Monday, January 21, 2008

By Faith... the Judges, Part 61 of 62

TEXT: "What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32).

IDEA: God can overlook ignorance, but He will honor belief.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see that God’s verdict about people may be very different from our own.

I. We sometimes read about people who in their faith do dangerous things.

In 1997, TIME magazine reported a Dennis and Lorie Nixon. He is a successful businessman known for his generosity and consideration. She is a devoted mother. The children always wear safety helmets when they ride by on their bicycles. And Dennis and Lorie Nixon pray for their children all the time. In fact, they believe in prayer so much that they have prayed for their children when they have been sick, and felt it was a denial of their faith to seek out a physician. The Nixons had ten children, and their oldest daughter, Shannon, came down with diabetes. Shannon and the parents prayed diligently for her healing, but three days short of her 17th birthday Shannon fell into a coma and died. The Nixons were devastated by the loss of their daughter, but they kept their faith. They were taken to court and found guilty of manslaughter. The judge’s instruction was that what had happened was a matter of law, not of religion. It took the jury only two hours to find them guilty.

We have been reading about Jephthah who made a vow to God that if he won a battle against the Ammonites, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. It turned out to be his only daughter.

II. How would you judge Jephthah? What does God think of him? We don’t have to guess.

In Hebrews 11 we read through an honor roll of faith. Who are some of the people who make it into the honor roll? In verse 32, along with Gideon, Barak, and Samson, Jephthah makes it in.

How do you explain his inclusion in that exalted list? God knew that Jephthah was a man of faith.

III. One inference we can draw from this is that God will overlook ignorance, but He will not overlook unbelief. Putting it positively, God will overlook ignorance, but He honors belief.

How much do most people know when they become Christians?

How much do people coming to Christ in other areas of the world know? We may be surprised at the men and women who ultimately win God’s approval. They may be men and women who did the wrong thing for the right reason. God looks at the heart and God honors faith even though it may be mixed with ignorance.