The exact same thing happened
to me when I was a boy. Years later, I remember a preacher
coming after the Lord revealed Himself to me. After he preached
and went home, I wrote him a letter. And that's all I wrote in. It
was, you have beautiful feet. And so does your preacher. I had a pretty good preacher
myself that I grew up under. So thankful. Didn't appreciate
him then like I do now. Turn with me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews
chapter 11. I just preached on grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourself. It's
a gift of God. We're going to look at faith. It's not of yourselves, and Paul
said there in Ephesians 1, if you believe, it's according to
the working of His mighty power. It's a gift to believe the truth,
to believe the true God, the true Christ. Now by faith, I'm
not talking about a doctrine, I'm not talking about a creed
or a system of beliefs. We're talking about knowing and
believing a person. Faith believes God. Faith believes
Christ. Faith believes the truth. There's
much said about faith in the scripture. You know that? Much
said. The just shall live by faith. See, we don't walk by sight.
We walk by faith. Here in this chapter, all of
these people believe the same God, the same Christ, the same
truth, didn't they? All of them. It says they all
died in the path. I remember years ago when I was
a young believer and I heard my dad preach on this. He said he was going to preach
on faith. At the time, I thought, And it didn't excite me to think
about it. But when he was finished, it
did. You see, faith is just another word for life. Christ in you. The life of God in you. He that
believeth on the Son hath life. You could swap out the word faith
for life or Christ, couldn't you? Or by grace, or you say,
through faith. Through Christ. It's life. You have life. And all these
people, these are stories that God put in His Word of people
just like us, saved by grace. Like Noah and Abraham and Abel. People just like us living in
a sinful world whom God chose and revealed Himself to them,
revealed Christ to them, revealed what they were. and their need
of a Savior. And they all believed. God gave
them this faith. And what I hope and pray is that
we, if we have this faith, we can get some comfort and assurance
that God has chosen us, that we belong to Him. The people
just like us, living in a sinful world, though it was a long time
ago, men and women are just the same. The world's the same. sinful
world, and they all lived by faith. An unseen God, an unseen
Christ, whom having not seen, Peter said, you love. Everybody doesn't have this gift.
Peter said to those who have obtained like precious faith,
if you believe how blessed you are, how precious, He's precious. It begins this way in Hebrews
11. Faith is a substance, a ground, a confidence of things hoped
for. What do we hope for? What do God's people hope for?
Eternal life. Don't we? Well, God has promised
that. The hope of eternal life that
God who cannot lie has promised unto those who believe, who trust
Christ. Blessed is the man that trusts
Him, that looks for Him to come and they want to be with Him
forever. Right? It's not what we hope for, it's
who. If you're married to someone, we're married to Christ and we
want to see him, it's like a bride whose husband has gone away and
can't wait for him to return. He says he's coming back for
him. We hope to be with him sometime. Will we? If you look for his
coming, you will. It's a substance, it's the ground
of things hoped for, it's evidence of things not seen. Faith itself
is evidence that God is. We believe God. Do you know how
few people believe God? I'm not talking about in God,
but believe God. Everybody says they believe in
God, a God, don't they? They've got all kind of imaginations. Romans 1 talks about their imagination
conjured up about God. We believe the God of the Bible,
the only God who is God. We believe Him, don't we? We
believe God is God. Only His people believe Him.
Why? Because He's revealed Himself to them. This is life eternal,
our Lord said, that they might know Thee, the only true God. And this God that people are
talking about that wants to and can't unless you let him and
tries and fails. He's a bystander in the affairs
of men and he's hoping everything turns out alright. That's not
God at all. Who needs Him? Our God is God. Darius said Daniel's God is God. Moses' God is God. Even Pharaoh
had to conclude that. This is God. I don't believe
Him. I don't love it. But He really
is. Everybody's going to find that
out someday. Salvation is to find out now and love that He
is God. About the evidence of unseen
God and unseen Christ. That's what Peter wrote in 2
Peter. So the whole world scoffs and mocks and says, where's the
promise of his coming? Everything continues like it
always has. Yes, it does because he's the one continuing it. Because
he's the one holding it in his hand. But he is coming. He's
coming back for his people. The unseen Christ, unseen kingdom. We sing that song, I love thy
kingdom, Lord. Don't you? Do you? Do you love
these things? The King. Verse 2 says, by it,
by faith, the elders obtained a good report. That doesn't mean
they got a good report card from God. Well, you get an A, you
get a B, you get a C. That's not what that means. See,
they heard the report. The gospel is a report. A good
report. And they received this. They
received Him. As many as received Him, John
1, 12 and 13 said. Though it's not of blood or the
will of the flesh or the will of man, but they're born of God.
They receive this good report, this good news. They hear the
good news. They hear the gospel and they
receive it, don't they? Brother Scott used to say, he
said, I ain't heard no bad news since I've heard the good news.
I know you've quoted that. A few more years and you'll have
quoted everything Scott and Henry said. And Barnard. They obtained a good report.
They heard the good news. This world has nothing but bad
news in it. Nothing but bad news. The news. Nothing but bad news.
God's people heard a good report. It's all good. All good in Christ. It's going to end up good. Oh,
that they were wise and would consider this their latter end.
The end for God's people is just the beginning. And the scripture
says their death is better than birth. Now get a hold of that. And nothing can really trouble
you too much. Because our God is working it all for our good.
Now through faith, verse 3, it begins with the Creator. We understand
the world's refrain by the Word of God. We understand that, don't
we? Why does science and all of that, why don't they understand
that? They're blinded. They're blinded. God blinded
their eyes. Heavens declare His glory, the firmament showeth
His handiwork, day unto day others speak. These things, His eternal
power and God are clearly saved by the things that are made.
But, so why don't they, blinded? That's just it. Blinded. Like
blind men in the scripture. Our Lord came and saved many
blind people. They were blind and He had to
give them eyes. Same way with all of God's people.
We understand that God made this world and that means He owns
it, He does with His own what He will, and we answer to Him. He's the judge of it, the owner
of it, the controller of it. And we're glad that so are. Alright,
He begins with several, I forget how many names, It begins with
Abel. Look at verse 4. By faith, Abel. Abel had this gift of faith that
God gave him. Life. Believe God. Believe Christ. Abel believed
Christ. See, that's what Abel did when
he brought this blood. You know that? God begins with
the blood, doesn't He? When he talks about faith in
God's people, he begins with Abel. Well, Abel came bringing
a sacrifice of blood before God, didn't he? Where did he learn
that? From his parents. They saw the
Lord, I believe it was the Lord Jesus Christ, in the garden with
them. Don't you, Brother Kevin? I believe it was the Lord Jesus
Christ who took that lamb and killed it right before their
eyes, before the first sinner. Shed that blood. They'd never
seen blood before. And they saw blood and that life
of that innocent lamb was ended. And He took that skin off of
them and covered these two guilty sinners full of shame and guilt
and covered them up. That's the atonement. And the
blood. One died that they might live
and covered them up. And Adam and Eve told their sons,
Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel. Both of them heard
the same truth that God is holy. God is righteous. soul that sins
shall surely die." We sinned, dead and trespassing, but God
took an innocent lamb, a sacrifice, a substitute, and killed it on
our behalf and its life ended. The blood was poured out and
covered us in that lamb's covering. Now that's Jesus Christ. And
they taught both of their boys that. Why didn't they both believe
it? Cain brought his works, didn't he? Cain brought his fruit. Cain
brought his flowers. Cain brought everything he produced. And God rejected it. And Abel
brought what God had given him, a lamb. Abel didn't raise that
lamb. God gave him that lamb. Abel brought the blood of another,
the sacrifice of another, a substitute before the Lord and said, Would
you accept this lamb on my behalf? I'm a sinner. I need to be covered. I'm a sinner. I need someone
to take my place. The Christ who's coming, this
represents my Christ whom I look to and depend upon for the salvation
of my soul. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. You
say he didn't, Abel didn't know. Yes, he did. All of God's people
know that. Christ said, Moses wrote of me,
didn't he? He said, Abraham saw my day and
he was glad. To him give all the prophets
wisdom. Every single believer who has this gift of faith knows
this. Beginning with Adam and Eve and
beginning with Abel, it's the blood that maketh atonement for
the soul. And not the blood of a bull or a goat or a lamb that
can't do it. It's the blood of God's Son who
is the Lamb of God that only takes away the sin of the world.
Every one of God's people know that. And Abel came bringing
that blood. He said, this is on my hope before
a holy God who is covered in his righteousness and my sins
are atoned for by his shed blood. Is that what you believe? Do
you really? As we said before, that's old
fashioned bloody religion. Come on now, we're an enlightened
generation. We're modern. This is California. Yeah, that's your problem. God
hadn't changed. He never will change. Christ
said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No man beginning
with Adam to Zerubbabel cometh unto the Father, but by me. How's
that? By my blood. By my sacrifice. God really is that holy. And
man really is that dead. And there really is only one
way. Is that what you believe? You know how blessed you are. Do you have any siblings that
think this is foolishness? Abel talked to Cain and said,
Cain, you heard what we heard. You heard what we heard from
our parents. You heard what God said to them. This is the way.
Cain said, I don't like that. God's not like that and I'm not
that bad and He'll accept the best that I do and look at what
I've done for Him. God's surely pleased with what I've done for
Him. No, he's not, brother. God's pleased with one thing,
Christ. Do you have any siblings? Do
you have any family? Do you have any parents that think this is
foolish? Why do you believe? You have a precious gift, don't
you? Verse 5, Enoch, and it begins
with a man who walked by faith, Enoch. faith, by faith Enoch
was translated. That's, it's transferred, he
was changed, that he should not see death. Why? Well, because
God translated him. Before his translation, he had
this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it's
impossible to please God. He believed God, just like Abel.
Did he believe in the blood? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He
sure did. He believed God. You know, he
walked with God. Scripture, Amos 3, 3 says, can
two walk together except they be agreed? You can't walk with
God unless you agree with God. You agree with God. Anak agreed
with God. Everything God said about himself,
Amos said, that's... Amen! Everything God said about
man, which was nothing good. It's all bad. None good. No,
not one. None righteous. No, not one.
And all together become filthy, stinking. Enoch said, Amen. That's me. God said, there's one way. You
come to me by the blood. Amen. Amos agreed with God. He walked with God. Noah walked
with God. Abraham walked with God. All
of God's people walked with God. They agree with God. You're not
going to walk with God if you don't agree with God. If you
don't love His Son, He doesn't love you. Isn't that right? He
didn't believe God. And so God says He didn't see
death. You know, none of God's people
are going to see death, not even going to taste it. You know that? Didn't he say
that? John 11? Martha, he that believeth
on me shall never die. You believe that? We've already, Scripture says,
passed from death unto life. That belief. It's life, faith. It's life of God and the soul
of man. We're going to be translated just like Enoch. One of these
days, Whatever God sends to take us out of here, we're going to
walk out of this world right on into glory. Translated. Why? Saved by grace, through
faith, by Christ. Look at the next, verse 7. By
faith, Noah. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen. It says Noah was a preacher of
righteousness, doesn't it? Peter said that. Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. He preached a holy and righteous
God that's going to destroy a sinful world. And the world rejected
it. They despised it. They didn't
believe that. Nobody in the world but about eight people believed
that. And again, I remind you, the Lord said, as in the days
of Noah, so shall it be with the Son of Mankind. The whole
world will scoff at this as ridiculous Do you believe? Have you been
warned that God really is that holy and righteous? That there's
one way, an arc, and He moved with fear. Fear? There's no... The transgression of the wicked
saith before my eyes that there's no fear of God before their eyes.
What the world is doing, it says they don't fear God. What religion
is doing says they don't fear God. The way they refer to God
says they don't know God, they don't fear God, they don't reference
God. What they're saying about man says they don't know God,
they don't fear God. God's people fear God, they really
do. They've been warned of God. They
fear God. Like you quoted that Psalm 2,
they rejoice with trembling. They serve with fear but rejoice
with trembling. Only God's people understand
that. Noah was moved with fear and
he prepared an ark to the saving of his household. He had those
three boys and their wives and his wife in that ark. He told
them all, I believe God, and it's the only
one we've got to be in this ark. And maybe Shem, Ham, and Japheth
said, Dad, come on now. Nobody believes that. He said,
I do. And every morning, you can get
up, boys, get your clothes on. We're going to the ark. That
sound familiar? Kevin, when we were born, we
thought that our parents are being cruel to us. They want
us to sit in the church all the time. You know, I'm a preacher's
kid. I've heard more preaching. We used to take our vacations
to go hear preaching. I didn't want to do that. I didn't. I can't wait to get out of here. Tina, I can't wait to get out
of here. Cruel and unusual punishment.
I'd sit here like that. That's what Noah said. Get up,
boys. Dad, it's everything. Nobody believes that. We're the
only ones that believe that! Man, get up, son! And one day, they were in that ark,
and that door shut. And that's the way it's gonna
be. He had one hope, one desire for
his children. He didn't care what education
they had, what they have done, what they've become in this world,
nothing! His one concern for his boys was they be in that
ark! If you really believe God, that's
your hope for your children, for yourself, for everybody.
Like Paul said, I want to be found in Christ! Do you believe that? If you do,
boy, you'll tell your children, you'll tell your spouse, you'll
tell your parents, you'll tell them, won't you? Get in the ark.
Come to Christ. You see, I really do believe
this. This is what's amazing. Isn't
it, Kevin? We really do in this modern world. No, we can't believe. We really
do. We're strange. That's what the Scripture says.
Strangers and pilgrims. Peter wrote, "...to the strangers
scattered all over the world and obtained life, precious faith
with us through the righteousness and blood of Jesus Christ." What
a blessing! What a blessed people! Abraham. One more. There's a bunch more. There's
just one more. Verse 8. Abraham. By faith, Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which
he should have to receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went
out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he sojourned. He walked with God. He believed
God. Did Abraham believe in blood? Oh, my! Christ said, Abraham
saw my day. When did he see it? He took his
son. His only son, Isaac. God said,
Take thou thy son, thy only son, whom thou lovest, unto a hill,
a mountain, that I will show you, and offer him there unto
me for a burnt offering. And Abraham got up early in the
morning, he believed God, and he took that son whom he loved
and walked up that mountain and took a knife to slay his son.
Now who would do that? But God had a substitute waiting
on his son. And they lay hold of that ram
as caught by his horn in the thickets. And Abraham slew that
ram, shed its blood, put it on that altar, and burned its body
as a burnt offer for his sin. And all the way down that mountain,
Abraham and Isaac are singing the praises of Jesus Christ,
their substitute. He saw his day. And he was glad. God called him, he said. He says,
when he was called, call the gospel. This is the gospel. There
is no other gospel. And this is how he calls his
people out of darkness into light, from death to life. This is how
he calls all his people. He calls all his people by the
gospel. We read it there in 2 Thessalonians. He called you by our gospel,
not another gospel, this gospel. He called you by the gospel.
How old was Abraham? when he was called. Seventy.
Seventy-five years old. How old was Willie? Pawpaw, you
call him Pawpaw? Any seventies? Can you tell a
seventy-year-old man anything? Really? I'm sixty-six. You can't hardly tell me. Can
you? Can you tell anybody anything
today? Abraham was seventy-five years
old. He was an idolater. He believed his daddy's religion,
his daddy's daddy's religion, he was steeped in it, okay? 75
years old. Had his mind all made up about
God and about this and that and the other. But God, one day,
called him, by his grace, called Abraham, Abram, what's his name? Changed him, changed his name,
changed his mind, changed his heart. Revealed unto Abram the true
and living God. And as we said, he saw that sacrifice
on his behalf, his son's behalf. Abram walked with God from then
on. He believed God. He was called. He was called. You may have heard this. I had a dog that I loved, named
him Abner. And I chose him, he didn't choose
me. I went down to a dog kennel. I'd already purposed to have
a dog. Now who needs dogs? Come on. I know you're dog lovers
out there, but they're just dogs. They never will be anything but
dogs. All right, who needs a dog? Well, I purposed to have a dog. He didn't purpose to have me.
I went to where the dogs were. And I chose him. He was the blackest
of the bunch. He was the only black one, wasn't
he? I chose him. I bought him. Now, you know how
many dogs are out there. You don't have to pay good money
for a dog. Well, I did. I paid money. I bought him. I signed the papers. I signed
a covenant concerning that dog. I brought him home. I brought
him home with me. He's my dog. He's my dog. Now I love dogs. I don't love
all dogs. All dogs aren't worth loving
I think. But I love my dog. Why? Because he's my dog. Right? And that's why I brought him
home. I taught him. I bought him. I brought him. I taught
him. The first thing I taught him
was when I call you." Well, actually
the first thing was, sit. He made us sit together and have
Him replace that. Made us! Lie down. Oh, the Lord is my shepherd.
He maketh me to lie down. Kevin, we were wild as a Red
River steer was. He had to make us sit. Lie down. He said, my sheep, hear my voice.
Then I taught Him to come. Come. Come. It's important. It didn't come. He'd roam astray,
won't he? He'd get himself in trouble.
Come. And he'd come. Come. Come. Didn't even have
to say his name. Come. Come. He'd come. I'm a
pretty good dog trainer. He'd come. Okay. When he got
old, he got old, and one day Mindy, she had a dog. Little dog. Wouldn't come. Little
shih tzu. aptly named. He wouldn't come,
but she loved him. That's her dog, not my dog. That's
her dog. Anyway, she came in the house
and said, Paul, there's a pack of dogs outside. I'm worried
about Charlie, little Charlie. Pack of dogs out there. Some
pit bulls and some without collars. And I went out there, and sure
enough, there they were. So, they were on my property.
You know, men are trespassers on God's earth. And He'll accept
whoever asks Him, whoever thinks Him. But men are trespassing.
Well, anyway, they left. And the next day, she came in
and said, they're out there back again. I'm going to do something about
those dogs. They're not going to hurt my
dog. So I went out there, and I looked. And my dog, Abner,
was right in the middle of the pack. My dog, running with the pack. Just like the rest of them. Hadn't he learned anything? He
was acting like a dog. You know what I did? Are we prone
to wonder? Are we like that? Can old sinners
act like sinners? Oh, my. Get mixed up with the
crowd again, can't we? Out there in the world and become
like the world, can't we? You know what I did? I said one word. Come! One dog came to my feet and sat
down and looked up at me like, if he could have talked, he would
have said, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was doing. Forgive me. I do. Why did he come? He's my dog. To whom come him? He calls all
His people by this gospel, same gospel, over and over again.
You keep coming back here. Why do you keep coming to hear
the same man, same message, do the same thing? Because you must
belong to Him. What a blessing. He's the Lord's
dog. Okay. The Lord bless you. May
He bless His Word. Thank you for having me. We pray
for you and love you. Y'all come see us again. Thank
you, Kevin.