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Faithful unto Death

Do you believe that God can take care of you?

Revelation 2.10

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • February 19, ad 2012

Scripture Reader and Reading: Blade – Revelation 2.10

Persuasion: 

  1. What Does It Mean to Be Faithful? 
    1. Hebrews 11 shows the faith of Moses in action,

      24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. 27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned (Heb 11.24–29).

      1. Have you thought about
        1. the number of people who left Egypt, and
        2. what they needed daily to survive?
      2. Numbers 1 reveals part of the population,

        45 So all who were numbered of the children of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war in Israel— 46 all who were numbered were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty” (Num 1.45, 46).

        1. Warriors between 20 and 50 years old.
        2. Levi not counted.
        3. Women not counted.
        4. Old people not counted.
        5. Children not counted.
      3. Numbers 3 adds the Levites,

        39 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, by their families, all the males from a month old and above, were twenty-two thousand (Num 3.39).
      4. Here is a conservative estimate of the number of Israelites:
        1. 603,550
          1. Plus one wife per male
          2. 1,207,100 total
            1. 2 children per couple
            2. 2,414,200 total
              1. 1,207,100 for males and females above 50 years of age
              2. 3,621,300 total
                1. Then 22,000 Levite males
                2. Same number of females equals 44,000
                  1. 3,665,300
      5. What these people needed daily:
        1. Let us say only 1 gallon of water per person per day.
          1. That is over 3 million gallons per day!
          2. In forty years that would be 43,800,000,000 gallons!
        2. The same figures if only 1 pound of food per day!
        3. Same figure of one log for fire!
        4. Camp for that many people would require 750 square miles!
          1. Josephine County has 1,640 square miles.
          2. Thus, a little less than half our county.
      6. How did they cross the Red Sea?
        1. To make it in one night,
        2. they had to be 5,000 abreast or 3 miles wide.
      7. Hebrews 11 says Moses led these people by faith.
        1. The Lord provided.
        2. Moses trusted that the Lord could and would provide!
      8. That is living by faith!
    2. Hebrews 11 Abraham knew that God would keep His promise,

      17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense (Heb 11.17–19).

      1. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be like sand and stars
      2. He was 99 and still had no son.
      3. Genesis 22 shows
        1. that when he finally had a son,
        2. God command Abraham to sacrifice the boy,

          2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Gen 22.2).          9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Gen 22.9–12).
      4. Abraham knew he would get his son back, but
        1. he believed it would be by a resurrection.
        2. However, his willingness to make the sacrifice
          1. showed how he lived by faith, and
          2. so God prevented the sacrifice.
  2. Faithfulness Leads to Life 
    1. Living by faith
      1. means dying to self, and
      2. to everything upon which we depend.
        1. Therefore, Moses and the Israelites left Egypt, and
        2. Abraham gave up a precious child.
    2. Faithfulness leads to death, but
      1. do not fear
      2. because it leads to
        1. life now and
        2. it will lead to the crown of life.
    3. Hebrews 12 applies the examples of chapter 11 for us,

      1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12.1, 2).