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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