Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello, welcome again to another episode of the Pure Faith Podcast. We discuss all things Bible. Again, we are back, we're glad that you're joining us and we are introducing the second part of Mitchell's sermon series on Hebrews.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Yes, so this is going to be our final wrap up of Hebrews 11. We're going to go through those last few verses that we never actually covered in our study of Hebrews 11. We go through those last few sections and just kind of wrap it up and put a nice little bow at the end. So that's really all I really need to say about this one.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Okay, well, here it is, and we hope that you enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 0:50

We're going to be continuing on from where we left off last week. That's a brief review. Last week we were doing a review over Hebrews 11. We talked about how Jesus is our high priest, how Jesus came in the order of Mount Chisidak, and we were transitioning or leaning into Hebrews 11, where we talked about all of those mentioned in Hebrews 11 for their faith, and we went through each one briefly, kind of give a brief description of what they did in order to be considered worthy enough to be mentioned in this Hall of Faith or this Faith Hall of Fame or whatever you want to call this chapter. It has many different names, but before we get into, I kind of hinted at the end of last week that we're going to talk about how each one of these characters, as I called them, they're being honored and accommodated for their great faith. But they weren't perfect. There was a lot of sin in and around their lives. But before we really dive into that, first let's take this through the end of Hebrews 11. There's just a little bit left, so I want to go through and I want to just kind of highlight some of that. So, to finish up, we're going to talk about Hebrews 11, 32 through 38. So if you have your Bibles and you want to follow along, feel free to.

Speaker 2: 2:36

I am reading from the ESV and so this reads and what more shall I say, for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, barak, samson, jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets those were the ones that I kind of gave the title of honorable mentions who, through faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of lions, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Now, if you just stop right there, that's like these men and women mentioned were absolutely amazing. I mean being able to do all these amazing things, that they had that power of God with them in everything that they did. And one thing I want to point out is this quench the power of fire, because what this is referring to is the story of Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, but they're not mentioned in Hebrews 11, but this is referencing their story and if you've read their story, it is an amazing story of faith. And just as a brief overview of that story, this is the story of when they were with Daniel and when they were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar and they went to Babylon, were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar and they went to Babylon.

Speaker 2: 4:09

And at one point King Nebuchadnezzar decides to build a huge golden image that whenever anybody heard any kind of music, they had to bow down and worship. Well, shadrach, meshach and Abednego were like no, we ain't doing that. We only worship one God and we will only worship one God. And so they refuse to bow down to this golden image. King Nebuchadnezzar finds out about it and he is very, very angry and he says you will bow down and worship this image or you will be thrown into the fiery furnace. And they're like no, we're not doing it. Our God has the power to save us from that furnace, but if he doesn't, he is still going to save us from death. He will take us into heaven. They knew that no matter what happened, whether Jesus saved them or they died, it didn't matter. They were still going to be saved through death into heaven. So they refused to do it. So King Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace to be lit up like 10 times hotter than it normally is. He had guards go throw them into the fiery furnace. The furnace was so hot, the guards actually died in the process of throwing them in the furnace Because they got too close and died from the heat. And to throw them into the furnace, and King Nebuchadnezzar's like, yeah, got those guys, got them good. Then he looks and he's like why are they dancing in the fire? Why can't I see them dancing in the flame? But not only could he see the three, he seen a fourth person dancing with them. So three was thrown in, but he seen four that was Jesus dancing with them. So again, great story of faith. So I just wanted to highlight that, but we don't have time to highlight it too much.

Speaker 2: 6:06

Um, so again, in this first part, notice that everything is about about power. You know, conquering kingdoms, like having this great power. But then we kind of go through this little transition here where it says and this is verse 35 women received back their dead by resurrection. That's a pretty miraculous thing. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. For me, this one, it's kind of like an in-between, because, yes, they're being tortured, but they're being tortured by their own free choosing. It's like the guards are saying you're free to go and they're saying, no, we don't want to go. And the guards are like you know, like every hour on the hour we have to beat you, right, and they're like, yeah, we choose to stay, so that one kind of falls in this in between, and I hope you know I'm kind of making some of this stuff up, but they weren't beating him every hour on the hour that I know of. I'm just using that for reference.

Speaker 2: 7:09

But then we get into verse 36. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy. So this is a drastic change from what we first read, where they were conquering kingdoms and quenching the power of fire and shutting the mouths of lions. Now they're being beaten and tortured and martyred and having to run and hide. So there's a huge change in the mood from where we started in verse 32 to where we are now.

Speaker 2: 8:11

We started in verse 32 to where we are now, but this is kind of significant because God never promises us that when we accept Jesus, when we accept God, that we are going to have a life of prosperity. Our lives aren't going to be all sunshine and rainbows. There's going to be trials and tribulation in our lives. There's going to be struggles. But in James 1, 2 through 4, it reads Count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect. So this is saying that even though we're going through trials, we go through hardships in our lives. The Lord uses these events to help us to grow in our faith, help to mold our faith, help to strengthen our faith, to give us a deeper and better understanding of who God is, who Jesus is, so that we can grow into better people. So we can grow into better Christians, better husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, whatever. We will just grow into better people overall.

Speaker 2: 9:25

Another thing to note in John 16, 33, and this is coming from Jesus, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So this is saying that no matter what we face hardships, whether we are conquering kingdoms or running and hiding in gutters and dens, it doesn't matter, no matter what happens to us in this world, we are going to have our full reward when we get to heaven. Jesus will give us that full reward, as long as we trust in him in all that we do. And then we also have the famous verse Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. So, even through those hardships, there's going to be glory on the other side. And then we have verse 39 and 40.

Speaker 2: 10:24

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. And all these, all these that he's mentioning here is all the names that we mentioned last week and a little bit this week. So everybody mentioned in Hebrews 11,. All of them. They're being recognized for their great faith, for the great things they've done in faith, right, even though they did not receive what was promised. Let's remember when they lived. They lived before Jesus.

Speaker 2: 10:57

So we're looking at this from the Old Testament. What was the Old Testament truly about? It was about the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Jesus. So the Old Testament is all foretelling about Jesus. The Gospels are about Jesus is here and then the rest of the New Testament. Is Jesus coming again. So the promise that they were given is that a coming Messiah, there was going to be a Messiah to come and save them. Well, they never actually received that in their lifetimes. Then verse 40, since God had provided something better for us without this, us again.

Speaker 2: 11:35

Like I said last week, we have to when we are reading the Bible. We have to put ourselves in the lives of those who this book was originally written for, originally written for the Hebrews. And so if you put yourselves in their lives and kind of what's going on around them, you know, they know Jesus. This was written maybe 30 years, they don't know for sure when Hebrews was written. It's estimated between 30 or 40 years after the death of Jesus, because they believe it was written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. So it's kind of you know, and then Jesus died around 30, 33. So somewhere in that, 30 or 40 years after the death of Jesus. So a lot of them probably still remember Jesus, they know the story, it's fresh in their minds.

Speaker 2: 12:28

So now, whenever he's talking about us, you have to understand that they are now on this side of Jesus. So the us that is referring to here is all those that are in the new covenant, the covenant of grace. So we are also included in that. So now, here, when he's talking about us, we are all included in that. So, but in saying that God had provided something better for us, well, what is that something better? That better is that covenant of grace that came to us through the death of Jesus, that, apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Now, this seems kind of confusing, but again, this us is referring to all of us, from the time of Jesus' death to now. This is all of us. So, apart from us, they should not be made perfect. So again, who is this actually talking about? It's talking about, basically directly. It's talking about all those mentioned in Hebrews, but it's also mentioning about everybody who has passed before us, so anybody who has passed before us. They're waiting on us. Well, why are they waiting on us? Because they're waiting for the fulfillment of the new heavens and the new earth whenever Jesus comes again. So they're going to heaven and they're kind of there hanging out waiting, waiting for all of us to join them, and whenever it's time for Jesus to come again. Then we will all come down and have the new heaven on earth.

Speaker 2: 14:03

But now we're talking about all these characters and all this great faith that they did, and all this great faith that they did. Now let's lead into this idea of Are we good enough as humans in today's world and today's society? Are we able to compare to those that are written here, those that are commended here In the Faith Hall of Fame? Well, the answer is yes, because if you Look At, you know just some of the characters. We don't have time to go through and highlight every single one, but I'm just going to kind of do a brief overview, like I did with them initially, and so let's just look at some of the things that maybe these characters didn't quite do right, some of the things that could be considered sinful, some of the things that you're like they did that, but yet they're still recognized in this hall of faith. So one.

Speaker 2: 15:10

Let's start with Abraham. So the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was promised that he would have descendants more innumerable than the stars in the sky and more innumerable than the sands of grain or the grains of sand on the seashore. They were given this promise and it wasn't being fulfilled. It wasn't being fulfilled and they got impatient. And that's when Sarah had the idea of giving her maidservant, her handmaid, to Abraham and was like, take my maidservant Hagar, have a child with her, and then through that child is where these promises are going to come from. Well, that wasn't God's plan, but that's what they did and Hagar got pregnant and Hagar ended up having the child Ishmael. Well, ishmael was blessed and became a great nation himself, but Ishmael was not the descendant that God intended for all of the Hebrew nation to be born from. They did end up getting that child, isaac.

Speaker 2: 16:25

But let's go back and look at Ishmael a little bit more, because, you know, some may look at this like it's really not that big of a deal, it's not like that big of a sin, but they were impatient. There may have been some lustfulness I don't know what was going on in the mind of Abraham back then but when Ishmael was born, ishmael grew up. We have to remember, and I don't know if everybody knows the story of Ishmael was born and Ishmael grew up. We have to remember and I don't know if everybody knows the story of Ishmael. Ishmael became the leader or the founder, like the Abraham, of the Arab people, the Arabian people. Well, it was also through that line that the Prophet Muhammad came. So ishmael is where the story of the jewish people and basically the muslim people split. It is through ishmael and isaac, where it's through ishmael and and eventually through prophet muhammad that we get the muslim religion. And it is through abraham and isaac that we get the jewish religion and where we eventually get and Isaac that we get the Jewish religion and where we eventually get Christianity. So that's something a lot of people don't understand and don't realize. But even sins that may not seem huge at that time has huge consequences. Because let's face the facts, radical Muslims I'm not saying all Muslims the radical faction of the Muslim religion are the biggest enemies against Christians today.

Speaker 2: 18:02

But let's look at Sarah. Whenever God first told Sarah you're going to have a kid, she's like I'm like a hundred years old, I like that ain't happening. And she laughed at him. She's like no, no, 100 years old, I'm like that ain't happening. And she laughed at him. She's like no, no, no, kids coming out of here, no. But she thought about it. She's like this is God. God can do whatever he wants. If God wants me to have a kid, I'll have a kid. She trusted in him. She had a kid, and that was Isaac, and that's the one that the Jewish religion came from.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Then we have Jacob, which Jacob became Israel. That's another story we won't get into. But Jacob stole his brother, esau's blessing. If you don't remember that story, that's a story where that's a story where basically Jacob's mother was like okay, your father, isaac, is going to bless your older brother, esau, but I want you to have that blessing. So they dressed him up in sheepskins to make him basically feel like his brother and just basically put him in a costume and sent him into his brother or to his dad, who couldn't really see very good and he thought he was isao. So he blessed him and so he basically corrupted his dad and his brother and stole the blessing and he ended up having to run away, where again he was not so fair with his uncle. But we won't get too far into that rabbit hole. But yeah, there's still corruption there. Moses killed an Egyptian soldier before he fled from Egypt and then, 40 years later, god calls him to lead Egypt out of, or lead Israel out of Egypt, even though they weren't Israel yet. But, um, so there's murder. But yet, even though Moses murdered somebody, he was still called to be a huge part of the ancient story of the Hebrew people, part of the ancient story of the Hebrew people.

Speaker 2: 20:17

You can look at the Hebrew people just in general for that Pretty much just read the Old Testament and all you see is corruption and backstabbing and questioning God and there's a lot of mean and evil things that the Hebrew people did. We got Rahab Rahab was a prostitute, so somebody who's coming from that line of work to become, interestingly, she became literally one of the mothers or grandmothers in the line of Jesus. So I mean, she has an incredible story. But so I mean we could go on and on. But just looking at these few examples, these people weren't perfect. They had histories. They, I mean even after. You know, some of these, okay, it was before they. Some of these, okay, it was before they accepted God and did what God did. But then there's also some that it was after the fact. Well, I mean an example of after is David, king David in God's service, and then he went and the whole story of David and Bathsheba and ended up killing Bathsheba's husband in order to keep her as his own wife, and there's that whole story, but yet David is still mentioned in the Hall of Fame. So there's a lot of questionable activities surrounding these people.

Speaker 2: 21:53

But that should give us hope, that should give us a little bit of I don't know what the right word is, but it should take some of the stress off of us. Because let's face the facts, we've all sinned. I've sinned. I'm sure all of you have sinned in some way, shape or form. But just because we may not have lived the perfect life, we may make mistakes. Even yet in the future, we still have the ability within us to show great faith, to trust in God, no matter what happens.

Speaker 2: 22:34

Let's just take my story of this morning why I was late. So whenever I left to go back, to get the second jumpy to make that exchange, like well, I want to use this for for God's glory, and I'm going to basically spend this time to meditate and concentrate on what I was going to talk about today. I could not concentrate on anything. I was like worried about time, like I got to get there, I got to get back, I got to do all this. I didn't have time to, I could not focus on any of this. But after I got home, got it dropped off, was on my way back into town, I realized I wasn't supposed to think about it. God wanted me to just come up here, put all my faith and trust in him that he gives me the words and, whatever I say, I say I don't know. So that is a form of faith, is trusting that, even through things, that, yeah, I could have got mad, I could have got frustrated, I could have blown up Whatever, but it's like no, everything happens according to God's will. So I don't know why, I don't know why I couldn't have time to repair this morning. It is what it is, so I just trust that he is giving me what I need. But something else that we need to realize is all these people mentioned and all of those that are written here, and even of all those that came before us, they all had one main thing in common, and that is the fact that they trusted that, whatever God said, that was the path Now granted.

Speaker 2: 24:25

Back then they had a little more access to God than we have today. Especially back in the days of Abraham, we kind of talked about how Abraham was promised that he was going to have all these descendants. Well, that promise came through God. We've kind of talked about this in the past. That was actually Jesus coming. So even though Jesus' first coming, you know, wasn't until we read about it, you know, in the gospels Jesus was still here and working. Before that he was known as the angel of God, as the word you know had different names and he was here working.

Speaker 2: 25:09

So I do believe that Jesus was a big part of a lot of those that were receiving messages from God. So there was a mediator there because, like I said, we talked about last week where Jesus is our high priest and through Jesus that's how we have access to God. Well, I believe it was still through Jesus. And then also they had the prophets, and the prophets were almost acting in that same role as Jesus, where they were receiving revelation from God and then they were passing it on to the people. So they had mediators all throughout the Old Testament. So that's how they were knowing.

Speaker 2: 25:48

But God was a lot more vocal back then. We don't you don't hear of people saying they talk to God. We don't get messages from God. We get feelings, we get intuitions, we get things that happen in our lives that make us seem like we need to follow a certain path, like, oh well, I should go here. But then something happens like maybe that's not the right decision, Maybe I should go this way. And so you're kind of using that kind of stuff to know what God's will is for you in your life.

Speaker 2: 26:19

But for them back then they had a little more verbal or vocal communication, so they knew exactly what God's will was for them. So they knew what the finish line was and they knew that they weren't meeting the finish line. They knew they weren't going to reach that finish line. So their goal was just to live their lives in a way that helped to set up the next generations to reach that finish line. And, honestly, that's the same goal we have today.

Speaker 2: 26:51

We may not know what that finish line is.

Speaker 2: 26:52

We do know that, the same goal we have today.

Speaker 2: 26:52

We may not know what that finish line is.

Speaker 2: 26:53

We do know that the ultimate goal is heaven and earth coming down, but we don't know when that's going to happen. So it is our job to reach out to the next generation, to our children, to other people, to help get them to understand who Jesus is, by sharing the good news, the gospel, with them. That way they too can then go out and spread that good news and gospel to other people as well. And as we get more people into the gospel, into Jesus, then we can start getting everybody's lives more in line and we can get a better view of what that finish line is going to look like, because I know for a fact that I could teach and preach and do all kind of stuff for the rest of my life. I'm pretty sure you know it's possible jesus come back whenever he wants, but we also have to look at it from the aspect that what if he doesn't? So we have to share the good news so that we can help others reach that goal as well. I don't know how long I've been talking.

Speaker 1: 28:04

I love the 24th.

Speaker 2: 28:07

You guys want to wrap it up. You can wrap it up. I ran out of notes a while ago. All right, so we'll wrap it up. Anybody have?

Speaker 1: 28:19

any questions. We hope you enjoyed that second part of Mitchell's Serbian series on Hebrews and we really hope you enjoyed that bow he keeps talking about. To wrap it up, it's a pretty bow. We just had Christmas. We're still surrounded by Christmas.

Speaker 2: 28:31

We are still surrounded by up. It's a pretty bow. We just had Christmas. We're still surrounded by Christmas. We are still surrounded by Christmas.

Speaker 1: 28:36

There's plenty of bows yes, there is. But again, we hope you liked it. Again, if you can subscribe and like this station, I really don't know how this goes.

Speaker 2: 28:46

Our YouTube channel, our YouTube channel, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:48

Either, or we would appreciate that as well.

Speaker 2: 28:51

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Speaker 1: 29:03

Yeah, and if you don't, that's fine, you won't hurt our feelings.

Speaker 2: 29:07

Honestly, I don't really check this stuff. Anyways, right.

Speaker 1: 29:16

We don't hit live this stuff anyway. We don't have all that, but you know we do. We do hope that you like us, and feedback is always good. So again, uh, feel free to reach out to one of us as well, um, and we will see you next week. Absolutely, thank you for joining us.