It Is Not Death To Die Nor Loss To Lose
Hebrews 11:32-40
When George Adams lost his job at an Ohio tile factory, the most practical thing he did, he thinks, was go to move his family to Houston so he could get under the teaching of megapastor and best-selling author Joel Osteen. Inspired by the preacher's insistence that one of God's top priorities is to shower fantastic material blessings on Christians who will live by faith in this lifetime, Adams chose to make a commitment to God to live by faith and at the time this story came out in 2006 was, as a result of that commitment, believing that God was going to provide him with a six-figure income, a three bedroom dream house on twenty-five acres with horses, a horse barn, a pond, and maybe some cattle. Commenting on his faith vision, Adams said, “It's Joel Osteen that taught me this. Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for his children?"
Now in a TIME Magazine poll conducted in 2006, 61% of the professing Christians polled agreed with Adams and his teacher Joel Olsteen saying that they believed that God wants all of His people to be prosperous. In fact, in Olsteen’s best selling book “Your Best Life Now”, he makes the point that, "To live your best life now . . . you must "start looking at life through eyes of faith”, which means you need to start living by your faith.
And my question regarding this message, which is nothing less than a repackaged “prosperity, health and wealth gospel”—is this—does it square with what the Scriptures teach about living by faith and what you can expect to happen to you when you do live by faith?
Turn with me to Hebrews 11:32-40 and let’s find out.
1. Living By Faith Will Put You In Situations In Which You Will Experience Trials of All Kinds. (Heb. 11:4-31)
We don’t have enough time to review all the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11 but very quickly let me just remind you that it was because Abel did live by faith and obeyed God that he was killed by his jealous brother Cain. And it was because Noah lived by faith and built an Ark that he was mocked and considered an idiot by his neighbors. It was because he was living by his faith that Abraham went through the unbelievable agony of offering his son up to God as a sacrifice only to be stopped by God in just the nick of time. It was because Moses was living by his faith that he had to choose between the prosperity and riches of a life in Egypt and a life of relative poverty identifying with the people of God. I could go on but I think this sampling is sufficient to demonstrate that living by faith probably does more to put God’s people in situations in which they will experience trials than it does in keeping them out of trials.
The Christian who decides to get serious about his faith and gives up a high paying job and a home in the suburbs to serve the Lord in an inner-city mission is probably going to experience more trials than if he just maintained the status quo. The Christian college student who in wanting to live by her faith takes a stand against evolution in her biology class will probably experience more stress than if she just kept quiet. Listen, living by faith does not make you immune to problems. If anything, it will cause you problems.
2. Living By Faith May Be Instrumental In Delivering Us From Many Trials. (Heb. 11:32-35A)
Whereas, many in Hebrews 11 experienced trials as a result of living by their faith—many of them—in fact most of the ones whose names are listed for us in the chapter also were delivered from their trials as a result of living by their faith.
Noah lived by faith and experienced the salvation of he and his family in the flood.
Abraham lived by faith and experienced the deliverance of his son Isaac from what appeared to be sure death. Moses lived by faith and had his life salvaged from great sin. And when you read Hebrews 11:32-35a, you see that many others who lived by faith experienced great works of God on their behalf in delivering them from all kinds of trials and suffering. So it is true that God does deliver people from their trials in response to their living by faith—but is it something He does all the time?
3. Living By Faith May Be Instrumental In Delivering Us Over To Trials That Will Take Our Lives, Result in Intense Suffering or Great Personal Loss. (Heb. 11:35B)
Notice that in the second part of verse 35, there is a significant and very noticeable change of course. And it begins by talking about “others”—other people who also lived by faith but who were not delivered from their trials and their sufferings and their losses on this earth. These were the people in Hebrews 11 who persevered in their faith by persevering in their painful and trying circumstances as they entrusted themselves to God’s care and sovereign will even when God did not rescue them from their troubles, deliver them from their pain, or fulfill all His promises right away.
Now in Hebrews 11, everyone mentioned has in common the fact that they lived to make much of God. Every single person mentioned in this chapter made pertinent and pivotal decisions that demonstrated that God and being with God and enjoying God was by far greater than anything they could experience on earth or anywhere for that matter. But what is not common to everyone in Hebrews 11 is how those decisions impacted their lives and in fact—their deaths. You see, whereas, in the first 35 verses of Hebrews 11, God in response to the faith of His people in His promises delivers them from great and troublesome and sometimes life-threatening situations—this is not always the case. From the second part of verse 35 on to the end of the chapter, God in response to the faith of others who are His people does not deliver them from great and troublesome and sometimes life-threatening situations. Instead, in response to their great faith and faithfulness, He chose to not deliver them from torture (35); mockings, scourgings, imprisonment (36); being stoned, sawn in two, tempted, put to death by the sword, made destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (37); and in fact, made them homeless (38). And all this happened to people who according to verse 39 were people who had gained God’s approval through their faith.
But the really interesting thing about this section is that in the second part of verse 35, which begins this section about those people of faith who were not delivered by God, is that it tells us that these people chose this kind of suffering by making decisions to make much of God and thus incur this kind of treatment when they did not have to. Look at v. 35. They were people who while being tortured chose not to accept their release from this torture when it was offered to them because they believed so intensely that suffering for Jesus and eventually dying for Jesus would give them a greater reward in the resurrection than accepting their release.
The word that the Greek uses for “torture” here in v. 35 is actually racked. It means to be placed upon the rack and stretched so that everyone of your extremities is one-by-one pulled out its socket. The method was cruelly painful and slow, providing its victims with plenty of time to think about confessing a particular crime or in the case of God’s people denying Him. Throughout the painful ordeal of having his limbs pulled out of their sockets, the victim would be given the opportunity to end all of his suffering and even be rewarded with gifts of money, position, and prestige if he would just deny Christ—just once. Thus, the Christian on the rack, had to determine which he esteemed of greater value, the relief of intense searing pain and the promise of worldly riches and position or the rewards of Heaven. If they persisted in their faith and would not recant, the torture on the rack became even more painful and terrifying. The victim would, while having their legs and arms out of their sockets, be beaten. If that didn’t get them to deny Christ, they would then be scalped and mutilated with knives, hooks, and pokers.
If there was still no denial of Christ, the victim’s tongue would be ripped out and then fried over a fire in front of the victim. Finally, the Christian would be put over the fire until dead.
Now with that understanding of the word in your minds, read v. 35 again. These people, the writer of Hebrews has in mind—at each stage of their torture on the rack were offered a way out—a way to escape the searing agony and pain—yet they would not accept relief because to do so would mean to deny Christ and that would mean a loss of heavenly reward. And you see, their Faith—caused them to see that as bad as the pain and the agony of their situation was—and that as good as escape and relief appeared—it would cost them greatly in the end and thus, they endured by the power of God and did not quit—because they were looking to the reward of a “better resurrection”. They did not see the offer of release as being of God’s hand and so they stayed and stood and suffered and died because they esteemed eternal reward and glory as of infinitely greater value than the temporary release from a painful situation and temporary reprieve from death. And God took them up on it and did not deliver them from death—so much for the “health” part of the prosperity gospel, huh!
In fact, as you work your way through the rest of these verses from v. 36-38 you’ll find that all the kinds of believers listed there, if they did not die for living by their faith, suffered great personal loss. They were made fun of, whipped, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, put to death with the sword, lived in destitute poverty wearing only animal skins, and were basically homeless living in the out of doors. Sounds like the prosperity gospel, doesn’t it?
And if you noticed, I skipped one of the blessings of living by your faith and that was that “they were tempted” found there in the middle of v. 37. That’s important. And it is important because we have this idea that if we are really living by faith and walking with God that we won’t struggle with temptation. Sorry—you’re wrong. The fact is—the struggle will be even more intense than it was when you didn’t give a lick about it.
And according to verse 39, they were all living by their faith and had gained God’s approval for doing so. Well I don’t know about you—but the results I see in the Bible that come from living by your faith and the results promised by the “prosperity health and wealth gospel” just don’t square up.
CONCLUSION
True Biblical Faith does not always deliver us from our trials but always delivers us in our trials even if directly to Heaven.
True Biblical Faith does not prevent us from suffering in this world as much as it produces suffering that God does not always alleviate or rescue us from.
True Biblical Faith does not obligate God to rescue us from our troubles, temptations, and tragedies.
True Biblical Faith enables us to entrust ourselves completely to God and His Sovereign Will regardless of whether we are delivered from our trials or delivered in and through them.
True Biblical Faith is never expressed when God’s people demand that He do such and such for them or deliver them from their adversity whatever it may be.
True Biblical Faith is expressed best by the believer who quietly and patiently submits to whatever God sends his way as he meekly rests in God’s sovereign will believing with all of his heart that God will only do what is best and necessary and will only do it for as long as necessary.
True Biblical Faith understands that God while working in all of His children does not do so in the same way, to the same degree, and to the same degree of intensity—So quit comparing your trials!
Only God knows how your decisions to live by faith will turn out because He is the One Who has planned how they will turn out because only He knows what is necessary in your life to conform you to the image of His Son the Lord Jesus. And as far as God is concerned that process of becoming like Christ is much more important and rewarding than what we are falsely promised in the “prosperity—health and wealth gospel”. God knows and wants us to know that “it is not death to die nor loss to lose when He is your greatest treasure and pleasure in life.” In the end—none of us can choose our trials or our sufferings when we choose to make much of Christ in a world that doesn’t—all we can do is choose to believe that God knows what is best for us and will do exactly that.
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