“NOT WORTHY” (Heb 11:38)
August 25th, 2002
Int. The world looked upon them as being not worthy of their status; but Paul turns it around and says “The world was unworthy of them.”
1. Barnes Notes: "The world was so wicked that it had no claim that such holy men should live in it."
2. “Our text teaches that the world could not bear comparison in respect to worth with the persons named and referred to in this chapter; their character was elevated far above that of the world in general."
I. THIS WORLD IS NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED WITH THOSE GREAT MEN OF FAITH IN OUR TEXT.
A. THE APOSTLE NAMES A FEW.
1. The men of this world are not worthy to be compared with Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, etc. "
2. The presence of ten righteous men would have averted the doom of the cities of the plain, but they could not be found.
3. For those who prophesy smooth things to it, this world has crowns of honor and thrones of power.
4. For those who proclaim the truth, it has crowns of thorns, and for a throne the cruel cross.
4. So it treats the men of whom it is not Worthy.
5. This world treated the our Lord the same way.
a. (Mat 10:24-25) "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. {25} It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?"
b. (John 15:18-20) "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. {19} If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. {20} Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."
6. Pulpit Commentary says: "Many there must have been in Jerusalem to lament the dreadful change from Saul the Pharisee to Paul the disciple of Jesus."
7. If it were not for the "salt" of the earth, this world would have perished long ago. (Mt. 5:13)
8. J. F. & B. says: "The world, in shutting them out, shut out from itself a source of blessing; such as Joseph proved to Potiphar.
a. (Gen 38:5) “...... the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.
9. Jacob proved to be a blessing to Laban
a. (Gen 30:27) “And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
b. “In condemning them, the world condemned itself"
B. CONSIDER WHAT PAUL MEANT BY THIS STATEMENT (The world not worthy)
1. A. W. P. says: (Of whom the world was not worthy.) “This parenthetic clause is brought in here for the purpose of removing an objection: many might suppose that these despised wanderers were only receiving their just due, as not being fit to live in decent society.
2. “To remove this scandal the apostle put the blame where it rightly belonged, affirming that it was “society” which was unworthy of having the saints of God in their midst.
3. “In its wider aspect, the “world” here takes in the whole company of the ungodly; but in its narrower sense (that of the context), it has reference to the apostate “world” — all history, sacred and secular — is harmonious on this point: the most merciless, conscienceless, cruel, and inveterate persecutors of God’s elect have been religious people!
C. CONSIDER THIS PHRASE AGAIN: “Of whom the world was not worthy.”
1. Here we see the difference between God’s estimate and that of unregenerate religionists concerning the Children of Faith.
2. God regards them as “the excellent” of the earth in whom is His “delight” (Psalm 16:3)."
3. William Gouge said: “A true believer by reason of his union with Christ, and of the abode of the Spirit of sanctification in him, is worth more than a million of worlds; as a rich and precious jewel is more worth than many loads of filthy mud”
II. CONSIDER THE APOSTLES ESTIMATE OF THIS WORLD.
A. THIS WORLD IS NOT WORTHY.
1. Bible Knowledge Commentary: "The world was not worthy of those whom it banished."
2. DAVID BRAINERD (1718–1747) wrote the following poem.
"Farewell, vain world;
My soul bids you adieu;
My Savior taught me
To abandon you.
Your charms may gratify
A sensual mind,
But cannot please
A soul for God designed."
3. Pulpit C. says: "In all ages there have been men “of whom the world was not worthy.” Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, et al., are examples.
4. During the apostasy and exile of the Jews to Babylon, there were men like Jeremiah and Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
a. For those who prophesy smooth things to it, this world has crowns of honor and thrones of power;
b. But for those who proclaim the truth, it has crowns of thorns, and for a throne the cruel cross.
B. NOTICE HOW THIS WORLD TREATED THEIR LORD.
1. (Mat 10:24-25) "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. {25} It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?"
2. (John 15:18-20) "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. {19} If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. {20} Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."
III. CONSIDER SOME REASONS WE SHOULD LIVE ABOVE THIS WORLD.
A. WE ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD.
1. (Jn 15:19) "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
B. NOTICE OUR LORD’S PRAYER IN OUR BEHALF.
1. (Jn 17:15) “ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
C. NOTICE THE WARNING ABOUT LOVING THIS WORLD.
1. (1 Jn 2:15) "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
D. CHRISTIANS SHOULD SEEK TO LIVE ABOVE THIS WORLD.
1. (Phil 1:21) "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
IV. CONSIDER THAT APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING.
A. THEY DIDN’T APPEAR WORTHY BY THE WORLD.
1. Their pitiful apparel made them appear not worthy of the world.
2. They were banished from this world’s social order without sufficient reason.
3. When one lives for God, he is often be put down among fanatics, madmen.
B. THE WORLD DEMANDS THAT BELIEVERS CONFORM TO THEIR STANDARDS.
1. The Word of God demands that we be not conformed to this world’s standards.(Rom 12:1-3).
2. Pulpit Commentary says of their not being considered worthy by this world. "Men going about in sheepskins and goatskins, wandering in deserts and mountains, sheltering themselves in dens and caves, have had this judgment passed upon them, in effect if not in form, that they are not worthy of the world."
V. THEY FURNISHED MUCH NEEDED LIGHT FOR THEIR GENERATION.
A. WHEN BANISHED, THEY LEFT THEIR GENERATION IN GREAT NEED OF SPIRITUAL LIGHT.
1. The darker the night the greater is our need of the street lights.
2. When the night is darkest and the storm most furious, the lonely watcher in the lighthouse most diligently keeps the light shining.
3. So in the darkest moral night God has often lit and sent forth some of the brightest stars in the firmament of the Church.
4. Israel was in a terrible condition under Ahab and Jezebel, and God raised up the intrepid and holy Elijah.
5. When vice was rampant in the Romish Church God summoned forth the fearless and faithful Martin Luther.
6. At a more recent date, when religion seemed almost extinct in our England, God called and commissioned Spurgeon and Whitfield.
7. It was because of the unworthiness of the world that Jesus Christ came into it.
B. THEIR PERSECUTION WAS FOR THE FURTHERANCE OF THE GOSPEL.
1. (Phil 1:12) "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;"
a. (Phil 1:14) "And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."
2. Someone has said: “To speak the words “for Christ’s sake” from the very heart means persecution.”
3. God allows His saints to suffer in order that courage, patience, and other graces, might be more manifest.
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4. God allows His saints to suffer in order to ratify more plainly the Truth which they profess.
5. God allows His saints to suffer in order to encourage and strengthen the faith of their weaker brethren.
6. God allows His saints to suffer in order to give them more sensible evidence of what Christ endured for them.
7. God allows His saints to suffer in order to cause them to perceive the better the torments of Hell.
8. (1 Pet 4:18) “And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
9. (1 Peter 1:7). “The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”
a. A. W. P. says: "Gold, though its genuineness may be proved by enduring the test of fire, is yet a perishing thing — a thing of the earth, a thing of time. That gold for which men toil so laboriously and sell their souls to acquire, is of no avail on a deathbed, still less will it stand any in good stead in the Day of Judgment! At death it has to be left behind, for none can take it with him into the next life. Then how much more precious is that faith which, instead of, like gold, leaving its possessor under the wrath of God, will be “found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ!”
C. NOTICE THE DESCRIPTION OF THEIR PERSECUTION. “They wandered.”
1. "The word for “wandering” here is different from the one used in the previous verse: there it signifies to go up and down from house to house, or town to town, in hope of finding succor; but in which they were disappointed..”
2. Here the term denotes a wandering in unknown territory, going (like a blind man).
3. They, like Abraham, knew not whither they were going. (Vr. 8)
4. They were like Hagar.
a. (Gen 21:14) "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba."
5. This word is used of wandering sheep.
a. (Mt 18:12) “How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone (wandered) astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone (wandered) astray?”
6. Barnes Notes: "This is a description of persons driven away from their homes, and wandering about from place to place to procure a scanty subsistence."
7. John Gill says: "They wandered as Elijah did.
a. (1 Ki 18:4) "For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)"
b. (1 Kings 19:9) “And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
8. Mt. Henry says: "They were stripped of the conveniences of life, and turned out of house and harbour. They had not raiment to put on, but were forced to cover themselves with the skins of slain beasts. They were driven out of all human society, and forced to converse with the beasts of the field, to hide themselves in dens and caves, and make their complaint to rocks and rivers, not more obdurate than their enemies. Such sufferings as these they endured then for their faith; and such they endured through the power of the grace of faith: and which shall we most admire, the wickedness of human nature, that is capable of perpetrating such cruelties on fellow-creatures, or the excellency of divine grace, that is able to bear up the faithful under such cruelties, and to carry them safely through all?"
Conclusion: We will continue with (Vr. 39) next Sunday Evening, Lord willing.