Sermon Tone Analysis

KEY VERSE Heb 12:14

INTRODUCTION:-

We have just done a study on the subject of Holiness.

It would not be faithful of me as a pastor not to give us a way of practice to pursue this Holiness.

HOLINESS is mainly about What we are LOOKING at and LOOKING tooo

May i suggest 3 areas we are to look at and fourthly HOW we should be looking

I } CLOUD OF WITNESSES

Heb 12:1-13

It has been suggested that this Exhortation began back in Heb 10:19

Being interrupted by the Heb11:1-40

This section moves on through to Heb12:15-21

Time fails us to dwell on the faith of the other saints of the old covenant.

But they must not be passed over in silence.

The impression produced by our author’s splendid roll of the heroes of faith in the eleventh chapter is the result quite as much of an accumulation of examples as of the special greatness of a few among them.

At the close they appear like an overhanging "cloud" of witnesses for God.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau; and Jacob, dying in a strange land, blessed the sons of Joseph, distinguishing wittingly, and bestowing on each[289]hekaston (Heb 11:21).

his own peculiar blessing.

His faith became a prophetic inspiration, and even distinguished between the future of Ephraim and the future of Manasseh.

He did not create the blessing.

He was only a steward of God’s mysteries.

Faith well understood its own limitations.

But it drew its inspiration to foretell what was to come from a remembrance of God’s faithfulness in the past.

For, before[290] Gen 47:31.

he gave his blessing, he had bowed his head in worship, leaning upon the top of his staff.

In his dying hour he recalled the day on which he had passed over Jordan with his staff,--a day remembered by him once before, when he had become two bands, wrestled with the angel, and halted on his thigh.

His staff had become his token of the covenant, his reminder of God’s faithfulness, his sacrament, or visible sign of an invisible grace.

Joseph, though he was so completely Egyptianised that he did not, like Jacob, ask to be buried in Canaan, and only two of his sons became, through Jacob’s blessing, heirs of the promise, yet gave commandment concerning his bones.

His faith believed that the promise given to Abraham would be fulfilled.

The children of Israel might dwell in Goshen and prosper.

But they would sooner or later return to Canaan.

When his end drew near, his Egyptian greatness was forgotten.

The piety of his childhood returned.

He remembered God’s promise to his fathers.

Perhaps it was his father Jacob’s dying blessing that had revived the thoughts of the past and fanned his faith into a steady flame.

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down."[291]

Heb 11:30.

When the Israelites had crossed Jordan and eaten of the old corn of the land, the manna ceased.

The period of continued miracle came to an end.

Henceforth they would smite their enemies with their armed thousands.

But one signal miracle the Lord would yet perform in the sight of all Israel.

The walls of the first city they came to would fall down flat, when the seven priests would blow with the trumpets of rams’ horns the seventh time on the seventh day.

Israel believed, and as God had said, so it came to pass.

The treachery of a harlot even is mentioned by the Apostle as an instance of faith.[292]

Heb 11:31.

Justly.

For, whilst her past life and present act were neither better nor worse than the morality of her time, she saw the hand of the God of heaven in the conquest of the land, and bowed to His decision.

This was a greater faith than that of her daughter-in-law, Ruth, whose name is not mentioned.

Ruth believed in Naomi and, as a consequence, accepted Naomi’s God and people.[293]

Rth 1:16.

Rahab believed in God first, and, therefore, accepted the Israelitish conquest and adopted the nationality of the conquerors.[294]

Mat 1:5.

Of the judges the Apostle selects four: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah.

The mention of Barak must be understood to include Deborah, who was the mind and heart that moved Barak’s arm; and Deborah was a prophetess of the Lord.

She and Barak wrought their mighty deeds and sang their pæan in faith.[295]

Jdg 4:4; Jdg 4:5 :

Gideon put the Midianites to flight by faith; for he knew that his sword was the sword of the Lord,[296] Jdg 7:18.

Jephthah was a man of faith; for he vowed a vow unto the Lord, and would not go back.[297]

Jdg 11:35.

Samson had faith; for he was a Nazarite to God from his mother’s womb, and in his last extremity called unto the Lord and prayed.[298]

Jdg 13:7; Jdg 16:28.

The Apostle does not name Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, and the rest.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon them also.

They too were mighty through God.

But the narrative does not tell us that they prayed, or that their soul consciously and believingly responded to the voice of Heaven.

Alaric, while on his march towards Rome, said to a holy monk, who entreated him to spare the city, that he did not go of his own will, but that One was continually urging him forward to take it.[299]

Robertson, History of the Christian Church, book 2:, Heb 7:1-28 :

Many are the scourges of God that know not the hand that wields them.

Individuals "through faith subdued kingdoms."[300]

Heb 11:33.

Gideon dispersed the Midianites;[301] Jdg 7:1-25

Barak discomfited Sisera, the captain of Jabin king of Canaan’s host; Jephthah smote the Ammonites;[302] Jdg 11:33.

David held the Philistines in check,[303] 2Sa 5:25.measured

Moab with a line,[304]2Sa 8:2; 2Sa 8:6.

and put garrisons in Syria of Damascus.

Samuel "wrought righteousness," and taught the people the good and the right way.[305] 1Sa 12:23.

David "obtained the fulfilment of God’s promises:" his house was blessed that it should continue for ever before God.[306] 2Sa 7:28-29.

Daniel’s faith stopped the mouths of lions.[307]

Dan 6:22.

The faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted in God, and quenched the power of the fire, without extinguishing its flame.[308]

Dan 3:27-28.

Elijah escaped the edge of Ahab’s sword.[309]

1Ki 19:1-3.

Elisha’s faith saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about him.[310]

2Ki 6:17.

Hezekiah "from weakness was made strong."[311]

2Ki 20:5.

The widow of Zarephath[313] 1Ki 17:22.and the Shunammite[314] 2Ki 4:35.

received their dead back into their embrace in consequence of[315] (Heb 11:35).

a resurrection wrought by the faith of the prophets.

Others refused deliverance, gladly accepting the alternative to unfaithfulness, to be beaten to death, that they might be accounted worthy[316] Luk 20:35.

to attain the better world and the resurrection, not of, but from, the dead, which is the resurrection to eternal life.

Such a man was the aged Eleazar in the time of the Maccabees.[317]

Zechariah was stoned to death at the commandment of Joash the king in the court of the house of the Lord.[318]2Ch

24:21.

Isaiah is said to have been sawn asunder in extreme old age by the order of Manasseh.

Others were burnt[319] by Antiochus Epiphanes.

Elijah had no settled abode, but went from place to place clad in a garment of hair, the skin of sheep or goat.

It ought not to be a matter of surprise that these men of God had no dwelling-place, but were, like the Apostles after them, buffeted, persecuted, defamed, and made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things.

For the world was not worthy of them.

The world crucified their Lord, and they would be ashamed of accepting better treatment than He received.

By the world is meant the life of those who know not Christ.