Now there in Hebrews chapter
11, I want to talk to you a few moments this morning about faith,
assurance, and conviction. It's the title of the message.
Faith, Assurance, and Conviction. In verse 1 it says, Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Now let's begin by considering
just the word faith. That word, that word faith in
the New Testament is translated usually into three English terms.
Obviously the word faith, we have it there. And of course
people put their own definition on faith and what it means and
what it's about. Most people think faith is the
product of man's Own free will, it's not. Bible says it's a gift
of God. If you have faith, it's a gift
of God. We quote so often, Ephesians
chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, lest any
man should boast. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Christ himself said not everyone
has faith. So it's a gift from God. So if
you have it, that's a blessing, isn't it? It's an amazing blessing
of God's grace in Christ. Faith is the fruit of what Christ
accomplished. It's not the cause, it's not
the ground. Faith is the evidence of the new birth. The Bible speaks
of those who receive Christ. Now, how do you receive Christ?
Well, you receive him by faith. But he says they're not born
of the flesh, not born of blood, which means natural birth. That
which is born of flesh is flesh. Nor the will of man, nor the
will of the flesh, that's the works of man, nor the will of
man, that's the will of man. In other words, it doesn't come
from us. It comes from God. They're born
of God, he says. The second word that we Commonly
see this word translated is believe or belief or believing forms
of that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ You shall be saved Believe
believe believe people say well believe well, what are we to
believe? That's the point. You know of this whole thing
of faith and belief and then another word that's commonly
translated by from this word is trust Trust, trusting Jesus. We sing a hymn, trusting Jesus,
that is all. And that all is a lot. Trust. Somebody said one time that it
is impossible for the natural man to believe, to have faith,
unless God the Holy Spirit gives him that faith. And that's true.
Faith is a God-given response to God's faithfulness. You see,
it's not our faith or our faithfulness that is the ground or cause of
salvation. It's God's faithfulness. God,
Christ's faithfulness. You know, the Bible speaks of
God being faithful. What does that mean? I honestly
heard this one time. This was years ago. I can't remember
who said it. Some false preacher. But he said, God believes in
you. God believes in you. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. We're nothing. In fact, the psalmist said God
didn't put any trust in his saints. He said that. I don't remember
which psalm it was. I'd have to look it up. But he
didn't put any trust in his saints. This thing about God's faithfulness
is not God believing in you or God believing in me. It's God
believing in himself. And we'll see that in just a
moment. But when it talks about God's faithfulness, it's simply
speaking that God does what he says he'll do. Always, never
fails. If he says he's gonna save sinners,
he's gonna save sinners and he doesn't put his trust in you
to help him do it or to do any of it. Because then it would
be a failure. And if you don't believe that,
I'll tell you what your problem is. You think too highly of yourself. That's so it, that's the pride
of man. So faith is not the cause of salvation. It's not the condition
of salvation. If somebody were to ask you,
what are the conditions of salvation? What would you tell them? I'll
tell you what I would say. I'd say righteousness. That's
the condition. Well, who's going to fulfill
that? The Bible here over in verse 7 speaks of the righteousness
which is by faith. Does that mean God accepts my
faith in the place of righteousness? No. No, that's not what it means
at all. What is righteousness by faith?
That means believing in the Lord Jesus Christ who was faithful
to fulfill all righteousness. Remember when He began His public
ministry as recorded in Matthew chapter 3, He came to John the
Baptist and said, And John said, well, I'm not worthy to baptize
you. He said, you don't understand, John. This is not about you.
It's about me. That's what he was actually saying there. He
says, suffer it to be so for us to do what? To fulfill all
righteousness. And then that's when he was baptized.
That was a picture of his death, burial, and resurrection to fulfill
all righteousness. You see, the gospel is not salvation
conditioned on you. Because if it is, I got news
for you. That's not good news for you or for me. The gospel
of salvation conditioned on Christ. And here's the good news. He
fulfilled all conditions, all requirements, all of the stipulations
of the covenant. That's why he's called the surety
of the covenant. So our faith is not the cause
or the condition or the ground of salvation. It's His faith
that is the cause and the condition of salvation. And so we trust
Him by the grace of God. So faith is a God-given response
to God's faithfulness and His promise of salvation for sinners
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. The foundation of faith is the
Word of God. And I'll say more about that
in just a moment. The object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ
as the redeemer of his people. Romans 10.4, Christ is the end,
the fulfillment, the perfection of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe. And the proof of faith is repentance
and obedience motivated by love. In other words, if you come to
Christ in faith, you turn away from everything else as far as
salvation is concerned. You can't have two saviors. He's
the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
So if you truly believe in Him, you don't believe in anything
or anyone else for salvation, for righteousness, for forgiveness.
That's why these folks will tell you, well, it's Christ plus baptism. Oh, no. You've got to repent
of that baptism thing. Turn to Christ. He's it. You say, well, why should I be
baptized at all? To confess your faith in Him. You see what I'm
saying? That's what it's all about. Turn
away from everything else. Paul said it, I count all things
but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Not having
my own righteousness which is of the law. The things that I've
gone through, the things that I've experienced have nothing
to do with causing my salvation or making me righteous before
God. It's all Christ. He's the object of faith. He's
the foundation of faith. And if you're looking anywhere
else but Christ and Him crucified and risen for all righteousness,
for all forgiveness, for all glory and eternal life, then
you don't believe in Him. You don't have the gift of faith. The proof of faith is repentance.
And then obedience motivated by love. Now that doesn't mean
perfection in yourself. Because if that's the case, then
we might as well just close the book and go on home now. Watch
a football game or whatever you do on Sunday afternoon. Obedience is what? It's following
Christ. And you know a big part of that
obedience is continually admitting our sinfulness. That's called
repentance. That's a continual repentance,
isn't it? Lord, I am not what I should be, and I'm not what
I want to be, and I'm not what I will be, but I believe in Him,
and I know Him. All right, secondly, consider
substance. Now look here, it says, now faith
is the substance of things hoped for. If you look in your concordance,
you might have the words ground or confidence. I call it assurance,
it's the same thing. Faith is the ground or confidence
of things hoped for. Now remember I told you faith
is not the ground of salvation, Christ is. But he's talking about
things hoped for here, the assurance of things hoped for. What is
that hope? Well that hope there is a certain expectation of a
promise given by one or from one who's able to fulfill it
and willing to do so. Now if you're going out the door
today and I look at you and I say, I promise to give you a million
dollars on Monday, you can forget it. Number one, I don't have it.
And if I did have it, I might not be willing to give it. But now if God says he's going
to give you something, you can bank on it. That's what it's
talking about here. This assurance here, this substance
here reflects Paul's use of the Holy Spirit as an earnest or
the down payment. We're given the Holy Spirit as
an earnest of what's to come, a guarantee. We know the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ, you see. He rose again from the
dead. And so we who know Him and believe
Him and trust Him, we are assured of Heaven's glory because of
Him. That's part of that strong consolation.
Look back a few pages to Hebrews 6. Look at verse 17. And here's the ground of that. It says in verse 17, He's talking
about the assurance that Abraham had. And he says in verse 17,
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise,
the heirs of promise are those who believe, that's what the
scripture teaches us. Trust Christ. The immutability
of His counsel, in other words, God's not going to change His
word, what He promised, He's not going to change it. And confirmed
it by an oath. Now this oath thing is interesting.
You know how you swear an oath. You know, and Scripture teaches
this in several different places. We won't turn to all of them
this morning, but it talks about how, in verse 18, that by two
immutable things, two things that cannot change, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, let God be true and every
man a liar, we might have a strong consolation. Okay? Now that's what that substance
is about. It's that strong consolation. That's a strong comfort. a strong
hope, assurance, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the
hope which set before us. Now, what hope is set before
you? Is it a hope of salvation because you do something or do
not do this or do not do that? Is that the hope that's set before
you? Well, that's not the hope I'm setting before you. In fact,
if that's the hope you have, I can tell you that's wishful
thinking. That's a failure. The hope that I'm setting before
you and what God's Word sets before us is the hope we have
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on what He has done, what
He has accomplished, you see. Now I can have a strong assurance,
a strong consolation, substance, that's substance, you see. And
it says here, the hope that is set before us, which hope we
have is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. You
see all this language? which entereth into that within
the veil, whether the forerunner for us entered, Christ entered
the veil, he entered the very presence of holy God for his
people with the work of his blood, his death, even Jesus made an
high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now what
are these two immutable things that he speaks of? Well, that's
his promise and his oath. What is that oath? Well, you
know, it said, look up in verse 16, it says, For men verily swear
by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end
of all strife. This is two men coming to agreement
on something and they swear an oath and they swear by something
greater. Something greater than themselves.
Okay? And that's supposed to be a confirmation
of the agreement. Now when God swears an oath,
How could he swear by something greater than himself? There's
nothing greater than God. So who does he swear by? He swears
by himself. And what that means is this,
he stakes his own reputation behind the fulfillment of that
promise. And that's something. You see,
in the salvation of sinners, it's not my honor or your honor
that's the issue here. Now that's the way false preachers
will preach it though. You do your part. You can use Christ as a gloating
stand upon which you can stand up and boast of your own free
will or something. No, no. It's God's honor. God's glory is at stake here.
So that if even one sinner died and went to hell for whom Christ
died, God would lose his honor. That's impossible. It's impossible
for God to lie. Now, that's the substance. That's
real substance, isn't it? My reputation, my honor, that's
no substance for you or for me, because it can get tarnished,
believe me, whether by slander or by something that really sticks. But with God, it's not so. That's
assurance, isn't it? We stand upon the glory of God
in Christ. And in Christ we see how every
attribute, everything about God's nature is honored and magnified,
revealed. How? In the salvation of a sinner
by His grace through Christ. The Shekinah glory. Consider
evidence. Look back here at Hebrews 11.
He says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. That word evidence is conviction. Faith, assurance, and conviction.
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. In other words, I'm
convinced. That word conviction means to
be convinced. I'm convinced of the reality
of things that I don't see with the natural eye. Now, you can launch out into
fantasy there and be a candidate for the mental home or you can
believe God's word. A lot of people, they launch
out onto these fantasies. But this is no fantasy. And let
me show you what that conviction is all about. Turn over to John
16. This is what that conviction is all
about. And it's a conviction that's
brought about by the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit operates in
the new birth to impart faith, which is the impartation of knowledge,
that's what it is. That word, that Greek word for
faith, there's a branch of philosophy called epistemology that they
get out of it and it means the study of knowledge. That's what
it is. That's what it is. So, faith is not just, it's not
this leap in the dark. Or what Thomas Aquinas called
the leap of faith. What they say is, well, you go
along, you go along and you're learning these things and then
all of a sudden you come to the cliff and you've got to jump
off the cliff and just hope that God will keep you from being
smashed at the bottom. They call that the leap of faith.
That's not what this is. It's a conviction. We're going
to see it's based on God's Word. But look here, here's what the
Holy Spirit does when He imparts faith. He brings the sinner to
conviction. Now look at verse 5. Now Christ
is speaking to His disciples here. And He says in verse 5
of John 16, But now I go my way to Him that sent me. Now who
sent Him? The Father. He says, I'm going
to the Father. Now, how's he gonna go to the
Father? Hold on to that thought. And none of you asking me, whither
goest thou? Now, he's talking about in that
specific context, and he says in verse six, but because I have
said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. They
were sorrow, the disciples, they were sorrowful that he was going
to leave them. But look at verse seven, he says,
nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient, that
means necessary, for you, that I go away. In other words, this
journey that he's taking away from them, it's necessary for
them for if I go not away, the comforter. Now that's the Holy
Spirit. That word means advocate. Christ
is our advocate in a mediatorial sense. The Holy Spirit is our
advocate by way of comforting us, by drawing us to Christ. And he says the comforter will
not come unto you. Now what that teaches us is this,
that the work of the Holy Spirit is the fruit and the result,
the product, the effect of what Christ does on the cross, has
done on the cross. You see he says if I don't go
away, if I don't go to this journey, You know the journey. He's got
to go to Jerusalem. He's got to be arrested. He's
got to be accused. He's got to be tried. He's got
to suffer. He's got to go to the cross.
He's got to bleed. He's got to die. He's got to
be buried, raised again. He's going to the Father. That's
how he's going to get there. All of that that he goes through,
for what purpose? To fulfill all righteousness.
If I don't do that, there'll be no work of the Holy Spirit.
That's what he's saying. There'll be no life to give unless
he dies. The life of the children of God, the spiritual life, the
eternal life, is the result of the death of Christ. That's why
old John Owen called it the death of death and the death of Christ.
O death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?
You see, the sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the
law. But we've been delivered from
the law. We're dead to the law by the body of Christ. So the
death of Christ is life for his people, and that reached all
the way back to the Old Testament. Even the promise and the certainty
of his dying on Calvary 2,000 years ago was granted to Abel. You say, why do you bring up
Abel? Because that's the first one in Hebrews that's brought up
there in the Hall of Faith. And so life given, alright? So
he says, if I don't go away, verse 7 of John 16, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he's come, now look
at verse 8, here's this conviction now. When he has come, he will
reprove. That word reprove means convince. It's a word for conviction. He's
going to bring you to a conviction and the world here is talking
about his elect all over the world. He's not going to convince
everybody without exception in the world of these things. There
are going to be multitudes who die in unbelief. But he's talking about he's going
to convince them. Why does he say world them? Because these Jews thought
it was just for them and not for the Gentiles. That's why. They were prejudiced. And what
he's telling us has nothing to do with whether you're a Jew
or a Gentile. It has to do with what Christ accomplished. And
he says, reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. So here's three things now of conviction. You know, this December I've
been here ten years. Isn't that something? I think
the first message I preached here as pastor was right from
this passage right here. Holy Spirit conviction. I don't
know if I titled that right or not, but that I think it was
one of the first messages I preached you But it's here's the three
things number one. I've seen is the verse not of
sin Not just that I'm imperfect. I know that you know that we're
all imperfect But not just that but I've seen now look the next
because they believe not on me. I Now some people say, well that's
talking about the sin of unbelief. It is, but it goes further. It
means this. It means this, that without Christ,
I am nothing but sin. And can do nothing but sin in
the eyes of God. If I don't have Christ, where
does that leave me? In sin. That's what the Holy
Spirit is going to convince me of. I'm talking about the best
of me or the best of you. Without Christ, it's all sin.
Without His blood, we're saying there's power in the blood. Without
the blood, there's no power to put away sin. Without Christ, all I am is sin,
all I do is sin in the sight of God. I might be new and improved
today. I might turn over a new leaf.
I might join a church. I might get baptized a thousand
times. But without Christ, it's all
sin. And all deserves death. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. I've heard preachers who claim
to believe the gospel. say that there's going to be
people of all religions in heaven. Well, my friend, Buddha cannot
remove your sins. Mohammed cannot do that. Can't
put away sin. The Holy Spirit will convince
you, if you're convicted, if you truly have this faith that
he's talking about, that if you don't believe on Christ without
Christ, you have no righteousness before God, You have no forgiveness. You have nothing. No goodness.
There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none good.
No, not one. That's the first thing. That's
total depravity. That's what that is. And then
verse 10. He said He's going to convict
us of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no
more. Now how did Christ go to the Father? How did He go to
the Father? He didn't just sprout wings and
fly up there, did he? He went the way of the cross.
What was he doing on that cross? He was fulfilling all righteousness
to be accepted of the Father. That's how he went there. He
went there as the representative of his people. He went there
as the substitute of his people. He went there as the advocate,
the surety, the one who paid the debt, who was made sin. Our
sins charged to Him, imputed to Him, and He died for those
sins. He died, went into the grave,
arose again the third day, and He ascended unto the Father as
the righteousness of God. That's how He went there. What's
He saying? The Holy Spirit is going to convict
us that all our righteousness is in Christ. Not in me, not in you, not in
anybody but Christ. He is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord
my righteousness. I have no righteousness but Him.
If you find righteousness anywhere else, you haven't been convinced
of righteousness because He went to the Father. And then here's the third thing,
verse 11. Of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. Now who's the prince of this
world? That's Satan. When was he judged? Well, John chapter
12, back a few pages, you read it. I think it's verses 32 and
33. Christ said it this way. He says, now is the prince of
this world cast out or judged. What was he talking about? He's
talking about his death on the cross. Now, how could you say
that when Christ died, the prince of this world was judged? Well,
what is the devil? What is the prince of this world?
Let me show you. Turn to Revelation 12 real quick.
Now you've seen this before, but listen to this. He's talking about verse 9 of
Revelation 12. And this is just one of the many
scriptures we could go to about this. But listen as it's said,
the great dragon. Revelation 12 verse 9, the great
dragon. He was cast out. Christ said
he was cast out when he died. That's what he was talking about
in John 12. Remember that's when he said, except a seed of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it won't bring forth fruit. And
then he talked about his death. And he said, now is the prince
of this world cast out. And verse 9 says, the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, all
of his many names, which deceiveth the whole world. That's the world
of unbelievers, isn't it? He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him and I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. Now that was fulfilled
in time at the cross. And he said, for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down. Now do you hear that? The accuser
of our brethren. That's what Satan does. He accuses.
He charges you. You can't take this fellow to
heaven. He's a sinner. That's the accusation. Alright? Which accused them before our
God day and night. Now look at verse 11. Now listen
to this. And they overcame him how? You see that? By the blood
of the Lamb. You know what? That's what removes
the accusation, the blood of the lamb. And he says, and by
the word of their testimony. What's the word of our testimony?
Christ and him crucified. I plead Christ. I have an advocate,
Jesus Christ, the righteousness. I'm washed in his blood. I'm
clothed in his righteousness. None of the accusations of the
devil stick. He can accuse, but nobody can
charge me before God's bar of justice. Who shall anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justify. And he
said, they love not their lives unto death. They love Christ. What he's saying is this, Holy
Spirit's gonna convince us that our sins have already been judged
as they were charged to Christ. And he put them away. And like
that old scapegoat put out into the wilderness never to be seen
again, sin imputed to our Savior and righteousness imputed to
us. There's the three things. Now go back to Hebrews 11. Right
there, that's the conviction. Now faith is the substance, the
assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things
not seen. I know my sins are put away by
the blood of the Lamb. I haven't seen that with the
physical eye. But I know it's so. Because God
said it. Now, I'm not going to go through
this whole chapter obviously, but listen. Let me give you some
applications of this. Look back up at the last two
verses of Hebrews 10. He says, Now the just shall live
by faith. The justified. That's who that's talking about.
Now who are the justified? What is it to be justified? It's
to be righteous before God. It's to have my sins put away.
I'm not guilty. I'm a sinner. But I'm not guilty
in the sense that I am liable to damnation. Because Christ
took my damnation. That's what He did on the cross.
I'm not guilty. I'm righteous in God's sight.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
That's the justified. How are we justified? By grace. By what Christ did. And the justified
shall live by faith. Now what is to live by faith?
It's to live my life looking to and resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Pleading his blood for my sin. Pleading his righteousness for
my justification. And he says if any man draw back,
that's apostasy. That's what he's talking about
there. To draw back means to just totally out and out reject
Christ. He said, my soul shall have no
pleasure in Him. But look at verse 39, but we're
not of them who draw back unto perdition. True believers will
never apostatize, fall back, totally reject Christ. We'll
get sidetracked, we'll get off the kilter, but we'll never,
never totally leave Christ. And the reason is, is because
God preserves us by His grace. That's why Christ said, my sheep
hear my voice. They'll never perish. He says,
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. You see that? That's how they live. Now look
down at chapter 11, verse 2. For by it the elders obtained
a good report, a good testimony. That's what he's talking about.
Those elders, who's he talking about, those elders? Well, he's
going to list a bunch of them there. He's going to list Abel
and Enoch and Noah and Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, he's going to
go down through, Moses, he's going to go down through there
and he's going to list a bunch of them. And those elders obtained a good testimony and
approval. Now how did they do that? Well,
the world says it's by our performance. Now think about it. The world says you obtain a good
testimony by your performance of what you do, what you don't
do. Alright? Well that's not how the elders
obtained a good testimony. Now there were times, you think
about Abraham, there were times that he was obedient. He was never perfect in anything
he did. His perfection was like my perfection,
seeing Christ. But there were times when he
was obedient. But there were times when he wasn't. How did he obtain a good testimony?
Not by his performance. How? By looking to Christ. Christ,
when he spoke of Abraham, he said, Abraham, rejoice to see
my day. And he saw and he was glad. Think about Moses. There were times Moses was obedient.
There were times that he wasn't. But how did he obtain a good
testimony? Well, Christ said, Moses wrote of me. Looking to Christ. Their lives
of faith did not save them, but evidence the spirit and grace
of God in them. So they retained a good report.
Now look at verse three. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Now
the word, word there. You know, sometimes you see the
word word, W-O-R-D, and like for example, in John chapter
one, that's the word logos, or logos, however you wanna pronounce
it, L-O-G-O-S, that's the Greek word. And that's Christ, he's
the eternal word of God. He's the incarnate word. John 1, 14, the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. And then sometimes we'll see
the word scripture, that's the written word, Well, here the
word is the spoken word, the preached word. It says, through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God. God spoke. And,
you know, some people say, well, you know, God didn't have to
say it. All he has to do is think it. Well, that's true. But what
is the significance of the spoken of the word? I'll tell you exactly
what it is. It's revelation. In other words, if God just thinks
it, Then I may know, I don't know
about, but when he reveals it, that's what he's talking about.
He's revealed it to his people. It's a revelation. Christ, the
Logos of God, the Word of God is the agent of creation. This
is the idea of God's revelation to his people. Christ revealed. And it says, things as we see
them did not evolve out of things that do appear. That sets the
evolutionary theories on their end. It's just not so. That's man's foregone conclusions. But what he's saying is this.
Now listen to this very carefully. Faith, the foundation of faith
is the word of God. Let me read you this in Romans
chapter 10. Romans 10 verse 13. Or verse, yeah, verse 13. For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Now his name is his character, his nature, his reputation, who
he is, that which identifies him and distinguishes him. Verse
14, how then shall they call on him of whom they've not believed?
There's faith. And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard the spoken word? Or the written
word? Talking about hearing the word
of God. And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach except they be sin as it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. They've not all obeyed the gospel.
Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our report. So then faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the word of God. What is that word? What's the gospel? The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, and the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Believe in what God said. So
you see, now let me show you one more thing, and I'll close.
Look at Hebrews 11, look at verse 4. I'll just use the first one
that he brings is Abel. And here's the thing about it.
You see, this thing about faith, it's not how much you believe
or how sincere or how hard you believe. That's not the issue
of faith. It's in whom you believe. You
understand that? In whom you believe. There's
weak faith. There's strong faith. Christ
told his disciples one time, oh, you have little faith. Even
little faith looks to Christ. It says in verse four, by faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
Now my question is this, how did Abel know to do that? I'll tell you how. It was God
told him. The word of God. God revealed
it to Abel. Abel had faith. God-given faith. Cain heard the same message,
but he didn't believe it. It wasn't mixed with faith. God-given
faith. What was the issue between Cain
and Abel? Was it Abel's sincerity versus
Cain's insincerity? Not according to God's word.
What does God say? Abel did what? What did he do?
He offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Well, what was Cain's
sacrifice? The works of his hands. What
was Abel's sacrifice? The blood of a lamb. See the
difference? Cain had faith, but it was false
faith. Cain had faith that his works
were good enough. I believe it, he'd say. I'm going
to work hard for it. Do my best. Bring it in all sincerity. But it was not based on God's
word, the spoken word. Abel brought the blood of...
Abel's lamb was a conviction of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment, which Abel looked off into the future according
to God's promise that would come. And it says in verse four, by
which he obtained witness that he was righteous. Now the righteousness
that Abel had was not the righteousness of his works. How do I know that?
He brought the blood of a lamb. If you're righteous by your works,
you don't need the blood of a lamb. In fact, you don't need a sacrifice
or a substitute or a share of the earth. You're fine. If you
can gain righteousness by your works, you don't need Christ. Why are you here with us? I mean,
look, if you're healthy and you're not sick, are you going to go
down to King's daughters tomorrow and say, give me a room? No.
Why would you do that? You don't need it. You don't
need a doctor. You don't need medicine. You're healthy. Well,
if you're righteous by your works, why are you claiming to believe
in and trust and need Christ? You see? That's how I know Abel's
righteousness was not his own by his works. His righteousness
was in the blood of the Lamb. He was saying, I am a sinner.
I need mercy. He was like the publican. God
be merciful to me the sinner. I have no right or title to come
before you. I have nothing to recommend me
unto you. I have only one thing and that
is everything. That is the blood of Christ. And by that he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts.
Testifying of what God gave him. That is what that means. And
by it being dead, yet speaketh, or is spoken of. We're still
talking about Abel, aren't we? I thank God we are, because he's
our brother in Christ. All right.