Well, again we continue in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, this book written, I believe, by the
Apostle Paul to Jewish believers who had decided, this I think
was before A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed
by the Romans, Before then, the temple worship and the priesthood,
the Levitical priesthood, all of those things, the animal sacrifices,
were still going on. And these Hebrews believers had
believed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they felt,
you know, there must be something in it that we're missing. We
need to go back to that. But this epistle is written to
show, without any doubt, that everything that the Old Testament
worshipped, the temple worship, the priests, the animal sacrifices,
the blood, all of that All of it was pointing to the reality
which would accomplish salvation, which is God himself becoming
man to die in the place of the multitude he loved before the
beginning of time. That is the gospel. Gospel means
good news, the good news that it is possible for a man to be
right with God. Job asked the question, how should
a man be just with God? because by nature we're not,
but the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, of God
becoming man, to redeem his people from the just condemnation, the
curse of the law, as the scripture calls it. That is what accomplishes
rightness with God. Justification before God. You
know, when you stand in a court of law accused of a crime, can
you imagine knowing that you are innocent and yet being found
guilty? You want the world to know that
you're justified. You want to be justified before
the justice that is finding you guilty. The gospel talks about
qualification. by God himself. Who is it that
qualified his people for his eternal presence? Oh, religion
says it's us, it's what we do, it's how good we are, it's how
little we do of this sort of thing and how much we do of that
sort of thing that makes us right with God. Absolute lies. This
book doesn't say a word of that. Don't believe any preachers that
tell you that that's the case. It's God who qualified his people
in the person of his son. God became man to do that which
his divine justice demanded. And there's a confident expectation
of eternal life. Of course there is. Jesus came
preaching the kingdom of God. Life beyond death. You began
to believe it when you heard preaching of this gospel of grace. And God's Spirit brought conviction
of sin, of what I am by nature before God. You know, other people
might think I'm a good person, but before the blindingly white,
clean purity of the holiness of God, I am a filthy thing. I am a despicable thing. I am
a sinner before God's holiness. And he shined by preaching divine
light into my soul, revealing what God had done in redeeming
his people from sin's curse. And by the Holy Spirit, he gave
me the gift of belief of the truth. Belief means that I trusted
it. I leaned the weight of my soul
upon it, that it was for me, that my sin had been purged.
What is it to purge? It's not just a cleaning, it's
a thorough cleaning. My sin was purged. I was, as
that verse in 2 Corinthians says, chapter 5, verse 21, made, made,
made, justly made the righteousness of God in Christ. Because why? He, who knew no sin, had taken
my sin and paid for it. And so therefore, you know, we
were thinking a week or so ago about that unavoidable unavoidable
appointment that we all have it is appointed to man to die
once and then the judgment and yet the response to the one who
knows the gospel is this that the words of that hymn bold shall
I stand in that great day for who ought anything to my charge
shall lay fully absolved from sin I am who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect it is Christ that has died he's
died for it And then, having begun with that belief, there's
a weight on earth, in sinful flesh, until we're taken. until we're taken to that glorious
kingdom. There's a wait. Jesus prayed
in John 17, that high priestly prayer, I pray not, Father, that
you take them out of this world, but that you keep them from the
evil. That's what he prayed. We're
to wait here in this sinful flesh until he calls us home, each
one. For some, like the penitent thief
on the cross next to Christ in the account in Luke's gospel,
who suddenly had the light of divine truth shined into his
heart and cried out, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
And Jesus said to him, dying there on the cross for him, verily,
verily, I say unto you, this day you shall be with me in paradise. And for others of God's people,
it's many more years and very long years. And so in verse 36
of chapter 10, We read, you have need of patience. You have need of patience. There's
a weight that after you have done the will of God, you might
receive the promise. After you have, what's the will
of God? They asked him, the Jews asked him in John chapter six,
they said, what is the work that we must do to do the work of
God? What good things? Oh, well, go and be nice to this
person and do this for that person. No, no, no. He said, this is
the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he has sent. After you have done the will
of God, you have believed on him, you have done his work,
until you receive the promise. That's what you need patience
for, after you've believed, that you carry on believing until
you receive the promise of that kingdom, that glorious kingdom.
Until then, until then, his justified ones, look at verse 38, his justified
ones, because that's what the just means, those who are made
just under the justice of God by the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus, the just shall live by faith. It's first seen
in the book of Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk. The just shall
live by his faith. The just shall live. How do we
live if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? We don't just start
and then drift on. We carry on believing. The just
shall live by his faith. They keep on believing. They
keep on exercising faith. They keep on not drawing back,
as it says in verse 38, not drawing back in unbelief, confident that
what it says in Philippians chapter one and verse six, what Paul
wrote to the Philippians, he said, I am confident that he,
God, who began a good work in you, he, God, by his spirit who
shined the light of divine truth into your soul, he began it,
and he's not just gonna leave you there, he's gonna complete
it. What is the Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews chapter 12? He's the
author, and the finisher of our faith. He's the beginner and
the end of our faith. He's the alpha and the omega
of our faith. And he will perform that work
until Christ returns. That's what it says. So this
morning I want to focus for a few moments on the first three verses
of Hebrews 11 because clearly Faith is so important. Faith is such an important thing. We live by faith. The justified
ones shall live by their faith. And I want to focus on faith,
because the whole of chapter 11 is examples of people who
lived by faith, and no doubt we'll look at more of them as
the weeks pass. But for this morning, I just
want to look at the first three verses, and I want to ask some
questions. What is faith? And secondly, what is faith's
object? What does it focus on? And thirdly,
where does it come from? And fourthly, what is its effect? And fifthly, who has faith? Who has faith? So firstly, what
is faith? It's the substance, look, there
it is. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. What does it mean when it says
it is the substance of things hoped for? I think it means this,
it's the tangible reality, tangible is something you can get hold
of, the tangible reality of things that you hope for. are not as
yet physically seen. Things that you hope for that
are not as yet physically seen. That's what faith is. It's the
substance of things hoped for. It's confidence in God's word
concerning things that are contrary to fleshly reason. Things that,
it looks for all intents and purposes that something else
is going to happen. but you believe God. And what
he said, a good example of it, is when the Apostle Paul was
being taken to Rome at the end of the Acts of the Apostles.
And he was being taken there to stand before Nero, the brutal
emperor, and he died when he got there after about two years
having been there. They killed him. But on the way,
they were on a ship, and it was just on a merchant ship, and
the sea was very rough, going around those Mediterranean islands,
those eastern Mediterranean islands. and they were about to be shipwrecked.
And the mariners who were experienced sailors were all in a panic and
all despairing and thinking, what are we going to do? We're
all going to die. We're all going to drown. And Paul said this,
sirs, Be of good cheer. What? Look at the situation.
It says, be of good cheer. Why? For I believe God that it
shall be even as it was told me. God had told him, you're
not going to drown. The ship is going to be saved.
You're going to be recovered. They were wrecked on an island,
but not one of them was lost. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
four, just a couple of verses there. In chapter, in verse 17
of 2 Corinthians chapter four. Paul says this, our light affliction,
the things that arise in life that trouble us, and we know
there are degrees and degrees of this, but he calls it all
a light affliction, which is but for a moment. Compared with
eternity, it's but for a moment. It works for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. while, this is the verse, while
we look not at the things which are seen, by which he means physically
seen, with physical eyes, but we look at the things which are
not seen with physical eyes, the things that are spiritual,
the things that are of the realm of the kingdom of God, of eternity.
For the things which are seen, these things that we think are
so solid, are just for a moment, they're just for a period of
time, they're temporal, they're temporary, But the things which
are not seen, which faith focuses on, these are eternal things,
eternal things. What is it that we see by faith? You see, I've already said, and
some of you that have been listening to me for a long time know that
I keep on saying that faith is the sight of the soul. What do
we see by faith that the natural man doesn't see? Man in his natural
state doesn't see, but by faith, what do we see? The eternal counsels
of God, that God is above. We read it in that chapter 11.
The first thing is that he that comes to God must believe that
he is. That's the first thing. You must
believe that God is there and that he is over all things. Everything is as it is because
of God, the eternal counsels of God. We see by faith the covenant
of salvation from sin, sealed in sovereign divine grace. We
see by faith, glimpses layer by layer, precept by precept,
growth in grace and knowledge, but we see by faith the eternal
decrees of God to save a people for his own glory. We see evidence
of his intervention in time. I mean, to say intervention in
time suggests that I don't believe that absolutely everything is
actively upheld now. I do believe that because it's
what the very first verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews say.
It says this, God, who at sundry times and in divest manners spake
in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last
days spoken to us by his Son, whom he's appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and look
at this, this is now upholding all things, continuous by the
word of his power, now they're held in place, the laws of science,
that hold this creation together are held in place by him who
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest. Him, when he
had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Glorious, glorious things. We
see that. We see all of those things. We see his providence. We see
that even when things seem to us and mankind around us as the
most disastrous thing that could ever happen, we have his word
that tells us all things work together for good to those who
love God, who are the called according to his purpose. Because
you say, how on earth can this thing or that thing be good?
because the intent of God for his people is an eternity of
bliss, the bliss of eternity in the presence of God. We see
future resurrection. We see future resurrection. We
see that judgment day, and we see by faith Christ on his throne,
God on his throne, saying to that vast multitude that is saved,
saying, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. We see the glory of
God. We see the things that are hoped
for, but not yet seen physically. And like Abraham, who, we won't
turn for the sake of time, but I'll just tell you, in Romans
chapter four, Paul recounts the account of Abraham as an old
man and his wife, well beyond the years of bearing children,
being told by God that you're going to have a son. And from
him is going to come the seed that is going to redeem his people
from the curse of the law. And Abraham, it says there in
several verses towards the end of Romans chapter four, he saw
that which was not seen physically. How could he see it physically?
He's an old man. They're both way beyond the age
of childbearing. And yet he heard what God said
and he believed it. Not only that, he acted upon
the certainty of it. He went to where God told him
to go. He did that which God told him
to do. Because why? He saw the purpose
of God revealed to him. And what was it that he used
to see it? Faith that was given him. Of
course it has degrees. There's great faith. There's
little faith. But if real, Jesus said it's
like a mustard seed. It's like the tiniest of seeds. You know, seeds vary in size.
Well, the mustard seed is incredibly tiny. And like a mustard seed,
it's capable of growing to a huge extent. It's capable of growing. And people cry out to God for
help that their faith might grow. There's that man we often quote
who said, Jesus asked him, do you believe? He said, Lord, I
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I need help that I don't disbelieve
you, because the flesh is so prone to disbelieve. The man
whose sight was restored, and Jesus said to him, Do you see?
And he said, Well, I see men like trees walking. They're blurred.
I can't see them properly. Go and wash again. And he went
and washed again and was given that clear sight of the soul. Faith is soul sight by which
believers live. The just shall live by his faith. And it's only the spiritual man
that's born again of God's Spirit can see it. For it says in 1
Corinthians 2, verse 14, that the natural man, all of us in
our natural state, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him. Neither can
he know them. Why? Because they're spiritually
discerned. Well, where are you going to
get spiritual discernment? We'll see that shortly. Believers do
not live by the things that they do. Religion does. Religion lives by the things
that it does. It lives by trying to keep laws. It lives by works. But no, true believers who heard
the gospel, God's gospel, the gospel of God in this book, clearly,
They don't live by works, they don't live by law, they don't
live by personal merit, they don't live by religious ceremonies
or traditions or mysticism or superstition, but they live by
the clear sight of that which has saved them. And what's that?
The Lord Jesus Christ, our God, coming in flesh to die on a cursed
tree to satisfy the justice of God, that all who are in him
by eternal union under the Edict of the sovereign grace of God.
I made the righteousness of God in him, because he takes the
sin away. I stand now a sinner. I know I am totally unworthy,
but I know under the justice of God, by faith in Christ, that
I stand on that great day. Who shall lay anything to my
charge? Christ has died. The Hebrews,
to whom Paul was writing, they only knew the privileged position
that they're in. What do I mean by that? That
they're qualified for heaven. They're qualified to enter not
the temple picture of the holiest of all behind that veil, but
that which it pictured, heaven itself, the heaven of God, the
holiest of all. The privileged position that
they're in is that they're qualified for heaven. How do they know
it? Not by looking at the Old Testament symbols. Not by looking
at the animal sacrifices. Not by looking at the priest
in his robes with all the jewellery and adornments on him. No, by
faith looking at accomplished salvation by Christ. Not by sight
of temple symbols. And so, for believers now, the
just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. When God uses the term having
pleasure in somebody, he's talking about the satisfaction of his
justice. He says in Ezekiel that there
is no pleasure in the death of the wicked. What he means is
his justice isn't satisfied enough without an eternity of that death.
In Isaiah 53, I think we saw it last week, it says about Christ,
the lamb of God, that substitute, that Passover lamb, it says about
him, it pleased God to bruise him. It did please God to bruise
him. Why? Because it satisfied offended
divine justice. So let's move on to our next
point. And I don't think the others will be quite as long,
so don't worry. What is faith's object? Now, sight must have
something to look at. Isn't it frustrating when you're
doing something on the computer and the screen just goes completely
white? You can't do anything. There's
no object to focus on. We can't deal with a blank screen.
Saving faith must have something to look at. And saving faith,
the faith of God's elect, is that which looks at Christ. It looks at God. It looks at
God. Because Christ is God. Christ is the manifestation of
God. Another verse I quote nearly
every week, John 1, 18. No man has seen God at any time. No man has seen God at any time.
the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has declared Him. He has made Him known. He has
manifested Him. God became man. Why did God become
man? Because it says in Acts 20, yeah,
Acts 20, 28, Paul to the elders of the Ephesus church, he talks
about them looking after, taking care of the church of God, which
He, God, purchased with his own blood. God purchased his church. God hasn't got a body. God is
spirit. God hasn't got a body. How can
God purchase the church with his own blood? God became man. God became man. And in the person
of that baby born of Mary, conceived of the Holy Ghost, fearfully
and wonderfully made in the counsels of God, In that person, God saved
his people. He satisfied divine justice that
he might save his people. Saving faith looks to him. Saving faith looks to God, partaking
of flesh and blood, to die and pay the sin debt of his elect
multitude. Show us the Father, said Philip
in John 14. show us the father and that will
do we just you you're talking all this good stuff but just
we just want to see the true essence of the god who made everything
and uh just just show and jesus said philip have i been so long
with you and you haven't seen me he who has seen me has seen
the father and we look how do we look not with these eyes but
we look by faith the sight of the soul to him We look and see
him crucified for me. The crucified. You know, a look
at the Crucified One, there is life in a look at the Crucified
One. And I don't only look at Him
crucified for me, I look by faith at me crucified with Him, in
Him. Because Paul says in Galatians,
he says, I am crucified with Christ. I was there, I am crucified. Just as I was in Adam when Adam
sinned in the fall, I am crucified with Christ. And the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I face judgment without
fear, because as I've already said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, Christ has died for them. My
faith has an object. My faith has an object. So Paul
writes to Timothy. In chapter one and verse 12 of
his second epistle, he says, he doesn't say, I know what I
have believed. What do you believe? I know what
I've, no, he said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded,
convinced, no doubt. I'm convinced that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him. What's that? The eternal
welfare of my immortal soul. My life, I've committed it unto
him, to his safekeeping, against that day. What day? It's appointed
to man to die once, and then the judgment. The day when we
all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And outside of
Christ, that's a terrible prospect. but in Christ, in union with
him. It's a glorious prospect. Come
ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared from the
foundation of the world. Well, I told you the second point
would be quick. So now we're onto the third point. So where
does it come from, this faith? Where does it come from? I know
you know this, but Ephesians chapter two and verse eight,
for by grace, grace is God's riches at Christ's expense, grace
Grace is, what do they say? What is mercy? Mercy is when
I don't get what I do deserve. Grace is when I do get what I
don't deserve. I don't deserve the goodness
of God. By grace, by the goodness of God, are ye saved. But how
do you know it? How do you apprehend it? How
do you sense it? How do you grasp it? Saved through
faith. Oh, where'd you get that from?
Oh, you were better than all the rest. Oh, that's gonna put
you in favor with God. No, no, no, no. That not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. Philippians
chapter one, verse 29. For Paul writing to believers
at Philippi, for unto you it is given. in the behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake in
this life. It's a gift of God. Suffering
is a gift of God. God's gift is delivered. How do we get it? How do we hear
about it? How do we know about it? It's delivered by preaching
because, as he said, by the foolishness of preaching, by what the world
and unbelief and the Jews, he's writing to the Corinthians, they
thought it was just foolishness, this message, this completely
wrong, but it's by the foolishness of preaching, it's by what the
world regards as foolishness or a stumbling block to the religious
folks, it's by preaching that it pleased God to save, who? those who believe. By the foolishness
of preaching, it pleased God. This is God's means. It might
not be verbally heard, it might be heard on a recording. or it
might be written in a book. A lot of people have heard the
truth by reading a book of preaching, of the message preached. Because
Paul said, again, there's a lot of quoting of Paul, isn't there?
He wrote a lot of the epistles. In Romans chapter one, he said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I want to preach the gospel.
The gospel is such, it's not just an incidental thing on the
road of life. It's the absolute foundation,
the core of it. The gospel, he said, is the power
of God, the dynamite of God, unto salvation. Who for? To everyone that believes it.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation that everyone
who believes it. Well, how do we get it? Read on in Romans
chapter 10, verse 17. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing what? And hearing by
the word of God. Romans 10, 14, a few verses earlier. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? Lord, save me from my sins. But
how shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? Somehow the message of truth
has got to be imparted through the ears, into the brain, and
down into the soul. Faith comes from God as the means
by which the blessings of grace are apprehended, are grasped. The blessings of grace, which
is salvation from sin and the hope of glory. That means brings to them the
experience of it, to know it, to see it, to feel it. How do
I get it? How do I get it? Answer, plead
for it. at God's throne, Lord be merciful
to me. The sinner was what that poor
man, Jesus pointed him out at the temple wall, it was the Pharisee
thanking God that he was such a good person and had done all
these things. And there was the poor man next to him, beating
on his breast and crying, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Not any old sinner, but the sinner.
Lord, be merciful to me. Lord, as Peter, when he was in
the boat on the storm-tossed sea and they saw Jesus walking
on the water, You know, he's showing them that he's God. He's
walking on the water. He who upholds all things by
the word of his power had changed the laws of physics for that
moment so that he walked on water. And Peter cried out to him, Lord,
if it be thou, bid me come to thee. Lord, if you're real, give
me faith to believe. It says, seek and you shall find.
Ask, and it shall be given. Knock, and it shall be opened.
Jesus said, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Oh, won't election keep me out
of this? Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So
then what is faith's effect? Its effect is spiritual sight. It's understanding, as we saw
earlier. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, their foolishness to him. Neither can he know them.
Why? They're spiritually discerned. Where do we get it? We get it
from the Holy Spirit. Hence Hebrews 11, verse three. Look at this. How do we understand
that God created the world, when the whole world all around us
is constantly trying to convince everybody that the whole thing
just happened by some random shaking of trillions upon trillions
of molecules in a huge, you know, and you give it long enough time,
and guess what? All of this happens without any, Come on, that's
the biggest lie ever. Well, why do such clever people
believe it? The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. They're foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. So what is it that makes us know
that Earth around is deeper green,
sky above is softer blue, all of these things. What is it that
makes us know these things? Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. We
understand it by faith, not by science. Now, I speak as someone
scientifically trained. It's not by science that we understand.
Nevertheless, everything I see is totally compatible with true
science. I'm not talking about pseudoscience,
which Paul somewhere else in one of his epistles talks about
science falsely so-called. The majority of the world, and
you know, epitomized by the David Attenborough, lovely photography,
but don't believe a word the man says, or those that advise
him, because they don't know what they're talking about. The
model that they put forward is utterly and completely impossible,
and in truth they all know it, but they persist in it. But it's
by faith that we understand it, not by science. It's futile to
appeal to unregenerate fleshly understanding to get people on
side so that they all start to believe the gospel and become
Christians. Absolutely futile. What should we do then? Preach
the gospel. and rely on the Holy Spirit of
God to call his people out of darkness into his marvellous
light. Faith's effect is that, understanding, so that the things
which are seen are not made of things which do appear. We understand
that it's God that controls all things. Understanding that, I
know why he causes all things to work together for good to
his people. So then, finally, who has faith
answer all who are saved by Christ including look it in verse two
for by it the elders obtained a good report who's he talking
about the elders well he's talking about the patriarchs to these
jewish believers these hebrews to whom he's writing The elders,
they'd know instinctively that it was the people down the history
of Genesis and the Old Testament. Before Moses, there was Abel,
and there was Seth, and there was Enoch, and there was Noah,
and there was Abraham, and there was Isaac, and there was Jacob,
and there was Joseph, and there were the parents of Moses, and
countless others, many, many, many, many more. They all had
faith. They all had that gift of God,
of faith, to see the salvation of God, to look to the salvation
of God. I'm not going to jump ahead too
much, but just quickly, verse four. What was it that Abel saw
that made him bring a lamb rather than the work of his own hands
like his brother Cain brought? Answer, he saw what God had said
in the Garden of Eden, that by the seed of the woman, the one
that would come from the woman The curse of the fall, fermented
there in the Garden of Eden. that that would be put right,
that God would justify his people. They had faith. They looked to
that. It hadn't yet happened. It was to happen in the future.
We now look back from where we are. But all had faith in Christ. You say Christ hadn't come. How
could they have faith in Christ? They had faith in what was pictured
in their Old Testament worship. They had faith in what it looked
to. It looked to the seed of the
woman. If you get to the end of Genesis chapter 3, you see
the guard that God put on the way to the Tree of Life. Get
to the end of the book of Revelation and you see the people of God
around the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life in the Garden
of Eden was that communion with God, but the way to it was guarded. It could only be done by the
sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the one who was the Lamb slain,
as it says in Revelation 13 verse 8, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. That's who they believed in,
and in this chapter of Hebrews 11, there are 16 or 17, something
like that, mentioned just as examples, just as examples of
exactly this thing, the just living by faith, the justified
ones living by faith. They all had faith in Christ. They all knew God would provide
a substitute to make atonement for sin. They all knew God would
become man to bridge the chasm of sin that separates God and
his people. and that the work of Christ that
they saw in the future by faith, the sight of the soul, and the
Christ that they trusted to fulfil all of the pictures, all of the
types, that work of Christ justified them. Before it happened, they
knew that this was the case, they knew that God had ordained
it this way, and they believed Him, and they trusted Him. All
of them Jews? No, if you read down it, you'll
come across Rahab. the harlot from the town of Jericho,
one of the enemies of the people of God. And she became one of
the great, great, great, great, great, great grandmothers of
the Lord Jesus Christ when he was born of Mary. It's what they
saw. You know Job? We reckon that
Job is probably the oldest book written in the Bible. And Job
We talk about suffering. Job was in terrible suffering. Do you know why he was in terrible
suffering? Because God had said to Satan,
have you considered Job my servant? Why did he do that? For his eternal
good. He was in terrible suffering
and his comforters, his friends came and just prodded and poked
him with nasty things to tell him that it was all his fault.
But in the midst of it all, Job in the midst of his suffering
said this, I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand
at the latter day on the earth. and the worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God. Faith. He looked to Christ. Him. Oldest book in the Bible, we
think. Job looked to Christ. Are you elect, saved, redeemed? Say, I don't know. Do you face
the unavoidable appointment with peaceful acceptance and confidence
of eternal bliss? Do you know what the proof of
it is? The assurance of it is? Faith in Christ, the just shall
live by his faith. Belief of the gospel, because
again, another verse that I quote nearly every week, 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, Paul says, we are bound to give thanks to God for
you brethren, you Thessalonians. You Thessalonians, you Greek
atheists who heard the gospel preached and believed it, we're
bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, for God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. How do you know that, Paul? Through
sanctification of the Spirit, the Spirit of God chose them
out. And belief of the truth, they evidently believed the truth.
It's not feelings, it's not religious experiences, it's not even fellowship,
as good as that is with fellow believers. It's faith, it's faith. The substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.