I'm glad to be with you. It's
good to see you and I'm happy to be able to give Gabe a break. I know how it is and especially
he's not feeling well right now so I'm glad that I'm able to
to fill in for him. I can't tell you how many times
my dad has filled in for me over the years without pay. And then Brother Gabe did it
for years. My, my. And then he left. Now I don't have anybody to fill
in. But I'm glad to be here and I hope you can just sit there
and relax and enjoy this. Go back to Hebrews 11. Hebrews chapter 11, most of you
know this is a The whole chapter deals with faith, and it gives
many, many examples of saving faith, those who had this saving
faith, true faith. The faith, scriptures calls it
the faith of God's elect. Scriptures calls it the faith
delivered to the saints. By grace are you saved through
faith, and it's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's a
gift. It's a supernatural gift and
full of examples of people just like you and me. Men and women
who were given this wonderful gift of faith. The scriptures talk so much about
faith. It says that just shall live
by faith. Justified by faith. It says without
faith we cannot please God. Scripture says we walk by faith. So very many scriptures that
deal with faith, always beginning from the beginning of scripture
to the end, faith. And I hope through this message
that those who have been given this faith, those in here who
believe, will be comforted in knowing that you have this faith,
you have this gift of faith, that you will have assurance
in knowing, yes, this is me, that's me, I have this faith.
I have Abel's faith, I have Enoch's faith, I have Abraham's faith,
I have that faith, God has given me that faith. And perhaps someone
who doesn't maybe will call unto the Lord, give, I want that faith,
give me that faith. That's my prayer, that's my hope.
Now what is faith? Very simple. Faith means to believe. Faith means to believe God. To
believe God, not just believe in God, although we must believe
that he is. True faith is to know and believe
the living and true God, that God is God. reigning and ruling
and creator of all things, and the controller of all things,
the provider for all things. He is God, to know Him as God. But it's to believe God, to believe
what He says. True saving faith is to believe
everything God says about Himself, to believe what He says about
us, is to believe what He says about salvation, about Christ. True saving faith is to believe
God's Son, This is the record. This is what God has said throughout
his book, his Bible. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. And true saving faith
believes God's Son. Rests, trusts, look to Christ
and Christ alone. This is saving faith. I believe
I have that. I believe I've been given that.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and his name and his blood and his righteousness."
What about you? This is saving faith, the faith
of God's elect. All right, look at it. In verse
1, it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the
ground. It's the confidence. Why do we believe? The things
hoped for, he wrote in Titus chapter 1, he said, in hope of
eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised us before
the world began. Hope of eternal life. I hope
I have eternal life. I hope to dwell with God someday,
forever. I hope to be in his kingdom. I hope that. Well, what makes
you think you are? This faith. You believe God. You believe the record. You believe
what God is saying. It's the ground. It's the substance
of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. It's the evidence that God is.
It's evidence that Christ is. It's evidence that the Spirit
of God is. How else would a human being
who walks by sight, who only believes what he can see, one
day all of a sudden believes a God he can't see? Believes
in a kingdom he can't see? Believes in a Christ he can't
see? Believes with all his heart? And this saving faith is not
in the head, it's in the heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. You believe and you can't help
but believe because God gave you this saving faith. You believe. As seeing him, it said of Moses,
as seeing him who is invisible. Really, faith is life. It's just
another word for life. It's eyes given to the blind,
it's ears given to the deaf, it's a new heart given to those
that were dead in trespassing, a dead heart. It's a new heart,
a heart to receive, a heart to love, a heart to believe with
all your heart that God is, that Christ is. And wait for his coming. It's a miracle. It's a miracle.
If you have this precious faith, Peter wrote, to those who have
been given this like precious faith. And all of God's people
have the same faith. There's one Lord, there's one
faith. They all believe the same way.
We're going to look at these examples, some of them, not all
of them, but some of them. And we all believe just like
these people. just like all of them. In verse
two, it says, by this faith, the elders obtained a good report. A good report from whom? God. God. He that believeth on the
Son. God said, you believe my Son
and I'll accept you. Well, I do. I do. A good report. They all received
this report from God that they'd been accepted in the beloved.
They'd been received by God. Verse 3 says, through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so
that things which are seen are not made of things that do appear.
The first place he begins with this saving faith is to believe
that God is our creator. How many people today really
believe that? It's rare, isn't it? It's almost universally accepted
and believed that this thing of evolution, even so-called
Christians today believe in some kind of creationary evolution,
don't they? Not God's people. They know, they believe that
in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. How'd
he do that? He just spoke it into existence. Well, that can't
be. Well, it is. All of God's people do. without
exception, because they know that God is the creator, the
owner, the ruler, the judge. He said, cannot I do with my
own what I will? Yes, he can. That's his divine
right. And they know it and they believe
it. They believe that in him we live and move and have our
being. He provides everything for us.
He controls everything. And this is that faith that gives
them peace and comfort in a world that seems chaotic and under
the rule of evil. No, it's not. It's under the
rule of our God. He's our creator. He's our sovereign. He's our
controller. He's our provider. You believe that? He's God. So we understand. And this underscores
the fact And Romans 1 says that, you know, the things of God,
the things that God hath made, his eternal power and Godhead,
these things are clearly seen. Clearly seen. Why can't man see
it? Why can't the wise men of the
world, doctors and scientists, why can't they see it? This underscores
the fact that they're blind. It's so plain, isn't it? So obvious
when he gives you eyes to see. I love there's a Proverbs 8 verse
9 says it's all plain to him that understand it. If he's given
you an understanding, it's plain. We look and we see his hand in
everything, don't we? God's opened our eyes. We've
been given that faith. He's blinded the world. He's
hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed it unto
me. You see how precious this thing of saving faith is? See
what a gift it is? And I believe. Don't you, Tony? I remember as a young believer,
my pastor gonna preach on faith. I remember he said he's gonna
preach on faith. I thought, that's good. But after he got through,
I thought, that's good. I have that. This is for the comfort of God's
people and the glory of God who gave it. And maybe to inspire
the interest in someone. So look at verse four. Here's
the first person. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And by his offering, he
obtained witness he was righteous. God testified of his gifts. And by it, he being dead yet
speaking. We're still speaking about Abel.
Right now. He's been gone a long time, hasn't
he? This is the first example of saving faith. This is the
first example the Lord gives, because it's perhaps the most
important. Because every single other person mentioned here comes
the same way that Abel did. How's that? Blood. Because without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. Now, Cain
and Abel both heard this from Adam and Eve. They heard this. Who heard it? From God himself.
From Christ. Christ was in the garden. Christ
is the one that came walking, wasn't he? You know that. Christ
is the one who, right before the eyes of the first sinners,
killed a lamb. Shed its blood. Adam and Eve
had never seen blood before. They didn't know what blood was.
They had never seen death before. God told them, the day you eat,
you're going to die. They didn't know what death was.
Well, they saw it. Christ illustrated, he killed
a lamb right before their eyes and they were horror stricken,
oh that's death. That innocent lamb is dying that
we might live. And then he skinned that lamb
and covered their nakedness with that lamb skin and you know good
and well that he was telling them all the time, that's me.
Christ is saying, that's me, I'm going to come to this earth,
bruise the serpent's head, crush his head, crush his power, defeat
the God of this world, and I'm going to come and lay down my
life for my people. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. You know he was telling them that. And he left them,
put them out of the garden with this promise. Now, when I see
the blood, there's nothing new. They all have the same thing.
You come to me by a sacrifice. You come to me by a substitute.
You come by faith in me, your substitute. And so Cain and Abel
heard this from their parents. You know they did. Abel believed
God. He believed the record and he
believed the report. He believed the gospel that the
Lord preached to him. And so he came, they both came
one day to worship God and, and Abel brought the blood. And by
that, he's saying, I'm a guilty sinner. I deserve to die. My sins deserve to be punished.
But I'm coming by my substitute, by the coming Messiah. I come
pleading the blood of my substitute. Oh Lord, accept me in my sacrifice
of my coming substitute. And God did. And God said, he's
righteous. Cain, Cain didn't. Cain didn't like this bloody
religion. Cain thought, I like my works.
I like what I've done, didn't he? He heard the same message,
didn't he? He heard the same thing from
the same parents. And Cain didn't come that way.
He didn't like that way. He liked his way better and God
rejected him. Now, what is your, how do you
approach God? What is your faith? What's the
ground and the substance and the basis of your faith? What
is it? Blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us
from all sin. Do you have any siblings? Do
you have any brothers or sisters that are religious that don't
believe this way? Have you not talked to them about
this gospel? You know, good and well, Abel
talked to Cain about this and said, Cain, we both heard it.
We both heard is one way. You heard it as well as I did,
but Cain didn't believe it. Abel did. Well, why did Abel
believe it? God gave him this faith. And
Cain rose up angry at his brother, and he killed him. Our Lord said,
I've come to set a man at variance with his family. It could be
two in one house. One be taken, the other left.
One be given faith, the other won't. Anybody? Is this your faith? Is this what
you believe? Have you been given this faith?
Look at the next one. By faith, Enoch, verse 5. By
faith, Enoch was translated that he should not seek death. He
was not found because God translated him. And for his translation,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith,
it's impossible to please him. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. It says in the scriptures that Enoch walked with God, doesn't
it? Over in Genesis 5, I believe
it is. He walked with God, and one day he was no more. God took
him. He walked with God. Now Amos
3.3 said that can two walk together except they be agreed. He walked
with God. He agreed with God about everything. He said, let God be true, and
every man a liar. He believed what God said about
himself, everything. He believed what God said about
himself, not good, unrighteous, he believed it. He believed what
God said about this world, it's vanity, it's perishing, it's
present evil, he believed that. He believed that. He believed
what God said about salvation, he believed God. And he walked
with God, he communed with God. This thing of saving faith is
a relationship with God. It's God bringing an enemy of
his into a relationship with him. The relationship of a son
with a father, of a husband with a bride. That's what this faith
is. And he walked with God, Enoch
did. He talked with God. He communed with God. He lived
with him. He always thought about him.
Is that true? It is all of God's people. It
is all of God's people. He agreed with God. He walked
with God. And he walked in paths of righteousness. He didn't walk
with the world. The world said, Enoch, come and
go with us. He said, no. No. broken with God and his people.
And he was accepted by God. And God said he's righteous like
he did of Abel. Verse 7, by faith Noah, by faith
Noah being warned of God. Of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear. Noah was warned of God. It was not like people say today. False preachers have told everyone
for so long that God loves them and Jesus died for them, everybody
believes them, and there's no fear of God before they're out.
God told Noah plainly, and he tells his people plainly that
he's angry with the wicked every day, that he hateth all workers
of iniquity. God told Noah, he said, he looked
down upon the earth to see if there were any. He said, the
whole earth had corrupted my way. He said, the whole earth
is full of violence. He even said, it repented me
that I made man. He said, I'm going to destroy
man from the face of the earth. That's what he told Noah. But
Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord, didn't he? God said to Noah, Noah, I have chosen you.
I have loved you. I have come to reveal myself
to you. I've come to show you the way
to escape. There's an arc. I have designed
an arc, Noah, and all who get in that arc, all whom I put in
that arc, will be saved when the overflowing scourge of my
wrath comes through. Noah, get your family and get
in that arc." And God was in that arc and said, come thou.
Now and now hasten that ark. And then when he came into that
ark, by God's power, by God's grace, it says the Lord shut
him in and pitched that door on the
outside. And God's people are shut up to faith. What is your
faith? It's in Christ the ark. We've
been warned of God. We've been warned of God. Haven't
we? And we move with fear. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? Fear of
the Lord. And all those who fear him, God
tells them of Christ, the ark of safety, of salvation. The
love of God is where? It's in Christ. The love of God
was not on the outside of that ark, it was on the inside of
that ark. Everybody in that ark God loved. That's my hope. That's my faith. Verse 8, By
faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which
he should after receive, were inherited, obeyed, and went out,
not knowing whether he went. Abraham was 75 years old when
God called him. He was steeped in his idolatry.
He was in religion. He didn't know God. He wasn't
calling on God. He wasn't looking for God, was
he? What saved Abraham's salvation? God called on him. God came to
him, God called him out. Oh, we're bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel, called you where? Out, out of this world, out of
darkness into light, out of death into life. I've been reading
through Exodus, and all through the book of Exodus, God talks
to the people about how he's bringing them out. He's bringing
them out. And here it says, they have here
no continuing city. We're going out. Out. He's bringing us out. He's bringing
us up into his marvelous kingdom. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called, he went out. He went out. He left his father.
He left his family. How many of you were in religion
and believed what your parents believed? And God called you
out, didn't he? Is that your story? God called
you out. And he went out. And by faith
he sojourned. Look at verse 9. He sojourned
in the land of promise as in a strange country. He was a stranger
in a strange land. a sojourner, he's a pilgrim.
They all confessed it, that they were strangers and pilgrims in
the land. And the people all around them
that they came into contact with said, you have a strange God.
You have strange doctrine. You all have strange beliefs.
How about you? When you go to work or you go
to your family and you tell them about this God that you now know
and believe in, they say, that's strange doctrine. The whole world
believes the same thing, don't they? But God's people, don't
they believe this strange doctrine? Strangers, wandering, and they
said down in verse, oh, look down at verse 13, they all died
in faith. If you've been given this faith,
you'll die in faith. Oh, how I want to die in faith.
We just buried one of our dear men, a long time member, instrumental
in bringing me to Rocky Mount, Brother Henry Sword. He died,
he sat right there on the second row from the day I came there
until the day he died. Died in the faith, believing
soundly, strongly. These all died in faith. Verse
13, they didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and
were persuaded of them. Are you persuaded? Paul said,
I know whom I have lived, and I'm persuaded. Can anything or
anyone dissuade you? Anything you see on TV, anything
somebody comes up with, anything new that somebody says, can it
dissuade you? Can it persuade you in another
way? Ain't no way. No, not if God
gives you this faith. If it's right here, somebody
can change it. But if it's right here, and if
God did it, nobody's going to change it. It's yours. They were
persuaded, verse 13, embraced. It's not just believing with
your head. It's laying hold. It's loving
the truth, loving the truth. God has given us a love for the
truth. And they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims,
and they all said they declared plainly they seek a country.
If they'd been mindful or thinking all the time about the country
they came out of, they might have gone back. But no, they
desire a better country. How about you? I mean, really. A better country. So God's not
ashamed to call them God. They're not ashamed. of this
gospel, they're not ashamed of his people, and so God's not
ashamed of them. He's prepared for them a city.
By faith, verse 17, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up
Isaac, his only son. Now, there's not a more glorious
picture of Christ and him crucified in all the Bible. Genesis 22,
the gospel on Mount Moriah, when Abraham took Isaac up there to
sacrifice him, that is Christ, the willing, beloved son who
the Father took and killed him in our stead. What a gospel picture
that is. But this is a true story. This
is a true man. This is a real man. This is a
real sinful man living in a world like we live. Man just like you
and I had to walk by faith and God told him to take your only
son whom you love, whom he loved dearly. He said, you take him
up on that mountain, you kill him. Now that's impossible. Man won't
do that. Jared, he did it, didn't he?
He said, okay. Can a man love God more than
he loves his flesh and blood? After he did that, that's what
God said, now I know that you love me. You have not withheld
thine only son whom you love, that you'd rather have me, you'd
rather lose him than lose me. How about you? How about you? John Bunyan. that great preacher
who wrote Pilgrim's Progress. He was put in prison for preaching
the truth. And they told him, if you'll just quit preaching,
we'll let you out of prison. He said, I can't do it. Like
Simon Peter and all of them who were beaten, and all of these
people, they would not accept deliverance, it says. They were
sawn asunder and thrown into lines then, like Daniel, and
thrown in the pit of fire, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and said, we will not bow to your God. I don't care if you
throw us in the furnace or not. How about you? Can a man love
God, know God that well, and love God that he'll forsake his
own flesh and blood? Yes, sir. It must be. Our Lord said, if any man loved
father, mother, son, or daughter more than me, he's not worthy
of me. John Bunyan, they put him in prison. He had a blind
daughter about the age of Sophie there. He loved her dearly. She
was the apple of his eye. And his wife would bring that
blind daughter to prison where John Bunyan was almost daily. And that little child would plead
with her daddy. Daddy, come home. Do you know
what that did to him? What did he do? No, sir. I must tell the truth. He believed
God. Oh, aren't you glad? Aren't you
glad he stayed there? Aren't you glad God gave him
that faith? He wrote that blessed book, Pilgrim's Progress and
Holy War. Aren't you glad? How about you? How about you? Look at this,
verse 20, by faith Isaac blessed Jacob at Esau concerning things
to come. Now Esau was Isaac's favorite,
wasn't it? Isaac preferred Esau over Jacob,
didn't he? Jacob was a mama's boy, Rebecca's
favorite. Isaac loved Esau. But you know
what God told Isaac? Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. And you know what Isaac said?
It's the Lord. Can you say that? God shouldn't
save anybody. He says anybody is great mercy.
If God saved one of our children, or both of our children, it would
be wonderful mercy. But if He didn't save any of
them, we have several brethren. The Lord hadn't been yet pleased
to save their children. You know what they say? They
say like Eli, it's the Lord. And they can rejoice in the salvation
of someone else's children as much as their own. Can you say
that? If God didn't save your children, if he saved someone
else's, could you rejoice? That's what Isaac did. He loved
Esau. God said, I hate Esau. He's real
thankful God loved Jacob. He's real thankful God loved
him. Jacob, when he was dying, blessed
both the sons of Joseph, worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff. This was Jacob's dying bed. Jacob was an old man, 175 years
old or something like that. He was old and he was blessing
Joseph's son Manasseh and Ephraim. And what was he blessing them
with? What was he telling them? What
was his legacy? What was he leaving them? What
did he want them to know? Now son, you need to save your
money. Now son, you need to give a good education. Now boys, you
need to know God. All this is vanity. Isn't that
what you want for your children? Isn't that the legacy you want
to leave with your children? Isn't that the dying word you
want them to hear from your mouth? Leaning on the top of his staff,
he was an old man. Jacob complained about being
so old. He wanted to go home, he wanted
to leave. He told Pharaoh, he said, few and evil have been
my days here, my years. He wanted to go home and he didn't
know why he was still around. You didn't know why he was still
living so long. My dad's like that right now. He's 90 years
old. He's 10 years over four score. And he wants to go home
so bad. And one of the brethren, Britt
Wortham, preached a message on this. Isaac, Jacob blessing the
son, bless the lads. And he said this, he said, I
know why Brother Henry's still around. He said, I know why. He wonders why he's still around.
He said, I know why he's still around. He said, so I can see
his faith. As a witness, he sits right over
there and listens to the gospel like he's never heard it before,
like a little child. Every message he hears is the
best message he ever heard. And I'm his son, his sinful son,
his prodigal son. Now that's faith. You can hear
the gospel when you're about ready to die 100 years from now.
And you still love it the day you heard it. That's saving faith. That's when the gospel's gospel.
When it never gets old, it's always good news. Oh, may God
give us this faith. One more, look at, oh no, two
more. By faith, Joseph made mention
of his bones. You remember that story? knew that they were going to
leave, that God was going to take the children of Israel out
of Egypt. And Joseph begged and commanded,
he said, you all are leaving here, dig up my bones and take
me with you. He said, don't leave, don't bury
me in Egypt. And you know, when Christ comes
for his people, he's going to raise these vile bodies, isn't
he? He's going to raise our bodies out of the ground. Every one
of God's people is going to be raised To be with the Lord forever. And all of God's people say,
don't leave me here. Come get me. Don't wait. Don't leave me here with the
Egyptian to perish. Take me. By faith Moses. When
he was born, that's his parents. His parents saw he was a proper
child. They were not afraid of the king's commandment. What
they did, by faith, they committed that child to the Lord, totally,
lock, stock, and barrel. They had this child that they
loved. They saw this beautiful child that they loved. True story.
And they committed that child totally to the Lord. Lord, take
him. Would you please watch over him?
Would you please make him your own? Would you please save him? We can't save him. That's saving faith. That's what
parents who know God believe. That Lord, if you don't save
my child, I can't save him. If you don't take him. Your pastor, he said this. before
they ever had children. He said that. He said, he told
me, he said, if the Lord doesn't, if I have children that are not
God's elect, I'd rather not have children. Didn't you? Or don't
give us children if they're not His elect. That's somebody who
knows the Lord. And then Moses, verse 24, was
come to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. He esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt. He forsook Egypt, not fearing
the wrath of the king. He endured. I see in him that's
invisible. Moses, by faith, Moses. When
it came to years, God gave him this saving faith. And God opened
his blind eyes to see that Egypt with all of its finery, Egypt
with all of its riches, Egypt with all its treasures, Egypt
with all... Moses was next in line to be
Pharaoh, wasn't he? Fame and fortune, he said, it's
all vanity. And he looked at those pilgrims,
those traveling Israelites who had nothing, those slaves who
some of them knew God, and he said, they've got what I don't
have. I've got everything, but I have
nothing. They have nothing, but they have everything. They know
God. That's what I want. That's who I want to be with.
Esteeming the reproach for Christ, greater treasures, and all the
riches of Egypt. This little ark right here, There
is no place on earth like it. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
this place than dwell in the tents of the wicked, wouldn't
you? I'd rather travel with God's people than be settled down in
this world with the rest of them. How about you? It says in chapter
12 that we're encompassed with this great cloud of witnesses. Great cloud of wit, so many,
so many more examples. People just like whom God gave
us, gave this saving faith to. Do you have this faith? Do you
believe like Abel? Do you come by blood? Do you
believe like Enoch? Do you call on God? Do you walk
with God and his people? Do you? Abraham, were you called
out? Noah, were you warned? Do you see that Christ is at
heart? Moses, do you esteem Christ and his people and the things
of God, greater riches than anything this world has to offer? Do you? Well, you have this saving faith.
What a gift. Blessed be the Lord. I hope the
Lord will give that to somebody else in here. Okay, may the Lord
bless this boy.