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Praise ye, the Lord again, again.
Praise ye.
Lord.
We pray.
Joy.
Think it well to start with verse seven of Hebrews 11 and read through verse 28. And should the Lord leave us here, the next reading meeting we could read to the end of the chapter. Would that be suitable?
Hebrews, Chapter 11.
And we'll begin reading.
At verse 7.
By faith know of 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.
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Dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful. Who had promised, therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as a sand which is in by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off.
And we're persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from once they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, But now they desire a better country that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, For he hath prepared for them a city by faith. Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.
And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence he also received him in a 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, made mention the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses when he was come to years.
Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughters, choosing Rabbi to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, For he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
Comments on these first four that we get in this chapter here. I believe there's a sequence here, an order is there not? This isn't anything new, but we get an able. Do we not see the life of the life of faith here portrayed?
In these characters, Abel, he realized his need and he brings a lamb. This is a suitable offering to Jehovah. He realized his what he was before God, and he brings a lamb. Well, how wonderful it is No good. It is one in the life of faith if we learn early.
To.
Bring to be before God and to learn what Christ is, and that we need Christ and we need him, and so he is our righteousness before God. Well.
I don't know how far, we don't know how far.
Abel saw in these things. But anyhow, it's a wonderful the next thing we have. He was a man of faith. But.
Cain He was number man of faith. There was number faith in Cain. And then we get.
Enoch.
Eno. And in Enoch we think of him as a man who walked with God. He walked with God.
For he says, after little Methuselah was born, he walks. He says 300 years he walked with God. Well, that was a long walk, wasn't it? But it was just a day at a time. He went on with the Lord. He went on with God. And when did, where did that? Where did that walk end? It ended. We've gone. It ended. God says we're Enoch, You come home with me, I'm going to take you to be with me today, tonight. And so Enoch went home, and we never hear of him being back.
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Back again, he walked with God. How wonderful it is, the walk of God. And one day soon, there once we're going to be called home, to be with the Lord, and how good it is if we learned to walk with God like Enoch did it, says he.
It says he bore if he got sons and daughters, not only did he have.
Methuselah, who lived the longest of any man. Not only did he have, but he has sons and daughters. But it was a wicked world it was, and he realized he didn't want his Memphis law or his family to to go up and be one of those in the wicked world that would come under the judgment of God. We read elsewhere that Enoch, oh, that he prophesied that behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his Saints, or his marriage of Saints.
Execute judgment on the ungodly. Well, that was several thousand years after he was gone. Do we learn that? But he saw that things are not going to go on like they are, and things are not going to go on in this world that you and I are growing up in.
The next thing ahead of this world is the judgment of God. Well, then the next we have is, is Noah. Well, it says Noah. He also walked with God, but he, he was one, had an eye on the future. He moved with compassion, prepared an ark.
To the saving of his house he saw what was coming, and so he prepares an ark. And he wanted his family and his wife and his his wife and his family all safe when that judgment fell. And so he prepared an ark for the saving of his house. And so how good it is how when we learn to.
Have the salvation of our souls, sure, so that we won't be.
Carried away in the judgment of God, how wonderful it is. So we have an order here, and then it goes on.
He goes on to Abraham and, well, just just not just one. Thinking about those, those four, those first four, how there there's an order here and it really portrays Anna.
In a way, the Christian life, the Christian life and it ends, ends in the glory with Christ. One day soon the Lord's going to come like.
Enoch, he he didn't. He never saw death. And many of us, some of us, we may not see death either. But anyhow, we're going to be the Lord's coming and he's going to call us home. We're going to be with him. And we're we're all through down here in the end of the third chapter of Revelation where we get the end of the church. Down here, there's a, there's a there's a closed door. There's a closed door.
And the Lord Jesus is seen as standing outside that door.
Is that before all I stand at the door and knock?
Anyone will hear my voice and open the door. I will come in with him and Sup with him. And then the very next verse in the 4th chapter, we get an open door, an open door, a door open in heaven. And we hear the voice. I hear a voice saying, come up, hit her, and then that's the last of the church. That's the last of the world we'll see of the church down here, the church is.
He's going is seen in heaven from then on. Oh, what a what a future.
To be, to be suddenly called up, hit her. To be with Christ and to be in the glory with Christ forever. Well, just these few thoughts on the life of faith that we have sort of portrayed here in these.
In these four particular ones.
Don't they? That it is possible to live for God's glory even in difficult days, and to live by faith? Because from Able to Noah things only got worse in this world, and were given in Genesis some inkling as to how bad things were before the judgment fell. That is the the flood in Noah's day. It was wicked days. Days no doubt parallel to the days in which we find ourselves here.
In the year 2001 and brethren, we might look around at the darkness of the day, and I don't want to minimize that. It is a dark day. The enemy is busy, and scripture prepares to show us that things are going to get worse and not better in this world before the judgment, the final judgment falls. But brethren, we don't have to give up. We don't have to say it's too dark. We can't go on. And when we come to the last church that our brother was referring to, Laodicea, there in Revelation 3.
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Still, in Revelation 3, despite all the condition of things that had come in, there was an overcomer.
And, brethren, we can still be overcomers, not be overcome. That's what these men of faith were. They were overcomers. They lived by faith, and they triumphed for God's glory against all kinds of odds and difficulties. But not only do these examples show that we as individuals can live by faith in dark, difficult days, but they show that there's a path of faith for our families as well. Brethren, we can raise children and young people in this world for God's glory, not on our own strength.
And if our children have any desire to please the Lord, it's only the grace of God. I can't reach down in the hearts of my children and young people and create a desire for the Lord. We have responsibility as parents, but only the Lord is the one that can reach down in their heart. But brethren, that's what he delights to do. And the days are not so dark that we can't raise our families for God's glory. And so I think as we go down, continue to go down this list, it's nice to see that and to be encouraged rather than that we can go on, Noah went on.
To the very end. And he prepared an art to the saving of his not just himself and his wife, but to the saving of his household.
Particularly to the children, young people regarding verse 6.
And as a matter of fact, I don't know what the verse is for tomorrow, the Sunday School, but this is a good verse. If you don't have your Sunday School paper, this is a good verse that took.
With in the morning, but without faith, it is impossible to please God, 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.
What a tremendous verse of scripture, a word from God to my heart to begin with, to every one of us to hear this, to hear God speak such a marvelous word without faith. Believing God, it is impossible to please him.
It is impossible to please him without believing what he says.
Trusting him for what? He says. It's true and.
He cares for you. He cares for me, and he watches over me and nothing touches me. You but what his hand of love and power is in it.
He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder.
Of them that diligently seek him, there is a matter of diligence.
That is important for us, each one of us, to seek the Lord.
What is the mind of God in this matter? What would the Lord have me to do? Where would the Lord have me to go?
Trust him. Absolutely. Trust him for whatever is ahead and he will be sure to reward you. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seeking.
I'd like again connection with Enoch.
It says he walked with God.
What does that mean? Is it possible for us to walk with God today? What does that mean?
Let's have some thoughts about that, because I think it's so vital for our days.
I think it's beautiful. This is just one suggestion, Brother Bob and I I too would be happy to to hear what others have to say. But there is something very precious. We talk about Enoch walking with God, and we get that in Genesis, But here.
It says of Enoch.
That he was translated.
Because before his translation he had a testimony.
The testimony was that he pleased God, and so whatever is involved in walking with God.
Whatever that involves, we know for certain that it is a path which, if I can say it this way, brings God's approval. That is, it's pleasing to God when he looks down and he sees one who's seeking to walk. And I tend to think personally, in just a simple way, that that has a lot to do with what we often hear. And we read in the word of God, walking in the fear of God, not being scared of God, but walking with a sense of.
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Who it is that we're responsible to and that we walk in a sense of the.
Responsibility. We have to be pleasing to him to satisfy his heart. And so in this chapter, when it talks about faith, what we learn of Enoch is 2 Things. He was translated and it was because he had pleased God. We turned back to Genesis and we found out how he pleased God. It was in his walk. And so beloved young people we talk about these things. It's a very real and practical thing. We've often heard it said, haven't we? Faith is an action word.
And.
James talks about that. You know, show me. You show me your faith. I'll show you my faith by my works, that is.
What a believer does is that which is a confirmation of the reality of his faith. And so Enoch's walk was a confirmation of his faith. Whatever that walk was, we know that one thing he did was he prophesied. As our brother Clem brought out, that was one thing he did. He was speaking. But it's very wonderful to realize, as again our brother Clem said that was thousands of years later, that we learn.
That Enoch prophesied. First of all, we learned that he walked before he talked, and after we learned that he walked, then we learned that he talked. And so it's important, isn't it, brethren? If we're going to please God and beloved young people, it's not just what you say that's important, obviously. But what's important is that the confirming of your faith is your walk as a Christian, and to do it in a way that that you have a concern for what is due to the honor and glory of the one who thought upon you from.
Past eternity.
And sent his beloved son for you and for me, that he might have us with him as his children.
And so we need to be very, very concerned to connect our pleasing of God with our walk first. Then there's room for talk. But may the Lord help us to be concerned about our walk.
To enjoy just sense of the Lord's presence with us every day of our lives. And we can and we ought to covet that for our souls. I say a conscious sense of the Lords presence with us as we take those steps of faith step by step every day. But we're not going to enjoy it. To enjoy that His presence we must walk in obedience to the word of God. The Lord Jesus, of course, is the perfect example of one who walked through this world, and it was not an easy pathway.
He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There were a lot of ups and downs in the pathway of the Lord, but he walked in the conscious sense of the Father's presence with him. Why? Because he walked in obedience to the Father's will. He said. I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And if we choose our own path, if we choose our own way, the Lord is not going to leave us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. But, brethren, we will lose in our souls a sense of the Lord's presence with us.
We will not be walking with God like Enoch did. He walked in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence.
Now there is a sad contrast between what we have been saying and what we have in the life of Jonah. Because there came a time in the life of Jonah when he decided he had enough of the path of the Lord's choosing for him. Isn't that sad to think that someone and he was a prophet, He was a child of God. He really was the Lord's. But he came to a point in his life where he decided he was going to choose his own way. And there's a remarkable statement made in Jonah, one concerning the choosing of that pathway.
It says he rose up to flee. Notice this from the presence of the Lord.
Now we know from reading the story the Lord didn't forsake Jonah. And the Lord worked in a wonderful way to bring Jonah back to himself. And he did raise him up and use him to finally deliver the message to Nineveh. But there came a point in his life where he was number longer walking with with his Lord, no longer walking in the sense of the Lord's presence with him. You see, with David, I like that verse that says that I may dwell in the House of the Lord not forever like you have in the end of the 23rd Psalm.
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But that I might dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, that's enjoying the Lord's presence every day of our lives. That's the 27th Psalm. And notice what it says there one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after it takes energy of faith, as someone has already said. But if we have that energy and that strength, that exercise of faith, then no matter how dark the day, brethren, we can walk with the Lord in the sense of His presence.
Of Enoch walking with God is in contrast to what Cain did, he says. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and built a city. And I believe that when Enoch lived, that city had grown to be a developed thing in the world. And there was. That's what people live for until God destroyed the world with the flood and the Enoch lived shortly before that.
At least relatively shortly. And so it's God took him up when he walked with him and made him a witness of how God can give deliverance for those who believe God. We we live in a similar time, brethren, when the world is dressed up and we're waiting for the Rapture, do we really believe that it's worthwhile to walk with God?
There's a real lesson here for us. God rewarded Enoch for walking with him by taking him out. And that's a lesson for us. The world is attractive and we look out there and when Cain built those cities there, I'm sure there was much development that was attractive in those days, but it was all in independence of God and but.
Enoch believed that it was better to walk with God, and he, God proved him true and he rewarded him. So that's a reward out there for us too.
To read the scriptures daily, dear young people and us who are older as well. I don't mean just read it in a mechanical fashion, but really spend time consciously in the presence of the Lord reading His word. I have to confess often times in the morning when I take time to read the word. Sometimes I go through a whole chapter and as I get to the end of the chapter I said no. What did I read?
Just seems like my mind was helter skelter on so many different things that I really wasn't listening. Whatever he said to me there didn't get through and I have to go back and take time to listen.
Until his voice comes through, it's important we live in such a cluttered world, such a busy.
Pressured society.
That we don't listen sometimes and part of.
Walking with God.
Is being quiet.
To listen to him speaking to us, and then to take time to speak to him.
In prayer, oh brethren, what a tremendous privilege to come before God. Sometimes when I kneel down, try to take a little bit of time just to get my soul a sense of the place I am coming to in spirit. The throne of God, the mercy seat there is, where millions and millions of angels appear as well.
Even Satan appears there.
Before the throne, and I have liberty boldness to come there.
As well. Or give us a sense, this is no light thing.
This is a tremendous privilege, brethren. And yet, in our daily walk down here in this world, it doesn't seem that dramatic, that important. And that's what impresses me about Enoch's light. Enoch didn't do any tremendous acts of courage, of slaying a giant or or being cast into a den of lions like Daniel was.
What did he do?
He walked with God 300 years. How impressive that is. Dear brother. Do I know what it means to walk with God for one day? I don't think I can take it a day at a time. I'd have to take it a step at a time, brother. That's the way to walk with God. If you're going to take a step, dear young person, dear older brother, to take it in the consciousness of the Lord, right there. If you don't understand, if you don't know, ask him.
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To give you understanding, he's there for that. And that's what's so wonderful about Enoch. He walked 300 years right into the glory. And that's going to be the story for some of us as well, because it says there's going to be some of us who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord. We will not see that as Enoch will be translated. What a tremendous thing.
I think of the Rapture brethren and how we're going to be called into the glory. I say, how in the world can you understand that? By mere human reason. It's just way too beyond us to grasp that you can only understand it by faith. God speaks of it very clearly, and we can accept it because God tells us about it.
Remember.
As to reading the word of God, maybe a remember your own brother told us one in the meeting.
He says if I don't read two or three chapters in the morning, he says I'm starved. Well, Lord, for many of us can maybe read two or three chapters in the morning, and anyhow. But I remember Mr. Hale saying, he said that would be better for us if we just read a little and meditated on it. Just read a little and then meditate on thinking. Mr. Potter used to say that meditation, he says. It seems to be a lost art among us, a lost art.
Meditate on the word of God.
The time.
In reference to what's been said, I was struck Brother Doug as you were speaking. And I've never never seen this before, but just a little practical thought along this line. We've been talking about Enoch walking with God, and you mentioned how Canaan Cain went out from the presence of God. But there's all the difference in the world in the 2 words that describe their actions. It says Enoch walked with God. Cain dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
You know, there's such a thing as being earth dwellers in spirit. That is we get settled down in this world and we, without realizing it, tend to look at this world as our horizon and this and this is what the world is. This is all that those apart from Christ have. They're dwelling here. You know, we said earlier, faith is an action word. And I just want to add, while we don't want to take away from the thought of dwelling at the feet of the Lord Jesus in its proper aspect and enjoying his company, we're walking because that's what pilgrims do. And the minute we stop walking and start dwelling morally.
That we're like Cain and we can't be pleasing God. This isn't the place he wants us to dwell.
He wants us to walk through this place. He wants us to have that sense that we're going through as we're going to read here, as pilgrims and strangers, but not as Cain, who left the presence of God and quit walking. He started dwelling, and what an incredible system he's built in which men can dwell. And it's not surprising that men take an immense amount of pride in what they've built, But it's a system to dwell in apart from God, with no thought of God and seeking to find satisfaction.
Apart from God for us.
Faith gives us to not dwell here as earth dwellers, but to get busy walking.
And stay walking until he calls us home.
That spoil our communion or interrupt our walk with God are not always things that are wrong in themselves.
But I believe, brethren, we need to be careful in the day in which we live, that the busyness of life and the activity, that and hustle and bustle all around us don't rob our times of enjoyment with the Lord Jesus. It's interesting with Mary, when the Lord Jesus came to the home in Bethany and Luke's Gospel and Martha complained, Mary sat down at the feet of Jesus to hear his word and Martha complained. It's interesting what Martha said to the Lord Jesus.
She said to the Lord Jesus, Carest thou not that Mary, Now notice this?
Hath left me to serve alone, and I would suggest that when the Lord Jesus entered that home.
Probably both sisters were preparing for the arrival of the Lord Jesus, and there no doubt were necessary things that need to be done. When you have company in your home, the sisters know there are necessary things that need to be done in preparation for company, and they were no doubt those sisters preparing a meal together and getting the house ready. But when the Lord Jesus entered that home, Mary said, Now I'm going to leave the work. And, brethren, if we're going to take time to read our Bibles and spend time in prayer has been brought before us, we're always going to have to leave something.
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There's a little hymn that says take time to be holy, speak OFT with the Lord.
And we're going to have to take time. And maybe you're going to have to let something go, not something that's wrong in itself. But, you know, David in the Old Testament was a very busy man. Read the life of King David. He had wars. He had domestic problems. He had family problems. He was a very active man in the service of God and as king of Israel. But I like this little statement about David. He sat before the Lord. Isn't that remarkable? He took time from all the activity and things that were right and proper, the administration of the Kingdom and his service for God.
And he took time to do what? Sit quietly in the presence of the Lord? You ever just sit quietly in the presence of the Lord? You know, if you're in the presence of someone you love and the feeling is mutual, you don't always have to be saying something. You just sit, and you enjoy their company. Maybe you drive along the Interstate with your wife or with your husband. You're not always talking, but you're just enjoying the company of being together with one another. And David.
So comfortable in the presence of his God.
Sat quietly, and I suggest that above all things, David coveted a sense of the Lords presence with him in his pathway of faith and his service for God.
Brethren, there's no more blessed portion for us. Yes, activity is important. You go to school.
You go to work, you have your service for the Lord, maybe in the assembly, and so on, but take time to sit in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence with you.
Very, very.
Went to first John chapter 5.
Bring out another aspect of the matter of faith.
First John Chapter 5.
And verse 9.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God, hath not hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life.
And this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life.
And he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. I just want to bring out the fact that.
They're in the mind of man, and it's easy to accept the thought that.
Faith is a leaf in the dark. And sometimes people say, well, you're going to have to wait and see whether what you believe is true about God until you die. And then if all the things we're talking about are really true or not, that's the day we're going to find out that's not true, and that's not the way God has presented it to us. Faith has to be because.
With respect to God, because it's the way in which we honor him when God says something.
When God presents himself in a certain way, He's honored. If we accept that, if we say that's true. But when we and this is the point I want to make, when we say it's true, God confirms to the soul the truth of what we believed. We do not wait until we leave this world to find out with a confirmed sense that we're going to heaven.
I can say with all conviction that I'm just as sure I'm going to heaven as I am, that I'm sitting in this chair.
And why do we have such a confirmation? When I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God says I'll confirm that trust. I'll put eternal life in you. That's my witness to you that what I have said is true. When I believe the gospel of my salvation in Ephesians one, it tells me you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That is the faith that believed in the gospel. God confirms that in my soul and says.
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I'll put my spirit in you, and that spirit is going to witness to your spirit that you're mine.
And so you will have the confirmation of what you believed in yourself.
And by example, what we see in the first four particularly.
There are four people, and they're brought before us in the sense of wanting to have a relationship with God or not in the case of Cain.
Abel brings to God a sacrifice. God witnesses to that faith in Abel and says I accept that Abel knew it, Cain knew it. Everybody knew that the faith that Abel had was accepted of God because God gave a witness to that fact by accepting the sacrifice with Cain.
God's non acceptance of it was the proof that it was not an act of faith.
And God said no. And God is witnessing to us that he sees when there's faith.
Or where there's not faith and he's going to confirm it or he is not, he is going to reject it. When you get Enoch to me, it says he had this testimony. God testified, if you will, to the life of Enoch that he accepted it.
And I believe Enoch had a sense of it in his soul, because when you go to Jude.
Where you have a little bit more about Enoch, you find out that he prophesied.
God confirmed that Enoch was walking with him, and he may be the first person in the Bible that's spoken of Indiana prophecy.
As having speaking the mind of God to man, God gave testimony to Enoch and to everybody else.
That he was walking with him, and he says, Enoch, I have something for you to tell the rest. And so in Jude we have Enoch prophesying. Noah might have worked every day on his ark, but the day came when Noah had absolute certainty in his soul that his faith was of God and acceptable to God. What if you'd been there the day that Noah got out of the ark and you said Noah, Do you really believe it's true what God had to say about what he was going to do?
He'd say obviously, of course he was the only person living with his family at that point. God gave complete testimony and what God is doing in this chapter for us this morning, as he's saying everyone to every one of us. I'm witnessing to you that the path of faith, if you trust me, and then the four it's it's coming to God and being acceptable to him And from Abraham on, it's the journey itself to go on in it.
And live it.
But God is saying to us, these are my witnesses to you. Are you going to accept them, or are you going to come to me as they did? Are you going to walk with me as they did? If you do as you walk, I will walk with you and confirm in your heart that this is truly acceptable to me and that you are honoring me. And I will reward you for honoring me by accepting what I say is true.
And Noah were lived in the general time of the flood, and of course Noah went through it. But I think it is interesting to see the difference in the way faith manifests itself and the different ones that Enoch was taken out before the flood happened.
Noah was a man of faith as well, but he was preserved through the flood. And so it's a picture, perhaps typically, of Enoch, the church, who will be taken out before the Judgment Day falls on this world. But there will be those of faith during the great tribulation period that will be preserved through it to come out, as Noah did in the new earth.
They will come out in the millennial Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both are manifestations of faith and how God works in different time frames. It is beautiful to see, but it is faith that God honors. I think it is so important speaking about Noah, though in a practical way. I think it is beautiful and an encouragement for us who are parents and have children, to see that what's?
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Verse 7 speaks about is not the faith of Noah's children.
It speaks of Noah's faith.
Now that his children had faith, it was evident because they were grown men, they had their wives and they entered the ark. But what it speaks about in verse 7 is Noah's faith, and the way it speaks about it is interesting. 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.
So Noah acted in a way that made.
The way possible for his children to be saved, No, could not save his children. But he could in faith act in a way that would prepare them a way to be saved. And I think that's something for us as parents to think about. We cannot save our children, but we can prepare by which they can be saved. And that's what Noah did and it was not as has been said.
An easy task that he had before him to build that ark.
It was a big, big project. And he didn't just sit down on a chair and cross his arms and say, well, if God wants to save my family, I guess he'll save them. No, he had to get up and he had to work and he worked laboriously and he built the ark in which his family could be saved. Brethren, this is an encouragement to those of us who have children.
To count on God. But it is not just sitting down and crossing our arms. It is to the work, brethren, It is. It is the labor of faith. Show what you mean, what you say you believe. Show it in your actions. So this is what Noah did to the saving of his house.
First three men of faith. 2 Just to follow up, like you say, Bob, we have with Abel worship, we have with Enoch communion, and we have with Noah service. And I think this is a great encouragement to those who have families, because we might say, well, how can we serve the Lord with a large family to raise. But what is our sphere of service? Brethren, our fear of service is our family, and he prepared an arc here to the saving of his house. But I would like to just say this, that while God honors the faith of parents and he honored the faith of Noah.
Yet we don't inherit faith, and there's a contrast, is there not, between Noah and the first family?
The two brothers that we've mentioned, Cain and Abel, they were brought up in the same household. They were brought up under the same circumstances. They no doubt both had heard of the coats of skin that had been prepared for their parents as they were driven from the Garden of Eden. But what happened? One had faith. Abel had faith and Cain did not. They were brought up in the same household. I say under the same circumstances, and so I just point that out to show.
If there's a young person here, a boy or a girl, it's wonderful to grow up in a Christian home.
It's a privilege, young people. I wish I had valued more when I was a young person and a child. But it is a tremendous privilege, and to look back on a godly heritage such as Timothy had in his day is a tremendous thing. But you don't inherit faith. You must make it your own. The the God deals with us as individuals. Yes, he honors households, and we see that all through the word of God. He worked in households.
And honored the faith of parents. But these things have to come right down to the individual. And Timothy, in his day, though he had had a godly heritage, he was told, Continue thou, Timothy. You're an individual, as it were. You're on your own now. You've got to buy these things, You've got to make them your own. And you've got to walk by faith, not simply because you had a godly heritage, but you've got to walk by faith now as an individual. So I think it's a solemn contrast.
00:50:07
Contrast the first family with that of Noah.
Before we.
Move further into the chapter Jim, you would allow.
You said that the three.
Provide a picture, and they certainly do.
But I think that there that picture, if you would allow, goes a little further. The moral beauty of the order of what characterized these first people that we read about gives us really a wonderful picture of what.
The principles, if I can say it that way, that each of our lives ought to contain. And so I'll go back and just reiterate very quickly what our brother has brought before us, but I'm going to just read the words it says.
By faith, Abel offered. So here was the man that offered then, it says.
By faith, Enoch pleased, God offered.
Pleased. And then by faith Noah prepared. So there was one who offered. The life of faith starts with that, doesn't it? A proper relationship of worship.
To God. And then there was the pleasing. And I think that answers to what you brought out, the communion, the joy of that.
And then there was preparing and then we go on. Abraham obeyed. And so now there's obedience and he sojourned. And so when there's worship and there's fellowship and there's preparation, there's also what I would just say, I would just suggest this brethren, There's also the Philippians experience that is proper Christian experience walking through this world, and that's obeying and sojourning. We have a life that.
Until the Lord calls us home, we're to walk to His glory. And then when there's the obedience.
And there's the sojourning. Then we come to Sarah.
Who conceived and there's fruit. Well, that's the principles that we might say ought to be seen in our lives, starting with their worship and ending with producing fruit for you might say the glory of God. And these principles, these examples that are given us, we can apply, and we ought to apply by the grace of God and through his help and wisdom and strength to each of our lives. They're what normally, if I can say it that way, they're what normally characterizes faith. I fall very far short of it, but they're what normally characterizes faith worship.
Pleasing, preparing, obeying, sojourning, and conceiving, bringing forth fruit.
For him there was a call after the flood. God looked down and man's heart was still wicked. He said it's wicked from his youth up. And God said he would never judge the world again with a flood. But now what does he do? He calls a man out from all that. Abraham was called and it says he went out and brother. And that's something good for all of us to consider. We're in a wicked world as we're We've been saying it's not going to get any better, but we have a call from the Lord if you belong to the Lord Jesus.
You have a call to separation, and as our brother Doug said, Abraham obeyed that call and he came out.
Because, brethren, while we're still in this world, physically, we're here, sitting in these chairs at this hotel in St. Louis, MO. We're not home yet. We haven't been translated like Enoch yet. We're still here. But nevertheless, while we're still in this world, we're not of this world. We are a heavenly people with a heavenly calling. And, brethren, there needs to be that practical rising up, as it were. Like Abraham, it meant separation from family.
It meant leaving his home number doubt, many things that were very dear to his heart, naturally speaking.
And I'm sure as he left her the Chaldees, he must have felt it very keenly. Don't minimize that He felt it. And yet he had a call from his God, and no matter what sacrifice it meant, what separation of things naturally speaking, he was going to follow that call and to go out to be a stranger and a Pilgrim and to walk in faith day by day, brethren, that's what he wants. You're going to feel it. If you separate walk in practical separation, you're going to feel it.
No man having left father and mother and houses and lands and brothers and sisters, yet we feel it.
00:55:04
Sometimes some of us feel it with natural relationships even. And yet what a blessed thing it was for Abraham, who walked in company with the Lord. Had that altered experience, the power of God in his life, in a very remarkable way. Was it worth it? Was it worth the the obedience? Was it worth going out when you talked to Abraham in glory? He'll say, Oh, it was worth every minute of it, minute of it, to be able to walk with his God as a stranger in a Pilgrim.
Being in love.
Stephen tells us that it was the God of glory that appeared unto Abraham, the God of glory. Abraham on a glimpse of the glory, the God of glory, and reminds us of the Apostle Paul. On the road to Damascus, the God with glory appeared to him. He never not left such an impression and never did he gave you. From then on he was taken to honor, to walk in the path of that of the God of glory, glory.
Never gave it up. And so was this which characterized Abraham, and he left home family.
Went out to a land that he didn't know where he was going but the God of glory had told him to where told him to go and so there's no question in his mind what to do. The God of glory well that we have seen we had a glimpse we trust of the God of glory, our precious Savior, the one who is down here in this earth. We enjoyed hearing about Abraham and how that the the Lord, the Lord had sat with him.
Enjoy the meal that he and Sephirah had supplied yesterday under the tree. They sat under the tree and and enjoyed that And so I wonder how wonderful it was. And then you'll read about how that we heard about how that Moses what a privilege it was that God spoke to Moses as man to man outside the tent. There he spoke to him.
God won't say the same Blessed God. Well, Mr. Darby, in one of his remarks he says it's as clear to me as the noonday sun. He says that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Son of God of the new. Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Son of God of the new. And to think that we have that same Blessed One. Harry was down here on earth as a man moving among men.
A woman was thinking of it.
What a privilege it was.
For Abraham God in his grace moved. He spoke to Abraham and he sat down and ate the meal that he would have and and he talked to Moses. But when we get into the Gospels, when we get into get into John, we we read about 1:00.
Who leaned on Jesus's breast? He laid his head on the bosom of that same blessed 10 How wonderful.
Abraham never laid his his head on the breast and bosom of of of the lower of of Christ, of the of Jehovah, neither Moses. But here we have but John, he says he laid his hand his head on the bosom of Jesus. All just to think that that Blessed One has come so near come so near to us, and he didn't like we can lay our heads upon his bosom.
That is. And one day soon we're going to be in the glory with them and we'll lay our heads upon his bosom. Yes, I'm sure we will. And we say, Lord, oh, how good, how kind, how wonderful without just have a Sinner like me. How wonderful it will be.
To eternal glory, aren't we? It says in first Peter 5 Abraham was called to go out into a place that she should afterwards receive for an inheritance. It was an earthly inheritance. But I've often wondered what it was that Abraham saw. Perhaps something like you mentioned that the God of glory appeared unto him. Perhaps he saw something of the city then. But it says he looked for a city which hath foundations. Who builder and maker is God.
And it was the appearance of that glory that made Abraham a Pilgrim and a stranger in the earth. It he was a wealthy man. He had 318 servants to serve him. I don't know that I've ever met anybody that's had that many servants to serve him, but he was a wealthy man. But he never had more than a 10th that we read about in In the Earth because he had seen something that called him beyond.
01:00:19
Earth's glory. He had seen the God of glory, and it is beautiful to think of it, Brethren. And the glory that we have been brought into, Brethren. The revelation that we have now in the times that we live in far exceeds anything that Abraham ever had. Shouldn't it be a challenge to our hearts to live simply down here in this world?
As simple as possible in our living habit. Still remember Mr. Lundeen saying so often, what's characteristic of pilgrims is that they have simple living habits. Oh, how complicated we get down here in this world, in our living habits to be simple. Because the glory is before us, brethren. That's what will make us pilgrims and strangers down here.
That contrast between Abraham and Lot isn't there because we, as we noticed, Abraham, he had a tent. We know he had an altar. He enjoyed communion and fellowship with his God. But you know, Lot, he had a vision too. But when he lifted up his eyes, he only lifted them up as far as the horizons of this sad world. And he saw the well watered plain of Jordan. And instead of choosing like Abraham for heavenly gain, eternal gain, he chose for earthly gain.
And it's very solemn because Lot, we know from the New Testament, was a true believer. He was a righteous man, and we know from the Old Testament that he was spared the judgment that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. And every child of God is going to go before the judgment. The Lord said I can do nothing until thou come hit her, but lost everything He had built. For Abraham looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But Lot ended up pitching his tent towards Sodom.
He ended ended up living in a house right in Sodom. He sat in the gate, no doubt involved in the politics and the decision making of the day. But I say he lived to see everything he worked for as far as this earth burned up and gone. And the poet put it something like this. He said only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last and so lot will be in heaven. He'll have a portion. But he had a lot. He had a lost life down down here.
He lost, he lost everything and it was a very sad thing, even lost to his family.
As a result of it, just go to to jump to Exodus in connection with the glory of the Lord. Because I think it's very, a very important point. I don't want to belabor this, but just go to Exodus 16 for a moment because I think we see this in connection with the children of Israel as they made their passage through the wilderness. They were in a physical wilderness. They were strangers and pilgrims. We're passing through a spiritual wilderness. We're to have the character of strangers and pilgrims.
But what is it that's going to preserve us and give us that character? Notice verse nine of chapter 16 of Exodus? And Moses spake unto Aaron, saying unto all the say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel come near before the Lord. For he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they look toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
The difficulty with the children of Israel, as they murmured and complained here, was that so quickly after passing through the Red Sea and leaving Egypt, they were looking back. In fact, they went back there in their hearts. Thank God they never got back there physically. But in their hearts they went back into Egypt. And what did that cause them to do? It caused them to murmur and complain, to blame the Lord for their present circumstances, but when they turned around here because they were looking in the wrong direction?
They were to be looking ahead, and when they turned around to lookout over the wilderness, what did they see? All the difficulties in the many miles that lay between them and the goal? No, in some way Jehovah was pleased to reveal himself to them in the cloud, and with a vision of that glory. They could take heart. They could say we're going on to something far better. And I believe brethren, as long as they kept that before them as they traverse the wilderness those years.
01:05:08
They were encouraged to go on. When they lost sight of that and looked around her back then they got discouraged and murmured and complained. And, brethren, as has already been said, this is what's going to preserve us, to go on to have a vision of the coming glory, to have Christ before our souls.
To as it says in Proverbs, I think we quoted it yesterday, where there is no vision, the people perish or cast off restraint. Why is it sometimes I don't act like a Christian because I don't have a vision of what's ahead and a vision of the man in the glory. If we're going to run with endurance, the race that is set before us, we must be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.
Brother Henry Lava.
With Abraham, we have a new race, you might say, of believers.
Noah concluded the history of the world, which then was that Peter speaks of and with Noah when he was born. His father Lamech said that he would comfort us concerning the earth that the Lord had cursed and his brother Bob brought out. It suggests to us the millennial blessing that the earthly people of God will be during the millennial reign of Christ, but with Abraham.
He begins a new race of believers in the world, which now is, and they have a peculiar feature about them, and that is they are living for the world which is yet to come and they're not interested and don't have their citizenship or their occupations or their habits of life connected with the world which now is. They're men and women.
Of faith. And so we have this new race of believers. You might think that they kind of end.
Down in verse 16 where God says now they they I believe a reference to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and probably even Sarah.
Now they desire a better country that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed.
To be called their God, for he hath prepared for them.
A city, a city they never inherited down here. And I just would add this one further thought that while Noah built an ark to the saving of his house, I believe Abraham built a tent to the saving of his house, as is implied in our verse that they dwelt as sojourners in 10th and verse 9.
Dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. And so as fathers and mothers in relationship to our children, they should see that we're built, we've built a tent to dwell in, and that our hopes and aspirations are on hold. They're not attached to the world, which now is.
Relates to what Doug was bringing before us, the progression of words as to the matter of a moral progression in faith. Just like to notice one more in that set. It's in verse 10 in connection with Abraham. In the authorized version, it says he looked for a city. Mr. Darby translated translates it. He waited for a city.
I think that's an important characteristic of faith in the day in which we live. Henry just used the word on hold.
Abraham had received certain promises of God.
And then he waited. And we will find the same If we really walk with God, we are going to be in an attitude of waiting God's time. There are so many things in which I'm sure you when you got up this morning and got on your knees before the Lord and prayed, there were certain concerns that were specific to your heart and life. And yet in some of those concerns, faith says I'll wait on God.
And in due course there was the conceiving.
After the waiting in which there was fruit, and so many times when there's to be fruit, it has to be as the farmer knows, he sells his crop and then he waits for the rain and so on the sun. The work of God, if you will, that are going to result in the fruit. And so for us too, we it's so hard for us, naturally speaking, to wait on God.
01:10:26
We're like the little child when the parent says, well, we're.
We're on our way to Saint Louis for the conference, and he's been in the car for 15 minutes. Are we there yet? You know? And then another 15 minutes down the road. Well, Daddy, are we there yet? It's just very difficult for children to wait. And we're children too, and at least many of us are. And we find it difficult to wait in faith upon God's time.
You feel that in first Thessalonians where it talks about the.
A work of faith, the labor of love. And Mr. Darby's translation translates the patience of hope as the enduring constancy of hope. Is that along the line of what you've been bringing before us?
There, I remember when I was a boy back in Mr. Crossley, he used to go around without the Lords work. He'd come into the schools and he'd talk to the children.
And remember one time he spoke of oh that Moses? No, excuse me not not Moses. But hey, Jacob, when and said he would serve Levin 7 years for his daughter Rachel. What he meant Rachel.
He kissed her first. It was love at first sight and he had to have her and his own seven years, he says. They went by so fast. They were just like days. It tells us this. They went by for the love that he had for her. And this old, dear old brother used to say that he helped the Lord Jesus has been He loved the church and he gave himself for it, gave everything that he had and she was the Pearl of great price him. But he he says that he's been waiting now for nearly 2000 years. But he he pictured it was like.
Like Jacob, they said, those days went by so fast for the love that he had for her.
Oh well, just to think of the love of the Lord Jesus has for the church for you and me, Well, it won't be long. Those that waiting time, the romance, the time of romance will soon be over. It must be not. And he's going to come and claim his bride. How wonderful that will be. It's often been mentioned that faith manifests itself not only.
In energy, but also in patience. And it is true, if you really trust God, you're going to be willing to wait for him to fulfill his promise. That's one of the evidences of true faith in the believer and.
We see it in Abraham. We see both those things. Here is the energy of faith to get up and to move out of his homeland.
Inner of the Chaldeans, and it's interesting here in this chapter Brethren Abraham didn't did have his faults, but it doesn't mention that this is what God sees in a believer. And I think it's so beautiful. Sometimes we look at each other and we criticize what we see, but it's not so much what we see, it's what God sees that is important. And so even in the case of Sarah here.
The case we read about yesterday in Genesis, it might not seem that there was much faith in Sarah, she laughed.
When the Lord told Abraham that they were going to have a child and it doesn't seem like there is faith, but there was faith.
Maybe it was only that which God could appreciate and it was through that faith.
That she had strength to conceive seed at that old age. And so it is with Abraham too. And sometimes we have our falterings, brethren, and Abraham in the Old Testament.
Fell for Sarah's suggestion that they have a child, that he have a child with Hagar. That was not the act of faith. That was the act of the suggestion of the flesh.
It was not simply waiting on God, but those things happen in our lives as well.
01:15:02
But these things are not mentioned in this chapter because this is the chapter of faith, and God appreciates the faith that he does see and only he can fully appreciate it.
My son, my oldest son and his wife. Brian and Jody, our oldest son and his wife.
We're building decided to build a home and while they were waiting for that home to be finished, they moved into a little duplex apartment not very far from us.
And they kept it clean and they enjoyed living there, and it was comfortable. But that was always with the sense that there was something better they were looking for, and while they did the necessary tasks and undertook the necessary.
Things each day to take care of the place where they lived and to keep it orderly and neat. They did so in view of the time, and anxiously, I might say, in view of the time when they would be leaving that place for something much better.
Well, we're going through this world, and we ought to be walking through it in order and care. And God is a God of order. He's not the author of confusion. It ought to show in our lives, and there ought to be that testimony and even practical things. But there ought to always be the thought, no matter what. We're doing our jobs, our careers, in the way we order our lives. As our brother Henry said that we're raising up our family morally in a tent because.
There's something better that we're looking forward to, and may I say that we might be anxious to be there not only to enjoy that, but the one who's provided it for us supremely, the Lord Jesus.
The comments that have been made that the energy of the new nature is the spirit of God, and I just want to bring out the importance as we speak about the importance of walking the path of faith, that we do this in the energy of the Spirit of God and not our own energy. If we sometimes maybe we may sit down with the word or we have a time when we when we can.
Stand along with the Lord. And sometimes that as of where we reach down and and there just doesn't seem to be faith.
I enter in spiritual things. We have to be reminded that it's the spirit of God that's working within us, which produces faith, which produces the reality in our soul of spiritual things. I just want to bring in that thought that sometimes we might get discouraged and we look within. We see such so little faith. What's the power that produces faith within us? It's the spirit of God. And as we as we go through this chapter, we we have to say that we have something that these.
These faithful didn't have, and that's the indwelling Spirit of God. And so it's an encouragement to us. We don't have to draw on. We don't have to draw spiritual things from within ourselves. We we get this benefit from the Spirit of God who involves us, and it's an encouragement to comfort.
For our children and young people know where what we're building for too, don't they? They look at us. And I was thinking of it in connection with verse 9, where you really have three generations. We find Abraham, then we find his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, and we find that there was an effect on on his son and his grandson because he dwelt as a stranger and A and a Pilgrim.
Because he he dwelt in intense and I think sometimes, and I can only say this for myself as a parent.
Sometimes when our children look at us, do they really see that?
They know what our goals are. They know what our aspirations are. When my children look at me, do they see someone who simply building for this world and placing importance on things down here, Or do they look at me and see a joy in building for eternity? I don't think we realize how perceptive our children and young people really are, and not only do they know that, but they know whether there's a joy in it or not.
It's a little different, but I sometimes said with my parents. When I was growing up, I knew not only what the priorities of my parents were, but I knew their joy in setting those priorities. It was never a question in our household on Tuesday or Thursday night, which were the weeknight meetings in Smiths Falls, was never a question of where we going to meeting. And it was never a question of, oh, it's meeting night again. I guess we better get ready and go.
01:20:24
No, there was a joy with my parents. Not so much in what they said, but as I looked at my parents. Maybe I didn't always appreciate it at the time, but I knew that there was a joy in going to meeting. It wasn't something that they had to do because of some legal aspect of things. No, they wanted to be there. These were Knights set aside for the assembly to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus gathered around himself. It was their joy to be there, and it was their exercise to bring their family.
And I believe, if it's our joy, brethren, to walk as strangers and pilgrims, laying up treasure in heaven, building for eternity, serving the Lord, I believe that the Lord will take that and will impress that upon the hearts of our children and young people, so that that joy and exercise is eventually transmitted to them. If the Lord leaves us here, we know that we asked from death unto life.
Because we love the brethren.
What a delight it is to be at the Prayer meeting and to be at the Reading meeting and the Gospel meeting and.
The breaking of bread. Whenever the Lord's people come together, it's a delight. It's a pleasure to be with them. And we know that the Lord is there too.
I wouldn't put the brethren 1St and the Lord's second. The Lord, we're gathered to his name so that comes first. But I think it's a nice thought that we we an evidence of new birth is that we love to be with the brethren. We love the brethren. I think sometimes trade and I I'm if you'll allow me I'll speak very bluntly for a moment. Sometimes we've portrayed to our young people.
Now, please don't take this out of context or the spirit in which it's said. I think sometimes we portray to our young people that normal Christianity.
Is to get through school, get married, get a job, and settle down in a nice suburban area of town and attend all the assembly meetings. Now, brethren, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm glad when there's an exercise to be at the assembly meetings. I'm glad when our young people marry in the Lord. And whether it's school or our job, we need to do it as unto the Lord, and to do it heartily and that the Lord can use as a testimony to the world around us. But in a sense, brethren, that is not normal Christianity. Now that may be where the Lord has for you to serve him.
But, brethren, let's be exercised that there's more than just these things. I say again, we're here just for a short time. We've been talking about the coming of the Lord. I think we're just on the horizon of the Lord's coming. Things are getting worse and worse, Brethren, Are we exercised about those things that are going to abide for eternity? Are we exercised about those around us that we see on the way to hell? How many people do I meet in a day that never realize I'm even a Christian?
How many people do I pass and I never give them a gospel tract. These are people that are on their way to a lost eternity. What about our brethren that need encouragement? What about the tremendous needs? I know we're not all called to give up our secular employment and go to the foreign mission field, but what about the needs that are so tremendous in the world today and seeking souls and the need for literature and Bibles? Some can't keep up with the demand. There's no shortage of opportunities, brethren, and open doors in these last days.
Perhaps sad to say, there's a lack of exercise on our part.
To seek to meet those needs, let's be exercised about more than just the things that are temporal and even necessary.
#301.
And drop.
01:25:01
To be safe in our place and building our worlds in our deep sins.
Wake up for it all.