Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome back to Faith Ward Baptist Church.
Very good to see you all here.
Back for our Sunday night service.
If you would please find your seats now.
Take a small book.
Go to Hymn 421.
We'll begin tonight.
Hymn 421.
The first snowman.
Hymn 421.
The first snowman.
Hymn 421.
We'll begin on that first verse together once you find your place.
421 begins the first snowman.
The angel did say.
Hymn 421.
Lift up your voice on that first now.
421.
The first snowman.
The angel did say.
The first snowman.
The angel did say.
The first snowman.
Noel, Noel, Noel.
Born is the King of Israel
and by the light of that same star
three wise men came from country far
And to follow the star wherever it went, Noelle, Noelle, Noelle, Noelle.
Born is the King of England, Noelle, Noelle.
Born is the King of Israel, This star to nigh,
To the northwest, O'er that the heavens took its rest,
And there it did, both psalm and stay, Right o'er the place where Jesus lay.
Noelle, Noelle, Noelle, Noelle.
Born is the King of Israel, Let it turn in those wise and free,
Oh, let it lead upon their knees, And offer them in this presence,
Where gold and myrrh and frankincense,
Noelle, Noelle, Noelle, Noelle.
Born is the King of Israel.
Amen. Good start to our singing tonight.
We want to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on the service,
so I've asked for the next Macintosh, if he will lead us in prayer please.
Dear Heavenly Father and Lord, thank you for allowing us to be gathered here tonight.
We pray that you would bless all aspects of the service and help us to sing praises to you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Hymn number 430, number 430, while shepherds watch their flocks.
Hymn number 430, 430, while shepherds watch their flocks by night, all seated on the ground.
Hymn number 430, lift it up now.
While shepherds watch their flocks by night, all seated on the ground.
The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around, and glory shone around.
Fear not, said he, for my secret has seized their troubled mind.
Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind,
to you and all mankind.
To you in David's town this day is born of David's mind,
the Savior who is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be the sign, and this shall be the sign.
God, as we may do, there shall I to you, may you display,
all neatly wrapped in smiling band, and in a manger lay,
and in a manger lay.
All glory be to God on high, and to the earth be peace.
Your goodness, Lord, from heaven to man, begin and ever cease.
Begin and ever cease.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
This week we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 29.
We've got the soul-winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page, great news about the Jamaica missions trip.
It was a massive success, and so we're super thankful for everyone
who was involved in any way, shape, or form.
Obviously, there's a lot that goes into something like this,
just as far as just planning, prayer, preparation,
just the funds to pay for things and everything.
And then, obviously, the people who participated,
they paid a lot of their own way and their own time and energy,
and so we're especially thankful to the people who actually physically went there
and performed the work, but we had 33 soul winners out there
working hard over a week or so.
They got 902 people saved through actual face-to-face conversations,
either one-on-one or small groups where they could interact and talk to people.
And then also, they were able to preach in schools
to an additional 4,900 people in either giant school assemblies
or going from classroom to classroom, you know, about 30 students at a time.
And, of course, many of you have probably seen videos of this
because we've put out a lot of videos of this kind of thing
over the years of us preaching to big assemblies
or preaching in little classrooms with 40 students or whatever.
It's a super cool opportunity that exists in a lot of these countries
where you can just kind of talk your way into these schools
and just preach to the whole school,
something that would be, you know, pretty much unheard of in the United States,
probably, pretty rare that you'd be able to do something like that.
And so, you know, 900 salvations and then plus probably many hundreds more
that we don't know about just from preaching to giant groups and so forth.
So good job, everybody, and looking forward to doing more great missions in 2025
and to keep this thing going.
Below that, we've got the note about the bridal shower.
That's next Sunday, 2 o'clock.
And so please RSVP to Denise Furbay if you're planning on going to that.
And try to only bring the nursing children and leave the other kids at home with Dad.
And then across the page, we've got the note about the Christmas caroling.
This is Thursday, December 19th.
So we'll meet here at 5.30 for that.
And then after we get back, we'll have cookies and milk.
The cookies are sort of potluck.
So please bake and bring cookies if you can.
And then below that, there's a Christmas party for the ladies and teen girls.
This is on Saturday, December 14th, 5 o'clock right here at the church building.
So that's this coming Saturday.
So this is coming up very soon.
There was some fake news about this being a white elephant gift exchange.
It's actually just a gift exchange.
And so this is, the limit's $30, okay?
So don't go too crazy on those gifts.
And please bring an appetizer or finger food to share.
There will also be some light refreshments.
And no kids, but nurselings are okay.
If you have any questions or if you would like to RSVP, please speak to Grace Young as soon as possible.
There she is.
This is Grace Young, everyone.
May I present to you, Grace Young, all right?
And then also speaking of people to RSVP to, Denise Furbay, come on down.
Can you raise your hand?
This is Denise Furbay, and she's the one to RSVP to for the bridal shower.
So that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the sole winning for the past few days.
First of all, let's just go ahead and just plug in a nice 902 right off the bat.
All right.
And then what else have we got for this week?
Thursday.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Anything else from Thursday?
Is that a two?
All right.
Okay.
And then how about Friday?
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
And then how about Saturday?
Got it.
Any other Saturday groups?
And then how about Sunday today, Brother Scott?
Nine for the main group of Brother Scott.
Gotcha.
Got it.
All right.
Very good.
Keep up the great work on sole winning with that.
Let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right.
You should find the insert in front of your hymnal with the two songs.
We'll start with angels we have heard on high.
If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand and you'll receive one.
And we'll sing it on that first together.
Angels we have heard on high.
Sweetly singing o'er the plains.
And the mountains in reply.
Echoing their joyous talk.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh, Oh.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, Oh.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.
Shepherds, why this jubilee,
Why your joyous strains prolong,
What the glad sun's tidings be,
Which inspire your heavenly song.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.
Come to Bethlehem and sing,
In whose birth the angels sing.
Come, adore, unbend in me,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.
See him in a manger laid,
Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth,
Mary, Joseph, glad your reign,
With us sing our Savior's birth.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.
Within a crib my Savior lay,
A wooden manger filled with hay.
Come down for love on Christmas day,
All glory be to Jesus.
Upon a cross my Savior died,
Two ransomed sinners crucified,
His loving arms still open wide,
All glory be to Jesus.
A victor's crown my Savior won,
His work of love and mercy done,
The Father's high ascended Son,
All glory be to Jesus.
Amen. Good singing tonight.
Alright, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11, as we always do.
We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
We'll follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Hebrews chapter 11,
Starting in verse number 1.
Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11, the Bible reads,
Now faith is a substance of things hoped for,
The evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
By which he obtained witness that he was righteous,
God testifying of his gifts.
And by it he being dead yet spaketh.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death,
And was not found because God had translated him.
For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
Moved with fear, preparing an ark to the saving of his house,
By the which he condemned the world,
And became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
Which he should after receive for an inheritance,
Obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country,
Dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
The heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations,
Whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed,
And was delivered of a child when she was past age,
Because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Therefore sprang there even of one,
And him as good as dead,
So many as the stars of the sky in multitude,
And as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith,
Not having received the promises,
But having seen them afar off,
And were persuaded of them, and embraced them,
And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out,
They might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country,
That is in heavenly.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,
For he hath prepared for them a city.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
Offered up Isaac,
And he that had received the promises,
Offered up his only begotten son,
Of whom it was said,
That in Isaac shall thy seed be called,
Accounting that God was able to raise him up,
Even from the dead.
From whence also he received them in a figure.
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau,
Concerning things to come.
By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed,
When he was a dying, blessed both of his,
The sons of Joseph, and worshipped,
Leaning upon the top of his staff.
By faith Joseph, when he died,
Made mention of the departing of the children of Israel,
And gave commandment concerning his bones.
By faith Moses, when he was born,
Was hid three months of his parents,
Because they saw he was a proper child,
And they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years,
Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,
Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
Than the treasures in Egypt,
For he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt,
Not fearing the wrath of the king,
For he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Through faith he kept the Passover,
And the sprinkling of blood,
Lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land,
Which the Egyptians, a saying to do, were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,
After they were compassed about seven days.
By faith the harlot Rahab perished,
Not with them that believed not,
When she had received the spies with peace.
And what shall I more say?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon,
And of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
And of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets,
Who through faith subdued kingdoms,
Wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
Stopped the mouths of lions,
Quenched the violence of fire,
Escaped the edge of the sword,
Out of weakness were made strong,
Waxed valiant in fight,
Turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead, raised to life again,
And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance,
That they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings,
Yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
Were tempted, were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins,
Being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
Of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains,
And in dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith,
Received not the promise,
God having provided some better things for us,
That they without us should not be made perfect.
Definitely Father the Lord, thank you for allowing us to be in church.
Thank you for all the soul owners doing the work for you.
Please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit
So that he may preach boldly, so that we can be edified by the sermon.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Man, Hebrews chapter 11 is commonly known as the hall of faith,
Sort of like the hall of fame,
But it's a catalog of men throughout the Old Testament
Who had great faith in God,
And all the great things that they achieved by faith.
When we stop and think about the term faith,
Our mind typically just instantly goes to salvation,
Because we're constantly preaching to people
That we are saved by faith, not by works.
So many religions out there are teaching
That you go to heaven by being good,
That you earn your way to heaven,
By either doing some kind of good deeds,
Or cutting sin out of your life,
Or keeping commandments, or something like that.
Of course we believe that the only way that we're going to heaven
Is through Jesus Christ, because if it were based on how good we are,
None of us would be going.
But because Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again,
If we put our faith and trust in what Christ has already accomplished for us
On the cross, then we receive the gift of eternal life.
So that's the main thing that we think about
When we think about faith,
Because we're constantly preaching that message
As we evangelize, hopefully on a weekly basis,
Hopefully in your life you're regularly
Giving the gospel to other people,
And talking about that subject with other people.
But, faith goes beyond that,
Because after we get saved by believing
On the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation,
That's not the end of faith in our life.
That's not where faith stops,
Because we continue going through life,
Being faced with challenges and decisions
That need to be made,
And we have to keep on trusting
What God says in his word
In order to make the right decisions.
Right? Because people are constantly coming at us
With all kinds of advice,
And different ideas, and ways of life,
And different counsels, and the wisdom of this world,
And we're getting all these different messages,
And being pulled in different directions,
And we're faced with a decision,
And we need to know what is right, what is not right.
And at the end of the day, there's what the Bible says,
And then there's what everybody else says,
And all the other different opinions that are out there.
And it can sometimes be tempting
To get sucked into unbiblical ways of thinking,
And not to fully trust what God has said in his word
About every subject.
Okay? So, here's the thing,
You don't really take a lot of faith to get saved.
You don't have to be some great man or woman of faith,
Or have the faith that moves mountains
In order to be saved, right?
You just have to take what little faith you have,
And just put it all on Jesus,
And just confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,
Believe in your heart God raised from the dead,
And you shall be saved.
Okay? But, as we go through the Christian life,
We want to increase our faith,
And there are other things that the Bible says
That we also want to not only believe on an intellectual level,
But we want to trust those things,
And how do we show that?
By actually putting them into practice in our lives.
Okay?
And, look, throughout my life,
I have seen God's word,
And the truth of God's word,
Confirmed over and over again.
Where the Bible says that things are going to happen a certain way,
And then they happen exactly the way the Bible says they're going to happen,
And I just keep seeing it confirmed over and over again.
But, I'm not going to lie,
There are also some times in life,
Where you're faced with situations, or things, or events,
That will actually make you question the word of God.
And you actually doubt, and you say,
Wait a minute, this seems to be different than what I'm reading in the Bible.
That's where you've got to have the faith to say,
Well, you know what?
Even if I don't understand,
Even if it doesn't make sense to me,
Even if this is confusing to me,
Or causing me to doubt,
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
Because you can see how a man like Job could lose faith, right?
He's been trusting God,
He's been doing all the right things,
God has been blessing him,
And then all of a sudden,
He loses everything for no reason.
You can see how that can make him doubt the promises of God,
But he did not.
He maintained his faith.
He was confused,
He questioned things,
He got upset,
He went through a lot of emotions,
But at the end of the day,
He said,
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
And you're going to come to points in your life, too,
Where you are going to be asked to exercise faith,
And say,
Well, hey, I don't understand,
But this is what the Bible says,
I'm not moving from it,
I'm not going to budge from it,
Because at the end of the day,
The Word of God doesn't change,
And I know it's true.
So with that in mind,
Let's go ahead and approach Hebrews chapter 11,
Because Hebrews chapter 11 is a chapter that,
Yeah, it's going to touch on some things that have to do with salvation,
But really, it's a chapter that's written to God's people,
About how to be victorious and triumphant in the Christian life,
How to be successful,
And giving examples of great men and women of God,
Who've done great things,
By living a life of faith,
Trusting God,
Relying on the promises of God,
And so forth.
But it starts out in verse number 1,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
The evidence of things not seen.
Of course, this is a beautiful and very famous definition of faith.
It's the substance of things hoped for.
Another way of explaining that would be,
That it makes things real to you,
That we only read about in the Bible,
We haven't really experienced,
Or seen, or physically felt in a tangible way.
But, they're real to us,
Because we have the faith,
That if God said they're real, they're real.
Okay.
And then it says they are the evidence,
Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
And so, faith has to do with believing in something we've never seen.
Now, we've never seen heaven,
We've never seen hell,
We've never seen God,
We've never seen Jesus,
We've never seen the Holy Spirit,
You know, descending like a dove on Jesus,
And his baptism.
We didn't see those things,
We believed those things,
Because we've read about them in the Word of God.
And so, if somebody says,
Well, what's the evidence that Jesus died on the cross?
Well, the Bible says faith is the evidence of things not seen.
We believe the Word of God when he says that those things are real.
And so, those things have substance for us,
They are real unto us,
Even though we haven't actually experienced them,
First-hand with our physical senses.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
The evidence of things not seen.
Of course, you know, some of the scientific minds of this world
Would kind of scoff at that and say,
You know, well, I only believe in, you know, things that I can see or feel,
Or, you know, I got to see the evidence, or whatever.
And this mentality that says I must see the evidence
Is a mentality of a person who will never get saved
Until they get rid of that mentality.
Because without faith, it's impossible to be saved.
And so, if you're going to have this attitude that says,
Well, I must see evidence,
Then you'll never be saved.
Because you're never going to be shown concrete evidence of Jesus
Dying on the cross, being buried, and rising again.
You're going to have to believe that.
But of course, it's very hypocritical for the scientists to say that
Because they believe in all kinds of things
That they've never seen and never will see as well.
Unless they're just going to go through life saying,
And look, maybe there are scientists like this out there,
And I'm sure there are,
You could go through life as a scientist and say,
Well, I only see, I only believe what I see,
Then you'd have to basically just say,
Well, I have no idea where the universe came from,
I have no idea where life came from,
I have no idea where the human species came from,
Because I only believe in stuff that I can actually see and prove and believe.
So all I know is what's going on right now around me.
But let's face it,
Most of these scientists will tell you about the Big Bang
And tell you all these things about how DNA came from nothing
Even though DNA is more complicated than any software on your computer
That it supposedly just all programmed itself.
It's absurd.
They've never seen that.
They have no evidence of that.
It can't happen.
And so, you know, people will claim that,
Oh, I only believe in what I can see,
But typically everybody has faith in something.
Right? Like some people are believing that God created the world,
Other people are believing that it came from nothing,
Other people think that aliens created us,
But then that doesn't really solve anything,
Because then you've got to figure out where the aliens come from.
You're just kicking the can down the road with that problem.
But at the end of the day, everybody has faith in something,
And we just need to put our faith in Jesus to be saved.
So the Bible says in verse 2,
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
And what the Bible means here by elders,
It's just meaning people of an older time period than us.
Because the context here,
He's going to go back in time thousands of years
And talk about all the people in the past
Who obtained a good report through faith.
Right? Meaning that we can look back
And get a good story about their lives,
How they succeeded,
And we can look at them as a great person
Who achieved something great,
And they did it through faith.
Right?
So then, the author of Hebrews here
Is going to sort of go through in chronological order
A bunch of Bible stories,
And talk about how faith played a role
In these different Bible stories.
But before he gets into Bible stories about people,
He just starts with the creation of the world.
Because that's really the first story in the Bible.
Right? If you open Genesis 1,
The first thing you're reading about is the creation.
And so he says,
Through faith we understand that the worlds
Were framed by the word of God,
So that things which are seen
Were not made of things which do appear.
And this is a reference to the fact that God
Spoke the world into existence.
But what's really interesting is that this is probably
The clearest verse in the Bible
About creation being ex nihilo,
Or from nothing.
Okay?
Because a lot of people will dispute that
They claim that God created the world from
Pre-existing matter or something.
Again, you're just kicking the can down the road.
Eventually things had to come from somewhere.
But the Bible says that the things which are seen,
What are the things which are seen?
The earth, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars,
Basically everything that we see in the universe.
The things which are seen
Were not made of things which do appear.
Now, the things which do appear
Are the same as the things that are seen.
If something appears, it means that it's apparent,
We can see it.
So the idea here is that the things that we see
Around us, this created world,
Was not made from things that we can see around us
In this created world.
Meaning that it wasn't made from any stuff
That's here right now.
It was made from what?
Nothing.
So the world was created from nothing.
It was not made of things which do appear.
The things which are seen were made of things
Which do not appear.
Meaning things that you can't see
Because they are not actual physical elements.
Because God created the world from nothing.
Ex nihilo.
That's what the Bible is saying.
It says in the next verse,
By faith Abel offered unto God
A more excellent sacrifice than Cain
By which he obtained witness that he was righteous,
God testifying of his gifts,
And by it, he being dead, yet speaketh.
Now, Adam and Eve are the first humans
That were created.
And of course they were in the Garden of Eden.
Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.
Gave it to Adam.
He ate.
They both got kicked out of the Garden of Eden.
And they had to work hard
And go through a lot of suffering
That even all of us kind of go through in our lives.
Suffering of various kinds.
But Adam and Eve, after they're kicked out of the garden,
They have a multitude of children.
Now Cain and Abel are just two of their children
That are being highlighted.
That are just kind of an important two children.
You know, the first two children.
Cain and Abel, these two brothers.
But the Bible's clear that Adam and Eve had
Many, many sons and daughters.
Okay, after Cain and Abel.
Ultimately, Abel is replaced by Seth
As being the sort of one to receive the blessing
Of kind of the inheritance or whatever.
But at the end of the day, Seth is not the only son.
There are already a bunch of other sons and daughters
At that time when Seth is born.
And so it says that by faith,
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
Of course, we know the story where Cain brought
An offering unto God of the fruit of the ground.
Of the produce of the earth.
So he's bringing fruits and vegetables.
Because that's what he did for a living.
He's a farmer.
And so he brought his best, and this is a picture
Of someone seeking to please God
Through their own works, through their own deeds.
And that's not the sacrifice that God is looking for
In order for us to be justified or declared righteous
In the sight of God.
Whereas, Abel brings of the firstlings of the flock
And of the fat thereof.
So he brings an actual animal sacrifice.
He brings the blood of the lamb,
Picturing the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
So when Abel brings that gift,
Then God declares him to be righteous
For bringing that gift.
Whereas, Cain's offering is not accepted.
It's not respected.
And Cain gets angry and ends up murdering Abel.
Now, here's the thing about this.
The Bible says by faith, Abel offered unto God
A more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
Now, in order for Abel to have done that by faith,
Then that means that God must have
Given them some kind of an instruction.
They must have known somehow or been told somehow
This is the offering that you're supposed to bring.
Right?
It wasn't like Abel just dreamed up an offering
And Cain dreamed up an offering.
And then God said,
Well, I like your offering, Abel.
I like this idea that you had.
But I don't like what you did over here, Cain.
You know, with your fruits and vegetables.
That's not what happened, right?
The idea here is that God is already demonstrating
This idea of the animal sacrifice
Even before Cain and Abel with Adam and Eve.
Because when Adam and Eve sinned,
They tried to cover their nakedness
With fig leaf aprons,
Which is a plant-based textile,
And God did not see that as a sufficient covering.
And again, the plant base is picturing there
Our own works, the produce of the ground
That we build and make ourselves.
But then, if you remember,
That inadequate covering
That they made out of the fig leaves with the apron
Is replaced by the covering that God made
And the covering that God made is animal-based.
It is the coats of skins.
The difference is, number one,
It's made by God, not by man, right?
The fig leaf apron is man-made.
The coats of skins are God-made, number one.
And then, number two, an animal had to die
In order to produce that clothing
Versus just, you know, picking the leaves off of a plant.
And so, again, the picture here is that
Without shedding of blood, there's no remission.
So, in order for our sins to be covered,
It's only God that can provide the covering for our sins.
It can't be us, right?
He has to provide those coats of skins.
And the blood has to be shed.
And, of course, it's not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins.
It's ultimately the blood of Jesus Christ,
The true Lamb of God, that takes away our sins.
Everything that happened in the Old Testament,
As far as an animal sacrifice,
Is just a foreshadowing of the real sacrifice, right?
Those sacrifices could never really take away sins.
They're just a picture of the real thing.
Just like getting baptized doesn't do anything for you spiritually
In the sense of washing away your sins or taking away your sins.
But it pictures something that does wash away your sins,
Which is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
So, it's a picture of the real thing,
Just like the animal sacrifices were a picture of the real thing.
And so, clearly, since this goes all the way back to Adam and Eve,
Even before Cain and Abel were born,
This was already a thing, this thing of the animal being sacrificed,
And so they were clearly told an instruction,
Abel put his faith in what God said was going to provide an atonement, right?
Abel is given an instruction.
He says, okay, if God wants an animal to be sacrificed,
Then an animal is going to be sacrificed.
Whereas Cain doesn't rely on trust,
Put his faith in what God has commanded,
And instead he does his own thing and brings the wrong offering.
And so it says that Abel obtained witness that he was righteous.
Not because he lived a really good life,
But because he had the right sacrifice.
And that's the only way we're going to be righteous in the sight of God,
Is if we have the right sacrifice,
Which is believing in the sacrifice of Jesus,
Instead of in our own works and the produce of our hands.
And so it says that God testified of his gifts,
And by it, he being dead, yet speaketh.
So we're still reading about it and talking about it thousands of years later.
Now it says in verse 5, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death,
And was not found because God had translated him,
For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.
So if we go back into the Old Testament,
There's very little written about Enoch.
Almost nothing is written.
But the statement that is made is that Enoch walked with God.
And then it says, he was not, for God took him.
So everybody else in that list, he died, he died, he died.
But then when it gets to Enoch, instead of saying he died,
It just says well, he wasn't there anymore basically.
He was not, because God took him.
And it says that before God took him, he walked with God.
So because he walked with God, God took him.
But, here's the thing about that.
We don't want to misunderstand and think that somehow,
Enoch was necessarily, you know, physically walking with God.
As far as like hanging out with God.
Because some people could have a wrong idea and think,
Oh before the flood, God was just way more intimate with humans,
Or you know, just kind of talking to them and walking among them,
And being with them on that level.
But if you look at this verse carefully,
It says in verse 5 at the end,
It says, before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God,
But without faith, it's impossible to please him,
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
And that means believe that he exists,
And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And so the idea here is that Enoch had to believe that God existed.
Just like you and I have to believe that God exists,
And that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So the Bible does not spell out in the book of Genesis,
Oh Enoch is a great man of faith.
Enoch had faith.
But what the author of Hebrews is doing,
Which I believe is the apostle Paul,
Some people would debate that.
The King James replicates that as the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews,
Just saying.
But the idea here is that the author of Hebrews is going back,
And looking at these Bible stories that don't explicitly bring up faith,
But explaining this happened by faith.
Because here's the thing,
If we know that Enoch walked with God,
And that because of walking with God,
God took him and he did not die,
But that he was just translated directly to the kingdom of heaven,
Well then we know that without faith,
It's impossible to please God.
Because he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
And that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So we're constantly quoting verse 6 by itself.
As we should, because it's a great verse,
It's a great truth.
Hebrews 11, 6, a powerful statement.
But if we actually get it in context,
We see that it starts with this conjunction,
But, and that's a reference back to Enoch,
You know, Enoch did this,
But we know that without faith it's impossible to please him.
So Enoch pleased God,
Without faith it's impossible to please God,
Therefore Enoch must have believed that God existed,
And that he was a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
So the idea here is that just like you and I,
Have to believe that God exists,
Because we, you know, we have not necessarily seen or talked with God,
Obviously we haven't physically laid eyes on Jesus or anything like that,
We have to believe that God exists,
Enoch had to do the same thing,
According to the Bible.
He had to believe that God existed,
And that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And it says that he was translated,
Now, it's kind of a strange word in this context, right?
Translate, because when we hear the word translate,
We would think of going from one language to another.
Okay.
And what this is basically saying is,
That he's just taken from one realm or one plane to the other.
He goes from earth to heaven.
That's the translation that's happening.
Most of us would have to go there by means of death.
Right? We're not just going to be translated into heaven.
We have to die to get there.
We have to die physically, I should say,
In order to get there.
Now, this is a picture of what will happen at the second coming of Christ,
At what we commonly call the rapture.
Because the Bible says we shall not all sleep,
Sleep referring to death,
But we shall all be changed in a moment,
In the twinkling of an eye,
At the last trump,
The dead will be raised incorruptible.
If we read 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
It says that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,
Shall not prevent them which are asleep,
Says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
With the voice of the archangel,
With the trump of God,
And the dead in Christ shall rise first,
Then we which are alive and remain,
Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
To meet the Lord in the air,
And so shall we ever be with the Lord,
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
So when the Bible says that we which are alive and remain,
Will be caught up together to meet them in the air,
The dead in Christ that have risen first,
Okay?
That is what the Bible means when it says we shall not all sleep,
But we shall all be changed.
Because most people throughout history, they die, right?
Their soul goes to heaven and their body is just in the grave,
And then they get that new glorified changed body,
At the second coming of Christ when the dead in Christ rise first,
Then we which are alive and remain,
Are caught up together with them.
But guess what?
We experience the same change that they experience.
So you got a dead body in the grave,
Transformed into a brand new glorified body,
As it's caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
We which are alive and remain,
We're also changed, transformed,
Caught up to meet the Lord in the air,
In a brand new glorified body.
The Bible says in Philippians 3 that he shall change our vile body,
That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
Okay, and so we're not all gonna sleep,
But we're all gonna be changed.
And so this idea of someone being caught up to heaven,
Translated to heaven without dying,
Is a picture of the rapture because it's exactly the same thing, right?
Just as Enoch is caught up without dying,
That's exactly what's gonna happen to believers who are alive when Christ returns.
So I've heard some people say this,
Well, you know Enoch has to come back in the end time so that he can die,
Because everybody has to die.
But, you know, it's appointed unto men who wants to die.
Wrong, because a lot of people aren't gonna die.
If Christ returns in our lifetime, we're not gonna die.
We should not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
And so it is a picture of the rapture.
I've also heard people say this,
They say, well, Enoch is a picture of the pre-tribulation rapture,
Because here's what they say,
He gets caught up before the flood comes.
You know, so before the flood, he's already taken out before the flood.
Here's what's funny about that is that Enoch is actually taken out,
He's actually translated 669 years before the flood.
So talk about being taken out just in the nick of time, you know.
So the flood, the flood hasn't even been talked about yet,
Because remember, when God announces the flood, it's like 120 years out.
He says man's days will be 120 years, go build the ark.
So he gives like a 120 year warning.
This is 669 years earlier.
Plus, when Enoch died, or excuse me, Enoch didn't die.
When Enoch was translated, he was 365 years old.
Okay, now 365 plus 669, okay, he would be over a thousand years old.
He's not even gonna make it to the flood.
Because no one in the Bible lived over a thousand years,
Even in the Old Testament, before the flood, when they're living super long.
The longest living man in the Bible, what was his name?
And how old did he live to be?
969.
So Enoch, even if he would have lived to be as old as the oldest man,
Would have still died many decades before the flood.
So God was not removing him to get him out of there like,
We gotta get you out of here for the flood.
This would be like if a catastrophic event were gonna happen in 2024,
And God pulled someone out in 1355 AD.
Like, think about that.
Like, before Columbus, before, you know, before the Renaissance,
Like, just 1355, it's like, oh man, gotta get you out of here, son.
Something big's coming in 2024, let's get you out.
Wait, wait, I wanna stay, you know.
That's not the point here.
It's a great picture of the rapture,
But it has nothing to do with the timing of the rapture,
With relationship to the flood, okay?
Because these events are way too far apart to be relevant.
So it says,
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death,
And was not found because God had translated him,
For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God,
And again, the Old Testament states it as he walked with God.
Not he pleased God, it says he walked with God.
So, here's my point,
That for us in 2024 to walk with God,
We can walk with God the same way Enoch walked with God,
Because he's not physically walking with God,
It's not like an Old Testament appearance of Jesus or something,
Where he's physically walking with God,
Because if that were the case, he wouldn't have to believe that God is,
And that God's a rewarder of them to diligently seek him.
He walked with God the same way we walked with God,
By faith.
He believed in the word of God, okay?
Because they did have the word of God before the flood,
They didn't have a physical Bible,
But they had the prophets that spoke the word of God.
And so it says, without faith it's impossible to please him,
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
And that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And that still stands true today,
That was true in Enoch's day,
It's true in our day,
You have to believe that God is real,
And that God's going to reward you for doing right,
Because look, let's face it,
We're living in a time where there's just not a lot of the fear of God, unfortunately.
Right? A lot of people just don't care what God says,
And they just do whatever they want,
And live however they want,
And they have no fear of God.
But here's another sort of flip side to that,
Of not fearing God,
Is, the other side of that coin is,
Not believing that God's a rewarder,
Of those that diligently seek him.
It's kind of two sides of the same coin.
First of all, you're not believing that punishment's coming if you do wrong,
And then you're also not believing that a reward's coming if you do right.
So you're just living your life however you want,
And just living for today, living for right now,
We need to have the faith to understand that we are going to be better off serving God than not serving God.
If you want God to bless you in your life, you've got to serve God.
And if you want to please God,
And be rewarded by God, right?
Then you've got to be reading the Bible,
Trusting what it says,
And living your life accordingly.
Otherwise, if you just think,
Oh, God doesn't care,
He's not watching,
He doesn't reward anyone,
He doesn't punish anyone,
Then you're just going to have to find out the hard way,
When your life goes poorly,
And when you end up a failure.
So moving on, it says,
By faith Noah,
Of course, jumping forward, as I said,
You know, over 500 years to even Noah being warned,
By faith Noah being warned of God,
Of things not seen as yet,
Moved with fear,
Prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
So again, the two sides of the same coin, right?
We've got Enoch believing that God rewards people who do well,
And then we've got Noah believing that God is going to punish the wicked,
And he was moved with fear of the destruction of the flood that's coming.
And so he prepares an ark to the saving of his house,
By the which he condemned the world,
And became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Now, how did Noah condemn the world?
Well, because God's grading on a curve.
So therefore, if everybody,
If every single person in the world were wicked,
God can't destroy the whole world and just kill every single person.
Now, why can't God just destroy the whole world and just kill every single person?
He can't fail everybody.
It's like if you were in a class and the teacher can't give everyone an F.
So the teacher grades on a curve,
And then there's that one guy who studied.
Okay, now here's the thing,
If nobody studied and everybody gets an F,
Then the teacher can't really fail everybody,
But then you've got Noah over here,
He studied, he gets an A,
Now he condemned the class.
Because now they're all failing because, you know, it's like,
There's good news and bad news.
The good news is the teacher's grading on a curve.
The bad news is the best grade in the class was a 98.
You know, so it's like,
Oh great, now my 56 just went up to a 58.
Or my 74 went up to a 76 or something, right?
Because the curve, whereas if the best kid in the class got an 85,
Well then, now my 55's going up to a 70.
My 70's going up to an 85.
Does everybody understand how this works?
Hopefully it's too much math, you're just like,
Uhhh, whatever.
So the point is,
That Noah condemned the world.
Why can't God destroy the whole world and just kill everybody?
Because God has already promised in Genesis chapter 3,
That the woman's seed will bruise the serpent's head.
He's already prophesied the coming salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what all those animal sacrifices were even about.
About Jesus.
And so Jesus has to be born of the woman.
He has to be the woman's seed.
And so therefore, God can't wipe everyone out.
And he finds one righteous man and he says of Noah,
The only have I found righteous in this generation.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
He's the one guy who moved with fear,
And prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
By the which he condemned the world.
Because now God can just wipe everybody else out,
Because the human race can continue with Noah's family.
And he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Now, why was Noah saved from drowning?
The reason he was saved from drowning,
Is because he believed in the punishment that was coming,
He believed the word of God,
Therefore built the ark that God told him to build,
He got on the ark, and so he's saved from drowning.
This is a picture of the righteousness which is by faith, right?
We believe that hell is real.
We believe that Jesus is the ark.
Jesus is the only way to be saved, right?
Jesus said, I'm the door.
If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved,
And go in and out and find pasture.
Well, here's the thing.
The ark, when it was built,
It was specifically specified that it would only have one door.
Right? There aren't just a whole bunch of ways to get to heaven,
A whole bunch of ways to get saved.
There's one door, and that door is Jesus.
And so, it had one door,
And Jesus is the door,
And so we have the same righteousness of Noah,
By just believing God's word,
And, you know, receiving Christ's righteousness imputed unto us by faith in him.
Then it moves on to the next example.
By faith, Abraham,
When he was called to go out into a place,
Which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed,
And he went out, not knowing where he went.
So, if you remember, when God gives him the promise,
He just says, go to a land that I'll show you.
He doesn't even tell him where he's going.
He doesn't tell him how far he's going.
He just says, go to a land that I'll show you.
And this is kind of the way God will sometimes lead us in our lives.
He just shows us the next step,
But he doesn't show us the whole journey.
He doesn't tell us the destination.
We can only see the road just right in front of us.
A lamp to our feet and a light to our path,
But we don't know what's going to be five years from now, ten years from now.
So he's just called to go out to a land that he would after receive for an inheritance.
He doesn't know where he's going.
And then it says in verse nine,
By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise.
And the word sojourn, this isn't a word of permanent dwelling.
This is like a temporary stay, is what a sojourn is.
So by faith, he sojourned in the land of promise,
As in a strange country.
As in, we would say in our modern vernacular, like in a foreign country.
So he's in the land of promise as a stranger, as a foreigner.
Like he's in a foreign country.
He's a stranger in a strange land.
And it says he was dwelling in tabernacles.
What's another word for tabernacles?
Tents.
So he's living in temporary structures in a foreign country,
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
And here's the fascinating thing about that,
is just that nothing about that story makes sense from an earthly perspective.
Like think about this, you're Abraham.
Okay, and you're called to just go to some other country.
And God says, go to this other country.
I'm going to make you a great nation and all this stuff.
You get to the other country, there's already people there.
It's not like you get there and it's empty and you're just going to colonize it and start over.
There are already civilizations there, there are already people there,
and you're sort of an outsider.
You're a stranger.
You're like in a foreign country, like you're there,
you're kind of the odd man out of the people who are already there
and have already been there and established.
They have permanent situations and you're just like staying at a hotel.
You know, and oh, I'm going to give you all this.
And Abraham had to believe that and it's kind of hard to believe.
Oh, I'm going to give you all this.
And then he just keeps getting older and older
and he doesn't really actually own any land or anything.
He's just kind of there and he's intense and he's just a sojourner.
And then not only that, God's telling him, oh, I'm going to make you a great nation.
Look up at the sky, look at all the stars.
That's how many descendants you're going to have.
That's how your seed is going to be.
Look at the sand by the seashore.
That's how your seed is going to be.
He doesn't even have one kid.
He has zero children.
And so he's confused by this at times.
This is confusing to him.
But he keeps going.
And here's the thing.
A lot of times our lives can get confusing.
You just got to just keep moving forward.
You just keep going.
And you just keep trusting God and eventually it all makes sense.
But you got to put yourself in Abraham's shoes as year after year after year is going by
and he has no child.
And God's telling him, oh, you're going to be a great nation.
And then God's telling him, oh, you're going to inherit all this land.
He's not inheriting any of it.
He's there as a sojourner.
Isaac is there as a sojourner.
Jacob is there as a sojourner.
Right?
They don't actually end up inheriting the land and building permanent dwellings there
and actually setting up shop permanently until several hundred years later when they come out of Egypt.
Right?
And so he's there.
And at first Abraham thinks, oh, well, maybe it's going to be my nephew.
Right?
Because maybe my nephew is going to be the one.
So he brings his nephew with him and everything.
But then he ends up separating from his nephew.
It ends up becoming clear that, you know, it's not the nephew that's the heir.
He ends up hanging around with too many fags and queers and so he doesn't work out.
But anyway, what happens is first you're thinking, like, is it the nephew?
And then he's saying, oh, maybe it's my servant, you know, Eliezer, that's born in my house.
Maybe he's the one.
And God's telling him, no, you know, you're going to have your own child.
Then because his wife is just getting so old and he's so old,
finally he decides to just take the maidservant Hagar and have a kid with her.
Obviously that wasn't right.
He was supposed to do it through his legitimate wife, Sarah.
And so he ends up having Ishmael with Hagar.
And so then it seems like, okay, maybe Ishmael is going to be a great nation.
God comes along and says, no, it's not Ishmael.
Ishmael is going to be a great nation too, but this isn't what I'm talking about.
You know, Sarah is going to have a child.
And, of course, God just miraculously allows Abraham, age 100, Sarah, at age 90, to produce a child.
Okay.
And so just against all the odds.
But think about it.
It's like you're a 100-year-old man and you've got this one baby.
And God's telling you, oh, you're going to have just the stars for a multitude of descendants.
You're going to inherit this whole land.
I mean, you have to stop to really appreciate the faith of Abraham.
This guy's got a lot of faith to believe this and to just keep serving God, keep going.
And not to just finally say, you know what?
I've been doing this for decades.
It doesn't make any sense.
I'm out.
He just stays with it.
Stays with it.
Still serving God.
Still believing the Bible.
Still following it.
Then we don't know exactly how much later, but decades later.
And, you know, you could guess.
I like to think that Isaac's probably like 30-some years old to kind of mirror Jesus being 30-some years old.
But he's clearly a grown man.
And Abraham is told to take him to one of the mountains of Moriah and to offer Isaac as a sacrifice upon one of his own.
So he has one kid finally.
And then before this kid is reproduced, God's basically saying to kill him.
Now that's pretty crazy.
You know, I mean, just everything's against the odds with Abraham.
And this just goes on for chapter after chapter after chapter.
What do you think God's trying to teach us as we read the book of Genesis?
Chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter.
Just seeing promises made and everything about his situation seeming to defy those promises.
And yet he persists.
What do you think God's trying to teach us?
He's trying to teach us to have faith in the Word of God no matter what life throws at us.
No matter what happens to realize God will come through.
And you've just got to push through and rely on those promises.
Let's go back to the text here in Hebrews chapter 11.
It says in verse 10,
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age,
because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude,
and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable, these all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Look, it says in verse 13, these all died in faith.
I mean we're talking about a man who lived to be a very old man and he died.
Did he get to see descendants like the stars of heaven or like the sand by the seashore?
Did he get to see them taking over the promised land and inheriting all the land?
Remember God saying, oh all this land will I give you? Did he see any of that?
He died without even seeing that stuff happen.
But he died believing it's going to happen someday.
Didn't happen in my lifetime, but it's still coming.
That's an incredible amount of faith and that's why Abraham is known as the father of faith.
And all of us who believe in Jesus Christ are the children of Abraham.
We're following in the steps of faith of our father Abraham.
And so if you're going to say, oh I'm a child of Abraham, I'm saved, I believe in Christ.
Okay, well let's take that a step further.
If you really want to be a child of Abraham, why don't you exercise the kind of faith that Abraham exercised,
not just getting saved, I'm glad you're saved, I'm glad you have eternal life and that you're eternally secure in that,
but how about now you spend the rest of your life serving God no matter what God throws at you,
and no matter what happens, and no matter how unlikely the promises of God seem,
you just keep believing the promises of God and you just keep pushing through because of the word of God,
because of faith, right? You want to be a great man? You want to be a great woman?
That's what you have to do. You have to believe the word of God, everything that it says,
and when somebody comes at you and says, oh look, your life's not going the way that it was supposed to go,
God's let you down. You say, nope, though He slayed me, yet will I trust Him.
Still going, still preaching, still soul winning, still reading the Bible, still keeping the commandments of God,
still staying faithful to your spouse, right? Still doing what the Bible says and not listening to the wisdom of this world
that tells you, oh, you should be living like these people over here or these people over here,
pointing to all these people that are not following the Bible.
Oh, do it this unbiblical way. Follow this unbiblical philosophy.
Do it this way. Do your marriage this way. Do your child rearing this way. Do church this way, right?
Follow all these people that are not going by what the Bible says.
Look, I know what the Bible says. You know what the Bible says.
We have the Holy Spirit of God. We have the written word of God.
We know what the Bible says and we are going to keep doing it.
And it doesn't matter what happens, we're going to keep going.
And everybody else can bail out and change and do other things and give up on it.
I'm not going to. I am going to get up every day, read this book, believe this book, and do what this book says to do.
Hey, how's that working out for you? It doesn't matter.
You can say the same thing to Abraham. How's that working out for you, Abraham?
With your zero kids. How's that working out for you, Abraham?
With your one kid. How's that? Oh, you're still living in a tent?
Because I'm over here living in this house over here. I'm in a city over here as well.
And Abraham said, well, I'm looking for a city. I'm looking for a city in heaven.
And I don't need anything fancy on this earth. I'll live in a tent on this earth because I got a mansion in heaven waiting for me.
And so, you know, this whole how's that working out for you mentality.
You know what? Here's the thing. First of all, I promise you, you live for God, you're going to be better off in this lifetime.
But even in the times when it doesn't seem that way, you've got to push through.
You've got to push through, right? Abraham pushed through. Isaac pushed through. Jacob pushed through.
That's what you've got to do. You've got to keep going. Don't give up.
You see, you don't just test out living for God. You don't test out the Christian life like, well, I'm going to do it for a year and see if my life gets better.
I'm going to do it for six months and see if my situation improves. No, it's just I'm going to do it for life.
And if I lose everything, and if my life just goes completely down the toilet, well, you know what?
Then God will just have to explain to me when he gets there why I did that. But I'm just going to keep believing God.
Just keep following the Bible. I'm not going to let anyone talk me out of clear scripture in the Word of God.
And so it says in verse number 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises.
You know, I mean, they didn't even get to see it in their lifetime in many cases, but yet they believed.
They that say such things, verse 14, declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly if they'd been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
What's the Bible saying? Don't look back. Serve God and don't look back. Believe that God is telling the truth.
Figure out how the Bible says to live your life. Get on God's program. Live that program and do not look back.
Don't stop and think, maybe I could go back to the way things were. Maybe I could go back to Egypt.
Nope, it's just forward only. No turning back. The Bible says that if you put your hand to the plow and you look backward, you're not fit for the kingdom of God.
There's no looking back. But now they desire a better country, verse 16, that is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
So what was Abraham looking for, according to verse 10? He looked for a city. And what does the Bible say God prepared for him at the end of verse 16?
For he hath prepared for him a city. Right? Now, did he get to see that in his lifetime? No. He'd never lived in a city. He lived in a tent, all the way to the end.
But he looked for a city and God prepared for him a city. Okay? So, ultimately, our reward is going to come after we die.
There are many rewards we're going to get on this earth and God blessed Abraham while he was on this earth. I mean, Abraham was blessed with a lot of good things and he was a powerful man.
He had 318 servants and, you know, he had a lot of things going for him in this life. But ultimately, what he really wanted most, he didn't really get what he really was after until after he died.
But that's okay, because life is short. It's a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away and eternity is long. We're going to have plenty of time to enjoy the rewards in heaven after life is over.
And so he says, in verse 17, by faith Abraham. So it's interesting, in the hall of faith, how we start talking about Abraham in verse 8.
And in verse 17, we're still talking about Abraham. We literally talk about Abraham from verse 8 to verse 19.
So there's only 40 verses in this chapter and we talk about a lot of people in this chapter and yet Abraham just gets this gigantic chunk of the chapter, the biggest chunk of the chapter.
Because again, his story is one of just incredible faith against all the odds. You know, what does the Bible say in Romans 4? Against hope. He believed in hope.
Even against the odds. Even against what appearances are. And so, again, we can't stop talking. If we're going to talk about faith, it's like we just can't stop talking about Abraham.
Like, just when you think you're done with Abraham, you're like, alright, who's next? Let's go, Isaac. Nope, not done. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, verse 17.
And he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that an Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
So if you read the story in Genesis, Abraham says that I and the lad will go and worship and we will come again. So he used the plural to talk about coming back.
So unless Abraham's just lying to his servants, which he wasn't, he is anticipating that he and Isaac will somehow both come back alive from this ordeal, which is kind of strange because what's he being told to do?
To kill Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice. But yet he anticipates them both coming back alive. How is that? Well, the Bible tells us right here that he accounted that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.
So it was revealed to Abraham, and we don't know exactly how much information Abraham had about the coming Christ, the resurrection, what this symbolizes.
We don't know exactly what details were given, but somehow Abraham believed that even if he literally killed his son, that his son would come back from the dead, and he would come back to life, that he would be resurrected.
And so that's why he's willing to actually slay his son. And of course when he takes him up on the altar, he lifts up the knife above Isaac and is ready to plunge it into Isaac, and the angel has to stop him.
And it's funny, yeah, he says his name twice, like, Abraham! Abraham! You know, it's like he has to say it twice because he's so ready. Like, if you think about it, it's not like Abraham's just kind of going through the motions. It's like, Abraham! Oh, yeah? Yeah?
I mean, he's, like, ready. Like, he was already, like, on his way. Abraham! Abraham! You know? Oh, whoa. And Isaac's like, whoa, man, that was a close call.
And then he shows him the substitute, the ram with its horns caught in the thicket and the thorns, and that picture's Jesus, right? The crown of thorns, the substitute, and so forth.
And it's interesting because Abraham tells Isaac, because Isaac says, where's the lamb? And then Abraham tells Isaac, God will provide himself a lamb. But then what God actually provides is a ram.
And the idea there is that when he says, God will provide himself a lamb, we're talking about Jesus. The ram is just kind of a temporary substitute. The real substitute is still coming, the lamb, not the ram, but the lamb of God, which is Jesus.
And so, yeah, he believed that Isaac could be resurrected, so he actually is willing to go through with it.
And it's interesting, it says in verse 17 that he offered up his only begotten son. It's funny, whenever Christians talk about this event, if we asked Christians, what is Genesis chapter 22 about, this is what every Christian would say.
They would say, well, it's the offering of Isaac, or the sacrifice of Isaac, which is interesting because if you ask Jews about this, they would never say that.
Jews would never call that the offering of Isaac or the sacrifice of Isaac. What they literally call it is the binding of Isaac, which is kind of a dumb name for a story, because it's not really the most important aspect of the chapter, the fact that he was tied up.
Okay, but they call it the binding of Isaac. It's interesting how Christians call it the sacrifice of Isaac or the offering of Isaac, when in reality, did he actually get sacrificed?
Did he actually get offered? But it's like the Christian mentality, though, is kind of seeing it as a real event because of the fact that it pictures a real event.
Jesus really was sacrificed. Jesus really was offered, and Isaac pictures that. And then Hebrews phrases it that way. Abraham offered up Isaac. He offered Isaac.
He sacrificed Isaac because he's ready to do it. He's laid him on there on the altar. He's got him there, and he's ready to go. So Abraham did the offering. He made the sacrifice, but God just spares Isaac's life just in time.
Then it moves on finally to the next story. It says in verse 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
So again, in order for Isaac to give those blessings to Jacob and Esau, he had to receive the word of God, believe the word of God, and then preach it to them, pass it on to the next generation.
By faith, Jacob. Boy, isn't that sad how little time Isaac gets in this passage? I mean, Abraham just finished getting like 12 big verses, and then Isaac gets like one sentence.
He doesn't really get a lot of time. But, hey, just being in the Hall of Faith is cool no matter how many verses you get.
By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones.
So again, they're talking about and thinking about and believing the future glory of Israel that they're going to come out of Egypt, that they're going to come into the Promised Land, and so forth.
It says in verse 23, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
And again, this is faith on their part because they're breaking the law, right? They have to break the law in order to obey God's law, in order to obey righteousness, in order to not murder their child, right, or allow their child to be killed.
They had to hide him for three months and it says that they were not fearing, sorry, they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
Now, here's what's interesting about this. It says that they didn't fear the king's commandment and then if you look at verse 27, it says that when Moses forsook Egypt, he was not fearing the wrath of the king. Do you see that?
So his parents didn't fear the king's commandment and then he was not fearing the wrath of the king.
But at the same time, if we go back to the actual story in Exodus, we see that Moses actually was afraid, right? Because he's afraid about getting caught, which is why he even fled Egypt in the first place.
So, you know, what does this mean? Because sometimes people will look at stuff like this and they think it's a contradiction, but what it really is is just a nuance because a lot of times, you know, in one sense you're afraid and in one sense you're not afraid, right?
Let me kind of give you an example to help you understand this. It'd be like if I, for example, you know, um, well, I'm trying to think of a good example. Maybe not necessarily me. Let's just say someone, okay?
Let's say the apostles in the book of Acts or something like that, right? And they're being told, hey, don't preach in the name of Jesus, right? And they're being told that in Jerusalem by the elders and the scribes and the chief priests.
Don't preach in the name of Jesus. You know, we don't want you to, and they're beating them and telling them to stop and put them in prison doing these different things.
Well, here's the thing. Like obviously on a human level, if you were in that situation and you're getting up in the temple and you've been told not to do this and you've been told it's illegal, you're seeing other people go into prison, maybe even being killed.
You know, remember how James is one of the ones who gets killed in the book of Acts, one of the apostles who gets killed for preaching the gospel? Maybe you see that happen and then you just keep on preaching.
I'm sure, I'm certain that on a human level, you're going to, your heart's going to be pounding a little bit if you're doing stuff that's illegal. You know, you're preaching and you're not supposed to be preaching.
And look, we could probably all think about times in our lives where we preach the gospel in a situation where we were afraid, right? So like maybe we were nervous to witness to someone, but we did it anyway.
And I can think of times when I was literally trembling as I witnessed to someone, where I was literally shaking because I was just nervous about preaching the gospel to someone.
I was literally, I could feel like my teeth chattering and myself shaking. And I'm sure that some of you have probably been there too, where you're standing up for what's right, you're preaching the gospel, you're doing something and you're scared, but you're doing it anyway.
Okay. And so I think that that's what God's getting at here is that if you think about the apostles, I'm sure that on a human level, there's a little bit of fear because what does the Bible say?
The Bible says that they're in the upper room with the door shut. Why? For fear of the Jews. So these aren't guys that are just never scared. They have all the door shut for fear of the Jews, but then they go into the temple and they boldly preach Christ anyway.
So were they afraid? Did they fear? Did they not fear? You know, in one sense, you could say they feared because they're human beings and they felt a little scared on a human level.
But on the other sense, you could say they're not afraid because they did it anyway. Okay. So I think that the moral of the story is that if you're kind of afraid to do the right thing, but then you do the right thing in spite of fear, you push through the fear and do what's right anyway, God sees that as you not being afraid.
Because you could even say it this way. You could say like, he wasn't afraid to do what was right. He wasn't afraid to preach the gospel. The apostles weren't afraid to boldly preach in Acts chapter 5.
But does that mean that they didn't feel any fear? You see what I'm saying? It's not a contradiction. It's really just two angles of looking at the same thing.
I think that if you're scared, but you do the right thing anyway because of faith, then it counts as you not being fearful because you pushed, because you overcame the fear. Right?
And I like what Brother Hiles said. Brother Hiles' definition of faith was believing and doubting but acting on the belief. That was his definition of faith. Right? Because I don't think anyone's faith is perfect. Right?
You know, we don't just have perfect faith where we never doubt because even John the Baptist doubted. You know, different people throughout the Bible had doubts at times.
And so we're going to believe a promise of God, maybe doubt and, oh man, I don't know, I'm a little scared, but you know what? I'm going to fully trust what God has said and that's what I'm going to do.
Then that's faith. Right? And if you're a little scared, but you overcome the fear and do what's right anyway, then that's considered fearing not.
And I think that's how you can reconcile some of these passages where the Bible is saying in Hebrews 11, oh yeah, they didn't fear the king's commandment. Oh yeah, Moses didn't fear the wrath of the king.
But then you read the more detailed story and there are some moments of fear there. There are some times of fear there.
Same thing with Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four is talking about Abraham and Sarah. Man, they believe God. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory.
You know, it's just going on and on about how powerful Abraham's faith was. But then you go back into the detailed story in Genesis and aren't there some times when Abraham expressed a little doubt?
And aren't there times when Sarah expresses some doubt? And she's kind of laughing at the idea of getting pregnant at 89 years old.
She laughs at that. Isaac's name literally means laughter because she's laughing at how silly it is to think that she's going to have a kid when she's 89 years old.
And yet the Bible says by faith Sarah also herself received strength to conceive seed. And it says she judged him faithful who had promised.
And I find this really encouraging to realize that these people that are in the hall of faith, they're not superhuman. They're not robots. They're not machines that just have just ultimate perfect faith all the time.
Because guess what? They did have some doubts. They were scared a little bit. But yet God looks at the big picture of their life and says, yeah, but he did it, didn't he?
He went to the country. He stayed there. He followed me. He served me for decades. He still took Isaac up that mountain to kill him.
And so, yeah, he had a few doubts along the way. So what? They were a little scared here and there along the way. So what? In general, they feared not. In general, they had faith.
And so we as Christians, yeah, we're saved by faith and we're going to stop there tonight, but we're saved by faith, right? We just believe that one thing that Jesus is our savior.
We just kind of believe that one thing that Jesus died and was buried and rose again and that he's the only way to heaven, right?
But is that really the only thing that God expects us to do by faith for the rest of our lives?
No, that's just the beginning of a life of faith. After we're saved, we're constantly being asked by God to do things.
The Bible is constantly telling us to do things and do more things. And we have to live our life for decades of serving God.
Sometimes all of the things around us are just showing us how true the Bible is. And we're just seeing it all happen right around us.
And then other times, appearances are the opposite. And we're like, wait a minute, this isn't how the Bible said it would be.
I thought my seed was going to be like the sand by the seashore. Why do I have one kid? Why do I have zero kids? See what I'm saying?
And so sometimes we're going to be getting all these confirmations of God's word.
Other times things are going to seem hazy and sometimes we're going to maybe feel some fear.
But the key is we overcome the fear and boldly serve God. We're going to have doubt. We overcome that doubt and we keep serving God.
And you know what? I'm sorry, but if you are only going to serve God when everything is going well and everything's looking good
and everything's just plainly right in front of you and everything around you is confirming what you believe, then you know what?
You're probably not going to last in the long run because it's a long life to live and a lot of people crash and burn along the way.
And then there are the ones that are still going. 5 years, 10 years, 20, 30 years later. And you know what? You want to be in Abraham?
You've got to go all the way to the end and if you can't be on the trial size, you've got to just have the lifetime supply.
That's about right enough word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the hall of faith, this great chapter, Hebrews 11, Lord.
Help us to be inspired, especially by Abraham, but by the other people mentioned as well that we would also overcome doubt, overcome fear,
overcome circumstances, and even when the world makes us doubt, help us to push through and remain strong in faith and make it all the way to the finish line.
And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen.
Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's take our hymnals please. Go to hymn 433, hymn number 433.
Away in the manger, hymn number 433. Sing this out with me together on that verse now, hymn number 433.
Away in the manger, no cliff or a bed.
The little Lord Jesus lay down this sweet head.
The stars in the sky look down where he lay.
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.
The cattle are blowing, the baby awakes.
But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.
I love thee, Lord Jesus.
Look down from the sky and stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.
Be near me, Lord Jesus.
I ask thee to stay close by me forever and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care and take us to heaven to live with thee there.
Amen. Good thing tonight we are dismissed.
Amen.
Thank you.