The Faithful God and the Promise of Progeny

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Hebrews 11:11-12, 17-22
• Sermon
• Prayer of Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Faithful God and the Promise of Progeny

Scripture: Hebrews 11:11-12, 17-22

I. The Lord's Faithfulness

A. The context of Hebrews 11 is the call to endure in faith, clinging to God's promises centered on Christ B. Why does God work through promises?

1. Promises call us away from self-sufficiency toward reliance on him — rooted in the fall of Genesis 3:15
2. Promises create an environment of waiting in which we learn to trust him
3. Promises put the onus on God to show himself faithful unto his own glory

C. Sarah is the entry point into this section: by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised — Hebrews 11:11

D. Scripture's testimony to God's faithfulness

1. Deuteronomy 7:9 — the Lord is the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 — he who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it
3. 2 Timothy 2:13 — if we are faithless, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself

E. The question for us: Do you consider God faithful — even in trials, even when things do not go as expected?

II. The Believer's Trials

A. Abraham and Sarah were not without weakness and failure

1. Abraham's complaint in Genesis 15 — he has no heir
2. The episode of Hagar and Ishmael — taking matters into their own hands
3. Abraham laughing at God (Genesis 17); Sarah laughing at God (Genesis 18)

B. Yet the final word on them is by faith — this is a great comfort to struggling believers

1. Jesus declared, in the world you will have tribulation (John 16:33)
2. Romans 8 pictures persecutions and tribulations pressing the believer on every side
3. The Lord tests his people through trials to purify faith and show his strength in our weakness

C. Faith has its stumbles, but God's people endure to the end by faith in Christ

D. We need the faithful one — Christ himself

1. Hebrews 2:17 — Christ made like his brothers to become a merciful and faithful high priest
2. Hebrews 3:6 — Moses was faithful as a servant; Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house

E. Genesis 22 and the shadow of the cross

1. Abraham was prepared to offer Isaac, believing God could raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11:19)
2. The Father did not withhold his hand from giving up his own Son — God is faithful; Christ is the faithful Savior

III. The Promised Fruitfulness

A. The promise to Abraham: descendants like sand on the seashore and stars in the sky (Hebrews 11:12)

B. The chain of faith in Hebrews 11:17-22 demonstrates the Lord's continuing faithfulness through the generations

1. Abraham offers Isaac, trusting in resurrection (Hebrews 11:17-19)
2. Isaac invokes future blessings on Jacob and Esau (Hebrews 11:20)
3. Jacob blesses the sons of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) when dying (Hebrews 11:21)
4. Joseph, at his death, speaks of the Exodus and directs that his bones be carried out of Egypt (Hebrews 11:22) — trusting God's promise in Genesis 15 that a great multitude would be brought out of captivity

C. The two Abrahamic promises — a place and a people — echo the creation mandate of Genesis 1:28 (be fruitful and multiply; have dominion)

1. The fall interrupted that fulfillment; God reaffirmed it to Abraham
2. All who believe in Christ are counted heirs of Abraham and offspring of Abraham
3. The church is the great multitude — the fulfillment of the promise

D. Hebrews 2:10 — it was fitting for God to bring many sons to glory through the suffering of the founder of their salvation

1. The church across all of time is the one people of God — sand on the seashore, stars in the heavens
2. The Lord is preparing a better country, a homeland, for this great multitude (cf. Hebrews 11:16)

E. Closing call: Believe that God is faithful. Look at the church and see his faithfulness. Run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2)