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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? and peace to men of earth. Outside may we, outside may we, the wonders we have to give. O God, in what's to come, our last year's earth, though we remain here is nigh, but he is worth a sin, where he's all will be seen, and through the years life's dangers he'll prosper. O holy child of Bethlehem, he sent to us we pray, yes, now our sin and nature be born in us today. We give on Christmas Eve, our faith and guidance now, O come to us, the light with us, our morning and new world. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, good morning. We want to go forward and ask a blessing on the service, so I'd like to ask Brother Alexander Larson if you would like to pray, please. Father in heaven, thank you, Lord God, for the opportunity to be able to come to church this morning. We pray, God, that you please bless this service and help us to praise you, Lord, and we pray, God, that you please fill past your hands with your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Hymn number 426, 426. I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Hymn number 426. I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men. I thought out as the day had come, the bell frees of all Christendom, and all along the broken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. And in despair I vowed by then there is no peace on earth, I said, for hate is strong and moths a song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Then he'll allow for loud and deep, God is not dead, nor God is saved, the Lord shall build a life with him, and peace on earth, goodwill to men. All the while he'll be singing on his way to the world we call from night to day, the voice that shines the chance of light of peace on earth, goodwill to men. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service times. Sunday morning at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we'll be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 30. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Don't forget this Thursday night is Christmas caroling. We'll be meeting right here at 5.30 p.m. We'll get you quickly organized and get you instructions and set up in groups of 20 to 30. We'll go out caroling for one hour, and then we'll come back and enjoy cookies and milk. And remember, we'd love for you to bring batches of your best Christmas cookies, so it'll be kind of like a fun little cookie potluck thing as well. And we'll provide the milk. Below that, there's a note about how today there is a bridal shower for Isabella Schneider at 2 p.m. All ladies and girls are invited to attend, teenage girls that is. And ladies, lunch will be provided. Leave the little kids with dad because only nurselings or ladies and teenage girls is what we're looking for. And then on the back, we've got the birth announcements for the Akinosho family, baby Priscilla, and then we've got the Davis family with baby Liliana, and the Schell family with baby Hannah. So it was a very fruitful week at Faith Ward Baptist Church, and it looks like the 11th and 12th. That was just some back-to-back, very fruitful days there. So be sure to congratulate these families. Very exciting to see babies being born. And especially, you know, you've got to love those babies that are born in December, because you get the tax write-off for the whole year, the tax credit for the whole year, you know. So much better than January. All right, very good. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. We'll start with Go Tell It on the Mountain. If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand, and you'll receive one. We'll start on that chorus. Go Tell It on the Mountain. Sing it out. Go tell it on the mountain Over her hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born While shepherds never watching For silence lost by night Behold the crown, the heaven There shone a holy light Go tell it on the mountain Over her hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born While shepherds never see and tremble When lo above the earth Bring out the angels for rest That will the Savior's birth Go tell it on the mountain Over her hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born Down in a lonely manger The humble Christ was born And God sent the salvation That blessed Christmas born Go tell it on the mountain Over her hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born Amen. Good singing, everybody. Let that shit over. We'll sing it together. God rest ye merry gentlemen. God rest ye merry gentlemen Let nothing do dismay Remember Christ our Savior Was born on Christmas Day To save us all from Satan's power When we were gone astray O tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy God our Heavenly Father A blessed angel came And unto certain shepherd Brought tidings of the same How that in Bethlehem Was born the Son of God by name O tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy The shepherd's echoes died And the shepherd's echoes died O tidings of comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy The shepherd's echoes died And rejoiced in much in mind And left their plots a meeting In tempest, form, and land And went to Bethlehem straightway The Son of God to find O tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy All right, this time we'll pass the offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse number 1. Hebrews chapter 11. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. 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. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declared plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians a saying to do were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Sanson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in flight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. 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, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Dear Lord, thank you very much for faithful word Baptist Church. Please bless the pastor as he preaches to us, and please give us a heart to hear that we may be edified in just the name I pray. Amen. Amen. Hebrews chapter number 11 is commonly known as the hall of faith, because there are so many great examples from the Old Testament about lives that were lived in faith, because of course we know that salvation is by faith, not of works lest any man should boast. So when it comes to getting saved, it's just as simple as putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing the record that God gave of his son, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son, just believing in his death, burial, and resurrection, the finished work of Christ, right? That is how you get to heaven. And once you're saved, you're saved forever. There's nothing that could ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He'll never leave us or forsake us. But in spite of the fact that we often emphasize faith for salvation as we should, there's also faith that we continue to exercise throughout the rest of our lives as well, right? So obviously, faith is required for salvation. And then after that, we still have the whole Christian life ahead of us, right? And we have years and years of our lives serving God, and if we're going to be effective servants of God, if we're going to live a good Christian life, we have to keep exercising faith, all right? And so in Hebrews chapter 11, we have a lot of examples of things that people do to live a life of faith, and we want to also live a life of faith. What do I mean by that? Well, to be saved, you just have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, right? And believe that he died on the cross and rose again, et cetera. But when it comes to the way that you live your life, there are going to be people giving you various forms of advice about how to live your life or what decisions you should make, and then there's the way the Bible's telling you to live your life. And so by believing what the Bible says, you're going to end up making different decisions than if you kind of say, well, I'm going to go with the world's logic on this one. I'm going to go with the world's wisdom on this one, right? The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. And so there's kind of our human understanding or society's understanding, and then there's what the Bible says. And we should not only believe in Christ as our Savior, but we should also spend the rest of our lives reading stuff in the Bible, believing that it's true, and saying, okay, I'm going to do things the Bible's way, or I'm going to believe the Bible's way on this, even if other people are saying something different. You know, just to give you an example, you know, the Bible's telling you not to drink, right? Look not on the wine when it's red, and it's telling you to stay away from alcohol, and not to be drunk, and so forth, right? So having faith in that would be to say, hey, look, I'm going to stay away from alcohol. God says that it's going to be bad if I indulge in that, so I'm going to stay away from it, right? God's telling me to stay married to my spouse till death do us part, and so even if other people are telling me, oh, you need to get out of that marriage, I'm just going to stay with it, stay the course, because I know that God hates divorce, right? And so that's what I mean by faith, is like there's all these decisions and things, and we need to go with what the Bible says versus what the world is telling us, okay? So let's jump into the chapter, though, and get into the specifics, because the main point that I want to make in this morning's sermon is the fact that when you do exercise faith throughout your life, not just being saved, but also exercising the faith to live the Christian life in various areas, you are not always going to have a positive outcome in the world's eyes. You're not always going to be a success in the world's eyes, right? And this is where the prosperity preachers get it wrong, basically saying that as long as you serve God and obey him, everything's going to go great for you. Well, what we're going to see in this chapter is that that's not necessarily the case. Some of what happens when you exercise faith in God is positive, and some of it is quote-unquote negative, meaning from a worldly perspective. You know, from just a physical, carnal perspective, yeah, some negative repercussions come. We know that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so there are also some negatives that are going to hit you and some things that are not going to turn out the way you want them to turn out when you exercise faith. But at the end of the day, in the end, you're going to be blessed by God, and you're going to be glad that you followed Christ and lived a life of faith. But let's look at the specific in the Scripture. Let's go to Hebrews 11. We're going to start in verse 24 because that's exactly where we left off last Sunday night. I already preached through verses 1 through 23 last Sunday night. So in verse 24, it says, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now Moses did this by faith, right, because he believed that God's Word was true, and he believed that God had something better for him than what this world had to offer. And if you think about it, Moses had everything that the world had to offer, and he forsook all those things, he gave up all those things in order to follow Christ. Now what did that look like? Well, it says here that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Egypt was the most powerful nation in the world at that time. Okay, the most powerful, most advanced civilization, and the most powerful man in Egypt is Pharaoh. So if you're the son of Pharaoh's daughter, then you are an extremely important, influential, powerful person. You're going to have all kinds of wealth and opportunities at your fingertips. You're pretty much just going to have every possible thing that this world has to offer just handed to you on a silver platter. And the Bible also tells us in Acts chapter 7 that Moses was mighty in words and in deeds. He was brought up in all of the learning of the Egyptians, so he's extremely well educated. He has achievements. He's mighty in word and in deed. He's powerful. He's got that noble pedigree of being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now of course we know he's not literally the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but he was called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He's been adopted into that family, and, you know, who knows if people even knew that he wasn't actually the son of Pharaoh's daughter. That's what he was outwardly, and so he had all those advantages, right? And so it says that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You see, if he would have just continued living that worldly life of indulgence in the land of Egypt, that would have been sinful for him, okay? Why? Because obviously the Egyptians are worshiping false gods. They're an ungodly society, but also to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And the people of God are suffering. The people of God are enslaved, right? The Israelites are slaves in Egypt, and if Moses just kind of sat back and did nothing about that situation and just goes along with it and just goes along with enslaving and persecuting God's people, well, that would have been a sin. And so he didn't want to just enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He esteemed, verse 26, the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward. So why is it that he was willing to give up all those blessings in Egypt in order to serve God because he had respect under the recompense of the reward? Now, the reward of not being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter from a human perspective is that he ends up becoming a fugitive, fleeing the country, and going out and living in the desert, and he pretty much just has the shirt on his back from the way the story reads. It seems like he just has nothing. Now, from a human perspective, this does not seem like a reward or a recompense that we would want, you know, for serving God. Hey, I serve God. I lose all of my accolades. I lose all my friends. I lose everybody that I've ever known. I lose my country, and I go out in the middle of the desert with the shirt on my back to start over at age 40, right? Nobody wants to just start over at age 40 with no connections, no wealth, but that's what Moses did. Why did he do that? He had respect under the recompense of the reward because he believed that God was going to bless him for that, that God was going to reward him for that. And what does the Bible say? Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. So what's the Bible telling us? Any time we do the right thing, we will be rewarded. If we do right, if we do well, we will be rewarded. And in the short term, it might not seem that way because what was Moses' reward for doing the right thing? It was to be a fugitive, an exile, start over at age 40, no friends, no family, no money, nothing. I mean, he might have even had to learn a new language or something. Who knows? Because he's just going to a totally different region, different area. And thankfully, his fighting skills helped him out or whatever because he's able to fight off the shepherds and help out that guy's daughters, and then he made a friend right away. So God, you know, God helped him out, right? As soon as he gets to the new place, boom, he's making friends on day one. He gets married. He gets a father-in-law to take him under his wing, take him into the family business, whatever. So yeah, God's going to take care of you in the long run. But then, even then, 40 years go by and he hasn't really achieved anything super great. He's just kind of living in the desert, married, two kids, whatever. Okay. But how did he have respect under the recompense of the Lord? He has faith. He believes in something that he can't see, that ultimately there's going to be a big reward. Now, we know, of course, that 40 years later, he does get some big rewards because he gets to actually march back into Egypt as an 80-year-old man and say, let my people go, and actually be used by God to perform all these miracles, to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. And then, of course, he has to deal with their garbage for, like, 40 years in the wilderness. But look, I guarantee you right now he's in heaven, and he's loving it, and he's super happy, and he is probably one of the most greatly rewarded people in heaven, right? It's not like when we get to heaven, we're going to be getting more rewards than, like, Moses, right? Moses is kind of a big one, you know, and I hope that we get a lot of rewards in heaven for the work that we're doing for God. But I'm sure Moses is going to be doing better. And so Moses is up there, and I guarantee you that having the level of reward, whatever level of reward Moses is receiving in heaven and will receive in the millennial reign of Christ and just in eternity is way better than being the son of Pharaoh's daughter. In fact, I'll bet you there are probably, like, thousands of sons of Pharaoh's daughters, because Egypt is one of the longest running civilizations in the history of mankind, one of the longest running successful agricultural civilizations, thousands of years running, Pharaoh after Pharaoh after Pharaoh. Can anybody name any son of any Pharaoh's daughter that has ever existed? Does anybody have one name of one son of Pharaoh's daughter that has ever existed in the history of Egypt? Nobody knows. Nobody cares. But who knows who Moses is, right? So here's the thing. He's given up fame to go live in the desert for 40 years. Nobody in the desert, but is Moses really a nobody? He's probably one of the most famous people on the planet. You know, if we went around and we started asking people, have you ever heard of, right, the number one name in the world that everybody's heard of is Jesus. And I've heard some people say that second Moses is Abraham and then Moses or something. You know, it's like, those are pretty much going to be your top three people, okay? Jesus, of course, is number one. But here's the thing. We are going to also sometimes do things by faith and do the right thing and make a right decision and follow God. We just have to believe that God's going to bless us for that, even if it takes 40 years. And that's pretty, it's easy to say that. It's easy to say, oh, 40 years. 40 years is a long time. And when you're actually living it, some of those 40 days can feel like a long time. 40 weeks can feel like a long time when you step out in faith, do right by God, and then you're not seeing the results. Right? And that's what he did because let's back up and think about what Moses actually did. Because it says that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. There's two aspects here. We don't want to miss that there are two things happening here. There's not enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season and there's choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. Okay? There's two aspects here because, number one, he actually left his situation in Egypt because it was a sinful situation. But that's not all he did. He also got involved in the Lord's battle and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. He sided with the people of God. He identified with the people of God. He didn't just leave Egypt. What did he do before he left Egypt? He went to go see what was happening with his brother and the Israelites. And when he went to see what was happening with his brother and the Israelites, he saw that there was a guy being mistreated and being whipped or maltreated. And so what did he do? He got involved and he killed the Egyptian. And why did he do that? Why did Moses go to the Israelites and kill the Egyptian? Well, the Bible tells it in Acts, chapter 7. He thought that his brethren, the Israelites, would understand that God was going to use him to deliver them. You know, he thought it's like, I'm going to kill this Egyptian. And then it's like, okay, that's like the first salvo in this war of independence for the Israelites. Okay? But they didn't understand that, did they? You know, he went down there. He killed the Egyptian. He thought they would understand that he was the deliverer. They didn't get it. They didn't understand. And remember, then the next day after he kills the Egyptian, the next day he sees two Israelites fighting with each other. And he tries to set them at one again. He tries to be a leader. He tries to bring unity to these two brethren. And he says to the one who did wrong, you know, wherefore mightest thou thy fellow? Why are you fighting with each other? Right? And then he says, well, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou killest the Egyptian yesterday? So basically, what is he getting? He's being made fun of. People are not rallying to his cause. They're not uniting. And so he ends up just fleeing to the desert, seemingly a failure. But really, obviously, God had a plan. God was going to do things his way and his timing. And Moses just needed to be patient. But the thing I want to emphasize here is that he chose rather to suffer affliction with people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So therefore, exercising faith and living a life of faith, it's not just abstinence from sin. Right? Now, that is part of it. Because part of it is to say, hey, I'm going to believe God that drinking is not good for me. I'm going to believe God that fornication is a bad idea. I'm going to believe God that I shouldn't commit adultery or get divorced or whatever. You know, I'm going to believe God about not gambling or whatever. That's one thing. But then the other flip side of that is that you also get involved with the people of God and get involved in the Lord's battle. Right? So it's not just living the Christian life isn't just getting sin out of our lives. That's a big part of it. We should be doing that. But that's not enough. We need to get sin out of our lives. But we also need to also get involved with the people of God. Right? It's not enough to just clean up our lives. We also need to get in church, choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You see, here's the thing. I'm not really impressed by the faith of a Christian who maybe lives a really clean life. But then they just go to some dead, do-nothing, lame church that never gets persecuted because it's just kind of a do-nothing church. And then they kind of glory in the fact that, oh, there's no drama at this church. Oh, I just love this church. It's so peaceful and there's no drama. Well, of course there's no, of course it's peaceful and there's no drama because there's nothing going on. Because they also have no achievements. You know, yeah, yeah, okay. It's easy to have peace and no drama when you're not getting thousands of people saved. You start getting thousands of people saved, you're going to have problems. You're going to have drama. You're going to have affliction. You're going to have persecution. You go to some dead-as-a-door nail, lame, watered-down church, you're not choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God. Because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You've got some pastor who's been pastoring for 20 years, never been persecuted. I wonder why. Maybe because he's not living godly in Christ Jesus. Maybe because he's doing little or nothing. Okay, so we need to, yes, clean up our lives. Yes, get off the world's program and get on God's program. But we also need to choose to suffer affliction with the people of God. And that starts with identifying with the people of God. Moses identified with the Israelites. He didn't just say, well, I'm not the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He said, I'm an Israelite. And he went down and he went among his people. He got involved in their struggle. And what that would look like in the New Testament would be getting in an actual Bible-believing Christian church, right? An independent, fundamental Baptist church that is soul-winning and that is doing great things for God and that is preaching hard and doing all this stuff. And what's that? You say, well, that could cause some problems in my life. Well, guess what? That's what it means to live by faith. Because here's the thing. In the short term, it doesn't make any sense to want to bring persecution upon yourself. But if you have respect under the recompense of the reward, if you esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, you're willing to bear some reproach for the preaching of what the Bible actually says. Not some guy who's going to water it down and sugarcoat it and make it palatable for this world and just conveniently avoid all the subjects that offend this world. You got to be like Moses and forsake Egypt, yes, but also choose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Say, you know what? I'm a Christian. I believe in Christ. I'm following the Bible. I go to such and such the church and oh, that church. Oh, you go to that church. Yes, I go to that church. But it's going to take some faith to do that because humanly speaking, it's not necessarily something that makes you look good to this world. So it says by faith, he forsook Egypt, verse 27, not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. We talked about last Sunday night the whole aspect of him not fearing the wrath of the king. We talked about that in great detail. But he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Okay. And again, he's enduring trials, tribulation, affliction. He steps out and does the right thing. He does not get a good outcome. It's been easy for Moses to say, okay, here I am trying to rally God's people, trying to bring unity, trying to bring liberty, trying to fix things and it just blows up in my face. I just end up getting labeled a murderer and I'm exiled and I'm on the run and I'm an outlaw. He could have just said, you know what? I'm done serving God because serving God doesn't work. I tried it and it didn't work. I lost everything. I have nothing. It didn't work. Couldn't he have said that? And he could have said this too. Well, I guess God just doesn't even want me to serve him because I tried to serve him and it didn't work. But instead, he continues loving the Lord and ultimately when God comes to him and says to him, you're going to go back to Egypt and lead the people out. Obviously, he's a little bit shy about doing it because he's already failed once. So he's like, I don't know God, send somebody else. I'm not a good speaker. I'm not a good leader. I'm not good at it. You know, you can see why he has a little bit of a lack of confidence because he's already failed one time. But yet God tells him. What does God tell him? It means God's word. God's word is saying, no, you're going to go. You're the one. Go do it. And he believed that. And so now he goes back to this country where there was last he was there, they were going to kill him. There was a warrant for his arrest. He was wanted for murder. But he goes back believing God's word. God's word told him, you're going to be safe if you go back. The people who wanted to kill you are all dead. It's over. It's 40 years have gone by. Nobody remembers that. You're going to be okay. Go ahead and go back. And you know, that took faith. You know, I mean, think about if you'd been wanted for murder and then you fled a country, it takes some faith to go back to that country, you know, but God's telling him go back and he does it. But he could have just said, no, man, I'm not going to fall for this a second time. I already did this. I tried serving God. I tried church. I tried soul winning. I tried reading the Bible. It didn't work. That's not what he said though, is it? He, he, he believed God's word and he followed it again and he endured the consequences of serving God. He pushed through as seeing him who is invisible, right? And that's what faith is all about. It's seeing the invisible, the evidence of things not seen. We saw in verse one. And so the Bible says through faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. And of course this is just God giving him instructions about what to do when he's going to come through and kill all the firstborn about killing the lamb, putting the blood on the doorpost and all that. Moses followed those instructions. He did everything God told him to do and it worked by faith. They passed through the red sea is by dry land, which the Egyptians as saying to do, we're drunk as saying means trying, attempting, uh, just like our English word essay, like writing an essay. It's like an attempt, right? And, and, and, uh, uh, some of our essays have been feeble attempts in our lives, right? But that's what it is. It's like a try an essay. So that's what this word means. I say as saying to do is like attempting to do. So the Egyptians attempted to go across the red sea on dry land and they drowned. Uh, it says by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. Now again, what is faith? Faith is doing what God says to do, right? You believe what he said and then you're like, okay, well we're going to do it that way cause we believe that he's right. God gave them some really weird instructions when they got to Jericho, right? Because you know, there are a lot of strategies to attack a city, but this strategy kind of just made no sense because it was just, you know, march around the city silently every day and then just kind of call it a day. And then on the last day, march around it seven times and then everybody yell and blow with the trumpets and that, you know, they didn't know that this is going to work. They don't know what's going to happen. But then as soon as they did that, the walls of Jericho just came collapsing down. Why? Because they believed what God told them. If you do this, it's going to work. And then they did it for seven days and then it worked. And of course they defeated Jericho by faith. And this is the final, uh, one example that's given by faith. The harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace. And so Rahab actually believed that the Lord was real and that his people had been granted victory. And so she ends up harboring enemies of the state, harboring spies and sending them out another way. And so she ends up when Jericho is defeated, she ends up surviving. Her and her whole family. Everybody else is killed. Rahab survives. And by the way, Rahab's a great picture of salvation by faith because of the fact she's a literal prostitute. So, you know, if, if, if salvation were by works or if salvation were by cleaning up your life or repenting of your sins or something, then wouldn't there be some inkling in the story about how like, hey, she stopped being a prostitute. Hey, she cleaned up her life. Hey, she, she, you know, became an honest woman. God is specifically picking a prostitute to do it because, because couldn't God have worked it out where someone other than a prostitute harbored the spies and, and had the faith and didn't perish? But God in his providence worked it out to where it's a literal prostitute that harbors the spies because she believes the word of God, showing that even a sinful person, if they believe, is not going to perish. And of course you can, you could read a bunch of fake things into the story that aren't there. Like, well, she, she decided to give up prostitution or whatever. Really? What verse is that? I can't find that. Yeah, maybe she did. She probably did. I'm assuming that eventually she did. I'm assuming that she didn't just become a, uh, you know, continue being a prostitute, but that's, you know what? That is a big assumption. And if that's what God was teaching us, it'd be written in the Bible. If it's not mentioned, it's not relevant that she stopped being a prostitute. It's not important. You know what the important thing is? She believed. She's a, she's a person, a raunchy person, a person with a bad past, a person with a sinful lifestyle who believed and is saved. That's the important thing. That's what God's trying to emphasize. But it was an act of faith on her part to receive the spies with peace because remember the cops came to her door and said, where are those guys that came in here? So she's risking, she could have just said they're upstairs, they're upstairs hiding, you know, and then it'd be like, they'd be thanking her. Whereas if she gets caught harboring these spies, she'd probably face death for being a traitor. And, but she had faith. She believed the Lord. She believed the word of God. And so she ended up perishing not with those who believed not. And I think it's interesting that Rahab is kind of the coup de grace here because we have all these people who did things by faith. Rahab is kind of the final example. He says, what shall I more say? So it's like once you get to Rahab, the harlot, you have a literal prostitute who doesn't perish because she believes even though she's a harlot. He's just like, enough said. What shall I more say? Like what else do I need to say? You know, he's saying faith goes a long way. If even the Rahab harlot could be saved by faith and then people who were already saved achieved all these great works by faith, right? Seeing the walls of Jericho fall down, crossing the Red Sea, you know, doing all these wonderful things. Hey, the time would fail me to tell of Gideon. He's saying, look, I don't even have time to talk about Gideon. Right? Because we could, this is kind of like a little homework assignment too, go back and look up these stories and see how these men exercise faith. How did Gideon exercise faith? How did Barak exercise faith? Samson, Jephthah, David, right? And so these are all great examples of people who did great things for God by faith. Gideon. Well, let's just quickly talk about each one. You know, of course, Gideon had to exercise a huge amount of faith when he has an army of 32,000 men, which sounds big, except he's going up against an army of like a million or something, like there's this innumerable multitude. He's got 32,000. He's severely outnumbered with 32,000 troops and God says, you have too many troops. That doesn't make any sense. The world would tell you, you don't have enough troops. God is saying the opposite of what this world is telling him. The worldly logic, the worldly wisdom is you don't have enough and God said, no, you have too much because I said so. 32,000 is too many. I don't want the Israelites to think that it was their fighting skill that won this battle. I want them to know that it was me. And so he says, I want you to start testing the people and sending people home so we can just make it a smaller group. He says, whoever's fearful, go home. They wake up in the morning because, you know, people leave at night so it's not embarrassing or making it weird or anything. So basically, in the morning they wake up, there's 10,000 people left. So 22,000 have left. So basically, more than two-thirds of the people have left. And he says, oh, it's still too many. 10,000 is too many. This makes no sense. Right? And sometimes things that God tells us to do are counterintuitive. They don't make sense to us, humanly speaking, like, hey, this isn't making sense to me. And the world will make fun of you and carnal Christians and backslidden losers will make fun of you for doing right and continuing to stay the course serving God. But God says, no, 10,000 is too many. And so then he has this test where he sends them down to the river and has them drink water. And then there's the ones who put their face down in the water and the ones who drink from their hand. And he, you know, you'd think that maybe this is going to be a 50-50 type thing or two-thirds, one-third. But actually, he ends up sending home everyone except for 300 people. So 9,700 people get sent home. I mean, it's just, it's crazy. You have 300 people. You're going against this innumerable multitude. And yet it worked. Yet God miraculously allows 300 people to defeat this innumerable multitude because he confuses them. And they end up fighting each other, trampling each other because they get confused because they do this thing where they put the lamps and the pitchers, right? And everybody has a pitcher in one hand with a lamp inside of it. And then he has a trumpet in the other hand. And they surround the enemy, break the pitchers, sound the trumpets, and shout out the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And the enemy is just so freaked out by this and just doesn't understand what's happening that they end up just getting confused, trampling each other, killing each other, fleeing. And then once they flee, then all kinds of other people from the nation of Israel join up the army and they end up routing the enemy. You know, that's an example that Paul didn't have time for to tell us, but I had the time, so that's why I talked about it. And then the thing about Barak, and I refuse to call it Barak, you know, just because some crack whore named her kid that, you know, I'm not going to use it. So, uh, Barak is how I grew up saying I'm just going to stay with that. So, uh, Barak is a guy who, again, and we talked about this last Sunday night, he had some fear about doing what God was telling him to do. When he received the word of God and he was told to do it, he was afraid and so therefore he said to Deborah, well, I'm not going to go unless you go with me. And Deborah was not impressed by that. And Deborah tells him, well, okay, fine, I'll go with you, but you're not going to really get the glory. The only person who's ever going to name their kid this is going to be a crack whore. And he says the battle, and she says the battle is going to go to a woman. And of course, you know, the reader is thinking Deborah's the woman, but then there's like a plot twist and it's JL that's actually the woman who actually gets to kill Sisera. But here's the thing about, here's why I like Barak, and here's why I like the Bible, is that, you know, real people are like this. You know, and here's the thing, Barak's scared, but he does the right thing anyway. Yeah, he needs a buddy, he needs a partner, he needs somebody to help him, but he still does the right thing. And this is, I talked about this last Sunday night, how sometimes you're fearful, but you do the right thing anyway, God sees that as courage. You know, you have faith and you doubt, you believe and you doubt, but then you act on the belief, God sees that as faith. Okay. And so, really at the end of the day, we're all human, we're going to have doubts, we're going to be scared, whatever, but at the end of the day, it's which one do you end up doing? You know, he ends up, yeah, he's scared, but he does it anyway, God calls that not being scared, when you're scared, but do it anyway. And that's, that's, Barak is like that, and you know what, Gideon's like that too, because guess what, Gideon was scared, and God says to him, go defeat the Midianites, but if you're scared, if you're scared, take Fura your servant and go down into the host. And so guess what he does, he's like, okay, here we go Fura, let's go. He took the if you're scared option, and then he goes down with Fura his servant into the host, and then he hears a guy randomly, he goes and eavesdrops on a random tent in this multitudinous army, and he hears a guy telling his buddy, oh man, I had the craziest dream last night, and then the guy interprets the dream and says, oh yeah, that's Gideon, he's going to destroy us, and it was just like God miraculously worked this out where Gideon overhears this conversation, so random that it could not be a coincidence, and then Gideon's like, okay, yeah. So, so, yeah, Gideon's a great man of faith, but he had some doubt, he had some fear, but ultimately he acted on the faith, he acted on courage, and so in the end he ends up in the hall of faith. Look, we've all had doubts, we've all, you know, gone back and forth sometimes on things, or been fearful, or maybe had episodes in our lives where we did the wrong thing, or maybe people got out of church, or got away from God, or whatever, but here's the thing, as long as you end up eventually coming back, doing right, whatever, you know, you can finish in the hall of faith. Okay, and that's what we see with guys like Gideon and Barak. Samson is in the hall of faith, obviously he was a very flawed individual, he definitely had a problem with fornication, and he, you know, women were his weakness, but at the same time, he obviously also was a great man of faith. That's why God even used him in spite of those things. Now he got punished for those things, and he ended up dying young, and dying in a miserable way, but, you know, at least he had the faith to do what was right, you know, in general, besides his besetting sin there. Jephthah, of course, is one that God used to deliver his people in the book of Judges, he also made a really stupid vow, followed through on that vow to sacrifice his only child, which is a picture, of course, of the God giving his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And then David, of course, we, we, not even I have time to talk about David, you know, okay, I had time for Gideon and Barak, I don't have time for David, because, because David, there's just too much to talk about, all the faith that David exercised, you know, we could just briefly mention David and Goliath, I mean, he has the faith to be just a small fry and go up against a giant that everyone in the whole nation is scared to fight, he is a little guy, he goes and fights, and he says it's the battle of the lords. God's gonna give me the victory, it's not even, it's not even me that's gonna do it. That took a lot of faith. Samuel, we could again, you know, too much of a story there to talk about, uh, the prophets, you know, all through the, the history of the kings, we have mentions of different prophets, like Elijah, and Elisha, and Micaiah, the son of Imlah, and, and some guy named Oded, and, you know, you have all kinds of people, and then you have the big name prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, right? All these people. So he's just saying, look, you could literally just go back and just read the entire Old Testament, and look at how faith is a key component in anyone who succeeded living for God. These are just examples, but you could use literally anyone. And so if we're gonna be successful as Christians, we've got to believe the promises of God. And in situations where it seems like in the short term, the promises of God are not coming through, and in the short term, it seems like things are not working out, and God is not making good on his word, and God is not blessing in the short term, we have to believe, no, the reward is coming, I need to endure as seeing him who is invisible, because the Bible says. You see, how do I know that I'm on the Lord's side? Because the Bible says. Because what I preach and the way I live my life lines up with the word of God. And anybody can try to tell me, well, yeah, but just look at, look at the situation, look at your life, look at the outcome. I would say, I don't care, the Bible says, done, over, finished. That's faith. What do you mean you're gonna be a father of many nations? You don't even have one child. What do you mean you're gonna inherit the promised land? You don't own anything. You're living in a tent. No, I'm gonna be a father of many nations, and I'm gonna inherit the promised land, because God said so. That's faith. And here's the thing, when we exercise faith, great blessings will come unto us, but also hardships, pain, suffering will come to us as well. And we have to be like Job, where we say, you know what, I will accept good and evil from the Lord's hand. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we cannot base right and wrong on outcomes or on situations. We base them on the Bible. Because in the short term, sometimes doing the right thing doesn't pan out. But in the long term, it always pans out. Now look what the Bible says. Let's move forward here and see that point proven even further. It says that all these people in the Old Testament that we don't have time to talk about, through faith, verse 33, what did they do? They subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 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, women received their dead, raised to life again. Look, I would love to have any of those things in my life. Wouldn't you love to just subdue a kingdom or work righteousness, obtain promises from God? Hey, we would all love to stop the mouth of a lion, right, especially if we were in a situation with a lion. We definitely want to stop his mouth. You know, if the violence of fire is coming at us, we want it quenched. This all sounds great. Escaping the edge of the sword? Sign me up. Out of weakness were made strong? Sounds great. Let's do it. Waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight, the armies of the aliens, right, because there's so many stories in 2 Chronicles, for example, where you have these foreign armies, the armies of the aliens, right, foreign armies coming in, and God sends them away because the people of God had faith. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Look, if any of us had a loved one die, we would love to see that person be miraculously saved or come back from the dead or something like that, right? That's all super positive. That's all great. This makes me really want to be a person of faith. This makes me really want to exercise my faith in the Lord. But then what does the Bible say? Others were tortured. Now, that doesn't sound like a good reward for having faith. You know, okay, I believe God. I believe the promises of God. I'm going to live my life according to God's word because I believe that my life will end up better and that I'll be rewarded if I follow God's word. Okay, you receive torture. That's what it says. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Basically, they're just enduring torture and enduring more and more torture just because they know it's just more rewards in heaven. It's just a better resurrection. The more torture, the more suffering. I mean, these are the people that when they're persecuted, they leap for joy knowing that their reward is great in heaven. He says others had trial of cruel mockings, right? Look, nobody wants to be made fun of. But guess what? When you exercise faith, when you live a life of faith, it's not all going to be positive. Sometimes you're going to be tortured. Sometimes you're going to be made fun of. People are going to make fun of you, laugh at you. You're going to be a laughing stock. He says they had cruel mockings and scourgings, right? And sometimes it's not just words. It also can get physical, a physical beating, not only just getting made fun of but actually beat up or whipped or scourged. Moreover of bonds and imprisonment, right? Some people get arrested. They get put in prison for serving God. They were stoned, right? And that is something where you're dead. Stone means that you die. And it sounds like a pretty painful way to die. What does it mean to be stoned? It means people throw rocks at you until you're dead, right? So a bunch of people surround you, throw rocks at you and, you know, you hope that I guess that, you know, they throw a big one and hit you in the right spot sooner rather than later. But if you think about the Apostle Paul, he got stoned. Stoning is supposed to kill you. The only reason it didn't kill Paul is because they thought he was dead. So they're just throwing rocks at him and he stops twitching and there's a big pile of rocks on him and they just walk away just assuming he's dead. But then it turns out he's alive. But imagine being so pummeled with rocks that people think you're dead and they all go home. I guarantee you that he was severely injured and messed up, super painful. He was probably wishing that he didn't survive at times, you know, until he recovered because he's probably going through a lot of pain and suffering and misery, you know. But then he went on to do more great things for God after that. You know, but that doesn't sound cool. I don't want to be stoned and left for dead. Does anybody want to do that? Does anybody want to be sawn asunder? Asunder means in two pieces. Okay, I don't want to be sawn in half. You know, if I do get sawn in half, I'm just trying to think, do I want it to be vertical or horizontal? You know what I mean? Let's go vertical as long as you're starting at the top. Okay. Otherwise, I'll take horizontal. All right. So it says, you know, they're sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword. I mean, these are not fun things. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. So they're not exactly living their best life now. They're not exactly, you know, just worried about their portfolio and their 401k and their investments and their, you know, properties and so forth. No, they're wandering around in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented. But you know what? God looks down at these people and he says, man, the world is not worthy of these people. And these people are going to be glorified eternally. I mean, we're reading about them right now. You know, we're going to run into some no-name guy in heaven. He's going to be like, you know those people who wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins and the world was not worthy? Yeah, that was me. I was one of those guys. Oh man. Wow. That's you got more verses in the Bible about you than I got about me, right? Even if you only got one verse, it's quite a verse of whom the world, I mean, imagine God looking down and say, man, the world is not even worthy of you. You're such an awesome Christian. That's high praise coming from the Lord almighty of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dance and caves of the earth and these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. And what he's saying here is that they saw less of their work come to fruition than even us in the New Testament, because here's the thing in the Old Testament, it's like Jesus hasn't even come yet. These people are in the dark big time about what God's even doing. What is God's even plan? I mean, here's the thing. Even if our life is not going the way we want it to, or we're running into problems, at least we have the Bible with like Revelation in it kind of telling us, hey, you know, there's going to be a happy ending here and there's a lot of detail on how we win. You know, the Old Testament saints, they didn't even have the full Bible explain it. I mean, here's the thing. Job, it would have been nice if Job would have like had the Book of Job. You know what I mean? Like, like Job, Job is going through that job treatment without having the Book of Job. Like even if we went through something as bad as the Book of Job, which obviously I don't think any of us ever will. But if we did go through something as bad as Job, at least we'd have the Book of Job. These people are just kind of seeing it a far off. They're seeing through a glass darkly. And it's just kind of like, wow, they still push through. Can we push through? And this is why he wraps this all up at the beginning of chapter 12 by saying, 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. And so again, it's not enough to just get sin out of your life. It'd be like, all right, I'm going to run a marathon, so I'm going to lose a bunch of weight. Okay, I lost 20 pounds, but then you just don't do any running. Well, I'm glad you lost 20 pounds, but, you know, no medal for you. There's no prize for you. You did not do the work. You didn't run. And so what he's saying is, you know, you've got to not enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, but you've got to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. You've got to lay aside every weight, and then you've got to run the race. You've got to do both. There's two aspects to this. And then he says in verse 4, you've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. So what he's saying is that, you know, when you think about the hard things you're going through as a Christian, you're exercising faith, and yet bad things are happening to you. Just remember, well, at least I'm not being sawn in half. I'm not being stoned. I'm not wandering around in a sheepskin, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. And so the idea here is that we as Christians need to understand that, yes, faith saved us, and we're eternally saved, and there's nothing we can do to lose our salvation. But if we want to be an effective Christian, we have to keep on believing everything we read in the Bible, not just the stuff about salvation. Believe everything in the Bible. And if we actually believe that the rewards in the Bible are true, that the promises of God are true, we're going to act differently. We're going to make different decisions. Because we're going to basically have respect under the recompense of the reward, and we're going to be willing to endure now for the future glory, just like Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. We've got to do the same thing. We've got to endure whatever bad outcome as a result of exercising our faith. And so again, the one main thing I want you to take away from the sermon this morning is when you live a life of faith, when you believe the promises of God and stick by it, everybody else is bailing, everybody else is forsaking, everybody else is being lame and stupid and worldly and carnal and backslidden or whatever around you. And you say, I'm sticking with God's program. I'm sticking with the word of God. I'm going to keep on doing what the Bible says right now. I'm still going to keep believing what the Bible says no matter what. You know what? You're going to get some blessed outcomes. You're going to get some awesome outcome from that. But you're also going to get some negative outcomes from that. It's going to be a mixed bag. And just like Moses, he got some negatives and he got some positives. Go down the list of all these guys. We could talk about the negative repercussions of doing the right thing as well as the positive repercussions. You know, life wasn't all fun and games for David either or for Gideon or any of these people, right? They all went through bad stuff. At the end of the day, though, we've got to live a life of faith. What God's word says is all that matters. We've got to keep our eyes on Jesus, keep our eyes on the word of God, nuts to the naysayers. Who cares about the scoffers and the people who don't believe the promises of God or want to twist God's word to fit 2024 America? Nuts to them. They don't matter. Keep on going. And in the end, you will always be glad that you did. God will ultimately bless. You will be great in the sight of God. And that's all that matters. Let's pray another word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, the Hall of Faith. And Lord, help us to always exercise faith, to constantly be reading your word to figure out what it says and then believing it and therefore acting on the belief. And actually making decisions based upon believing that your word is actually true. Lord God, help us to, even in times where things are not working out, help us to keep on pushing through and keep following your word no matter what. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your song books, please. Go to Hymn 421, Hymn 421, the first Noel. Hymn number 421, begin to get on that first verse, sing the song, be dismissed. Number 421, the first Noel, the angels, it's saved. 421, sing it out. The first Noel, the angels, it's saved. What's to certain, more shepherds, it feels where they lay. It feels where they lay. They give you their shame on a cold winter's night that was so deep. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel, and by the light of that same star, It was they came from the tree, What to see, for a King was there instead, And to follow the storm wherever it went, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel, This star tonight to the northwest, O'er Bethlehem it took its rest, And there it did, most of it stayed, Right over the place where Jesus lay, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel, And entered in, those fires went free, O brethren, lead above their knees, And offered there, in his presence, For gold and myrrh and frankincense, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel.