Sermon Central
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Wall Moving Faith
Contributed by Gary Holt on Oct 21, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: God works in ways that are strange to us. But God's ways are best. God provides salvation and we bring the faith.
“Wall moving faith.”
We have been going through Hebrews chapter 11:
- This is known as the faith chapter.
- It stretches into the beginning of chapter 12.
We have been reminded:
- all the way through this chapter,
- that anyone who has a relationship with God
- has that relationship based on faith and not works.
Hebrews 11 is a response:
- to the current view in those days
- that following a set of rules and ceremony
- rituals and morality would earn your salvation…
These examples in Hebrews 11:
- inform the reader that no one
- ever earned their own salvation
- not in the Bible and not today
- salvation has always been by God’s grace and our faith
We are not saved by our EFFORTS,
but by the WORK of JESUS on the cross…
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NIV)
o Remind us that God saved us or we are not saved at all
o That no one comes to the Father except through JESUS
o It is God who saves us, we cannot save ourselves….
We are saved from Sin and saved for good works…
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
So the Hero’s of the faith:
- Worked from a position of salvation
- They did not work for salvation
Oswald Chambers:
“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”
https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/principles-for-a-living-faith-john-dobbs-sermon-on-faith-241354
It is the same for believers today:
- We are saved by faith
- There is no other way to be saved.
Salvation is by faith alone.
- in verse 3, “By faith”; and
- in verse 4, “By faith”; and
- in verse 5, “By faith”; and in
- verse 7, “By faith”; and
- in verse 8, “By faith”; and
- verse 9, “By faith”; and
- verse 11, “By faith”; and on and on it goes.
Romans 5:1-2 NIV
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”
So we are saved by faith:
- but faith only works if faith works
- because we know that faith without works is dead
We must live our faith:
- our faith is more than a feeling
- our faith must move, trust and build
- we must step out in faith
- to trust and believe in God as he leads.
It has been said that “God works in mysterious ways.”
- God rarely operates how in terms of what we think is normal.
- Many times God does a thing,
- while teaching people to trust Him
For instance:
- God told Abraham to kill his son Isaac, the son with a promise.
- God instructed Noah to build a giant ship, where there was no rain or water.
- Hosea was told to marry a harlot.
- Ezekiel - lay on your side for 390 days and eat a scroll.
- Peter was told to come walk on the water with Jesus.
True faith is courageous:
- To move forward at God’s command
- Often in a new, unusual, or confusing manner
- Because God said to and that’s all that matters.
We can all agree that:
- God’s way is the best way, and
- God has always been faith, and will always be faithful
- So we can TRUST HIM and OBEY HIM FULLY
Today we come to our text in Hebrews 11:30:
- Where God’s people once again face a seemingly impossible situation
- And God gives them really strange instructions
- And by faith they obey God and gain the victory
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.”
Let me set the scene:
- God delivered His people from 400 years of slavery in Egypt
- their disobedience, their UNBELIEF,
- led to their 40 years in the dessert
Recently Israel experienced:
- The miraculous of crossed the Jordan River in Joshua chapters 3-4
- The Israelites finally reach the edge of the Promised Land near Shittim.
- Their great leader Moses had died, and
- God had transferred power from Moses to Joshua
Jericho is the gateway to the Promised Land:
- to get to the land of milk and honey
- First, they must destroy Jericho
