Man, the title of my sermon tonight is The Substance of Things Hoped For. The
substance of things hoped for. The Bible reads in chapter 11 verse 1 there of
Hebrews, Now faith is the 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. And then as
we go down through the chapter, the Bible explains how all of the great men
of God of the Old Testament, they were all men of faith because without faith
it is 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. So faith is
believing. Faith and belief are used interchangeably in the Bible and so it
starts out in this chapter by saying what is faith? It says you know faith is
the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now
I don't believe that that's so much a definition of the word faith as just
explaining the role that faith plays, because the definition of faith is
easier than that. Here's what faith means, it means believing. It's a noun to go
with the verb believe. Okay so we want to make sure we understand that faith
simply means believing and in this case we're talking about believing God's
word, believing on the Lord, trusting in the Lord, having our faith in him. But
the Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen, that's the role that faith plays. Now let's
focus in on that first statement, the substance of things hoped for. Now today
when we use the word hope in our modern vernacular we typically use it
in a sense of like I hope so, almost something that's a long shot, right? Like
well I mean we still have hope, like maybe there's a slim chance that we're
gonna make it, there's still a little bit of hope, it doesn't look like it's
gonna come through, but there is hope. Now that is only one definition of
hope and usually in the Bible that is not the definition that we're talking
about in the Bible. Now the Bible does sometimes use hope in that way but the
vast majority of the time as I'm going to demonstrate you to you tonight, the
word hope is referring to a confident expectation that something will
happen. It's not something that you've seen, you haven't seen it yet, so you
can't be 100% in that sense but you are confidently believing and expecting
this is going to happen. That's typically the way that hope is used. Now
just on my phone on the dictionary app, even just on a modern English
dictionary, let me read for you the entry under hope because it kind of
gets at that same idea. Let me just pull it up here. So definition number
one, the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out
for the best is what the definition is. So even in that first definition on
dictionary.com you kind of get both sides of this because the first part
the feeling that what is wanted can be had, that sounds like it could be maybe
a long shot, but then the second part says or that events will turn out for
the best. So that's hope. Number two, a particular instance of this feeling.
Number three, grounds for this feeling in a particular instance. Number four, a
person or thing in which expectations are centered. Like if we said you know
Jesus Christ is our hope, then that's who we have our confidence in. Number
five, something that is hoped for. Okay then as a verb it says to look
forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. So you're looking forward to
it and you have reasonable confidence that it's going to happen. Number seven,
under verb, to believe desire or trust. And then number eight, to feel that
something desired may happen. And then it says archaic usage, which often is
pretty relevant when it comes to the King James Bible, to place trust or
rely. And that's even in a modern dictionary you can get a little bit of
that sense. But again the dictionary is not the final authority for defining
biblical words. The best way to define biblical words is to compare
Scripture with Scripture. And as we look through these scriptures tonight I'm
going to demonstrate to you that hope typically in the Bible means a
confident expectation, not just sort of a last-ditch hope-so type of a thing.
And I remember growing up I'd hear people use the word hope in church and
because I was kind of on the modern definition of that word I thought like
well yeah what do you mean you hope you hope you're gonna go to heaven? It's
like what in the world? Hope so? We know so! You know but it's because I
just didn't really understand that there's another way in which this
word hope is legitimately used. And so we're gonna look at that a little bit
tonight but with that in mind looking at this verse faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well the things that we have
faith in are things that we've not seen. We haven't seen God, we haven't seen
heaven, we didn't see Jesus die on the cross, we didn't see Jesus rise
again from the dead. So what is the evidence that Jesus is the Son of God?
It's what the science geeks of this world will ask us, right? You know
where's the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead? Faith is the evidence
because the evidence is why we believe in it and the reason that we believe in
it is because we believe what the Word of God says. Yeah that's circular you
know your faith is based on, yeah it is. So what? This is not a philosophy
class, this is the Bible, this is church, it's faith-based. Without faith
it's impossible to please him and so you have to believe that God exists. Where's
the evidence that God exists? The evidence that God exists is that he
said he exists. The Word of God is the evidence. I mean if somebody wanted
evidence for God I would point to the Bible and they said well give me
something else I'd say it's all I got. This is what I got right here the
Word of God this is the basis for our faith right here right it's the
evidence of things not seen. The reason that I know that Jesus Christ walked on
the water is because the Bible says that Jesus walked on water and I have
faith in that and so my faith is the evidence of that thing that I didn't
see, okay? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, what is that
referring to? Well again we're talking about things that have not yet
been seen and we are confidently expecting that when we die we're gonna
go to heaven. We are confidently expecting that he which has begun a
good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. We're
confidently expecting that God is going to bless us if we follow his
word and keep his commandments because that's what he promised that he would
do. Faith is the substance of those things that we have hope in so our hope
is not just a pie in the sky shot in the dark hey maybe this will happen
no our faith or excuse me our hope has a foundation our hope has
substance our hope has something solid to it what does substance mean
right something solid some meat on the bone some kind of a foundation or
basis our our hope is not just we're expecting this to happen for no reason
no we're expecting it to happen because we believe what God has said
God's Word is the foundation and throughout this chapter the theme is
things that have not yet been seen and we could go through and just look
up all the seeing words in Hebrews 11 you'll end up underlining like 10
words or something that have to do with sight or scene because faith is
the substance of things hope for it the evidence of things not seen so again I
don't believe that Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 is defining faith for us I
think we already know what faith means it means believing trust belief we
know that but what it's telling you is this is the role that it plays it
is the substance of things hope for it's the foundation of our hope it's
the it's the it's the solidness of our hope and it's the evidence for
things that we haven't seen why do we believe in them well because we have
faith in the Word of God okay now let's look at this word hope
throughout Scripture okay you know you have to turn to all these because
there's not going to be time but if you would turn to Acts chapter 2 we
just have you turn to a couple of these but while you're trying to Acts
chapter 2 I'm gonna read for you Luke 634 and I'm just gonna restrict
myself to the New Testament because the word hope is used so many times in
both Old and New Testaments so I think we can get what we need here just
from looking at the New Testament references so the first time the word
hope is used in the New Testament is in Luke chapter 6 verse 34 your
turn to Acts and it says in Luke 634 and if you lend to them of whom ye
hope to receive what thank have ye for sinners also lend to sinners to
receive as much again now think about that verse for a minute he's saying you
know if you're just lending money to people who you hope to receive the
money back from you know that's no big deal because sinners do the same
thing he's saying you know you should be willing to even lend to those of
whom you expect nothing in return now thinking about our definition of hope
this right here fits not with a man I sure hope so but more like a confident
expectation because he's saying if you lend money to someone of whom you have
a confident expectation that they're gonna pay you back that doesn't really
make you a charitable person it's not that hard to just loan somebody money
where you have a confident expectation that you're gonna get the money back
everybody understand what I'm saying because if this were the kind of last
ditch I sure hope so maybe type of hope well you know even if you lent to a
total bozo you'd still kind of think hey maybe I'll get paid back but
that's not what we're talking about there'd be some hope that you're getting
paid back that's not what we're talking about so look at Acts chapter
2 verse 26 it says therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope Acts 2 27 because thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption of course from the context we know this is about Jesus it says in
verse 31 he's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ
that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption so
think about how the word hope is being used in this passage because
Jesus's soul is resting in hope Jesus has hope why and then he just uses
the future tense just thou wilt not leave my soul in hell that doesn't
sound like hey you know there's a chance I might not be left in hell is
that what it's saying no I mean that is a confident expectation saying
hey I have a hope because I know that this is going to take place in the
future that my soul will not be left in hell neither will my flesh see
corruption you see how that's different than the way we would
typically use the word hope today where it's just sort of like a hope so and it
doesn't really necessarily have that confidence of just stating this will
happen okay flip over if you would to acts 24 15 acts 24 15 while you're
turning there I'll go ahead and read for you Romans chapter 15 verse 4 it
says for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope and then
verse 13 now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost so again
you can see how hope and believing go together because we believe the
promises of God and then that causes us to confidently expect that God is
going to come through for us just as Jesus Christ confidently expected that
his soul is not going to be left in hell that he's going to rise from the
dead after three days that's what he had already prophesied to the
disciples in Mark chapter 9 and elsewhere when he said you know the
Son of Man is going to be crucified on the third day he's going to rise
again right he believed that and so he had hope that that would take place
and it was a confident expectation okay look at Acts 24 verse 15 and have a
hope toward God which they themselves also allow and then notice the switch
to just a straight future tense indicative just that there shall be a
resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust right it's like yeah
we have hope that this is going to happen that there's going to be a
resurrection that in this life only is not our only hope in Christ in this
life only but rather we know there's going to be something else beyond this
and so forth now flip over you would a Romans chapter 8 Romans chapter number
8 and while you turn to Romans 8 I'm going to read for you a famous verse
from Romans 4 verse 18 the Bible reads who against hope is talking about
Abraham who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of
many nations according that which was spoken so shall thy seed be now what
does that mean when it says that Abraham against hope believed in hope
here's what it means is that in general having a kid at that age is
not a reasonable expectation is it so if you're a hundred and your wife's 90
is it a reasonable expectation that you're going to produce a child at that
age absolutely not so against hope he believed in hope meaning that this would
not normally be a reasonable expectation but because God has promised this now
all of a sudden it does become a reasonable expectation because God's
going to keep his word so against hope meaning what the world would look at as
a reasonable expectation he believed in hope because he knows that with God all
things are possible so that's what it means to against hope believe in hope
now some people would maybe use that term to refer to something where
everything's pointing to it not working out and you just kind of
believe in it working out anyway you know you're just hoping against hope
but here's the thing about that though there should be some basis you need
some substance for the things hoped for and faith is the substance of things
hoped for and that faith needs to be in the Word of God you know a lot of
people just talk about doing things by faith but there was never any Word
of God involved so for example they'll just say you know I'm just moving to
this other city by faith and it's like well okay what did God tell you
to move to another city you know I mean moving to another city might be a
great thing to do but when I say I'm doing this by faith I'm stepping out in
faith it would probably be more appropriate if I actually had some
Bible verse in mind that said hey here's what God said I'm stepping out
in faith and doing what God said I'm doing this by faith not just I do
stuff and just to kind of dress it up in a spiritual way just say I'm due to
by faith really because our faith should be in the Word of God if we're
using it in a Christian context about faith unless we're just talking about
having faith in a person or something but that's not what people are saying
are they they're talking about God well you know it should be based on
the Word of God so Romans chapter 8 is another great example of this and
let's begin reading in verse number 18 let me get there myself but in Romans
chapter 8 verse number 18 the Bible reads for I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall
be revealed in us for the earnest expectation now what have we been
defining hope as you know we've been defining as a confident expectation
earnest a serious expectation he says for the earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God for the creature was
made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who has subjected
the same in hope now the hope goes with the earnest expectation of verse
19 because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God notice how this
is just stating it as a fact not it might happen not it may happen this is
what's going to happen right the creature itself shall be delivered okay
verse 22 for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and
pain together until now and not only they but ourselves also which have the
first fruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves look at
the next word waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body so we
are waiting we have an earnest expectation we have hope and we are
waiting what we're waiting for the bodily resurrection the rapture the
things that are being described here the redemption of our body we're
waiting this is why when you speak Spanish the word for hope and the
word for waiting are the same word esperar is the verb that means both to
hope and to wait because of the connection between these two meanings you
know women that are named Esperanza they're not named like waiting okay
waiting room no they're named hope right that's the Spanish version of
the word hope so anyway that mystery solved there you know why is this
person named waiting I don't get it for we are saved by hope it says in
verse 24 so so look we're waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of
our body and then the very next words are we are saved by hope now it
makes perfect sense for the Bible to say we're saved by hope when we
realize that faith is the substance of things hoped for and so if we're
saved by faith as the Bible tells us many times for by grace are you saved
through faith it also makes sense to say that we're saved by hope because
that's our confident expectation that what God has said he would do he would
do you can see how these two things faith and hope are closely related to
one another we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope again
faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen
notice how the parallelism there is that things hoped for is parallel with
things not seen so faith is the substance of things hoped for the
evidence of things not seen so substance and evidence are parallel
there right something solid some kind of a foundation you know if I'm building
a case against someone you know I better have some solid evidence there
better be a foundation for that case right if I'm going into court I need
evidence well that's what the substance is referring is there any substance to
this case is there any evidence you can see how these two things are
connected so it's a parallelism just like in the Old Testament poetic books
where you constantly have this parallelism that's what's going on you
know when Paul's writing an epistle to the Hebrews he's speaking their
language he's using parallelism like the Old Testament by saying faith is
the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen things not
seen and things hoped for are parallel and so that's why it says for we are
saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why
does he yet hope for right and we'll often say this about faith too like I
don't have to believe in stuff that's right in front of me you know faith is
the evidence of things not seen and so that which is seen doesn't need to be
hoped for either and it says but if we hope verse 25 for that we see not then
do we with patience wait for it so do you see how the Bible is defining
itself here so that's what I mean about going to the dictionary can maybe
give us a starting point on what a word means but really the best way to
define words that are used this many times in the Bible is to look up all
the different times that they're used and see how they're they're used in
those contexts and we see here that hope is defined right there in verse 25
that well if we hope for something that means that with patience we wait for it
it's that confident expectation it's waiting for something to happen that
God said would happen that's what hope often means in Scripture that's
the most typical definition now let me give you a counter example to this
because like I said earlier the word hope is sometimes in the Bible used
the way that we typically use it in our modern vernacular so I'm not saying that
the Bible when it uses hope always means a confident expectation that's what
it usually means but sometimes it's used in the way that we use it every
day here's an example that in Acts 27 20 you don't have to turn there but
it says when neither Sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest
lay on us all hope that we should be saved was then taken away so here's
a situation where the Apostle Paul he's on a ship they're being tossed with the
waves it's a horrible storm they never really had just a firm confident
expectation that they're getting out of this thing alive they hoped that
they're gonna get out alive and then when things went from bad to worse
all hope that we should be saved was taken away that's the way we typically
think of hope isn't it as kind of just well I hope so or there's a
there's a little bit of a chance you know maybe it'll happen so the Bible
does use hope that way if you look up the hundred and sometimes that the Bible
use hope you're gonna find both but more often the lion's share are going
to be that confident expectation that we're talking about when we see hope
in the Bible so let's look at another example go if you would to 1st
Corinthians chapter 9 1st Corinthians chapter number 9 and I'm showing you
all these examples because I want to really drive this in tonight because of
the fact that we use this word hope a certain way in our daily lives we're
constantly using the word hope and we're almost never using it according
to this biblical meaning confident expectation so we're we're
constantly using it in that sense that we just saw it in Acts where
they're on the ship and all hope is lost and whatever that's how we're
constantly using it so we need to kind of deprogram our minds a little bit and
open our mind to hey wait a minute there's another definition to this word
that we've been neglecting otherwise when we read the Bible and we get to
all these hope verses we're gonna get confused and we're gonna be
wondering like how does this verse make sense because we got the wrong
definition of hope so we can get the right definition of hope and see all
these examples tonight and really drive that point home then when you're
reading your Bible it's gonna make more sense to you when you come across hope
where did I have you turn 1st Corinthians 9 10 it says or saith he it
all together for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that he
that ploweth should plow in hope and he that thresheth in hope should be
partaker of his hope now let me give you some context we got hope three
times in that verse here's the context the context is thou shalt not muzzle the
ox that treadeth out the corn and the laborer is worthy of his hire and the
context is talking about that those that preach the gospel should live of
the gospel and the Apostle Paul is explaining that God has ordained for
preachers of God's Word to preach full-time and for that to be their
job that to be their livelihood that's how they get paid just like an
electrician goes and does electrical work and then he gets a paycheck you
know ministers pastors deacons are the same way the vast majority of the
Apostles in fact all of them except Paul and Barnabas all of the Apostles
did not have a secular job they stopped fishing they stopped doing
whatever they were doing and they were full-time preachers of the gospel
and they got paid to do that so the idea here is that that statement thou
shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn and the laborer is worthy of his
hire is not because God just loves cattle so much that he's worried about
like cattle's rights or animals rights but rather it's written for our
sake because the ox that treads out the corn represents a preacher okay and
so it's talking about someone getting paid for the work that they do the
laborer is worthy of his reward or his hire so it says in this verse that he
that ploweth should plow in hope he that thresheth in hope should be a
partaker of this hope meaning that when someone works there's a confident
expectation that they're going to be paid am I right you know if you go to
work you have hope that when Friday rolls around there's gonna be a paycheck
with your name on it now is that kind of a last-ditch man I sure hope I
get paid I mean maybe this is my lucky week maybe I'll get paid no
because even though you haven't seen the paycheck even though you don't have the
paycheck in your hot little hands you have every reason to believe that that
paycheck is gonna be there because you're believing in the word of the
company now that faith is really only as good as the person in whom
you're placing that faith so if you're working for some shady company maybe
it is kind of a last-ditch hope so that you get paid but 99% of people
in this world are in this I guess in this country I don't know what's
going on in other parts of the world but you know 99% of the people in America
when they go to their job they have hope that they're getting paid and it's
not like keep your fingers crossed you know show up on Friday and maybe
money's gonna be there but it's that confident expectation so again that's
the the usage that we're talking about flip over to 2nd Corinthians
chapter 1 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 now I'll also remind you that the super
famous passage 1st Corinthians 13 about charity one of the most famous
passages in the New Testament arguably one of the most beautiful
passages in the New Testament beloved all over the world by many people as a
favorite passage it puts hope in this trifecta of now abideth faith hope
charity these three but the greatest of these is charity but what's
interesting is that even in its description of charity 1st Corinthians
13 and verse 7 says beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things
endureth all things so it's interesting how hope and faith both
also fall under the definition of what it means to truly be charitable
so hope is there so 2nd Corinthians 1 7 says this and our hope of you is
steadfast now doesn't that go with what we're saying about what hope means that
it's something solid that it's an earnest expectation a confident
expectation waiting for something to happen because God said it's gonna
happen our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as ye are partakers of
the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation notice our hope of
you is steadfast knowing knowing so again when I go out so many and I
ask someone do you know for sure if you were to die today that you'd go to
heaven and they say I hope so guess which definition they're using now if
they were using a biblical definition then that could be a viable answer
except that literally no one is using the biblical definition so when
they say I hope so they're like I don't know it's possible because when
they say I hope so here's what they mean it's possible I don't know how
likely it is I don't even really know what it takes to get there necessarily
or I don't know if I'm good enough because they think it's by works they
think it's by how good they are so when they say I hope so when I'm out
so winning I consider that a wrong answer 100% of time simply because
they're using that modern definition only of hope they're not using a
biblical you know I confidently expect so that's not what they mean when they
say I hope so so when they say I hope so then here's what I say to them I say
well you know can I just take the Bible and show you in about five or
ten minutes how you could know so not hope so I'll show you how you could
know so okay and yet when we look at the biblical definition of hope we can
see that hope and knowing are not that different are they because he says our
hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings
so shall ye be just stating a future fact you shall be also of the comp the
consolation that's his hope and yet he knows it's gonna happen because of his
faith that God will deliver on what he has said he would do and that
these people would deliver on what they've said so go to Galatians if you
would Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5
and while you're turning there I'll read you another one from Colossians
chapter 1 verse 5 for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven where
have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel so you heard
the Word of God and that created hope that there's a treasure in heaven
waiting for you and you're confidently expecting those rewards
when you get there because you believe the promise of God okay Galatians
chapter number 5 verse 5 it says for we through the Spirit wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith again the connection with waiting because we
believe because we have faith we're waiting for that salvation and then
flip over to Philippians chapter 1 just a few pages to the right in your
Bible Philippians chapter 1 while you're turning to Philippians 1 I'll
read for you Colossians 1 verse 23 if you continue in the faith grounded
and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye
have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven
whereof I Paul and made a minister so the hope of the gospel is what's being
preached all over the world right and it's a foundation and we want to build
on that foundation and we don't want to be moved away from the hope of the
gospel we don't want to have doubts we don't want to forget just as I was
talking about this morning how important it is that that every single day yeah of
course we're already saved but that we put on that helmet of salvation that we
think about the fact that we're saved that we're confident that we're saying
that we have that confident expectation and that solid belief and
knowledge that we are saved that's important are you in Philippians 1
verse 20 the Philippians chapter 1 verse 20 according to my earnest
expectation and my hope notice how the hope is an earnest expectation the
word and here is not separating two different things but two of the same
thing sort of like when the Bible says God and the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ we're not talking about two different people are we because God
is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and so according to my earnest
expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that
with all boldness as always so now also Christ you know hopefully will be
you know that's the way we use hope right hopefully no no it says Christ
shall be magnified in my body this is just stating a future fact of what he
confidently expects to happen because of the promises of God in his word I
mean there's so many more that we could think about the famous verse in
Colossians 1 27 to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the
hope of glory and we could go on and on I'm not going to belabor you with any
more examples but on and on and on okay one more in hope of eternal life
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began now that's an
important one because that's that's a verse that we love to use talking
about the fact that God has promised us eternal life and God can't lie he's
not gonna break his promise in a hope of eternal life in a confident
expectation of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the
world began that's why we can confidently expect that salvation
because of the fact that God can't lie and God promised it before the
world began you say oh but you know you don't know what I've done but see
God already promised it before the world even began he already knew
everything you ever would do because God is omniscient and so there are so many
great verses that we could look at about hope we could go on and on
another good one Hebrews 6 19 and if you would flip back to Hebrews 11
because I want to go there now to finish up Hebrews chapter 11 but you
know while you're turning there how about Hebrews chapter 6 verse 18 the
other verse about God not lying that by two immutable things in which it was
impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us which hope we have as
an anchor of the soul again if this were the modern definition of hope it
wouldn't really make a lot of sense if hope is like there's a chance it
might happen you know you don't necessarily want to use that as your
anchor but if hope is a confident expectation that God will deliver on
his promise there's some substance there isn't there it's the substance
that things hope for is the fact that we believe God's Word so our hope
is not just maybe kind of a hope but it's a hope that's an anchor of the
soul because it has some substance behind it and what's that substance
faith and what's the faith in the Word of God God's Word is solid we put
the faith in God's Word faith is the substance of the hope now hope is
steadfast immutable an anchor of the soul which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul both sure and steadfast and which enters into that within the
veil just like the song goes right we have an anchor that keeps the soul
steadfast and sure while the billows roll so what is that what is that
anchor of the soul that we have it's the hope which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul so with all that in mind you know here we are in
Hebrews chapter 11 and we see that faith is the substance of things hope
for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good
report through faith we understand that the world's were framed by the Word of
God said things which are seen were not made of things which do appear
right creation is something that we believe by faith and then it says in
verse 4 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 Abel offered the sacrifice that God
told him to offer Cain did things his own way he offered his own sacrifice
God accepted Abel's sacrifice because of the blood of the Lamb it was the
Lamb of God that's what he accepted right he accepted animal sacrifice
because it pictured Jesus and then Abel was declared righteous by God he
obtained witness that he was righteous by doing what by offering the Lamb
Cain was unrighteous because even though he was a really good farmer doing good
works doesn't make you righteous in the sight of God it's only Christ that can
make you righteous in the sight of God you got to believe in Jesus to be
saved not do works but then look at verse 5 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 but without faith it's 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 so we see that Enoch is not just a single anomaly of
a guy who just happened to escape death he walked with God he pleased God
and so Enoch is just a one-time deal where God says you know what here's
one guy that's not gonna die no Enoch is actually a prototype of everyone who
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus said that whoever
believes on him will not taste death well I'm not gonna die either the
Bible says whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Enoch
is a picture of the rapture right being caught up without dying being
caught up into the clouds straight to be with the Lord and and to ever be with
the Lord now some people have said well you know I believe that some
people said they believe that Enoch is gonna be one of the two witnesses in
the book of Revelation because they say well Enoch never died and come on
everybody has to die have you ever heard that argument like you know
everybody's got to die Enoch not so fast Enoch you know you think you just
can just get out of this world alive not so fast buddy you're gonna come back
and this time you're gonna get killed now I don't buy that argument for
one second and let me tell you why because the Bible says we shall not all
sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment a twinkling of an eye the
trumpet shall sound and so forth so the rapture is gonna involve
multitudes of people going straight to heaven without experiencing death so
they're basically doing it just like Enoch where they're alive and remain
under the coming of the Lord and they shall not sleep sleep meaning death
but they shall all be changed in the moment and a twinkling of an eye I say
they but it might even be we right because of the fact that if if it
happens in our lifetime it'll be us now we don't know when Christ will
return maybe it'll be in our lifetime maybe it won't but we that are alive
and remain under the coming of the Lord we are never going to experience
death we will be caught up exactly like Enoch and so we read this story about
Enoch in the Bible we didn't see that happen we've never met Enoch we didn't
see Enoch we have no evidence there's not some inscription that has been dug
up somewhere you know this is the exact spot where Enoch was walking and
got caught up into the air and first of all even if that there weren't
inscription like that wouldn't really prove anything would it because anybody
could just write that it's somebody whenever people dig up something old it's
just automatically true because it's old think about all the dumb stuff people
write every day and then if they dug it up a thousand years later does it
make it true no a lot of times things just randomly survive and they're
just complete garbage but that's like oh this must be great literature because
we have it and you're like no this literature is kind of lame but you
know it is what it is it just happened to survive it's called luck it's called
chance right the race doesn't always go to the fastest runner time and chance
happen it to them all paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 9-11 but the point is that
we have this prototype of Enoch we haven't seen it but we believe it we
believe that Enoch pleased God we believe that he walked with God we
believe that he did not see death and because we have that in Scripture we
believe that we also if we are alive and remain under the coming Lord will
also not see death because we will also be caught up like Enoch and even
if Christ does not return our lifetime we will not experience death
the way that the unsaved people experience death because for us death
has no sting Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where's thy victory so
for us we are not gonna taste death you know it's it's sort of like when
you got COVID and you lost your sense of taste and smell okay you could eat
something bad and you wouldn't even know it my wife was scared of this
because she was like you know I can't smell I can't taste what if I eat
something rotten because we have a sense of taste partially so that we can
check yourself and make sure it's edible you know but the thing is we as
Christians when we get saved we've lost our sense of taste when it comes to
death so the world out there they die and it's a bitter taste when we die
where's the sting is this I mean look if I physically die before Christ
returns you know what I'm gonna have I'm gonna be like that was it well
this what everybody's afraid of piece of cake where's the sting where's the
where's your victory grave death where's your sting why because for the
Christian we'll never taste death we'll never experience death the way that the
unsaved will experience death so in that sense even if we're not in that
generation where Christ returns we're all like Enoch in that sense of not
seeing death because Jesus said whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die the body will die but we won't taste that death and our
soul will go straight to be with the Lord in heaven say how do you know that
because the Bible says so that's how and because faith is a substance of
things hoped for so I have that confident expectation that I will be
like Enoch in that sense by faith Noah being warned of God of things
not seen as yet notice not seen moved with fear prepared an arc to the
saving of his house and we can go down through the list and look at all
this and look at all these men of faith and how basically they responded to
God's Word promises of God for example at the end of verse 11 about Sarah it
says you know she judged him faithful who had promised so people are
responding to God's Word they haven't seen it they're responding to God's Word
with faith believing it and then they have a confident expectation that
God is going to come through and that confident expectation is solid because
it's based on faith which is based on the Word of God and the Word of God is
the rock at the bottom of everything it's that bedrock underneath everything
okay and by the way this you know when I look at this and see that Enoch
was translated you know this shows me that Enoch was not a guy who's
physically walking and talking with the Lord the way that say Adam and Eve did
in the garden before the fall of man you know Enoch had to have faith I mean
the Bible telling us in Hebrews 11 that Enoch had to believe that God
existed he had to believe that God was and that he was a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him otherwise if Enoch didn't have to believe that then
Enoch would be a very poor example in the Hall of Faith because if it's seen
how do you hope for it I mean you know faith is the evidence of things not
seen right even these Old Testament guys yeah they're receiving revelations
from God we know Enoch was a prophet not only did he walk with God
but he also preached because we have some of his preaching in the book of
Jude about the Lord coming with ten thousands of his saints and so forth so
yeah these guys are receiving divine inspiration revelations from God but you
know Abraham still had to believe the Word of God that he received okay and
you say well what about the people in Jesus day they didn't need any faith
because they saw but here's the thing just because they saw Jesus
doesn't mean that they necessarily know from just seeing him that he's
for sure the Son of God they have to believe when he tells them he's the
Son of God everybody understand that and so you know there's always a way to
explain away the miracles or explain things away at the end of the day if you
want to have some bedrock under your hope you got to have God's Word at the
bottom of it the next layer is faith the next layer is hope confident
expectation that's where we're at tonight so faith is the substance of
things hoped for and that faith is in the Word of God let's buy rides have
word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great chapter Lord and I
pray that everything was understandable tonight Lord and that everyone here
would understand when they're reading your word that our hope is steadfast
it's an anchor we can be sure we can know that we're going to heaven
we can know that we have eternal life because we understand the right
definition of the word hope in these contexts and Lord thank you so much
for that steadfast hope that we have in Christ and it's in his name we
pray amen