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And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

I read a book some years ago that described prayer as ‘invading the impossible.’

”…even Sarah…”

Here is another thing faith does: it enables.

It enables the miraculous (11).

But note that the miracle is not so much attributed to the believer, nor to her belief, but to the One believed in. Nevertheless, she played her part. We must not miss this.

It is God who is ”able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20: see verse 12 and Isaiah 51:1,2). But it is ”according to his power that is at work in us…”

It is God who does the ”immeasurably more”;

It is ”his power” that is operative;

Nevertheless, Sarah had her believing part to play (and so do we), and play it she must (and so must we).

But the glory rightly goes to the great miracle-Worker: ”to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Eph.3:20).

So the prayer of faith invades the impossible. But we are not to take this passage to mean we can have any random miracle we pluck out of mid-air. Faith lays hold of what God has said (promised). It therefore has rock upon which to stand.

 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 

Faith goes.

If God shows the way, faith is willing to go.

He was probably in his mid-70’s when he went out from his own country. Sarah, his wife, was also elderly. We are never too old to be used in God’s purposes, if we are willing to step out with Him.

Martin Luther wrote:

‘In the first place, it was hard for him to leave his native land, which it is natural for us to love…Furthermore, it is hard to leave friends and their companionship, but most of all to leave relatives and one’s father’s house.’

It is probably hardest of all to leave behind the secure known in advanced years, when every instinct fights to stay with the known and with perceived comfort and safety. But what Abraham and Sarah would have missed if they had remained in their own land! What we would have missed!! So much hung on their going.

Calvin comments on Abraham’s obedience that the patriarch ‘did nothing that was not by the command of God. This is surely one of the principles of faith that we do not move a step unless the Word of God shows the way and shines before us like a lantern.’

It is important to point out that, for all these heroes of faith, although they had great adventures with God in this world, they were strengthened, encouraged and motivated by the hope of the next.

C.S. Lewis observed, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.

It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. (New Living Translation).

By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God. (The Message).

Faith works (see James 2:14-26).

Faith does certain things in response to what God has said or shown.

It regularly acts in daring and surprising ways.

‘Noah is a splendid example of the attentive believer, eager to hear what God is saying and ready to do what he commands…God said it, so Noah did it.’ (Raymond Brown: ‘Christ above all’, p.201)

Faith responds to God in certain ways that may well cause an unbelieving world to laugh or to loathe. People of faith are operating by a totally different principle to the rest of the world, and so they stand out from the crowd. They are like a light exposing things hidden in darkness. This does not necessarily make them popular. The New English Bible says: through his faith he put the whole world in the wrong.’

‘In every generation Christian obedience has powerful evangelistic value. Men and women are influenced not only by what we say to them, but by the way we respond to what God says to us.’ (Raymond 6 Brown: ‘Christ above all’, p.202).

Genesis 6:22 tells us that Noah did everything as God had commanded him.

But it was not his obedience that put him in the right with God. It was faith; and that faith was exhibited in radical and costly obedience.

 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

Faith prays.

Enoch prayed. He walked with God. At its heart, prayer is a relationship with God.

Someone said that Enoch walked so far with God, that one day the Lord said to him, ‘You’ve come all this way; there’s no point going back!’

Enoch and all the other people of faith listed in this chapter sought God earnestly, and they did so with the confidence that He would reward them. Raymond Brown notes that God not only reveals His existence to us, but also proves His generosity. Those who seek Him in every day life can testify to His goodness.

He also points this out:

‘The brief Genesis account of his long life contains the fascinating detail that Enoch did not always walk with God. There was a time, it appears, when the walk began. He ‘walked with God after the birth of Methuselah’. It may not be too much to assume that the responsibilities of parenthood forced Enoch to recognise his serious moral and spiritual limitations, and in this experience of inadequacy he may have felt himself cast upon God for help.’ (‘Christ above all’, p.200).

”You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer.29:13);

”Come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4:8).

What promises praying people have to feed their faith. The above are just two of many.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

It is correct to observe, I believe, that faith gives. Indeed, that faith is willing to give its very best. Faith is always involved in giving. This includes trusting God to meet our needs, and also trusting Him to use what we have given for His own purposes.

But the most important point to make here is that it is by faith (in Jesus) that we also come to be regarded as ”righteous” before God. In Scripture faith and righteousness always go together. They are conjoined – inseparable. On this point Abel speaks to us today, even though he is long dead.

We can no doubt think of others today who, although are no longer with us, still speak to us. We remember them with gratitude.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” George Washington Carver

As we work our way through this chapter we are going to see what faith does.

First of all, faith understands. The world says, ‘Seeing is believing’, but for people of faith ‘believing is seeing’.

Like Moses, paradoxically, we see the invisible (verse 27).

‘Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.’ Corrie Ten Boom.

Every preacher – or so it seems to me – should take heart from understanding that God created the universe by His almighty Word. What worlds of beauty might He continue to create (and sustain) in the hearts of those who hear His Word expounded?

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷ For,

‘In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.’

³⁸ And,

‘But my righteous one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.’

³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Here, at the end of chapter 10, we see clearly that in spite of his earlier severe warning, the writer to the Hebrews has every confidence that these believers will keep going. One incentive for them (and for us) is that Jesus will come again. The suffering will not continue for ever. Tom Wright points out that Christians are out of tune with this world because they are in tune with the future one. Therefore persecution in some form is to be expected. But Jesus will have the last word in human history. Those who know Him have every reason to hold on and keep going.

In the next chapter, we are going to be introduced to a catalogue of faith heroes who held on and kept going through thick and thin. How they inspire us (and even cheer us on from the stands!)

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

They needed to persevere; I need to persevere; and so do you. It is those who persevere to the end who will be saved.

I have long believed that perseverance (or endurance) is a seriously under-rated quality in the Christian life. (It’s been referred to as ‘stick-to-it-iveness’), It’s not spectacular. It doesn’t have connotations of spiritual fireworks. It’s just about putting one foot in front of another and keeping going.

The missionary pioneer, William Carey, said about himself: ‘If he give me credit for being a plodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond that will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.

Some days it is a noble and courageous thing to just get out of bed and carry on with life:

• to be faithful for one more day in that challenging marriage;
• to continue to love that oh so difficult relative;
• to return to the workplace which causes you much stress and anxiety;
• to press on with that ministry in which you feel unappreciated, taken for granted, and where there are few visible results.

How encouraging, then, to consider C.H. Spurgeon’s perceptively wonderful comment:

”By perseverance the snail made it to the ark.”

 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. ³³ Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴ You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. ³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

Following on from the severe warning we read yesterday, our writer reminds his readers of better days in the past, when they showed the fruit of genuine faith in their costly faithfulness to Christ and His church. Those were better days: days when the understood that they had ”better…possessions” in Jesus.

The hymn writer asked himself: ‘Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord?’

Sometimes we may need to remind ourselves (or be reminded) of how it was with us in the earliest days of our Christian experience. If we can ‘get back to where we once belonged’ we surely will keep going, and not throw our true and lasting treasure away – even though, at times, we may be tempted to do so. The spiritual battle is real and fierce, and we have a ruthless enemy. He will steal precious things from us if he can. We need to always be alert, continually standing guard, living in prayer and nourishing our souls with God’s Word

PRAYER: Lord, renew in me my first love, and help me love you more and more.

THOUGHT:

‘Lord, it is my chief complaint
that my love is weak and faint;
yet I love thee, and adore;
O for grace to love thee more!‘ William Cowper (from the hymn: ‘Hark my soul it is the Lord’).