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Pain and the apex.
Oh, Jesus, friend of.
Our heart hears no hearts.
For your name.
Why the? Why? Why?
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For every.
Regular.
Nature.
For every sword is crap.
Here in Christine falls how many times?
Your help and why everyone else?
Normal care of all the prayers.
I cry. Oh Lord.
Jesus.
Is Chapter 11 which.
Has quite a bit about Abraham as well. Brethren seems like it's.
A portion that would be suitable for the time we live in.
We need to be strengthened in the principle of faith, and that's what this chapter deals with.
And that be suitable?
Hebrews Chapter 11 Did you read the whole? Is the whole chapter body thought now?
Perhaps down through verse 19 for the present.
Chapter 11 verse one. 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 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 should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him, For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
By faith, Noah being warned of God if things not seen as yet moved with fear.
Prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should, after received for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in the tabernacles, with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed.
And was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful, who had promised, therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and multitude, and as the sandwiches by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
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For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, But now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. For hath prepared for them a city by faith. Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
These two verses of chapter 10 perhaps help to get the.
Picture that.
We have in Chapter 11, says the just verse 38.
Shall live by faith. That's the principle upon which.
The just live and it's the principle that characterizes God's people. And as we have in verse six of our chapter, without faith, without that principle of faith it is impossible to please God. And then it says in verse 39, we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Because in the book of.
Hebrews. It contemplates the possibility of those who were professors amongst God's.
People, perhaps not real, and they would.
Be perhaps?
Tempted to turn back again to that which they had come out of Judaism. That is what is called apostasy. And brethren, we are living in the days of apostasy of giving up, and we need to be encouraged to go forward, to go on in the pathway of faith.
Faith does not go forward based on what it sees.
And we are living in a materialistic world where people gear themselves and guide themselves by what they see in the world around. That is not the principle of faith, That is the principle of walking by sight. But what pleases God is faith. And faith is always based on the word of God, on some communication of God from God.
And so that's what we see in this chapter that there were those.
That cloud of witnesses of faith in the Old Testament that did not have the revelation of God that we have in our hands, and yet they acted in the most marvelous way on the principle of faith, of trust in God and in His word. So these things are here to encourage us to walk that pathway while we're down here in this world.
You say the revelation that we do the word of God in our hands and a man in the glory, which the next chapter brings before us as the object for our faith. Yet they did have light to act upon. And I say that because it's true. Faith takes those steps, not knowing what's ahead. But faith always has an object. And I think we'll notice as we go down these individuals that are listed here in this chapter for our encouragement that they did have an eye to the future.
They did have an object on the and light on the horizon. I say that, brethren, because I've heard people use the expression blind faith.
I don't believe there's such a thing as blind faith in the sense in which we're talking about it in the word of God.
It's true. We're going to notice Abraham went out not knowing whether he went. And step by step, day by day, he walked by faith. But he did have an eye to the future. He looked for a city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God. But brethren, if we only have our eye on the present, we're not going to live by faith. If we're just looking at things materially, as Bob has brought before us, we're not going to seek to walk for God's glory with the end in view.
Sometimes has been said and I think it's a good illustration that a young person perhaps goes off to school.
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And maybe their living conditions aren't just what they're used to or what they would like. Maybe they give up or think they sacrifice a number of things. They have a very limited budget. They don't go out with their friends when they'd like because they stay in to study. Why does a young person do that for three or four years?
Well, they have an eye to the future, they have a goal in mind and if you talk to that young person, he or she would say.
Well, when I get my degree, things are going to be better. My living conditions are going to be better. I can do some of the things I want. I'm going to get a job and and I'll have a few more things and so on. But if that young person doesn't have the future before them, it says in Proverbs, and I think it applies to every aspect of our lives, naturally and spiritually, where there is no vision, the people perish. If we only live for the moment, brethren, we're not going to be encouraged to press on in the path of faith.
And so as we go down this list, I think it's nice to see that it is faith that gave substance to the lives of these individuals. And that's really what the opening statement of this chapter is referring to. Sometimes I've heard it referred to as a definition for faith, but I think the best definition of faith is in John's Gospel, where it says he that received his testimony that receiveth his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true.
Unquestioningly taking God at His word and resting upon it, trusting him. But what I believe is brought before us here is that these men and women that are listed in this chapter, there was substance to their lives. Their lives had purpose and meaning, and what gave their lives purpose and meaning was the fact that they lived by faith.
18 of 2nd Corinthians 4.
While we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen.
Are eternal God has marvelously worked.
For every child of God to give him the gift of faith.
For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourself. It's the gift of God.
Not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast my efforts.
Should be motivated by.
My object is Jim was just saying the object that God has set before us. Abraham had the land, what whatever it was that God gave to him.
Was at the other end, not on the Emerald Crescent.
Which was a fertile land, but that often barren land near the Mediterranean Sea. It was but now extremely fruitful, and one and soon it will all be fruitful and will not go into the prophetic word. But God has given us to believe God.
And as Dawn brought out.
Abraham was a friend of God, and I'll tell you what, so am I and I am conscious of it that God is my friend and.
I am his friend.
He He leads and directs according to the purposes of his own will, which who has all power, all wisdom He has. He is righteous, and He's holy. Who else would you have?
To direct you and lead you other than such a person as this He who created heaven and earth with objects in view.
For all eternity.
Now that's what that's the one I'm looking forward to being with and like.
Started talking. It's so excellent. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. That's where faith comes from. It's a gift. We can't even claim credit for that, the whole thing. Galatians takes up a relationship on that basis and says ye are all the children of God. By faith in Jesus Christ bring us into that relationship. That's the importance. He that cometh to God must believe that he is.
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We've got to start out believing that he is. He's the eternal God. There's no past.
And future with God He is the eternal present God he is.
Not he was or shall be. He is, and he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Are you seeking him? We should be.
But it comes. I think it is good that verse in Romans 10, it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So how is it that God communicates faith? It is through His word. Therefore it is so important to use the word in gospel preaching. It's not so much the explanation of the word that.
God uses. It's the hearing of the word that God uses to communicate.
8 And thus life to lost guilty souls. So faith is an interesting principle that that verse you quoted in 2nd Corinthians 4 says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. How do you look at something that is not seen? It's by faith, and that's what we have in our verse one of our chapter here.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen in other words.
We open our Bibles and we read about Jesus.
The glorious Son of God, after he died and rose again that he ascended up on high.
And it is sitting at the pinnacle of all glory and power.
And Might and Dominion. Do you see him there, brother and sister?
Yes, we can see Him there. It says we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. How do you see him? Not with these physical eyes, but with the eye of faith. It becomes so real to the soul when we read it in the scriptures that it is we are actually seeing him there.
Faith apprehends it that way. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, so you cannot see him with your physical eyes. But because of what scripture says, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. That's the principle of faith.
In that connection to go to first Peter chapter one for a couple of verses.
Maybe just to get the setting of what I'm going to read here, we know that Peter is writing to the Jewish believers, and they were used to that which they could see. Everything under the Jewish economy, including their worship, had to do with that which was tangible, and they had to do with their earthly inheritance, the land again, that which they could see and their senses could, they could feel, they could smell they and they could hear and so on. But here they were scattered now.
They've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. They put their faith and trust in him.
And now they had lost, shall I say, everything in a temporal sense, and it must have been very difficult. And they must have wondered really what was happening here, had they missed the mark in some way. And so Peter writes to them, and notice what he says in Well, I'll read the last two verse 2 words of verse 7. Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
And so he brings before them that there's something now that is theirs that can't be taken away from them.
But it's not seen, as you say, with the natural eye. The Lord Jesus is seen with the eye of faith. Henceforth know we know man after the flesh, though no, we knew him after the flesh. Henceforth know we him no more. We don't know Christ here on earth, like his disciples did when he walked amongst men. But is he any less real to us than he was when he was in the midst of the disciples? Brethren, I trust not. I trust. He's very real to the eye of faith. And so this is where Peter directs the.
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These ones that were scattered and had lost the temporal mercies, we might say, the things that they did see, he says. You've got something far better. And if you if you have that before you, then you're going to rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. How could they rejoice? They were going through what Peter refers to in this chapter as fiery trials. I say they lost everything you say. I've lost everything you say. I'm going through a fiery trial in my life.
But brother, sister, you can look up, be occupied with Christ and the things that are ours eternally in Him.
You've never seen your blessings, your eternal blessings, but they're very real and precious to the eye of faith and to our hearts. And you can, it will give, as I said earlier, substance to your life. You can rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. I want to point out one more thing in these scriptures in Peter that we read, and that is that again, he brings the end of the thing before them. Sometimes in Scripture, salvation is looked at as the end of the thing, the fruition of it all.
We have the salvation of our souls here. We're saved from wrath through Him. But there's an end that's coming, an end in view for us. It's the salvation of our bodies now as our salvation nearer than when we believed. And so he says in verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. In other words, he says, you can go on with Christ as your object. You can go on rejoicing and believing amidst fiery trials as long as you have the end in view.
And, brethren, I can't stress this enough. As we take up the subject of faith, we must have the end of the in view. Paul gave up things. He gave up present advantage. Why did he do it? He was pressing toward the mark, and he had the prize before his soul. And the prize in the Christian life is always Christ.
Ills. Faith never fakes.
Could we turn to Forgive me to have a cook?
To have a cook saw.
Michael Naam, Habakkuk.
The last verses of Habakkuk.
Could anything look be more hopeless?
He says, 71St Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock should be cut off from the field, and there should be no herd in the stalls.
Yet.
Oh, this is wonderful. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like Heinz feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places now, he says to the chief singer On my stringed instrument. There, he says, Put that to music.
An Old Testament St.
Wonderful.
That is something that is so important for us to get ahold of us, the younger ones. For us who are older, we need to be reminded of it too, rather than what we have in Christianity is not seen with the natural eye.
In fact, as the apostle is writing here, to these Hebrew believers like has been mentioned, they had an outward form of religion. They had a beautiful temple covered with gold and silver and precious stones and and.
Fine wood. It was all something to be really appreciated by the natural eye they had.
The priesthood. They had beautiful robes, they had music that was beautiful with the instruments, instrumental music that was all something that could be appreciated by the natural man. And they had incense burning in their beautiful smells.
All those things were connected with Judaism, what we have in Christianity.
There's nothing of that. Absolutely nothing. What is the attraction in Christianity?
But the person of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, That is the central.
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Attraction. Can you see him with your natural eye? No, you cannot. And it's interesting to me sometimes to watch people come in, sometimes to the meeting room where we gather and remember, brethren, it's not the building that makes the place. It's not the people that are there necessarily that make the place. It's the person of God's beloved Son that makes the place. And when they come in so often, it's interesting to watch them. They look around and they say, where is the altar or where is the preacher?
Or who is in charge here? They're looking around for something visible.
You're going to get disappointed if you look around for something visible. What is characteristic in Christianity is that which is not seen. And so we have to go by the word of God. We have to act according to its principles. That is what is characteristic in Christianity.
Circumstances or instances in our lives to bring the truth of these things home to our souls. And after my father passed away about a year and a half ago, his children had the monumental task of cleaning out a large four bedroom home with a full basement and two sheds on the on 2 acres of ground. And my father was a collector of everything that was useful and not useful.
And there was 51 years of accumulation in that home. And as we got rid of it and most of it, I'm afraid, went in a couple of dumpsters or out to the garbage and some of it we were able to sell. But, you know, I thought of it in connection with my mother because as she watched this, it was a lifetime of accumulation gone in just a few weeks. And I thought of that verse in Timothy that says we came into this world with nothing and it is sure we can take nothing out.
And I thought at the time, wouldn't we be a sad people if all we had were the things of this earth to cling to now, brethren? Not that we despise the mercies that God has given us, and God has given us many mercies in a land like this. We're enjoying some of them here in this building this afternoon, and we don't want to despise what God has given us in a temporal way. But, brethren, those things are not the bottom line. And if the Lord leaves us here, I'm going to have the privilege, Lord willing, of being at a conference in a month or so where we're not going to have.
All the things that we're enjoying today, and it's a good experience, because it makes you realize that again, we're appreciative of what our brethren have provided for us here, and the Lord has provided for us here in Saint Louis this weekend. But, brethren, when you sit down with those who have nothing of this world's goods and open the word of God, it's the same truth in the same bundle of love and fellowship, with the same hope and the same goal and the same person before our souls. And you say yes.
Who are those things that we have? In a temporal way, They are temporal and transient. And I've realized more in the last year or so just how temporal and transient those things are. This world clings to them. But, brethren, we've got things that are eternal. We've got things in Christ that we can enjoy now by the Spirit of God, from the pages of the Word. And those are the things that we're going to enjoy for eternity. Brethren, let's by faith hold up, lay hold of some of those things.
This weekend, as we have the word of God before us, because I say this is what's going to rejoice our hearts.
One of the things that we could consider that would be good for us to remember, I think Brother Bob, earlier you alluded to this, The day in which we live is a day which is very visually oriented and everything around us that the world sets in front of us is really set forth in a way to attract our eyes. Once our eyes are attracted and it's got our attention, our hearts get wound up with what we're looking at.
It's the very antithesis, it's the very opposite of faith. But that's what the world works on. And it it has struck me as I've been sitting here that the first two boys born in this world are an example, the first man born in this world came.
Brought an offering to God.
And what he brought to God was an offering that was from the fruit of the ground. He worked very hard, and those who were farmers here no doubt can far better imagine than I can what it must have been in that pristine day some 6000 years ago to work the ground and to bring forth an incredible bounty. It must have looked very beautiful. It must have looked very satisfying, beautiful fruit.
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Perhaps flowers. I don't know what Cain brought, but he brought it, says the fruit of the ground. He was a tiller of the ground he was seeing with his eyes, and the results must have been astounding. What did Abel, his brother, bring? Brought something that had nothing to attract the eye to a dead animal. I say that very carefully, because we know what that's a picture of. But there was nothing there for the eye, the natural eye to look at, to get attracted to. Well, today, beloved young people and all of us, the world in which you and I live is a world that sets all sorts of things.
Before your eyes to attract your eyes, your natural eye, and it is so prevalent. We live in such a visually oriented world. Everything is fast and moving and bright and colorful and incredible images that that just even a few years ago would be impossible to be seen. But that kind of spirit has its hardening effect on our hearts and if we're not careful as Christians.
We can become, without realizing it ourselves, naturally visually oriented, so that without even realizing it, we begin to lose the joy and the beauty of walking by faith, of acting, engaging our lives, and ordering our lives based on what we don't see.
But what we believe and are convinced of through the precious word of God, but we have to remember.
That it's still Cain's world. It's a world that presents things that look astounding and we get caught up with them so easily. But that's not faith and beloved young people all that you're hearing. Remember this to the natural eye. To what? The world?
Presents to attract your attention. These things are not going to seem interesting or attractive. They have to be.
Attracted by the spirit of God working in the heart. That man that represents, you might say Abel, it brought something by faith that was dead, because by faith he looked beyond, and really he gave up everything this world could offer. When he brought that slain animal, Cain was saying, I can continue tilling, and I can continue bringing more and more beautiful things. I can continue working. Abel said it's all over. It's all over for me. I've got to bring something else.
And it is, brethren. If we're going to move ahead, if we're going to go on in real joy, we have to recognize that what we see visually with our eyes is not what God is looking for and not what he'll give us, but it's what we don't see with our natural eyes. And faith enters into it, and faith lays hold of it, and that's what's precious.
Look at it from God's perspective and that is to see how he values our faith. The trial of your faith, which is much more precious than gold that perishes. God values the faith of a Saint of God. And in the second verse of our chapter it tells us that for the elders of through it for by it the elders obtained a good report. And it's interesting that this statement is repeated at the end of the chapter where they didn't receive the promises.
But they obtained a good report through faith. And if you just go back to the 10th chapter for a moment, it says in verse 35, cast not away. Therefore your confidence for of such for such which have great recompense of reward, that is God values every time you and I rest in Him, put our full confidence in him, take a step in our Christian pathway by faith. He values it so much, brethren, that I believe he jots it down in his book of remembrance.
And he'll give us a reward at the judgment seat of Christ. They obtained a good report through faith.
So what stories told, and I rather enjoyed it, of a sister who was lying in a hospital bed in a convalescent hospital and a brother went to see her and she said to that brother she said, you know, there's nothing here I can do lying on this hospital bed to obtain reward, nothing I can do for for Christ. And he quoted her The verse we read in the 10th chapter cast not away your confidence, which have great recompense of reward.
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And a sister lying in a hospital bed maybe can't raise her arms or her head.
But just resting in his in the confidence of himself, having that faith that he knows best, that he's working all things, that is to his heart. Brethren is valuable. He appreciates that faith. So we've been Speaking of it from our standpoint. But I think it's good to get his perspective, Brethren. Isn't he worthy of our confidence? We've trusted him for salvation. I don't suppose there's a person here who knows the Lord as their Savior.
Who wouldn't say, Oh, I'm trusting him by faith for my salvation, but brethren, if he's worthy of our confidence for salvation?
Isn't he worthy of our confidence for every circumstance of life? Can't we trust him no matter what comes? And I know that's easy to sit here and say this afternoon we're in good circumstances, Many of us are enjoying good health and it's easy to say these things. But, brethren, when we read of these individuals, and as we go down this chapter, we're going to find that they weren't always in the best of circumstances. There were difficult things. There was opposition.
And yet they triumphed for God's glory by faith, against all kinds of odds and difficulties.
And through all kinds of circumstances and trials and the work of the enemy.
Because, brethren, we can do it in his strength.
Lest begins with the creation.
How God framed the world, I know. I used to wonder when I was young, why some of the older brothers spoke against evolution so much.
But when my soul got a hold of the purpose of God in creating everything, it gives reason of being. There's a reason of being here and everything of creation that God made. If you lose that, where do you have in your soul to go to your?
If we are just a random chance of being here in this world, what does anything matter anymore? It's just chance anyway, if that were true. But God has given us a purpose and he's told us why He created these things. And so that makes it important for us to to read His word, our Creator God, and to see that it says in Isaiah He created it not in vain, that is, empty or without purpose.
There's a reason for it, and he's still in control. People spend a lot of time trying to discover how the create the worlds were created and they haven't found out, and I don't believe they will because it was made from things that do not appear.
And it's only faith that can reach out and lay hold of something.
That does not appear, and So what an advantage we have as Christians to.
To be able to go beyond when anything tangible existed.
That God had a purpose of blessing and to know Him. And so how wonderful for us to be able to exercise this faith in what he has told us and to live our lives in conformity to that. That really gives us substance, that really gives reality to our our our living. And people that look at us are going to say, wow, that.
Person really has conviction of what he does and they don't may not understand why the Christian does what he does. They probably won't understand because they don't see these things that we see by faith. And it all started in the very beginning. We're not an afterthought. God had all this ordered out from step one on.
That everything that we gain by faith, we're going to take with us.
We're going to take with us. We're going to leave behind everything tangible down here. We're going to leave it all behind.
But everything that we've learned of Christ.
And his word to His word, We're going to take it with us. Wonderful. Everything of faith abides. Everything of Christ abides. Everything of the first man fails.
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Everything of Christ abides forever and every and this. All that we have and all we are is what we have gained through faith. Gained through faith a given of God a wonderful and to think I heard a brother say one time he's young fellow said to me one time I wish that I lived in the days when the Lord Jesus was here on earth. I'd like to follow them around and see it well.
We have by grace, through faith we have the word of God.
We're going to take that with us. But everything that we've learned of Christ, we've learned through. We learn through faith. And we're going to take it with us and we're going to enjoy it, and we're going to enjoy it with him forever.
We've got the Holy Spirit, we've got the earnest of the inheritance that's greater than all the inheritance. We've got that and he goes when we go.
I like the way it puts in this verse three through faith. We understand it's often been said that faith is not reason.
Not unreasonable. It is by all means reasonable to believe God. If God is who He reveals Himself to be all powerful, all knowing, all always present in every place. What difficulty is there in our minds to believing that He spoke the whole universe into existence?
There is no difficulty. The difficulty is when we try to define God.
And so it's so important that we realize that this the story of creation, I think it's so important, like Doug was mentioning, the fact that there is purpose in creation, there is purpose for the existence of every human being born into this world and create evolution. The teaching of evolution takes purpose away from young people and it's sad to to me to see.
Intelligent, bright young people.
But who have been taught these lies of Satan, that they have absolutely no purpose for their existence. There's a girl down in California I heard about, she got a very high score on the SAT college entrance exam and I don't think anybody had gotten that high ever before. Somebody interviewed her and asked her, what is your purpose in life?
She says. I have no idea what my existence here is of all about.
And that's sad. But when we know that God created us. He created us for a purpose. Somebody made these chairs in this room. Why did they make these chairs? It was for a purpose to have people sit down on them. When God made you, when He made me, He made us with a very specific purpose in mind. If you are here this afternoon, remember God has purpose in mind for you. But God framed it according to His word, and I like to refer back to.
Psalm 33 in connection with this.
The world were framed by the word of God in Psalm 33 and verse 6.
By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made.
And all the host of them.
By the breath of his mouth.
Verse 9.
For he spake, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast. And so isn't it wonderful, brethren, that the universe that God made is framed. It's made in a specific order. God is a God of order.
Perhaps not. Like perhaps like it has been said that we don't understand very much the composition of the universe, how it functions, astronomers try to theorize about how it works, and they're just theories, sometimes very interesting theories. But brethren, we know a God who said it all in order.
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By the word of his power. Think of the power that was unleashed when he spake and it was done. The whole universe was created by the word of his power. What a wonderful thing to know this God. By faith we can know him.
We can actually know more than the most intelligent scientists.
Who depend merely on outward evidences for.
Their thinking?
Bring something out of nothing. And I suppose to create in its strictest sense is to do that, to bring something out of nothing. You mentioned these chairs that were sitting on, but this chair in front of me was was made and the person who made it had to have some material to begin with. It's made of some metal, some hardware, some upholstery, whatever is inside, Some wood, I suppose, some foam. But those materials had to be gathered together.
And then the person who made this chair had the skill and the knowledge and the equipment to assemble them. But think, as Bob has been saying, here's one who spoke and it was commanded. He brought the worlds into existence out of nothing. And brethren, God doesn't answer all our curious questions as to creation, because if he answered all our curious questions, we wouldn't need faith. By faith we accept the fact that he the worlds were made were framed by the word of God.
And so he doesn't answer all our curious questions, but he does, in his word, record just enough so that by faith we can grasp hold of this grand truth that he is not only the Creator of the universe, but He's the Sustainer of it. Everything today is being held in its proper order by the Word of the Lord. He's upholding all things by the word of His power. He didn't just create by the word of His power.
Upholds and sustains it in the same way. And that's really the thrust of that verse in Colossians that says by him all things not just consist but subsist. Everything works under his direction and according to his order, because he is maintaining it and sustaining it. But I would like to say something in connection with what has been mentioned about evolution, and that is that if man can convince himself.
That these the creation came about by some process of evolution or whatever.
Really, what he's doing is discrediting his his responsibility to his maker.
Brethren, if we accept the Genesis account of creation, we must also accept the fact that we are responsible creatures. We are responsible to the Creator. And I believe that that's why when Adam was placed in the garden in creation, there was that tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he was not to eat of, and the fact that that tree was placed there and he was not to eat of it, was to be the recognition that Adam was responsible to his Creator.
Adam failed in his responsibility to his Maker, and man has been trying ever since through these kinds of things, evolution and whatever kind of theories they propagate to discredit his responsibility to his Maker. If he can tell himself he dies as a dog, he has no responsibility to his Maker, and so accepting by faith that Genesis account of revelation, Genesis account of creation, necessitates the accepting of the truth.
That we are responsible creatures to God, and we are.
The Lord Not only did he create the universe, but he sustains it by the word of his powers. He sustains it. What about when he was there on the cross?
Was he not sustaining the universe then? All through, all through those hours on the cross? Wonderful, wonderful old mystery divine.
The first verse is a.
Relates to the end of the 34th verse of the previous chapter.
Ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance, but it's a substance that can't be seen except by faith, And they have started out well. They had took joyfully in verse 34 the spoiling of your goods. Those were things that they could see.
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But the danger was, because of the opposition and the difficulties of the way they were going to give up what faith had begun. By faith they had begun to do. And the Lord had given them the promise that verse 37 yet a little while and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry, but our life is cast.
In this time, expressed as a little while in how many of us in our life as believers have witnessed a good beginning in the life of a soul? They threw over those things they had so cherished and claimed to, and they started on this path of faith. But things that we're seeing turn them side might not have been material. Things might have been you, or it might have been me that they got their eye on, and what they saw turned them aside.
Well, what is going to preserve the believer in until this time, when he that shall come, will come and will not tarry? What is going to preserve us? It's the activity of faith. The expression we understand is the word we apprehend. That simply means that it becomes a reality to us. It becomes something that we can lay hold on.
And so as we think of this substance that's in heaven, or just this substance that it becomes a living reality to us.
And we're willing to endure the opposition. We're willing to overcome the faults of others or the pressures of the world, the allurements that we sung, or worldly pomp and glory. Your charms are spread in vain. But some of us have to say, you know, I don't know that they're entirely spread in vain. For myself, I walk down to the lunch room for coffee here, and I see a football game, and I'm attracted to that. What is it? It's worldly pomp and glory.
And it could well turn my heart aside and and make shipwreck of my life of faith well these in our chapter.
They still haven't received everything. They're still waiting with us, that without us they're not going to be yet made perfect. And so we have need of patience, as this book brings out. It begins with telling us we do have a rest. They remain at the rest for the people of God. But now we must labor, and we do that labor by faith. And so as you begin your life together, I was thinking of it in connection with marriage.
You've never seen A at least I've never seen a wedding where the bridegroom comes down the aisle looking glum and the bridegroom standing up there looking weary of this.
Event No. There is all hope and expectation. Yet you see those same marriages? They don't.
Go on to the end. Why? Because the principle of faith is lacking somewhere in their life. That ability to lay hold of what has substance to it, and we're turned aside in our pathway of faith. And so these that we are reading about in our chapter, they got to the close of their life and God gave them a good report card. And that's what we want in our lives.
We want at the end of our life to have a good report card, and so the apostle probably Paul. We assume and are fairly confident that it was he. He selects these people who overcame on the principle of faith, and they got a good report card.
We've had about Abraham and Moses, but you have Enoch mentioned there. In verse five. 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. The Lord had brought before us in the end of chapter 10 that we're going to be translated to.
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But what's on the burden of the spirit of God is that before we're translated, he wants us to have this testimony that we have pleased God. And so it's occupied with this time that the Spirit of God calls. A little while, and it becomes quite a long journey where faith is not active.
Nice to consider a.
The much discussion has been made. Well, how did Abel know what to bring to God? And the suggestions have been made that he, God had clothed Adam and Eve with the coats of skin of the animal that had died. And that's very lovely. I believe it's true. But regardless of what else it was able believed God's testimony, He believed that the God that had made something out of nothing.
In the creation of the world, And so when?
Cain slew him. He went to a place where substance is not in existence. That is, he's not alive. People would say what a waste. A young man died not having a family, and what good is he? But God uses him as a perpetual witness to something lived that was worthwhile.
And he gives testimony as the first one who died and went to the place of unknown at that time. He's a continual witness now to that there is something beyond just material, the material. And so he is, God uses him. It's it's, it seems to me that these are kind of like stepping stones here for faith as we as we go on our Christian way.
And he becomes a witness.
In his death.
He still speaks. We don't think of dead people speaking, but what he does.
He believed what he believed in. He died for.
And that's about as strong a testimony as you can get.
He believed in something so much that he died for what he believed in. That's faith.
The next man didn't see death and so it's the opposite.
We're introduced to the creator God in verse 3. But that's condemnation. If we can't go on to a Redeemer God, and we have that with Abel. He he discovered the one who created the world, and his father had plunged into death that that God was a Redeemer God too. And so we need that deep sense in our souls, in our relationships with each other, that.
We now belong to a redeemed creation, a redeemed people.
And a new creation that's going to come, but that's God in his two characters, Jim said. That if we acknowledge God.
Then we have to acknowledge we're responsible. But if we acknowledge that we're responsible, we have to acknowledge that it's all over for us based upon our responsibility unless there is this Redeemer God.
I think I've been asked Henry or the putting the two things together just go to the 4th chapter of Revelation because.
I think you see this in the 4th and 5th of Revelation and see what the end result of this is when the scene of glory bursts forth. And yet there is a striking contrast here. I might just say in a general way, in the 4th of Revelation you have his right and title as to creation, he's the creator, as we've been saying. And in the 5th chapter we have his right and title as to redemption and notice the difference here. Or something that's striking in the end of chapter 4.
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The 10th verse. They cast their crowns before him, and they say, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive. Now notice this three things, glory and honor and power. Now three things giving testimony, divine testimony to the fact that He's creator, because it says for thy and for thy pleasure. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
But shall I say as they praise him as on the grounds of creation, as far as his right and title as creation, There shall I say 3 notes of praise here. Three things that are mentioned, glory, honor and power. But now go to the fifth chapter, where you have something even greater, shall I say, And that's redemption. And now the redeemed are praising on that basis. And of course it's the blood of Christ which takes us back to Abel's sacrifice. That's why it wasn't acceptable sacrifice.
More acceptable than Cain's because there was the shedding of blood. And notice what it says in verse 12 as the redeemed praise now.
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive. Now let's count these things.
Power that's one, and riches that's two, and wisdom that's three And strength that's four And honor that's five. And glory that's six and blessing that's seven. Now, brethren isn't that higher than we had in the 4th chapter. Doesn't that go beyond what we have? The three things that we had in the third chapter when it was a question of creation, When it comes to redemption, it shall I say, not 3 notes of praise simply, but there are 7 notes of praise.
And so I think it goes along with what our brother Henry has been bringing before us.
Thought before we move on, Brother Doug said that of Abel.
That he died.
As it were, he died for something he believed in. And that struck me because in a practical application, that's what faith beloved young people, is going to cause you and me to do in some measure in this world. And I don't mean physical death. Although while we're sitting here in this very beautiful and comfortable place, our brothers and sisters in Christ in some parts of the world right now are being put to death for their faith in Christ, and in some places, in incredible numbers, are being slaughtered.
So there is there is still today that reality of physical martyrdom.
In this world, but in the world that you and I live at least in this day that we are aware of.
If we really believe the word of God by faith, there's going to be in a measure.
We're going to taste death too. And what I mean by that is you may, because of faith, give up a position that you could really get ahead in this world. You may not take the most advantageous route in your life all the time, because faith is telling you something else. So that there is he that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. There is, in a way, faith the the not, perhaps.
Taking the advantage that you could take of the world's ways and what it holds out and what it offers.
And so you might say, well, perhaps you've heard this before in your own life. You've decided to follow the Lord, and perhaps not taken.
A path that would be very advantageous and someone would say you know you're really wasting your life doing that.
To do that, to give up that ability, I think of a sister, and I'll be very.
Unspecific, but I remember this sister, when she was young, was told by one of her instructors in school that her desire to be married someday and to raise a family, to stay at home and raise a family, was a terrible waste of her life, given her options and her abilities and what she could do with her life in this world. Well, may I say, she died for what she believed in, in a measure.
And so we're going to do that, aren't we? In some measure, as we seek to walk by faith, if it really is real to us, we're going to find out what it is in some measure to die for what we believe in.
Not just in passing with Abel and Cain, because Abel, as we were have been saying, died for what he believed in, but this remarkable statement is made of Cain. He went out from the presence of the Lord, and he built a city.
He raised up that which was tangible. He built a city, which speaks often in Scripture of man and his pride.
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But he lost in his soul a sense of the Lord's presence. Brethren, if we just want to cling to things down here, if our whole goal and object has to do with the tangible things of this life, we're going to lose in our souls too, a sense of the Lord's presence, And perhaps not in the same sense that Cain did, because the Lord never leaves his own. But I believe it's a solemn thing to consider.
Well evidently heard from their parents the story of how they were placed in the garden of Eden, and how they fell and what took place and how God had cursed the earth. And faith always acts in view of the revelation from God that is given and.
Abel acted according to what he had been told that God had said. He acted and covered.
Himself with the blood of the Lamb and Cain acted. Ignoring what God had said, He brought the fruit of a cursed earth. He in effect said, I don't believe that that's cursed. I think it's plenty good enough and that's what I'm going to bring. And that's the difference between a person of faith and a person that acts by sight. You're going to act by sight. You cannot please God.
So these are really important principles, I think in connection with.
Are standing before God. We must go by what God says, not by what it appears to us.
And in our day, it's scary to me when I look around and see how people.
Make their judgments based on how they see it.
And they say, well, the way I see it is just as good as the way you see it.
I say if it's a matter of just you and me, well, you might be right in what you say, but it's not a matter of what you and me think or say. It's a matter of what God has said. And you cannot ignore what God has said and prosper in your soul. It's impossible.
There, Bob. But I wonder if we could consider that again. You consider what what Cain brought, and you say it came from a cursed earth. And that's surely true. And God could never accept it, because not only did it come from a cursed earth, but it was the fruit of his efforts to to bring something acceptable to God. But natural sight, I want to say this again, beloved young people, natural sight would have looked at that. I want you to imagine in your mind those two offerings.
And I don't want to. I don't want to get, you know, fanciful here, but I want you to think about that. Here's a dead, bloody carcass.
And here's a basket of the most gorgeous, beautiful fruit.
What's going to seem to the natural eye, more acceptable? And that's why real Christianity, true Christianity, beloved young people, is so despised and so hated.
Man's version of Christianity is very acceptable today. But the Christ of Christianity and true Christianity looks to man's natural eye the way I say very reverently and very carefully. That dead bloody animal looked that Abel brought to God. What does he think he's doing bringing something like that? Look at that beautiful fruit that Cain is bringing. That's got to be more acceptable. No faith sees beyond that. And I just say again, the beloved young people.
Don't allow your heart to be taken up with what is so subtle it affects us all.
What things look like on the surface. Because the reality that faith sees a God-given faith is the opposite always of what man sees apart from God. And man will never consider that a dead Christ on the cross is bloodshed is what is the only acceptable remedy and approach to God. He'll never accept that naturally. Only faith can accept that.