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166 Lord, thou hast drawn us after thee. Now let us run and never tire.
What in thy love possess we not our star by night, our sun by day? Number 166.
Thyself our all our full desires.
Our praise.
No sin can go.
No, I'm here.
Our brother, save your.
World.
Our dear.
What am I?
All for.
Your.
*.
Change.
In your heart and heart you are dear, our deafening.
Take up Hebrews Chapter 11 and the first part of chapter 12.
The first scriptures that were read to us at the beginning of the conference were the chapter of Deuteronomy chapter 8 and the last meeting as well, I believe, connect themselves with what we have in Hebrews Chapter 11 and the Lord as He's brought before us in the beginning of chapter 12.
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After 12.
Just a minute.
At least this time through chat verse 4.
Hebrews 11. 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 world's refrain by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear by faith. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God, testifying of his gifts, and by it he.
Being dead yet speaketh.
By faith Enoch was translated that he was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
By faith, Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world.
Became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should have to receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went. By faith. He sojourned in the land of promises in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and Maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed.
And was delivered to the child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful, who had promised therefore spraying there even of one, and him as good as dead so many as the stars of the sea and multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embrace them, and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they've been mindful of that country from once they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country that isn't heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for His, for He has prepared for them a city.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called Connie, that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
By faith is Isaac, Blessed Jacob, and Esau concerning things to come.
By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Jason Joseph, and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ. Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith He kept the Passover and the spray cleaner blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians assigned to do were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot ray have perished not with them that believe not when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell Gideon in a barrack of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, brought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.
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Quench the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness, remained strong, waxed valiant, and fight turned to flight. The armies of the aliens women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial, cruel, mocking bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins.
Destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beside us.
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was sent before him endure the cross, despising the shame, and a set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
Would you also read chapter 10 verses 35 to 39? Thank you.
Brother, stand closer to the mic.
Hebrews 10, verse 35 Cast on a way, therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. But yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
A little bit. The burden of my heart, brethren, has to do with endurance.
It's one thing to start out in the path of life and faith.
But as it gets longer.
Even for young people, it seems, it's hard to endure. It's hard to keep going with the thought of getting to the end. And so here we have the apostle, or whomever writes the Hebrews.
Exhorting his brethren and encouraging them in the 10th chapter where it says patience, you have need of patience, or we can translate that endurance. You have need of endurance.
That you might receive the promise. And we go to the 11Th chapter and we go all the way through the 11Th chapter. And at the end of the 11Th chapter of those that we read about, it says they hadn't received the promise yet. So here's a whole chapter of people who live by faith and they didn't receive the end of their faith during their lifetime, but they had to endure all the way to the end with the expectation of something beyond in which their faith was based.
And then in the 11Th chapter we have the perfect example of it all in the person of the Lord Jesus, who did endure, who did go all the way to the end, who did have before his heart, his soul, the joy at the end of the journey and what it was going to mean to Himself.
And he endured to the end. And so it's just upon the heart that we might have a sense of what it is that God has given to us to provide for us, that we might go all the way through to the end. I was rather struck in this chapter as we read it and before that faith is in all the original examples of the chapter. It's all individual, like our bill was saying in the previous meeting.
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There's a collective side of things, but it has to get down to the individual exercise. And so all the beginning of the chapter is individual and yet there is a collective one. And it to me it's quite interesting and it connects with what we had in Deuteronomy 8IN verse 28 with respect to Moses. It says he kept the Passover. If I were writing this, I would have said they kept the Passover.
But God by the Spirit says He kept the Passover and expresses his faith in doing so. But then in the 29th verse, if you will draw me and we will run after thee, we have the fact that it says by faith they passed over the Red Sea. And then the whole of Deuteronomy 8 is missing from this chapter. We don't have a single thing from that point until they enter the land in verse 30.
And so in verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell. And so there are lessons that have to be learned in the wilderness that sometimes bring before us where there is not our faith, and in fact, they're profitable and beneficial to us.
Just before stopping at this point I was thinking this morning as as it was being read about Deuteronomy 8. I wonder how many people that left Egypt.
And were there at the banks of the Red Sea when they sang the song of Moses and of redemption. Listen to Moses words in Deuteronomy 8. There were several million of them that started out, but I wonder how many of them were physically present to hear both, you might say the song of Moses at the beginning and the exhortation of Moses just as they're ready to enter the land of promise. And so for us, we really do need provision of God.
We need to have that sense from the Lord. What is it that we have to have to endure to the end?
So one of these individuals that is listed in this chapter, including the perfect example in the beginning of the 12Th chapter of the Lord Jesus, they all had an eye to the future. They all had an object before them because there's no such thing as blind faith. I've heard the expression faith is a leap in the dark, and it's true that faith only acts on the light that it has at the moment, but it does act on light and it acts on an eye to the future.
So a person goes, young person goes off to college or university to school, and perhaps they live on in circumstances that aren't really what they had at home. They perhaps don't go out with when they'd like to. They perhaps eat macaroni dinner several times a week and all that kind of thing. They stay in to study and work hard. Why do they do that? Because they have an eye to graduation. And you ask that young person, why do you live in that little room?
Why do you eat the food you do? Why do you not go out when you when you could with with your peers? Oh, he or she says. I'm looking to the day when I get my degree and I'll get a a job or a better job or things will it will improve.
But I believe we the reason we don't endure so, so often in our Christian pathway is because we lose sight of the future. As you say, brother Don, these ones, many of them, they didn't see the the results in their day. They didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Moses endured us seeing him who is invisible, you say, How could he go on year after year in the wilderness with all the difficulties and all that he was blamed for by his own brethren and and so on? Couldn't he get just as hungry and thirsty and discouraged as the rest and tired and hot and so on? Yes.
But he endured a seeing him who is invisible. And I appreciated you going back and reading these verses before the 11Th chapter.
Because his brother Bill brought before us in the previous meeting in the hymn that we sang in some of the comments. Brethren, we have a wonderful future ahead. It's not always going to be this way. Someday we're going to leave it all behind and we're going to look back and we're going to marvel at his ways with us. And what is glory going to be compared with a little endurance here? Oh, we're going to wonder why we didn't give up more, why we didn't endure more.
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In light of what was ahead. And so brethren, they all had an object and even those who didn't accept deliverance at the end, God having provided some better thing, God has something better in in view. And brethren, we need to have this before us so that we can go on and run with endurance the race that is set before us.
We're dealing with.
Jehovah.
We're dealing with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
We're dealing with an eternal God.
Now he.
Is omniscient. He knows everything.
He's omnipotent. He has all power. He is eternal. Now this is the God with whom we have to do so. He knows.
What he needs to know.
In the end, relationship to everyone of His people whom He chose before the foundation of the world to be like His son. I want you just like Jesus, my Son, and I'm going to work all things after the council of my own will.
In order to accomplish this.
Appearance.
Spiritually, physically, so forth. Just like Jesus, so expect.
A work to be done when what? Bill was just speaking to us about an hour ago.
You don't know.
All that he knows.
But you know him.
Who has the character of justice described somewhat briefly?
And the things that are the things in your life.
That you're aiming for are not being accomplished.
Just wait a minute or two minutes, or a day, or a month or a week, a week. What you need is what we have in this chapter, Chapter 11.
Faith.
I believe God, period.
Now I believe God is able.
To accomplish what he wants accomplished.
Now.
His mind and my mind unfortunately, are not always the same, but his mind is smarter than mine is, and his his heart is.
Full of love.
And wisdom. So I wait for him.
Weight it takes waiting oftentimes to to get to be satisfied.
To know and do what God wants done.
We haven't sung at time, but when I was growing up we used to sing a hymn. Faith is a very simple thing, though little understood. And I suppose that the best definition of faith is really in John chapter 3 verse 33, where it says he that hath received his word hath set to his seal that God is true. And faith really is unquestioning, unquestioning confidence in God.
That is God says it and I don't question it. I believe it, I rely on it. And so we opened here or we read at the beginning the in backing up to the 10th chapter, cast not away. Therefore thy confidence. You know, maybe sometimes in a situation there's nothing we can do, but we can trust. We can have that unwavering, unquestioning confidence in God.
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And brethren, so much does he value that, that he jots it down in his book of remembrance and he is going to reward in a coming day. A brother went in to see a sister one time who was laying in a hospital bed, and she'd been there for some time. And she said to the brother, she said, you know, there's nothing really I can do here to gain any reward. I'm just here and I'm helpless and there's really nothing I can do.
And the brother quoted to her, this verse cast not away. Therefore thy confidence for of such is great recompense of reward. And maybe sometimes we feel just helpless in a situation, but when we get to that point and we simply trust with the future, with the glory in view and his purposes in view, then he says, I value that and I'm going to reward you for that confidence. Maybe you couldn't do anything.
But you trusted me, and I'm going to reward you.
There was a time in my life when I found Hebrews Chapter 11 to be quite discouraging.
When I looked at the chapter and I thought, well, there's Abraham. He's a giant. He really believes a lot.
And there's Noah. Imagine what Noah did and the faith that's exhibited in his life. And there's Moses. And these people are giants and tremendous is the amount of faith that they have to do what they did. But but I'm not like that. And consequently, there was something in the chapter that I found, I would almost say discouraging to my heart to say, well, what am I? I can't be like them.
I want to give you an illustration that is been a real help to me and I think it's a very important one too.
Kaiser and I frequently visit young people in a detention center, and over our visits with the young people in the detention center, we have both spoken to the young people at times about a point in our life where we were uncertain about our salvation.
And at first glance, the two of us were totally different.
In how it was with us, but the end result was the same, a lack of confidence whether we were saved or not.
In my particular case when I was a young person.
I knew the gospel. I never know a time in my life when I didn't. From the time I ever heard words, I was proud the gospel presented to me. And there was a point in my life when I said I believe.
But afterwards I wasn't so sure. And I said again, at some point in my life, Lord I, I said it before, but I mean it, I believe. And this process went on not for a week or a month, but over a period of years when I was young. And in every case when I stopped and looked at myself, my trouble was.
Do I believe enough? Am I sure I believe? I don't know. I better tell the Lord again. In John's case it was the very opposite. He had no doubt that he believed.
He knew, he said. I believe, and he was sure. It's his belief.
But he said I didn't know if God was going to accept me. I did not know if God was going to accept me. And so finally I went to my father and I told my father about my problem and my father gave me this verse. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And then he said I had peace about that.
Then I got that verse.
In my own case, I got peace when I finally the Lord allowed me in my mind to say, Is God satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus?
That he did for me yes he is and as a consequence then I can be satisfied and I had peace from that point on in my life but the point I want to make, the important point about the two examples is in both cases we were occupied with our.
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Faith or our lack of faith?
There's no peace in self occupation. About the matter of faith, it's the same difficulty I had with Hebrews Chapter 11. I looked at my faith in comparison to the faith of the people in that chapter.
Don't be occupied with your faith.
It will lead to a lack of confidence or uncertainty in the matter because faith always looks outside of itself to the object of it.
I will not cast you out.
And there's peace in that because the object says, I will not cast you out. When one looks at the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, it's God's side of it that gives the satisfaction of it. And so I would plead with everybody in this room that it perhaps hasn't enjoyed that fact before. Don't be discouraged with this chapter by trying to compare yourself to these people.
Look at their God, look at the one in whom they have their faith and he is worthy. And when one is satisfied with himself, then the matter of can I say the matter of faith takes care of itself because it's no longer self occupation in a very subtle way, even what I believe, its occupation with its object. And that's where the peace comes.
Or not, soul of the world, it is only begotten a Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What a boon this has been to many thousands, perhaps millions, of people who were having trouble as to their salvation.
Go farther. Go to the cross.
There's 2 verses, one in the Old Testament, one in the new.
That are.
Or have been a help to me?
Christ died for our sins.
You Testament, Old Testament.
Oh, we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord laid on him.
The iniquity.
Of us all. That's why they got saved on on my bicycle in 1944 in England.
Now what I saw.
Was that my sins, whatever part of my life?
That included.
Was obnoxious to God.
God took it from me.
And he put it on the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
There at Calvary.
Whether it's New Testament or Old Testament scripture.
We get to the end of the.
Darkness over the land.
For at 12 noon.
God laid on him.
The iniquity.
Of every true believer in all the world.
God laid my punishment.
Or his son.
12 noon I believe, and then it got dark for three hours at at 3:00 in the afternoon.
Jesus said wonderful 3 words. It is finished now then.
What was he doing? He was suffering from my sins.
00:35:04
Now, he says, it's over with.
Now when I sin, and I still do, say things, do things that I wish I hadn't done, bring dishonour to the Lord Jesus.
That when, when God, God sees that, but he doesn't condemn me, he can't condemn me. He's righteous.
So what he says was I laid that punishment on my son Jesus.
At 12 noon on Friday and all the punishment.
That you deserve for that sin and all the other sins of your life.
The blood.
Which is required for payment of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
And that blood was shed and Jesus said it's finished. So there's one thing God can do. He can create a heaven and earth, but he can't send me to the lake of fire because.
Because.
Jesus endured that entirely for me.
Helpful in connection with this matter of faith that.
First comes facts.
The next comes faith and the last is feelings and I find that OFT times.
Souls get feelings up front, and since they don't have what they consider to be right feelings, they question the facts and they question whether they have faith.
But feelings are very real and you can't ignore them. But they're not first. And it's really important that we understand, like Brother Dave was speaking about the facts, the person, the work of Christ is completely outside of ourselves. It's something that was accomplished almost 2000 years ago.
Now our part is simply to believe it.
And it doesn't take a lot of faith.
It only takes a touch of faith. That woman that came behind Jesus, you might say she was trembling, she had a lot of fear, but she had enough to touch just the border of His garment. That was enough. So it's not a matter of the quantity of faith either that you have. The important thing is the person you have faith in, if it's the right person.
All the power in the world is there.
You can have a lot of faith in the wrong person and it won't do you any good. So it's a matter of having faith in the right person. So facts comes first, the person and work of Christ, then our faith is exercised in Him, our confidence and then the feelings will follow in time that don't put feelings first. That confuses a lot of souls.
Chapter 27.
The Apostle Paul.
As he spoke to these ones who were.
In that perilous storm and that boat there, and he says Acts chapter 27 and verse 25.
Wherefore, sirs?
Be of good cheer.
For I believe God.
That it shall be, even as it was told me.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing.
Word of God.
In the French Derby, Mr. Darby has it all. Paradise is there and he says.
Or I believe God, and I know that it shall be, even as it was told me.
So God has spoken.
And then we should not.
But the next test is time.
When is it going to be? As he has told me, that's a test of time.
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And time is a great tester of faith, isn't it?
It was a few moments after that Paul saw the accomplishment of what God has told him. But God has told us so many things.
And some are way in the future, some are momentarily going to happen. But one thing is sure, they are going to happen.
There was a time when the disciples were in a ship too, and there was a storm, but they didn't believe what the Lord had told them. He said they were going to go over to the other side there in the end of Mark 4, but they didn't grasp it and they were afraid. And they woke him up and they said, Master karst we not carest thou not that we perish? And So what a contrast. Paul believed what God had said about not a loss of life. The the disciples they didn't grasp, but they didn't believe what he said.
And they were afraid. And brethren, it was brought before us. He's not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And fear really comes from not having faith in God, not accepting His Word and what He has said without question.
Contrast them and Jim, you just did that the of faith is unbelief. And so when we enter into circumstances in our Christian life, we can either say am I going to act on the one principle? Am I going to disbelieve God? That will be the hindrance to God's blessing in my life or am I going to believe God? Well, that's the channel by which God brings blessing.
Is when we believe and we can see that in the very principle of the gospel, the gospel, the work of Christ is finished. God has an offer of free pardon to any individual who will, what will believe him. He has made that offer of a free pardon.
Available, and only available on the principle of faith.
And so God has made faith a very, very important.
Thing for man, he must put God where God belongs and that is full confidence in him. Any blessing that we receive in our lives as Christian is going to come on that one principle that we believe God anytime there's failure in our life and possibly sin comes in.
It's going to be based upon the opposite principle. We do not.
Believe God. And so it's sometimes it's nice for us to break things down to the very simple principles that God has set before us. It's one is to believe him that brings honor and glory to him. The other principle is to not believe him that dishonours him. And so as we pass through our Christian lives and as those in this chapter did.
They either well in this chapter we have a record of those who said God is worthy of my trust.
And there was blessing. And so we can apply that principle to our lives. Young people, you can apply it to your lives. If God is trustworthy, and if you have a sense of that in your soul, and you've laid hold of the principles of his word and you believe them, you are in the path of blessing.
And the opposite is true.
Could you explain to us the fact of faith, experience, joy, however you take the little train? We often talk about the personal leading, the Spirit, which may have some ties to the Word of God. We know that the Word of God, whenever we believe in it's clearly spoken, clear revelation. But where does our subjective understanding of God's purse or personal leading in our lives?
Fit in with the concept of faith or excuse me, fact. And then faith, you know, would that be more along the lines of feeling or more along the lines of faith when it's not clearly stated in God's word, which is most of our lives, we make hundreds of decisions every hour in most cases not exactly based, but implied by in Scripture.
00:45:10
Mind is in one simple word, communion.
When we were walking with Laura, when we're walking with the Lord, when we're in fellowship with him and his word, the Spirit of God has direction to lead us or gives direction in his in his leading to us. We're close enough to hear his voice. Even though there may not be a, a direct scripture for us to turn to. We know what his mind is because we're intelligent as to his word and we're close to him. We can hear his voice. So that's a good question because.
Oftentimes, the decisions that we make in our lives are based upon not necessarily a scripture which gives us a definite.
Answer direction in our life, but having a sense of the mind of God, being intelligent as to His word, but most of all being close to Him.
So that can never be wrong.
Facts are never wrong.
Well, the Lord never leads, contrary to His word.
Your communion is on the grounds of the Word of God.
May not have a specific verse, but the general tenor of scripture is what's going to lead you, and the more you are close to the Lord and understand His Word, the more you're going to be LED properly.
We can make mistakes in discerning the Lord's will. Can't say that we'll never make a mistake, but we need to be close to the Lord and then, as you say, walking in fellowship with Him, we'll have a sense of the Lord's direction.
Our chapter, it says it's a substantial substance or substantiating of things hoped for. The world has a saying. Seeing is believing.
There's no validity to that statement at all.
When I see something, I don't need faith.
And so, as it says, it's the evidence of things not seen. If I don't see it, then I have to have faith in order to have confidence about something I can't see.
So seeing is believing is not a statement about faith at all. If I hope for some, if I have it, it's mine. I don't hope for it, I've got it.
But it says in this it's the substantiating of things hoped for. In other words, faith has to lay hold of something that it cannot see.
And yet there's a desire connected with it.
And that makes everything of what the person's faith is in.
Because it has to be in someone who can.
Fulfill what's hoped for and what I can't see.
And the only one that ultimately and absolutely can fulfill that is God.
Because everything that God promises to do, He can. There's not a single person in this room that can make a promise that you unquestionably can fill.
As far as every promise.
We're not capable even in what we promise, always fulfilling it.
And we deal with a God who cannot lie. And so every time God says he will do something, we can treat it as a fact because of who says it, not as a fact because we have seen it or only hope that it's true. But the confidence, the basis of it is the one that says it. It's the one who can do everything he says.
And he, thankfully enough, it's not, it's beyond faith, but we know his heart's toward us. His love is toward us. And so he's absolutely 100% toward us or for us. And that that gives us a joy in the faith itself. But I want to make one extra comment about this.
Sometimes the difficulty.
Is that we start with our own desires.
00:50:01
We start with a desire for something that then we turn to God and want to have faith that God's going to do it and it may be something that he never promised.
I want to take an example so that it can be understood simply somebody gets sick.
And then immediately there's a question of having exercise of faith that they're going to get well.
Do we have the absolute from the Word of God that every time somebody's going to get sick, if there's faith, they're going to get well? No, we do not, because God never promised that.
God never promised that he has purposes in such things that don't include getting well.
The but the consequence where our faith or supposed we put our faith.
And are disappointed in it because it starts with a desire that is within us for something that God is not promised to us. And then we're disappointed when God doesn't do it. And consequently, when it comes. And even in the matter of communion, it's very, very important. It's so easy for us to deceive ourselves because it starts with our desire that we need to start with.
God has said.
And when we get to the Word of God and He says it, it's in that that He will always fulfill His promise.
He says, take the matter of sickness, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
That's God's statement, that's the statement of the Lord Jesus, so that one may go through such a trial with the absolute promise of God that the Lord is with me in it. He will not leave me in it, He will not forsake me in it. And that's His promise. And that's something in which one may say, I believe God, but may the Lord help us. Brethren, we get confused in the matter of faith sometimes because we start with ourselves.
And not with what God says.
It's one thing.
And like God, I could read this chapter and be very discouraged. And then when I read about these individuals, there's a lot of failure. And yet they were able to do things because they had faith. They had a, their pathway was right because they had faith. Faith did that. We didn't do that. They didn't do it.
And so the chapter isn't an exhortation to tell us what we should be, but it explains what faith does. And it starts out and not as a definition of faith, but the first thing that faith does is it takes what God has revealed and makes it real to us. Everyone in this room who knows the Lord is a Savior that has faith. Whether it's small or great nose, we're going to be in heaven.
And you know, we can have very little faith, but faith, as sure as we're sitting here, we know we're going to be there. We may not know a lot, but we know that is, in fact, we know that God created the earth.
We go to school and they tell us other things and they may cause questions about this or not, other notes about this or not. But we know by faith that God created the heaven and the earth, that they were formed by his words. And so as I read this, as we read this chapter, it's not what we should be or what we should do or how we should do it. I'm sure we find that in there. But what it tells us is what faith does it made.
Particular things, real truths, real in a practical way to these individuals. It's not what they did, but what faith did to them and to us.
Substance to their life. That's really what this opening verse is saying, that it was faith that gave substance and purpose to their life. A person that just drifts from this to that, as we would say from pillar to post. Their person that has no direction, no object, no purpose in their life but these individuals. Yes, there was failure along the way. Yes, sometimes unbelief did creep in, as it does in all of our lives.
But in the end there was real substance and purpose and testimony in their lives because they had faith. I'd like to just say this too, that when the when Joshua at the end of his life, after they've gone in been established in the land and Joshua was about to pass off the scene in his final words to the children of Israel, he says there is not one thing failed, not one word of all the good promise that he hath promised.
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There'd been lots of failure on the part of the children of Israel, lots of times of unbelief and discouragement and losing sight of the object and wanting to turn back to Egypt and so on. But he hadn't failed. And brethren, he abides faithfully, cannot deny himself. And just to realize, as you say, Don, to look outside ourselves and to realize that he doesn't fail. He'll never fail us, no matter what happens in our lives.
And his word doesn't fail. Sometimes we think perhaps it has because we wanted adjusted to the way we think it should workout or the way we think it should have been. But his word doesn't change. His word is faithful. He's faithful. He doesn't change. And so we can always count on that. And just to come back, if we if we waver in our faith, unbelief creeps in just to come back.
And rest on his word it. Joshua says that hasn't changed. He hasn't changed what he was on the banks of the Red Sea, what he promised before he ever left Egypt. Has any of that failed? Is any of that any less? The other thing too, is it's things not seen. But it's very real things, isn't it? Whom not having seen, we love. But I trust Christ is real to every one of our hearts. Have you and I ever seen him with the natural eye? No, of course not.
But is he any less real to the eye of faith? No, I trust not. We haven't seen heaven, but I trust it's a reality in our souls. We read the Word, we rest on what we've been told, and faith takes hold and grasps what we haven't seen with the physical or the natural eye is very, very real, or ought to be very, very real to the eye of faith, and in the measure in which it is real.
To the eye of faith, and we lay hold of it. Then in that measure we're going to endure.
I would suggest that what is seen by the eye of faith.
Is that coming through?
I would suggest that what is seen by the eye of faith is more real to our souls than that which is seen with the naked eye.
We all know that we have seen things.
I have occasionally had the opportunity of standing in a courtroom.
And I have listened to conflicting testimonies, and you sometimes wonder if people were at the same place at the same time to hear what one absolutely and without any shadow of doubt, at least in his or her mind, saw. And someone else comes along and renders a totally different testimony. The eyes can deceive.
When it's a question of faith in what God has said, in who God is, there's no deception, is there? And so it does, as our brother was bringing out in this chapter, faith brings the substance into your heart and mind, brings the evidence there of things that God has chosen not to give us. Why? Because the reality in our souls is far greater.
Than if we actually did see it, now it's true. Faith will give place to sight, but it'll be perfect sight in that day. It'll be sight in all perfection with no deception.
But what do we have here? We have what faith does. Why is it at the end of the book of Hebrews? Because all the facts of all Brady Britain presented. And now he says, as it were, Here's what faith did in the Old Testament for those who had very limited facts.
Now I am giving you that which ought to produce the substance in your hearts.
When you have so much more and then he presents Christ, as he says, the author and finisher of faith. Well, it's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Because as our brother Dave Jennings was mentioning, it brings salvation.
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Faith in Christ brings salvation, and it's not a question of how much faith that someone has said a little faith will bring the soul to heaven.
But as we walk with the Lord, as we experience that substance, our faith increases.
And then we find that not only does a little faith bring the soul to heaven, but much faith brings heaven to the soul. And that's what we find in this chapter. We find those who had that faith and whose lives demonstrated it. And I believe the author of Hebrews, probably the apostle Paul, is not, as it were saying, this is what should characterize you, but how much more do you have to go on than they had in that day?
And how much greater should the substance be in your lives, in your hearts, and in your minds?
Maybe someone has a hem. Our time is up.
Most of those who actually saw the Lord Jesus didn't believe in you.
So that's a gift from God to our hearts. We've never seen them, yet we love them.
171.
He bids us come, His voice we know, and boldly on the waters go to him, our God and Lord. Verse three. But if from Him we turn the eye, we see the raging floods run high, our hearts are full of fear.
Our foes so strong, our flesh, our flesh so frail. Reason and unbelief prevail for getting He is near #171.
Someone started please.
Just come his voice. We know.
And.
Go.
To no more God.
Lord.
We love alike and past your sea for.
I almost swing his way.
See your voice just when we dread.
Nor.
Of you round us dread for.
The morning.
Who has come to drive?
I am from.
The.
I.
Didn't.
What? We are unbelievable.
01:05:36
No.
First John 5, verse 9.
If we receive the witness of men.
Which we do, the witness of God is greater. Well, this is the witness of God, which he had testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believe it not. The record that God gave of his Son.