Dr. M.J. du Plessis Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville Datum: 30 Maart 2003 (oggenddiens).

REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER 2001: MORNING SERVICE

Our help is in the Name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.

Psalm of praise: 18:1,15.

Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all the worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN

The Law : Ex. 20:1-17

Psalm 16:4.

Prayer

Psalm 2:1.

Scripture reading: Hebrews 11

Text: Hebrews 11:39

"... And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised... "

The power of this chapter of the Bible is that it shows us how the faith of a believer bears him/her through all the misfortunes and tribulations of life - how it is manifested in practical terms in our life.

In addition, this chapter provides proof that the faith of a true believer becomes stronger in proportion to the onslaught on him by Satan and his works.
The worse conditions in the world become, the better the believers grow to be.

Chapter 10 ends with the words that, for us, there can be no shrinking back from the degeneracy of this world.

All that is possible for the believer, is to stand fast in faith in the struggle against degeneracy, to the preservation of life.
If you shrink from the hardships and the battle of life, you immediately fail in your duty as a believer.

The believer must realize that the Lord makes certain promises in His Word. But all these promises are not fulfilled for us without our bearing our responsibility to the utmost of our ability.

The Hebrews should not relapse into self-pity on account of their hardships, for there are people who have suffered a great deal more than they.
There are even those who died, without their having ever seen, during their lifetimes, the fulfilment of the promises made to them!

In chapter 10 the author explained to the people that judgement fell upon those Christians who withdrew from the battle of life. He pointed out that one could maintain one's faith even under the most severe constraints. But even more: that you can perform at your highest level when under the greatest stress!

Chapter 11 follows, in which the author proves that it is in fact true that faith is a driving force which can inspire people to perseverance while under duress.

At the same time he also reminds the readers of his epistle that there have been such people.
He mentions their names and what they did.

Chapter 12 begins by stating how these people, of whom chapter 11 has spoken, watch over the Christians and encourage them in their struggle. If we note the place of chapter 11 in this sequence, we can well understand the contents.

In chapter 12 it is said of these people that they were victorious in their struggle.
What struggle? It is the struggle to maintain the faith.
This struggle to maintain the faith comprises their situation in which the Lord had given them certain promises, and certain testimonies - but in their earthly life these had never been received.

Or, as our text puts it:

"And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised."

How, then, did they emerge victorious from the struggle? To us they appear more like losers, because after all they did not receive what they had been promised! It is not a matter of speculation that they did not receive what had been promised - the Lord Himself states that they did not receive what was promised.

Their victory, according to the author, consisted in this, that, despite all these hardships, they nevertheless still performed supreme works of faith. In other words, all could see that they were victorious.
They did later receive what was promised!

Verse 40 states:
...because God had provided something better for us..."
Similarly, verse 38: ... men of whom the world was not worthy... The Lord bestowed what had been promised to them better in heaven.

The Lord therefore did fulfil the promises, but in a much finer way, because on earth the promises would have passed away with time.

For that reason the Lord took them away, and granted them these promises in heaven.

Chapter 11 provides the motivation for this verse. Verse 1 states the matter succinctly: faith is a firm conviction, and by it the men of old gained approval.

The first proof of this was Abel.

Abel received from God the testimony that he was righteous, but during his life he did not receive righteous treatment!
He received just the opposite. Cain killed him!
But, says the author, even after his death, Abel still speaks through his faith in his righteousness which he obtained from God.

Here the Bible refers to the fact that the Lord told Cain that the blood of his brother cried to him from the ground!
Naturally Abel's blood cried out that he was righteous, and that Cain had killed him!
The Lord upheld this appeal of Abel after his death on the grounds of the testimony which God Himself had given him.

So it became true first of all of Abel that he received the testimony that he was righteous, but he did not receive the fulfilment of the promise in this life.
The second example is Enoch.

While alive he received the witness that he pleased the Lord.
But he would not see the fulfilment of the promise on earth.
The Lord simply took him up from earth to heaven - the Lord wished to spare him the bitterness of death.
He received something better: his promises were fulfilled in heaven.

Later the author comes to one of the most striking examples, namely Abraham.

In faith, Abraham simply left a highly advanced city and his people, to journey to a land which the Lord would show him.

What qualifies this man's departure as an act of faith, is that he did not even know where he was headed!

And to this same man the Lord also promised that He would make of him a great nation.

When Abraham was already advanced in years, we see that he and his wife were still childless - but that Abraham yet clung to the promise.
Both Abraham and Sarah's faith in respect of this failed them at different stages, because we read in the Old Testament that both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God's promise.

- Abraham did so first, when the Lord told him about it - he was then seventy-five years old.
- Sarah laughed when she was eighty-nine years old - she thought it impossible for her to have a son at such an advanced age!
- But it is stated here in Hebrews that Sarah's faith was so abiding, on the strength of this promise, that she eventually did give birth to the promised son.

Of the promise that he would have many descendants and regarding the land he was to receive for an inheritance, Abraham in his life saw nothing.

It is thus true of him as well that, although he received the testimony through faith, he nevertheless did not receive what he was promised!

The author of this Biblical epistle tells further that the Israelites later left Egypt on the strength of the promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

They wanted to take possession of the land of their inheritance.
But their expectations were wrong. They expected that the Lord would prepare a city for them.

Moses led the nation out of Egypt, but he never experienced the fulfilment of the promise, because he died before they crossed the border of the promised land.

Yet he persevered, as seeing Him who is unseen.
His actions were driven by his faith!

The writer realizes, however, that one could misunderstand the situation. That is not how the Lord goes to work with everyone.

There are those who in fact do receive in this life certain promises given them.

Verse 33 records that there were many who conquered kingdoms in the faith, and thus received what they were promised!
Others even shut the mouths of lions! Here the author unquestionably refers to the military exploits of Gideon and his tiny band, and to Daniel in the lions' den.
There is also mention of women who, through faith, received again their dead. This again is a reference to those resurrected by Elijah and Elisha.

But the author does not wish to talk about these people. He intends rather to speak of others who endured terrible ordeals, for the sake of the promises, but never received what they had been promised. These are the persons referred to in verses 36 and 37. They were tortured and stoned and sawn in two and chopped into pieces with the sword.

Now you should not think that it was only believers in the New Testament who were stoned for their beliefs!

In 2 Chronicles 24:20ff we read that the priest Zechariah stood before the people. The Spirit of the Lord was on him.

He asked the Israelites why they continued to transgress the commandments of God.
The people were so angry because he had reprimanded them that they stoned him to death in the court of the temple!

It is of such persons that the cloud of witnesses is comprised (12:1)! People who had the testimony, but never experienced the fulfilment of the promises!

1 Peter 4:12 deals with the same matter: We must not be surprised at the fiery cloud of persecution over us, because this serves to test us. It will also grow more acute as we await with joy the revelation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The comfort in all this is to be found in Jesus' words in John 16:33:

"In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

This message also appears in Hebrews 11:38:

"...men of whom the world was not worthy..."

It is as if the author wishes to say: It is no wonder that believers endured such terrible ordeals! Because they do not belong in the world.

The promises made to them cannot be fulfilled in the world of sin, because then they will not be everlasting!
This verse recalls verse 13, where it is written that all these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

The earth was not worthy of them, therefore the promises were fulfilled in a world in which they had permanent domicile. In heaven, where they would also not be exiles. They at least had the promise.

We are now living under the promise of the Second Coming. The Christ-centred message of this is that He is the awaited Promise.

The witnesses of the Old Testament believed that He would come to remain.
And when the promise of His coming was fulfilled, He came in a manner which was unacceptable to the people - they had set other standards for the coming of the Messiah than those which God had.

Christ came with the promise that He was King of God's kingdom, but this was also not fulfilled during His life on earth.

That is why we find Satan with Him after His baptism. Satan tempted Jesus to deviate from God's promises.
He, Satan, would bestow on Christ the kingship, if only Christ would worship him.
Then Christ refused, because God's promise was that Satan would be subjected in the Kingdom of Jesus. There Satan would be unable to set any conditions or make any promises.
For that reason Jesus then ordered Satan away.

Golgotha came. Jesus died, and up to that stage He had not yet assumed the throne beside His Father. Why not? Because this world was unworthy of Him - as it is written here. He would rise from the dead and go to prepare a place for us in the abode of His Father, because God has provided something better for us (verse 40).

The heroes of the faith in this chapter were all prophets who with their own lives foretold how Jesus' life would be.

In His earthly life the promises would not be fulfilled. But THROUGH His life they would be.

Because by His life Jesus planted the Church.
By His life and deeds He fulfilled the promises.
By His death He overcame death.
By His ascension He provided for us the place where what we were promised would be fulfilled for us.

By His power He ensures that the promises to us will be fulfilled - to us who are prepared to maintain the struggle - even if those promises are not realized in this life. Precidely because Christ's promises are not ordained for us in this life, but in the better one. In the life in God's kingdom.

Our lives must provide testimony to it that we live and struggle against every wrongful power like people who see the unseeable. That must be the attitude with which we commemorate the coming of the Lord, and with which we await His Second Coming.
AMEN.

Closing prayer.

Closing Psalm 73:10

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
AMEN.

Rev. Dr. M.J. du Plessis,
Reformed Church, Bellville,
16 December 2001