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181.
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Chapter 11, beginning at verse 6.
But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Buffet Noah being warned of God, of being warned of God, of things not seen as yet move with fear prepared and art 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.
In the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive speed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age. Because she judged, because she judged him faithful who had promised therefore sprang their even of one, and him as good as him, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude.
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And as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things.
Declared plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they have 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 he has prepared for them a city by faith. Abraham, when he was tried OfferUp Isaac, and he that had received the promises offer of his only begotten Son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, according that God was able to raise him up.
Even from the dead, from whence also he received him in the figure. By 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, may 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.
When he was come to ears, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin. Four Seasons, it seemed the reproach of Christ. Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he hath respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsake Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood blessed ease, and destroyed the first born that should touch him. By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land which the Egyptians.
As saying to do were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days, five days 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 of Gideon and Barrick, and of Samson, and of Jason, of David also, and Samuel.
And of the prophets who through faith subdue kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions.
Quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, our weakness were made strong Wax Valley, and in fight turn to flight, turn to flight. The armies of the aliens women received the death Ray's life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, and that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had trial of cruel markings and scourgings. Ye fall over of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sown asunder, they were tempted, were slain with the sword, They wandered about in sheepskins and goat's skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
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They wandered in desert and in mountains, and in tents 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.
He that cometh to God.
That's progress.
And the question is.
Would that describe us, each of us here? Are we coming to God or are we turning back from Him? Just very quickly get the contrast to that in chapter 2.
Chapter 3. Excuse me?
Umm, chapter 3.
And, umm.
Verse 12. Take heed, therefore, brethren, lest there be any of you.
An evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
We're doing one or the other. We're either coming to God or departing from Him. Right now. There's no neutrality in the matter.
He that cometh to God must believe that he is an.
God exists and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
There's several important points there.
I presume that.
Most, if not all here believe that God is.
Uh, recently read a biography of.
Uh, Albert Einstein I.
Got curious because I'd been kept running across a number of statements he made, so I thought I'd look a bit further into his life and try to figure out where he was spiritually. And up to the end of his life he maintained that he believed there was a God.
But he did not believe that God was a rewarder. He did not did not believe that the God who made the universe was personally interested in our personal lives. Him. That idea was ridiculous.
But the writer this epistle puts before us that we need to believe both things, not only that God exists, it's not enough, but that he is a rewarder. That is, he's one who's responsive. That's what this that's what is in this thought. Here God is responsive. He's not indifferent to us, He's not indifferent to our needs. He's not indifferent to circumstances. He's not indifferent to our prayers. He is a rewarder. He is responsive.
He's responsive to what we do for him. He's responsive to what we do against him. He's a rewarder.
But he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. I had in my home in this past week a girl who was raised as a Jewish.
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Uh, not orthodox by any means. And she got into adulthood and she investigated Hinduism and Islam and Christianity and, umm.
Islam and and Jewish, Jewish religion as well. And she looked into what anything looked interesting to her and she put them all on the same plane and was just kind of, you know, juggling these ideas.
And she had a very casual attitude toward God.
God's not interested.
Not encouraging, shall I say, casual seekers or a casual relationship.
It says, uh, he that comes to God must believe that he is and that He is a warder of them that diligently, purposefully seek him.
But there is this in the relation to the first part of that must believe that he is.
God, according to the revelation we have of Him in the Scriptures, is so tremendously vast. There's no way that you and I can comprehend Him in our minds. It was a job that the question was presented, Canst thou by wisdom know God?
We all have to admit we know something, but who can know Him completely? And like you say, the attitude of thought that sometimes is in people's minds that they want to understand and make their own judgment call. God is known by the revelation He has given of Himself in creation and also in the revelation we have.
In the Word of God and also in the person of the Lord Jesus. And so we have to come to him by faith. There is no other way that is pleasing to God. To come to him on any other grounds is to say, in effect, I have the ability to make my judgment on God.
Wrong precedent to start with. You cannot start that way. God is infinite. God is.
Eternal. And when I think of that.
An eternal God, a God who always was, never had a beginning. Does your mind get around that concept? Just totally blows my mind.
The only way we can know Him is by faith. The presentation that we have in the scriptures of who God is, do we accept Him? Is that the position we take in relation to it, that that is where we have to start?
Person of the Lord Jesus.
Well, man has, man has had the privilege of viewing, umm, God and coming to know him through, through his own son who became a man and, uh, went to the cross. Uh, how would we really know God's love and believe in the God of love if it hadn't have been for his son giving his life and revealing who God is? And that's food for our faith, isn't it?
Romans 88, uh, reminds us that they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
I believe there is a an attempt that we can as you say but the intellect become and and know God. But that is not possible. The flesh cannot please God.
We're after of God. The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God to send.
So by the, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So it's skin. It's not our intellect that perceives it. In John one also, uh, it says, umm, he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not and so on. We have to submit our wills and our, our minds to the revelation that God has given of himself.
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And when we do that and accept it, that's what faith is. God says this about himself and that should settle it. I should believe it. And so it's, it's important for us not to use our mind to figure things out. Not that the minds cannot perceive, uh, how God has revealed himself, but faith is necessary to accept God at what he says about himself.
And when we do that, it proves real to us, no doubt about it.
And I like to think of that verse in Romans chapter 10 where it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How important it is to listen.
I have to confess, sometimes I read a chapter in my Bible and after I'm done reading it, I recognize my mind was off in some other direction. I really wasn't listening.
But it's important when God speaks to listen. And that's the way faith comes, by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Lord Jesus said so often in his ministry down here. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Are you listening?
That's important.
With a, with a, with a subject will, isn't it listening, willing to hear? The voice of the Lord says in revelation, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Well, if the ears are shut, then there won't be any revelation of God to the soul.
You think of what a beautiful picture it is to think of, uh, Rebecca?
Yeah, you can put your trust in me and I'll let you down, probably. But when we believe in God, God is always true to His word. That's one thing God cannot do. God cannot do. Something that we do is lie. God cannot lie. And so when he speaks it, there's lots that I don't understand. But since God is who he is and he cannot lie, I believe it.
It's interesting in this chapter you get so many different figures of faith beginning with Abel, Enoch, and verse seven is Noah, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah and etcetera down through the chapter and faith manifests itself different in every one of them.
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And so the faith that is in you is not going to be the same as in me. The point is, is that it is the living connection between our souls and God. Faith. Trust Him. He's to be trusted at all times.
For the benefit of his whole household. So he he had that in view before him and he trusted God about it and, and God told him into thou and my house into the ark. He had been spent a lot of time building that ark and then when the day came, he brought them in. And so there is such a thing as not just faith for me, but it's for my household.
That.
That God is interested not only in individuals, but in households all through the Word of God, thou and thy house. We know that Noah's sons, they were adults, they had their wives. They had to have faith enough to enter the ark themselves, and they did. But it doesn't speak of their faith in verse seven. It speaks only of noise.
By which he prepared the way that they could be saved.
And I I think that is encouraging to Christian parents is to.
Act in a way that includes your whole family. And so he moved with fear. He prepared an ark. He didn't just cross his arms and say, well, I guess if God wants to save my family, he will. No, it was getting out and rolling up his sleeves and getting to work, and it took a good number of years.
To build that ark, it was a huge.
Project. But he did it. And that's what faith does. Faith is active. Faith shows itself by actions. We're saved by faith, but the faith that saves is a faith that works.
Umm.
To that would be the case of Hezekiah, who when he was told of the judgment, he said it was good that it wouldn't come in his own days and he'd come in his son's days. That wasn't the faith of Noah.
And and we're not all in the same circumstances. And like you mentioned, rather that the faith of Enoch, he, he was translated. And you say, well, that's wonderful. And there was some scenes that he did not go through. He was translating. I'm not saying he didn't have any trials here. We know that it wasn't until after his son was born that he really had a testimony. And I'm here, it's to God. So his soul went through some things, but he was translated.
And then you have, uh, Noah, here's a storm going out on. It's a terrible storm, like it's never been on the on the planet, but where's he at? He's inside the ark. Maybe he can hear it. Maybe you're going through that kind of trial where you're not really being.
In the the severeness of the trial, you're being carried inside the ark. Wonderful faith is still needed in that circumstance and it and it goes on you get Sarah there's.
There's someone that, uh, had to, uh, battle self.
She has some things about self that was gonna take faith to overcome.
Maybe without his laugh and there were some things that she had to overcome. But there again, faith was needed. And so no matter what the circumstances in where they may seem very nice, very good for some Christians or very severe for others, whether it's what we might term an easy situation, faith is needed, a difficult situation.
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Faith is needed. A situation with yourself personally, faith is needed. I just it just is an enjoyment to my soul to see all the different circumstances. Faith is needed.
We can't expect people to understand us either. I'm sure when Abraham was called to go out.
And he went out, it says in verse 8, not knowing whether he went.
Abraham, where are you going? I really don't know. God has called me. I think they probably thought he had lost something of his sense. But God had called and he went out. And that to me is wonderful to see. Faith is.
Obedient.
Trust and obey.
It was in the prison yesterday and they wanted to sing that song. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. You know what?
If you don't obey, you're not really trusting. You're basically saying I know better than God, so I'm going to do it my way. That's not trusting. Trusting is obeying. And Abraham received a call and he went out.
Not knowing whether he went. And it says he sojourned in the land of promises in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob. Never read about Abraham having a house.
Jacob built a house and he got into trouble the place he built a house. But Abraham never built a house, even though he's a wealthy man.
You dwelt in a tent in a Tabernacle.
Because he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. I wonder if when God appeared to him that.
Stephen in Acts Chapter 7 speaks about God appearing to him. If he must have seen something of a city and that's what he was looking for, he never found it down here.
Found it helpful in this chapter to get a little sense of his context and his order. There's different outlines of it and each one has their own value to it. But I've enjoyed this. The Jewish Christians to which Hebrews is addressed were about to lose the temple. It was about to be destroyed. This is written just a little bit before there was the temptation to look back and they're being set on a journey. So if we look at this whole thing as a journey versus.
Four to seven in particular give the preparations. Abel took advantage of the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice, as a a foundation on which his faith rested as an individual.
Enoch walked with God. He's a like a figure of the church. He's caught up before the wrath to come. Noah takes advantage of the escape from the wrath going not keep kept from the raft like Enoch, but kept through the raft like the remnant will be in the future. But each takes advantage of the preparation made to avoid the wrath. Then from verse 8 to verse 22, there's patience.
We've already been introduced to the journey, and so Abraham's called out and he's on a journey. And each one of the characteristics down through verse 22 is the patience needed on that journey with the hope that lies ahead. And then from verse 23 through the end of the chapter, there's the perseverance of faith, there's robots, there's difficulties, there's problems. It's not that Joseph and Jacob and Abraham and Sarah didn't have opposition from the world around them.
But that's not the aspect of their lives that's emphasized in the summary given here, because from verses, uh, eight through 22, the, the thought is primarily the patience of their faith as they went on the journey that God gave them with the promise of the head. But in verse 23 and on, problems are introduced. There's the difficulties, there's the opposition from what was around. And so faith needs to persevere. Each one of us is in some aspect of that journey of faith. Perhaps there's some here that need that foundation.
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Because the don't yet know the Lord is their Savior. Perhaps there are some that are heading out on the journey and it's it's tiring. We need the patience of faith and perhaps some are facing strong difficult opposition. We need the perseverance of faith, but every aspect of it connects us with the one that we don't see that the foundation of it all, the Lord himself.
I think this part here about Abraham being a living, a stranger and a Pilgrim in the land that he'd been promised to give, to be given.
Is particularly applicable to us as Christians in this day because we, we, we know, we've been taught that we have a heavenly city and we're expecting the Lord to come. In the meanwhile, we're living in this world and we're traveling through it.
And the great temptation is to settle down or to get occupied at building houses and forget the heavenly calling. So I, I really think that this is very specially applicable to us. It's interesting as Steven, what you're saying about the, the present situation of the, the Jews, the Christian Jews, that to whom this was written, uh, they, they at that time had, had already.
Made any of them fled from.
Jerusalem and had been dispossessed of their things and they had the spoiling of their goods. And so they lost a lot of material things. And so they're encouraged here by this. I don't know what's going to happen before the Lord comes, but those kind of things could happen to Christians today. We could lose everything in this world. And I mean, what we would our lives fall apart if we lost it all? Is that what we're occupied with?
So it's a it's a word to us.
To to live like Abraham did the pilgrimage stranger. When God sees that in US, uh, it says he's not ashamed that be called their God and he doesn't disappoint a man like Abraham. He gives them a better city than the earthly 1.
Speak to my old or.
By what am I persuaded and what am I embracing?
And it and it and it says here in our.
13.
They saw afor them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Sometimes we don't see the fruition of things right now. We haven't yet. But he's coming and we know it, and we're persuaded. Let us embrace it.
OK.
Whenever I read this part about Abraham offering up his son Isaac and.
My soul contemplates the process of mind that went must have gone through Abraham and Isaac too, his son being a youth, and so on and obedient.
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I say to my soul, I will love to be there in heaven when Abraham and God talked together about this.
What Communion?
And I think in some measure we, we can enter into that as, as not that we've offered up our sons, but uh, there is we, we can appreciate some of the sentiment of that.
The cost of God the Father giving his Son and so on. Well, we remembered it this morning.
What a wonderful thing that God chose the human beings to be of His likeness, to participate and have communion together over such things.
God has created us in his image and likeness. That means we can relate to each other like no other creature. And Abraham here when he went through that experience very hard and trying, but he's not going to be disappointed in glory afterwards or having been tested in that way and in as much as we go through the experiences of life too.
I, I like to look at the, the general outlook of life. One of the reasons God is didn't Take Me Home the day after I got saved was he wanted me to have experiences of life. And, uh, so if we look at it that way, it, it really gives it a positive motive and something, uh, not that we look for trial, but there is reward.
But when trial comes in, it's because God is wanting to share something very special with us. That's what's hard sometimes for us to get through, isn't it? That you just imagine Abraham had waited for that son for so long and finally had him. Oh, the joy it must have been to him to have him. God says, Abraham, that son whom you love.
Take him to the Mount Moriah or to the mountain. I'll show you. Offer him up there. As far as we know, there's no record of any backtalk on Abraham's party. Rose up early the next morning to put it into effect. That's faith. That's faith and the 8th and verse.
56.
Maybe indicate that after Abraham had obeyed.
The Lord explained to him why.
Read address.
Verse 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
And he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old. And hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was I am.
I wonder if.
Verse 56 might indicate that after he had believed God and performed that figurative death and resurrection.
The Lord shared with him but.
Oh no, we'll know soon.
That God was going to send his son and sacrifice him like Abraham did.
Elizabeth Dip an aspect of faith, we see a little bit different aspect of faith here up to that before is our brother mentioned. It shows the patience of faith. But now when we get to the 17th verse, actually the 17th to the 22nd verse, we see the example of having the confidence of faith. So Abraham has the confidence that God.
We'll look after his son. If he did get OfferUp, he had the confidence that he would be raised. So we see the example of Abraham, we see Isaac, we see Jacob in here. This I believe they have confidence of faith.
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Interesting about Sarah here in verse 11. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive. Seed was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised.
You go back to the Old Testament story in Genesis where the Lord promises that she's going to have a son, and she's listening in the tent and she laughs.
It doesn't look like to us that she had much faith.
But rather than that, it's a challenge to me sometimes, you know, outwardly you just don't see faith. But it could be there. And it was in the case of Sarah. Through faith, she had strength to conceive. See, that's quite something for a woman 90 years old to bring forth a child.
The same goes in verse.
Uh.
20 Here it says by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. If you read the story of Isaac giving the blessing to his sons, it doesn't look too much like Faith. It was like he liked a good meal of venison That that, uh, that Esau would make him.
And then he would bless him. Doesn't seem like much of faith there, but when?
Isaac Jacob gets the blessing and then later Esau comes in and it seems like it jolted Isaac to reality.
And he says, who is this that came before and has taken thy blessing? Yeah, and he shall be blessed. That's where they kicked in, I think. In that case, beautiful to see it.
Have had faults in their in their faith even Abraham when he was called he got as far as heroin and then he stopped and he didn't make any progress until his father had died and then he went on and this that really that from that date on is when Genesis really starts counting the days the years uh uh and so I, I, I, I wanna encourage one another here that.
This faith that we're speaking about isn't just a one time thing that somebody is brilliant at it and good at it. I, I believe these men slowly sometimes laid hold in their faith, grew to a point where they were strong in faith. And so we need to encourage one another that way. Don't get discouraged if you mess up one time or two times or many times. Keep on, keep on.
Jacob didn't look like he had faith. He was always conniving and deceiving to get what he wanted, but he believed God's promises and he wanted that blessing for himself. Esau didn't believe it. He didn't care about it. But Jacob?
He did what he had. He probably didn't have to do that to get the blessing, but he connived and deceived in order to make sure he got that blessing. He valued it even though it wasn't really his but.
13th chapter tells us whose faith followed. Considering the end of their conversation. I think there's something of the spirit of that and the remarks that were just made about, uh, Jacob and so on. There's the sense in which we're feeding on the work of God in these lives. A maggot feeds on a dead body. A butterfly feeds on the nectar of a, of a flower or the pollen in the flower. So there's the choice that we have in our brethren when we look on them. We can feed on what's of God in their faith, or we can attempt to feed on in them or in ourselves what's of the flesh.
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The maggot will feed on what's of the flesh, what's of death, but the butterfly will feed on what's of God, What God is working in the life. That's what he gives us the feed on in these examples here in the chapter.
And a scoundrel in his life.
But his life really ends a lot brighter than his father Isaac, doesn't it? For Isaac was blind at the end of his life. But Jacob, the perception he had of the future is amazing.
It just is wonderful. Who is that man down there in Egypt? What's he doing? Well, he's in there blessing Pharaoh. Wow, that is amazing, it says in Hebrews here.
That the lesser is blessed by the greater. And so in a moral sense, Jacob was in a higher position than even Farrell when he blessed Pharaoh. So it is amazing what God did with that man, that scoundrel.
He renamed him, didn't he?
Israel, a Prince with God.
When God renamed him, it was at the wrestling match.
And that wrestling match, it's kind of a puzzle, but I believe during that wrestling match that I believe Jacob had faith in God's blessing way before that, but he couldn't.
He couldn't distinguish in his life the the stop scheming to get it and to to to just to wait and let God give it to him when he God would choose to give it to him and his and then that wrestling match seems like something got through that he realized he didn't have to win the wrestling match to get be blessed.
It's really when he stopped wrestling. Then God blessed him.
But God made him a prevailing at that time, didn't he? And I like what it says in Hosea chapter 12. Let me just read it about that point because I think that was the change changing point in Jacob's life. But at that time he he halted on his five the rest of his life. But look at what it says in Hosea 12 and verse three and four.
It's referring to Jacob and he he took his brother by the heel in the womb.
And by his strength he had power with God.
Yeah, he had power over the Angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.
So he wrestled like you say and finally the Angel said let me go for the dawn breaks. And he said.
Because the Lord had touched him in his thigh and he couldn't wrestle any longer. And, and Jacob said to the Lord, I will not let you go until you bless me. He couldn't struggle any longer. But I think it was at that moment that he prevailed, not by wrestling.
But by the simple faith to lay hold on God and not let him go.
Nsnoise.
Go and holding on. Uh, I'm backing up just a second, but no, uh.
I like that in this chapter, uh, does the creature believe the creator?
Noah responded to God's word.
And.
In the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed, and in Hebrews.
Uh.
I was thinking of one out of Chapter 10. I can't put my finger on it right now, but the thought that I wanted to do is when you said not letting go is the continuation. No, a bill on that arc for 100 years he was working.
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And when he stepped out of that arc, he stepped out of it into a, a different dispensation. Uh, one had ended. The water had, uh, stabilized on the earth and it was dry. And he, he, but he worked and he continued according to the response that he did to God's word the way God wanted it. And we see that over and over again. Uh, not all of us always.
Respond well, maybe at the 1St in our life. Sometimes it's later in our lives. Uh, so we draw a different graph of different people's lives. We could, but it's beautiful to see in these passages about whether or not the one that the, the creature is actually believing the creator or not, and then he's continuing in it and not letting go.
The bones of Joseph are an interesting thing. I don't know if I have the ability to bring out a thought about it, but I'd like to share what I what I do have.
Joseph he by saying he tells the children of Israel to take their bones, his bones with him when they go across the the desert. Now bones are.
Don't have the flesh on them. You don't get an exact picture of what the person looks like, but it's not that it can't be done.
And I just think it's such a provision that faith has made a provision for us to go ahead and apply flesh to the bones of Joseph.
And, uh, that would be a retelling as they went across the desert, a retelling of who the person was.
What he looked like.
And they can start with the with the divine mind, they could play some mind that that is purposes and counsels always had our blessing in view.
They could. They could go to the eye. They could speak of eyes that overlooked nothing. Sauce in our deepest need, in our secret corner hiding.
They can talk about the ears and so on and so on and what and the shoulders that that could bear the lamb and and the heart and the legs that traversed the scene.
The hands, the arms that embrace us. I, I just think it's such an encouragement for our hearts, uh, as we put flesh on the bones of Joseph, you think as they travel across the wilderness.
The little boy says to his father. What's in that coffin, father? Well, that's the bones of Joseph.
Well, who's Joseph and the retelling of the story?
And he gives us to view things Christ we have brought before us more vividly. We have the skeleton in a way. Right now, brother, we have the skeleton, but we can put flesh on it. Someday we'll see him in completeness.
But it gives us to view things much, much differently the next the next one is Moses and they saw that he was a proper child. And isn't it because of Jesus that we see our children in a different light? Hasn't he made a complete change? What faith has provided for the child of God provision that in a bold Joseph.
I like to think of Joseph as.
Up his commandment as a proof of his belief in resurrection.
And that he, he died in, in, in, in honor in the place of, of Egypt. But that wasn't the place that God had promised the Hebrew family that they would live and be blessed in, in Egypt. And he believed that in the land of Canaan was where, uh, they work to be blessed. And he believed that hit those bones would be raised again.
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In the coming day and he wanted to have them in the place of blessing.
Now, brethren, where is our place of blessing?
A lot of people when they, when they make preparations to die, they make.
A big monument and then the taller the better. The, the you go to a cemetery and people will point out, oh, that's the most famous person. Look, there he is. And so on. Joseph saw beyond this life and he, uh, saw a coming day of resurrection.
God couldn't leave this world in the state of sin and degradation and death or he wouldn't really be God. And the Old Testament Saints believe that and they it shines out in a few places. This is a remarkable one. I believe it's a particular this a particular message for us in our day.
They are living so close to the time when the Lord is going to raise the dead, and here in the Americas we have it a lot like what Joseph had temporarily.
Umm, do we see beyond this?
Are you as our object to make a name for ourselves in this life?
Or are we living for the future life, making provision there? That's to me what really speaks to me.
City.
It speaks, uh.
Of that again in verse 16, and it also speaks of a country in verse 14.
And it says it's a heavenly country.
And so I, I do believe like you say, doc, the importance of realizing.
That God has prepared for us something far greater than anything that we could set our sights on down here. And brethren, I just feel that the Lord has allowed this cycle in the political process in our country to be so bankrupt.
Of moral values so that we wake up to the fact that our place is not down here, our politics are heavenly. You want to put it that way? We are should have our height sights set on that heavenly city. We get a glimpse of that heavenly city in Revelation 21. Abraham never saw it, but we got a glimpse of it. And it's wonderful to set our minds on things above, to think of that side of things.
And brethren, are I have to confess so often? At the end of the day, I think now how much of today have I set my mind on things above like Scripture exhorts us, I have to confess, brethren, most days I can. It's not 10% even, it's less.
Brethren, are we called to this world, or are we called the heavenly things? These men they embrace says in verse 13, They were, they saw them, they were persuaded of them, they embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Strangers the same word as as foreigner, because our country is in another place.
And Pilgrim is one that's on his way home. And that's what we are, strangers and pilgrims in this world.
Communion with God on Abraham's part was a help in him deciding that the promised land that he had been given was not really that which his heart was going to be taken up with. It was falling creation, even though it was. It was a land promised to him and it was affected by sin. I think that Abraham must have had some fellowship with God.
And he knew that that country that he was abiding in wasn't really characteristic of the God that he had come to know. And so he was look, looking for something that was.
01:05:12
More umm, suited to the one who he had come to know. And I think that as we value the fellow fellowship with the Lord, we'll come to realize that the, the, the world in which we live is so contrary to that which is umm, which umm, God values it's so it's so counter charity to the nature and and to the character of God that.
It'll help. It'll help us to put a distance between.
Ourselves and the world, because there's really no likeness.
In uh, in its character.
They're just thinking about these bones of Joseph as their brother was talking about how the child would maybe ask what these bones are all about and who Joseph was. And it was an opportunity for the parents to tell the children.
Who Joseph was maybe about the promises that he believed that they would have and so a whole culture developed there in the in the Jewish economy now.
It's a good illustration for us too, as parents. We have children. Children ask about things that we do. Why are we, why do we have this, these meetings and we break the bread. We, we remember the Lord, what are these things about? And so we have opportunity to tell our children about the promises that the Lord has given to us and to establish our children in the faith too, and into the whole culture that we have.
As Christians and then also in verse 23 we talk about Moses by faith. Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents. They were protecting him, they were taking care of him.
Later on they put him in the bull rushes in the ark and they were caring for him. And then as the as the Pharaoh's daughter came and his sister found a nursemaid for for her for Moses and she went and got the mother. And so they were able to raise the Moses and bring him up and then nurture and the admonition of of God of the Lord and and instilled in him the value of those promises.
And and Joseph or Moses by faith, he he held on to those things, and he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He had that upbringing as a child.
And so if we train up our children the way they should go when they're old, they will not depart from it. And so it's a good, good, umm, illustration for us as parents to bring these things before our children, to explain to them what we do, why we do it.
And as young people, we get tired of hearing our parents say, do this, do that, don't do that. So that's not a good idea. But our our parents are looking out, not just for the moment, but they're looking to the future. There's there, it's a, a life of faith that looks to the future.
So before it talks about the faith of Moses, it talks about the faith of Moses parents and that's really what you have in verse 23. They had faith too. He was a man of the sons of Levi who took a daughter of the daughters of Levi to wife and Moses was born and says here in the King James he would.
They saw that he was a proper child.
Mr. Darby's translation, it is a beautiful child, what a beautiful thing a little baby is and it's most precious, a soul that will last for all eternity. And how important the direction that parents give to them. It's interesting here that he was hit three months of his parents. And that's why the home, our home should be a sanctuary from the world, brother.
To hide our children from the influences of the world. So many things can come into the home that really are the world in its thinking, in its spirit, and it'll have its effect on those little children.
01:10:05
Let's be careful to hide in our homes those little children from the influences of a hostile world. But it's interesting to think about when the time came when they could not hide Moses any longer. What Moses mother did, she built a little ark of bulrushes and put pitch on it so that it would float.
And she put that little baby right where the King's commandment had said that they were to be put into the river.
The place of death.
And I often think, brother, and that's where like you were saying, Tim, that Pharaoh's daughter found him and took him as her own child, gave him to Moses mother to raise for her.
Often think when she finally took that little child to the palace.
Maybe, Pharaoh would have said.
I said that those little children were to be put into the river.
Moses daughter could say father. He was in the river. I took him out.
Is the Pharaoh's commandment had been fulfilled and so in a sense, brethren, it's the principle of raising children to apply that principle of death to the flesh. Raise them as if they are believers because they are holy to the Lord by the faith of the parents. The children are holy doesn't say they're saved, they're holy and so we're to raise them as such.
And to train them up in the admonition of the Lord, to train them in the way that the Lord would have them to be trained. So it's important, these principles.
The faith of Moses parents. No wonder Moses had that same faith.
Perseverance. The first weapon of the enemy is fear. Through who? Through all their lifetime, Through fair *******. And we're told, we're told that Satan, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He uses the weapon of fear to get the child of God out of the path of faith.
But here, Moses parents are not afraid of the King's commandments. They're not turned aside by the enemy's posturing. Why? Because they had faith in one that was far greater than the enemy.
And so we're told with Satan to resist whom resist steadfast were not told to get into the fight and attack, but we are told to resist and when we do he pleased because we're resisting in the power of one who is greater than the enemy. And so with with our children, it would be easy to look at our own strength against the enemy and be afraid. But if, like we heard of David earlier today, if we look at the enemy in the light of.
His enemy God, the God of the armies of Israel. Then there's No Fear.
01:15:05
Moses mother, I would guess when she was raising Moses she told him a lot of stories about the people of God that he belonged to.
But then he went off to the palace, and he was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
But this seems to be the first evidence of faith in Moses himself, isn't it?
We don't know about anything before this anyhow.
And when he began exercising that faith, he killed an Egyptian and then the next day, 2 Israelites. And how is he going to handle that one? So.
It what he had something else to learn, but he was on the right side, it says. He refused.
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. That was a stand that he had to take.
It's either Christ or the world. You can't have both.
Interesting report of Steven. Like you mentioned in Acts Chapter 7 it says they refused him when they were striving together.
And they refused him, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
I've often thought, brethren, to be a ruler and a judge. To judge matters is relatively perhaps easy, but it goes on in the 7th of Acts to say that one that they refuse saying who made the a ruler and a judge? God sent him to be a ruler and a deliverer, and it's beautiful, I often think.
Sometimes we see situations amongst God's people and maybe it's fairly relatively easy to judge what's going on there, but what God's interested not so much of judging brother and as being a deliverer. Be a help to your brother and to get through this situation. That's what God's interested in. And for that it took Moses another 40 years of learning.
In the desert.
Unlearning a lot that he had learned and learning to trust God. And then he came back as a ruler and a deliverer.
God would rather have him practice on sheep than on humans.
Great tragedy.
When the Lord spoke to Peter.
He said Lovest thou me?
And then when Peter had learned.
That lesson, the Lord said, OK, now you take care of my sheep now.
Lord loves his sheep, brethren, We need to be careful with them.
Feed my Lambs.
Controversy doesn't feed.
01:20:00
We need to give solid exposition of Scripture that is such a blessing. Brethren, the Lord help us to feed God's people.
Well, we start with verse six. We're a Speaking of God as a rewarder and.
Moses recognized God as a rewarder, says he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. The the the phrase of the reward is not in Darby's translation, but the thought is still the same. He had respect unto the recompense. In other words, he knew that there would be consequences.
Of which he valued as a result of the choices he made.
He didn't. He did not know all the course ahead of him.
But he had respect onto the recompense. He knew that there was a God who would reward and that the reward was worth having.
And he gave up a lot for that.
He gave up that. We think of Abraham, who went out not knowing whither he went. He knew where he came from. He was in a a a. There was a prosperous place in the Fertile Crescent. Umm.
Abraham gave up.
For something that was indefinite in a sense.
Because of who offered it. And same here with.
Uh, Moses?
Anything from the hand of God.
Is better than the world the best the world can offer?
The verse that I was enjoying a little bit ago that I is found in Hebrews 10 and verse 23.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promise.
Maybe we could sing #169 #169.