FAITH SERIES: WHAT IS BIBLICAL FAITH?

Sermon VI: Faith Leaves A Legacy

Text: Hebrews 11:20-22

Introduction:

This morning we are going to see what the Holy Spirit can teach us here in these passages about faith which defeats death and leaves a legacy. The late great Matthew Henry had this to say about faith in the face of death: "Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout the Christian's life, yet is especially so when we come to die. Faith has its great work to do at the very last, to help believers t finish well, to die for the Lord, so as to honor Him by patience, hope and joy, so as to leave a witness behind them of the truth of God's word and the excellency of His ways."

Now here in this majestic chapter on faith we are given three great examples of men who faced death with full faith. However, they had not always lived their life full of faith, yet they left a legacy of faith. As we examine epochs in their lives from the Book of Genesis, we will find them at times to have lacked faith many times. But at least, when all is said and done, they are making their exit from this life, exhibiting great faith.

The Psalmist drives home for us this essential element of faith when faced with death, when he writes: "mark the perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that man is peace" (Ps. 37:37). Having said that, let us turn back to our text in Hebrews 11:20-23.

The point the writer wants us to get across to us is that all these men died never having seen the fulfillment of God's promise. And so they passed on these promises to their children by faith, they left a legacy of faith. Let's back up to (v. 13) - none of them saw the promises fulfilled in their lifetime, yet their faith and confidence in God's word and his faithfulness to His promises, they passed on these promises in death, by faith to their children. They knew God was a covenant keeping God. Do you believe that today? They knew that while they may die, the promises of God could never die.

We ask ourselves this question, what is a legacy. In many cases a legacy is money or property handed down from a deceased ancestor. As good and noble as that may be, the greatest legacy I believe we can leave anyone is a legacy of faith. That our ancestors can look back and say he or she loved their God, lived for their God by faith.

Having previously illustrated to us how Abel worshipped by faith, Enoch walked by faith, Noah worked by faith, Abraham was the pattern of faith. Now we see men who at death's door left a legacy of faith. First of all, we see Isaac.

I. Isaac Passed On The Legacy of Faith to an Individual (Heb. 11:20).

It is interesting that Isaac lived longer than all the other patriarchs, yet the very least is written about him here. The reason being is because the people this letter was addressed to would have been very familiar with Isaac. They heard the stories over and over, but since we are not Jewish scholars we need to look back a little bit at Isaac.

In Genesis 26, we can find a list of Isaac's failures. It is interesting how many times he did not take God at His word. First of all, God specifically instructed Isaac, "Go not down into Egypt" (v. 2). Although their was a famine in the land, Isaac was to "dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of." Isaac was further instructed by God that he was to "sojourn in the land" (v.3). What that means is that he was just to be a stranger there, passing through - just as Abraham by faith "sojourned in the land of promise" (Heb. 11:9). What does Isaac do? He "dwelt in Gerar" (Gen . 26:6); he landed there and put his roots down. Why was that significant? Because Gerar was occupied by the Canaanites, a pagan people. This was Isaac's first big mistake.

Second, while living their he did the same thing his father Abraham did earlier, he lied about his relationship Rebekah (v. 7); trusting her to preserve his life instead of God. In spite of his lie God was still gracious and protected him (vv. 8-11), and God blessed him (v. 12).

Let me clarify one thing here, God was not blessing Isaac because of his faith - He was blessing Isaac because of God's faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham. But look how God deals with Isaac to get him out of that land. He allows the Philistines to block up all the wells that Abraham had previously dug (v. 15). Isaac is still not listening to God, he just moves to another parcel of land and digs a well, then the Philistines come along and stop up the well (v. 18-22).

Often times we wonder why doors are continually closed to us, maybe God is trying to get you to the place where He has really called you, and like Isaac we are not listening. Finally God got Isaac to Beersheba, where he wanted him, and He appeared unto him (vv. 24-25). Look how grace operates. Because of our stubbornness we often delay God's promises in our life. But thank be to God: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). Are you like Isaac resisting and delaying God's promise for your life?

How did Isaac finally do the right thing to establish his faith here in faith's hall of fame? First of all, when his wife Rebekah could not have children by faith Isaac began to entreat God praying and asking that God would make fruitful her womb (Gen. 25:20-21), and Isaac was forty years old at the time. She finally conceived twins and gave birth when Isaac was sixty years old (v. 26).

Now remember when Jacob and Esau were still in Rebekah struggling, she went to ask the Lord why this was so and she was told "two nations are in thy womb … and the elder shall serve the younger" (26:23). Isaac knew of this all those years, yet at then end of his life, he tried to circumvent his promise by giving legacy blessing unto Esau the older rather than Jacob the younger. But once again, God intervenes into Isaac life to assure the linage of the brome of the Abrahamic covenant.

Well now maybe some of you are asking how does this show faith on Isaac's part?  When Esau came back with the meal for his father after hunting, and he realized that Jacob had received his blessing. He asked his father Isaac replied, "I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him; and what shall I do now unto thee my son" (Gen. 27:37).

It is right hear that Isaac realizes that against his own will, his own plot, against his own fleshly design for Esau, God has supernaturally granted the blessing to Jacob. It I here he tells Esau I cannot change it, Jacob will remained blessed. Now this thing climaxes into faith, because whether he blessed Jacob or Esau, he believed by faith in the Abrahamic promise being passed on to one of the two children. So as he faces death, his faith was legitimate. It was so legitimate that it is recorded here in the Book of Hebrews.  Isaac by faith left a legacy of faith to Jacob, although he never saw the premise of God fulfilled in his lifetime, he believed it so strongly that he passed it unto the next generation. So while Isaac had a rough start, he finished well in faith Second, we examine Jacob's faith.

II. Jacob Passed on Legacy of Faith to a Family (Heb. 11:22).

The life of faith of Jacob was like his father Isaac, it was up and down. Sometimes he walked by faith, other times he walked by sight. This fellow Jacob is amazing. Remember Jacob stole Esau's birthright, even though God wanted him to have it. That does not make what he and his mother did right. They wanted a good thing, but they got it in a bad way. He tricked his father, and has to flee for his life to his Uncle Laban's home (Gen. 27:43).

On the way to Laban's place, Jacob stopped over night at Beersheba, the place were God brought his father Isaac (Gen. 18:10). There God introduces himself to Jacob and reaffirms his promise. He is preparing Jacob for what he will encounter, because he has nothing on Uncle Laban. God is going to given Jacob a taste of his own medicine through Uncle Laban. To make a long story short, Jacob meets Rachel and he wants to marry her, so he makes Laban an offer to serve him for seven years in exchange for Rachel's hand in marriage at the end of the seven years. But at the end of the seven years, he is tricked by Laban and ends up marrying her older sister Leah. So Jacob served him another seven years to get Rachel in marriage, and he finally got her (Gen. 29:28).

Now we know that God prospered Jacob, so he eventually left with his family, and all his wealth, only to meet God a the River Jabbok (Gen. 32:22), where he wrestled with God. That wrestling there with God was an illustration of Jacob's whole life up to that point, he was always wrestling and struggling to get God's promises and blessing. That night he was a changed man, no longer wrestling with God, but now clinging to God by faith.

As Jacob's life comes to a close down in Egypt, he lifts himself off his bed and leans on his staff, he believed the promise of God enough to pass it on to Joseph's two sons.

Now that brings up an interesting issue, because Jacob had twelve sons, but God had chosen the birthright not to go to the eldest Ruben, but rather to Joseph. Listen to Deuteronomy 21:17 - "But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the first born is his." The wife that Jacob worked so long to get was Rachel, her first born was Joseph and remember he was hated by his brothers; that is why he was sold into slavery.

Look at this by faith, when Jacob was dying here is his act of faith he treated Joseph's two sons as if they were his own eldest sons Ruben and Simeon (Gen. 48:5). Even then Joseph wanted the blessing to go to the eldest, but Jacob said of the youngest shall come a great people (Gen. 48:19). God was working his plan, and his ways are not our ways. Jacob didn't even know these boys (48:8-9). For Jacob to give this blessing by faith, God had to reveal it to him. Third.

III. Joseph Passed on the Legacy of Faith to a Nation (11:22),

Joseph is dying here, we read about in Genesis 50:24. Joseph spent most of his life in Egypt. He's dying and he is going to have to be buried there, and he says I want to you about your departing from Egypt . It had now been about 200 years since the promise of God in Genesis 15. None of them Isaac, Jacob or Joseph had physically seen or experienced the promise of God to make them a great nation and to given them a land. But by faith as Joseph is dying, he makes them take an oath, to bring his bones out of the land of Egypt, when they depart and bring them to the land God has promised to Abraham. That's faith my friends. How did he know that, because he like Isaac and Jacob before him, they believed God's promise, although they had not seen it in their lifetime.

This promise came through an individual named Isaac, then to a family through Jacob, and finally to a nation through Joseph. What faith these men had in the face of death. Can we have such faith in the face of life, to dare to trust God according to his word, even when our physical sense to not perceive it?

Let's Stand and Pray!