November 24, 2025 • 35 mins
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SPEAKER_00 (00:12):
All right, Hebrews chapter 11.
Looks like verse 32 is wherewe're gonna pick up.
Alright, so we've beenconsidering here the Hall of
Faith in uh what's known as theHall of Faith in Hebrews 11.
And it's kind of an in-betweentime.
(00:33):
I do want to encourage you to beconsidering what you might want
to go through next.
I'm open to suggestions.
I'll pray about it.
But if there's a book that wecan jump into at the beginning
of the year, um, give me yourideas.
I really want to know.
Um, but here we are in Hebrewschapter 11, known as the Hall of
(00:55):
Faith, many circles.
As we jump in, it's useful toreview why there is a book of
Hebrews, right?
Um, Hebrew believers in theearly church were being tempted
to go back to a works-based kindof philosophy of getting to God.
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That's kind of where it hadbecome, uh, was about observing
the law, the traditions, thefeasts, all these things, the
Sabbaths.
And while those things had apurpose, uh, it wasn't to get us
to God, uh, aside from drivingus to Him uh because of our
sinfulness, it wasn't to get usto God.
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We're saved by grace throughfaith.
It's not by works, lest anyoneshould boast.
And here, the author of the bookof Hebrews is encouraging the
people, you can't go back to theway it was.
You cannot go back to that.
You started by faith, uh, youneed to continue and end by
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faith.
It's always been by faith, andthat's really the message of
Hebrews chapter 11 here is toshow them since the very
beginning of time, it has alwaysbeen a relationship with God by
faith.
Now, since faith is betterdemonstrated than defined, the
author gives uh his readers asort of history lesson.
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Again, starting back in Genesis,we've been through uh Genesis,
we've seen uh through Leviticusand Moses as an example of
faith.
We've considered Joshua lastweek and Rahab.
In verse 32, we see kind of justuh the something you would
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expect a speaker to say in verse32.
What more shall I say?
For time would fail me to tellof Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah, also of David andSamuel and the prophets, who
through faith subdued kingdoms,worked righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths oflions, quenched the violence of
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fire, escaped the edge of thesword, out of weakness were made
strong, became valiant inbattle, turned to flight the
armies of the aliens.
Uh women received their dead,raised to life again.
And so we consider here theauthor just says, Yeah, I don't
have time to mention everybody.
We could go through the entireOld Testament and give you
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examples of those who lived byfaith.
What more shall I say?
He's running out of time there.
And he heads into, as we sawhere, some rapid-fire examples
of those who live by faith.
Um, now remember, written toHebrews, Hebrew believers, as as
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these names are mentioned, theywould have thought of the
stories, the accounts of Gideonand Barak and Jephthah and
Samson, some of the great heroesof the Old Testament, David,
right?
And everyone, like here,probably, everyone would have
known David, a man of faith.
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He faced off with Goliath byfaith, right?
And they would have justpictured it there.
That great example, right?
In in 1 Samuel, where David isthere and he sees this Goliath
coming in the valley of Elahthere, and and and facing off
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with Israel.
David, this little kid, goesdown and and in front of Goliath
says, You're coming at me with asword and a spear and a javelin,
but I come at you in the name ofthe Lord God of Israel, whom
you've defied.
I'm gonna take your head and I'mgonna feed your army to the
birds, right?
And they would have said, That'sDavid, some faith, right?
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As a little boy running towardsGoliath with a sling, his hair
blowing back, and just you know,knocking that guy down in the
power of God.
And and everybody would have hadthat.
And some great examples here.
Notice, just to name somegreats, close the mouths of
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lions there in um verse 34, Iguess.
Um, right, 34.
Uh no, maybe is it 33?
30, 33.
They're in there, lions.
Stop the mouths of lions, right?
It's Daniel, right?
Uh, Daniel, this example ofpurity there in the Babylonian
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Empire and the Persian Empire.
He's faced with this dilemma.
Um, pray to God and get thrownto the lions.
And he says, Well, I'm gonnalisten to God.
And he opens his windows thereby faith and and prays to God,
even when it was against thelaw.
Thrown into the lion's den, Godstops the mouths of the lions.
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But he was a guy who lived byfaith, a great example.
I admire that guy for sure.
Um, and this shows what realfaith looks like.
Some just examples they wouldhave known.
But notice there are others thatwe maybe didn't say so much
about, but notice Gideon, Barak,Samson, Jephtha.
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This is a time of the judges,right?
We don't want to miss this.
The time of the judges here.
Um, now Paul lets us know in thebook of Acts that that was about
450 years after uh after thetime of Joshua, 450 years, the
book of Judges, right?
And you can read that, and it'sencouraging and it's
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discouraging, it's gross in alot of ways, right?
When you read the book ofJudges, it's it's this whole
thing that could be summed up bythe last verse of the book,
Judges 21, 25.
In those days there was no kingin Israel, and everyone did what
was right in their own eyes.
Picture that.
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This is the theme of the book ofJudges and these guys who were
in here.
There was no king, and everyonedid what was right in their own
eyes.
Everybody just did whatever theyfelt like doing, right?
And it's just disgusting to seein the book of Judges, as
there's just judgment andidolatry.
And there's this whole processas you look at the book of
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Judges.
That's kind of what we'relooking at the rest of our time
today.
The book of Judges, it's like asickening carousel, right?
I never, when I was a kid, gotsick on carousels or a child's
play, right?
A carousel, a merry-go-round.
Now I look at a carousel and Iget nauseous, right?
What happened to my inner ear?
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I have no idea.
But it just goes round and roundand round.
That's the book of Judges, butin a much deeper way, right?
You know the story.
The book of Judges uh followsidolatry.
The people do what's right intheir own eyes.
Idolatry.
They serve other gods, theyintermarry with the people of
the land.
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And eventually God says, Y'allare so wicked, I am gonna send
judgment on you.
Idolatry, judgment.
Well, they're oppressed bypeople like the Philistines and
the Midianites, and they cry outto God in their oppression,
right?
And God in his mercy sends ajudge, a hero, right?
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Someone to deliver the peoplefrom the oppressor.
And he does over and over again.
Well, the problem is that whenthey're saved from their
oppressors in the book ofJudges, then they fall back into
idolatry and sin and comfort.
Does that sound like our livesso many times?
Sometimes, you know, we havehigh highs and low lows, high,
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high, low lows, you know, and itjust over and over again.
It's a pattern sometimes in ourlife.
And that's the book of Judges.
That's where we find ourselvestoday.
The bottom line is it's prettyugly, right?
Now, here we're gonna look atthese judges starting in verse
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32, and I'm gonna take them alittle bit out of order for a
reason.
But Gideon, we'll start withGideon.
If you want to turn to Judgeschapter six and follow along,
you can look there.
But we don't have, like theauthor said, we don't have a
whole lot of time, so it's notgonna be as much reading as much
as summarizing, but you can kindof keep your eye on that.
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So God finds the story goes inin Judges chapter six, it's the
land of Ophra.
And here, as the story opens, wesee Gideon.
Gideon is threshing wheat in awine press.
Now, the only reason he's doingthat is because he's scared,
(10:08):
right?
He's hiding from the Midianites.
The Midianites would raid andthey would take the food from
the people.
And so Gideon is doing all thisin secret.
Look at chapter 6, verse 12.
And the angel of the Lordappeared to Gideon and said to
him, The Lord is with you, youmighty man of valor, right?
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Uh, and this is where theaccount starts.
Oh, mighty man of valor.
And Gideon says, Who me?
You talking to me, right?
Because he is not a mighty manof valor, he is afraid, and he's
threshing wheat in a wine press.
And he says, essentially, yougot the wrong guy.
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Now, God is going to use Gideonto deliver his people from the
Midianites, but there's a wholelot that goes on before then.
Gideon there says at thebeginning, Well, let me bring
you a sacrifice.
And it's pretty amazing becauseGideon brings, you'll see there
in chapter six, Gideon brings asacrifice, some meat, some
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bread, some broth.
And the angel of the Lord says,Well, pour the broth out.
I don't do broth.
And put the sacrifice on therock.
As he puts the sacrifice on therock, the angel of the Lord
there puts his staff on thesacrifice, and fire comes up out
of the rock and consumes thesacrifice.
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Angel of the Lord disappears,right?
Uh, Gideon is freaked out.
But yet God says there inchapter seven, I'm gonna use you
to deliver my people.
Now, there's a whole thing ofthe fleece in chapter six, you
can read about that.
But chapter seven, God gives himthe battle plan, right?
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32,000 men in chapter seven havecome to gather around Gideon to
deliver his people from Midian.
And God says, This, Gideon,that's too many people.
32,000, too many people.
If I give you the victory with32,000, you'll say, Well, it was
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our great army that did this.
So you know the story.
God tells Gideon, tell anyonewho is scared and wants to go
home, just go on home.
And 20,000 people leave at thatpoint.
Um, from 32,000 to 10,000.
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Um Gideon's feeling a littleless confident, but you know the
story.
There's a final test of how theydrink water.
And through a process there, Godwhittles it down to 300 men
against 135,000 Midianites.
300 men.
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What's more difficult there isthat God says, here's how I want
you to win the battle.
I want you to take torches.
Torches, yeah, torches, put themin jars, cover them with jars.
I want you to take a trumpet inyour other hand.
You're gonna surround theMidianites, and on the queue, I
am gonna have you break thosejars, flare up those torches,
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and blow the trumpets and yellthe sword of the Lord of Gideon,
right?
And he does it.
Now it's not quite that simple.
There's a lot of doubting goingon, but he does it, and God
delivers the people from thehand of Midian.
And I look at that and I go, byfaith, Gideon.
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And he's got doubts and he's gotfleeces, and he's got all sorts
of things that God works with.
I'm gonna give him in this casea B plus, just for funsies.
I'm gonna grade him and give hima B plus on faith.
But God says, by faith, Gideon.
Now, notice another name here uhBarak, someone you maybe haven't
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heard of.
The story there, the account ofBarak is in Judges chapter four.
Um, and it starts with aprophetess named Deborah in
Judges chapter four.
She's in Bethel.
And Deborah, by the word of theLord, calls a man named Barak to
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deliver God's people from thehand of a general named Sisera.
And she tells him, This is whatGod has for you, Barak.
You're gonna deliver my peoplefrom Sisera.
Well, chapter four, verse eight,we can read Barak's response.
Barak said to her, If you willgo with me, then I will go.
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But if you will not go with me,I will not go.
Now, maybe he wasn't veryconfident in his ability to lead
the people, but Deborah says,That's fine.
Look at verse 9.
Uh, I will surely go with you.
Nevertheless, there will be noglory for you in the journey you
are taking, for the Lord willsell Sisera into the hand of a
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woman.
Then Deborah arose and went withBarak to Kadesh.
So God uses this team of Barakand Deborah to win a victory.
And as they win this victory,Sisera escapes.
And Sisera runs off.
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He's running down the road,right?
The general, the big guy.
And he comes to the tent of awoman named Jael, uh, and the
wife of Heber the Kenite.
And and there JL says, Sisera,hey, come in here real quick.
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Hide in my tent.
You'll be fine.
And Sisera jumps into the tentand says, thanks a lot.
Hey, can can can I just lay downhere?
Will you give me something todrink?
And you know the story.
JL gives him some warm milk,warm milk, right before bed,
right?
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And and lets him fall asleepthere on the floor in the tent.
Well, God then uses JL.
We read this, Judges 4, verse21.
Then JaL, Heber's wife, took atent peg, took a hammer in her
hand, and went softly to him anddrove the tent peg into his
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temple, and it went down intothe ground, for he was fast
asleep and weary.
So he died.
That's a great way to end that.
So he died.
And and there, God uses JL tojust nail his head to the
ground.
Isn't that wonderful?
The Bible's colorful stuff.
Um, so as Deborah said, who getsthe glory in this?
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Well, God does, but it was JLwho gets the real force in this
in this account.
Um, so we look at Barak.
Barak by faith did these things,and I'm just gonna grade him
with a C.
You know, I'm gonna give him aC.
Is that fair?
I think that's fair.
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Barak can get a C in my gradebook.
Um then we meet Jephthah now.
He's at the end, but I want totake him first because I think
his grade's a little bit higherin this situation.
Jephthah, Judges chapter 11.
You can turn to uh to be lookingat that story.
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Jephthah has a sordid backgroundthere in Judges chapter 11.
He's the son of a prostitute inGilead.
His father's family didn't thinkvery highly of him, I guess, and
they chase him off.
Now, in verse 3, we read that ashe's kind of banished from his
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family, quote, worthless menbanded together with him.
So, kind of a Robin Hood kind ofsituation here, really.
He he has this band of worthlessmen that come around him, and
Ammon comes against the peopleof God.
Jephtha's family turns to himand says, You know what?
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You help us out, you and yourworthless men, you help us out,
and we'll let you be our leader.
Now he agrees to go negotiatewith the Ammonites.
He gives them a little bit of ahistory lesson there in Judges
chapter 11, and that doesn'twork.
Chapter 11, verse 30.
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And so Jephthah made a vow tothe Lord and said, If you will
indeed deliver the people ofAmmon into my hands, then it
will be that whatever comes outthe doors of my house to meet me
when I return in peace from thepeople of Ammon surely will
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surely be the Lord's, and I willoffer it up as a burnt offering.
So here before the battle,Jephthah makes a vow.
God, you give me victory, I'llgive you whatever comes running
to me when I come home.
Whatever.
Verse 32.
So Jephtha advanced toward thepeople of Ammon to fight against
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them, and the Lord deliveredthem into his hands, and he
defeated them from Aor as far asMineth, 20 cities, and to Abel
Karamin with a very greatslaughter.
And the people of Ammon weresubdued before the children of
Israel.
Awesome! Great victory.
Look at verse 34.
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When Jephthah came to his houseat Mitzpah, there was his
daughter coming out to meet himwith timbrels and dancing, and
she was his only child.
Besides her, he had neither sonnor daughter.
And it came to pass when he sawher that he tore his clothes and
said, Alas, my daughter, youhave brought me very low.
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You are among those who troubleme, for I have given my word to
the Lord, and I cannot go backon it.
So Jephthah just, oh no, I vowedto the Lord that whatever came
to me when I came home, I wouldgive as a burnt offering.
I would give it entirely to theLord.
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Now, commentators differ on thisbecause you your heart's sinking
at this point.
Commentators differ on this.
Did he offer her as a burntoffering to the Lord?
I think he did, because theyhave a holiday after this in her
honor for being so willing to besacrificed in this sense.
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And yet, listen, if Jephthah hadknown what God said in Leviticus
chapter 5, verse 4 through 6,that if you make a foolish vow,
here's the sacrifice you canoffer to God to go back on your
foolish vow.
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That was a foolish vow.
And God said, We do it, peoplewill do it.
We'll make foolish vows, offerthis as a sacrifice, and you can
get out of a foolish vow.
That's number one.
Number two is Deuteronomy 18,Deuteronomy 12, Leviticus 18.
All these say that God is notinto human sacrifice.
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In fact, here's Jeremiah chapter7, verse 31, which of course is
after Jephthah's time, but hey,I get it.
Uh this is what God says aboutthe whole deal.
Then the people have built highplaces, which is in the valley
of Hinnam, to burn their sonsand daughters in the fire, which
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I did not command, nor did itcome into my heart.
So God says very strictly, I amnot into human sacrifice.
I am not into this.
I will not ask that of you.
And so, Jephthah, some victory,some faith.
But man, if he had just knownGod's word, that's pretty heavy.
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I'm gonna give him a D, right?
Well, Samson, Samson, Judgeschapter 13 to Judges chapter 16.
It's the longest account that wehave in the Judges, and yet it's
the least amount of faith, in myopinion.
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Uh, there's the miraculous storyof Samson's birth.
His parents are barren, and Godcomes to them and says, You're
gonna have a son, and they do,and they name him Samson.
So cute, right?
Samson means sunshine, right?
That's essentially what theycalled their son Samson.
It might have been some of thereason why he got into so many
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fights, right?
Sunshine, right?
Um, but there he is, miraculousstory of his birth, and and yet
everything pretty much goesdownhill from there as he's
commanded to live according tothe Nazirite vow.
You know the story.
No dead bodies, not allowed toeat anything that comes from the
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grapevine, um, and grow yourhair out as an outward sign of
your consecration to God.
Now, the rules are there, right,for Samson.
Be a Nazirite.
And I feel like the rules areonly there to give him something
to break, right?
Because he breaks every singleone of those Nazirite rules.
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And and yet he he's used by God.
Now, he's used by God in somepretty base ways, right?
He gets himself into a fewsituations, but one is in the
city, the village of Timnah.
He finds a woman there that hejust falls in love with, a
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Philistine woman.
And he asks his parents to gether for him.
And and it's just bad allaround, right?
The the ends up that the womanis and her father are killed by
the Philistines there to get atSamson, and and he kills 1,030
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Philistines by the end ofchapter 15.
He rules for 20 years, we'retold in 15 verse 20, but there's
not much there to really hold onto.
Now, chapter 16, if you'relooking at it, chapter 16 opens
with Samson going to Gaza tomeet with a prostitute.
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This is Samson's weak point forsure.
And the Philistines hear it andthey want to lay in wait.
They're gonna kill him there inthe city.
At midnight, story is he goesout, and while he's going out of
the city, he pulls these massivegates of the city off of their
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not even off their hinges.
He takes the bars and the gatesand everything, and he carries
it to a hill and drops themdown.
This is how God, uh God's poweris used in Samson's life to pull
the gates of the city off andtake.
Now it is interesting uh thatwhere is that hill that he
dropped him?
It's about 35 miles from thecity, so you know it's kind of a
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big deal, right?
Well, Samson then in chapter 16sees a girl named Delilah, and
he is smitten and she's viral,right?
Uh literally, and he's playingwith fire, we see throughout
this story.
Well, through a process ofevents, she finds a secret in
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his mind to his great strength.
You cut my hair, I'll be likeanyone else.
And she does it, right?
She lulls him to sleep, cuts hishair, and we see in Samson, was
it a death wish that he had?
Is that what Samson was lookingfor?
Now listen, was it a death wish,or did he really just not think
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that anything would happen if hecut his hair, if he went against
his vow?
I think he just really didn'tthink anything would happen
because we read in chapter 16,verse 20, the saddest verse in
the Bible, I think.
One of the saddest verses in theBible.
She said, The Philistines areupon you, Samson.
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So he awoke from his sleep andsaid, I will go out as before,
at other times, and shake myselffree.
But he did not know that theLord had departed from him.
So sad.
He played with fire and he gotburnt.
He didn't know that the Lord haddeparted.
And you know the story, thePhilistines there, they gouge
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out Samson's eyes, they chainhim up and have him walk around
in circles like a beast ofburden.
And they really just make fun ofhim.
Ah, God's deliverer, here he is.
And and if we were to grade him,now of course, following that,
3,000 Philistines are killed asSamson knocks the temple down
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upon himself and them.
But if I were to grade Samson,and Samson's gonna beat me up
when I get to heaven, I justknow it.
But if I were to grade Samson,big old F, I cannot find one
point of faith in Samson's life.
I can't.
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And I'm not very gracious withSamson, but there it is.
Now, here's the problem.
There's a lot of problems withthis.
The one number one problem isthat we see things wrong,
wrongly, right?
We we don't see things right.
We grade, right?
You were kind of with me while Iwas grading these folks in the
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book of Judges.
We judge on our faithfulness ona gradient.
More faithful, less faithful,right?
But God doesn't see that way,does he?
Uh Matthew 17, 20, Jesus says,if you have faith, like a
mustard seed, you could movemountains.
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How much faith?
I don't think it's much.
It's just faith, right?
If you have faith, you can movemountains.
And and that's where we get itwrong.
God's into trust, we're into howmuch, and we compare ourselves
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to other people.
Dangerous, right?
And the question is, do we havefaith?
Now, now that's not to say thatgreat faith isn't noticed in the
Bible, that God doesn't want ourfaith to grow, right?
Ultimately, he wants oursanctification.
There's a great word for you,sanctification to grow, our
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holiness to him.
He wants our belief and ourtrust to affect the way we live
every single day.
God wants that, and true faithwill affect our holiness.
You can write this one down, 1John 3:3.
Everyone who has this hope inhim purifies himself.
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So having a hope in God'sfaithfulness in the future,
it'll purify our lives, it'llmake us holy.
Um, Acts 26 18 Those who aresanctified are sanctified by
faith in Jesus, it says.
And so Real faith leads to achange of life, and and and we
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should see that.
We might notice that in our lifeas you look back at where you
used to be.
God is so gracious to work inour life.
But here's the thing a lot oftimes we find ourselves in this
exact same place as the judges.
If we're honest, we look at ourlife and we go, I've got a lot
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of failure in faith.
I've got some faithfulness, butI've got a lot of failure, a lot
of wasted years, a lot of regretbecause we failed.
And I like Samson really in theend because he shows me, man, if
he can do it, I can do it,right?
You know what I mean?
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Faith.
I want to live by faith.
And yet the enemy will come tous and say, but you're a failure
in faith.
Why don't you just stay there?
And I'm always brought back tothis illustration from Chariots
of Fire.
Great movie, right?
But there's this one point whereEric Little gets knocked to the
ground.
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You've seen it in the Olympicsbefore, somebody trips or
whatever, and he gets back upand he just runs.
And he finishes the race and hefinishes it.
Well, that's what God wants.
As we look at our faithlessnessand our failures, God wants us
to get back up.
Now we have more to cover inHebrews chapter 11, at least one
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more time, but turn to Hebrewschapter 12.
And this is, as usual, a goodplace to end.
Hebrews chapter 12, because theenemy will say, forget about it,
stay down, you failed.
Don't even try.
But God will say, get up.
Look at chapter 12, verse 1.
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The purpose of chapter 11.
Therefore, we also, since we aresurrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses.
So all these folks in chapter11, they're a witness to us.
That's essentially what this issaying.
You look at this list of people,you look at people like Gideon
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and Barak and Jephtha andSamson.
You look at them and you go, youknow what?
If they can do it, I can do it.
By God's grace, I can do it.
He says, We're surrounded bythis cloud of witnesses.
Notice, let us lay aside everyweight and the sin which so
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easily ensnares us, and let usrun with endurance the race that
is set before us.
So the author here says, YouHebrews, you folks in 2025, take
these things to heart.
Lay aside the weights in yourlife, things that weigh you
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down, lay aside the sin, and getup and run with endurance.
Just keep going in the racethat's set before us.
And notice verse 2 so important,probably the most important
part, looking unto Jesus, theauthor and finisher of our
(33:16):
faith, who for the joy that wasset before him endured the
cross.
And so the author here says,where are you going to find the
strength to keep enduring?
You gotta look to Jesus.
You look to Jesus and the cross.
The joy that was set before him,he endured the cross for you
because he loves you, right?
(33:38):
And that's where the power comesfrom to just keep going by
faith.
He's the author and finisher ofyour faith.
Just run with him withendurance, a race that's set
before you, because we're allfailures in this life of faith,
(34:00):
right?
We have ups, we have downs.
If we graded ourselves, whoknows what we would give
ourselves.
But God wants us to finish therace well, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of ourfaith, for the joy that was set
before me, endured the cross.
So, God, um thank you for thevictories in our life.
(34:23):
Thank you for loving us andsaving us and forgiving us.
God, forgive us for the timesthat we've been faithless.
Plenty of examples we could giveof that.
But yet, God, it's not aboutthat.
It's about you and yourfaithfulness to finish the work
that He started in us.
(34:44):
So, God, I pray for those thatare discouraged in life and just
feel beat down by choices.
God, um, we look at our past andwe can get so discouraged.
And yet, God, you don't wantthat.
You want us to look to you.
You want us to run withendurance the race set before
(35:06):
each one of us.
God help us this week to runthat race with you.
Uh, what a what a sweet part oflife that you invite us to walk
with you and run with you.
God, you have um things for usto do this week, but you have
things for us to experience aspart of your goodness.
(35:28):
Maybe it be those quiet timesthat we get to spend with you
where you just tell us how muchyou care.
God, uh, help us to live thisweek with you.
Be by your grace.
We pray all these things inJesus' name.
unknown (35:54):
Here we
All right, Hebrews chapter 11.
Looks like verse 32 is wherewe're gonna pick up.
Alright, so we've beenconsidering here the Hall of
Faith in uh what's known as theHall of Faith in Hebrews 11.
And it's kind of an in-betweentime.
(00:33):
I do want to encourage you to beconsidering what you might want
to go through next.
I'm open to suggestions.
I'll pray about it.
But if there's a book that wecan jump into at the beginning
of the year, um, give me yourideas.
I really want to know.
Um, but here we are in Hebrewschapter 11, known as the Hall of
(00:55):
Faith, many circles.
As we jump in, it's useful toreview why there is a book of
Hebrews, right?
Um, Hebrew believers in theearly church were being tempted
to go back to a works-based kindof philosophy of getting to God.
(01:17):
That's kind of where it hadbecome, uh, was about observing
the law, the traditions, thefeasts, all these things, the
Sabbaths.
And while those things had apurpose, uh, it wasn't to get us
to God, uh, aside from drivingus to Him uh because of our
sinfulness, it wasn't to get usto God.
(01:37):
We're saved by grace throughfaith.
It's not by works, lest anyoneshould boast.
And here, the author of the bookof Hebrews is encouraging the
people, you can't go back to theway it was.
You cannot go back to that.
You started by faith, uh, youneed to continue and end by
(01:58):
faith.
It's always been by faith, andthat's really the message of
Hebrews chapter 11 here is toshow them since the very
beginning of time, it has alwaysbeen a relationship with God by
faith.
Now, since faith is betterdemonstrated than defined, the
author gives uh his readers asort of history lesson.
(02:21):
Again, starting back in Genesis,we've been through uh Genesis,
we've seen uh through Leviticusand Moses as an example of
faith.
We've considered Joshua lastweek and Rahab.
In verse 32, we see kind of justuh the something you would
(02:42):
expect a speaker to say in verse32.
What more shall I say?
For time would fail me to tellof Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah, also of David andSamuel and the prophets, who
through faith subdued kingdoms,worked righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths oflions, quenched the violence of
(03:04):
fire, escaped the edge of thesword, out of weakness were made
strong, became valiant inbattle, turned to flight the
armies of the aliens.
Uh women received their dead,raised to life again.
And so we consider here theauthor just says, Yeah, I don't
have time to mention everybody.
We could go through the entireOld Testament and give you
(03:27):
examples of those who lived byfaith.
What more shall I say?
He's running out of time there.
And he heads into, as we sawhere, some rapid-fire examples
of those who live by faith.
Um, now remember, written toHebrews, Hebrew believers, as as
(03:48):
these names are mentioned, theywould have thought of the
stories, the accounts of Gideonand Barak and Jephthah and
Samson, some of the great heroesof the Old Testament, David,
right?
And everyone, like here,probably, everyone would have
known David, a man of faith.
(04:10):
He faced off with Goliath byfaith, right?
And they would have justpictured it there.
That great example, right?
In in 1 Samuel, where David isthere and he sees this Goliath
coming in the valley of Elahthere, and and and facing off
(04:31):
with Israel.
David, this little kid, goesdown and and in front of Goliath
says, You're coming at me with asword and a spear and a javelin,
but I come at you in the name ofthe Lord God of Israel, whom
you've defied.
I'm gonna take your head and I'mgonna feed your army to the
birds, right?
And they would have said, That'sDavid, some faith, right?
(04:51):
As a little boy running towardsGoliath with a sling, his hair
blowing back, and just you know,knocking that guy down in the
power of God.
And and everybody would have hadthat.
And some great examples here.
Notice, just to name somegreats, close the mouths of
(05:13):
lions there in um verse 34, Iguess.
Um, right, 34.
Uh no, maybe is it 33?
30, 33.
They're in there, lions.
Stop the mouths of lions, right?
It's Daniel, right?
Uh, Daniel, this example ofpurity there in the Babylonian
(05:37):
Empire and the Persian Empire.
He's faced with this dilemma.
Um, pray to God and get thrownto the lions.
And he says, Well, I'm gonnalisten to God.
And he opens his windows thereby faith and and prays to God,
even when it was against thelaw.
Thrown into the lion's den, Godstops the mouths of the lions.
(06:00):
But he was a guy who lived byfaith, a great example.
I admire that guy for sure.
Um, and this shows what realfaith looks like.
Some just examples they wouldhave known.
But notice there are others thatwe maybe didn't say so much
about, but notice Gideon, Barak,Samson, Jephtha.
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This is a time of the judges,right?
We don't want to miss this.
The time of the judges here.
Um, now Paul lets us know in thebook of Acts that that was about
450 years after uh after thetime of Joshua, 450 years, the
book of Judges, right?
And you can read that, and it'sencouraging and it's
(06:49):
discouraging, it's gross in alot of ways, right?
When you read the book ofJudges, it's it's this whole
thing that could be summed up bythe last verse of the book,
Judges 21, 25.
In those days there was no kingin Israel, and everyone did what
was right in their own eyes.
Picture that.
(07:09):
This is the theme of the book ofJudges and these guys who were
in here.
There was no king, and everyonedid what was right in their own
eyes.
Everybody just did whatever theyfelt like doing, right?
And it's just disgusting to seein the book of Judges, as
there's just judgment andidolatry.
And there's this whole processas you look at the book of
(07:32):
Judges.
That's kind of what we'relooking at the rest of our time
today.
The book of Judges, it's like asickening carousel, right?
I never, when I was a kid, gotsick on carousels or a child's
play, right?
A carousel, a merry-go-round.
Now I look at a carousel and Iget nauseous, right?
What happened to my inner ear?
(07:52):
I have no idea.
But it just goes round and roundand round.
That's the book of Judges, butin a much deeper way, right?
You know the story.
The book of Judges uh followsidolatry.
The people do what's right intheir own eyes.
Idolatry.
They serve other gods, theyintermarry with the people of
the land.
(08:13):
And eventually God says, Y'allare so wicked, I am gonna send
judgment on you.
Idolatry, judgment.
Well, they're oppressed bypeople like the Philistines and
the Midianites, and they cry outto God in their oppression,
right?
And God in his mercy sends ajudge, a hero, right?
(08:39):
Someone to deliver the peoplefrom the oppressor.
And he does over and over again.
Well, the problem is that whenthey're saved from their
oppressors in the book ofJudges, then they fall back into
idolatry and sin and comfort.
Does that sound like our livesso many times?
Sometimes, you know, we havehigh highs and low lows, high,
(09:01):
high, low lows, you know, and itjust over and over again.
It's a pattern sometimes in ourlife.
And that's the book of Judges.
That's where we find ourselvestoday.
The bottom line is it's prettyugly, right?
Now, here we're gonna look atthese judges starting in verse
(09:23):
32, and I'm gonna take them alittle bit out of order for a
reason.
But Gideon, we'll start withGideon.
If you want to turn to Judgeschapter six and follow along,
you can look there.
But we don't have, like theauthor said, we don't have a
whole lot of time, so it's notgonna be as much reading as much
as summarizing, but you can kindof keep your eye on that.
(09:46):
So God finds the story goes inin Judges chapter six, it's the
land of Ophra.
And here, as the story opens, wesee Gideon.
Gideon is threshing wheat in awine press.
Now, the only reason he's doingthat is because he's scared,
(10:08):
right?
He's hiding from the Midianites.
The Midianites would raid andthey would take the food from
the people.
And so Gideon is doing all thisin secret.
Look at chapter 6, verse 12.
And the angel of the Lordappeared to Gideon and said to
him, The Lord is with you, youmighty man of valor, right?
(10:31):
Uh, and this is where theaccount starts.
Oh, mighty man of valor.
And Gideon says, Who me?
You talking to me, right?
Because he is not a mighty manof valor, he is afraid, and he's
threshing wheat in a wine press.
And he says, essentially, yougot the wrong guy.
(10:53):
Now, God is going to use Gideonto deliver his people from the
Midianites, but there's a wholelot that goes on before then.
Gideon there says at thebeginning, Well, let me bring
you a sacrifice.
And it's pretty amazing becauseGideon brings, you'll see there
in chapter six, Gideon brings asacrifice, some meat, some
(11:13):
bread, some broth.
And the angel of the Lord says,Well, pour the broth out.
I don't do broth.
And put the sacrifice on therock.
As he puts the sacrifice on therock, the angel of the Lord
there puts his staff on thesacrifice, and fire comes up out
of the rock and consumes thesacrifice.
(11:35):
Angel of the Lord disappears,right?
Uh, Gideon is freaked out.
But yet God says there inchapter seven, I'm gonna use you
to deliver my people.
Now, there's a whole thing ofthe fleece in chapter six, you
can read about that.
But chapter seven, God gives himthe battle plan, right?
(11:56):
32,000 men in chapter seven havecome to gather around Gideon to
deliver his people from Midian.
And God says, This, Gideon,that's too many people.
32,000, too many people.
If I give you the victory with32,000, you'll say, Well, it was
(12:16):
our great army that did this.
So you know the story.
God tells Gideon, tell anyonewho is scared and wants to go
home, just go on home.
And 20,000 people leave at thatpoint.
Um, from 32,000 to 10,000.
(12:37):
Um Gideon's feeling a littleless confident, but you know the
story.
There's a final test of how theydrink water.
And through a process there, Godwhittles it down to 300 men
against 135,000 Midianites.
300 men.
(12:58):
What's more difficult there isthat God says, here's how I want
you to win the battle.
I want you to take torches.
Torches, yeah, torches, put themin jars, cover them with jars.
I want you to take a trumpet inyour other hand.
You're gonna surround theMidianites, and on the queue, I
am gonna have you break thosejars, flare up those torches,
(13:21):
and blow the trumpets and yellthe sword of the Lord of Gideon,
right?
And he does it.
Now it's not quite that simple.
There's a lot of doubting goingon, but he does it, and God
delivers the people from thehand of Midian.
And I look at that and I go, byfaith, Gideon.
(13:41):
And he's got doubts and he's gotfleeces, and he's got all sorts
of things that God works with.
I'm gonna give him in this casea B plus, just for funsies.
I'm gonna grade him and give hima B plus on faith.
But God says, by faith, Gideon.
Now, notice another name here uhBarak, someone you maybe haven't
(14:08):
heard of.
The story there, the account ofBarak is in Judges chapter four.
Um, and it starts with aprophetess named Deborah in
Judges chapter four.
She's in Bethel.
And Deborah, by the word of theLord, calls a man named Barak to
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deliver God's people from thehand of a general named Sisera.
And she tells him, This is whatGod has for you, Barak.
You're gonna deliver my peoplefrom Sisera.
Well, chapter four, verse eight,we can read Barak's response.
Barak said to her, If you willgo with me, then I will go.
(14:51):
But if you will not go with me,I will not go.
Now, maybe he wasn't veryconfident in his ability to lead
the people, but Deborah says,That's fine.
Look at verse 9.
Uh, I will surely go with you.
Nevertheless, there will be noglory for you in the journey you
are taking, for the Lord willsell Sisera into the hand of a
(15:13):
woman.
Then Deborah arose and went withBarak to Kadesh.
So God uses this team of Barakand Deborah to win a victory.
And as they win this victory,Sisera escapes.
And Sisera runs off.
(15:34):
He's running down the road,right?
The general, the big guy.
And he comes to the tent of awoman named Jael, uh, and the
wife of Heber the Kenite.
And and there JL says, Sisera,hey, come in here real quick.
(15:57):
Hide in my tent.
You'll be fine.
And Sisera jumps into the tentand says, thanks a lot.
Hey, can can can I just lay downhere?
Will you give me something todrink?
And you know the story.
JL gives him some warm milk,warm milk, right before bed,
right?
(16:18):
And and lets him fall asleepthere on the floor in the tent.
Well, God then uses JL.
We read this, Judges 4, verse21.
Then JaL, Heber's wife, took atent peg, took a hammer in her
hand, and went softly to him anddrove the tent peg into his
(16:43):
temple, and it went down intothe ground, for he was fast
asleep and weary.
So he died.
That's a great way to end that.
So he died.
And and there, God uses JL tojust nail his head to the
ground.
Isn't that wonderful?
The Bible's colorful stuff.
Um, so as Deborah said, who getsthe glory in this?
(17:07):
Well, God does, but it was JLwho gets the real force in this
in this account.
Um, so we look at Barak.
Barak by faith did these things,and I'm just gonna grade him
with a C.
You know, I'm gonna give him aC.
Is that fair?
I think that's fair.
(17:27):
Barak can get a C in my gradebook.
Um then we meet Jephthah now.
He's at the end, but I want totake him first because I think
his grade's a little bit higherin this situation.
Jephthah, Judges chapter 11.
You can turn to uh to be lookingat that story.
(17:47):
Jephthah has a sordid backgroundthere in Judges chapter 11.
He's the son of a prostitute inGilead.
His father's family didn't thinkvery highly of him, I guess, and
they chase him off.
Now, in verse 3, we read that ashe's kind of banished from his
(18:08):
family, quote, worthless menbanded together with him.
So, kind of a Robin Hood kind ofsituation here, really.
He he has this band of worthlessmen that come around him, and
Ammon comes against the peopleof God.
Jephtha's family turns to himand says, You know what?
(18:31):
You help us out, you and yourworthless men, you help us out,
and we'll let you be our leader.
Now he agrees to go negotiatewith the Ammonites.
He gives them a little bit of ahistory lesson there in Judges
chapter 11, and that doesn'twork.
Chapter 11, verse 30.
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And so Jephthah made a vow tothe Lord and said, If you will
indeed deliver the people ofAmmon into my hands, then it
will be that whatever comes outthe doors of my house to meet me
when I return in peace from thepeople of Ammon surely will
(19:13):
surely be the Lord's, and I willoffer it up as a burnt offering.
So here before the battle,Jephthah makes a vow.
God, you give me victory, I'llgive you whatever comes running
to me when I come home.
Whatever.
Verse 32.
So Jephtha advanced toward thepeople of Ammon to fight against
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them, and the Lord deliveredthem into his hands, and he
defeated them from Aor as far asMineth, 20 cities, and to Abel
Karamin with a very greatslaughter.
And the people of Ammon weresubdued before the children of
Israel.
Awesome! Great victory.
Look at verse 34.
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When Jephthah came to his houseat Mitzpah, there was his
daughter coming out to meet himwith timbrels and dancing, and
she was his only child.
Besides her, he had neither sonnor daughter.
And it came to pass when he sawher that he tore his clothes and
said, Alas, my daughter, youhave brought me very low.
(20:18):
You are among those who troubleme, for I have given my word to
the Lord, and I cannot go backon it.
So Jephthah just, oh no, I vowedto the Lord that whatever came
to me when I came home, I wouldgive as a burnt offering.
I would give it entirely to theLord.
(20:40):
Now, commentators differ on thisbecause you your heart's sinking
at this point.
Commentators differ on this.
Did he offer her as a burntoffering to the Lord?
I think he did, because theyhave a holiday after this in her
honor for being so willing to besacrificed in this sense.
(21:00):
And yet, listen, if Jephthah hadknown what God said in Leviticus
chapter 5, verse 4 through 6,that if you make a foolish vow,
here's the sacrifice you canoffer to God to go back on your
foolish vow.
(21:21):
That was a foolish vow.
And God said, We do it, peoplewill do it.
We'll make foolish vows, offerthis as a sacrifice, and you can
get out of a foolish vow.
That's number one.
Number two is Deuteronomy 18,Deuteronomy 12, Leviticus 18.
All these say that God is notinto human sacrifice.
(21:41):
In fact, here's Jeremiah chapter7, verse 31, which of course is
after Jephthah's time, but hey,I get it.
Uh this is what God says aboutthe whole deal.
Then the people have built highplaces, which is in the valley
of Hinnam, to burn their sonsand daughters in the fire, which
(22:02):
I did not command, nor did itcome into my heart.
So God says very strictly, I amnot into human sacrifice.
I am not into this.
I will not ask that of you.
And so, Jephthah, some victory,some faith.
But man, if he had just knownGod's word, that's pretty heavy.
(22:25):
I'm gonna give him a D, right?
Well, Samson, Samson, Judgeschapter 13 to Judges chapter 16.
It's the longest account that wehave in the Judges, and yet it's
the least amount of faith, in myopinion.
(22:45):
Uh, there's the miraculous storyof Samson's birth.
His parents are barren, and Godcomes to them and says, You're
gonna have a son, and they do,and they name him Samson.
So cute, right?
Samson means sunshine, right?
That's essentially what theycalled their son Samson.
It might have been some of thereason why he got into so many
(23:06):
fights, right?
Sunshine, right?
Um, but there he is, miraculousstory of his birth, and and yet
everything pretty much goesdownhill from there as he's
commanded to live according tothe Nazirite vow.
You know the story.
No dead bodies, not allowed toeat anything that comes from the
(23:28):
grapevine, um, and grow yourhair out as an outward sign of
your consecration to God.
Now, the rules are there, right,for Samson.
Be a Nazirite.
And I feel like the rules areonly there to give him something
to break, right?
Because he breaks every singleone of those Nazirite rules.
(23:49):
And and yet he he's used by God.
Now, he's used by God in somepretty base ways, right?
He gets himself into a fewsituations, but one is in the
city, the village of Timnah.
He finds a woman there that hejust falls in love with, a
(24:10):
Philistine woman.
And he asks his parents to gether for him.
And and it's just bad allaround, right?
The the ends up that the womanis and her father are killed by
the Philistines there to get atSamson, and and he kills 1,030
(24:31):
Philistines by the end ofchapter 15.
He rules for 20 years, we'retold in 15 verse 20, but there's
not much there to really hold onto.
Now, chapter 16, if you'relooking at it, chapter 16 opens
with Samson going to Gaza tomeet with a prostitute.
(24:53):
This is Samson's weak point forsure.
And the Philistines hear it andthey want to lay in wait.
They're gonna kill him there inthe city.
At midnight, story is he goesout, and while he's going out of
the city, he pulls these massivegates of the city off of their
(25:16):
not even off their hinges.
He takes the bars and the gatesand everything, and he carries
it to a hill and drops themdown.
This is how God, uh God's poweris used in Samson's life to pull
the gates of the city off andtake.
Now it is interesting uh thatwhere is that hill that he
dropped him?
It's about 35 miles from thecity, so you know it's kind of a
(25:39):
big deal, right?
Well, Samson then in chapter 16sees a girl named Delilah, and
he is smitten and she's viral,right?
Uh literally, and he's playingwith fire, we see throughout
this story.
Well, through a process ofevents, she finds a secret in
(26:01):
his mind to his great strength.
You cut my hair, I'll be likeanyone else.
And she does it, right?
She lulls him to sleep, cuts hishair, and we see in Samson, was
it a death wish that he had?
Is that what Samson was lookingfor?
Now listen, was it a death wish,or did he really just not think
(26:25):
that anything would happen if hecut his hair, if he went against
his vow?
I think he just really didn'tthink anything would happen
because we read in chapter 16,verse 20, the saddest verse in
the Bible, I think.
One of the saddest verses in theBible.
She said, The Philistines areupon you, Samson.
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So he awoke from his sleep andsaid, I will go out as before,
at other times, and shake myselffree.
But he did not know that theLord had departed from him.
So sad.
He played with fire and he gotburnt.
He didn't know that the Lord haddeparted.
And you know the story, thePhilistines there, they gouge
(27:11):
out Samson's eyes, they chainhim up and have him walk around
in circles like a beast ofburden.
And they really just make fun ofhim.
Ah, God's deliverer, here he is.
And and if we were to grade him,now of course, following that,
3,000 Philistines are killed asSamson knocks the temple down
(27:32):
upon himself and them.
But if I were to grade Samson,and Samson's gonna beat me up
when I get to heaven, I justknow it.
But if I were to grade Samson,big old F, I cannot find one
point of faith in Samson's life.
I can't.
(27:52):
And I'm not very gracious withSamson, but there it is.
Now, here's the problem.
There's a lot of problems withthis.
The one number one problem isthat we see things wrong,
wrongly, right?
We we don't see things right.
We grade, right?
You were kind of with me while Iwas grading these folks in the
(28:15):
book of Judges.
We judge on our faithfulness ona gradient.
More faithful, less faithful,right?
But God doesn't see that way,does he?
Uh Matthew 17, 20, Jesus says,if you have faith, like a
mustard seed, you could movemountains.
(28:37):
How much faith?
I don't think it's much.
It's just faith, right?
If you have faith, you can movemountains.
And and that's where we get itwrong.
God's into trust, we're into howmuch, and we compare ourselves
(28:58):
to other people.
Dangerous, right?
And the question is, do we havefaith?
Now, now that's not to say thatgreat faith isn't noticed in the
Bible, that God doesn't want ourfaith to grow, right?
Ultimately, he wants oursanctification.
There's a great word for you,sanctification to grow, our
(29:20):
holiness to him.
He wants our belief and ourtrust to affect the way we live
every single day.
God wants that, and true faithwill affect our holiness.
You can write this one down, 1John 3:3.
Everyone who has this hope inhim purifies himself.
(29:41):
So having a hope in God'sfaithfulness in the future,
it'll purify our lives, it'llmake us holy.
Um, Acts 26 18 Those who aresanctified are sanctified by
faith in Jesus, it says.
And so Real faith leads to achange of life, and and and we
(30:05):
should see that.
We might notice that in our lifeas you look back at where you
used to be.
God is so gracious to work inour life.
But here's the thing a lot oftimes we find ourselves in this
exact same place as the judges.
If we're honest, we look at ourlife and we go, I've got a lot
(30:26):
of failure in faith.
I've got some faithfulness, butI've got a lot of failure, a lot
of wasted years, a lot of regretbecause we failed.
And I like Samson really in theend because he shows me, man, if
he can do it, I can do it,right?
You know what I mean?
(30:47):
Faith.
I want to live by faith.
And yet the enemy will come tous and say, but you're a failure
in faith.
Why don't you just stay there?
And I'm always brought back tothis illustration from Chariots
of Fire.
Great movie, right?
But there's this one point whereEric Little gets knocked to the
ground.
(31:07):
You've seen it in the Olympicsbefore, somebody trips or
whatever, and he gets back upand he just runs.
And he finishes the race and hefinishes it.
Well, that's what God wants.
As we look at our faithlessnessand our failures, God wants us
to get back up.
Now we have more to cover inHebrews chapter 11, at least one
(31:30):
more time, but turn to Hebrewschapter 12.
And this is, as usual, a goodplace to end.
Hebrews chapter 12, because theenemy will say, forget about it,
stay down, you failed.
Don't even try.
But God will say, get up.
Look at chapter 12, verse 1.
(31:51):
The purpose of chapter 11.
Therefore, we also, since we aresurrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses.
So all these folks in chapter11, they're a witness to us.
That's essentially what this issaying.
You look at this list of people,you look at people like Gideon
(32:12):
and Barak and Jephtha andSamson.
You look at them and you go, youknow what?
If they can do it, I can do it.
By God's grace, I can do it.
He says, We're surrounded bythis cloud of witnesses.
Notice, let us lay aside everyweight and the sin which so
(32:33):
easily ensnares us, and let usrun with endurance the race that
is set before us.
So the author here says, YouHebrews, you folks in 2025, take
these things to heart.
Lay aside the weights in yourlife, things that weigh you
(32:55):
down, lay aside the sin, and getup and run with endurance.
Just keep going in the racethat's set before us.
And notice verse 2 so important,probably the most important
part, looking unto Jesus, theauthor and finisher of our
(33:16):
faith, who for the joy that wasset before him endured the
cross.
And so the author here says,where are you going to find the
strength to keep enduring?
You gotta look to Jesus.
You look to Jesus and the cross.
The joy that was set before him,he endured the cross for you
because he loves you, right?
(33:38):
And that's where the power comesfrom to just keep going by
faith.
He's the author and finisher ofyour faith.
Just run with him withendurance, a race that's set
before you, because we're allfailures in this life of faith,
(34:00):
right?
We have ups, we have downs.
If we graded ourselves, whoknows what we would give
ourselves.
But God wants us to finish therace well, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of ourfaith, for the joy that was set
before me, endured the cross.
So, God, um thank you for thevictories in our life.
(34:23):
Thank you for loving us andsaving us and forgiving us.
God, forgive us for the timesthat we've been faithless.
Plenty of examples we could giveof that.
But yet, God, it's not aboutthat.
It's about you and yourfaithfulness to finish the work
that He started in us.
(34:44):
So, God, I pray for those thatare discouraged in life and just
feel beat down by choices.
God, um, we look at our past andwe can get so discouraged.
And yet, God, you don't wantthat.
You want us to look to you.
You want us to run withendurance the race set before
(35:06):
each one of us.
God help us this week to runthat race with you.
Uh, what a what a sweet part oflife that you invite us to walk
with you and run with you.
God, you have um things for usto do this week, but you have
things for us to experience aspart of your goodness.
(35:28):
Maybe it be those quiet timesthat we get to spend with you
where you just tell us how muchyou care.
God, uh, help us to live thisweek with you.
Be by your grace.
We pray all these things inJesus' name.
unknown (35:54):
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