Faith Perseveres Through Doubt
Hebrews 11: Living by Faith • Sermon • Submitted
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[Introduce me]
We’re working our way through just one chapter of a letter towards the backs of our bibles: the letter to the Hebrews, and chapter 11. It’s a famous chapter, listing of a series of heroes of faith, and the big message the author is trying to bang into our heads through it is persevere! Don’t give up - persevere in faith, it’s worth it. That’s a message that the original audience needed - precisely because they were in danger of not persevering, of giving up.
And I think, whether we’re willing to admit it or not, there’s a real challenge for us here too. If you’d call yourself a follower of Jesus, I expect there has been a time - I expect there have been times - when you’ve been wondering whether it’s really worth it, when you’ve been in danger of giving up. If you’re with us today, exploring faith, I’m so glad you’re here - sorry to start with a downer - but it’s important we’re upfront with you that Christian life, the life of faith, isn’t an easy ride, isn’t plain sailing. It isn’t so continuously filled with joy and blessing that there’s never any struggle to it, never any question of whether we’ll persevere to the end. There have certainly been a few high-profile figures from the wider church who seem to have just given up, and walked away from it all.
We started the chapter looking at what faith is, how it’s defined: Faith is acting now in view of future certainty. We’re given example after example of living out this faith down through the history of God’s people, of acting out faith: Abel brings a better offering; Enoch walks with God; Noah Builds an ark; Abraham goes when he’s called. The big message from today’s text is the same: persevere in faith - it’s worth it. But each example shows us another aspect of faith, gives us another angle on why, and how, we persevere in faith.
Today’s passage calls us to explore what faith looks like when what’s promised by faith is vast, wonderful - but also something that's already hard to believe, and it gets harder each day. One couple are promised a vase number of descendants - but they’re infertile; they’re helpless - no children can be born to them. And now they’ve grown old too - the age for children has passed; that door has closed.
What does the author of Hebrews want us to see here? What can we learn that’s relevant to us still today?
Here’s what we’ll see: Faith perseveres through doubt.
Let’s hear today’s short section from Hebrews 11 - and for the eagle-eyed among you, we’ll be reading the footnoted translation option from the bible today - if you want to know why, watch the T5. What’s a T5, I hear you ask? We share a short video each week showing some of our bible teachers’ background research, details which inform Sunday’s talk, but which we can’t fit in into it. We call that talking through the text in ten - 5 t’s, you see, so, T5. Watch that T5 if you want more details. Here’s Hebrews 11 v 11-12.
By faith Abraham, even though he was too old to have children—and Sarah herself was not able to conceive—was enabled to become a father because he
The New International Version Chapter 11
considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
Now God had promised Abraham and Sarah would become a great nation right at the beginning of their story - that seems very much to imply children; descendants, right? Before they even began their lifelong journey, the one we were talking about last week, they heard that promise. “I will make you into a great nation” is a part of that initial call from God which saw them leave civilisation and security behind, and go - go to the place God would show them. And when they first set foot in the promised land, God declares “to your offspring I will give this land.” And if that wasn’t clear enough, God makes it explicit in Genesis 13:16 “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth.” So the promise of children is part of Abraham and Sarah’s story from the beginning.
But also from the beginning, they must have had questions, must have known this was a seemingly impossible promise. You see, Sarah had always been unable to have children - Genesis 11:30 “Now Sarai[h] was childless because she was unable to conceive.” - this sadness was already a part of their story before their journey even began.
Years later, lots of water under the bridge, we find God making promises to Abraham again. Listen with me carefully - trace how Abraham’s attitude towards this promise seems to develop in just these few verses.
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
It’s not stated for us whether Abraham had truly believed the promise of children up to this point - even though that promise had been made. He had certainly responded to God’s call to go, and set out in faith for another land, so he’s well into the hero category. But in what we just heard, he didn’t sound at all confident of any children. If anything, he sounds confident of the opposite - like a let down, disgruntled customer: “you have given me no children” he says - God, you haven’t delivered. I want my money back.
A hero of the faith, in the middle of this long list. Revered. Absolutely central to the story of God’s people. Celebrated in the New Testament again and again - yet here he is, for all we can see, doubting what has already been clearly promised to him. “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth” says God. “you have given me no children” says Abraham.
What do you imagine will happen next here? Bam! Abraham is struck down by a bolt of lightning. “Fine,” says God, wiping away the residual dust, “I’ll take my promise to someone else.”
But no. Instead, when Abraham brings faith mixed with doubt to God, he receives words of grace. “A son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir”. Then we read “He took him outside,” it’s as if God takes him gently by the shoulder, rather than angrily drags him there. God promises again: a vast number of children, from his own flesh and blood. God points him to the stars for their number, a reminder to Abraham of this promise built into each glimpse of the star-studded night sky.
At that, we get the famous line, “Abram believed the LORD and he credited it to him as righteousness.” He purifies his faith once more, chooses to push the doubts away, to clear them out, and to renew his trust in God once more. It’s no less impossible, they’re no more fertile, and he’s no younger - if anything, it’s more impossible. But he’s choosing again to step from doubt to faith, to believe God can do the impossible.
But that’s not the end of the story - that’s not everything the author of Hebrews brings into his readers’ minds as he references the promise of children to Abraham and Sarah. If you were to follow them through Genesis, you’d see doubt rear its head again soon enough. In chapter 16, Abraham and Sarah launch their plan-B for children, trying to keep God’s promise for Him: since Sarah is barren, they figure Abraham can have children through Hagar, Sarah’s servant, instead. So much to say about trying to keep God’s promises for him - but that’s not our focus today. Suffice to say, that does not end well. What I want to focus on just now is the way this shows us their wrestling with doubt over God’s promise isn’t done yet.
But still - here’s the thing - still, God does not remove his promise from them, pull the rug from under them, and look for someone with more faith. Turn the page to chapter 17, and here’s what you’ll find: God holding out his promise to them again:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
In this amazing exchange, where God once more promises a child, a vast nation of descendants, I want you to see this: even as God is speaking to Abraham, doubt it still there. Abraham laughs to himself: “us two old fogies? children? don’t think so.” And if you’re inclined to give him credit, and think that’s a laugh of astonishment at the enormity of what’s been promised (promised again, that is), look closely at his response to God: “if only Ishmael might live under your blessing” - Ishmael the child from plan B, from Hagar, Sarah’s servant. God, let’s not worry about this impossible child thing. Let’s work with what we’ve got. No need to be so far-fetched. But God, gracious again, both offers blessing to Ishmael, and reiterates the impossible promise, deliberately and unavoidably specific: “your wife Sarah will bear you a son.”
God extends the promise to Abraham, “father of many nations”. Abraham doubts - not unreasonably, but he doubts. Yet God responds with grace - and continues to hold out the promise.
But we’re still not done! Once more, we see the same thing, this time with Sarah under the microscope.
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by.
Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
The Lord speaks words of promise - with more specifics “this time next year … Sarah your wife will have a son.” - and what is Sarah’s response? Hah! Sure. She responds with doubt - not unreasonably. She’s heard the promise before. Years have gone by, yet nothing. They’re too old now. God hears the doubt in her heart - but see how different His response is to what’s expected. Sarah is afraid, she wants to hide that she doubted - of course that’s silly; we can’t hide anything from God, not even our doubt. She worries about what will happen if God knew that she doubted - is she expecting Him to be angry? Is she expecting punishment? Is she expecting to be written out of the promise in retaliation? There’s is only grace. And once more, Abraham and Sarah believed.
Here’s the end of the story, or at least the end of the beginning, in Genesis 21
Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
I know we’ve spent a lot of time on the bigger story of Abraham and Sarah and the promised child. I wanted you to see this repeated interplay between faith and doubt and God’s promise - how in the face of doubt, God in His grace keeps bringing the promise back, calling once more for faith.
So, back to where we started, with those verses from Hebrews chapter 11. The author of Hebrews pulls this whole story into our minds - not just its happy conclusion. His goal is to see his original audience, and us, persevere in faith - because it’s worth it. And I think what he wants us to see here is this is the sort of faith we need: faith that perseveres through doubt.
Let’s bring this home, to us, here, today. Four big blocks: promise; doubt; grace; faith. We have to start with the promise of God.
What promise of God was in view for the original audience of this letter? What is His promise still to us, here, today? Hebrews 9:15 describes it as: “the promised eternal inheritance,” telling us it is open to us now because of what Jesus has done. But that phrase needs some unpacking. When we think about inheritance, we think about what will be passed on when someone dies. That’s not the bible sense of the word - in the bible, its primary resonance is with each family’s share of the promised land - that was called their inheritance. To them, inheritance meant belonging, security, provision, rest. And that is what God promises us: Unchallengeable belonging, irrevocably adopted into his family as his very own children. Unbreakable security, beyond the reach of all ills, in his awesome presence. Inexhaustible provision, perfectly fulfilling all our desires. Unending rest, everything finally put right. That’s the promised eternal inheritance. That’s God’s promise of heaven, open to us through Jesus.
But how much like Abraham and Sarah are we in responding to that promise?
We grow impatient - will this ever come to be? will I ever truly belong? where is this promised security? will I ever find rest?
We invent plan-B’s: money will be my security; I will find rest in the comforts of this life; I will find belonging in this club
We laugh! Impossible. Too difficult. Too good to be true.
We doubt. So often that’s how we respond to awesome promise of God.
And then once we’ve sown doubt, we reap fear:
will God reject those who doubt? set Himself against them? If I doubt, am I written out of His promise?
If I doubt now, did I ever really believe? Could I ever really believe?
If you’re in that place right now - weighed down by doubt, feeling those gnawing fears - whether you’re here in the building, or with us on the stream, or if you’re watching a recording later - I want to tell you your story doesn’t have to end here. This is not a hopeless spiral. Your faith does not have to be sunk by your doubts, never to rise again. Remember in Hebrews 11 Abraham and Sarah are given to us as examples of faith - yet we’ve seen so clearly that they wrestle with doubt over God’s promises along the way. Your story isn’t over.
Abraham and Sarah are examples of faith because, when God responds to their doubts with grace, giving them again and again the opportunity to believe, to take him at his word, by faith at last they take it.
[pause]
In Jesus, there’s grace even for doubters. God reaches out to us again and again, giving us opportunity after opportunity to believe. And he’s doing that to you and I again even now: because of Jesus, by grace, God’s promise still stands open before us - his offer of an eternal inheritance is extend to us all, doubters included.
The only question is whether you will join with Abraham and Sarah in their faith, faith which perseveres through doubt, and sees God keep His promise.
Just thirty seconds to reflect, and then I’ll pray.
[30 seconds]
[pray]
Our next song speaks to us about what God has promised, a future He continues to hold out to anyone who will come to Him through Jesus. Don’t be defeated by your doubts; purify your faith once more and believe God’s promise that there is a day… [next]
