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9.
Manchester Airport.
My name is Michelle John.
Everything goes on the island classifieds by.
My.
Real life.
Great home.
And it's all about Troy.
Uh, do you know how you're looking for your?
It.
And all the roads.
Let me see all that is one of the brave ways to be.
In the 1St 20.
Hebrews Chapter 11, beginning from verse 27.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover.
And the sprinkling of flood, lest he that destroys the first born should touch them by say they pass through the Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians.
00:05:06
As saying to do were drowned by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days by Faith the harlot. They have perished not with them that believe not when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon.
And of Barack.
And of Samson, and of Jason, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdue kingdoms wrought righteousness.
Obtain promises.
Stuffed the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong.
What a valiant invite turned to flight the armies of the aliens women received a dead race to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others had trial of cruel markings and scourgings. Yay, moreover.
Of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sought asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goats skins.
Being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, and these all.
Having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
I just want to make a comment about verse 26 before we go on to 27 Esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the riches than the treasures of Egypt. For He had recompense unto the recompense of the reward.
Sometimes we understand a little bit about the reproach of Christ, of being a Christian. But what did Moses know about the reproach of Christ? That was how many years before Christ was even born? But there's a verse in Deuteronomy 18.
And Moses writes about the Lord Jesus here he writes about Christ.
In verse 15, Deuteronomy 1815, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee.
Of thy brethren like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. And so there the re. The Moses didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as we know Him, but yet He did know Him as as, and he was able to prophecy about Him. And but the reproach that he endured back then is the same as the reproach that we would receive now for the reproach of Christ.
I think somebody mentioned yesterday about.
Romans 8 the verse The carnal mind is enmity against God, and I would take it that even back then.
Moses experienced that in his time with the Children of Israel and even before, because this is before he was leading the Children of Israel out. But it's interesting.
Greater Treasures.
Then the treasures of Egypt, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, the reproach of Christ.
00:10:04
And rather than there's so much emphasis put on prospering economically, there is greater riches than economic prosperity. It is the reproach of Christ. Moses experienced it in his day, that refusal of God in the life of those that live by nature. And now today, it's the same reproach that we experience.
But in doing that he found greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
Had the whole world before him. Egypt was the greatest power in that day. World power. He hear, he turned back all of that he he refused, as we had before, to be called the sons of Pharaoh's daughter he could have inherited.
The wealthiest nation and be the ruler of the world as if it were, but he took on the reproach isn't it? That's the faith that he have and this is off topic that's so little we someone mentioned how old he was. It was interesting to see that there were three parts of Moses life. He spent the 1St 40 years learning the wisdom of the Egyptians, meaning the wisdom of this world. He was eloquent in speech and so on.
But that didn't do him any good at the school of God. Then God put sent him to the backside of the desert for 40 years in the desert that for God taught him. He spent 40 years.
In the world full of wisdom, 40 years to learn that he was nothing and that he need to be a dependent man depended on Christ and then he was able to spend the next 40 years serving his God and Savior.
He was mighty in Word and deed when he came out of Egypt, wasn't he?
When he came back from the backside of the desert, he said, Lord, I can't talk.
Interesting.
He lost all his self-confidence.
He had learned to trust in God.
For five days they were able to do this by faith, not the power of their own, but by faith in this society we're in, we're taught that you are the man. You can do anything. You put your mind into it, but hear the word of God. Teach us that it is by faith. Dependence is not a word that are accustomed to our society today, but as Christian walk, we learned we need to learn the word dependent.
Section of Christianity.
Identified with what's called the Word of Faith movement. Name it, claim it. It's very, very common and very pervasive and.
They they say if you have faith, you'll have the best in this world, you have enough faith. And here that's contrary to what Moses, the example we have here in Moses by faith, he forsook Egypt.
Turn his back on.
Faith is not just forgetting, it's for forsaking as well.
00:15:07
Directly, but we learned that all those Scriptures riches that we could have had, the power we could have had with the Egyptians, God took Moses in a way, Egypt was no longer world power after the Red Sea.
I suppose when you lost most of your army, you could become pretty well helpless after that. So all those things this world could offer, God can take it away in a moment's notice. So he was seeking for something that is far better. And here for us too, do we take on the same characters as pilgrims and strangers. This world is not our home. We're told that we are heavenly citizens. We have to look at ourselves as we've been lifted up already.
Seated on high, in heavenly places on high.
This is so wonderful. I think that there's a really vast difference in in, uh, God seeing me and I've seen God could Job experience, didn't he? I've heard of me by the hearing of the year, but now my knight see it the so Moses acted and it says, umm, that he did so not during the wrath of the king, for he endured.
As seeing him.
It's negative with me. He sees me, he sees all. He knows all about me. I can't hide from him and that can be somewhat of a negative feeling.
It's a blessing thing that He can and He does look upon us, but the day does come when when our hearts are so unwrapped with Him.
And knowing that everything he's done and everything he's going to do is on our behalf and for our blessing. And we start to see God, We see the heart of God. And, uh, this is a wonderful change. A wonderful change from knowing that he sees me, but then that I see him. How wonderful.
From Joe, I have heard thee with the hearing of the year, but now mine. I see it thee. We will not see the Lord unless we hear him first. Moses heard the Lord at the burning Bush.
And then he saw him by faith. We need to hear the Lord. We need to be in the word. It's it was Memphisized yesterday that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And you say, well, what a wonderful thing it would be to see the Lord. Well, we see him by faith now, but we never see him unless we hear him first.
Hearing comes before seeing. It comes before seeing a natural sense. The baby hears before it's born, but doesn't see till after it's born. There's nothing just in darkness until after it's born. But it's been demonstrated that a a baby before it's born can hear its mother's voice. So hearing comes before seeing. Umm and we are called to see the invisibles turn to UMM. Second Corinthians chapter.
4.
2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 4, verse 18. This is present tense.
We look 2nd Corinthians 418. We look not at the things that you're seeing, but at the things that you're not seeing. Now we're surrounded with things that we see. This world is very visually oriented and we see a lot of things that we that distract us and disappoint us and and entice us. And here's where our gaze needs to be. We look at the things which are not seen. How do we look at the things that are not seen while we hear the voice first?
We listen, get into the word and, uh, you know, you say, well, Moses had that, you know, you know, and I don't suppose Moses was always conscious of that. It's not a matter of being conscious of it.
We should never be conscious of not seeing. That's what we should need to guard against. We need to be con. We need to be never conscious of not seeing if we've lost the vision and we need to hear the voice again. But it says in chapter 12 of Hebrews verse two, we have the same thing before us, looking unto Jesus.
00:20:07
It's our privilege and that's what how Moses endured and we're all called to endure and God endurance is a great thing. God appreciates endurance, Man appreciates endurance. We can be thankful that the pillars in this middle of this room are not built out of sand. You're built out of something more durable.
18 Whom having not seen thee love, in whom thou now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
The Lord always responds to a look of faith and he, Moses saw Christ's day. I don't know what the vision was or what he saw, but to me it's like the Lord says what you look for, I am the fulfillment of and I will in person, I will be that person to you and.
And associate with you a little bit like it says back in.
The earlier in our chapter.
Wherefore.
Let me see here. I had it marked. He's not ashamed to be called their God.
Verse 16 But now they desire better country that is in heavenly.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.
For he hath prepared for them a city.
God, God responds to every every, every look of faith and M and it's all fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they what they look forward to the Lord Jesus is the the fulfillment of we look back in hindsight, right? We really have a tremendous advantage really, but it still needs to be faith, doesn't it?
Believing this, the Lord Jesus said to Martha in John 11, If thou shouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God.
The, uh, Pharisees when the Lord was on the cross said come down from the cross that we may see and believe. For this world, seeing is believing, but that doesn't mean there's any faith in God. It's just trusting their own eyes. But for us, believing is seen and that's what we have here.
And that wonderful brethren, that we can know God. I think it is one of the most amazingly wonderful things that you and I know. God often mentioned that the Muslims say in their doctrine God is unknown and unknowable.
And you and I can know God.
It is amazingly wonderful He endured as seeing Him who is invisible, because faith comprehends beyond the visible world, beyond the physical realm.
Bless his life. And we see that so much in the book of first John. Uh, first John speaks so much about the knowledge that we have because we're his children and we have his life. Umm, the Lord Jesus says in first and says in John, one in him was life and the life was the light of men. And so that life which the Lord Jesus possessed.
Was, was able to shed the light of who God was to man and give him the understanding and the knowledge. And that, that is the reason why we have a relationship with, with God. And we, we, we, we come to, uh, to know him, who he is and, and his heart and his desire for us and what his nature is in, in, in life and love.
00:25:12
The.
Verse 28 says through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch.
Them, I suppose that Moses understood that the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt and it was God's desire to deliver them. But before they were to be delivered, there had to be a land sacrificed and blood sprinkled on the on the doorpost. It's a it's a, it's a beautiful picture of redemption, what Brother Bob brought before us last night.
We don't know exactly how much Moses entered into the truth that we have seen through the the, the cross and the death of the Lord Jesus and his his, umm, work at his his sacrifice that he made, uh, to satisfy God with regard to sin. But Moses.
Umm.
Acted upon the instruction.
Of of God.
And, and carrying out the, uh, the sacrifice that was made on the, the, the night of the Passover. And he was obedient, maybe in his solely recognized that God was going to take them up and deliver them from their ******* and their slavery, that there would have to be a substitute and bloodshed.
For God to take them up that way.
I think that brings out an important point, Bill, about obedience. Uh, sometimes your children ask you a question why they wanna know why before they obey. And, uh, thankfully God has told us many the wise of we do things we understand, for example, what the Passover speaks of, of how there was a substitute that which whose blood was shed in order.
That we might be free and redeemed and belong to God on a righteous basis, but.
It when it comes down to it, if our wheels are against God then and we don't obey, umm, how can we expect God to give us understanding? Uh, we ought not necessarily to need the understanding in order to obey. Then I don't believe it's faith anymore. So it's important for us. And I say this first, particularly to the younger ones.
You need to learn to obey, even if you don't understand why your parents are. The civil authorities have reasons to do such things. We need to learn to obey.
There are reasons.
That applies to us a role or two. That certainly does.
Lots of things I don't understand.
The Lord made a difference between the children of Israel and the Egyptians.
Says in the plague of darkness that fell on Egypt that the Israelites had light in their dwellings.
The Egyptians didn't have that, evidently.
But when it came to the question of the plague of the death of the first born.
There had to be death in every single house in Egypt, even in the Israelites house.
Not the death of the first born, but the death of a substitute.
A lamb without blemish was chosen and the blood was sprinkled on the doorposts.
And the upper door post.
That shows the importance of application. It's not enough that the blood of Christ was shed.
00:30:02
It needed to be applied and that's where we appropriate salvation on an individual basis. Each one needs to do that in the case of Egypt was the father of the household that had to make sure that that blood was applied not for man's eye but for God's side because it says when I see the blood God saw the blood, I will Passover you.
That's why it's called the Passover.
When there was not blood on the door.
The Angel went in and killed the first born.
There was death in every single house in Egypt.
And 29 we have the two parts of redemption. The 1St is what we're Speaking of through the blood of the Passover, and that delivered them from from destroying Angel, the hand of God. But they also needed to be delivered from Egypt, from the tyranny of Pharaoh. And that's the second part of redemption in passing through the Red Sea.
And coming up on the other side and seeing the, the pharaoh and his host dead, uh, and destroyed. And we, that's the, a part of redemption two that we are delivered from the power of sin and Satan and put on a, a ground where we're free to please God.
And there was redemption until that second part took place.
If you would have asked the children of Israel before they crossed the Red Sea, yeah, Egypt's side of the Red Sea. Are you saved?
They would have said no, look, here comes Pharaoh, but to take us back to Egypt.
But it was when Moses lifted up his rod over the Red Sea and parted the waters, and they passed through.
And then on the other side, he raised up his rod again, and the waters came over there on all his hosts. Oh, brethren, redemption.
Is being a price paid so that we can be set free and that is the full, uh, meaning of redemption is.
Being bought back at such a price to be set free to all those two parts, that's very important, isn't it?
We sometimes see death and judgment are behind us, but then what's before is because he rose from the dead, isn't it? Jesus died and we died with him. You'll fine tune the Scriptures very consistent when it comes to death and resurrection throughout. So here, Passover, I know it's not quite a thought here, but the faith that they have towards that, they celebrated that. When you go through it, it says on the 14th day between the evening, that would be the Thursday evening in a sense to Friday evening. They have a chance to do that.
The, uh, the resurrection scene is not until the 17th day that they after the Sabbath, which lines up exactly that year when they cross the Red Sea. Because after the Passover, they went out and the Lord told them to wait another night to see salvation. And when they crossed over the Red Sea, you'll find that it's on the 17th day of that month rather than the 14th, 15th day. The 15th day, they were still in the land of Egypt. You'll find a very consistent with the seven piece of Jehovah when it comes to the fees of the first fruit, which is on the 17th day of the month.
God saw all this not because he saw it just for Moses. He saw this from the very beginning before the foundation of this world. This is all his plan. That's his Son. He's the only one that can come and die for sinful men. So we find a deep room in the next chapter, in the previous chapter. There we find that the Son would say, I come to do thy will. O God, we need to tie that right back to it, don't we?
00:35:03
He said, I come to take away the purse, that I may establish the 2nd. We find all this is the work of the Father and the Son, together with the Spirit for the work of salvation.
I don't know, but I have heard that in the bottom of that Red Sea spray along that path there is still evidence they found wagon wheels still encrusted with with all the sediment in the bottom that the evidence of Chariots that tried to garlic go past that section of the Red Sea. So it was by say that Moses led his people through.
We're here at, the account goes.
Directly from the Red Sea to to the walls of Jericho, you don't have any any figures of faith during the 40 years in the wilderness.
Uh, but he goes to the land of Canaan where the walls of Jericho fell down and where rehab was a woman of faith, though. That's, that's God's purpose from us, for us really, isn't it, To take us out of the world.
And directly into his presence, heavenly blessing. That's what the land of Canaan is a picture of. But there is a conflict there too. Uh, it, it's not, it's not the same as Pharaoh in Egypt who had dominion there, but it's a heavenly host. And so we today have that conflict. We don't need to be afraid of Satan. Uh, he can have no power over us.
It when we're on the GR, identified with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
We have a new life that death can't touch.
We've and it never will, but there is a conflict in heavenly places. There are a host of heavenly hosts that would seek to rob us of the enjoyment of what is really ours, the land of Canaan.
Student, do you think Jericho was not anything exactly normal?
It was compensating the wall about for seven days.
Once every day until the 7th day, and then on the 7th day seven times around.
It was by faith, wasn't it?
Tough and wondered.
Knowing people to be what they are.
If there is any complaining.
Awful lot of walking. What good is this doing? I don't see any cracks forming in the walls. What's the purpose of it?
I don't know, maybe that's my imagination talking, but anyhow, I remember years ago an article in a little paper, I forget where it came from, but it was called the The Boring Will of God.
Can you imagine them complaining?
I wonder if there might have been, but the point was that's what the instructions were.
And it was just simply to obey the instructions, and the walls came down.
I like to think of the face that they have. They shouted the victory and then the wall fell.
00:40:03
Your comment there about there were a lot of spiritual warfare that we don't see. Uh, what I.
Want to comment a little bit on the Ephesians 6 verse 12. I think this is important because it is a spiritual warfare as well.
Ephesians 6 verse 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Well, frankly, I don't fully understand all this stuff. It seems strange that the only part I seems to understand is the first, bur first part of it. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.
And the problem we often have is we like to argue our fight with our brethren when here it tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. There are so much more in there that we don't see. And we need to be in full dependence from the Lord and just walk on by faith. No one got you will take care of all that.
The seven, umm, the seven days wasn't the test, the test that paid for the the children of Israel, umm.
I, I, I think that we can say that faith, umm, is always tested. Uh, do we really believe God and his promises often times were asked to wait for whatever umm, supply that we have need of. And these children of Israel did exercise obedience, umm, to the word of God.
And they saw the results, but not right away. And I, I think that especially maybe the young people can be encouraged by the fact that, umm, faith that is confidence in God.
Is always going to be tested and God is sometimes going to ask us to wait for answers in our life, uh, for a period of time.
As we.
Sit and trust him and umm, I don't really know the purpose of the seven days, but it certainly seemed like the children of Israel had to obey God, uh, for seven days, although they didn't understand, uh, his commandment and his, his purpose and his plan. A lot of that in our lives isn't there, but we don't, we don't understand why God is choosing his timetable.
But.
There's always a reward if we're willing to be obedient.
There's there's as many simple instructions in the word God, and some of them we don't really like.
And we try to figure out ways to get around it, but faith is really simply just taking God, accepting God.
At His word and acting on it. And that's what Rahab did. That's what the children of Israel did here. God said walk around the walls 7 * 7 days and then seven times the 7th day. And so they did it. And those results, they took God at His word. They accepted that and they did it. There may have been complaining, but they accepted that. And then we have in verse 31 faith by faith their harlot Rahab perish not with them that believe not.
When she had received the spies with peace.
And so she didn't have an active faith there she was saved. She didn't confess her sins. She was a harlot. She didn't confess her sins, but she was saved. Why was she saved? Because she had faith and she acted in faith, and faith is accepting God.
At his word, and so she was told to put that red cord in her in the window. The red cord was a evidence of her face that she had of receiving the spies. And so when the wall when the children of Israel walked around the city of Jericho.
The walls fell down flat.
00:45:01
But not all the wool fell down because Rahab's house was on the wall and her house didn't fall down. And those who went in there were saved. There were a few in there. There weren't many, but they were saved. We, we read in the New Testament, broad is the way, why does the gate? And broad is the way that leads to destruction. There are many who didn't go in to her house, many who did not have faith and they were destroyed. But then we read that.
Straight as a gate, narrow is the way that leads to.
To life. And there were just a few people who go in to that, to that narrow gate of salvation. And that's what happened here. A few people went into the house, a few people had faith.
And a few people were saved there in Rahab's house, and they just accepted God at his word. And that's what faith is. And when we read the Scriptures, some things we.
Are are very explicit in scripture. Some aren't so explicit as to what we should do. But if we are able to accept those things that are explicitly told us and accept them by faith and act on them just because God said it, even if I don't understand it, then I'll have light for other things that aren't so evident. To live, to act and walk in faith, to follow the Lord.
He is one of God's tools. He's outside time, he's eternal. And, uh, and when when reading through this chapter, I've noticed some things in reference to time that I think are worth looking at. Look at verse umm.
Umm 16 of our chapter it ends with.
Uh, the last, the last half the verses, he is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared. That's the past tense. It's already done. It's in time past. Look at the end of uh, verse 40, uh, the le end of the chapter. We haven't got there yet, but.
Summer thought verse 40. God having provided better.
Ours God holds before us promises based on his past performance. We we, uh, sung the song of the day. Our God had built the mountains or raised the fruitful hills and so on.
God has purposed us for blessing. It's from before time. And notice another word in that we overlooked in this chapter verse.
10.
King James Version says he looked for a city. New Translation I believe says he waited for a city.
Waiting is part of the training.
It's, it's part, it's an aspect of time. And you'll notice that in most of these cases given here, there was an, there was time involved. Umm, no, uh, preached and built for years. Umm, Abraham marched for years. And of course, Joseph was in prison over a period of years and.
Moses went through the periods of years and the children of Israel walked around.
Jericho for a period of days they waited on the red they waited a day I'm I'm sure their instinct was to get away from Egypt as soon as they could, but they waited a day before crossing the Red Sea has been pointed out and.
We probably forget about Rahab and her family who sat in the house in Jericho for seven days.
There's a helpful verse in First Corinthians chapter 10.
And we often read it in the King James Version and miss a very important point.
00:50:03
First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.
There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted of that year, Abel, but will with the temptation make.
The way of escape, not a way. We can always find a way of out of things. The Satan is always ready to offer us a way out of things, but we need to wait for God's way.
You'll make their way.
And that faith waits for the way he will make thee way to escape, that you may be able to bear.
We've spoken of here examples of those that waited, umm, in faith and umm, but there were, there's an instances in scripture of the opposite. Think of Saul, who was told to, umm, go and, and uh, I think he was to wait seven days and, and uh, and Samuel would meet up with him and umm, so he, he, he waited.
But Samuel didn't, didn't show. And uh, so he went ahead and I think it was he, he offered a sacrifice and Samuel came to him immediately afterwards. And then he, he was rejected as, as the king, umm, as God's king over his people. And it's, uh, I, I may have gotten that story a little confused, but umm, that's an, that's an example to us of the fact that the flesh.
Does not have the power or ability to, umm, to operate under the conditions of faith. The flesh does not have the ability. It can only be through the new life that we can exercise faith and we can take the Word of God act upon it.
Wait God's time for whatever he, he is he, he, he desires for our life, but the flesh does not have the ability to do that. So we are thankful we can be that God has given us the, the new life, divine life, and that life has been, has been, uh, displayed to us in the Lord Jesus, who is still waiting by the way, he's still waiting for the fulfillment of.
Of of receiving his bride and he's now now is the day of his patience. And one of the beautiful things that faith will do for the believer is it will produce umm patients. It will one of the umm steps of growth. In Romans chapter 5, tribulation worketh patience.
And, umm.
Patience, endurance or something like that. So that's one of the, one of the fruits that's, that is produced in the, in the path of faith is, is we trust God and we're willing to, umm, exercise patience that brings glory to God.
I was thinking of that same story. Yeah. Phil and the lack of faith in King Saul's place. And along with that, I, I think it's nice to notice that as we get down to the end of this chapter, we, the trials seem to get harder or at least longer, because up until now, uh, up until basically the middle of verse.
35 The answer of their faith comes in their lifetime here.
And God gives them what they hope for in a large measure. But uh, from the middle of verse 35 on.
People didn't see deliverance in this lifetime and they continued in, in the, in their hardships, uh, and didn't necessarily get an answer. And they're actually, they're still waiting, uh.
00:55:01
They're waiting in a better place, having died and and then the re. The last verse tells us why, which is so beautiful. I hope we get to that verse so before we finish the meeting here.
So I, I, I want to emphasize that because.
This walking the path of faith and waiting on God's answer, umm, it's, uh, we need to keep on in these last days because we're getting down close to the Lord's coming and then all the answers will come. But many, many answers to what, what we're looking for in our walking by faith here on earth, We may not necessarily see the answer come, uh, in our lifetime, uh.
We need to keep on anyway.
Overcometh the world, even our faith. And so it's interesting that many of these saw, like you say, Doug.
Uh, deliverance in their time, all these that time fails us to tell out.
Time is limited, time is short.
And it is interesting.
Uh, there are those who in this lifetime prevail, but really they always prevails, so.
Some do not see the victory in this life, but in giving their lives, really they prevail, don't they?
They're basically saying I value what faith gives me more than I value my own life.
And our brethren are being tested in that way in many parts of the world, brethren, and we need to remember them in our prayers. What's going on in the Muslim countries and the testimonies that are that are being heard tremendous.
Some are not delivered.
They give their lives, but they triumph even then.
Thank God you asked for a prayer for a brother in Egypt that seemingly stepped back, but we don't know what he went through and the awfulness of the torture that he must have sustained.
But still, like you mentioned, if in case of Peter, it was restored afterwards and that might be the case too. We don't know, trust it will be.
Many times is mentioned seven times. As we know, the number seven is God's perfect number. And by the way, we mentioned 4240 is the number for testing.
There were seven different aspects of his face which we talked we we spoke of in there already and when we gone through most is we find that there were seven different aspects of his faith. It becomes that six times or say about in regard to Moses by faith and once through faith. It's interesting how seven times and now the portion before us in verse 32, if you look at it, there was seven individual.
Read these verses, verse 33 who faith subdued, kingdoms were out, righteousness obtained, promises sought, the mouths of lions quench the vines, the fire and so on. And we think of dramatic, uh, instances in Scripture that these phrases bring to mind. But we walk by faith. Our lives are daily filled with miracles that we may never notice.
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We'll find out about him later.
Another theme in the last part of this chapter is that there's some of the opposition that comes to faith comes from UMM, in this case their Jewish brethren and some of the Jewish ones that are listed here in the different incidences.
And then the second thing that's happened through these last few verses is that their people stand more and more alone. I think the section is.
Verse 32 in some ways where it gives Gideon and Barrack and let them opposite to their historical order. Gideon of putting them in historical order barracks when he had the opposition of the enemy.
Had 10,000 people with him, the encouragement of Deborah and no apparent opposition from his own people. But by Gideon's day there are many that we're going to follow. But by the time they were winnowed down, there were only 300 left.
And there was opposition. There were the ones from Ephraim, from among the people of Israel that opposed Gideon. And so Gideon's face shines a little more brightly and he's perhaps that's why he's listed first here. There starts to be opposition. The numbers are fewer oppositions from the prayer of God specifically. But Samson and Jeff saw the same pattern repeats. And Jeff's day, there's even more opposition. He actually had to flee across the Jordan because of opposition from his own family.
There's civil war in this time, and of course there's many details in his own failure, but there's a lot more opposition from the people of God.
And his army is even smaller, but by Sampson's day, 3000 from Judah come to find them and deliver them up. And who fought alongside Samson? He stood alone. And so in each of the cases, there's fewer and fewer to stand with the man of faith. There's more and more internal opposition. But God notices that, He sees that he values it. And then David and Samuel, again, they're out of historical order.
Perhaps there's more than one reason there. David's listed together with the other leaders, the judges, Samuel together with the prophets. But also in David's day he's there was opposition, wasn't there? Some of it caused by his own failure. But there's the rebellion of Absalom, there's other rebellions during the time. There's the fact that he was only crowned at first and in Hebron for a while. What was the opposition to Samuel on his day? Samuel had a hard way to go and but there wasn't warfare and.
Opposition of the people directly to Him. The Lord says they've rejected me, not you.
When the end of his when saw was to be anointed and then throughout the rest of the section. There's some hints of it. There are those that torture not accepting deliverance and then on through that last section. Some, for example, have suggested that the ones that were sewn asunder history records that happened with Jeremiah, but he was taken down into Egypt, dragged down by who? By his own brethren that opposed the ministry that God had given to him.
So these are the things that we face today. There may be more and more opposition from the Christian profession. There may be fewer and fewer numbers. They're not things that God doesn't recognize. They're not things that God doesn't give provision to overcome.
And in that provision of faith and overcoming, God sees the difficulty and he values it and he records it as He is here with these various models.
Denver 35.
Says that they might obtain a better resurrection. What's the thought of the better resurrection?
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That would take oh, go ahead, some are raised to life on Earth.
Our resurrection is going to be not to be resurrected to life here on earth, but a heavenly resurrection. And uh, that's where the Lord Jesus was the first fruits of it. And that is what we, we look forward to. We don't expect just to be raised on earth like Lazarus or, or others that were. We're gonna be raised and taken up into heaven. So that's the better resurrection.
Yeah, it's a call.
Line of verse 35. Cleveland received their dead race to life again. That was resurrection down here.
It's, it's, and it's wonderful that God always answers what they hope for, even a bet in a better way than expected. Uh, so we've talked about Joseph's bones and so on. And because he wanted them buried, because he wanted to be raised in the land of promise that had been made to them. Uh, and so that's what he looked forward to, but he's gonna get, he's gonna actually have the better resurrection.
He's not just going to be raised in in the land of Canaan, he's going to be raised and taken up into heaven.
We believe the Old Testament Saints will will participate in the heavenly sphere. All those who died in faith, in essence, will have the better resurrection. There is a there is a resurrection to earth again.
Standpoint, we always look for deliverance. We pray for the deliverance, deliverance our circumstances, but we find from this portion here that the Lord doesn't always deliver our us out from the way we sit, does it? I was thinking of Samuel's friends when they were before the fire refurnished.
Daniel chapter 3. I'm sure we all know the story very well. The third chapter of Daniel.
Verse 17 and verse 18.
We see that they gave the answer to if God will deliver us at this moment and if God doesn't deliver us at this moment, what they would say Daniel 3 verse 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us our thy hand, O king.
That's faith, isn't it? They have confidence that God will deliver them out from the terrible circumstance before them. However, they know too that maybe it is for His glory. So let's read on to verse 18.
But if not.
Is that not paid? I think that's still faith, isn't it? But if not, be known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. We have the understanding that it is His will, and we cannot our guests. What God is going to do in order to bring the glory to His domain?
That story seems to be what's referred to in our chapter in verse 34, isn't it? Quenched the violence of fire.
33 Stop the miles of lions. It doesn't mention Daniel.
Could it also include Darius?
We couldn't sleep that night.
Are you suggesting one more that he may have had faith?
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Nsnoise.
Three friends of Daniel.
Had a wonderful attitude.
They they were exemplifying what's in the middle of this 35th verse, not accepting deliverance, at least not from the hand of man. Had they denied the Lord and bowed the knee?
To the image, they could have been delivered, but they were not accepting deliverance. And you see a similar attitude in Genesis.
Chapter TWE 14.
And verse 22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord.
The Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take.
From a thread even to a shoe latch at and that I will not take anything that is line. And then again, of course, remember the case of Moses. It says he umm in our chapter, it says he forsook Egypt. Now the word forsook there as doesn't is not talking about leaving Egypt. It's his attitude and part of faith is having this attitude toward the world that we don't want the what the world has.
Whether it's good or bad, we don't want it. We don't want to take it from the world. We want it from the Lord. We want to take everything from the Lord. And so Abraham, he says. I lift up my hand. Umm, should have kept my place there, so I quote it better. Umm.
He says, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord. He was looking to the Lord to meet his needs.
And as a consequence, he wouldn't take something simply from the world, from which is what the king of Sodom exemplified. And of course, Daniel's friends, when they, Daniel and his friends and the, and Daniel chapter one, they had the same attitude. They, they would not, uh, eat the King's meat. And it stood them in good stead later on that attitude. And I was just thinking, we need this attitude.
Of forsaking, not just leaving, but forsaking it's this is.
This word in umm.
Chapter Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 27. It says by faith he forsook Egypt.
Moses forsook Egypt before he left Egypt.
Moses forsook Egypt before he left Egypt. He first he left in his heart, before he left it bodily. And as a contrast, just by way of contrast, you find the word forsake mentioned in Hebrews 13 just to see the contrast.
Hebrews 13.
And.
Umm, verse 5 like a conversation, Be without covetousness, and be content with such things He have. For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Leaving as physical forsaking is the attitude and.
You know, if we don't forsake the world, we'll find ourselves forsaking something else. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10.
Verse 25.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
As the manner of summit.
But exhorting one another?
And so much the more as you see the approaching you know, if we don't forsake the world, we'll find ourselves forsaking the assembly, the assembling of ourselves together.
In Luke 6 and verse 45 it says a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good.
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An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, from it for that which is evil, For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good for the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaks.
Moses.
Heart was abundantly filled with the.
Reproach of Christ.
They live for another world, didn't they?
And it's interesting we have in verse 35 that they might obtain a better resurrection. Better is a word that's used up. And in Hebrews we have it again in the last verse of our chapter, God having provided some better thing for us.
And then the last phrase that they these faithful ones we've been talking about.
Without us should not be made perfect.
We had this chapter at Pella conference as well and.
Mentioned that I asked the question of Columbia Cannon years ago. What verse do you give to show that the Old Testament Saints will be glorified at the same or will be taken up to heaven at the same time as the church? And this is the verse he gave me. I thought it was a very good verse. This 40th verse. God having provides some better thing for us.
That's resurrection.
Into the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Resurrection into incorruptibility into immortality, something that was not the case with those that were res resurrected in the Lord's time. Lazarus, as far as we know, must have died again. But we have a better thing, a resurrection that is an incorruptibility and immortality.
A life that cannot be corrupted. A life that cannot die again.
And they without us shall not be made perfect.
We often say that those that depart to be with Christ are far better, and it's true, but it's not the perfect state, brother. They are far better, but the perfect state is to be with Christ and resurrection, and that's what's contemplated here in verse 40.
Thinking of these lives of faith and their sufferings.
The end of the 37th verse Destitute, afflicted, and tormented. Let's think about our blessed Lord in regard to those very same things that He endured for us.
Might be seeing #18 in the back #18 in the back.