Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 11

Verses 1-17

XXV

THE HEROES OF FAITH

Hebrews 11:1-12:17.

All the great heroes of the past achieved their glory and immortality by faith, the distinctive and conquering principle of the new covenant, which especially laid hold upon new covenant promises. Indeed, this section is introduced by a reference to the fifth great promise of the new covenant just discussed. Hebrews 10:36 closes thus: "For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a little while, he that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. But we are not one of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul" (Hebrews 10:36-39).

Here is the promise – the speedy coming of the Lord. Here especially they have need of patience. These Asia-Minor Jews were suffering great afflictions, trials and persecutions. Their oft-promised Lord delayed his coming to deliver them. They were tempted to give up all hope of the promise. The exhortation is that a justified man must live by faith. If he shrink back God has no pleasure in him – that a true Christian does not shrink back unto perdition, but has faith unto the saving of his soul.

To illustrate his thought, Paul calls the roll of their illustrious dead and shows their patience of faith and their steadfastness, not only under greater trials than any of these people were subjected to, but held on unswervingly, though they knew that the promise would never be fulfilled in their day. He appeals to heroic history. History not only teaches lessons and imposes obligations, but summons all the mighty dead as witnesses of the present, and encourages to present fidelity. The author of Hebrews has that creative faculty – the imagination – and makes the history live before us. The heroes are quickened, come out of their graves, and as sympathetic spectators, crowd the amphitheater of our racecourse. They beckon, they clap their hands, they wave their crowns and shout: "Don’t faint! Don’t fall! Come on! Come on, and win the race!"

He opens the discussion, not so much with a technical definition of faith as a description of its nature: "Faith gives substance to things hoped for." That is his first idea. Let us illustrate: A debtor offers in payment of his debt a certified check for the amount due. That check is not money, but serves as money. The creditor’s acceptance of the check gives substance to it. He knows the bank on which it is drawn and the trustworthiness of the cashier’s certificate. The debtor does not need to show him the bullion in the bank that makes it good. A promise that is adequately assured and guaranteed may be used as cash in the money market. So the future things promised in the new covenant, like the coming of our Lord, excite our hopes, and faith, resting on the guaranty of the promise, gives present substance to the things hoped for. By faith thus exercised, the powers of the world to come are here.

His second idea is that faith is a conviction of things unseen. The invisible thing may be past, present, or future. But God’s word certifies its reality. Faith takes God at his word and is a conviction that the worst is true, though not demonstrable to the carnal senses. We may not see it – for faith walks not by sight – it may not be audible nor palpable, but God said it, and it’s true. In all the examples to be cited one or the other of these ideas of faith is evident.

His third idea is that God himself bears witness whenever such faith is exercised, and this divine witness-bearing, realized in our experience, is a confirmation, or assurance, to the believer which justifies his faith and gives experimental rest and peace to him, for as says the text "Therein the elders had witness borne to them."

His fourth idea is that –

Such faith confers an earthly immortality: "By it, he being dead, yet speaketh." That voice never becomes silent. Faith makes the believer an orator, a poet, a prophet forever. The voices of unbelief die utterly away.

In this glorious chapter we shall see other virtues of faith:

1. ID two cases it has secured translation over the river of death, and will again, on a mightier scale at our Lord’s coming.

2. It always pleases God, and without it God cannot be pleased.

3. It brings salavation – sometimes temporal, always eternal.

4. It both conquers and condemns the world.

5. It sustains under a privation or torture.

6. It is a spiritual telescope, bringing the invisible and heavenly world into clear view, and the spiritual microscope discerning God’s providence in the fall of a sparrow.

7. It confers potency on impotency.

8. It staggers not in unbelief, though the dead must be raised to fulfil the promise.

9. It has the spirit of prophecy, foretelling future events.

10. It is the principle by which great decisions are made.

11. It divests of all fear except the fear of God.

12. It is the principle of obedience, progress, and sanctification.

13. It overcomes the insuperable and achieves the impossible. It passes seas and rivers dry-shod, crumbles the walls of hostile cities,, subdues kingdoms, obtains promises, stops the mouths of lions, quenches the power of fire, escapes the sword, waxes valiant in fight, accepts spoliation of goods, wanders unawed in mountains, and sleeps undisturbed in dens and caves of the earth.

14. It understands origins, and destinies, and the supernatural – all beyond the ken, and outside the realm of human science and philosophy.

15. It controls the life, being the eye and ear and hand and heart of the soul.

We now take up, in order, the cited examples of its power:

1. "By it we understood that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear." That is, it learns more in the first sentence of the Bible than all human science and philosophy ever discovered, to wit: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." To create is to bring into being without the use of pre-existing material. That one sentence answers all atheism, pantheism, stoicism, Epicurianism, agnosticism, materialism. In this’ first example "faith is the conviction of things unseen." No man was there to witness. We take it on God’s word. He alone being present, reveals the past. We do not ask science or philosophy to account for the universe. The scientist and philosopher were not there.

We prefer to accept the testimony of the infinite eyewitness and agent rather than the puerile fancies and contradictory conjectures of finite absentees.

ABEL AND CAIN (Hebrews 11:4)

This is the first recorded case of saving faith on the one hand, and of unbelief rejecting the gospel on the other hand. The case is every way notable:

1. These were probably twin brothers – the first born of woman.

2. The mother’s hopes turned to Cain, believing him to be the promised seed that would bruise the serpent’s head.

3. The Lord dwelt between the Cherubim as a Shekinah, or sword flame, on the newly established throne of grace, at the east of the lost paradise to keep open or shut, the way to the tree of life.

4. A way of approach to God had been appointed through sacrifices, both expiatory and nonexpiatory, the latter nonacceptable when not based on the former.

5. From the throne of grace two ways divided: The way of faith, and the way of Cain. In one or the other the whole human race has walked.

6. The expiatory sacrifice proclaimed its offerer a sinner, seeking mercy through a propitiation. The nonexpiatory without the other announced its offerer as denying himself to be a sinner in need of atonement, and acknowledged only the necessity of a thank offering.

The record shows both men coming before the Lord with sacrifices, and Jehovah’s accepting the one and rejecting the other. Here we need to read the Genesis history of the transaction, and then the New Testament interpretation:

1. The text says (Hebrews 11:4) Abel had faith, i.e., he looked to the unseen Antitype of his propitiatory sacrifice and gave substance to what he hoped for.

2. This sacrifice was more excellent than Cain’s.

3. God’s witness assured his faith. This was an internal witness of the Holy Spirit to his spirit.

4. God bore witness by fire to the excellence of his offering, as in the case of Gideon (Judges 6:21) and David (1 Chronicles 21:26), and Elijah (1 Kings 18:38). This was an external witness.

5. By his faith, though dead, he yet speaketh. The excellence of this sacrifice consisted in its confession that he was a sinner, approaching God in the appointed way for propitiation of sin, by the blood of a vicarious sacrifice. Again this letter teaches that the blood of our Lord sprinkled on the heavenly mercy seat speaketh better things for us than the blood of Abel’s typical lamb (Hebrews 12:24).

The apostle John, in commenting on the Genesis history, goes deeper into the origin of the case: "Not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous." His context plainly attributes the difference in the actions of the two brothers to the difference in the filial relations, not to Adam and Eve, but to God and the devil. Abel was born of God, and Cain was a child of the devil. The one following his spiritual origin, believed, loved, obeyed. The other, following his spiritually devilish origin, did not believe, did not obey, but hated and murdered his brother. Jude, the brother of our Lord, warned these very hesitating Jews of the dispersion that denying the Lord is "going in the way of Cain." As has been said before, from that first altar scene, two ways diverge:

1. The way of Abel, followed by Seth, Methuselah, Noah.

2. The way of Cain, followed by the other antediluvians who perished in the flood.

3. After the flood, all the world population, descendants of Noah according to the flesh, diverge according to their spiritual descent. It was so in Christ’s time, who said: "Ye are of your father, the devil." It is so now. Spiritual descent alone determines the way we follow.

THE CASE OF ENOCH

This case is remarkable in its bearing on the fifth promise of the new covenant. From the Genesis history we learn the turning point in the life of Enoch. He was sixty-five years old, and a child had just been born to him. A revelation from God caused him to name the child "Methuselah," which means that the world would be destroyed when this child died. And indeed the flood came the very year, and perhaps the very day, that Methuselah died. The revelation made a profound impression on Enoch’s mind. He was converted, and from that time on walked with God. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. Enoch was reconciled to God and companioned with him all the rest of his life on earth. His faith was remarkable in two directions:

1. It went beyond the flood, beyond the first advent of our Lord, even to his final advent and the very purposes of that advent. The spirit of prophecy came on him, and he spoke concerning the last scene in the drama of time: "And to these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him: (Judges 1:14-15).

2. It was yet more remarkable in its effect on himself. Genesis says, "Enoch walked with God three hundred years. And he was not, for God took him." The text in Hebrews explains "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and he was not found because God translated him; for he hath had witnesses borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God" (Hebrews 11:5). His faith here evidently laid hold on the fifth promise of the new covenant – the final advent of our Lord – for it is only at that advent that all living Christians are glorified without death, as explained by Paul elsewhere: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written) Death is swallowed up in victory. 0, death, where is thy victory? 0 death, where is thy sting?"

Here the apostle describes a harvest. But Enoch and Elijah, by mighty anticipatory faith, were firstfruits. Look at that word "translated," derived from the compound Latin word, trans – "across" or "over," and ferro, the irregular verb "to bear," or "to carry" – he was borne across, or over, the river of death. The principal parts of this verb are transferro, transferre, transtuli, translatum.

As in all the other cases Enoch had witness borne to him that he was well-pleasing to God – a double witness: First, internal assurance by the Holy Spirit; second, external witness in his translation. Enoch, therefore, was the first man who ever entered heaven in both soul and body. An apocryphal book has been attributed to him, which is discussed in the interpretation of the book of Jude.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the promise of the new covenant introduces Hebrews 11?

2. How does Hebrews 11 illustrate the introduction?

3. What creative faculty is employed in the method of using this history?

4. What metaphor concludes the argument?

5. State the several ideas and virtues of faith in this discussion.

6. Cite and expound the first example.

7. In the case of Abel and Cain, what the facts that make it notable?

8. What are the five points in Abel’s case?

9. In what did the excellence of his sacrifice consist?

10. Expound the reference in Hebrews 12:24.

11. Cite John’s reference to the case, and show how he goes to the root of the matter.

12. How does Jude use the case?

13. In the case of Enoch, what and when the turning point in his life?

14. What is the result on his life?

15. Show the two remarkable characteristics of his faith?

16. In what two ways was witness borne to Abel? To Enoch?

Verses 1-29

XXVIII

THE BETTER FESTIVALS

So far as the letter to the Hebrews is concerned, I quote two passages of Scripture: "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle" (Hebrews 13:10). The other passage is just one word of Hebrews 12:23: "You have come to the general assembly" – the Greek word, panegyris, which means a festive assembly, that is, an assembly not for business, and not for war, but for joyous festivities.

The theme of this chapter is the seventh great promise of the new covenant to wit: The Christian’s festivals superior to the old covenant festivals. I divide this into four heads.

First, the feasts of support. The sacrifices of the altar that went to the support of the Old Testament priesthood, and it is to that that our first passage quoted refers: "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle." To show the meaning of that first thought, we will turn in our study to 1 Corinthians 9:13-14, which presents the same thought exactly: "Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel." One of the accusations made by Jews against Christians was that their covenant made ample provision for their priesthood – those who were set apart exclusively to the service of God. Now, it is promised them by these passages (1 Corinthians 9:13-14; Hebrews 13:10) that Christianity has a better provision for its ministers than the Jews had for their priesthood – that it comes by s special ordinance of the Lord that they who preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. In the old covenant the things that were for the Levites to eat were never sin offerings; these sin offerings had to be entirely consumed. They would not eat of part of that, but some burnt offerings were not sin offerings. Of these they have a part and also of meal offerings the parts of the crop and the parts of the flock, and the parts of the increase, the tithing; that portion was made for the support of the Levites and the priests. It is the object of the apostle to claim that Christianity makes a better provision not based upon an ad valorem tax, nor a certain amount of specified increase, nor a certain portion of each burnt offering, nor a sin offering; nor a certain portion of the thank offering, nor of a meal offering; but a general ordinance of Jehovah that one whose life was consecrated to the preaching of the gospel must live of the gospel. That is the first thought.

The second thought is the family, or memorial feast of the Passover. In the book of Exodus we have an account of the establishment of the Passover, and of the feasts of unleavened bread, and of the lamb, and of bitter herbs. In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul discusses these feasts and what the Christian has to take the place of them, using this language: "Purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: wherefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators, not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous or extortioners, or with idolators, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat" (1 Corinthians 5:7-12). That is the first exclusion in the institution of the Lord’s Supper – an exclusion of church members whose lives are at war with their profession.. We are to come to that feast in sincerity and in truth, each one examining himself as to his faith in Christ; and we are to partake of that feast shut off, not from outside evildoers, for they are not in it at all, but from such as are members of the church who are extortioners, liars, thieves, idolaters; from men whose lives are outrageous in sin – with such do not eat.

Whereas the Jew kept that feast as a family, our family is the church. They kept the feast, each family apart – the Christians keep this feast as a church family, every church having jurisdiction that can exclude from participation in that feast all unworthy. Thus they celebrate that Memorial Feast of our Lord. That is the first exclusion, that is, exclusion from the inside. I now show that outsiders cannot partake of this feast, and I give a passage from 1 Corinthians 10:15: "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless) is it not a communion (or participation) of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not a communion (or participation) of the body of Christ? Seeing that we who are many, and are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Behold, Israel after the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices communion with the altar? What say I then that things sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything; but I say that the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I would not that ye have communion with demons. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons; ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons."

You see in that part in the Christian festival there is no open communion with false worship. It is a close communion document. Here is the table: it is the Lord’s not mine. If it were mine I could put it out under a tree in the yard, or in the cellar, or in the field, or in the house. If it were mine I could invite anybody to eat with me that I pleased, but it is the Lord’s table, and the cup is the cup of the Lord, and the Lord must say who shall partake of this feast.

In such a place as Corinth, where there were intermarriages, it was the easiest thing in the world for a woman who was a Christian, to be approached by her husband, who was an idolater, who might say, "Let us partake together; you come and eat my feast with me and I will eat your feast with you." Here comes the injunction – it is not a participation of husband and wife – it is a participation in the blood and body of Christ, and we cannot take the cup of the Lord and the cup of the demons, for idolaters do worship demons – their oracles are demon oracles. So that is the second thought of the Christian festival. We now come to the –

Third thought: the love feasts. From the Old Testament, just after the covenant on Sinai was ratified, we have this record. "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heavens for clearness, and upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand, and they beheld God and did eat and drink" (Exodus 24:9-11).

That feast of joy was celebrated after the ratification of their covenant. In Judges 1:12 he refers to Christian "love feasts" this way (he is talking about those that deny the Lord Jesus Christ and that go in the way of Balaam for hire, or in the way of Korah by gainsaying): "These are they who are hidden rocks in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars for whom blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever."

There is a feast after the ratification of the new covenant. It is called a love feast. In Acts 2 this love feast is used in contradistinction from the Lord’s Supper. I will first take the passage about the Lord’s Supper: "And they were constant in their attendance on the public teachings of the apostles, and in contribution, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." Breaking of the bread there refers to the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. "And all that believed were come together and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all according as any man had need. And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people."

Out of that passage in Acts, and the one in Jude, grew up after apostolic days "love feasts" of a somewhat different order. They would have that feast at the time they had the Lord’s Supper, making a common meal of it, and would sometimes extend the feasting unto excess, as I have known Negroes to do. I saw a Negro love feast once. Their communion wine was a jug of whiskey, and their unleavened bread was stacks of pies arranged along the side of the wall, and they would drink the whiskey and eat those pies, and join hands and have a regular hallelujah dance. Church history tells much about these love feasts. The Methodists have founded spiritual love feasts. They do not give bread to eat, or wine to drink, but have a soul feast.

The point that I am making is that in the joy that came to the old covenant people after the blood of the sacrifice had been sprinkled, and the covenant had been ratified, the representatives went up into the mountain in the presence of God and had their feast in his presence. So the Christians, after the ratification of their covenant, came to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and had their feasts and their spiritual communion.

I come now to the fourth thought. In the Old Testament there were general or national feasts – not family feasts, like the Passover, but the Feast of the Tabernacles and the Feast of Pentecost. Once every year they would come up and live in tents, and Jerusalem would have millions of people in it from every part of the world. The Jews would come up in general assembly. It was an exceedingly joyous time with them with all the dispersion coming from the ends of the earth. What is there in the Christian covenant superior to that? It is expressed in Hebrews 12 in that word, panegyris – a general festive assembly. Paul strictly follows the Greek custom in the use of words. Each particular Greek state was an independent civic government, an ekklesia, but every four years say, the entire Greek nation would come together in a general assembly – a panegyris – that was the name of it. They did not come together to make war on each other: "let not the Lacedamonians come up to the panegyris with arms in their hands." They had feasts and games and great joy. The apostle seizes upon that refinement of Greek thought to show that as each church here on earth has its Lord’s Supper, so there will be a general assembly of all the people of God – not for the transaction of business, for business is done; not for war, for war is over – but they come together in heaven in a great festive assembly.

I give some of the passages that bear out this idea. There must be something more than a reference to the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22:28-30: "But ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." In Matthew 8:11 Jesus says, "Many shall come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and shall recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God." That panegyris seems to be in his mind. In Luke 16:22 we have a picture of a single person coming up from death and joining that panegyris: "And it came to pass that this beggar [Lazarus, starved to death on earth, hungering for even the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table] died, and he was carried away by angels into Abraham’s bosom." The thought is based on the posture of reclining at a feast that as at the Lord’s Supper, John leans his head against the bosom of the Lord, so that poor starved-out man on earth, as soon as he dies, goes to the great heavenly festival and rests his head upon the bosom of Abraham, while that rich man, who fared sumptuously every day here on earth, as soon as he died, woke up in hell, burning with consuming thirst and hunger. But Lazarus goes to the panegyris – the general assembly. Let us consider one more passage on it. In Matthew 26:29, where our Lord has just instituted the Lord’s Supper and is holding the cup in his hands after they had participated in it, he says, "I shall drink no more of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new [not as it is now] in the kingdom of God." That is a clear reference to the same thought. In other words, the idea of heaven is: Warfare is ended, privation is ended, and the widely scattered people of God are brought into a general assembly. Of course this imagery here is spiritual; it refers to the joys of redemption of God’s people – not isolated and imperfect – but assembled and glorified.

Let us now restate briefly these four thoughts of the festival. The first thought is that while the Jew had an appointed provision for his priests and Levites of which a Christian could not partake, so our Lord made provision for his ministers that no Jewish priest could share, to wit: "They that preach the gospel shall live by the gospel." Second, that as the Jew had his love feasts, so the Christian has his agapae, for social and religious enjoyment. Third, that as the Jew had his Passover family feast, the Christian has his Lord’s Supper, or church feast. Fourth, that as the Jew had his national festivals every year when all Jews came together, the Christian will have his panegyris, when all Christians of the universe shall come together in one great festive assembly.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the seventh great promise of the new covenant?

2. Under what four heads is this treated?

3. What two passages are cited from Hebrews bearing on this matter?

4. Contrast, under the first head, the provision of the old covenant for the support of its priests, with the provision of the new covenant for the support of its preachers.

5. Under the second head what feast has the new covenant analogous to the Jewish Passover?

6. The Jewish Passover was a family feast. What is the Lord’s Supper?

7. In respect to how many classes is the Lord’s Supper exclusive?

8. Show what members of the church, even, are to be refused participation?

9. What scripture bears on its exclusiveness of outside religion?

10. What would you argue from its being. "The Lord’s table – the cup of the Lord" – as bearing on invitations to participation in its observance?

11. Under the third head what love, or joy feast, was held after the ratification of the old covenant?

12. What single passage names the new covenant "love feasts?"

13. What is the character of Methodist "love feasts?"

14. Under the fourth head what New Testament passages are cited bearing on the heavenly feast?

15. What one Greek word in Hebrews names it?

16. Distinguish between the particular Greek assemblies called ekklesias and their general festive assembly called panegyris.

Verses 6-40

XXVI

THE HEROES OF FAITH (CONTINUED)

Hebrews 11:6-40.

We commence this chapter by glancing back to the witness borne to Enoch, with the broad affirmation: "Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him."

This affirmation not only condemns atheists who say there is no God, and deists, who, while admitting his existence, deny his revelation in the Bible, and all who deny from any cause his providence and supernatural intervention by miracle and answer to prayer, but it also condemns all hypocrisy, ritualism, formalism, or other perfunctory obedience and worship on the part of those who, however orthodox in profession, yet in heart and life deny him. Its teaching is on a line with a previous exhortation that as our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been in all points tempted as we are: "Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need." That is no religion at all, whatever its guise, which does not avow and practice the doctrine that there is a throne of grace and mercy, approachable directly, at any time or anywhere, by any member of the human race in this life and free from the unpardonable sin, and that God hears and answers prayer according to a supernatural, spiritual law, which is above what is called the course of nature as defined by human science.

At the beginning of a great meeting in Waco I preached a series of sermons on "He that cometh to God must believe that he is and a rewarder of them that seek him," and applied it particularly to the Holy Spirit, pressing the questions: Do you believe there is a personal Holy Spirit? Do you believe he is present? Do you believe he is a prayer hearing God?

Noah. – "By faith, Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; through which he condemned the world, and became the heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith" (Hebrews 11:7). The order of events here are:

1. God, by special revelation, warns Noah of the destruction of the world by a flood.

2. He commands him to prepare an ark according to a given plan for the preservation of his house and such animals as were necessary to repopulate the earth after the subsidence of the flood.

3. Noah believed God’s revelation and obeyed him in every particular.

4. The flood came according to the warning, and Noah and all with him in the ark, human and other animal life, were saved and did repopulate the earth. See Genesis 6:13; Genesis 9:19; and compare 1 Peter 3:19-21; 1 Peter 4:6, and 2 Peter 3:1-15, and Matthew 24:37-39.

This stupendous achievement of faith is remarkable from at least three considerations:

1. The event predicted was unseen and unforeseeable by human wisdom.

2. It was contrary to all antecedent human experience, and contrary to the established order of nature.

3. It was on a scale of magnitude to stagger credulity.

4. Its alleged reasons were on moral and not natural grounds.

5. It called for great and long-continued labor and great expense. The ark approximated the Great Eastern in size and tonnage. The various supplies to sustain its occupants for a year added enormously to cost and labor.

6. The one matter of isolating from their fellows and assembling in the ark at a particular date the required pairs and sevens of animals was wholly beyond unaided human power.

7. The jeers and scorn of an unbelieving world added greatly to the difficulty of obedience.

This book declares:

1. That in all this course, Noah was led by faith

2. That by this faith he became an heir of righteousness

3. That by it he condemned the unbelieving world

4. That believing God, he was moved by fear.

Men are influenced by motives. The hope of reward and the fear of punishment influence all men. In my youth I read the great sermon on Noah by Andrew Fuller, of England, It brought out the greatness of the faith of Noah as did no other sermon I ever read. It made a profound and lasting impression on my mind. This is the Andrew Fuller whose exposition of Genesis I commend. The case of Noah was a worthy background for the exhortation of this letter.

Abraham and Sarah. This case is every way worthy of note, because Abraham is called "The father of the faithful," and his faith declared to be the model faith for all the future, fixing the standard to’ which even the faith of our day must conform. All of us are required to "walk in the steps of his faith." A faith that will not take steps, moving out and forward – "from faith to faith," "from grace to grace," "from strength to strength," "from glory to glory," is no faith at all in a gospel, saving sense.

It is not denied, but claimed, that the faith by which we are justified is one definite act, at a given moment of time. But it is also claimed that the justified one shall live by his faith. Justification is instantaneous, but sanctification is progressive, and we are sanctified by faith as well as justified. So that while it will always be true that one act of faith justifies us all at once and once for all, yet that faith does not then and there go out of business, but lives, moves, steps out unto every development of sanctification. There are no degrees of faith laying hold of justification, but it is in the realm of sanctification that faith is little or great, swift or slow, hesitating or unstaggering, commendable or censurable. It is in this light we examine the model faith of Abraham, citing four distinct events in his history:

1. His call while in Ur of the Chaldees. – Two scriptures need to be connected with this text: the words of Stephen (Acts 7:2; Genesis 12:1). The common version correctly renders Genesis 12:1: "Now Jehovah had said." As there is no pluperfect tense in the Hebrew, we translate the Hebrew past tense into the English pluperfect when the context demands it The revision makes his call originate in Haran, and nullifies a half-dozen scriptures, including the preceding context. This was a call to a promised place, not only yet unseen, but one he would never see in this life. By faith he obeyed God, not knowing whither he went. This first vision of God turned him from idolatry and put him on a pilgrimage. It answers to that part of our experience expressed by contrition and repentance, but has not yet found peace in acceptance of a Saviour. So Bunyan makes his contrite pilgrim leave the city of Destruction and set out to find a heavenly country, but yet burdened with unpardoned sin for a part of the way, until he comes to the cross. So far there is indeed faith, but faith in a what and not in a whom.

2. This faith did not rest on the land of Palestine; that would be only swapping Ur for Syria. He dwelt in tents in that land, moving continually as a sojourner, not possessing a foot of ground there as a home, because he looked for the celestial city. So, in our experience we are dissatisfied with this world and long for a heaven of rest, even before we are converted.

3. But now we come to the great definite transaction of his life – one famous starlight night. The circumstances were these: He had just returned to Hebron from his victory over the five kings and from his tithe-paying to Melchizedek, priest of the most high God. His mind was greatly troubled on three points:

(1) His maintenance, seeing he had refused to accept even a shoe latchet of the spoils or compensation from the rescued king of Sodom.

(2) He was full of the reaction of fear after his triumph. He was only a stranger in the land with only 300 men – shifting pasturage from time to time by sufferance of the Canaanite nations, who might at any time turn against him and spoil him of his wealth – and by his intermeddling had incurred the hostility of powerful kingdoms.

(3) He was old, his wife was barren, and his slave was his heir. Suddenly an unearthly visitor enters his tent. And here the record (Genesis 15:1-6) introduces a number of new words and phrases occurring for the first time in the Bible:

(1) "The Word of the Lord," or "The Logos" Why need John go to Philo for his Logos, when he could so easily find it in Genesis 15? (2) "Shield," (3) "believe," (4) "imputed for righteousness." We know this "Word of Jehovah" was a person, and the "Logos," for he was visible. "He came in a vision," not in a sound, as a common word would do. He was visible, audible, palpable. "He brought him forth." This was a person. Abraham saw him, and hence after the Logos was incarnate, he said, "Before Abraham was I am . . . Abraham saw my day – he saw it and was glad."

Let us note this remarkable interview between Abraham and his Saviour: "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield." In other words, "be not afraid of the enmity of the five kings of Mesopotamia, nor of the uprising of Canaanite nations, nor of Egypt, nor of Philistia. I, as a shield, am between you and all foes." In Ephesians we are commanded to take with us the shield of faith, not faith as a shield, but God, the shield, which faith grasps and interposes to catch all the fiery darts of Apollyon. "I am thy reward," "Blessing, I will bless thee." God insured to him basket, store, and cattle, and safeguarded them from the spoiler. "Thy servant shall not be thine heir," but potency shall come on thy impotency and on the barrenness of thy wife. By supernatural power a son of promise shall be born of thee. From him shall come the Messiah. Then the Logos took him by the hand and led him out of the tent to look upon the star-spangled sky of an Oriental night, saying to him, "More than the stars of heaven, more than the sand-grains on a world-circumference of ocean beach – more than all these shall be thy seed." Then Abraham, looking not on children of the flesh, but on the countless multitude of spiritual children "saw Christ’s day – he saw it and was glad." The record says, "He believed on Jehovah, and it was imputed to him for righteousness." Then and there was Abraham justified. He now believed on a person and not a proposition. "I know whom I have believed," says Paul. But this justifying faith that entered his heart that night once for all, also becomes the living principle of his life "My justified one shall live by faith."

(4) So we come to the great trial of that faith in his later life – the one unique experience, unshared in some features by any other man. He is commanded to take Isaac, the child of promise, his only and well-beloved son by his wife, and offer him up as a sin offering. This commandment seemed to be squarely against the promise: "In Isaac shall thy seed be" – "sacrifice Isaac." The great events of the trial are these:’ The case of Moses. This case is very remarkable on many command and promise, but argued: Both are true and right and in harmony. God will fulfil the promise by raising Isaac from the dead.

2. Abraham alone, of all men, was made to experience, in some degree, the feelings of the Father in giving up Jesus to die for men.

3. Isaac alone, of all men, was to share somewhat the experience of our Lord in submitting voluntarily to a vicarious death as a sin offering at the hands of the Father.

Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau. It is evident that Isaac personally preferred to bestow the blessing of primogeniture on Esau, but against nature and by faith he bestowed it on Jacob.

Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph brought his boys to Jacob for a blessing, so placing them that Jacob’s right hand would rest on Manasseh, the elder, and so bestow the greater blessing. But Jacob, too dim-eyed for earthly sight, yet seeing by faith, crossed his hands and put the greater blessing on the head of Ephraim, the younger.

Joseph. "By faith he gave commandment concerning hi½ bones." The elements of his faith were:

1. He believed the word spoken to Abraham, that his people would be enslaved for a long time in Egypt, though ib was then against human probability.

2. He believed that after a long servitude God would deliver his people and take them to Canaan, the Promised Land, and so commanded that his bones be taken with them.

3. He believed in the resurrection of the dead, else why be concerned about his body? Mere animals care nothing for the dead body of their kind. Birds care nothing for the shells out of which they were hatched, nor snakes for the skins they shed. The reader should read Melville’s great sermon on "The Bones of Joseph."

The case of Moses. This case is very remarkable on many accounts.

1. The faith of his parents.

(1) Pharaoh’s law required all male children to be cast into the Nile when born. Their faith saw in the child a great future, so they hid him three months.

(2) When hiding was no longer possible they were not afraid of the king’s command, but by a faith which used means they put him in a water-proof vessel, and placed him in the rushes in the brink of the Nile.

(3) They stationed his sister to watch the outcome, and so engineered it that his own mother should nurse him for Pharaoh’s daughter.

(4) In the time they kept him, they instructed him in the revelations and promises of their religion and so safeguarded him when he entered the palace. So Lois and Eunice safeguarded Timothy, in that from a child he was instructed in the Holy Scriptures. Thus all Christian parents should bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of God.

2. The faith of Moses himself. At a great turning point in his life, his faith enabled him to make a wise, decisive choice. "And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works. But when he was well nigh forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian and he supposed that his brethren understood that God by his hand was giving them deliverance, but they understood not" (Acts 7:22-25). "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked unto the recompense of reward’’ (Hebrews 11:24-26) On these passages note:

1. That a revelation from God came to Moses. This we infer from "it coming into his heart to visit his people," and their deliverer. There is no record in his history prior to this time that he was appointed deliverer. Nothing but a revelation from God can account for the tremendous and instantaneous change in him.

2. It has been said that religion is only for children and weak-minded women.

But here is a mature man, the best educated of his age, "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," a man of affairs, mighty in words and works, occupying the highest social position, even a prince of the greatest nation then on earth. All pleasures bidding for his enjoyment of them, uncounted riches at his disposal, who, not on an impulse, but on mature reflection, carefully weighing the moral qualities of human action and pushing his investigations to the eternal outcome, deliberately refuses all earthly honor, pleasures, and treasures, and casts in his lot with a generation of despised slaves.

Such unnatural conduct, reversing every worldly maxim and motive – indeed such a revolution – calls for an adequate explanation. We desire to know the principle guiding his choice, and the ulterior motive prompting his action. The text says, "by faith he refused" one set of things; "by faith choosing rather" the opposite set of things; "by faith accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Faith, then, was the principle by which he chose. The text then lays bare his motive, the consideration influencing his life, to wit: "for he looked unto the recompense of the reward." He had come to the forks of the road of life. On one way were earthly learning, pleasures, treasures, palaces, and power, with a royal sepulcher in the Pyramid of Cheops. On the other was social and literary downfall, ill-treatment, reproach, the desert, poverty, weariness, toil, and an unknown grave on which mortal eye would never rest. But over that flower-bordered way was written: "The way of sin" and over all its horrors was also written: "Only for a season," and at the end of the way loomed up the dark and eternal recompense of the reward. That way was like Niagara – very insidious in its ever-increasing suction, and the boom of fall Just ahead.

Over every foot of the unpleasant way was written: "The way of righteousness and the company of the people of God," and over all its horrors was also written: "Only for a season," and at the end of the way was the glorious, eternal recompense of the reward. Faith, then, in making this choice, was the exercise of the highest reason. Other great men, like Washington, Gladstone, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, have exercised this highest expression of reason. Here was no weakness of puerility, no mere sentimentality, no gullibility, no fanatical superstition. Moses, having chosen the reproach of Christ, and cast in his lot with the people of God, is now a Christian – a justified man. So far, his faith appears as the principle of choice. But –

3. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." This refers to his flight into Midian and desert life of preparation for forty years more.

4. "By faith kept the passover," looking beyond the symbol and memorial to "Christ our Passover Lamb to be sacrificed for us."

5. "By faith he passed through the Red Sea as by dryland." So the end of his life, the faith which justified him once for all, lived and conquered over every opposing obstacle.

We may here pause to inquire, after the lapse of thousands of years, if the results, now apparent, justify the wisdom of the choice of Moses.

Where now are the pleasures, and treasures, and glory, and learning of ancient Egypt? All forever gone. Her Pyramids are empty, her Sphynx is dumb, her oracles are dead, the wood of her palaces is wasted, and the stones have crumbled, and a nation of degenerate slaves crouches amid her ruins, or wanders over her deserts. But look at the monuments of Moses. His Pentateuch talks in all languages, and underlies all the legal codes of the highest civilizations. His Psalm 90 echoes at all funerals, and his song of deliverance at the Red Sea is one of the hymns of heaven (Revelation 15:3).

We content ourselves in this discussion with the elaboration of the great cases of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, covering the rest of the examples cited with questions that follow.

QUESTIONS

1. What does the affirmation in Hebrews 11:6 condemn?

2. What is an essential characteristic of any religion, without which it is no religion at all?

3. What is the order of historical events in the case of Noah?

4. What facts constitute Noah’s faith a stupendous achievement?

5. What are the resultant declarations of the text concerning Noah?

6. Who preached one of the world’s greatest sermons on the faith of Noah, and what other great work did he write?

7. Why is the case of Abraham specially noteworthy?

8. Distinguish between (1) Some belief before saving faith, (2) saving faith, (3) sanctifying faith.

9. What four events of Abraham’s life are selected for illustration?

10. Illustrate Nos. 1 and 2 of these events by Bunyan’s pilgrim.

11. In what chapter of Genesis do we find the account of Abraham’s Justification, how do you prove it, and what the new words in that chapter?

12. Where does John get his Logos in the first chapter of his Gospel?

13. State the circumstances of the visit of the Logos to Abraham, and what three senses attested his presence.

14. Is faith itself a shield? If not, what, and what then faith’s relation to the shield?

15. What is the great trial of Abraham’s faith, and show how command and promises were in apparent conflict.

16. What are the three great events of this trial?

17. How is it evident that Isaac blessed Jacob with the right of primogeniture by faith?

18. How is Jacob’s faith evident in blessing Ephraim and Manasseh?

19. What are the elements of Joseph’s faith?

20. Who preached a great sermon on Joseph giving commandment concerning his bones?

21. Why the difference between men and brutes in caring for the dead body?

22. State the elements of the faith of the parents of Moses.

23. What is the first great element in the faith of Moses, and what the scriptures giving an account of it?

24. What noteworthy things in these passages?

25. What the principle by which Moses made his choice, and what the consideration or motive?

26. Show from this case of Moses that faith was highest reason in rejecting one way and choosing the other.

27. Cite other great men of history who have found faith and the highest exercise of reason.

28. How do you prove that Moses, at this time, was justified?

29. What exploits of his faith after justification are cited?

30. Judging from the viewpoint of today, what the evidences of the wisdom of the choice of Moses?

31. What exploits of faith are cited from the period of Joshua?

32. Who preached a great sermon on Rahab’s faith, and what his text? Ans.: Spurgeon. Text, "The Scarlet Thread."

33. Who of the judges are cited as heroes of faith?

34. Consider the list of achievements in Hebrews 11:33-38, and prove that Samuel "wrought righteousness."

35. Prove that David "subdued kingdoms and obtained promises," "escaped the edge of the sword," "waxed valiant in fight," "wander- ing in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of the earth,"

36. In whose case was "stopped the mouths of lions"?

37. In whose "was quenched the violence of fire"?

38. What woman "received her dead raised to life"?

39. Recite the case from the Maccabees of the martyred mother and her children.

40. What noted prophet was "imprisoned"?

41. Who was "stoned"?

42. Who "sawn asunder"?

43. Who "went about in sheepskins"?

44. On Hebrews 11:39-40 answer: (1) What is meant by "not receiving the promises?" (2) What is meant by "some better things concerning us"? (3) When will they and we be made perfect together?