I don't know if you've got your Bibles, but go to Hebrews chapter 12 in verse number 1.
And as I said, this is not going to be a long sermon, I didn't want to make it too complicated.
But the title for the sermon is Faithful Men. Faithful Men. In Hebrews chapter 12 in verse
number 1, Hebrews 12.1, just read that passage, it says,
Wherefore seen, we also are compassed about with so great cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us.
Now this is a passage, a verse at least, that some people are really uncomfortable with.
When I've spoken to several people, they said, are you telling me that our spiritual forefathers,
that my loved ones that are in heaven, they're watching me all the time? The idea is they're
watching me when I commit sin? How's that heaven for them? You know, that's embarrassing.
They can see when I make mistakes, they see when I sin. But is that what the passage says?
No, the passage says that we are compassed with so great cloud of witnesses that we let
us run with patience the race that is set before us. And so what they're watching isn't
the flesh. What they're watching are not the acts of the flesh, the sinful nature. What
they're watching is when we run with patience the race that is set before us. And of course
that race can only be run in the new man. And when you're in the new man, you're not
sinning, are you? When you're in the new man, you're serving the Lord. You're doing the
will of God. And so we don't have to be embarrassed that when we make mistakes and we commit sin
that everybody in heaven knows about it. That would be a bit embarrassing, obviously, getting
to heaven like that. But when they see us serving the Lord, when they see us running
the race, they've got that great cloud of witnesses. So it's kind of like the Olympics
when you have your Olympic runners running the race and you've got the cloud of witnesses.
You've got the stadium full of people watching that race. Well, that's the idea that we have
in our spiritual life. Not only are we able to run the race, but we have the witnesses
before us. Now, people ask the question, who are these witnesses? And they thought maybe
they're angels, maybe it's God. Well, yes, I guess you could throw that in. But remember,
this is just picking up straight after Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, the most famous
passage on faithfulness, living a faithful life. And we have a list of people. So we're
going to go back to Hebrews 11 now. Go to Hebrews 11. And obviously there's a lot of
names mentioned here. And as I already mentioned before, there are some ladies in this list.
We're not going to be looking at the ladies. We'll just look at some of the faithful men
that are in this list. And we'll just get, you know, we'll just see, you know, obviously
this is the chapter of faith. So when God says that these are faithful men, these are
men living after the faith, these are the same things that we want to be living for.
So if we want to be known as faithful men, when we look at the examples of these faithful
men, and we try to make our lives in accordance to what they're being recognized for, right,
by the Lord God in their faithfulness. So let's pick up there in verse number four,
Hebrews chapter 11, and verse number four, Hebrews 11, verse number four, the Bible reads
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 when we go through Hebrews chapter 11, one thing I want to make very clear, this
is not teaching us how they got saved. Now we know that salvation is by grace through
faith, okay, and those that want to teach you a workspace gospel will turn to a Hebrews
11, and they'll say, well look at all these things that the men achieved here, you know,
and this was their act of faith. This was them putting their faith on God, and so they
mixed faith with works. But what this is actually teaching us is because they have faith, because
of their great faithfulness toward God, they were able to accomplish great things. We know
that offering a sacrifice, we know that offering an animal like Abel did does not save you.
We know that the blood of bulls and goats does not take away sin. But what does it picture?
It pictures Jesus Christ, right? And so when Abel, what has he been recognized for? He's
been recognized for giving a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And so the first thing
that we need to understand there, brethren, is of course this is the most simple one,
Cain came and brought a sacrifice of works. He came and brought a sacrifice of labor,
and salvation is not us laboring, salvation is not by our works, salvation is by faith.
So the first point is that in order for us to be faithful men, we must be saved. Saved
by grace through faith without works, okay? We know that already, you're all saved here,
okay? But what else can we take out of Abel? That he offer unto God a more excellent sacrifice.
Are we required to offer sacrifice today? Absolutely. The Bible tells us that we ought
to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Our lives ought to be sacrificial to God as
a reflection of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave us all, he gave us a free
gift of salvation, well we should give all we can back in return, okay? Not to pay for
salvation, that's been paid for, but as thanksgiving, as showing our love toward him. And what I
love about Abel, it says at the end of that verse, number four, it says, and by it he
being dead yet speaketh. And so even after he died, what he offered, his excellent sacrifice
still spoke about him after his death. And you know brethren, to be faithful men, we
need to be looking beyond the life here and now. We ought to be looking, hey, what legacy
am I going to leave behind after I pass away? Are my children going to continue serving
the Lord? Will New Life Baptist Church or whatever church you find yourself in the future,
will they be benefiting from the sacrifice, from the service that I've given God? And
so we're called, brethren, to be faithful men, point number one, we're called to provide
or to present an excellent sacrifice. You know, coming to church is a sacrifice. Singing
praises to God is a sacrifice. Giving faithfully, you know, financially to the work of God,
that is a sacrifice. And when you offer your sacrifice, offer your most excellent sacrifice.
Do it for the Lord God, okay? So that's point number one. Let's read verse number five now.
Verse number five, it says, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death
and was not found because God had translated him. And the translation's talking about him
going to heaven. He was translated to heaven, from earth to heaven. And before his translation,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. What a testimony to have, that he pleased
God. You know, on my tombstone, I would love it to say, Pastor Kevin pleased God. That's
his testimony. And so point number two, brethren, to be faithful men is that we must have a
testimony that says we pleased God. When people look at your lives, do they say, you know,
brother so-and-so, that, you know, he pleases God. Is that what people think about you?
He pleases God. When your family think about you men, you know, if you're married, your
wives, your children, you know, or if you're not married, your parents, you know, do they
say, hey, he pleases God. Do you have this testimony? So much so that God says, you know
what, Enoch, you're not even going to die. I'm going to take you to heaven straightaway.
You get to, you know, I've enjoyed your company. I've enjoyed your fellowship so much. Just
come up to heaven right now. You know, what a testimony Enoch held, right? And so he is
a faithful man. He had a testimony that pleased God. That's challenging. I don't know. I mean,
obviously, I look at my life and yeah, there are parts of my life that pleases God and
there are other parts of my life that doesn't please God. And you know, we all have that,
right? But the challenge, you know, the faithfulness, operating faithfulness would require us to
increase how much of our life pleases God. You're never going to have 100% pleasing God
because as we already mentioned, we're sinful creatures. We are going to sin. So we're going
to have that, but we don't want it to be 50-50. We don't want 50% of our lives to please God.
The other 50% of our life just living for ourselves and living for our sins and enjoying,
you know, the weakness of this world. We ought to try to push more and more and more. So,
you know, we go from 50 to 60 to 70 to 80% pleasing the Lord, you know, 90% pleasing
the Lord and, you know, the leftovers for the flesh that will get destroyed anyway,
right? Will not go to heaven, that fleshly part of us until the Lord gives us those new
resurrected bodies. Let's drop down to verse number seven now. We've looked at Abel. We've
looked at Enoch. Let's look at Noah now. So Hebrews 11 verse seven says, 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, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith. And so, brethren, what's the next thing? For us to be faithful men,
why did Noah build this ark? Why did he prepare this ark? Yes, he was warned of God. Yes,
God told him to do this. Yes, he was moved with fear, but it says that prepared an ark
to the saving of his house. You know, Noah loved his family. God said, Noah, I'm going
to destroy the earth. He says, boy, if I'm going to be delivered, I need to make sure
my family come along with me. You know, one of the things here to be a faithful man is
you need to be someone, a man who protects his family. You want to see your family saved.
You don't want your family to face the wrath of God. And so, you know, as a father, I want
nothing more than for my children to get saved at an early age. You know, I've got
Liliana right now. How old is Liliana? Seven? Six? Six? You know, she's now asking questions.
I think Christina's tried to give her the gospel. She's still having to process it.
You know, still a young age. Sometimes you've got to process these things a little more
and more, you know, but I can't wait to see her get saved. When she gets saved, I hope
before the anniversary. Then she's going to get baptized, right? I hope it's soon. It's
not too far away, right? The seeds are being planted there. And so, of course, the first
salvation and, of course, the ark pitches Jesus Christ, right? Salvation through him.
That's the first salvation. That's the first protection that we ought to have for our families.
Now, quite often when I preach, I do preach about men who are married because that's my
situation. So that's the first thought that comes to my mind. You know, my children, but
for the men who are unmarried, you know, you still have a family. You still have parents.
You probably have brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews that are not saved, that are not
saved. Listen, the faithful man will seek to see his family saved, to see his family
protected. And I know sometimes you can get discouraged. You know, you have the good news.
You have the gospel. You don't want to see your family go to hell. What a sad thing.
You don't want to see that, right? I don't want to see that. And so you need to just
make that decision. You know, even though it might be embarrassing, you might be seen
as an outsider by your family, you need to find those opportunities. Be the faithful
man seeking to save your family. But listen, when it comes about protecting your family,
you know, that's salvation. We understand that. We understand that's the most important
thing. But when we talk about protecting our family, a faithful man will protect his family.
You know, your house should be a sanctuary. Your house should be a refuge from this wicked
world. Brethren, this world is just getting worse and worse. Go to YouTube. No, don't
do this. You go to YouTube, look at trending. I'm telling you, it's just, it is so wicked.
You know, we're seeing godly men, their channels, their church channels being shut down by YouTube.
They're just preaching the Bible. They're just preaching what God says. And then you
look at the trending on YouTube and the filth of the world, the pornography, the nonsense.
You know, it's so wicked. And these things are allowed on a social media platform. These
things are allowed on a public platform. You know, things that people in the past used
to be ashamed of. We all have computers in our house. You know, I'm sure we all use YouTube.
I mean, our church channel's on YouTube. Right? But we need to protect our family from the
wickedness that we see online. We need to protect our family from the wickedness of
this world. You know what? God's going to judge this world. And Noah said, wow, God's
judgment's coming. The rain is coming. We got to get out of that judgment. We got to
get delivered. I've got to protect my family. Right? That is a faithful man, a man who prepared
an ark to the savior of his house. Let your home be that ark. Okay? Let your home be that
ark that's protected from the wrath of God. You know, just like when the Israelites were
in Egypt and God's judgment fell upon the Egyptians, they put the blood on the doorpost
and they said, no, this house is protected by the blood of the lamb. You know, your house,
your family, you know, your DV cabinet, your books, your magazines, you know, don't let
them destroy your family. There are so many things, your computers, your phones protect
your home. This is the responsibility of a faithful man. Let's drop down to verse number
eight now. Hebrews chapter 11, verse number eight. The Bible says, by faith Abraham, when
he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed.
And he went out not knowing whether, whether he went, not knowing. Okay? So what is Abraham
being recognized for? For his obedience, right? When he was called out into a place which
he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed. Obeyed. The faithful man will obey God even
when you don't know where you're going. Now the word of God gives us so much direction.
You know, and sometimes the Lord will lead you to make certain decisions. The Lord may
even lead you, who knows, to leave the Sunshine Coast one day and go somewhere else. Okay?
The Lord might open those doors and, brethren, the faithful man would have faith in God and
just obey and say, God, I don't know what your future, what your plan is. I'm going
to step out of your faith. I don't know what it, I don't know where I'm going, Lord, but
I know your promises. I know you'll be with me. I know you said, you know, and lo, I am
with you even unto the end of the world. You promised that wherever I go, Lord, as long
as I'm obeying you and my obedience to you, Lord, you're going to look after me. Hey,
that was the faith of Abraham. He went into an unknown place. He obeyed, but he had the
faith that God was going to lead him. You know, the faithful man will step out in obedience.
You know, when you hear something preached from the pulpit, whether it's me, it doesn't
matter if it's me, whether it's someone else, what's important is it's coming from the word
of God. And you know, hey, my family, we're not leaving it in accordance to this. I know
God wants me to live. I know the Lord wants me to put this into my family. I know the
Lord wants me to live this way, but I just don't know what's going to happen. I don't
know how my children are going to react. I don't know how my wife are going to react.
I don't know how my parents are going to, I don't know where this leads me. Hey, but
obey, the faithful man will obey and allow the Lord to sort out those challenges. Okay,
if you're obeying the Lord, he's going to help you. He's going to help you when you
don't know, you know, which way you're going, how it's going to affect your family. You've
got to step out in obedience. That is the faithful man. Let's drop down to verse number
20. Let's go down a few passages now. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 20. It says, by faith Isaac
blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Now I love this verse because we know
the story of Jacob and Esau and how Jacob deceived the father, right? And he received
the greater blessing than Esau. Okay. And even though Jacob was, sorry, Isaac was tricked,
it says here in verse number 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob. You know what? I've proven
this when I went through the book of Genesis, that Isaac knew exactly that this was the
right decision. Even though he was deceived, he realized, yes, Isaac was the one that would
receive the greater blessing. And what I'm trying to say to you Brevin is this, he's
blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Okay. The faithful man prepares his
children for the future. Prepares his children for the future. Yes, he blessed Isaac. Yes,
he blessed, sorry, blessed Jacob. Yes, he blessed Esau. And he said, look, concerning
future things, this is what's going to happen. And the faithful man will prepare his children.
You know, our fathers, our boys need to know, you know, especially our daughters as well.
They need to know what kind of world they're growing up in. It's worse today than it was
in my time. It was my, listen, in my time, I thought the world could not possibly get
worse. When I just look at the lewdness, I look at the wickedness of this world, I just
thought, man, this must be the last thing. Look how wicked this is. Fast forward some
20, 30 years later, it's even worse. And the Bible does promise us, it does tell us it's
just going to wax worse and worse. We need to prepare our children for the future. We
need to tell them, look, you're going to step out in a wicked world and living for God,
living like the Bible, you're going to be rejected. You're going to be rejected by men.
You know, you may not get the jobs and the promotions like the wicked of the world receive.
You may not receive any glam, you may have no recognition in this world. Okay. Just live
in Godly, but don't let that stop you. Just serve the Lord. Please the Lord. He promises
to take care of you. Find a young lady who is saved. Find someone who can love the Lord.
Find someone that wants to be in church with you, that will encourage you in the Lord.
Teach your children, prepare your children for the future. That's what the faithful man
does, prepares his children for the future. Look at verse number 21. By faith Jacob, when
he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning upon the top of his
staff. So Jacob here has been referred to as a faithful man. He blesses the sons of
Joseph, but he says this, and worshiped. Let's read that again. By faith Jacob, when he was
dying, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped. Okay. So the
faithful man will worship God to the day he dies. You know, we see here Jacob as he's
dying, as he's literally, his body's given up. He says, look, this is the day you're
going to die. He says, I'm still going to worship God. If this is the last day I have,
I'm going to use it to just give God worship. He's leaning upon his staff. He needs a bit
of support. Of course, he's old. He doesn't have the strength in his legs. He's going
to pass away. He says, I'm going to work. It doesn't matter what happens. I'm going
to worship the Lord God. This is a short point, but brethren, the faithful man will worship
God to the day he dies. Make that a decision today. Every day, every day to the day I
die, I'm going to worship God. Every day to the day I die, I'm going to recognize God
somehow by prayer, by singing us hymn, by thanking God. I'm going to do this for the
rest of my life, every day of my life. Make that decision. And, you know, that's what
the faithful man does. He'll worship God to the day he dies. Look at verse number 22.
By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel
and gave commandment concerning his bones. So the department, the departing of the children
of Israel was the promise that Joseph received that the Israelites will one day leave Egypt.
Okay. That one day they will leave Egypt and he gave commandment concerning his bones.
He said, look, take my dead body, take my bones with you. When you guys go on that,
Exodus, when you leave Egypt, make sure you take my bones with you. Okay. And the Bible
is saying that he did this by faith. Okay. And so what do we learn here? Well, for the
Israelites, think about, you know, they were there for 400 years. So think about the Israelites
of that generation, right? And saying, well, Joseph told us we've got to take his bones
and they did take his bones, right? So this was something that was known some 400 years
ago. And so what we learn about Joseph, his faithfulness, is that he left a legacy after
his death that he believed God. God told him, you guys are going to leave Egypt. Joseph
believed it. So much so, he says, look, I believe it so much, take my bones with you
when you leave. Okay. He left a legacy after his death that he believed God. I started
with that legacy, how even Abel today, you know, has that testimony that he pleased God.
Well, Joseph had a testimony even after he died, even 400 years into the future, people
could say, wow, Joseph believed God. Joseph was right. God told him we were going to leave
Egypt and we did it. God did it. A legacy of the future. Now, I don't know, I would
love for 400 years from now that our great, great, great, great grandchildren, whoever
they are, say, hey, you know, Kevin, Pastor Kevin back then, you know, our great, great,
great, great grandfather, he believed God. Hey, he preached, I hope, I hope he preached
the book of Revelation. He preached about the end times and look, it's taking place
exactly as he said. And you know what? My bones aren't going to leave Egypt, but our
bones will leave this earth. You know, we're going to be raptured. And I believe that Reverend,
I believe that we, this body will be given a new body from corruptible to incorruptible
from mortal to immortal. And we're going to be resurrected. We're going to be raptured
one day and be with the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds. And so, as I said, the faithful
man will leave a legacy after his death. Let's look at verse number 24. And this is
the last person that we're looking at. The pizza should be delivered in about 11 minutes.
So we have time, according to my phone here. All right, Hebrews chapter 11, verse number
24. The last man we're looking at is Moses. And it says, by faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. What is this speaking
about? Of course, we know that Pharaoh was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. So he grew
up in the royal family. He would have grown up with all the luxuries of Egypt. He would
have grown up with the best foods of Egypt. Okay. But he decided one day to be refused
to be called from that family. Okay. And so the faithful man, brethren, will refuse to
be worldly, refuse to be part of this world. Yes, we're commanded to live in this world,
but we are not to be of this world. We are to be of the kingdom of God. We are to be
of heaven. And brethren, this world offers so much, offers so much riches, so much pleasures.
It's so easy to be distracted by the pleasures of this world. But the faithful man will say,
no, I don't want that. I'm going to refuse the world. Okay. We have to live in this world.
We have to function in this world. I'm going to obviously operate within this world, but
my desires are not in this place. My desires are not in this temporary place. You know,
he refused the world and we should also refuse worldliness. Look at verse number 25. Choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. Where do we find the
people of God today? It's going to be in our local church. It's in our local New Testament
church. You know, we need to be mindful not to get too comfortable just us, you know,
us for and no more. And listen, I love you guys. I love the brethren. I love our church.
And I can see that our church is steadily growing. Okay. But one thing we just can't
get so comfortable saying, well, I'm just happy that it's just us, you know, and not
allow other people, maybe with other ideas who are saved, maybe with other ideas, other
backgrounds not being part of our church, not feeling welcomed. You know, whenever we
have visitors, make sure that you work with them. They could be a person of God. That
person could be a child of God. You know, treat them no differently than any other brother
in our church. You know, bring them in, invite them in. All right. And let's influence them.
You know, let's get their bad doctrine out and insert the right doctrine, insert biblical
doctrine into them. And so we also have a love for the people of God. And listen, to
the point where we may have to suffer affliction. You know, if we don't grow in love, if we
don't grow in appreciation for one another, when someone's suffering affliction, we're
not going to really want to be part of that. But listen, if we love each other the way
we ought to, when brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so is suffering, we would want to suffer
with them. We would want to comfort them and, you know, emphasize, emphasize, empathize
with that person because we love that person. So he'd rather suffer that affliction of the
people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And so the faithful man
will choose to live righteously. The faithful man will choose to be with his brothers and
sisters in the Lord. Okay. Look at verse number 26. Esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater
riches than the treasures in heaven. Sorry, in Egypt. So he had treasures in Egypt. But
he says, look, there's greater riches if I suffer the reproach of Christ. You know,
if I suffer with Christ, I'm going to have greater riches. What's that? Suffering is
greater riches? Well, where was his mind then? Where was his mind? It says here, for he had
respect unto the recompense of the reward. And so he was seeking a reward. He knew that
he would be compensated for the suffering, for the reproach of Christ. Listen, Moses
as a faithful man sought rewards from God. He sought the treasures from God, not the
treasures in Egypt, which are temporal. He decided, no, I'm going to lay up my treasures
in heaven. That is the faithful man. He laid up his treasures. He sought the eternal rewards,
not the earthly. So faithful men, that's what I wanted to capture for you today. And let
me just go through them one more time. With Abel, we saw that he offered a more excellent
sacrifice. With Enoch, we saw in his testimony that he pleased God. With Noah, we saw that
he protected his family. He saved his family. With Abraham, we saw that he stepped out in
obedience. With Isaac, we saw that he prepared his children for the future. With Jacob, we
saw that he worshipped God till the day he dies. With Joseph, we saw that he left a legacy
after his death, that he believed God. And with Moses, we saw that he refused the world,
chose to live righteously, and sought rewards from God. Okay, let's pray.