We can find people talking about
having faith in oneself. We can hear people talking about
having faith in the government. We hear people talking about
having faith in the car. I have faith my car will make
it to work. I mean, we use it like the word
air or the word yes. Everywhere you look, faith is
always on the lips of people. And then we have the religious
circles of our world. No matter what culture it's in,
there's always an emphasis on believing. Faith. Believing. Faith. And people say, well,
you just gotta have more faith. Even Wham sang a song about gotta
have faith. I think that's who it was. It
might have been the lead singer either way. Doesn't matter. Every
hip hop artist in the world has sung about faith. Every philosopher
has talked about faith. Every religious guru or head
or minister or priest or rabbi or Sikh has always talked about
faith. And faith seems to be the epitome
of all things comfort. Yet only in the word of God do
we find a solid definition of what it means. And while we've
been going through for now some 27, 28 hours in Hebrews, which
is rapid, rapid, we would be three years almost in if we were
doing this in a common pace of Sunday morning exposition before
we get to chapter 11, maybe even four years in. But we've been
going through for some half of a year. 26 to 27 hours of teaching. And we've been learning about
faith. That's what Paul is writing about to the, to the Hebrew Christians
here about believing. And so I want to take Hebrews
and I want to focus in on verse six tonight, which is I went
through a couple of weeks ago very quickly. And I want you
to hear the words that Paul writes and without faith, It is impossible
to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe
that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And then he gives more examples.
By faith, Noah. By faith, Abraham. By faith,
Sarah. By faith, and so on and so forth. So I want us to transfer our
thoughts When we think of faith, there are a lot of synonyms.
Here they go. Jesus uses them in the gospel
of John this way. Come. See. Hear. Taste. Eat. Drink. Follow. A lot of synonyms. A lot of things that Jesus would
say that all believe, all mean the same thing, which is to believe.
He uses the word believe. He would tell his disciples,
believe in God, believe also in me. For if it were not true,
I would not have told you so that I go to prepare a place
for you that where then I'm coming back and where I am, you will
be with me. There's a paraphrase. I'm going
to prepare a place. Paul has reiterated this already
in this letter. He's already said that He, Jesus
Christ, the God of creation, the one who is of the exact essence
of the Father, who is absolutely fully God and always eternal,
independent and unique as the Son who is
the God, has gone through the Holy of
Holies, is seated at the right hand of majesty, has gone before
us as the founder and perfecter, I don't like that word but it's
there, of our faith, finisher is a better word, and that we
must believe on and end in Christ. So what does it mean? Well, let's
settle it tonight. Let's deal with the word faith
and let's put all of these synonyms and all of these things into
one big word. Trust. Trust. Trust. That's what it means.
And then it begs the question, well, what does trust mean? What
is it that we're to be trusting and how does trust look? What
if I'm not trusting? Well, how about the one you're
trusting is faithful? What if I don't know how to trust? How about the one in whom you
trust knows how to finish the work that he started? So we think
about it for a moment and say, well, how is it that trusting
is what pleases God. It says there that Enoch was taken
up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because
God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was
commended as having pleased God. And so doesn't the next thing
that Paul says in verse 6 of chapter 11 actually answer the
question that pops in our mind? How did Enoch please God? What
did Enoch do so that I may do likewise? For I would like to
not see death. I would like to please God. Now
for those of us who are following in our first John on Sunday mornings,
we know that pleasing God in the context of our lives is to
love the brethren. And that is actually loving Christ.
And that is actually loving God with all of our heart, soul,
mind, and strength. And then to not love the brethren
is to not love Christ, which is to not love God. You can't
say, I love God, but I'm not serving my brothers. Then you
aren't loving God. Love God is not about what you
feel about Him. It's what you do for Him. And
that's the context of 1 John. And so some people say, well,
you know what? I got faith. I'm going to trust by serving.
No. Faith is not doing. Faith is
not living out. Faith is not the Christian experience. Faith is a gift of God that is
granted to the elect alone because only the elect can hear the declaration
and trust in the declaration of what God has done on their
behalf through Jesus Christ the Son. So when I ask how in the world
can I please God, I want to be like Enoch, Paul explains it. You cannot please God except
by faith. You cannot please God. It is
impossible to please him except by faith. Except with faith,
because he uses it in the negative there. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. So with faith, that is pleasing
to God. When we have faith that is pleasing
to God. We talked about this Sunday morning
and we talked about practicing righteousness and living righteously
and we live righteously. How? By faith. Not in our own
doing, not in the efforts, not in the transformative power of
God the Holy Spirit and all of our maturity and all of its measuring
is zero. You realize that? All of the
measurement of our good things, good deeds and affections measure
out to zero. They are weightless on the scale
of righteousness. They have no value whatsoever. Now the philosophers of our day
go, oh now wait just a minute James, you're speaking a little
bit out of ignorance. Great, I'd rather be ignorant
of the philosophies of men and wise in Christ Jesus. than to miss this. You cannot please God unless
you believe in Him. And Paul explains it, because
without faith it is impossible to please Him. That's what the
text says, not God. Him, for whoever would draw near
to God. So there's something happening
there. We're drawing near to God. That's troubling because
it actually causes us to say, well, what does that look like?
So Enoch drew near to God. What does it look like? No, whoever would draw near to
God must believe that he exists. Whoever draws near to him must
believe he exists and believe that he rewards those who seek
him. Now, this is not evangelistic, beloved. Don't do the PhD route
of taking this out of context and acting like it's been done
in research and saying, see, the recipe for salvation is to
seek God. Got to put my glasses down to
get it right. To seek God. Actually, that works. No wonder
bifocals are so popular. I can see you here. and I'm going
to seek God, and I'm going to draw near to God, and then I'm
going to be rewarded by God, and that is eternal life. I'm
going to earn my eternal life. No, you're not. And I'm going to unpack it for
us this way. This little expression by Paul continues to say, by
faith, Noah. And Noah was told something by
God, then Noah did something because of God. But all the while,
Noah and his obedience had no weight. You've seen the meme,
right? It's been around a long, long
time. The meme of the cartoon drawing of the ark, very artistic. And it says, Faith did not save
Noah, obedience did. And that's a lie from hell. I
love to say that even though it doesn't come from hell. It
comes from the one for whom hell was created. The judgment of
God and the wrath of God poured out on Lucifer and all of the
fallen angels and all those who follow their father in like manner,
unbelief. It was not Noah's obedience that
was reckoned him to righteousness. It was Noah's faith. It was not
Enoch doing well in life and living a life worthy of the call
of God, which we all should do. So here's a little newsflash
for Sunday. Here's a preview of Sunday morning's point. Sunday
morning's point is basically this. If you want to love and
honor the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength,
then love. Then love. Everything you think,
filter it through the love for the body. Everything you say,
filter it through your love for the person hearing it. And everything
you do, filter it through your love for their joy and benefit. And you might say, well, how
do I determine what is good for them? Isn't speaking the truth
in love sometimes keeping it real? No, sometimes speaking
the truth in love does keep it real. And sometimes it's very
harsh to the hearer, but it shouldn't be harsh from the lover. Because
all of the love that we give to others comes through the lens
of the love that God has given to us. Who other than God has
the right to call out sin? So when we read his word and
we see what he says is sin, we can say God says this is sin.
It's not James to determine what is and isn't sin. God has done
so. So we do well to just repeat God's word. But if anybody's
to be offended when someone says, well, I just don't agree with
that. I'm not going to listen to that. That's not righteousness. That's
not my problem. That's their problem because
they haven't offended me whatsoever. Cause I've got my list of not
probably not, maybe not quite as bad as sins. So how dare I
throw shade on the speck in his eye when I got a tree in mind.
I'll let the Lord handle that. But ultimately, it is God who
is taking the offense when someone disagrees with him. But the cool
thing about it is that God is not flustered. God is not stomping,
raging, angry. God has all things under the
control of his own sovereign will. And at the command, at
the time that he is predetermined, all things will be settled. Justice
will be served. The elect will be alive forevermore,
immutable, unchangeable, and the reprobate will eternally
be separated from him. So when someone sees the word
and disagrees with God, that's between him and God. Except that
person say that they're a brother, then what? We can handle that
through correction, discipline, review, instruction, the trend
of righteousness. And by the Lord's mercy, he would
restore them. What's the point I'm making?
God could say, well, this is not right. God could reveal what
pleases him. And he does. So really if we're
going to trust and we have to get the understanding of the
basic elemental action of faith is trusting, what are we doing
in our trusting? Are we acting a certain way?
Not really. Though acting a certain way, living a certain way, definitely
could be fruitfulness of maturing in our trusting. And that's where
we go. We learn as children. We grow.
And then we realize even in our great state of wisdom, we're
only a hair away from just stepping in it again. But what is it to trust? Well, it trusts in what God has
said. That's what it boils down to. It trusts, faith trusts in
what God has said. It trusts in revelation. It trusts in the revealing of
God to us, his people. It trusts in the perfect revelation. It trusts in the one who has
revealed himself to us. God has revealed himself to us
through his son. I want you to understand that
when we hear the word gospel, that's another abused term. We've
come to just think of it as a set of propositions. But it's not. The Gospel is a person. The Gospel
is the revelation and the redemption that comes only through Jesus
Christ. And everything that's taught of us in Scripture, specifically,
as I said Sunday morning, John's Gospel. We can get all that we
need there, and then when we have that evangelistic thing
running through our mind, then all the other non-evangelistic
writings of the New Testament, which is all of them, fall into
their proper positions. That's why when we've tried to
evangelize with Romans, we've failed because we've put the
cart before the horse. We've tried to mature an unbeliever
into the knowledge of saving grace, rather than expressly
revealing that to him. And thinking, oh, he won't, why
can't he believe that? I must try a different way. Evidence. I'll show evidence that this
makes sense. Or I'll use logic and I'll argue
my way. Forensics. That'll do it. No. And then they come to a place
and go, you know what? That makes better sense than
what I used to believe. And the world will say, he's
repented. And then sometime later, he'll
say, I know that I am a child of God because look at me. See
me, see my works, see my crowns of idols that I have thrown away
and the crowns of righteousness that I have gained. Oh, look
at me. Oh, but it is all by the grace
of God. A humble brag is still boasting.
Still boasting. Now in the antithesis of that,
sometimes we as believers, we get to the place where we become
idolaters of our own depravity. Now think about that for a second.
I wasn't even going to talk about this, but my brain reminded me
of it, so I'll give God the spirit credit until it's not, and then
I'll fix it. But sometimes we love our own
depravity. We make an idol of it. I don't know who did this
years and years ago, but I remember being in middle school and hearing
a comedian singing a song in the manner of Almighty Fortress
is our God. You know, and he was making a
joke. And I can't even remember the
basic lyrics, but it basically came out something like this.
Oh God, I come before you and I am nothing but a worm. So step
on me, God, and watch me squirm. You know, it was funny, but it's
telling. It's telling. It's on the other
side of self-righteousness and self-deprecation. The scripture
says that we are the righteousness of God, ergo walk therein. Yes,
we know our flesh, it is sinful. Yes, we are depraved, but we
have been counted righteous in Christ. So we should see ourselves
as God sees us. God doesn't see us as darkness. So when we do darkness, there's
a problem. For he is light and in him there
is no darkness, you see. See how 1 John and Hebrews 11
are sort of just sticking together. So just something to think about.
What is it that God has revealed to us? So if faith is trusting
in the revelation of God, what is it that God has revealed?
Now this is another idea. Oh, God showed me this, or God
told me that, or God gave me an understanding of this. And
we always give God credit, just like I did a moment ago, for
something that may not even be the work of God at all. Unless
we're extremely well-versed in the understanding of sovereignty,
then everything is from God. But what is it that God has revealed?
How is it that our faith is trusting in the revelation of God? Because
through the revelation of God comes the knowledge of salvation.
I want you to hear that again. Through the revelation of God
comes the knowledge of salvation. The knowledge of salvation. Jesus
says in John 17, verse 3, this is eternal life, that they know
you. He's talking to God the Father.
He is God the Son. He's talking to God the Father.
He says that they know you, the only true God, and the Son whom
you have sent down to do your will. And I added that for emphasis
because Jesus talked about that more than anything else in his
life. He called himself the son of man, which says, I'm a human,
the human that God has ordained for the foundation of the world
to come into the world, to be the one that is the seed of righteousness,
that through my death and burial, I will produce a harvest of a
kingdom of righteousness. And those who are the fruits
of my righteousness are attached to me. They are the branches.
I am divine and no one will sever them from me, but I will raise
them up on the last day and so on and so forth. So faith is
trusting in the revelation of God, and that revelation is the
knowledge of salvation. Above all things is the knowledge
of salvation, which includes who God is. Do you hear me? It includes who God has revealed
himself to be. God has revealed himself as one. He is God and there is no other.
He does all that he wishes. He is sovereign in all things.
God has also revealed himself in three persons. We call that triunity. The English and Latin variants
of that label for that doctrine is Trinitarianism. There are
three persons who are God, distinctly, equally, all God. They make up
God. Without one of them, there is
no God. Yet each of them are God. You see. And it's tough. but it's not
because it's simple. Faith is trusting the revelation
of God about the knowledge of salvation, and that knowledge
includes on who God is, because God has revealed himself in the
Trinity. God has revealed himself in three persons, and the second
person of the Trinity is Jesus Christ, the Son, who forever,
before the world began, has always been in fellowship with the Father
and with the Spirit. And the essence of redemption
is concreted into Trinitarian theology. and to the revelation
of who God is. So this is, in my opinion, I'm
not even going to say that because that would be stupid for me to
say, according to the narrative and the instructions of Scripture,
I would say that God, who is one in three, is the highest
and most precious teaching that could ever exist in the Bible.
And it is the constant thread, the adhesion, and the glory of
God Himself, without which there is no faith. The Word of God. We go and we
see all through this letter, we see over and over again, that
God speaks, God reveals, God tells the fathers through the
prophets in many other ways, like through bushes and dreams
and visions. No more. He doesn't work that
way anymore. Now He speaks to us through His
Son, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of
His nature. Equally God, but independent
from the Father. who has created all things and
made the world in the cosmos by the word of his power. And
in all of that, he did it for the specific purpose of redeeming
a people for himself to call his own. They will be my people
and I will be their God. This is the revelation of God's
word. And then Christ is preeminent.
And this Word, this Word of God, this knowledge, this revealed
truth includes who Christ is. It includes what Christ has accomplished.
It includes the object of Christ's work, the elect. It includes
grace alone as the instrumental cause of salvation. It's not
a decision. People don't listen to ideas
and say, okay, I'm going to choose that. People don't have choices
when it comes to salvation. Salvation is not about what we
get to pick. Salvation is about what God has
decreed before the foundations of the world. And the revelation
of the knowledge of salvation is this is included therein. And then Paul warns these Jews,
he says, don't be like those in the Exodus. Don't be like
those who were stiff-necked people. Don't be like those throughout
all of history. Every time you thought there
was a man coming to be your Messiah, he was not it. I was showing
you that he was not it. Noah wasn't your Messiah. Moses
wasn't your Messiah. David wasn't your Messiah. I'm
the Messiah. And so if we don't pay attention
to what we've heard, the word of God, then how are we going
to trust in something? We're just trusting in some ethereal
or immaterial idea. Faith is not trusting in an immaterial
idea. Faith is trusting in the one
who has said with his mouth and revealed by his spirit through
his word who he is and what he's done. And if we get down to the nuts
and bolts, we see that everything that has
happened in history has pointed to the culmination of what God
has promised. Hear that word, what God has
promised concerning his son for the sake of his people, who he
calls his children because they are. So the word of God He's Jesus Christ, the word of
God. Christ has now been revealed through the pages of scripture
and preserved by God, the spirit and taught by God, the spirit
and continually giving the children of God assurance before the father
that Jesus Christ and his finished work has been fulfilled. And
this is promised to us. The first couple received this
promise. See, a lot of people think that
Genesis was written, and the first part of Genesis was written
to show us where the world came from. It has nothing to do with
the reason Genesis is here. Genesis chapter 1 and 2 is supposed
to show us the start of all things, and that when all things started,
there was one who was. And they are God. And then we see the revelation
of God's promises in the garden. And that which we see and we
behold in Eden, we think, oh, if we could just walk with Christ,
we've seen greater things than Adam. But maybe not now, but
on earth. Because Eden has come down. In John chapter two, in fact,
it's John chapter one, isn't it? Yep. Verse 43, Philip goes and found Nathanael. And Nathanael,
he says, Come, we found him of whom Moses in the Law and the
Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And what's
Nathanael's first response? Are you sure? From Nazareth. Do you say Nazareth? Say it again.
Yes, Nazareth. He says, does anything good come
from Nazareth? Philip just says, why don't you
come and see for yourself. Jesus saw Nathanael coming and
Jesus says, behold, oh, look right there, an Israelite indeed,
the poster boy of Judaism. He is. You want to know what
a Jew is? There he is. There's no deceit in this man
right here. And Nathaniel responds in humble brag. Oh, you've heard
of me? You've heard of me? I'll tell
you now, that's pretty good stuff. How do you know me? It's Jesus. That's pretty smart. You've got
to be from Nazareth, Philip. He knows that he's heard of me though.
That's good. It's starting out pretty good.
And Jesus responds and says, What does he say? Jesus responds and said, before Philip called
you to come see me, I saw you. I saw you under the fig tree.
And Nathanael says, Oh Rabbi, master teacher, you truly are. And what does he call him? What's
the confession of Nathanael? You truly are the king of Israel. You know, good Jew, when you
see one, you've heard of me and you've got some pretty good skills.
You are the king of Israel. So what does that mean? Nathaniel
was told by Philip that the one of whom Moses wrote was indeed
here from Nazareth. You need to come and see him.
And the whole time Nathaniel's going, he's thinking the king
that's going to separate us from Rome is here. I've got to prove
it to myself. He knows all about me. This guy's
the king. He knows all about what a true
Jew is. This man can lead us. And I do believe Nathaniel was
a faithful Jew. Nathaniel's probably able to say what Paul said, according
to the law, blameless. And Jesus answers. And there's
a reason I picked this text. Not only was it in my mind because
I read it yesterday, but it fits. Jesus says to him, Amen, Amen,
Amen, Amen. It is so, it is so with the double,
what we call in Southern circles, the double verities. Verily,
verily, I say to you, the double truths, truly, truly, I say to
you, it is an emphasis that what is coming out of my mouth in
a divine way under an oath of God is absolutely irreparably
irrevocably true. He says, I say to you, it is
true. It is true. Nathaniel, if you
think that's amazing, if you believe that I'm going to be
the king of Israel because I said I saw you under the fig tree.
And here's what the end of chapter two of John's gospel tells us,
that Jesus not only saw him because he's God and he's omniscient,
but he saw his heart. So no matter how awesome Nathaniel
thinks he is, Jesus knows who he really is. No one had to tell
him what was in the heart of man. So had Nathaniel been awakened
to the reality of who Christ really was, he would have fallen
on his face because he would have been guilty before. Not
this man knows my religion. We can go places like the rich
young ruler. But Jesus says, you've seen nothing yet. You will see greater things than
these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened. Listen, this is Hebrews 11. This
is what your faith must be. Jesus is declaring the Gospel
right now. It's good news. Nathaniel, you are a perfect
Jew. But it's not going to open heaven
to you. And my kingship in your mind, the crown that you think
I'm going to wear, is not going to be one that's clean. And it's
not going to have diadems. It's going to be a crown of thorns.
And the scepter that I carry is going to be a cloak that's
pulled off of my barbecue, red, hamburger-meated body where I've
been destroyed and crushed by the Father's will. And the throne
that you think I'm going to sit on is not in that temple. Matter
of fact, it's a tree. That's the throne I'm going to
sit on. You're going to see something great because heaven is going
to be opened and the angels of God, the servants of God, the
messengers of God are going to be ascending and descending on
this human right here, the son of man. He said it. He said it right there. Then
just a few days or so later, weeks maybe. He proves it. The wedding of Canaan, in Canaan. He goes to Canaan, he takes the
ceremonial washing jars that were there as a show of piety
and religion, and he turns it into the best wine they've ever
tasted. He is the true bridegroom, and he gives credit to that sorry
bridegroom that couldn't afford to feed his people for seven
days. Who could? You imagine a wedding feast,
seven days. About seven minutes, I'm like,
y'all about to bankrupt me. I mean, you know, Faith is trusting in the revelation
of God who gives knowledge through his word of his promises. And we say amen to everything
we agree with, right? And it's funny with COVID and
a lot of ministries and ministry type things, there's a lot of
people who are actively able to be watched now that weren't.
A lot of untouchable people, from my perspective, are now
touchable, so I can see what they're saying. And it's funny
what elicits the amen from a congregation. It's funny how the amen corner,
it's always the bold, base guy, right? Amen. You never hear,
amen. I mean, you never hear that. You never hear, you always hear
the bold, big, big base amen. Amen! You know? Yeah, that hurt
my ear too. Sorry about that, brother. Sorry,
dudes. But I mean, you know, that's
what you hear. And that'd be great if someone was saying,
you know what, you're going to see heaven open and the angels
of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. That's what
my promise is to you, Nathaniel. You hear an amen like that. But
no, you hear amen like, gotta go vote. Amen. Go vote. What's it doing in the
Lord's assembly? We don't vote as a people in
the Lord's assembly. We'll talk about that when we're
done. Yeah, amen. Or say something strange or odd. People amen the wrong stuff.
But the promises of God are, what does the Bible say? What
does His Word say? What does His promise say about
His promises? That they are yes and amen. So faith is trusting in the promises
of God. What is it that God has promised
us? And who are us, you see? Hebrews was not written to a
lost person. I'm going to say that again. The letter of the Hebrews was
not written to lost people. The letter to Romans, the letters
to the Galatians, the letter to the Ephesians, the letter
to the Colossians, the letter to the Thessalonians, the letters
to the Corinthians, they were not penned to lost people. There are four Gospel accounts
and one historical book. And the rest of the New Testament
are letters to the church. The first three Gospels are specifically
to record, and the history of Acts are to record the works
and the ministries of Jesus to show who He is and the promises
of the prophecies of God's Word. And John's Gospel, still written
to believers, is the only really evangelistic book we can hold
to that we can hand to an unbeliever through whom God can show the
truth. Otherwise, it takes a lot of
work to put the cart before the horse, to rearrange the doctrine,
to get people who don't have spiritual minds to see spiritual
things. It's the simple promises of God
revealed through His Word that give us the knowledge of God's
power and the perfection of His promises that God has never lied. And without all of that, we can't
please God. So really, what Paul is saying,
without the promises of God effectually brought to fruition, For you,
it is impossible to please Him. So what's tied up in that? Now
we have a lifetime of gathering together to learn it. We have
a lifetime of gathering together to work it out. We have a lifetime
of gathering together to worship the cause of it. The basics are
simple. God will save His people. And He paid for their sins. He satisfied His justice and
His righteousness through the death of Jesus so that no one for whom Jesus died will ever
be lost. God had an explicit people in
mind when He created the world and He has an explicit people
in mind when He created His church. And I use that term very loosely. The promise of God to His people
is the object of our faith, and that promise has a name, and
His name is Jesus, and His work is finished. And this is not
new. Guys, I've been preaching about
this for 27 weeks in this section. But Paul sums it up right there.
So here it is. Without faith, believing in these
promises and the promised one who has finished the work of
salvation already completed. There is nothing else to be done.
All of the elect are going to live forever. That's the promise,
eternal life. It is impossible to please him.
And then we have these phrases, drawing near to God, believing
that he exists and rewards those who seek him. So how do we please God? We have
to believe in His promises. Isn't that what we've already
learned? Abel, Cain, Enoch, Noah. See, verse 7, By faith Noah,
being warned of God concerning events as yet unseen, in fervent
fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
By this he condemned the world and became an heir. That's an
important word. Noah, in obedience to God, condemned
the world and became an heir of the righteousness of God. What does an heir do to earn?
Nothing. What is faith? It's a gift. the
trusting in the promises of God, believe that God has promised
eternal life to his people through Jesus Christ, his son. And that's
the end of it. And then everything else that
we're called to do is just other things that God desires. We were talking about manifest
destiny a little bit earlier. And how the monarchs of history
always think that God appointed them. And that's true, the Colossians
says that. Paul says that in Romans too. He also teaches us
that most of these kings were set up for destruction. They
weren't God's righteous rulers, they were set up so that God
may show his power in reprobation. Pharaoh as a prime example, verbatim. So this spiritual truth that
we're learning here is true of the believers, is true of the
elect. It's not true of the lost. It's not true of the reprobate.
This idea of faith is trusting in the promises of God. And that trusting comes with
some realities. What is it that we would draw
near to him. See, if you take this out of
context, it'll tell you whatever you wanted to say. But if we
go back over here and we just continue to read what we've already
read, we see, what do we see? We see that we are drawing near
to Christ by believing. We are drawn near to God by the
work of Christ. We are drawn near to God. We
are carried through the Holy of Holies by the redemption that
is in the blood of Christ. This is God doing. And when we are drawing near
is because God is snatching us up. Jesus does not say that the Father
woos and tries to convince. Jesus says that the Father snatches
dead men out of the grave and sets them to the right hand of
his majesty. How is that? What must I do to
earn a place to sit with Jesus? Let the death of Jesus be my
death and the resurrection of Jesus be my life. That's it.
His righteousness is mine. I'm in Him. Jesus is not going
to be a floating head. He will have His body with Him
in eternity. We walk by faith. We are believing
in Him. We are trusting in Him. And what
does that look like in times of need? See the context here?
These Christians who are Jewish are being tempted to walk away
from grace, to walk back into works, to try to find a way of
feeling a little bit more secure in their hope, rather than just
trusting in the... perfect promises of God who has
proven Himself faithful over and over again, even through
the small temporal actions with people who never receive the
true promise, like Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Enoch, etc. So when we run to God, we're
drawing near to Him because we know it is only in Him that we
can find hope, Him that we can find life, in Him that we can
find rescue. when our kids sneak away from
us in the grocery store and we take that sidestep behind the
cereal. And we can still see them a little
bit and they're just dandelion around and they go, Daddy, Daddy,
Daddy! I mean, you know. And we don't
let them go but about 10 seconds because the whole place would
come down. Then we step back in there and they go running.
Oh, I thought I was dead. I mean, you know, I thought I
was kidnapped. You know, Captain Crunch is looking at you. We run to where our rescue is. Drawing near to God is to draw
by faith to the work and the promise that He's given us. And
that just goes without saying that we know that He is God,
that He does exist, and that the reward of those who trust
in Him is eternal life. But that trusting is not the
effectual cause of our life. His promises are. Jesus Christ
the Son is. Because we can often lose our
trust. Are you saying a Christian can lose their faith? Yes, I'm
saying a Christian can lose their faith. But a Christian can never
lose the hope of the faithfulness of God. What does it mean to
lose faith? I don't know. Let your life take
a turn for the worse and see just how horrible your mind can
go. And I believe that the mind is the worst place to live. I believe the mind is the worst
place to be as a Christian, because the flesh is still attached to
it. And if we're busy, we don't give
time to it, we can squeak on through. But when things go awry
and we're not collective, We're not supported, we're not together.
It's real easy for my flesh to take over my mind. Whether it be temptation to fear,
temptation to be angry, temptation to be in control, temptation
to fix it all, temptation to stop it from ever having started
to begin with. Sometimes I feel like I'm a time traveler. I can
undo what's been done. What is even prayer? Isn't prayer
just an exercise of trust? Oh, God, help me. I don't know. What to do? I don't know if I'm yours. Oh,
isn't that funny? We're crying out to the very
Father who we're uncertain is our Father in our flesh, but
He's our Father, so He comforts us. And when we cannot pray,
what does Romans 8 say? The Spirit will pray for us.
So that the will of God is always happening. But we never give
up our faith, do we? It may wane, it may be invisible,
it may be to the point where all we can see is the mustard
seed, but it's stuck between our back teeth. We can't get
it out. And then finally, at that moment
of resolve, when all that we have left is nothing, our Father
is there. His promises are there. His Son
is there. And Jesus has been on the cross,
and Jesus has been in the ground, and Jesus has been alive forevermore. So God does not grant rewards
based on what we do to earn tickets to get into eternal life or get
into heaven. God grants the reward of life
because we are heirs of righteousness. And that has been revealed to
us through the word of God that we may have the knowledge of
salvation, which is the promises of God throughout his word. And
he has proven himself faithful. He has never failed. He has never
failed. There's never a time when God
has failed to fulfill His promise. Makes you want to go to Romans
8, 9, and 10 right now, huh? God's promises are true. So just
as Noah, events unseen, did a little work for God on the earth, through
that work, through that reverent fear, God provided the means through
which he had promised to save his family but which he had also
promised to destroy the rest of humanity. Because Noah is a type of Christ,
because the ark is a type of Christ, because of this small
remnant of all of humanity is saved as a type of gospel, as
a type of Christ. It all points to the truth of
the gospel, the true promises of God. If God can do this with
the world and flooding and a boat and some folks, can cause these
people to trust in Him. And even when they did, it didn't
grant them the reward of life because being saved from drowning
was not the point. It was to be an heir of righteousness.
That's the faith that pleases God. Believe in Him. The antithesis
is exactly what Adam and Eve did. Did God really say? You know what? I don't know that
He did. What God has said, God will do. And what God has promised
God, it is good as done. So we rest in that. Let's pray. Father, your promises to us,
to your people, are done. Though we may be waiting, though
we may see things come to fruition, to reality over time, Lord, your
promises are done. And even in the days of Adam
and Eve, your promises were done when you promised to Messiah
through the seed of Eve. The promise was done, Adam and
Eve were saved by faith in your promises to send Messiah. And
it wasn't because they chose to believe the incredible fairy
tale or the future prophecy is because you granted them the
grace to trust in your provision, even though just moments before
they couldn't trust in what they heard you say out of the mouth
of your Son walking with them in the garden. So that in all
of human history, when it's all reconciled and we as your elect
are standing together with Jesus Christ, you get all the praise
and all the glory and all the honor and all the wealth You
get it all because it's all of you. And we thank you for it. And though we shudder, though
we know that we are weak, Lord, if we have to be strong, there's
no need for your grace. Help us to never, ever lose sight. Father, you've promised us that.
So we worry not. We pray these things in the name
of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, church.