WHO THROUGH FAITH

Sunday Morning:  May 26, 2002

Text:  Hebrews 11:33-40  "Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38. (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."

SO GREAT A CLOUD

Hebrews 12:1  "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"

OUT OF WEAKNESS

Hebrews 11:34  ". .  out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight,  . . ."

THROUGH GOD'S POWER

2 Corinthians 12:9  "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

GIDEON

Judges 6:39  "And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew."

BARAK

Judges 4:8  "And Barak said unto her (Deborah), If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go."

SAMSON

Judges 14:3  "Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well."

JEPHTHAE

Judges 11:2  "And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman (harlot, v. 1)."

DAVID

1 Kings 15:5  "Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."

DAVID WROTE

Psalms 32:1-2  "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, . . ." Romans 4:7-8

NOT CHARGEABLE

Romans 8:33  "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."

BETTER RESURRECTION

Hebrews 11:35  "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:"

BEST RESURRECTION

Revelation 20:4-6  "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first [best] resurrection. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first [best] resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

THE PRIZE

Philippians 3:10-14  "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

THE GREATEST WITNESS

Hebrews 12:2  "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our 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."

JESUS OVERCAME

Revelation 3:21  "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

MADE PERFECT

Hebrews 11:40  "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."

JESUS ALSO SUFFERED

Hebrews 5:8-9  "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal [agelasting] salvation unto all them that obey him;"

PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING

Hebrews 2:10  "For it became him, . . . , in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their (the many sons) (v.3 so great) salvation perfect through sufferings."

SUFFERING AND THE KINGDOM

2 Thessalonians 1:5  "Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:"

TRIBULATION AND THE KINGDOM

Acts 14:22  "Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."

THE PROMISE

Hebrews 11:39  "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:"

THE PROMISE

1 John 2:25  "And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life."

NEED TO ENDURE

Hebrews 6:15  "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."

THE PROMISE FOR THE AGE

Hebrews 9:15  "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [transgressors] that were under the first testament (Old Testament Law), they which are called might receive the promise of eternal [agelasting] inheritance."

INHERITANCE

Hebrews 11:8-9  "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of [the] promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same [the] promise:"

LOOKED FOR A CITY

Hebrews 11:10  "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

DESIRED A HEAVENLY COUNTRY

Hebrews 11:16  "But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."

HEAVENLY INHERITANCE

Romans 4:13-14  "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:"