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180.
First of 168.
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OK, consider that.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
The race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.
Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom this Father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement whereof all our partakers, then are ye ******** and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophet.
That we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.
And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lain be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which, without which no man shall see the Lord.
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornication, fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it tearfully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and Tempest, and the sound of trumpet, and the voice of.
Of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto the Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly.
In Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just man made perfect.
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth much more Shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven? Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he that.
He hath promised, saying yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, yet one more, once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
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Jim mentioned this chapter in his address a couple of times, but uh, I have been encouraged brother in in Chapter 11 That was read at the beginning of the meeting and that we have so many.
Witnesses, as it mentions here in verse one, the great cloud of witnesses, all those witnesses of faith men.
In the Old Testament, and women as well, who even though they didn't have the Scriptures like we do, we're men of faith. Faith is that which lays hold of that which is not seen. Faith is based on a report. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. How did they hear in the Old Testament? Well, sometimes God spoke to them.
Directly, sometimes it was through a prophet, but faith always acted on something, some revelation of God, and it is wonderful to see somebody like Enoch who before the flood by faith.
He walked with God 300 years. That is impressive.
We find it difficult perhaps to walk with God one day, 300 years. How did he do it?
A step at a time. And so we have great encouragement in looking at those witnesses of faith. But brethren, we're not called to focus on them. They are therefore our encouragement, but they we are called to be looking.
Unto Jesus. That's the focal point of Christianity.
Not what we are, but what he is. Sometimes I like to contrast the Old Testament with the new by saying that in the Old Testament the focus was on what man was and he proved to be complete failure.
In the New Testament, God is saying in effect.
The test for man is over. Now I want to show you who I am. And so, brethren, it is to be occupied with God's beloved Son. That's what Christianity really is. And so we're called here to look unto Jesus. But there's quite a bit to be said in verse one of our chapter, so I don't want to get ahead.
It says here we also compassed about with so glad great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sandwich does so easily be settled, and let us run with patience, or the word is endurance.
The race that is set before us, We're in a race, not a time to be laying down, taking it easy. We're not at the goal yet.
Is to keep on endurance is to keep on. It's a long distance race. It's not a 50 yard dash. The Christian life is a race the whole life long. And so we are encouraged to run with endurance, but there's things in our lives that hinder our running.
Waits things that in themselves perhaps are not sins.
But they just don't help us in our Christian pathway and sin as well. Those things hinder us. And so I'm sure there's many thoughts that can be brought out here. I think that will be for our blessing, our help.
So the cloud of witnesses is the list that has gone before of these men and women and young people who lived by faith for God's glory. And I've been encouraged to realize that God in his Word, not only has taught us by doctrine and precept, but by example. He has carefully, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, recorded the stories of men and women and young people to encourage us.
And to show us really that we can live for God's glory by faith.
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Against all kinds of odds and difficulties, I think it's good to go back over those stories often because.
Sometimes the tendency of our hearts, at least my heart, is to get looking around at the circumstances.
Both in the world and perhaps amongst the Lord's people. And to start feeling sorry for ourselves.
And to think, well, we're the only kind of people, that we were the only people that have faced these kinds of problems and difficulties, and it's so morally dark and things are so bad in the world and so on. How can we go on? But when you go back and read the stories of those individuals who live by faith, did they have it easy? Did Enoch have it easy in his day? He lived not long before the flood. I know Methuselah was.
There too, but and the flood didn't come till Methuselah was taken, but.
Enoch lived in a wicked day. It was a wicked world and he walked with God for a long time, 300 years.
What about us? We're only required to walk maybe 50-60, seventy at the most. Uh, but if you go back and read those stories and it gives import when you consider the circumstances and the darkness of the day that they found themselves in. But as I want to just echo what Bob said, because I think it's vital, and that is that our brethren are never given to us as the object for faith. The psalmist said, I've seen an end of all perfection.
And if you and I are looking for perfection in someone else, we're going to be disappointed.
But if we're looking for it in the Lord Jesus, we'll never be disappointed. And so as soon as He has brought before us this list for our encouragement, as Bob said, he immediately lifts our eyes away from that list into the open heavens to be occupied with the One who began and completed the path of faith and perfection. And when it says He's the author and finisher of faith, it's not so much our faith, but He's the author and finisher of faith.
He is the one and the only one that began and completed the path of faith in perfection. Even Christ pleased not himself. He did always those things that pleased the Father. He never departed from one for one moment from the path that the the Father had set before him, even in the hour of his greatest trial. And he bowed in the garden and said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He immediately says, not my will, but thine be done. And so the one who began and completed the path of faith and perfection, and as God's Amen to it, is set at his right hand.
He says now this is the object you want to be encouraged to go on, you want to be strengthened to go on and run with endurance. The race set before you. It's going to be in the measure in which you look to my beloved son, the one who began and completed the path of faith and perfection.
And God's answer for the Lord Jesus was not in this life, was it? It was in resurrection.
And I think that's helpful to see as well because.
The Lord's life at the end of it, those 3 1/2 years of.
Ardent labor. How many disciples did he have? 12. Isn't that kind of small number? One of them turned out to be a traitor. Another one who vowed he would never deny him, denied him three times. The rest took off and fled. Brethren, his life looked like a complete failure. But God's answer is in resurrection. Where is that man now?
He's at the highest pinnacle of glory, the right hand of God.
That's God's answer now, our pathways down here, and sometimes it gets pretty bleak looking.
In our life, it doesn't look good.
Are you willing to just count on God and go forward based on what is written in the Word of God? That's the path of faith.
And that's the way we are to be encouraged to go on persevere.
Don't give up.
That's important in a long distance race.
The context of this chapter really begins back in chapter 10. I'd like to read a verse there.
Uh, it's a verse that's quite emphasized in Scripture. We find it first in the Old Testament and then three different times in the new with a different emphasis in each case, but it's in chapter 10 and verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith from Adam onward, the just have lived by faith. It's not simply Christianity is a life of faith, but from.
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Adams day, Noah's day, Abraham's day, and so on. The path of life in this world of a just person is a life of faith. And so he introduces what he wants to say in Chapter 11 where he says without faith it's impossible to please God. And then he gives us to help us to understand it. A list of people and their lives, aspects of their lives that they lived in faith.
From Adam onward.
And they become, as chapter 12 has already been mentioned, they become a cloud of witnesses to us, of the path that we are to live, which is the just shall live by faith. But if you look carefully at every one of them that is mentioned in that 11Th chapter, you can go back and God has chosen to record about each one of them aspects of their lives which were not a faith.
Where they came short of living it so they can't become, they can become an encouragement and an example to us of what it is to live in this world in a path of faith. But then the Spirit of God says, yes, but there's one person that I can put before you.
Who did it?
And that's Jesus. It's not in the 12Th chapter, his work of atonement, it's not even the joy set before him as Redeemer that is in view here. But it is here's one that you and I can look at as a perfect pattern, and we can keep our eye on Him steadfastly as the perfect one to look at.
To see what it is for us to live the path of faith and as a just life. He also was given of God to have hope beyond this life.
And as Bob said, it was seen in resurrection, the same hope that is given to us was given to him. And so he lived that life. And he looked on beyond the life that he was living, just as we have to do, to see what is beyond this life. And he could say, well, I see a joy before me. And he lived in view of that. And he lived the perfect, just life of faith. And so, brethren, he's put before us this afternoon.
To examine his life and also to fix our eye upon himself as the perfect one of pattern and object for our lives to be lived in the life of faith.
Whose faith follow, not necessarily the person themselves, but whose faith follow. And we're thankful too, even in our day of those we've known who exhibited faith in their lives. And they're, they are in encouragement and an example to us. But as I said earlier, it's not the person that's the object. It's their it's, they're, they're the encouragement, but it's the faith. But I just want to point out at the end of the 11Th chapter in connection with what Bob and Don have said.
We have, first of all, in the beginning of the chapter, this list of people who live by faith, and, as we said, they triumphed in remarkable ways.
And he sums it up near the end of the chapter. Those who quench the violence of fire stopped the mouths of lions.
Women receive their dead to life and tremendous things. And you say, wow, what faith that, uh, brought out circumstances in that way. But then it says that it changes in verse 36 of the 11Th chapter and others. And what does it say about them? They didn't receive deliverance the way those that were previously mentioned did. Why? They had trials of cruel mocking. They were sawing asunder. They wandered about in sheepskin and goatskin. They were beaten. They were put in prison and you say.
Did they have faith? Yes. These all died in faith. They had faith. But God having provided, as it says at the end of the chapter, some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. They were living for another world. They had something beyond this life before them. Well, I realized that even though those earlier in the chapter, they looked for a city which hath foundation, tooth builder and makers. God Moses endured us, seeing him who is invisible and so on.
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But God didn't always deliver in the way that He did with.
Daniel and the three Hebrew children and those who received their dead to life and so on. And the reason I say that is because I think sometimes we get the impression that if there isn't some great miraculous deliverance from a difficulty, some miracle, so to speak, well, that person didn't have faith. But that isn't necessarily true. God deals in different ways with the faithful, and he sees that faith even though it may not be exhibited by some great outward show, as we would think of some confirmation of faith.
And those who didn't, who went through the fire, were those that burned at the stake. Did they have any less faith than Meshach and Abednego? No, not necessarily. But God had a different purpose in mind for them. And we see many of our brethren today suffering in various ways. We pray for a person that's sick. They don't always get healed. Sometimes the Lord takes them home. We think of our brethren who are in prison for their faith in other parts of the world.
Suffering, martyrdom. Do they have less faith than those that are mentioned in the 11Th of Hebrews? Not necessarily. And so I think we need to keep this in mind as we embark on this chapter, that God doesn't deal with us all in the same way. And we can't measure a person's faith by how we see God deal with us outwardly. But God sees that faith and he tries it. He tries us in various ways.
So that he there will be that faith and confidence in him in spite of the circumstances and in spite of what might seem like the end of the story here, realizing that this is not the end of the story for the believer, but God has some better thing for us.
Back to him when you look at the Old Testament scriptures and some of these.
Figures that are mentioned in Chapter 11.
You would would not come to the same conclusion as it does here. Sarah, for example, says through faith she received strength to conceive at that old age. You look back in the Old Testament when the Lord announced it, she laughed.
So how can that be? But I mean, we don't see any faith there, but the Lord saw the faith and that's why I think we need to be slow about judging other people. Brethren, we sometimes say, wow, he didn't appear like there's any faith there, but the Lord knows another one is I see when he blesses Jacob and Esau.
Well, he blessed them, but he wanted some of Esau is good and savory meat. That's what he wanted and seemed like pretty much of A fleshly thing. But by faith he blessed them. I often wonder if the faith is when he realized he had been deceived by Jacob and when Esau comes in and Esau weeps because he'd lost the blessing.
And he says when he realized that Jacob had gotten the blessing.
Uh, Isaac says yeah, and he shall be blessed. That was the faith part, wasn't it? The other was kind of the fleshly part. And so rather than there's a lot of flesh mixed with our Christian testimony sometimes that God sees the faith. I think it's beautiful. Another point I'd like to point out as to the life of faith is its individual character. And you find in this Chapter 11.
There are individuals, they walked by faith with God by themselves, Noah, Enoch. There might have been others of faith around that. Basically, it was a life of faith. And it's nice to be in a conference like this, brethren, but you don't really get the pathway of faith. This is for our encouragement, these meetings, but you don't really get the proof of the life of faith here.
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So when they get out to our everyday lives, do you walk by faith or by sight, as the rest of the world does? That's the great test. And so these were men who walked by faith. Sometimes they didn't have anybody else around, but they had a conviction. They believed God, and they walked accordingly.
We noticed two things in verse one that hinder.
Living by faith.
One is weights and the other is sin which entangles.
And if you go back to the 11Th chapter and verse eight, it says by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. It's a simple statement of his faith. But if you go back to the Old Testament and read the story, you find it was far more complicated for Abraham than that. And in fact he had some weights that he didn't let aside at first that were a hindrance to him.
He was told to leave his country.
To go out to a land he had never seen. But part of what God said to him was you've got to leave the family behind. And he just couldn't quite do that. And so his father and others went with him and they get close to the land and stop.
And they stay there until his father dies, and after his father dies, they get into the land that is, in Abraham's life there were things which hindered him from fully carrying out.
That he had to deal as we had to deal with weights and sin that easily entangles us, and when it does, it hinders us from the path of faith that God has called us to. And so we can learn from that side of it as well. We also thank God and take courage that when God wants to bring before us Abraham in the simple way here, he leaves all that out.
In this particular chapter and says, well, he did it and God works in us sometimes, and sooner or later we give up the weights. Sooner or later we give up the sin that entangles us, and then we become free. And as Abraham entered into the land, he grew.
He got entangled again. There was a famine. He went down into Egypt.
And sadly in Egypt he got rich, which was a weight and a hindrance to his life because when he got back in the land, it hindered his nephew Lot, who was still tagging along with him and so on. And so in the details of some of these lives we see growth and difficulties that they had to overcome.
But at the same time, as Bob said, there's that which God wants to encourage us to take the same path and benefit from the lives of others, but then ultimately turn aside from them.
And look to Jesus and we see no such failure in his life, but we see from the cradle to the death that perfect unerring faith in God. And he had lots of things to tempt him out of the path of faith, including natural family and a lot of other things, special attacks of Satan, but he was unswerving.
In his testimony of life to the life of faith.
Are so prevalent in our lives. They I hope, brethren, you don't think I'm exhorting you because I feel that I feel greatly in the weight side of things, things that in themselves are not wrong. One of the things that has convicted me brethren, is our materialism. Nothing wrong with having things.
Abraham was a wealthy man. He had 318 servants, yet he was a man of faith. But the simplicity in which he lived, he never had a house that we read about. He lived in a tent. Why is it wrong to have a house? No, it's not wrong to have a house. But why did he always live in a tent?
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He looked for a city.
That hath foundations whose builder and maker was God. He was looking for something that was supremely more worthwhile, and he never found it down here. Have we found something down here that is worthwhile rather than sometimes?
Our material possessions, I shouldn't say sometimes I think that most of the time I have to say for myself, are a positive weight. We cannot.
Give the attention to the Lord's things that we might.
If we didn't have so many things, I don't think we're called to give up everything here. But the Lord. When that rich young man came to him and said, what shall I do? He said, Go sell what thou hast and give to the poor and come follow me. And that was just too much of A sacrifice. He could not do that because his heart was on it. And that's what our problem is. Our heart is in these things.
And brethren, may the Lord help us to evaluate things.
But Don was mentioning about the Lord Jesus, how unswerving he was in his pathway down here. What did the Lord have, materially speaking, when he passed through this world? You know, I, I marvel at the simplicity in which the Lord passed through this world. He didn't have a place to lay his head.
We didn't. We don't have any record that he had any money in his pocket yet. When there was need, he always had something to meet the need of others. But he didn't have anything for his own comfort down here. And I sometimes say, what would be wrong with the Lord having a house? I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
But you know the answer I come up with when I say, why didn't he have it? He had come from the Father's house and there was nothing down here to compare with that. So nothing really interested him down here. So he lived simply. And as he met those two on the way to Emmaus, they said to him, art thou a stranger here? Yes, he was just.
A stranger here.
There was not anything down here that attracted his heart. Brethren, may the Lord help us to hold on to these material things.
Easily. Let him go. We're going to, at a moment's notice, leave them all behind.
O brethren, our portion, our treasure is in another sphere. It's in heaven. May the Lord help us, brethren, to not be so encumbered with weights.
Just a little illustration, but before I give this illustration, it really is, isn't it, brother Bob, a question of the heart. And so where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It's not money that's evil. It's, it's, that's the root of all evil. It's the love of money. Money can be used in a proper way for the Lord's glory and for the propagation of the gospel and the truth of God and the blessing of of God's people.
So it's it's really a question of our object and there are many things that can be weights, as you say, that are not sin in themselves.
But they become weights when we set our heart on them. It may be education. We need education to get through life and get a job and so on. We need a home for shelter and so on. Most of us in North America need a car so we can get around a vehicle. But again, it's a question of the object. But I let's just use a little illustration in connection with weights. Let's picture athletes going out to run in a race.
And so we have a dozen athletes, and they all line up at the starting line for the race. And before the starting gun goes off, the officials of the race noticed that one of the athletes is carrying on his back a heavy backpack. And so they hold the race and the officials go out and they talk to this athlete and they say, what are you doing? You've got to wait. How are you going to run the race properly? How do you expect to reach the finish line or win the race if you've got this heavy backpack?
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And the athlete says to the officials, well, I've checked the rule books, I've checked the guide book, and there's nothing in the rules that hinder me from carrying a backpack to run this race. And so the officials are astounded by this. And they, too, take the time and they check the rules. And they say, you know, there is nothing, there's really nothing in the official rules. We can't stop this man from running the race just because he wants to carry a backpack. And so they let the race go on. But I think we see the folly of it immediately.
They would say to that man, they or that athlete, they'd say, OK, yes, you can run the race. And there's nothing in the official rules that say you can't carry a backpack full of weights on the back, on your back while you run this race. But you're a foolish athlete. Do you realize how it's going to slow you down? You're not going to be able to run properly the race that is set before you. And so I think we see what the Spirit of God is bringing before us. Very clearly there are things in our lives.
That are not wrong in themselves, in fact, they may be very right in their proper perspective and place. But it's a question of our object. We understand that when an athlete goes out to run the race, he has the goal in view. He has the object. That's why so often in the New Testament the Christian pathway is brought before us as a race or an athletic event because the athlete goes out and trains. He works toward the the.
Day of the event, he takes up the event when it comes and puts all he's got into it because he has the goal, the prize in view, Paul said In Philippians he was running a race and he said I pressed towards the mark for the prize.
And what is the prize in the Christian life? It's Christ in glory. And if we have that before us?
It's not going to become difficult to set aside those weights. It's not going to be difficult not to entangle ourselves with sin. We, if we try to set aside the weights, if we try to not entangle ourselves with sin, without Christ before our souls, it's going to be tough. We're really not going to be able to do it. But when Paul got saved, does Saul of Tarsus, he had something now before him that was far greater than the things he had said his heart on before.
Was it hard to give up the aspirations he had in life? And he had a lot of opportunities and goals and aspirations before he got saved. Was it difficult to give those things up? No. When he when he got Christ, he said it wasn't hard. I count those things as lost that I might win Christ. He had Christ now as the prize. And it wasn't difficult to give up the goals and hopes of this world. And in the measure in which you and I get a fresh glimpse of Christ as the man in the glory.
As the object for faith at these meetings this weekend, we will go home from these meetings if the Lord leaves us here, not struggling to lay aside the weights and sin. But we will go away having unconsciously laid aside those things because we have something better and brighter before our souls.
When I look at verse one there.
I see the two words lay aside.
And I see another word with that is between.
Run and patience.
The race that is being run.
It's for the believers, the way of faith.
And it is a superior way.
If you turn back to chapter 10 and look at verse 35 together.
We was brought back here by Don in verse 38, but I'm gonna look at 35, six and seven together.
35 starts out with cast not away. That would remind us of lay aside. There are some things that we are to lay aside, but there are other things that we are not to cast it away. We are not to castaway our confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience. Let me repeat that, please. Ye have need.
Of patience, that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise for yet a little while. He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. We need to maintain the confidence, don't we, and not cast that one away.
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We need patience if you turn back to the book of James for one moment.
Verse Chapter one. Verse 3.
Knowing this.
That the tempting, which is actually the testing.
Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience. Now look at the wording in verse four. Let patience have perfect work.
Let patience have perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire and lacking nothing.
That's why we need patience. What does patience produce?
Produces verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth right back to 10.
And 36 again. Or 37 again.
For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. That's where we started our meeting off with, wasn't it about the return of the Lord and being with him? We see this patience that we need so we cannot be entire, so we are entire and lacking in nothing and that we can endure through our walk here below, you know, superiority walk of faith.
Go ahead.
You're, I think Brotherville, they uh, send that so easily besets us and suggested that it's the sin of unbelief. It can be other sins that entangle us that especially here in Hebrews, it's the sin of unbelief, I must say, rather than that in the Lord's own dealing with my own soul.
He's revealed to me a lot of unbelief in my heart.
And that really does hinder God. And so we need to judge it when the Lord brings it to our attention. It really is a hindrance. You know, we all say we're believers, but I find in our culture, our humanistic culture.
We're taught in our schools to evaluate everything.
And that's all right to do that. But sometimes in doing that, we think sometimes we know perhaps a little bit better than God and what he's allowed in our life. And we think, why does God allow this? This doesn't make any sense at all.
Yeah, it might seem that way, but brethren, how much do we know of what God is doing?
We know so small a percentage. How can we form judgment as to what God is doing in our life? Often think of Joseph for when he left his father's house at 17 years of age for 13 solid years, everything seemed to go wrong until he was 30 years of age and he came to the throne of Egypt.
Everything went down, down, down, down.
I am amazed that Joseph kept on and he lived an exemplary life even in prison. But sometimes things don't go our way and sometimes we start doubting God. Satan comes along and says see you believe in God and look what he's allowing in your life. How can you do that?
And he throws those fiery doubts darts. I should say they're doubts.
And he wants us to get to doubt God, because if he gets us to doubt God, he has us down on the battlefield of faith.
Keep that shield of faith up, brethren. Believe God even though you don't understand what He's allowing, how important it is. That's the I really believe the Lord has dealt with me about it and is continuing to deal with me about it. Do I trust Him no matter what? Do I trust him? Like Jim was mentioning those at the end of the 11Th chapter who didn't get deliverance. They were killed.
Did they trust Him? They trusted him, and that was faith. May the Lord help us, brethren, to not give place to unbelief.
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Like in that connection that turned back to Deuteronomy chapter 8 for a couple of verses.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse two children of Israel are just about ready here to enter the land of Canaan after 40 years in the wilderness.
And it says in verse 2, And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee.
These 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, and to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wittest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hang hunger, and fed thee with the manna which thou knewest not so on.
I'll read the end of that verse. Neither did thy fathers know that he might.
Make thee know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord that man live.
God had made a promise to these people.
When he took them out of Egypt.
He gave them a promise as to their destiny. They were going to a land of Canaan.
And he took them in when there was the evidence of unbelief in the very beginning. Then he took them into the wilderness, and they spent 40 years in his training camp, if you will, to learn their own hearts.
And.
Often times in the path of faith, it's what God withholds that is the test.
He withheld food.
Why did he do it? It was a test. Go ahead and made a promise to them. Would they? Would they act in faith or would they accept what had been withheld from them?
As from God and brethren, it's the same in our lives. Very often God withholds things.
In our individual lives, and they are tests, many times will we live by faith or will we not?
In the case of the Lord Jesus, he went into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days without food. He was tested in a similar way. What was withheld from him was what we all say is basic necessity of life. Who argues against the need for food and yet in his life it was withheld from him.
He was taken there by the Spirit of God, and he had no food.
Satan comes along and tries to tempt him out of the path of faith.
And he answers exactly what's in this chapter in Deuteronomy. He says man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The definition of faith itself found in John chapter 3 is what is said there. Is he that hath received his testimony. God's testimony has set to his seal that God is true. That's what faith is when God speaks.
And I accept it as true in my being. That's really what faith means. The Lord Jesus perfectly accepted the testimony of God as to the sustaining of his life. And he said I must have a word from God to the sustenance of my life. Bob just used the example of Joseph.
And how it was hard for Joseph to endure. What was the test?
At the age of 17 or thereabouts, he had a vision, and his vision was that his brethren, his Pennsylvania family, and so on were going to bow before him.
And in the Psalms about it, it says in recounting that, it says the word of the Lord tried him. He had to live those 13 years without any visible sign or evidence. He could have said many times as he was a slave. Did God really mean it to me? Is he really going to make good?
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The promise that I was made in front of my father, my mother, my brethren.
The word of the Lord tried him without any evidence. God withheld from him.
And that's where the endurance comes in. That's why this chapter sucks about endurance is because God withholds things many times in the path of faith. But he says, will you believe my word?
Will you accept what I have promised you?
And lay hold of that and live by that. And so the Lord Jesus, he went all the way. And in his case, it says in our chapter about him, endured the cross, despising the shame, tremendous tests of what was withheld from Him.
He could say in in the Psalm.
102nd Psalm I think it is, He says, Take me not away in the midst of my days.
But it happened. He was taken away in the midst of his days. He was tested to the ultimate question of would he leave, or would he live by the word of God? And he lived by the word of God. And the very basic, even greater than food sometimes is the necessity of the human soul to be accepted.
To be loved, as we say to. And yet what was his end? Why was he tested in the end of his life? He was tested by the shame of the cross. And yet it was the the response of other people was withheld from him. Pity was withheld from him. Would he go to the end? He finished it. He's the completer of it. And he went to the end. And now he has the joy.
So faith counts on God.
Not knowing the end of the story as far as the circumstances of this life, looking onto a future, uh, something beyond this life, of course, but not knowing the end of the story down here. You know, we read the Old Testament stories and we read them with confidence because most of us have heard those stories from the very early days of our youth. You read the story of Esther. You know, when Esther went in to see the king who was her husband, she didn't know the end of the story.
We read that story because we know that he did hold out the scepter. But before she went in, she said if I perish, I perish.
When the three Hebrew children, Shejack, Meshach, and Abednego, spoke to the king, they didn't know the end of the story. Fact. Just go back there because it illustrates what Dawn and Bob have said. Go back to Daniel chapter 3. There's a couple of little details that if you read this quickly, sometimes you miss, but I think they're very important. Maybe just before I read this, I'll say too, that growing up under the ministry of Gordon Hayhoe, he used to tell us as young people.
You know it's possible to be unbelieving believers. What did he mean by that?
Well, we've put our trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation. We are what Scripture would call believers. We're on our way to heaven.
But there are times in our lives, are there not when our hearts become full of unbelief?
We're not counting on God for the circumstances of life like we ought to.
You know, it's interesting with Thomas. We talk about doubting Thomas, but it's actually even stronger language.
Thomas said. Unless I see, I will not believe you know Thomas was real.
Judas was not real, but Thomas was real. But there was a moment in the life of Thomas as a believer when his heart was filled with unbelief. He didn't have that faith to to count on what the Lord had told him before he went to the cross and what the disciples had said in seeing the Lord in resurrection. But this notice here in Daniel chapter 3 in connection with these three men, verse 16, we know the story well of the fiery furnace.
Verse 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar.
We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If so, be now. Notice this. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. I'm gonna stop there for a moment. They said that their God was able to deliver them. They didn't say He would because they didn't know the end of the story. But they had the faith to live for the Lord, for their God.
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In spite of what would happen, they were not going to compromise the truth.
They knew that if they bowed down to the idol that had been set up in the plain of Dora, that they were disobeying the Word of God, the 1St and greatest of the commandments, that they were to have no other gods before them, and that they were to worship the living God and none other.
And they weren't going to compromise that no matter what. So they said, our God is able to deliver us. But then notice what they say. And he will deliver us, not necessarily from the burning fiery furnace, but he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. In other words, what they really were saying is we don't know what's going to happen. We may perish in the fire, but either way, it doesn't matter. We're going to be delivered from your hand, and we're not going to bow down.
And worship the idol. And we know they're not named by name in Hebrews, but they are no doubt included in that list of those who quench the violence of fire and so.
I think when you see this, it gives import to the stories. And brethren, are you and I willing to live by faith and to rest on the Word of God, not knowing the end of the story as far as this life, but realizing that there is an end?
Beyond this life and the Lord Jesus when it says who for the joy that was set before him?
It was really, I believe, the joy of returning to the Father.
Having accomplished the Father's will, having lived the path of faith in complete perfection.
And having glorified God on the earth and finished the work that he had given him to do.
Knowing that he was going to at the end of it, return to the Father and sit down at the Father's right hand. Having a having accomplished what we turn the joy of returning to the Father. He could press on. He could rise from the garden, from his agony in the garden. He could wash the disciples, rise from supper and wash the disciples feet. He could leave the garden. He could look out from Pilots judgment hall and go forth.
To the cross. How could he do it? He knew the import of the verse that says weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
He was looking beyond, as the hymn writer said, the long dark night. He was hailing the coming day when he would return to the Father.
And sit down as a glorified man and in perfect confidence. And you and I, we can go on in spite of what happens down here. We can go on with glory before us and Christ as the object, if there is that confidence that is unwavering. Because the the opposite of of faith is unbelief. And that is, as Bob said, the sin in this chapter that so easily besets us. And it was the sin.
That plague the children of Israel for 40 years. In fact, it was the sin that kept them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
They didn't believe God. Then they sent the spies. They didn't believe the spies. God said because of their unbelief they were going to have to wander. And when there was unbelief, they murmured in their tents. They believed not his word, but murmured in their tents. May it not be so with us.
Yeah, yeah.
In connection with the, uh, friends of Daniel in the furnace, God didn't deliver them from the furnace. He delivered them through the furnace. And I don't suppose that ever entered their mind that that would happen. And it's been interesting to me, brother. And when a brother or sister so often is has a tremendously difficult trial and we look ahead and we think of the ways the Lord might come in.
I find so often He comes in in a way I never ever thought that he would do. That's God, and God is showing how great He is. He wants us to prove that how great He is, brethren, and that's why He does it the way He does. But may the Lord help us not to mistrust Him. There's a verse in the Gospels that says He could do in reference to the Lord. He could do no mighty works there.
Because of their unbelief, there's anything that hinders the Lord working. It's our unbelief.
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Isn't it a better thing for the soul to deliver through something with the Lord than to be delivered from it?
Umm, I worked, I had a fellow back home tell me once he, he lost his wife quite young with a brain tumor and umm, he said to me, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. So his desire no doubt at the first was that she might be delivered from it, it would be far easier for them. But he got a blessing in his soul because he went through it.
And don't you think, Ken, that when we talk?
Meshach and Abednego in the coming day, if we were to if we asked them what was the best experience of their life that they will pinpoint them going through the furnace. Why wasn't very nice to think that they had to go through it, but they had a special sense like never before of the presence of the Lord in in the furnace. They would have missed that and they'll look back and say, oh, we wouldn't have missed that for the world. That was the best experience. And I know everyone of us here.
Can look back on times in our lives when we didn't get delivered from it, we got delivered through it, but we looked back and we said, oh, we had a special sense of the Lord's presence, those everlasting arms about us, his love, whatever it was. Those are the best experiences of our lives. So if the Lord is allowing a special trial and then he won here their lives be encouraged. When God allows a special trial, it's because he wants to.
Communicate something very special to you. Think of the tremendous trial that Abraham had of having to offer up his son and how he went forward. Brethren, when we look at that, I don't know how much Abraham might have understood of the picture we see there, the beautiful picture. It was God who wanted to talk to some communicate something to his friend Abraham. And how much we, Abraham understood, we don't know it says Abraham.
Your father saw my day and rejoiced. We don't know how much he understood, but.
Brethren, remember, if he allows a specific, specifically heavy trial in your life, it's because he wants to communicate something very special. 35 in the appendix.