way up to the end of Abraham's life of 175 years, so for decades, kept repeating these promises and giving him more detail about it, and then on to Isaac, and then on to Jacob. And God restated all those promises to Isaac and Jacob. for Abraham to receive the inheritance from God, he would believe God and say goodbye to any inheritance he had from his earthly father. You see, Abraham could have said, you know, I'm just going to kind of stick around and stay with my father because there I know my dad and I know what he has to pass on to me and all this other stuff I don't know about it and so I'm just going to stick around. But he didn't. But believing God and looking to God's inheritance meant that he had to kiss off, say goodbye, to the inheritance that he had from his earthly father. Bye. Say goodbye. And it's all based on God's promises.

Now, it says obey by going, and there's a very important point I want to bring out about this word obey. The simple English word does not get across what the Greek word means, and there's a huge difference. It makes a difference here. It makes a difference as we study throughout the Bible. This word obey needs to be understood. The Greek word means to listen, part one, and two, place oneself under what is heard. So there's none of this, I'm obeying on the outside, but I'm not obeying on the inside, right? There's none of that. This is actually listening to what's being said and deliberately placing oneself under what is heard. See that?

Two steps and it's very critical to get the difference. It starts by listening and it follows through by deciding to place oneself under the content of what is heard. So this is a key point in parenting. This is a key point when we come to issues like we talked when we went through Romans 6, the sin nature. starts talking to you, and the way to not obey the sin nature is to don't do the listening part first. Understanding obey as a two-step thing is very important whenever you study anything about obedience or obeying in the Bible.

And this is no different. Okay, I'm going. Now where is this place? So here it is, we'll say something like, and it was interesting the variety of things I heard said here, we'll say something like, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. And I even ran across something where Yogi Berra said something about this, and that was really fascinating. He said something like, if you don't know where you're going, you might get there.

Okay. That's because we usually start by picking a place, and then we go there with a, okay, here's where we're going, and then here's the plan. Abraham didn't have that. God says, the place I'll show you. Where? I don't know. But for Abraham, faith meant that he would find the answer to God's promise by going to the place that God said, I will show you in the future.

That's all Abraham knew about the location. We're not done. Abraham chose to abandon the earthly inheritance he could see from a father he had seen, and instead to believe God whom he could not see about a land he had never seen before. And as Abraham went to see the land that God would show him, Abraham himself would not enjoy the earthly inheritance himself, nor would his son Isaac, nor would his son, Isaac's son, Jacob.

We've got an inheritance, but guess what? There are several generations and it's still not going to happen. Isn't that amazing? I will forfeit all the inheritance that I know I can get from my earthly father. Instead, I'll take on God's promise and I'll depend entirely on what God has promised, even though we won't see that inheritance for a long, long time. Not in my lifetime, not in my son's lifetime, not in my grandson's lifetime.

So here's Hebrews 11, 9 and 10. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, Fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Now, right here, straight from the Bible, right here, straight from this verse, verse 9, we find out that Abraham was an alien. Abraham was an alien. The Bible says so. So Abraham lived as an alien. He came into the promised land for the first time, but he was an alien, a foreigner, living among the Canaanites in tents and camping.

Now I can't imagine what it would be like if I said to Nancy, Nancy, for the rest of our lives, we're going to live in a tent. I think I get some sort of a wild expression from that. But anyway, and Nancy's nodding. Yes. And not only that, but our children will live in tents, and our grandchildren as well.

Long-term camping. Camping is a lifestyle. Well, this permanent camping tradition was passed on to Isaac and Jacob as well, who were also aliens and foreigners in the land of the Canaanites, for most of their lives. Each of them, for most of their lives, spent this time camping. Camping is a lifestyle.

Isaac and Jacob were aliens and foreigners too. They came to this place. This was a promise that God had made. God made that promise directly to Isaac and to Jacob as well, but they were still camping and they were still foreigners. The land belonged to somebody else, the Canaanites.

Now, it says here in this passage, tents do not have foundations. Now, tents don't have foundations, which is in one way good. A person would not want to have to haul around a foundation from place to place. That would be pretty weighty. Nor keep building a new one with each move. So, tents don't have foundations, and that's somewhat a good thing if you're going to be camping the rest of your life.

What this passage reveals is that Abraham was not just looking at the land that was promised. the land that I will show you but that's not all that Abraham was looking for very interesting Abraham was also looking for the new Jerusalem whose architect and builders got himself in the world after this one you know we've still got at least 1,007 years on this planet and possibly more but I'd be happy if the Lord came today So it's been 4,000 years since the time of Abraham, and we're looking at at least 1,007 years from now.

So this is looking for something a long way off. A long way off. Imagine giving up on the inheritance from the Father that you've seen and know, and the inheritance that you've seen and know. It's this building, this land, these things. I've got that, and you're just going to kiss it off for an inheritance that's way out there. That's way out there.

Revelation chapters 21 and 22 describe the new Jerusalem where the new heaven and the new earth all come together. The last two chapters of the Bible, Abraham was willing to leave the inheritance from the father that he could see Trusting a God he'd never seen about a world he'd never seen. Not just a land he'd never been to, and eventually got to go to, but a world he'd never seen. And that's our position too, isn't it? We're looking for a world where God is the architect and builder, and we've never seen Him, and we've not seen this world. But that's where we're going to spend eternity. That means trusting God entirely for everything. Even though 4,000 years have passed then, the New Jerusalem is still future, at least 1,007 years away.

So here's Hebrews 11.11, By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life. We're going to talk about that. Since she considered him faithful who had promised. Here is the account in Genesis chapter 21 verses 1 through 7. Then the Lord took note of Sarah as he said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised.

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me. It's actually literally for me. Everyone will laugh for me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age. Isn't this astounding? Well, let's take a look here. First of all, we get the perspective from this passage. Sarah believes others will laugh. This will be funny. This will be funny.

It was interesting in teaching in this passage at the church where I grew up. Just as soon as Ray Steadman, the pastor there, taught on this passage, there was a whole wave of families in the church where people had kind of surprised, you know, babies in later years. And my younger brother Eric is one of those. Almost 10 years younger than me.

So we get from Genesis 21, 1-7 that Sarah sees humor in the birth of Isaac. But we don't get that Sarah was exercising faith until we come to Hebrews 11, 11. So that's one of the things about this chapter that we're looking at We get an insight of faith into these passages that we've already had them spoken of in the Old Testament, but now we get a faith insight for each of those, including this one here with Sarah. We don't know until we get to this passage that Sarah was not just thinking this is really humorous, but also that she was actually exercising faith in this. By faith, Sarah conceived not because she was presumptuous, but because God had promised. God promised she didn't just believe something and claim it, but God had promised it and she believed what God had promised.

Now let's look at this phrase, beyond the proper time. That wasn't translated properly. Sarah was not just beyond the proper time as if it was just a matter of etiquette. Her baby-making system was not working anymore, and physically her body could not produce babies, at least by any natural timing. We call it post-menopause. She was beyond it.

It was not something that was physically expected or possible. God waited until Sarah had lost the natural ability to have babies in order to fulfill his promise that her husband Abraham would have offspring as numerous as the stars and sand. So what do you have? What do you have here? You have an amazing situation. God says, I want to wait until this is impossible. I want to wait until they completely give up on any human ability to have kids.

Notice that it's God who keeps the promise that Sarah believed him for. In other words, it's God who keeps the promise, but Sarah did the believing. Sarah did the believing. That's the insight from this passage here. Her faith was in him, not in herself. As a matter of fact, it was so much not in herself that she thought this was humorous, the idea that she would have a baby at this age. Though it seems that this was a lesson learned over time.

Earlier, Sarah had offered Abraham her maidservant, Hagar, because that was the custom of the day. If a wife could not conceive, then the maidservant was offered in place. This wasn't God's will, it wasn't a fulfillment of God's promise. Once Ishmael was born, God said, nope, that's not the one, Abraham. This isn't how I'm going to fulfill my promise to you. So God waited until the fulfillment of the promise could only be done by God and not by man. This would not be a human accomplishment. This would be God's accomplishment only. God is the promise keeper. Let's take a look at Hebrews 11, 12.

Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. So we have this from Genesis 15, 5, and it's described after this, but this is the first time. And he took him, Abraham, outside and said, Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Genesis 15, 5. And Abraham's going, wow! But God waits until Sarah's way past childbearing years.

Now let's look at this, as good as dead. The English word as good as dead is one word in the Greek. And it means dead. Just so you know. However, in the perfect tense, and I don't want you to get perfectly tense about that, in the perfect tense, so it means dead as a completed past action with ongoing results on in the future implying permanence.

Now something to think about, after this promise was fulfilled, Abraham still had about 75 years ahead of him. 75 years ahead of him. So he was not as good as dead in terms of being physically dead. What's this talking about? In the Bible, death means separation. It means that Abraham had already been totally separated from any sexual function. His ability to perform sexually was way gone. He was still going to live physically for about 75 years. But his ability to reproduce was gone.

Now notice what comes together here when you start looking at the details. Here's Sarah. Is she able to reproduce? Nope. Gone beyond years. Now how about Abraham? Able to reproduce? Uh-uh. So God waits until it's completely humanly impossible for both Sarah and Abraham, then God acts. Then God acts. Now here are the four seeds of Abraham in scripture. Here God makes these promises to Abraham, you're going to have offspring like crazy. Huge, huge, you can hardly count them. And so Abraham's thinking, wow, how's this going to happen? Here is the first one. You have this on a slide on page three in your handout.

The natural seed that is the physical remnant of Abraham, all the physical descendants of Abraham, all those who crossed the sea that Moses parted, all those who came into the land. That's the physical remnant, the natural seed of Abraham. So that's the first seed.

The next one, the spiritual natural seed, that is, those who are of Jewish or Hebrew descent who also believe. So it's believing Jews. Those are the ones to whom this book is written, is it not? Book of Hebrews. So spiritual-natural seed, the spiritual remnant, And so that's the second kind of seed, the offspring of Abraham.

The next one, that's us. Spiritual seed, Gentile believers. That's what that song was that we had the kids do at the outset there. Father Abraham and many sons. We are the spiritual offspring of Abraham. And that's what Galatians 3, 6-9 and also going on into verse 29 says here and declares for us. So if you're a believer here this morning, you are the spiritual seed or offspring of Abraham. And now the fourth one, the singular ultimate seed is Jesus Christ. So the fourth one, we got those four kinds of seeds or offspring from Abraham.

Now, one of the things to observe here is God does things precariously. One of the things we saw in the elective that was right here in this room beforehand was that we studied the book of Ruth and looked over that book, and we saw that God does things precariously. God does not do things the way we would. If we were to say something, boy, this has got to work, we'd make sure we got all the bases covered, right? Instead, God says, this has got to work, but I'm going to make sure that this is hanging on by a fingernail, right?

That's the way God does things. He waits till things are really impossible. So here's Abraham and Sarah, right? Sarah, ability to produce babies, long gone, right? Abraham, ability to father children, nope, sorry, long past. So what does God do? Waits till both of them are well past and then produces one.

One, okay? One. And from that, You're supposed to have these numbers like the stars in the sand, right? From one. God does things so differently than we would do them. He promises Abraham to have offsprings so very numerous they would be like the stars in the sky or the sand of the sea. God waits till Abraham and Sarah are well beyond the childbearing years for both of them to finally bring, and then the drum roll, one. Just one son. That's it. Just one. Is that how you do things, God? Yep.

Later, he'll tell him to sacrifice the one son that he gave him. Sometimes the pictures of Abraham offering up his son Isaac show a young boy. Isaac was closer to 40 when that happened. Isaac was a young man. As a matter of fact, could have taken Abraham on. If we said, hey dad, this doesn't look so good for me, right? Could have taken him on. God waits until Isaac, who's plenty, you know, strong and vigorous, and Abraham's old, and now Abraham will go offer up the one son.

God doesn't do things the way we would do it. Even with the birth of Christ, think about this. With the birth of Christ, things were also precarious. Now if you had, this was going to be the one born who's going to be the savior of the whole world and is going to rule over the whole world, would you design a circumstance where things were precarious and hanging on by fingernail? Probably not, right? But that's how it happened. So with the birth of Christ, here's what happens.

The magi, the wise men, have come, and what do they do? They come into Jerusalem and they start asking, where is he who was born king of the Jews? Herod gets wind of this, and he says, hey, I gotta talk to these guys, right? Couldn't God have made it so that the wise men didn't cross paths with Herod? Could God have done that? Yeah. Did He do it? No. That's not how He did it.

Instead, He has these wise men come in, and they ask questions. Who is he who was born king of the Jews? You know, Herod was such a nasty guy. He had two of his sons killed because he was afraid they were going to try to be king of the Jews. Right? So, if somebody comes in whispering about, you know, hey, where's this guy who's going to be born king of the Jews? He is very interested. Okay? And he will do whatever it takes. Nasty man. So Herod sits down with these magi. Oh, tell me when you find him. Tell me when you find him, so I can come worship him too. Liar. But here's this precarious situation.

God could have easily avoided this whole thing, right? So the wise men, they go down to Bethlehem, only about six miles away or so. And they go to Bethlehem, and they find where this child has been born, and offer him gifts, gold and frankincense, and wait, there's myrrh! And myrrh. And then they're warned to go off a different direction and not go back to Herod.

But why would God allow this precarious situation? Here's Joseph and Mary with this beautiful little baby in rather awkward circumstances. So Joseph is told in a dream to flee because Herod's going to kill the babies. Herod's going to kill the babies. He's going to send out an order and have the rest of the babies in Bethlehem killed. But just in the nick of time, And just with a little warning and a dream, Joseph gets Mary and himself and baby Jesus away.

So even with the birth of Christ, God chooses the precarious path. God chooses the improbable and the unlikely. That's the way God works. God does not have factors of safety. God does not make sure everything's covered with lots of, you know, lots of coverage to make sure nothing precarious ever happens. Nope, that's not the way God works. God does astounding things in ways that we would not choose with no factor of safety for uncertainty or to improve the odds. You and I would not have done things this way. Instead of making bravery or intelligence or strength the pivotal factor in how things get done, what does He choose?

Faith. Faith. By faith, Abel. By faith, Enoch. By faith, Noah. By faith, Abraham. By faith, Sarah. And by faith, you. By faith. That's the way God chooses to do things. Not how we would choose. Not the people we would choose. Not the way to get things done that we would pick. But by faith. By faith, you. See, God is not impressed with religion. God's not impressed by religion.

There are lots of religious people around the world with lots of different kinds of religions. When I was over in Uganda, they still had the native religion with all the witch doctors and all that kind of thing. All kinds of religion. They believe in the spirit of the rock and the spirit of the tree and the spirit of the river and all those things. There's lots of different kinds of religions around the world.

There's no indication from scripture that God is very impressed with religion at all. Yeah. But faith in Him is another matter altogether. God's not impressed with religion, but boy, faith gets His attention. With faith in Him, God says, that's all I need to see. I'll take it from there and I'll do all the rest from here on out. Just have to have faith in Me and keep it there. Faith in Me and keep it there.

Here we have Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, the salvation is, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Does works get you there? Nope. What? Faith. Faith.

Here's living by faith in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. One of the things I like to do with this verse is, in the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me. And this is key because we a lot of times think, well, God wants me to do this and do that. No, God doesn't want you to do this and do that. God wants you to have Christ do the living in you for this and for that. It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me. And it's done by faith. By faith in Him. That's how life gets done. And that's the life He's pleased with. He's pleased with a life of faith. Where He does the living. Christ does the living in you.

And not you do the things that are on the list of good things to do so you can please God. Do you know that will never please God? If you do all the things that are on the list of things to do, and don't do things on the list of things not to do, that that's not going to please God. You know what pleases God?

Faith in Him, so that He does the living. He does the living through you, and not we ourselves. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. As we look at this chapter, we see this amazing thing, faith. You do not do things the way we do them. We oftentimes think that we need to try really hard to be a good Christian, or work out a little bit more, or be more dedicated, or something of that sort. And instead, we find no. You had us crucified, so it would be very clear we're out of the picture.

And it's your very life living through us is what you want. That's what pleases you. That's exactly the way you did things and why you did things the way you did. We thank you for what's clearly revealed here, this amazing thing called faith. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.