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139.
This world is.
Yes, I sure.
So long we are, we are going to fear more, to cry.
And the joy.
Is.
Rising shall cry.
First Samuel, chapter 17.
And verse 12.
Now David was the son of that after that event of Bethlehem, Judah.
Whose name was Jesse and he had eight sons.
00:05:04
Man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.
I enjoyed the thoughts yesterday about the chapter that we're talking about, the endurance.
And we often speak of the young men of Scripture, of which David, certainly one of them that we make reference to.
I suppose if we take to heart.
The thoughts of endurance in Hebrews 11.
That the Lord would give us grace to be one of the old men of Scripture.
As well.
Hebrews 11 Dawn.
Very far.
Suggest maybe we start with verse 4.
Perhaps this morning we'll be able to keep moving a little.
Hebrews 11, 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. 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.
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, 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 receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went by faith. He sojourned in the land of promise.
As in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heir is 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 seed to conceive, strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Therefore spring there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. All these 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 in the earth. 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 isn't heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.
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, counting, that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
My faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of 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 Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. A steam in 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 and seeing him who was invisible.
Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first warrant should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed, not when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell a Gideon, and a barrack and a Samson.
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Of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, wax valiant and fight, turn to flight the armies of the aliens. Women receive their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had trial of cruel mockings, encouraging say more over abounds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted.
Were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being 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 seen we also are compass developed with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sandwich does so easily beset 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 set before him endure the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endures 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.
Reading this fourth verse by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
And we know that's true. We have the record in Genesis. We have the record here.
That Cain offered to God the fruit of a cursed earth, the very thing that God had cursed. Cain turned around and presented it to God as an offering. And that's unacceptable to God. But by contrast with that, Abel offered to God that which spoke of Christ, the death of the animal. And so the record given to us about it here is by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
That is.
He in faith offered this offering to God, and God turned around and gave witness to the fact that he was accepting that offering. It was God himself that gave the witness with respect to the offering and said, I am pleased with this. I'm accepting this offering just in the same manner with respect to Cain. God said, I do not accept.
This offering. And so when there is faith in God and in what God says, he gives the witness himself that he is accepting and is pleased with that faith. So we ourselves have put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives witness to that faith in giving us the gift of eternal life. And that's God's testimony as to that faith in that life that he gives that he had promised to us. And further than that, because there's a treasure at the end of the road for us.
That is to be seen as that for which we are going to endure in faith. God says further, I'm going to put the Holy Spirit of God in you so that that is my further testimony and witness to that in which you have accepted my promises thus to your heavenly calling. Further than that, then he goes on to say God testifying of his gifts, that is, he was offering a lamb or a sacrifice to God.
And God gives testimony to his pleasure in the very gift itself, just as with us when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, the faith is pleasing to God, but he not only gives testimony of his acceptance from us, but he loves to give testimony to the gift itself that is pleasing to him. That is Christ. And so it's a great honor to God.
In giving testimony to that in which our faith rests, and in which he is satisfied, and then finally, and sometimes we put it first, but it comes last, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. That is, God is still using.
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Abel to speak to mankind through the record that he has given to us concerning Abel's faith and his sacrifice and God's acceptance with it.
And so the whole chapter is a cloud of people who we can look upon it, and rightly so, as it shows in the beginning of the 12Th chapter that they're a cloud of witnesses to us of what faith does and how it pleases God and the results of it and so on. But let us not forgive that. God starts at the beginning of it. It is it ends with the sense of being a testimony. Let's not, as it were, make it as an object.
To be a testimony of our own faith. That's not the point. These people were not trying to be a testimony in faith. Rather, individually, they were seeking and accepting what God said to them and acting on it. God gave witness to that faith.
And in turn, as he chose, He was pleased to give witness to us through them of that which is faith. And if God wants to use our faith in some way to give witness, so be it. But that's not the point of it really. It is. Let us individually honor God.
By believing what he says.
We see this.
Is that there are those?
Who have respect.
Unto their creator.
And whatever else you may to other titles you may give him, there is respect. I believe him. I believe that what he says is important. I believe that what he wants.
Is what I want as well.
And I respect.
Everything about him.
So when when he speaks, I bow my heart and my will to say yes, Lord.
That is.
I am right with you.
In seeking to.
Be pleasing that what you want accomplished. I may have a share in it.
It's always based on the Word of God or some testimony from God and.
Might ask, well, what testimony did Abel and Kane have?
I'm sure it was told them by their parents that when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden that they were clothed by the skins of a victim and so.
Abel realized that that was the only way of approach to God by the sacrifice of an innocent victim, whereas Cain I'm sure, also heard the testimony that God had cursed the earth.
But in ignoring directly that testimony he offered the fruit of a cursed earth, and that was not acceptable to God, it shows that it's important that faith is always based on some communication, some revelation from God.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Often notice and preaching the gospel.
There are souls that really listen. How important the hearing here if there's not a hearing here?
You won't get the blessing when God speaks, we need to listen.
We sometimes speak how God teaches in His Word by contrast, and we certainly have it in this verse because here were two boys raised in the same home. As you say, Bob, they heard the same testimony from their parents as to how God had dealt with things at the beginning, but they responded in two very different ways. A brother was telling me a few days ago about growing up in a Christian home.
And he said there were three of us in the home. And he said, as far as I can see, our parents never treated us any different. They treated us, the three of us pretty well equal, loved us equally. We sat at the same dinner table and heard the word read every day. They brought us to Sunday school and Gospels and meetings and so on. But he said that there were really three different responses and three different lifestyles.
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In following.
And I've thought of it in connection with Cain and Abel, and it's really a solemn warning, isn't it? Maybe there's someone here and you brought up in a Christian home. You might have a brother or a sister who's been saved and going on for the Lord, seeking to live for the Lord. What about you? As we've been saying, faith is a very individual thing. And so able by the grace of God, he took hold of what of the testimony that.
He'd heard from his parents and there was a tremendous result in testimony.
As a result, Cain, as you say Bob, he chose to to ignore that and little did he know that it would be recorded in God's eternal record as a warning for us to read here.
Centuries later, but it again, it just shows that faith is individual. And I'd like to say this too as we go down and enumerate these various ones Able and then Enoch and Noah and Abraham.
That their faith shone in spite of the circumstances. You know, a person might say, well, I'm in very difficult circumstances. Or I was brought up in a home where we didn't hear the word or it's a dark day today. You know, there were there were difficult circumstances for all these ones. Here we're Abel and Cain. Cain was one who opposed.
But Abel, he went on unshaken in his faith in spite of it. Enoch who it says after he begat Methuselah, he walked with God 300 years. That was a long time. It's mostly none of us will be called on to walk with God. 300 years. That was a long time. Was it easy an Enoch stay? Indeed, it was not easy. And Enoch's day you come down to Noah. Why? Violence and corruption filled the earth. The thought of the heart of man was only evil continually.
Was it an easy day in the days of Noah? No, it was just in the days of just before the judgment fell. But Noah had faith and he prepared an art to not only the saving of himself, but the saving of his house. What an encouragement this is. We can go on individually in spite of the circumstances in our home life, in the world, amongst the people of God. Who are we going to be responsible for in the end?
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. We're going to have to be responsible to give an account not of how bad things were, how our brothers or sisters or our brethren or anybody else responded to God's testimony, but we're going to be responsible to how we responded and reacted and what bright lights these are even in dark times.
How did Enoch walk with God? 300 years. That's an example of endurance, isn't it?
I've come to the conclusion, brethren, he did it a step at a time. And sometimes we look ahead and we say, man, I don't understand. I can ever keep up all the distance in front of me. Just do it a step at a time. That's the secret walk with God. What a blessing. You don't read about Enoch doing some great feat like David who slew a giant.
Nothing. Only this is recorded of him. He pleased God. He walked with God for 300 years. What an impressive statement.
And then I think that it's important, brother Bob, the way you put that because.
I've asked myself occasionally, why did the Spirit of God pick out these three men, Abel, Enoch and Noah, and mention them here?
I guess it's all right to say, brother. Don Rule and I were chatting yesterday after the reading meeting and we were noticing that if you want to, you can divide this chapter up a little bit. Here we have these three men.
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Then we have Abraham's family with seven by faith in connection with Abraham's family.
Then we have Moses and the children of Israel, and we have 7 by faiths in connection with them.
Then going further down in the chapter in verse 32.
We have seven more either individuals or groups of individuals that are mentioned, and then, of course, the resulting things that are detailed at the end of the chapter.
But I've asked myself, why these three men? Why are they the three that are picked? And I don't know altogether for sure, but.
We see that Abel, among other things, lived a very short life.
He was probably a young man when his brother murdered him.
We've talked about Enoch.
Following the Lord for 300 years and how long a time that was.
But in those days, he lived a short life, didn't he? It was less than half the life of his son Methuselah. Closer to 1/3 of it.
It was much less of a life than Noah lived.
And yet the Lord saw that after 300 years, he was going to take him home. Did Enoch expect that? I doubt it, but his faith was rewarded. What about Noah?
He lived a good long life.
And he bore a testimony. And so in these three men we have enabled, you might say, the approach to God and worship.
In Enoch, a quiet walk before the Lord.
And in Noah.
The heating of a warning and the testimony to a lost world. And I would suggest that in all of those three things the Lord speaks to your heart and mind. I heartily agree with what Don said. None of these men set out to be a testimony. None of them set out and said I am going to exercise my faith so that I will have a place in the annals of God's Word and be an example to others.
But in doing what they did.
God saw to it, number one, that their faith was rewarded and #2 That they were an example to you and to me. And so whatever it may be in your life and mine, if we look at these three men in the beginning, here we see an approach to God.
We see a careful and godly walk before the Lord, and we see ultimately a testimony to the world, and we see it rendered by men, one of whom lived a short life, one of whom, in what we might call antediluvian times, lived only part of a life, and Noah, who lived a full life. And so God may use each one of us in different ways. He may leave us here for a long time. He may leave us here for a short time.
Whatever He chooses to do, but He uses us to exercise faith and to walk for His glory down here.
Shine before men, they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. And that's enough.
Have spoken to fellow.
Person that you work with or somebody, a neighbor, somebody that you have contact with and you said to them, I'm looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
And they've engaged you in some kind of conversation and found you perhaps not so involved with this world and what's going on with it as they are. And that you tell them, no, I, I have a hope, I have a promise from God that the Lord Jesus is going to come for me and Take Me Home to the Father's house. That's my real home. That's what I'm looking for. The day is going to come.
Trust in our lifetime and perhaps today when God is going to give answer to that faith.
And then your neighbors going to say, where is he? What happened to him?
God gives testimony and he said I'm pleased.
It's an honor to me. And so it is in that the neighbor might say that's what he said, and now he's gone.
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And that's the way it was with Enoch. He walked with God. He had a hope which went beyond this world, and he lived in that hope. We're not told the details of it is Bob has already mentioned, but we know it's true. It's the record that's given to us here. And God showed his pleasure and he said, OK, Enoch, he just took him.
And so the day is coming when we may not think, well, I don't have Enoch's faith, brethren. Yes you do. Yes, you do. You may not have it in the measure, perhaps in a in a way, but again, it's not, it's not how much it is. It's the object of it. And I dare say the majority, we hope, we wish to everybody in this room, we collectively have, as it were, the same kind of faith that Enoch has, he said.
He looked beyond and God answers it and said, come up in the personal Lord Jesus, and then, as it were, it's that which pleased God.
Because it's impossible without, as he says in the next verse. He goes on to say it's not possible to please God without faith.
We were so used to limiting ourselves to what we see.
This was said yesterday. Man's statement seeing is believing but God is honored at now we don't see him.
But we believe he is.
We believe the testimony is given of Himself. We believe we accept what He's put in us, the consciousness of His being because of our spirits and so on. That when we look at things, our spirit says to us, witnesses to us, that flower was created by your Creator, and you have to do with Him, and you know that He is. And only the fool says in his heart, really, no God. That's man's infidelity or turning away.
But as he says in verse six, he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We not only accept that God is, but we have this confidence that God has a delight in US and He rewards us accordingly according to His own heart. And so it is that every one of these people had something beyond them this life.
Something beyond themselves that they had a confidence that God would reward. So do we in our measure when we say, well, the Lord's coming and we have a confidence in that and God says that's something I'm going to reward.
It's going to be realized and you're going to be, I'm going to exceed every expectation you have in connection with it.
Also gave a prophecy, didn't he? And that was in due it's told to us in Jude. He prophesied that the Lord was coming with 10,000 of his Saints to execute judgment. That didn't happen in the days of Enoch. In fact it didn't happen for hundreds and hundreds of years later till the days of Noah. And I just want to say this that as we have the privilege of living by faith and walking with God and to please God.
And to speak, to speak for God. The judgment is coming on this world. Let's not be discouraged by God's long delay.
To enter into the heart of God and see his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish is going to encourage us to go on in the path of faith. Simply speaking and warning Enoch thank God was translated taken out of this world before the judgment fell, but he was faithful in his testimony as to his walk with God. We've spoken of that and then the words that he he spoke as well.
I'd like to just say this too, in connection with these three men, not and I appreciated what Brother Bill said, but would you say to Brother Bill there's a little bit of a prophetic character to what we have here in or dispensational character perhaps would be a better way to put it in that able was a man who enters into the heavenly blessing through death.
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Enoch is one who enters into it. He's taken to heaven without dying. That's what we're looking for today. I don't expect to die. I may. But my father didn't expect to die. He did. And he's entered into his portion, not fully, of course, but he's absent from the body and present with the Lord through the article of death. We're looking to be translated like Enoch through the rapture. And then there's Noah. And Noah wasn't taken away before the judgment. He was brought through it because there will be those of God's earthly people.
Who are saved through the tribulation? We're going to be taken away before in no sense of the word are we going to be go through the tribulation. Many scriptures that show that we're going to be taken out, but there is an earthly company who are going to be brought safely through and be brought out to the millennial blessing on a on a, on a in a wonderful way. Noah came out of the ark on a cleansed earth. They're going to be those who are brought through.
And upon a purged earth. And there's going to be tremendous blessing. So would you allow that? There's perhaps that little picture here, Bill.
More than allow it, I would heartily say it's true. Yes, Enoch is definitely a type of the church, and Noah a type of the godly Jewish remnant that are brought through the tribulation and then used to replenish the millennial earth.
Not subject of those that will be saved, maybe should elaborate on the fact that those who have heard the gospel today won't have a second chance. They're not going to be those who will be brought into some blessing in that future day that you refer to Jim. So maybe you could elaborate on it just a little bit more. Well, perhaps and we won't turn to them because they're well known scriptures, but perhaps there are three scriptures that would give.
Confirmation to what you say.
I appreciated what Brother John said in the Gospel last night about how those who have opportunity to receive the grace of God will have no opportunity if left behind at the rapture, having rejected the testimony that they have now.
First of all, in Luke's Gospel it speaks of those. It says once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door, they come and they begin to knock. And it's very significant what they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us. Now wherever you read that expression, it's always profession. It's those who have known the name of the Lord, but they've only made a profession.
And so those who say Lord, Lord, they knew, but they left it until it was too late. And when the door was shut, it was never reopened to receive those who had had a testimony. Then our brother John, I think, mentioned last night the parable of the 10 virgins. And again they come and they knock. They had, it looked like they had oil. They lit their lamps and they flickered and then they set. Our lamps are going out.
They again it was profession and they too said Lord, Lord, but again the word comes depart from me. I never knew you. And then in Thessalon, First Thessalonians, it tells us of those that will be sent a strong delusion that they believe a lie. And then it says because they received. Now this is significant. They received not the love of the truth. They heard the truth and it shakes me to think.
That those who receive, who believe the lie, such will be the lie and the power thereof. That it will be those who have perhaps been raised in Christian, in Christian homes. Those who sat in a gospel meeting like we heard last night, those who have come to Sunday school, those who have sat in conferences and rubbed shoulders with other believing young people.
You say, how could that be? That's what Scripture says, that they're the ones, not the heathen, who've never had the testimony of the grace of God in as to the gospel. But those who have heard the truth, they rejected it. They didn't receive the love of it. It didn't become real to them. They will such will the delusion be that they will believe it, so that they all might be damned. And there we never read of repentance with those who have had.
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Opportunity now, in fact, in Revelation, they simply cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb and the face of him that setteth upon the throne. They're sorry they got caught, but not sorry. As far as repentance, because the Spirit of God is working in men's hearts now to bring them to repentance. If they refuse to heed the striving of the work of the Spirit of God now, they will not have that work to bring them to repentance, however.
There will be the gospel of the Kingdom. Thank God for those who have never had opportunity now, because it's a principle with God, just like you see in Noah's day, that he never judges without giving it a warning and without making a way of escape. That's the heart of God.
I wonder if we could just consider.
In connection with starting with Abel and as we go down this chapter.
In connection with faith.
That God gives us faith. Abel God.
The facts from.
His parents, but God gave Abel faith to recognize the way to draw to God.
And God.
Looked favorably unto Cain and his offering, because.
It was Christ presented to the Father. I'm sorry, Abel and his offering. It was Christ presented to God and type even though it's Abel in his heart didn't all about that.
And so with Enoch, he prophesied from Jude as to the coming of the Lord, which is really not the flood. It's really the coming of the Lord to establish his Kingdom and to set righteousness on the earth. So Enoch had a revelation from God and his prophecy, and perhaps he didn't understand all of it, but it was Christ as to coming and establishing his Kingdom.
We find it with Abraham also. He's, we'll read about him later there, but you know, he's called out of idolatry and to be brought into the land of promise. And he's going to walk through that land and not really possess it. It's going to be for other people. But God brings him there in faith. And then as a friend of God, God brings him to Mount Moriah with the with the son that he promised and who was born, you might say, miraculously and.
And he rehearses with Abraham, a man of faith, that which we he was going to do himself with the Lord Jesus.
So you can see in a little picture there of that fate that comes from God. It really given to us that we might enter into.
Fellowship with the heart of God in a measure.
And here we are now the Lord Jesus come, and we know that sacrifice of Abel was a type of Christ. The Lord who's coming to exercise judgment is the Lord Jesus, that one whom Isaac was a type, the blessed Son of God, and you and I are come into.
Have fellowship with the father.
About the person of the Lord Jesus.
And our life of faith, with all its experiences and difficulties, trials, God allows for us to enjoy in a greater measure.
That delight that he finds in him and that we would to through our experiences, our difficulties.
Someone is going through a time of.
Test of loneliness.
Brother Bill was speaking yesterday about feeling sorry for ourselves.
Having pity for ourselves. Nobody understands me.
Well, that's a fleshly perspective.
But imagine the grace of God, and by the Spirit of God to say.
Now you're in a measure in your soul to consider something a little measure because you're going through a similar circumstances.
Of knowing something of the loneliness of the Lord Jesus.
Because of your circumstances. Why would God do that in your life? Oh, that you would have a deeper, greater fellowship with His heart. What a privilege dear wants to have the word of God to recall to us the whole history might say of faith for us now. And that we would see the heart of God bringing us through a dead and trespasses and sins, blasphemers and fellowship with Himself, and slowly giving us the revelation, the entrance into His very heart that the Father Himself is sharing with us.
00:45:01
That blessed one, the Lord Jesus.
I think that's what we have in verse 6. Michelle is.
Don't already spoken of it a little bit, but notice it again. It says without faith it is impossible to please him.
For he that cometh to God, and notice this part, must believe that He is first of all.
It's getting to know who God is.
And we get to know each other. And as we get to know each other, we know. Can you really trust that person or not?
And sometimes you can. Sometimes you can.
But the more you get to know who God is, and that's the focus of faith, God said it. Maybe I have a fault in my understanding of what God said, and that's why we need to listen intently when God gives some testimony. But it's his own character that we come to know that God has been revealed and faith.
Focuses.
In on who God is wonderful. Every promise he makes, it brings into focus his own character. If he's made a promise, is he going to keep it? The Lord Jesus made a promise. I will come again. Is he going to keep that promise? I have no other reason to believe that he's going to keep that promise. I don't see any other option.
On the table, He's going to keep that promise. Why? Because God is. It's his own being. God is true. Let all men be liars.
God is true, and so how important it is to have that firmly settled in our in our day. I I really think that the enemy has made a direct attack on the Christian faith in our country.
And continues to do so by calling in question who God is.
And people have all sorts of ideas who God is. Some of them think that they're God.
These are the philosophies that are circulating in our country today.
And we need to know that God is. It's absolute.
And faith rests on who God is, and then that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
God likes diligence. I just want to say to each one of us, let's be diligent. Whatever the Lord gives you to do, do it with diligence. He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. No laziness here, no half heartedness. It's whole hearted.
Unbelievable separates and faith connects.
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve.
Enjoyed the company of God and the fellowship of God. It was unbelief coming into their heart.
That caused them to fear because of their disobedience. They feared God in a way that made them hide from His presence. But when there's faith, there is that desire as it's expressed in that sixth verse in the new translation. It says draw near or diligently seek him, Draw near unto God. And so when there is, and that's what we see, Abel drew near to God to offer a sacrifice.
Enoch walked with God. There's a sense of fellowship together.
When it was a case of Noah, it says he feared God.
In Proverbs we have the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, because it's putting God in his right place and us in our place in connection with Him.
That is a proper foundation for wisdom and knowledge. God is to be given his place and God is to be recognized. It's the Lord, the fear of the Lord, because it's a God who wants to have a relationship with us. And where there's faith, there is that relationship established through that faith, and there are the consequences of the relationship. God-given his place in Noah.
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Caused him to have a proper respect and reverence for what God said. God said Noah, I'm going to destroy this world.
And here's what you are to do about it. And so he said about doing a thing that, in the eyes of man, was totally foolish.
But the very act condemned the world. The world was condemned. They launched Noah. That doesn't tell us how. It doesn't say whether he said a word or not. We can speculate about that. But the fact is God says the act of Noah, of the building of the ark, was God's testimony to the world that he was going to destroy it.
It has an application to our lives, to brethren. God has said this present age is going to be destroyed. There's nothing in it that is going to be left as far as a system of things in the world. It's lies here and unbelief and the Lord Jesus is going to bring in wrath and going to completely destroy the present system of things, not with the flood, but with his own coming.
And establish a Kingdom in righteousness.
And God, as it were, says to us in this room this morning, He said, And I want you to live in fear. That is a reverential respect in a fellowship with coming near unto me. And I will use your life as a testimony as I choose that this world is condemned.
We don't want the world to be surprised of what happens because we lived like them.
Our lives are to be lived and there will be a different character to the manner of our lives if we believe, like Noah believed, that this world stands condemned and that our lives show that, if you will, we have an ark. We know it's all here and it's proper primary thought is the arc in which the Lord saves them through the tribulation and into the Millennium. But still there is an application for us to live this morning.
These these aren't just intended to be verses that make us think of people that lived a long time ago. They have their present immediate application to the lives of us in this room.
She have testimony in the second and third chapters of the revelation.
That.
Are wisely, I believe, telling us that the.
Coming of judgment is imminent.
Because we have 7 messages to seven churches.
And the last two are Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Very distinct in their character.
In the testimony to Philadelphia, there is godliness, devotion, respect.
To God himself.
There is a love for God and a desire to walk with Him.
Whereas that which follows.
Is the last one.
Of the seven churches.
What a solemn, solemn thing this is.
That we are.
In the midst of the testimony.
Given to Laodicea.
For thou art Luke warm.
The judgment.
Is following.
This era.
In which we are now living and they were once. Let me tell you something.
It might be this morning that it ends.
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If there's anyone in the room.
That has not yet embraced.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
According to First Corinthians 15, the first few verses in the gospel.
Then you if you haven't, you will not be caught up.
As we have in John 14.
The Lord is coming.
The Lord is coming.
At the end of the Laodicean period, whatever however far we are in that period at the present moment, I don't know, but I'm sure not taking any chances.
I know him whom to know.
Life eternal.
And I know him well enough to know that I intensely love him.
And love the prospect that he has set before me.
And I want you to know the same thing. Everyone in this room, there might be a child here especially that has not yet embraced Jesus.
First, you have not.
Admitted that you're not fit for the presence of God, heaven itself, and that's the first thing that you need to do is to embrace is to say yes, I'm a Sinner. If Jesus comes now, I'm not ready.
And then?
Go to Calvary.
Go to Calvary.
Well, I'll tell you what I'll ask you to do first.
Ask the Lord Jesus to impart to you divine life.
For in the third chapter of Romans verse 11 it says there is none.
That seeketh.
After God.
Cornelius did.
The jailer at Philippi did. They sought God because they had divine life and they were. They were anxious.
And they went to Calvary's cross.
And and took Jesus and his death on the cross.
For their salvation.
And they?
Or we're ready to to meet him now, then Christ is coming.
Don't, don't say it's not going to be today or even this morning.
But you embrace Jesus as the sacrifice for your vadnais.
There's places things in your life that you're not proud of.
And those are things that will not be in heaven.
And.
They need to be covered.
Washed away with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do it now.
In connection with.
There's another lesson in this verse seven that I think is beautiful. Is that God?
Works with households.
And when the time came for Noah to get into the ark, it said, come thou and all thy house into the ark. And notice in verse seven it doesn't speak of the.
Sons of Noah doesn't speak of their faith. They were adult persons, they had their wives, and I'm certain they had faith because they went into the ark.
But it doesn't speak of that. What it speaks of is the faith of Noah by the which he prepared an ark to the saving of his house. And I think that's an encouragement for those who are who have families. We live in a wicked world. But if you act in faith before God, you can trust God to work with your children.
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It doesn't say he could, He could save those children of his, but he prepared the means by which they could be saved. And I think that's the thought here that is encouraging to us. And you live in a world that is so full of wickedness. What is the encouragement for families? This is it. There's an example. Noah didn't just cross his arms and say, well, I guess if God wants to save my children, he'll save him.
No, Faith is an active principle. It was hands on the work.
Pick up the saw and the hammer to work. That was a big ship that he prepared.
And so faith is active does all that it can.
So we're not saved by works, brethren, but the faith that does save is a faith that works.
And I think that's important.
Tells us in another place too, He was a creature of righteousness. And what I've enjoyed in this verse is that there were two things that Noah carried out being warned of God. You know, he was warned of something that wasn't seen. They'd never seen a flood on the earth before. But faith grasps the reality of what God was saying and spurred him into action, as you say. But he did two things. He served God.
And he did it to the saving of his family. And I really appreciate that. Now, brethren, I I can't say we always find the right balance in our lives, but you know, we tend to be extremists to one way or the other. We perhaps ignore the work of God because we're seeking to raise and save our families in that way. Or we go to the other extreme where we take up the word of God at the expense of our families. But what I've appreciated about Noah was he did both.
And God records that He did both. He preached righteousness. He was concerned not only about his family, but his neighbors and those around him.
Those who passed by that ship while it was being built, Noah sought to warn them that judgment was coming. By man's standards, at the end of it, after I suppose about 120 years or so. That was a long time, wasn't it? 120 years to preach again. None of us have ever been called to preach for 120 years or via testimony for 120 years. But he did, and he only had seven converts. Isn't that remarkable to think about? Now, by the world standards, that's not very good.
But you know, he did it to the saving of his house. And God honored the faith of Noah, as you say, the faith of Noah.
His being able to find, if I can put it for our purposes this morning, the balance between serving God and raising his family and God honored that so that when the invitation was given finally, before the judgment fell or as the judgment began to fall with come thou and all thy house into the ark.
And when was this? When did he raise his family for God? At a day when it was easy. This wasn't back in the days of of Cain and Abel. This wasn't even the days of Enoch. No, things had deteriorated worse and worse. Violence and corruption filled the earth. As we say, the thought of man's heart was only evil continually. Iniquity had come to its full at that time. And those are the days in which Noah.
Raised a family for God. I think it's a tremendous blessing. Parents, we can't look around and say the day is too dark. We can't look at the situations around us and say, well, it's impossible. No, as we said before, whether it's individual faith, whether it's in connection with our families or whatever aspect of life and relationship it is, we can never say that the day is so dark that we can't go on for God and for his glory and for the blessing, our own blessing and the blessing of others. The resources are always there. And if the day ever gets so dark that we can't live by faith.
In this world, for God's glory, then God will take us out. But as long as we're left here, all the resources are left to us.
First Peter chapter 3 and verse 20 in the same line as Jim was saying.
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You know words have meaning and intensity.
God didn't tell Noah it was. It's not Noah divinely told. It was Noah divinely worn.
There's intensity there.
Sometimes we read the scripture and say we're told about things. So I can walk in this world and say I know something they don't know. Well, that's true. But why has God let us know these things? Is it not that others would know too, and that we would warn them too? So first Peter, chapter 3, verse 20.
Middle of it when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
While the ark was a preparing wherein few, that is 8 souls were saved by water, it refers here to the long-suffering of God.
And it says the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
Was God waiting for the ark to be built?
I believe he was waiting while the art was being built, but he was waiting because he was giving this world a testimony through Noah the preacher.
Now maybe Noah stood on a mount and he preached.
But maybe he was busy and I believe maybe his family was busy with him. I think probably his sons worked on that boat with him too.
And that gave him occasion, as Jim was suggesting. What are you doing there?
This is unusual.
And he had occasion, because of his activity in faith, to give witness to what God had told him and warned others.
So this applies to us, doesn't it? We know the Lord is coming. We know the judgment that's going to come on this world.
Are we warning people? Are they asking us questions as to our behavior? The thing is, we carry on with and the ones that we don't, well, May God help us, dear ones, that we would live this fate and realize that there are things we're told about. There are others that we've been warned by God that others would be warned too.
There's a little side note.
We know in the coming day of tribulation God is going to cut it short and he asks the question, shall he find faith in the earth?
And I believe it's, brethren, that the day will be so dark and so difficult and such a tremendous challenge to those who are there in the matter of faith, that he's going to cut the work short so that faith won't die out in the earth. But there will still be that which is pleasing in his own sight. And then the earth will be renewed afterwards in the coming of the Lord. And in Noah's day seems to have had something of that character as well, that.
Violence and corruption had filled the earth. And if you I could put it this way, the very relationship with God that was vital in faith was dying out. And God saw great. There was grace in the sight of God. At least there was faith left in this one man. And God did something that would judge the world, but would bring as it were, the seed of faith through that judgment into a new age, a new world, as it was then called.
But going back to our chapter, the next person that's brought before us is Abraham. And we have more about Abraham in this chapter than anyone else. And part of it I believe is because the the key thought in the chapter is living by faith. And so it isn't just a single, most of the cases so far have been a single act of faith that we is recorded for us.
Rather than the continuity of it through a whole lifetime. And the encouragement of this chapter is to endure, to go on through the whole path of faith to the end. The introduction, as we had yesterday, is the verse in Habakkuk that says the just shall live by faith. And in Romans, where we have that verse quoted, the emphasis is on the word just. And Romans tells us how a man.
May be just with God.
By faith.
And then in Galatians we have the verse quoted also, but there the emphasis is on faith in contrast to works. And so out of this short little verse, the just shall live by faith. But for us in this chapter, the emphasis is on living by faith. And brethren, that's an exercising thing in this way.
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We all at one point in our lives, who know the Lord Jesus there was within us, given of God, an act of faith.
By whereby we accepted that Jesus Christ was our Savior, as God reports that He sent him to be.
And that was an act and there is a consequences we've already had to that act in us in receiving eternal life and the Holy Spirit and promises ahead of us in heaven. But sometimes I feel quite ashamed that having received all that.
By, you might say, one act of faith.
Doesn't that give an encouragement that the whole life be characterized by faith?
Because it's so easy for us to look at somebody else and say, why don't they believe? Why don't they accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior? And sometimes I have to turn that on myself and say, Donald, why don't you believe? Why aren't you living today by faith?
And how can does there not unbelief sometimes come into our lives, brethren?
Something that we have to judge. We really can't look down on the center in the issue of faith because most of us have had plenty of history to recognize to our own shame that we don't always live like Abraham. A man who as apparently a fairly young person had to start out with the call of God. And then that faith had to be exercised over the whole of a lifetime until he died and till he now realizes the full or was still waiting for us but is going to realize the full promise.
That he lived in view of. May Lord help us to not just start right, but go on to the end in a life of faith.
Too far away from Noah.
And our responsibilities and our families. Abraham also took his responsibility and faith for his family. And if we look in Genesis chapter 18.
Many times we raise our children to follow the Lord and we teach them about the Lord, and we have to do it in faith.
Sometimes our children.
Maybe one of them doesn't turn out the way we had expected.
We thought we had raised them properly and they go off.
And they fall into a life of sin.
And it embarrasses us at times.
Well, Abraham in chapter 18 of Genesis verse 19, the Lord could say about Abraham, I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment.
The Lord knew Abraham.
He knew that he would raise his children and command his household after him.
Does the Lord know that about you? Does he know that about me? Are we willing to take that step of faith to command our households after us? Joshua did that, he says, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What right did these men have to demand that their children would follow in the way of the Lord?
There are the heads of their households and as fathers in our households.
We have that responsibility.
To guide and direct our households. Whatever we allow in our house, whatever we allow our children to do, it's going to affect them in years to come.
Abraham.
He commanded his household and we find that God honored his faith and we find faith in his son Isaac as well. In the New Testament you can look at at.
Stefanus.
He and his whole he was the faith of Stefanus was there and he had his whole household baptized. He had faith that God would one day bring his children into the faith. And if you look in first second, first Corinthians, the last chapter.
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Chapter 16.
We see that God honored the faith of Stefanis, who commanded his household after him.
And in verse 15, Paul is speaking here to the Corinthians and he says, I beseech you, brethren, you know the household of Stefanus, that it is the first fruits of Akiah, and that they, that is the the household of Stefanis, have addicted themselves to the ministry of the Saints. So his his household, they grew up and they followed on in the ways of the Lord, and they addicted themselves to the service of the Lord.
Tim.
I don't want to minimize or.
Take anything away. I agree with what you've said.
But I want to bring a.
A. An aspect to that and that is.
Lord help us if the Lord works in grace.
And there's a working of God in the household that we not be proud.
Because Abraham, there's another side to Abraham as well, and it's not in this chapter. But Abraham would never have said it's by my faith that my household has turned out well. Because Abraham we know in the Old Testament record.
Unbelief came into Abraham's life and it caused him for a time to leave the path of faith and go down into the land of Egypt. And while he was down in the land of Egypt, he got rich, and so did that part of his household called Lot. Lot had faith. Lot will be in heaven. But because of Abraham's unbelief, Lot was exposed and became a rich man. He was exposed to the world. And when they got back into the land of Canaan.
Abraham is restored, but Lot is never fully recovered from the loss that came through Abraham's failure in his faith in his household, because Lot was at that time part of Abraham's household. And consequently Lot ends up choosing the world and he ends up with essentially a safe soul, but a lost life. So may the Lord help us, brethren, in any measure in which there is faith in its works in US, and God uses it in blessing in our households or in the assembly.
Or anywhere else that it not turned to pride. Because if it does, God is displeased with that and will put his hand on it in some way or another. That will humble us and make us recognize that the grace of God is a sovereign thing.
If I can put it this way.
Count upon God's blessing.
Take complete sense as Tim has brought before us the sense of responsibility and act accordingly in faith, but on the other side of the Ledger.
Count upon the heart of God.
That is what you want.
That what does God feel toward my children, toward my brethren? That's what you want to have, if you will. Ultimately your faith in is God. The character of God and his heart is what we need to depend on and go to for the ultimate results that we all desire for those that we love, whether at our household or our brethren or.
Our lost ones is God loves and it's his heart.
That is the ultimate source of grace and blessing in this world.
God is a good teacher and He taught Abraham to his unbelief. It's not reported for us in this chapter because God is bringing out the fact that they did. He did believe and there were things that God did for him because of faith. But when God called him to go into the land, he stopped short of the land, didn't he? And he stayed in Chardon or something. They didn't get into the land until his father died. It was natural ties there that kept.
Him from getting into the land that God had called him to.
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And then when he was in the land, he went out of the land into Egypt. So this, this is fair young part of Abraham. And so they are in our lives too. But the God of Abraham is our God. And through all these failures, he learned that God was everything, and his faith was in whom he was believing. Not the fact that he was believing, but is the one he was believing in. It was to be glorified.
On the other side too, when God called Abraham out.
He never really embraced faith in his calling until his father died.
And so there's that side of it too. There's not only faith for our households of which we have wonderful encouragement, but we have to be careful that the natural ties of nature don't hinder the action of faith in our lives, that we retain something of the of the allowing the natural ties of life to keep us from acting according to God's call for our lives. And.
Abraham leaves her the Chaldees.
But he doesn't get into the land of Canaan until his father does.
So solemn thing because we are so bound so often in both directions by the ties of nature, that the claim of God has to be supreme in us. It cannot be that anything come. It's a little often at times kind of to the end, but in Ephesians chapter 6 when it says take the shield of faith.
That you may be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. The thought I believe is don't let anything, any circumstance, any person, anything to get between the soul and God in the simple relationship of faith. And that's what Satan wants to do in our lives, in the trials of our lives. He wants to separate us from God just a little bit so that the circumstances itself.
Comes between US and God, and that our relationship with God depends on.
Our satisfaction of how God treats the circumstance. And it's not faith and it's not that which honors God. And yet it's a constant dart of Satan that nothing is to become between the relationship of the soul and God and and living in that relationship by faith.
You have seen #100.
No.