Author Pink said that true obedience
and faith are never apart, and therefore we read of the obedience
of faith. The person who believes God's
promise to save obeys God's command to trust Him to save. The person
who obeys God lives out their days by faith in God. They obey His command because
they believe Him. We believe God has provided all
that He requires of us. He's provided it. And the Holy
Spirit declares to us that amongst these saints that we've been
looking at here throughout the 11th chapter of Hebrews, that
they all died the same way that they began once God had revealed
Christ in them. They began trusting the Lord
by faith, and it says these all died in faith. That's the title
of the message. These all died in faith. Look
with me here at Hebrews 11, verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city."
We see here these all died in faith, Abel and Enoch and Noah
and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah. And it most likely refers to
that innumerable multitude that came through Abraham as well. The spiritual Israel, which was
amongst national Israel, these all died in faith the same way
they lived. The same way they lived. A believer
doesn't make a profession of faith and then return to our
disobedience and our rebellion and live out the rest of our
days looking to that profession that we made, expecting for God
to receive us because of that. That's not what faith is. Believers
don't flee to God occasionally just when we have a personal
problem or a jam we need to to be gotten out of. That's not
what a believer does. A believer journeys from the
first day he believes to the last day that he's breathing. He lives by faith, trusting God
who justified him, trusting Christ who justified him and looking
to him and longing to be with him. And Scripture tells us repeatedly
that the just shall live by faith. And this is how those who've
been justified, this is how they live. They live by faith. And it says here that they died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off. How can a person see a promise? How can a person see a promise?
only if the promise is a person. If the promise and everything
promised is fulfilled in a person, that's who they saw. All the
promises of God, everything He's ever promised a believer is in
Christ. And Christ came to fulfill all
the promises that God makes towards a believer. Christ came to fulfill
all those promises. so that salvation would be sure
and certain for those that trust Him. And these early brethren
hadn't physically seen the Lord Jesus Christ come. They hadn't
physically with their eyes seen Him come and accomplished the
work of redemption in putting away sin and making them righteous. They hadn't seen Him come. He
hadn't come yet. But faith has an object. Faith has an object. And that
object is Christ. And that's who they beheld. They
saw him afar off. Scripture tells us Abraham, the
Lord said, Abraham saw my day. And he's not the only believer
that saw his day. Every believer that came before
saw his day. Without having the object of
faith, there is no faith. So we know every believer that
came before saw the same object. They all saw Christ and the promises
fulfilled in Him. And they did this by faith. That's
what we learned there in Hebrews 11, verse 1. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things
not seen. and believers, those with true
faith, those that have true faith, they don't turn away from trusting
God and looking to His Son and trusting the promises God's made.
They don't turn away simply because God's pleased to do things in
His time and not in our time. False faith will turn away because
of that. Look with me at 2 Peter 3. Chapter 3. And look here in verse 3. This
is talking about in our day. Knowing this first, that there
shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as from the beginning
of the creation." Do you have any friends that use that argument?
Everything's just been going the same way ever since the world
was made. For this they willingly are ignorant
of. They willingly are ignorant of
this. That by the Word of God, by His Word, the heavens were
of old, That's how they came into being. That's what we saw
there in the beginning. By faith, we believe that the
earth was framed by the Word of God. Things that couldn't
be seen, or things that were made, were made from things that
can't be seen. And it says He did it by His
Word. And the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
whereby the world that then was, was overflowed with water and
perished. That happened by His Word too.
whereby the world, it overflowed, but the heavens and the earth,
which are now, right now, that exist, heaven and earth that
exist right now, it exists because people have made sure to keep
the water clean. Nope, there's only been one water
ever made, and God's kept it for us ever since he made it.
The same water that drowned a multitude in Noah's day is the same water
you're drinking today. And God's kept it clean for us
by His grace, by His power. Look here, the same word. By
the same word are these things kept in store. But they're reserved
for something. They're reserved unto fire against
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is
as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord's
not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but he's long suffering to usward. You know who the usward are?
Believers. And his elect, he's long suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. That's why this world is kept
in place where it's at right now, by His Word. It's because
He's not willing that any that He gave to His Son and that His
Son laid down His life for, He's not willing that they perish.
And He's going to bring them to faith in Christ. And then,
and then, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also
and the works that are therein shall be burned up." There's
going to be such a thing as global warming, and no doubt about that.
But it's going to be at God's Word, when God says. And then
look here in our text, it says, and these folks were persuaded
of God's promises to them, and they embraced them. Able. Abel had heard something about
the gospel that was preached in the garden whenever God took
an innocent animal and He killed that innocent animal instead
of killing Adam and Eve. And He made a covering for Adam
and Eve. And He took that covering and
He put it on them. Abel had been taught that. They passed that
along to him just like we pass along the Gospel. Because when
he came to go to God, he went with a lamb. He saw Christ in
that lamb. Enoch had this testimony that
he pleased God. And we saw that without faith,
it's impossible to please Him. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. You know, it's impossible. It's
impossible. to please God without faith.
And only those who trust Christ by faith are without sin. And only the person who's without
sin is pleasing in God's sight. And Noah, he heard God's warning
of certain judgment, and he heard God's promise of salvation. Where? In the ark. In the ark. And he believed God. He believed God was going to
destroy the world just like he promised. And he believed that
God was going to spare him by grace in the ark, just like God
promised him. And so you know what he did?
He got in the ark. That's what I'm preaching to
you is to believe God and get in the ark by faith, by trusting
his son, the ark. Abraham and Sarah were promised
a child. And through that child was going
to be a great nation born. And He promised them a sure place
that they'd dwell for all eternity. You know who that son is that
He promised? It's Christ, the seed. You know who that great nation
is that God promised? It's all His elect. It's spiritual
Israel, the true sons of Abraham. You know where that dwelling
place is that God promised? Abraham and Sarah. It's in the
heavens. It's a heavenly Jerusalem. And
so they confessed. They believed God. They embraced
God and the promises that He made to them. And they confessed
that they were strangers in pilgrims on earth. These all confess the
same thing that every believer confesses. You know, We get this
idea that because somebody was believed on God this many generations
ago, these many years ago, that maybe they believe something
different. Every believer ever saved has believed the same gospel,
the same exact gospel. And so we know this. We know
that they confessed that God was just. When Adam sinned against
God in the garden, as our first representative, they confessed
God was just in kicking Adam out of the garden and in separating
us from communion with Him, from knowing Him, or understanding
Him, or being able to seek Him. That's exactly what He promised
Adam, in the day that thou eat of the fruit that I have forbidden,
thou shalt surely die. He didn't say, He said that fully
aware, fully knowing that Adam would eat that fruit. And in
the day you eat it, thou shalt surely die. And that's what happened. Exactly. He's just. They confessed
they were guilty sinners. And at their death, that separation
from God was their just due. We died in Adam spiritually. Our sin is our own. We come forth
from our mother's womb speaking lies. We come forth... I heard
this illustration one time. Have you ever seen a little child get angry whenever you take the
pacifier from them? Or you take a lollipop from them?
There's the evidence. That's all we need to see. That's
a anger. and anger from sin. They confess
that God's holy and that He must punish sin. That's what Abel
confessed when he brought that lamb. He confessed that God's
holy and He will not sweep sin under the rug. He won't turn
the other way and just look the other direction. He's got to
deal with the sinner. And that sinner is going to have
to die. Every sinner that's ever been
saved has died. Did you know that? Every believer
that's ever been saved by God's grace has died. They died in
Christ. When Christ died, the believer
died in Him. God's people died when He died.
Just as certainly as He died, we died. And they confess that
they believe God, that He's saved by grace. Every sinner ever saved. You know where they've all been
when God came to them and gave them His precious promises? In
the heart? You know where they've been?
Every one of them? They've been in sin. They've been in death. They've been in trespasses and
in sins. Not seeking God. Not looking
for God. Hating God. And grace comes. and says, listen to these promises. Listen to this warning I've given
you, Noah. And grace not only gives the
word, but grace enters in the heart and gives all the graces
needed, spiritual life and faith and repentance to believe Him,
to turn from our wicked way, to trust Him. And they confessed
that they believed God, that He had freely given them acceptance
with Him in Christ, who He promised would come. They confessed that. When you confess these things,
you're confessing that you're a stranger in this world and
to this world, because that's not what the world confesses.
That's not what the majority of folks that live in this world
confess. The majority of people that live in this world view
the believer as a stranger to them. And the believer views
this world as a strange place, as a foreign place. But not until
God comes by grace and reveals it in us. Look over at Genesis
47. This is how Jacob described his
life. This is a believer. Listen to
this. Genesis chapter 47 and verse
9. And Jacob said unto Pharaoh,
The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. Now listen to what he says about
that. That sound like a long time to you? A hundred and thirty
years? But listen to what Jacob says about it. Few. Few. and evil have the days of
the years of my life been, and have not attained until the days
of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their
pilgrimage." You know why it seemed like they were few to
him? Because this life's a vapor. It goes by faster than a weaver's
shuttle. A weaver in old times that weaved
garments could operate a shuttle in between the threads. And they
operated it very, very fast. I got to see one one time. I
went to a historical place and got to see them weaving with
a shuttle. And the Lord said, this life
goes by faster than a weaver's shuttle. Jacob, though he lived 130 years,
he looked back on them and they were just like that. They went
by just like that. It doesn't matter if you lived
as long a life as Methuselah did, or if you lived as long
a life as Jacob did, or if we live 70 years, or 75 years, or
if we live 30 years. You look back on your days and
it's just like that. And secondly, what he saw was
that they were evil. Everything about them was evil.
A believer doesn't look at this life. Would you like to live
as long as Methuselah? Would you? I honestly, I don't,
I wouldn't want to. Would you want to be stuck in
this place for that long? In this evil place for that long? The believer's a pilgrim. He's
a stranger in a strange place, and he's headed to a heavenly
city, and he's got his eye on that heavenly city, and that's
where he wants to be, in that better country. He don't want
to be in this country. And when you confess that Christ
is your all, when you confess that He's everything, that He's
all your standing with God, that in Him you're perfectly complete, when you confess that all your
sins, past, present, and future have been totally put away. There's
no record of them anymore in God's memory. If you say it that
way, they're gone. Never to be brought up again.
When you confess that in Him all your hope rests. How am I
going to get through these evil days? How am I going to get through
this strange land? How am I going to get to that
place I'm going? All my hope is in Him. It's not
in me. It's not in something I do. It's in Him. And when you confess
that through Him all your prayers are given to God through Him
so that God will hear you and listen to you and have communion
with you. When you confess that all your
reliance for all your strength from here on out is Him, that
He's all, truly all, then you're confessing something that this
world don't know anything about. And you're confessing and you're
declaring plainly what it says here in verse 14. For they that
say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. They're
looking for a country. Now look here in verse 15. And
truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. Sarah, you know what it is to
be sick. Would you want to go back to
that, be sick again? You fellas ever had the flu?
You've had the flu, Rachel. You wouldn't want to go back
and have it again, would you? Well, a believer knows what he's been
saved from, knows what he's been brought out from, and he don't
have any desire to go back to it. Because it's like going back
and getting a case of the flu. It's like going back and getting
sick again. I don't want to go back to that.
Don't have any desire to go back to that. And therefore we have
no mind to turn back to that awful bondage, that awful condemnation
from which God so freely saved us. Look there at Hebrews 10
and verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back, go back to what he was saved from,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we, believers, those
that have true faith, are not of them who draw back unto perdition,
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. You know,
the Lord was walking along one day, and He had done some miracles,
and He said some hard sayings. And Scripture says that many
of the disciples that followed Him, that professed to believe
Him, that made a confession that they really believed Him, and
appeared as if they did believe Him. But when they heard the
things He said, they turned and went back and walked no more
with Him. They said, these things are just too hard to be understood. This insults our flesh just too
much. And they turned and went back
to darkness. And He turned around to His apostles
and He said, will you leave Me also? Are you going to leave
Me too like they did? If they'd have had a mind to,
like those other fellas did, they could have went back. Those
other fellas never did leave the place they were called out
of, like Lot's wife. She physically was removed from
Sodom, but her heart never left that place. And so she looked
back to it. She had a mind to go back to
it. And God killed her. And these fellas, these apostles,
He said, will you go back to it? And they said, Lord, To whom
shall we go? Where are we going to go? Who
are we going to go to? We believe that you're the Son
of God. We believe you are who you say
you are. And that eternal life is in you.
We're persuaded of it. And we'll follow you, they said.
We're not going back. Not going back. They didn't have
a mind to go back. They had a mind to follow Christ.
And we see here verse 16. It says, Now they desire a better
country, that is, a heavenly country. Wherefore, because you
believe God is who He says He is, because you believe God saves
in His Son apart from any works of righteousness which we've
done, exactly as He said He does, and because you Put everything,
all your hope, all your trust in Christ. You believe Him. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God. For He hath prepared for them
a city. He prepared it for them. He's
not ashamed to be called their God. Isn't that an amazing thought? That God is not ashamed to be
called our God. Do you think if you disobeyed
your father, you Lutter girls, listen here, if you disobeyed
your father and brought shame to him, do you think he would
be ashamed to say, well, that's my daughter? He'd be ashamed
of it because whatever took play, whatever it done, it brought
shame to his name. He'd be ashamed to say, that's
my daughter. because of what God has done
freely in Christ and the righteousness of God that he robed a believer
with and made him everything that's required, made him holy
to be accepted, made him righteous. God looks on him and says, and
they trust him, they believe him, that he's done it. They
look nowhere else. And God looks on them and says,
I'm not ashamed to call them my children and to be their God. Not a shame. That's peace to
the believer. That's something a believer has
where they can just rest. Because we know God's not a shame
to be called our God. Well, if you'll be turning to
1 Peter 1. Every one of these folks suffered
a heavy load under many temptations, just like you and I suffer as
we walk through this earth. They all passed through trials.
the fire of trial, and God proved over and over. We're going to
start seeing this in the next lessons to come. God proved over
and over that He had given their faith and that it was genuine
faith because they could not be turned away from Him. No matter
how severe the trial was, they wouldn't leave Him, wouldn't
go back. And they didn't see with the eye the accomplished
redemption of Christ, just as you and I haven't seen His promised
return yet. We have a more sure word of prophecy
than they have. We have God's Word of what Christ
accomplished. But we haven't seen His return
yet. And yet all these died in faith and received the promise
that God promised them. Now look here at chapter 1 and
verse 6. And this is all included right
here in these few verses. And this is a good word of encouragement
to the believer. wherein ye greatly rejoice,"
this is rejoicing in Christ our Lord by faith, "...and ye greatly
rejoice in him, though now for a season," it's a few days, just
a season, "...now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations." Catch that little expression
there, if need be. God doesn't give you a trial,
unless it's needful. and He'll give it to you. If
need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptation,
many temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. You know what you do with gold?
It doesn't look like it does when it's on your finger, when
you pull it out of the ground. It's got to go through fire.
And all the dross, everything that's not gold, falls away. And only gold remains. And God
said, I'll give you trials if need be, fire. It's you pass
through it. And whatsoever is not faith,
not trusting Him, not believing Him, He'd purge it from you. He'd take it away from you. Whom,
having not seen, you love because you believe Him. In whom, though
now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your soul. Purging away that reminds me
of an illustration. I heard I'll give it to you and
we'll we'll end here, but I Remember I can't remember who said did
who told this illustration, but I remember fella had a big chunk
of wood and he was just carving on this chunk of wood with a
pocket knife and And he had all kinds of little dogs that he
had carved out and made all these little, just like little dogs. And somebody walked up to him
and they said, how in the world do you carve that out and make
those little dogs like that? He said, I just take away everything
that don't look like a dog. That's what God does. He takes
away everything. But what he's made takes everything
else away. Well, I hope that's an encouragement
to you. These all died in faith.