Faith is not only about triumph but also about enduring trials, as demonstrated by the examples in Hebrews 11. While some, like those who passed through the Red Sea and conquered Jericho, experienced God's direct intervention for victory, others faced torture, mockery, and death, not accepting deliverance to obtain a better resurrection. The sermon emphasizes that God's purpose in allowing trials is to refine believers, making them stronger and more like Christ, as seen in the Apostle Paul's acceptance of his 'thorn in the flesh' for God's strength to be perfected in his weakness. Ultimately, the Christian life is a race of endurance, requiring believers to lay aside sin and run with patience, looking to Jesus as the author and finisher of their faith, trusting that all things, even trials, work together for good.
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Hebrews chapter eleven, commencing to read at verse twenty nine. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot, Rahab, perished not with them, that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
But what shall I more say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, but they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, They were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report, through faith, received not the promise. God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the thing which does so easily beset us.
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand, of the throne of God. Now, if you're marking your Bibles or your New Testament, the key to our little talk this morning is the word found in verse thirty-five and verse thirty-six.
The word, O-T-H-E-R-S, others. First thirty-five women received their dead, raised to life again, and others. Up to this present moment we have been talking about men and women, the old boys and girls of the School of Faith, who triumphed the triumph of faith. But now we are going to see that there are others who were allowed the trial of faith.
You know, the trial of your faith is very precious to God. When the trial comes, it's like the goldsmith, putting the gold on the fire and bringing it to its greatest heat. And as the gold is molten, slowly the scum of the gold comes to the top and he removes it. and he looks at the surface of the molten gold for his only image, longing for purity in that gold. And it has been often said the goldsmith is never far away when the gold is on the fire. Sometimes a loving heavenly father has to put his children onto their backs for a time so that they might look up into his face from a bed of sickness because in the busy rush of life they largely forget him.
There is such a thing as the chastening hand of the headmaster, the school of faith, has a father of spirits, and the father of spirits longs for the education of his children. And it's not only the triumph of faith, it is the trial of faith that is so precious to the Lord, as Peter puts it, So practically in one Peter chapter one, verse seven and eight. Now I want you to pick up the story in verse twenty nine of our chapter. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down. Forty years lie between these two great happenings that speak of the faith of newborn Israel. Brought as a pack of slaves out of Egypt's bondage, born a nation born to God in the desert, to a new life and walk with God, in the school of faith, by faith they pass through the Red Sea. And with a shout, a song, the Lord hath triumphed gloriously, you see them beginning the pathway of faith in the desert, in utter dependence upon God.
If I read my Bible or write, in about three or four weeks they could have marched to Kadesh Barnea. They could have sent the spies in if that was necessary. Faith should have rested in the word of God, a land flowing with milk and honey given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But if you must send spies in, go and see the grapes and see the giants and the hills and the valleys. And they stood trembling in unbelief at Kadesh Parnia, and they refused to go in to possess their possessions. They did not enter into Canaan's rest by faith.
And from Cady Spania they turned back. And turning back there's a history of forty years of wandering. And most of them died in the desert. Only Joshua and Caleb and a few entered the promised land of rest. Do you know the Spirit of God through his servant seems to search for some happening of faith. that could be recorded in forty years in the desert but couldn't find it. God's faithfulness and love and grace and wisdom and power again and again displayed toward his people. They basked in the sunshine of his presence, but their response almost nil.
And so when a generation has died in the desert, God has to bring them by a back door to Jordan. Now, don't misunderstand me when I say this. There was no need for those redeemed blood-bought people out of Egypt to go through water twice. There was no need for them to go through Jordan if they'd gone in at Cady Spania and possessed that land and entered into their rest in the presence of God, having victory after victory after victory from God's hand. All would have been lovely, but they turned back and the desert wandering showed them at last the weakness of their own effort.
They came to the end of their own resources. And under Jesus, Joshua, God allowed them to pass through the waters of Jordan, leaving trill stones under the water in the place of death. and bringing twelve other stones to the place of resurrection on the farther side. And then God took it out of their hands. The walls of Jericho fell down. The land was opened to them, and they went in to possess their possession. By faith they passed through the Red Sea. By faith they passed through the Jordan to possess the land.
But the desert showed their own unbelief, their own weakness, the sin that doth so easily beset us, says the writer. When he brings this down to the practical politics of application, he says, wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, the old boys and old girls of the school of faith, let us lay aside every weight. Let us run with patience the race which is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the word looking means to look and keep looking, to live looking to the one who is the author and finisher of our faith.
And he wants us to enter into all that God has for us. Then keep your eyes in chapter eleven. He moves to the faith of a harlot, Rahab, Rahab the harlot. We've studied that character already this week. The girl who found peace for herself and her family by her faith. Then bursting out as many a preacher has to, time would fail me to tell. And he gives us a list. of Gideon and Barak and Samson and David and Jephthah and Samuel and the prophets.
And we think of the spring of major and minor prophets who gave us the word of God. What amazing characters they wear. And then he begins to list certain happenings. And I tell you, I want you young people to use your imagination, because I believe in the service of God, a sanctified imagination is one of the greatest weapons that God can use in your hands if you go into the ministry. We are living in a world that's always imagining things and picturing things, and we've got the sacred and holy things of God. And when a record comes from the Word of God, make it live.
Bring it up to date. Let it capture the interest of people. Now look, let's go down this list and see if you've got an imagination at all. Verse thirty-three, whose three faith subdued kingdoms. Can you think of someone who did that? Immediately my mind goes to the great mountain prophet Elijah, who comes stooping down into Ahab's palace. who brings the prophets of Baal to naught. Oh, he subdued kingdom. Wrought righteousness. I think of the prophet Nathan who stood before David and put him right in the hour of his sin and corrected that king in his disgrace.
Obtained promises. Somehow I think of lovely Elisha. who took the mantle of Elijah when it fell and went back in the spirit and power of his master to do the greater things. Stop the nows of lions! Dear old Daniel, dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. And when he got in the lion's den, the lions couldn't eat him because there was too much gristle in him. Well, anyway, God was there, and through Daniel's faith he stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire. Bless you, there's old Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
We as naughty boys used to call them, shake the bed, make the bed, and into bed you go. But there it is, these three boys, these wonderful boys, quenched the violence of fire. Escape the edge of the sword. Immediately my mind goes to dear old Jeremiah. So easily he could have been killed by a sword, but he escaped. Out of weakness were made strong, and I think of little Ezekiel, whose name means strengthened of God, who served God in the backlands of Tiber. lost his precious little wife in those days of captivity.
She died, and he went on with his witness as if nothing had happened. Oh, what wonderful people! Out of weakness were made strong, waxed, valiant in the fight. I think of Jonathan with the sword in his teeth, climbing up to the Philistine stronghold to beat them and capture it for God. turn to flight the armies of the aliens. And I think of Joab, the great soldier, the leader and commander-in-chief of the troops of Israel. We receive their dead race to life again, precious women.
You can think of the woman of Verifat in the case of Elijah and the woman of Shunem in the case of Elisha, raising the little boy by close contact and utter dependence of faith. God used them to give the children back to their mother. And so we go on. And others. And others. And if you want to put a line through this chapter to divide it, you've got to do it there. Right there. Up to the moment it's been the triumph of faith. And others. And others. The trial of faith is coming now.
And all the history of the Christian church confirms that God allows his children to face trial. There are detentions, there are chastening, there are severe examinations. In the school of faith men and women are not produced without correction and deep lessons. And to my amazement as I grew up as a Christian, Instead of the Christian life being a bed of roses, I found that very often it was a battleground. And when you got through one battle and won the victory, it fitted you for a bigger battleground.
And some of God's saints who pass through the deepest trials are the greatest saints. Now look at that word, and others, and then read the list, were tortured, not accepting deliverance, to attain a better resurrection. And others have trial of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments, stoned, sworn asunder, tempted, were slain with a sword, and so it goes on. Now my young friends, I want you to do something if you're marking your Bible.
Will you mark in verse thirty four, underline the words, in verse thirty four, escape the edge of the sword. And in the margin against it you can put the word triumphs. Escape the edge of the sword, the triumphs of faith. Now will you underline the words in verse thirty seven, were slain with the sword. And in the margin you can put trial. Two statements in the same great chapter recording the experiences of boys and girls in the School of Faith. Escape the edge of the sword.
Sleep with the sword. Now why is it that some didn't feel the edge of that sword and others felt it cleaving their body? Can you explain that? Can you tell me why? Here's a problem, and I want my young friends to face it. Do you know the story of the Christian Church is a story of suffering, and the more suffering, the brightest, save shining out? You've only got to go to Korea and talk of the days of suffering, and they will tell you that Christians gathered at three and four in the morning before their days worked for prayer, and they went out to face their day, and God was moving in that land before the Korean War.
You've only got to go to Colombia, where they burnt Protestant churches, and again and again tried to stamp out the Protestant faith. And you'll find your brothers and sisters the finest in the world with a light in their eyes and a bit of backbone standing for God and willing to die for God if necessary. Can you explain this? I say to you, love Christians, in America God is giving to you the greatest test of your Christian life, the test of prosperity. Can your Christian faith survive prosperity, easiness, Everything nice. I met a dear girl called Rachel Ewan Chow, who came out of China a few years ago.
She came through Kong Kong. She was a British Guyana Chinese girl, a lovely Christian. We commended her from the assemblies in British Guyana, back to China. And I hadn't seen her for twenty-seven years. When I met her down in British Guyana, my last visit there, her little face had the marks of suffering, and her dark hair hung round her shoulders. I looked into the face of a woman in her fifties, but she looked like a child in her structure. There she told me how the Communists had come into Peking, and how Communism had taken over China, and she had lived in Red China, a slut girl, moving from place to place, abused.
again and again trying to find Christian faith in others. And she assured me, she assured me, she said, don't you worry about the Christians in China. They're having an awfully hard time of it. But she said they will take her little gospel and they will carefully split it into leaves and they will hand it out one to another. And when they've learnt it by heart, they will exchange their leaves one with another. So scarce is the word of God. But she said in those little gatherings of twos and threes, the devotion of those dear Chinese Christians is wonderful. And then looking into my face, she said, what's the matter with the Christians in British Guyana? With the threat of Red Communism coming to them in this land, she said, they seem so tepid.
They seem so afraid. Yes. In our lands today we face the great, great test of prosperity and ease. Prosperity and ease that makes it so easy for that girl who was saved and baptized and breaks bread on Sunday morning. But she wakes in the morning and she never drops on her knees for a quiet time of prayer. She never reads her Bible before she goes out into the throbbing day. She wonders why she's got no witness in Los Angeles or San Francisco. She wonders why the world has an attraction, and the flesh seems so strong, and the devil says, Ha, ha, ha, a Christian.
And laughs at her simply because her fate had failed in the days of ease when she could, in loved America, have got up at six in the morning, and gone through her little necessities and then spent fifteen minutes on bended knee with the open book. She could have read a portion and said, Lord, speak to me, break thou the bread of life to my heart, and tell with burning heart. because she's in love with Christ, and our love has been nourished, and our faith has been strengthened, she would go out into the adventure of the day and say, Lord, another day to spend for thee.
Lead me to some soul today. Oh, teach me, Lord, just what to say. God speaks to you and shows you your trepidness. If the risen Christ comes and stands outside of the church door, knocking and says, Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Be brave enough, Christians, not to just rub it off to the young stage and say, Well, I hope they'll trust Jesus and escape hell. Take it to yourself. A wretched, poor, miserable, blinded, Christian, cap it. I am sick of you, says Christ, till I'm there to see in church.
Take care. I don't know if trial is coming to America. I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord Wage is coming. It might not come to you. I've seen lands that seem so free from trial. I could never believe that the Christians in British Guyana, who I know so well, would be facing the trial they are facing today. I know some kiss Cuba. I've often preached there. And in Cuba, I could never have believed ten years ago that they would be facing the problems that they're facing today. And down in our Caribbean islands, in Haiti, in Santa Domingo, in many of the islands, there are the rumblings of politics that make it awfully difficult to be a Christian.
But when you meet those Christians, you feel the flame of faith is not no faith or little faith. But somehow there's a growing and great faith produced by trial. Now I can't explain to you why God let some escape and why God let some pass through it. Not till the room is silent and the shuttles cease to fly. Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why? The dark threads are as needful. in the weaver's skillful hand, as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned.
And one day when we see the pattern, we shall know why he allowed those extremely dark threads to come into lives, the threads of sorrow and testing and weakness and pain and disappointment and trial, whatever angles they come from. But take this to note. There's a great chapter in the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Holy Spirit, called Chapter Twelve. And in Chapter Twelve, in the opening verses, there's the story of a wicked king called Herod. Such a nasty fellow. Longing for popularity, he finds a nice way of being popular.
He says, I'll catch a few Christians. see if I can please the crowd. And so he takes James, puts him in prison, brings him out, cuts his head off. And the people who saw Herod do it, they said, Why, isn't Herod a boy? I love to see Christians' heads rolling in the dust. This is wonderful. And Herod thought this is a cheap way of popularity. I can get really popular cutting off Christians' heads. So he looks around and he said, well, the next one I'm going to take is the big fisherman. So he catches Peter, pops him in prison, and after the feast is over, he says, I'll bring him out, chop his head off, and my word, I'll be double popular.
Now this chapter is worth going through very carefully. It says that the church, the company of Christians in the upper room, were gathered together and making prayer continually for Peter. You can hear their prayers. Oh, God, in the name of thy holy child, Jesus, frustrate the enemy. Deliver Peter. Bring him back to us. And they were praying. And you say, Peter, what was he doing? Was he imprisoned down on his knees with the guards around him and the chains, saying, Lord, dear Lord, get me out of this mess I'm in? Not a bit of it. Peter was sleeping. Is he sleeping, the old lazy bones?
No, no. Peter knew what the rest of faith was. I suppose he was a bit tired when they got him to the innermost prison. And I suppose he was there with the chains and looking around at the walls and the slime of it all. And he said, Well, dear Lord and Master, we are on the same old terms. You put me right at the fireside that wonderful early morning. You've given me a ministry and I don't understand why I'm in prison. But, Lord, you told me at that fireside, you said, Peter, don't you worry what John's going to do. I've got a plan for your life. When you were young, you girded yourself. You went where you wanted.
But when you're old, Peter, another will gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. And the Lord told me that I would die one day. He didn't say that of John. He might live till the Lord comes. But he told me I would die, but he told me distinctly that I wouldn't die till I was an old man, when I was old. And I'm not old. Why, look at my markle. I'm not old. This isn't it. Lord, we are on the same old terms. I don't know how you're going to get me out of this, but Lord, give me a good sleep tonight. And away he went to sleep. And the church went on with their prayers.
And heaven is moving. Angels are coming. Gates are opening. Chains are falling. Supernatural sleep upon gods. Rise, Peter. Garage yourself. Follow me. And out through opening gates onto the street he came. And then the ministering angel said goodbye to him. No need to look after Peter out in the big city. He knew so well. And to celebrate his great escape, he didn't turn to the liquor shop. No, he wasn't drunk with that sort of wine, but filled with a spirit. He said, I'm going to the place where prayer is wont to be made.
And he went round and he stood at the door and knocked, and they were all on their knees praying, Lord, bring Peter out of prison. Give him back to us. That's Great Herod. And there's their prayer answered outside the door. Knock, knock. A little girl came and she opened the grid and she said, Who's there? And she said, Peter, let me in. And the precious girl got so excited, she dashed back into the assembly and she said, He's outside the door. Of course they would have put her out for a fellowship for doing such a thing today. But there it is. Bless her heart. They got up from their knees and they said, What? Outside the door.
Your prayers answered. And what do you think the church said? They said, it is his angel. They believed in angel ministry. In those days, we don't much today, unfortunately, but angel ministry was a real thing in their lives. And they went to the door and opened it up, and there he was. Now, can you tell me why? James was killed by the edge of the sword, and Peter escaped the edge of the sword. It was not because the Lord loved Peter more than James. Both were precious children in the school of faith.
But let me tell you in the will of God, man's life is immortal until his work is done. And you can with confidence take your old favorite verse and say all things work together for good. To them that love God, to them that are called according to its purpose, And if we are in a school of faith, if we are learning to know God, the great headmaster, the father of spirits, if we are entering into the will of God, if we are increasingly partakers of His holiness, if we are moving from grade to grade to graduate out of the school of faith to the great realm of eternal sight, God's child come from a loving hand that knows best.
And he loves to be trusted. And he loves for his children to rest back in the rest of faith which you can enter into. They never entered into a rest of faith. They turned back in unbelief. And many Christians never enter into a rest of faith. And I say to my younger Christian friends, oh, that the Lord could teach you a little bit earlier than he taught me through weary years. that the same faith as a boy that came to the cross and said, Thank you for dying for me, is the same faith moment by moment that you put in the risen Christ for the flow of his life by the Holy Spirit, moment by moment kept by his love, moment by moment, life from above, looking to Jesus in faith till glory shall shine, moment by moment.
Oh, Lord, I am thine. I want to say this to you. Sometimes God takes a lovely, big, strong servant of his, and he says, no more campaigning in great big cities, no more thrilling crowds to speak to, and multitudes being saved, and he shuts that servant of his up in a prison. So confined, all my great opportunities are all lost. Are they just a moment? The trial of your faith perhaps is going to bring a bigger fruitage by and by than you ever dreamt of.
You know, I feel almost tempted to ask you, would you take your Bible and turn to Acts twenty? Here's something that lots of people have missed. And we must close with this. Acts chapter twenty and verse thirteen. Now, don't forget this is the Acts of the Apostles and that Luke, the beloved physician, is the writer, and he's one of a little party on a missionary journey. Verse thirteen. And we went before to ship. and sailed unto Athos, there intending to take in Paul.
For so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he met with us at Athos, we took him in and came to Mytilene. In other words, the ship had landed in a certain port, and there was a big stretch of land and the ship would have to go all round the coast for days to the next port and Paul on the crowded ship said, I have a mind to go alone and I'm going to walk over this rough country and join the ship when it comes round at the next port. Minding himself verse thirteen to go afoot. Now as a bee flies or as a crow flies straight I suppose it would be a twenty-mile walk.
But over hills and through rugged tracks, it may have been many more miles. And don't you think of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul as a weakling? He set off on this twenty, maybe thirty, forty-mile walk over rugged country to join the ship. He was a missionary. Let me tell you, on his journeys on these old wind jammers and grain boats, he never had a fridge. He couldn't order ice water. He hadn't got lovely turkey sandwiches. He had nothing but all rough grain and biscuits and porridge. That's all. These men had some stuffing in it. I tell you, some of the missionaries that go out today and want to take their fridges and electrical equipment, and there's a great big two-ton of it going out to the mission stations, threatens me at times.
These old men worked like that. This was a rugged man. He knew what it was to face hardship. He gloried in storming cities and planting churches. And this is the man that God shut up in prison, largely for the rest of his life until his head rolled off. You say, why? Why? Paul, I'm going to thank you and I get to heaven that you were imprisoned. I'm going to thank you that you who hardly ever wrote a letter in your busy missionary life was shut up and you had to sit down and write some of those precious left letters. Not thousands hearing your voice, but millions have read the outpourings of your heart in these gracious epistles.
God is always working some bigger purpose out. And one day We will understand. In two Corinthians twelve, verse seven to nine, he bears his heart. He said it was a thorn in the flesh. It was a messenger of Satan. It buffeted me. Now, I don't know where it was, whether it was the eyes or a disc in his back or a weakness in his body, but something made him feel awful weak. And the Paul whose shadow had healed people whose handkerchiefs in his apostolic sign ministry had brought healing to many. He actually says, Lord, could you take away this thorn in the flesh, this thing that makes me feel so weak?
And a loving Lord said, no, my child. And three times, with earnest heart and in faith, believing it was right, will you take it away? I'll be a better missionary and man for God. No, my child. And then the Lord explains, my strength is made perfect in weakness. I can pour my strength through you, Paul, you tough little missionary, you pioneer, you successful evangelist, in the weakness of a prison cell, in the evening of your life perhaps when you're in your own confined room, more.
And as he saw that that grace was sufficient, that strength was made perfect in weakness, his arms went out. The very hands that three times have tried to push away the thorn in the flesh are put out to embrace it. Most gladly, therefore, and he bows to the will of God and enters into the school of faith. sharing with God the holiness of God, the wholesomeness of God's plan for his life. And how these men of old graduated with a good report, the high calling of God from the school of faith.
When the race is run, the battle is over, one well done, good and faithful servant will make it all worthwhile. So let us lay aside every weight that would hinder, and the sin of unbelief that suds us so easily possess us. And let us run with patience. It's not a hundred-yard dash. It's not even a mile race. It's an obstacle race, uphill and down dale, that will go on and on and on until faith gives way to sight. And we look into the face of the author and finisher of faith. the great schoolmaster, the lover Lord who's watched over us, all through our school days for good.