Ron Dunn Podcast - How To Wait For The Promise (Ron Dunn Podcast)

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

Again, the book of Hebrews, this time to chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, and I'm going to begin reading with verse 32 and read through the first verse of chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 through the first verse of 11. Actually, this passage in the last part of the 10th chapter is a part of that great passage in Hebrews 11. We usually start with the first verse of Hebrews 11, but I think that we can better understand the purpose of the 11th chapter if we understand the occasion for its writing. And you have this in verses 32 through 39 of the 10th chapter. He's writing to Hebrew Christians that are going through another time of intense persecution. Immediately after their conversion, they had experienced such persecution, and now

again they are subject to it. And so the apostle is writing to encourage them and tell them how they can maintain their faithfulness during this hard time. He says in verse 32, But remember the former days, when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. There are different dimensions and levels of faith, and this morning I want to deal

with a different dimension of faith than perhaps we've dealt with hitherto. There is a faith that brings you to Jesus when you have a problem, when you're confronted with a need, and then there is a dimension of faith that keeps you there when the answer is not immediately given to you. There is that initial act of faith that we exercise when everything that God says seems logical and reasonable, everything says amen to it, and it's easy for us to say, I believe. But then, you know, things happen. Moods change. Your feelings fluctuate.

Circumstances seem to contradict. And what once seemed absolutely reasonable begins to seem improbable. And you find that the walls of your faith are beginning to collapse. And it's not as easy now to believe that God is going to deliver and that God is going to come through as it was initially. Now, there is a faith that is necessary to hold us on to God and to hold us on course and to keep us faithful when what we believe seems to be improbable and unlikely to come to pass. Living by faith is the art of hanging on when everything is trying to pull us away from it. You remember when Jairus came to Jesus and he spoke to him about his sick daughter, and Jesus immediately left to go to Jairus' home to heal that girl. And along the way, you remember he met the woman that was ill for 12 years.

And he stopped and dealt with her. I've often wondered how that father must have felt. It seemed that Jesus didn't really understand the emergency of the situation. This is no time to talk to a woman about her visit to the doctor, and 12 years of them is going to take a good while. And I've often put myself in the position of that father, how he must have resented that woman, and how he must have even had a tinge of impatience with Jesus.

Here was a woman who was already healed, and now Jesus was trying to find out the history of her case, and all the while his little girl was at the point of death. Doesn't Jesus know this is an emergency? Have you noticed how we always come to him and it's always an emergency? And you'll notice the perfect timing in that story. As soon as Jesus finishes with that woman and resumes his journey, at that precise moment a servant comes and says to the father,

don't trouble the master any longer, your daughter is dead. Perfect timing. Jesus delayed just long enough for that daughter to die. Naturally, all hope is gone. There's no reason to believe anymore. It was easy to believe when Jesus was moving and the girl was still alive, for where there is life, there is hope.

Now all hope is gone. And listen to what Jesus says. Don't be afraid. King James says, only believe. A literal translation of that is, do not be fearful, but keep on believing. Keep on believing. Keep on believing. In other words, Jesus is saying, now there was a belief that brought you to me in the first place when there was hope,

when it seemed probable and reasonable that I could heal your daughter. Now that all hope is gone, now that this delay has seemed to be disastrous, just keep on believing. There is a second wind to faith, you see. There is a second wind to faith, you see. There is a second stage to faith. And what I want to talk to you about this morning is this second stage of faith, how

to hang on, this life of constant faithfulness. I think perhaps a better title would be How to Wait for the Promise. He says that God's promise will be fulfilled. God will do what he has said he's going to do. But in the meantime, you and I have to wait for it. We've believed God. We've done all we know to do. And now there is a delay.

It's interesting that the Hebrew word translated wait in the Bible means to be in agony. And I don't know if there's any other agony to compare with the agony of waiting. The hardest thing to ever do is to wait, to wait when everything seems to be going against you and when all circumstances seem to contradict. And so as the writer addresses these Hebrew Christians, he says now, after you were first saved, you endured a great suffering, and now you're going through it again. But he says, just hang in there.

Just believe. Don't cast away your confidence, for the just shall live by faith. As I mentioned earlier, one translation of that word is, the just shall survive by faith. You will survive. I'm glad that's in the Bible.

There are times I don't know if I'm going to survive or not. But he says, the just shall survive by faith. You will survive. I'm glad that's in the Bible. There are times I don't know if I'm going to survive or not. But he says the just will survive, regardless of the enemies that encompass the believer. He will survive, but he'll do it by faith, by faith. And he says if you do have this faith, you will receive the promise. God will reward you. You will receive the promise. The

promise is going to come, and he says, now here's the way to wait for it. And there are three ingredients to this kind of faith, three ingredients, I believe, found right here in this incident. There are three words that stand out as you read this passage, and these three things give us the ingredients of this kind of faith, the steadfastness of faith, the faith that hangs on, the faith that continues to believe when it is not as easy to believe as it was initially. First of all, in waiting for the promise, in waiting for the promise, there must be a confidence because of what God has done in the past. A confidence born of God's past dealings.

You'll notice in verse 35 he says, Therefore do not throw away, do not cast aside your confidence, which has a great reward. Now he is referring to the confidence these believers had during that first persecution. They were aglow with the initial act of salvation, and they had absolute confidence that God was going to see them through. Now the author says, don't cast aside that confidence. You still need it. The same confidence you had earlier, you now need to have. Remember, notice in verse 32 he opens this passage with this word,

but remember the former days. Remember. Now, you need to underline or circle that word remember. It's one of the watchwords of faith. As you study the Bible, you'll find again and again this emphasis upon remembering, remembering. One of the greatest boons to faith is remembering. You know how when Israel was surrounded again and again by the enemies, you know what the first thing they did? They began to rehearse all God's past dealings with them. You read in the Old Testament and the Chronicles and the Kings and so forth

and see when they were at the point of annihilation by some surrounding enemy, how they began to rehearse all that God had done for them, how he led them out of Egypt, how he brought them through the Red Sea, how he fed them with manna in the wilderness, and how he opened the rock and brought forth water. What they're doing is this. They're going back, going back, remembering, remembering what God had done in times past. And as they remembered, this caused their faith to rise to the surface, and it buoyed their confidence.

And here's what they were saying. If God has delivered us in the past, he will deliver us in the present. Have you ever noticed how often Thanksgiving is linked to prayer? Again and again, you'll find those two things made inseparable in the Scripture. Thanksgiving linked to prayer. Why? Well, what do you thank God for? You thank God for past deliverances.

And when you're praying for a present deliverance or when you're praying for a present promise, you begin that by thanking God of the promises fulfilled in the past. And this encourages us to believe. And one of the essential things of faith is this, confidence that has been born because of God's past faithfulness in His dealings with us. Now, I want us to read on in these 32 and 33 verses. Here's what he said, but remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations

and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. Now, I want you to see their confidence. By the word confidence means courageously and conspicuously bold. It is a courage that is conspicuous. Now, I want you to see how courageous they were. There were Christians being taken to prison because of their faith in Christ, but they didn't know I was a Christian, let's assume. They had no idea I was a Christian. Now the smart thing to do would be to keep quiet and stay out of the way and keep out of sight, and you'll be all right. But notice what

these people did. They had such confidence in God and in His promise to deliver and to meet their needs, that they showed sympathy to the prisoners. They went to visit them in prison, and immediately when they did so, they identified themselves as fellow believers. And the result was this. Immediately their property was seized. Look in verse 34. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. Now, it's one thing to accept the seizure of your property. It's another thing to accept it joyfully. I want to tell you something. Do you know the difference between Christians?

It's those who accept things and then those who accept things joyfully. The difference in believers is not the absence of trial, but their attitude towards it. That's the difference. One preacher was asking for people to stand up and quote their favorite verse, and one dear lady stood up and said, My favorite verse is that scripture

that says, Gr grin and bear it well there are a lot of folks who grin and bear it uh that's not what that's not what the writer is talking about it's one thing to to accept it because you have no choice i mean if the army comes in and seizes your property you have no choice. I mean, if the army comes in and seizes your property, you have no choice. But the mark of confidence in God is you accept it joyfully. Now, why? How is it that a believer can accept some things in his life joyfully? Notice what he says. Knowing, knowing. You see, the believer knows some things that nobody else knows. And this word know means to know by experience, to come to know by experience, to come to know because you've experienced something. Knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Oh, that's great. Listen. He says when the soldiers came in and seized your property, you know what God did? God taught you the true value of possessions.

And the reason you can accept that joyfully is because you know that you have a better possession and one that is abiding that they can't take away from you. And regardless of what the world takes from you, they can never take from you your most valued possession. You see, that's what the Christian learns. That's where his confidence comes from. The fact that God has given him some things in Jesus Christ that the worst of life cannot touch and cannot take away. It says in 1 Peter, if you suffer for the will of God, then happy are you. But he says in the very next verse, no man can harm you. I used to read that and I'd say, well,

I wish he'd make up his mind. One verse he says we're going to suffer. The next verse he says nobody can harm us. Now, I don't understand that. Well, the more I studied, the more I came to understand what he was talking about, I realized that here's what he's saying. You know, you can cause a Christian to suffer, but you can't really hurt him. I mean down where he really lives, where his life is really there, in the true nature of his life, what he's really made of, you can't really hurt him. And 1 John says the devil cannot touch a child of God, but I know that he can. But that word touch means to get hold of and hang on to permanently. Listen, the devil may afflict us, but he can't touch us. I have a friend who is somewhat of a, well, he's an athlete of sorts, you know, more or less a frustrated athlete.

And no matter how much he gets hurt, he said, you never touched me. I've seen him knocked down on a basketball floor, and he'll get up and say, you never touched me. Lip bleeding, eye bruise, knee swelling, 40-something-year-old fellow, has no better sense to get out there and play with teenagers. He said, you never touched me. Well, in a very real sense, that believer who knows that when the devil in the world has done its worst, he can say, you never really touched me. We have a possession, a better possession than anything we've ever lost. We have a better possession. I was listening to Van Savner some time ago and he said, he said, you know the Christian, the Bible says has all things.

And then again the Bible says the Christian possesses nothing. He says if the devil comes up to a Christian and says, hey if you'll compromise and do what I tell you to do, I'll give you this and that. And the Christian says, you can't give me anything. I already have everything. And the devil says, well, all right then, if you don't do what I tell you, I'm going to take it away from you. He said, you can't take anything away from me. I don't have anything. You see, in one sense of the word, we have all things. And so we do not need to fear. But in another sense of the word, have all things and so we do not need to fear but in another sense of the

word we don't have anything so the devil in the world cannot hurt us that's what he's talking about you have learned the true value of possessions and you have discovered that you have something that heaven and hell and earth cannot touch nor. And he says, remember, remember. I like to give you a suggestion. Some years ago, I started keeping a record of God's dealings and deliverances in my own life. You might call it a journal. But it's just a book of remembrances. And I started this, I suppose, in 1970. As I would have a need, as I would begin to pray for something,

I would just write it down in that little black book. And as God would move and work and answer, I would write down the answer and I would just record how God dealt. And from time to time, I would pull out that book and read back over. Not long ago, not long ago, I was feeling a little bit low, and the walls of my faith were beginning to weaken a little, and I ran across, I had almost forgotten about that black book,

and it was buried deep in a drawer, and for some reason I had almost forgotten about it, and I ran across that, and I pulled that book out, and I started at the front. And I had forgotten a great many of the things that were there. And I began to read that, and suddenly I came upon instance after instance after instance where God had delivered, sometimes at the 11th hour,

sometimes five minutes before midnight, God would deliver. And as I read through those records of God's past dealings with me, I tell you, my faith began to rise to the surface of my heart. And I brought that book out, and I keep it on top. And from time to time, I go back and read it. I think it's a good thing to do. Over and over, the Bible tells us to remember, remember, remember, remember. And Peter says, if we lack certain Christian virtues, it's because we have forgotten that we were purged from our old sins. So this might be a helpful suggestion to you,

how to wait for a promise to have a record of God's past dealings. And as you rehearse and remember what God has done in the past, it will cause faith, I believe, to rise in your own heart. So the first word is confidence. The second word in this passage is the word of obedience. Look in verse 36. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, so when you have done the will of God, first thing is this, there must be confidence because of what God has done in the

past, and there must be obedience to God's present will. Now remember, we are believing God for something. We're believing God for some promise, and we're waiting for that promise. Now what do you do while you're waiting? What do you do while you're waiting? What do you do while you're waiting? Well, you don't sit around passively, idly. You continue to do the will of God. Now, the writer assumes that they will do the will of God, and the interesting thing, of course, is it's doing the will of God that got them in this trouble in the first place,

but they continue to do it. Why? Because confidence always knows the will of God that got them in this trouble in the first place, but they continue to do it. Why? Because confidence always knows the will of God is best, regardless of what it is. The will of God is best. One of the greatest temptations you'll have while you're waiting for God to bring forth the promise is to stop and just sit. I've seen Christians when they've gone through perhaps some trial, some period of darkness, they give up their work in the church,

they lose heart, and they just stop, you know, and say, well, when God begins to come through again, I'll get back on my feet. That's one of the worst things you can do. While you're waiting for God to fulfill the promise, while you're waiting for God to bring deliverance, it doesn't matter.

Even if you have just passed through some great tragedy, you must continue daily to do the will of God, to keep up that obedience. Why? Well, I think there are two reasons. Number one, obedience always brings with it a confirmation of our faith. I need confirmation at times, and you need confirmation at times. Sometimes it's a long wait before the promise is given to us. And obedience to the present will of God, just the everyday will of God, just knowing what I want and what I know God wants me to do every day, brings with it confirmation. You'll find this illustrated in John chapter 4.

You remember the nobleman who came to Jesus in John chapter 4, verse 46, Jesus has returned to Cana of Galilee. And there was a certain nobleman, a certain royal official, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and was requesting him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Now, notice Jesus' next words. Jesus therefore said to him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.

Now, what was wrong with that man's faith? Look at the next verse. The royal official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. I'll show you two things that's wrong with that fellow's faith. Number one, he believed Jesus had to be present to work the miracle. He said, come down, hurry. Number two, he believed that the boy had to be alive before Jesus could help him.

He said, come down before my child dies, indicating that if you wait until the child is dead, there's no use in coming at all. You see, he was looking for some sign. He said, I want you to come with me. I want you to come with me. Now, you must understand that this nobleman made the trip with the intention that when he returned to that home where his boy lay dying, he would have Jesus right there with him. And folks, it's pretty easy to dying, he would have Jesus right there with him. And folks, it's pretty easy to believe if you've got Jesus right there with him. You can see him and touch him and hear him. That was what he was looking for. Now, Jesus in verse 50 said to him,

go your way, your son lives. Go your way. Your son lives. Jesus said, I'm not coming. Don't need to. You just go on back. Your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off. There's obedience. He believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off.

Now, try to imagine this fellow going back home. He's alone. He expected to have Jesus right there with him. I would imagine that that long trip back to Capernaum would give him plenty of time to doubt, don't you? What if he gets back and the boy is dead? What if Jesus is mocking him? What if I misunderstood?

What if there's something wrong? This man had anticipated Jesus doing it in one way, you see. And oh, it would be so easy to believe if Jesus were walking the road with him because every time a doubt surfaced in his mind, he could always say, Now, Jesus, are you sure? Now, Jesus said, I want you to go back by yourself without any proof, without any evidence, without any tangible proof that your boy is alive.

You just believe me and you go back. He's all right. And so the man obeyed. Now, look at verse 51. And as he was going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. Now, I want to tell you something, folks. If you will obey the word of Jesus, regardless of how it contradicts what you had wanted. If you will obey the word of Jesus, I guarantee you along the way he'll send a servant to confirm that word. You'll meet a servant.

It may take the form of a person. It may take the form of an incident. But one of the Lord's servants will meet you as you're obeying, as you're obeying, one of the Lord's servants will meet you and confirm that what Jesus has said is true. I've seen this happen again and again in my own experience as the Lord has said, I want you to do such and so and there was no logical reason to expect it to be right

and I had no visible proof, no tangible evidence, but I started down the road. And every once in a while, I'd meet a servant. Something they would say, something that would happen, would just be the Holy Spirit witnessing to me, saying, everything's all right. Everything's all right. Obedience brings confirmation.

But not only this, obedience brings a greater faith. Let's read on in verse 53. So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives. Now watch this. And he himself believed and his whole household. Well, I thought he already believed. No.

He believed the word. Notice in verse. No, he believed the word. Notice in verse 50, the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him. Now, in verse 53, as a result of his obedience, he believes. Simply, he believes. You see, in verse 50, he believed the word for a specific occasion. There is no indication there that he wholeheartedly believed Jesus and committed himself to him. He believed one word for one occasion. But in 53, verse 53, now he believes in Jesus for any and every occasion.

This is a wholehearted commitment to Jesus. This is why I say again and again, don't worry about the size of your faith. That's not the issue. And I suppose the biggest barrier we have to living by faith is, as I've already indicated, we're worrying about the size of your faith. Friend, your faith may be imperfect as this man's was. Your faith may be imperfect as this man's was.

Your faith may be limited as this man's was. But you act upon the faith you have. The important thing of faith is not the faith itself, but it's the object of faith. Faith has no validity apart from its object.

The strength of faith comes in its object, not from faith alone. To say you have faith is nothing, but to say you have faith in him and obey him, that's everything. You start with the faith you have. It may be about the size of a grain of mustard seed. The only way the human eye can see it is under a magnifying glass practically.

That may be the limit of your faith, but you exercise the faith you have. You act upon that faith, you obey the word of God, and it will increase that faith. It will lead to greater faith. This man exercised the faith that he had in what? Obedience. Obedience. And that's all faith is, folks, is obedience. Obedience to the word of God. And it will increase your faith and your ability to wait for the promise. Now there is one final word in this passage that we need to look at in Hebrews 10, and that is the word endurance, the word patience. Look at verse 36. For you have need of endurance, of patience, so that

when you have done the will of God athlete who has entered into the games. Now, he has, first of all, confidence. Secondly, he obeys the rules, and he wins. Now, this word, you have need of endurance so that when you've done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. That word receive was used of an athlete waiting patiently to be rewarded the prize he had won.

So here is that athlete who has confidence, and he enters the race, and he runs lawfully, he keeps all the rules, and he wins the race. And at the end of his struggle he comes now and he says, All right, I have obeyed, I have done what I was called upon to do, now I have a reward coming, it is a prize. And this word was used of that athlete waiting patiently for the crown, for the prize. He had to have patience, he had to have endurance, waiting, waiting for the promised reward. Now it is at this point of endurance that your faith will be tried more than in any other way.

Endurance means to stick at it. I coined the word, it's stick-to-it-iveness. It means in spite of every obstacle, in spite of every delay, in spite of every discouraging circumstance, you stick to it. It means to stay under, to bear up under it, to be steadfast. While I am waiting, there must be the endurance of patience, not losing my confidence, not losing my faith, not weakening. You notice he says in verse 38, If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction.

The word shrink back really means to give up. And the picture here, of course, is a man who is waiting and waiting and waiting. And after a while, he waits so long he gets discouraged, and so he gives up. It was used of a sailor striking the sailor when he didn't believe there was going to be any wind. He just gave up with any hope of going anywhere, and he brought his sails in. And here's what the writer is saying. Listen, we are not of those who shrink back, regardless of how long the wait. We don't give up, but we are those of faith.

Do you want to know what is the test of a genuine faith? Do you want to know whether or not your faith or what you believe is faith in your life is really true and genuine? Here it is. Genuine faith always endures. It always endures. It always endures. It always endures. It always receives the promise. Somebody said, if a faith, what was it, Jack Taylor I believe said, a faith that fizzles in the end was faulty at the start.

That's a pretty good statement, and it's true. Genuine faith is faith that endures. Now you see the connection of verse 1 of Hebrews 11. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. You see while you're waiting, and you're hoping for that promise. You can't see it, but faith, genuine faith is the evidence,

is the title deed. That's what's going to bring to you the things hoped for, and that is the assurance that what you cannot see is real, even though you've not yet received it, even though you cannot yet touch it and handle it. Endurance, endurance, waiting. Well, how can you wait? How can you wait? He says in verse 37, and he quotes from the prophet Habakkuk, for yet in a little while he who is coming will come and will not delay, but

in the meantime my righteous one shall live by faith. I want us to look at those words. For yet in a little while he who is coming will come and will not delay." The word means, that one who is coming, it means he is presently coming, he is presently coming, will arrive. About two years ago my wife was expecting me on a certain flight about midnight. I had been in a meeting somewhere, and I was supposed to arrive at the DFW airport at midnight. We're just ten minutes from the airport, and so she calls every time to make certain the plane is on time. So she called this airline, and she said, it's flight so-and-so on time. And the man said, no, sir, it won't be in on time. It'll probably

be about 15, 20 minutes late. She said, All right, thank you very much. Fifteen or 20 minutes later she called up and said, I want to know about the status of Flight so-and-so. Has it arrived yet? He said, No, sir, it has not arrived. She said, Well, when do you expect it? He said, We do not know.

So she hung up. She called back a little bit later and said, I want to know. Okay. So she hung up. She called back a little bit later. She said, I'm wanting to know about flight so-and-so. Do you have any information on it? When will it arrive? He said, We have no information on the flight. We don't know when it will come in. Well, you know what she was thinking, don't you?

She said, Well, did it leave on time? When did it leave? He said, We don't have that information.� �You don't know when it will be in? You've not received any word when it will be in?� He said, �No, ma'am, we don't have that information. We just have to call back.� Very basic, very uninformative. So she hung up, and you know what she began to do, she began to worry. She could see that plane down somewhere. After about 15 or 20 minutes she called up again.

She said, Listen, it's me. I'm calling about flight so-and-so." She said, Now, wait just a minute. She said, I do not want to know when it left. I do not want to know when it's going to arrive. But she said, Can you tell me one thing? Is it in the air? Annie said, Yes, ma'am, we can tell you one thing. It's in the air. She said, That's enough, thank you very much, and hung up. Now she was able to endure.

Now she was able to wait. She was able to be patient. Why? Because that which was coming was in the air. That's what he said. That's what the writers say. Oh, listen, there are times when waiting is agony, and you begin to wonder, will God ever come through? Will he ever end this

particular trial? And I've asked God many a time, Lord, when is this going to be over? God said, I'm sorry, I can't give you that information. And I've asked again and again and again and again. God said, I cannot give you that. I cannot give you that, but I want to tell you something. I have come to him and said, Lord, could you just tell me one thing, is it on its way? Is it in the air? And listen, the answer is yes, yes. That which is coming has already left, and it is on its way. You remember when Daniel, recorded in that 10th chapter, was praying, and he prayed and

prayed for three weeks, 21 days, and didn't receive an answer, enough to discourage anybody. Finally, at the end of 21 days, the angel of the Lord appeared and said, Don't be afraid, Daniel, from the first day that you sought the Lord I was sent with these words. He left the first day from the throne. I don't know why it always sometimes takes God 30, 21 days to arrive with the answer, but when he arrives, you see, it is not the important thing. The fact that he is on his way, this enables us to endure, to be patient, to wait. Now, it is the waiting, it is the enduring that brings the reward.

It is the enduring that brings the reward. Why? Because that is the greatest test of my confidence in God. That is the essence of faith. Patience, endurance is the virtue of the martyrs. You read it, you find out that is true. These people who were willing to patiently wait for God.

One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 130. He talks about, Out of the depths have I cried unto thee. He talks about waiting upon the Lord, and he says, I wait for the Lord as one who waits for the sunrise. I like that. You see, you have to wait for the sunrise, friend. You can't hurry it up. There's no way you can hurry up the sunrise.

You can set your watch forward two hours and that won't hurry the sunrise one bit. You cannot hurry God. But I'll tell you something else, nobody ever waits for the sunrise in vain. He that waits for the Lord is like he who waits for the sunrise. He has to wait, but his waiting is always rewarded, for since the beginning of time the sun has always risen. And they that wait upon the Lord will never, never wait in vain. Listen, how to wait for a promise.

Some of you, I'm confident, are believing God for some things. Maybe some financial need. It may be some physical need. It may be deliverance from some problem or grace to go through some circumstance. Three things that you have to have to wait for the promise. Confidence because of God's past dealings,

obedience to God's present will, and patience for God's future work. And in waiting, you will be rewarded. And I promise you this morning, my dear friend, that you're going to need this kind of faith more than any other kind of faith. Or occasionally I do need to believe God for a need, occasionally I do need to believe God to solve a problem, but every day of my life I need to be steadfast and faithful to

him. That's living by faith. And the Bible says that's how the just will survive. You'll survive, friend. I don't care what you're going through. You'll survive. If you have confidence, obedience, and patience, you will survive. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification. and patience, you will survive. dot net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.