Faith. We started talking about
this last week and we did not get into the text very much,
but we dealt with the moving in out of 10 out of the arguments
that Paul has already provided into what faith is. We need to remember that Paul
has told these suffering saints to remember the former days,
to recall the days when they first came to know Christ. And in their knowing of Christ,
it cost them greatly. They suffered. They were harmed. They were jailed. They lost a
lot. Yet these losses were counted
as gain. because they understood by the
mercies of God the very nature of what they actually possessed.
And what they possessed was a greater reward than that which they were
losing. And I know it's hard for us to
sometimes put ourselves in the shoes of these people. And if
you really pay attention to what I talk about a lot in the context
of pushing people to read the Bible and stay in the scripture
and to avoid the hobby mindset of historical theological things,
not that they're bad, but they take us away from the word and
they impart some other eisegesis upon our reading of scripture.
even if what we read is exegetical. It still is someone else's ideas. And so, if we did not know who
the audience was, if we did not know any historical details about
the suffering of the Jews and the dispersion, about what Rome
did to the Jews, except what was here in the Bible, all we
need to know is that they suffered. We don't need to have the ins
and outs of their archaeological and anthropological and sociological
experiences. We don't need to know the details
of what the Jewish life was about. We don't need to know the non
or extra-biblical historicity of the original hearers. Because
it is not those details that give us the truth of life. It
is the details of who Christ is and what He accomplished and
what He finished. So you put the blank of the subjects
who receive this word and you can place yourself in it. And
whatever you're going through, whether you've lost a nail, hair,
mind, or riches, you can receive the teaching of this word. Whether
your suffering is just internal turmoil or it is absolutely physical
torture, you can receive this word. And you need endurance. Isn't that true? We need endurance. We need to be able to stand fast,
to hold on, to make it through, to just stay strong a little
bit longer, a little bit more confidence, a little bit more
assurance, a little bit more solid ground. If we think about
what it means to endure in this life, whether we're talking about
spiritual things or not, this is true for all of us. If we're
in the third grade and we're in public school and we're having
to deal with the nuances of just being in an institution, whether
we're dealing with the nuances of having to be in a classroom
now separated six feet apart in bubbles, whether we're having
to deal with the fact that our teacher calls mispronounces our
name or whatever it might be, there is some sense in which
we need to endure. If we're 30 and we're trying
to pay our bills, we're trying to stay healthy, and so on and
so forth, trying to find our way. We need endurance. If we decided we want to plant
a garden and it's 300,000 degrees and there's no water and the
seeds came from China, we need endurance. We need endurance for all things.
And so everyone can relate to that idea, but when we put it
in the context of being the body of Christ, being the body of
Christ, knowing the person of Christ and living and believing
that his life is our life, that his death was the death of our
flesh, that we are justified by his finished work because
the father put him forth to satisfy his own justice. Then that comes with it a whole
lot of other needs for endurance. Because when we're worried about
our garden, we are now trying to endure not the fact that we
spent $300 on plants that aren't coming up. That we could have
bought a lot of veggies from the grocers for that amount.
But we need the endurance to recognize that it doesn't matter
in the scope of Christ's kingdom. You see? We need endurance to
Rest when our bodies and our culture says work. We need the
endurance to hold on with something that we often cannot see to the
point that we feel like giving up. Paul says, don't throw away
your confidence. Don't throw away your confidence.
Don't throw away your assurance. Don't throw away because you
need endurance. You will not throw it away. You
will not shrink back. You will not discard the mercies
of God. You will not step upon Christ. You will not push Him out the
side or the back or the front. You will not move away from Him.
You will rest in Him. You will stay in Him. But it
will cost. It will hurt. It will come with
great pain. but you will endure. And he doesn't
teach us that we ought to endure in our own power. He doesn't
teach us that we need to just stand up, pull ourselves by the
bootstraps and move on. He doesn't teach us that we need
to be type A, type B, type C, type F, whatever. He doesn't
teach us that we need to get our acts together, that we need
to do things in a different way, that we need to be more organized.
He teaches us to sit still. And instead of saying, what do
I do now? Where do I go now? How do I do? How do I do what
I need to do? What do I need to do? We just
take a deep breath in and we go, Christ is my all. That is a divine work. And it is granted to you. It
is granted to me. It is granted to the elect of
God in the hearing of the truth of Christ. And yet we still need
to hear the same thing over and over again. For if the mercies
of God are new every day, how are they new if we are not eating
upon them? The morsels of nutrition that
come from the foods that we eat is necessary for our daily operations,
for our daily goings. If I have a calorie deficit in
my day, I am wiped out. I'm about a 6,000 calorie a day
guy. And if I don't eat that much,
I am messed up. My brain doesn't work. I can't
tie my shoes. I walk sideways. I'm sleepy. I'm sitting on the truck asleep.
I mean, I have to eat. I have to eat. And I have to
eat spiritually. And one of the best ways of eating
spiritually is the same way we eat physically. We just get together
in the South. You can't have a meeting without
something to eat. Hey, want to have a meeting? Let's have lunch.
Want to have a meeting? Let's have a cookout. Want to
get together and talk? Let's go to Dairy Queen. I mean,
you know, this is what we do. We're going to center it around
food, and it doesn't help us that much in our physical fitness
or our nutrition. But it is so, so much like the
way the Bible teaches us to find spiritual nutrition. Because
when we are together, when I know that I have to stand here, when
I know that you are committed to being here and needing the
food of Christ, then I'm going to eat it. I'm going to prepare
it. I'm going to get my portions
out. My job is to cut the crust off and your job is to spread
the whatever. And this person's job is to chop
up the vegetables. Whatever it is that we might
need to do, we get together and we feast upon Christ. And we're not destroyed, we're
not malnourished, we're not wasting away in our souls, but our souls
are preserved because we are those who have faith. And then
the ultimate question always is what is faith? Let me tell
you what faith is not. Faith is not something you can
do. Faith is not something you can
muster. Faith is not something you can
prepare. Faith is not something you can
strengthen. Faith is not something you can
give evidence for. Faith is not something you can
prove to yourself. Faith is that which God has promised
certain in your heart. And that's what he says. Faith,
verse 1 of chapter 11, is. This is not a simile. It didn't
say faith is like this. Isn't it funny how we teach Trinitarian
doctrine? in ways that the Bible doesn't
teach it. Oh, you got an egg. Oh, you got an apple. Oh, you
got this. Oh, you got that. Oh, you're
a dad and a mom. Nah, that's all this weird stuff. The Bible
expresses this teaching about God and who He is and His persons
as God. And the Bible teaches faith is But the Bible doesn't teach how
you get it. The Bible doesn't teach what you're supposed to
do with it. The Bible doesn't teach you how
you can be certain of it in the way that you can produce confidence. No, the Bible says that faith
is confidence. Faith is assurance. Hypostasis,
I think is the word there. Faith is confidence, assurance,
certainty. So now, let's put it into play.
What is certain in this life? What is certain? Death, taxes,
corona. I mean, There's a lot of things
that are certain now. And it depends on how you're
looking at that glass of water as to whether or not you're thinking
half full or half empty. If you're somewhat positive in
your outlook, you may think that it is certain that better days
are coming. Or if you're like me and you
tend to be more optimistically pessimist, look forward to bad
things, you know that it's probably not going to get any better than
this. Or you could be one of these people that say, it's going
to get real bad. We ain't seen nothing yet. And
you know what? They're all right. All these
viewpoints about the world and life are all correct, but what
does that have to do with what we see? Because even with what
we see, And I know that in my mind I was certain I was going
to perish in many instances of bad weather. I have run hundreds
of miles an hour. Now that's an exaggeration. I
have run a hundred miles an hour trying to drive away from a tornado. And I didn't care. Rob was like,
you can't outrun it. I'm on diatribe. Hold on. I'm not gonna do it. I have followed
a storm system on the interstate over a four-day trip to stay
just far enough behind it that I could see it, because I'm a
better weatherman than those guys with computers. You know,
you got the app on your phone, lightning struck in your area.
No duh, I just saw it. I mean, they're brilliant people.
I could be that guy. I saw lightning. Tag my location, everybody can
see it. Need to get an app to tell me
that it's raining. It's raining. Oh, nice. Tell
me what's going to happen three weeks from now. That's what the
weather forecast that I want. I want to know how sure my plans
to build a deck or to cut my grass or to have a barbecue can
be. I want a meteorologist to look
into the future and go, OK, on November the 3rd at 330 in the
afternoon, you can cook hot dogs. And you can be confident of that.
You can't be confident of what's going to happen before we get
out of this building. There's no chance of rain. Can't see
across the street. And we can be looking at our
circumstances in life and we can say, oh, it is horrible.
Things are terrible. We are going to perish. And next
thing you know, sun comes out. Now y'all are hearing some things.
I have, I don't have a phobia anymore. I have PTSD. And I'm
serious. When it came to after the hurricane,
Matthew, sitting there knowing there's any moment now my house
is going to blow away like Dorothy's and we're going to die and we're
going to see Jesus and it's going to be okay. It's all right, baby. Go back to bed. What's wrong,
daddy? I'll see you in heaven. I mean
tomorrow. It's all right, baby. Like that trip we made, we didn't
fly as a family, but a few times. It was too expensive. We drove
nine times across the country. But we flew a few times, because
we had to get here quicker. And one of those times, the turbulence
was terrible. It's like somebody's playing
ping pong with that 747. We were scared to death. The
cargo things come out, the oxygen masks fall out, not because the
thing lost pressure, because the thing shook apart. People
getting hit in the head with suitcases, boom, oh, boom. You
know, the stewardess just goes, okay, everybody have a seat.
And she just lets the cart go and it goes, to the back of the
plane. Soda's spilling everywhere. Robin's
sitting in the back with two kids. I'm sitting up here with
two kids. And I reach over and I say, I love you, baby. It's
been a wild ride. She said, I love you too. I said,
keep the children happy. Jacob's going, whee! Just a wonderful thing. I knew,
I was confident we were going to perish. I kissed myself goodbye,
and I just waited. Okay, we're going to wake up
in glory. Here we go, here we go. Oh man, I leveled out. I'm
sort of disappointed, you know? I wasn't certain of anything.
I wasn't certain. See, Ruby's like, I didn't know
I was about to die. She don't even remember that, because she
thought it was a game. Jacob's like, whee. We're dropping
3,000 feet a second. He's like, whoo. Roller coaster. Scary. And I've had scary experiences
on an airplane. There's little things when, you
know, when they got the rubber bands and they wind up real hard and let the propeller
go. Don't get on those. Anytime you go into the rear
end of an airplane, you're in trouble. But anyway, that's another
story that usurps the glory of Christ. So let's stay on subject.
We're confident of certain things that we see and they are not
proven to have the results we're confident of. If I do A, then
B will come. That's not always true. It works
in mathematics, but it doesn't work in life. It doesn't work
in calendaring. It doesn't work in planning.
It never works. And so we can't have confidence
in what we can see. So how can we have confidence
in what we can't see? And that's what Paul says. Paul says faith
is the assurance, the confidence of things hoped for. the conviction
of things not seen. Now there's deep stuff here.
And I literally, if I wanted to, I could stay in this verse
for weeks. And we could continue to have
these little conversations, these little examples. But I believe
that God's examples are better than mine. Because mine are the
not faith examples, the not confident examples, The ones of Scripture
are proof texts of the promises of God fulfilled in the lives
of people who had no way of knowing that they were going to come
to pass and, as a matter of fact, took matters into their own hands
time and time and time again to bitter results, to demise,
destruction, death, but all the while still trusted
in the faithfulness of the promises of God. Faith is not blind, beloved.
Faith is not blind. Faith isn't closing your eyes
and crossing your fingers and going, oh, I just wish upon a
star, I'm just gonna believe and think positively. Faith is
not positive thinking. Positive thinking, in some senses,
is naivety. Positive thinking is sometimes
just being absolutely childish. You know, I know the hurricane's
coming, but I ain't going nowhere. You know, that's the last time
we saw Uncle Bob. on the morning news when he was
not going anywhere. I'm not leaving. I mean, you
know, God will have to pry me out of bed. He did. You know,
naivety. I'm better than a 200 mile an
hour wind. No, you're not. And I know you've been eating
a lot of fellowships, but you ain't that big yet. You're not going
to stay on the ground. We just see this naive conviction. It's not this blind hope. It's
not this fairy tale things like, what's Easter money bringing
you? It's not like that. That is not faith. Faith has
everything to do with what is absolutely certain, but is not
visible. Which sounds absurd. And so if
it's not visible, then how are we able to focus on it? Well, we're able to focus on
it because God the Spirit has caused us to be born again to
a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
So here's where we are. Well, I wasn't there when Jesus
was raised. I don't know if it's true or
not, then you're not born of God. It's just that simple. I don't know if it's true or
not. Well, I just don't think Jesus
is a real historical figure. I get that from a lot of people.
How can you believe that book, the Bible? It's because God has
given something to me that he has not given to you. I have
insider knowledge. We've got inside trading going
on. I know when the stock's going
up. And I'm putting all my money
in that date. I'm putting all my gold in that
date. I'm selling all my silver. I'm selling all my hay, my straw,
my bricks, and my dirt. And I'm putting it all in that
day when I know that the maker of the product is going to his
public offering. You see, I've been reading some
stock stuff today. Snowflake went public today.
Crazy. Anyway, that's another conversation.
If I just had a million dollars to get started, you know. We know something. And what we
know is that God has done the redemption of his people and
it's completed. Payday has come. paying the piper, standing in
the presence of the judge, all of that has come, it is done,
and Jesus has stood in our place. Yet most of Christianity, most
of Christendom, historically and in a contemporary sense,
they look at the judgment of God as a future event for the
believer, at which time they will plead their case. Well,
look how I've changed, Father. Depart from me, I never knew
you. Look how much I've given. Depart from me, you worker of
iniquity. Look, look at all the good things that I've done. Look
at the people that I've helped. Look how I've loved all of these
weirdos, crazies, crackheads, drug addicts, murderers, thieves. I don't love you, he says. And they think they're going
to plead their case in that way when the only thing that is left
for us to do is to be glorified. Because Christ is alive, because
he's not guilty. His death purchased us. His death satisfied the Father. There is nothing left for us
to do but live. And it is a hope that is ours
by the Word of God. And it is a hope that is ours
by the promises of God, His Word. And it is a hope that is ours
through the Son of God, who is the living Word, who has been
manifest to us. And we have seen it. We have
seen His glory. Glory as the only one, the Son
come from the Father, full of grace and truth. And from His
fullness we all receive grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon
grace, upon grace. Faith is the confident assurance
of this hope. The promises of God that in the
deep center of our soul, He has planted the reality of His promises
as a guarantee. For the Spirit of God in you
testifies to your spirit that you belong to Him because Jesus'
blood bought you. And from that position, from
the smallest microscopic, remember what we talked about last week,
instance of your faithless faith, you sit and you rest in Him. And it's not blind, it's not
blind, even though it's not seen. And you heard me quote, I might
have read this a few weeks ago, it just constantly is in my head,
1 Peter chapter 1, it's always in my head. When I'm thinking
about suffering and depression and anxiety and everything else,
those people had not seen Christ, but they were suffering because
they had hope in Him. And it was so easy for them to
wash their hands and give up. It was so easy for them just
to say, you know what, I'm just going to be a closet Christian
and I'm going to go back into the worship of Judaism so that
I can get this monkey off my back. I'm tired of the war. Paul says, don't throw away your
confidence. It has a great reward. Peter would say, you are being
guarded by faith, by God's power, who keeps you. I did read that
last week or the week before, didn't I? Who keeps you. You're
being kept by the power of God for a time when your salvation
will be realized. When the experience of life and
everything in it, when you are certain you're never going to
see Jesus. There he is. Oh, that was quick, which right
now we're thinking, is he ever going to come? Am I ever going
to see glory? Is there ever going to be a day
when I'm done with this life and him? There it is. There it is. And so. We hope for what? Better days? No. Don't hope for better days. Pray for better days. Rejoice
in the ones that aren't so good. Why? Because the hope that we
have confidence in, that's where our assurance lies. Our assurance
doesn't lie in our performance, our faithfulness, the productivity
of our faith. None of these things matter because
what matters is what Christ has done in his faithfulness. When people will parse out that
idea, in Romans we see the faith of Christ or the faithfulness
of Christ. It doesn't matter, it's the same thing. Christ believed
the promise of the Father, that he would be glorified, that he
would save his people. Christ is faithful in that obedience
on the cross. And then in the context of his
faithfulness, we find solace. We find hope. We find the arresting
power of God the Spirit who centers us on the cross of Christ as
that glorious promise of life. As the efficacy of that promise. As the justifying power of that
promise. We have a conviction of that
which we do not see. Paul uses this as an expression in all
sorts of seasons of conflict or suffering or pain. He says,
look to the things that are unseen. Now see, humanity is good at
doing that. Humanity is good at parsing the
mind into realms of mystical proportions. that could bring
any person to a place of euphoric hope. But that's not true hope. That's wishing. But what Christ has done is a
centerpiece. What Christ has done is an anchor
to our faith. What Christ has done is the object
of our faith. What Christ has done is the subject
of our faith. What Christ has done is the point.
He is the tether and that tether is not tying us off somewhere
until that tether has tied us to the Father and dragged us
through the Holy of Holies into the presence of God. So confident
is Paul of this truth that he uses the past tense when he's
teaching of the Romans that we are glorified. So confident is
Paul and the apostles of this reality that they have yet not
seen that he says we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ. Because in all reality, in the
spiritual economy of grace, we are. For where Christ is, we
are his body. He has not chopped off His head
and bowled it down the lanes of heaven waiting for when His
body comes back to Him. He has purchased us, we are in
Him, we are alive in Him. Verse 2, for by it, by what? By the assurance and the confidence
of things hoped for and by the conviction of things not seen,
the people of old, the elders, receive their commendation Received
a good word. Received their good report. Now think about that for a moment.
And you don't have to leave it up to me to figure out what he's
talking about. You just keep reading. It's there. And that's
what's beautiful about this letter is that there is nowhere in this
letter that we have to wonder, what does he mean by that? Paul
answers it very clearly at every turn. By faith. What is faith? Confidence, assurance
of the hope that is in Christ, conviction of things not seen. For by faith
the people received their commendation. They were not looking, they were
not looking to nothing. They were looking to the word
of God. They were looking to the promises
of God. They were looking to the fulfillment
of those promises in Christ. And beloved, we have that same
thing. We can see the same thing. Oh,
no, no, no, no, no. I'm about to make a huge mistake
theologically. We can see more than Moses ever
saw. Think about that for a second.
In 2 Corinthians 3, Moses wanted to see it. He wanted to see all
that he could know of God. God said, you can't look. You
can't see. But I'll let you get a glimpse
of a shadow. of the essence of my being. I'll let you see a wave, a heat
wave off the hood of my glory. I'll let you see that." And his
face physically shone because of it. And he longed for the
day when he would see what he wanted to see, which is God unveiled
forever. And he's seeing it now, but he
didn't see it in his life. And Moses is one of these in
this little list here. So he got the report. But don't we
look at it the other way around? If I could just see a bush burn
and God speak to me. That's weak sauce. If I could
just see the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire. If I
could just see the parting of the sea. If I could see the manna
coming down from heaven. You have. You have. You've seen the bread
that came down from heaven. You've seen the manna, the bread,
the true bread that gives eternal life to all who have been given
to him. You've seen the water part, you've
seen the seas give way, you've seen the miracles. In reality,
and you hold with bated breath on the moment and the promises
of God that one day you will experience not just that which
you have seen that is unseen, but you will see it face to face.
His name is Jesus. These Old Testament saints didn't
see anything like we've seen. Oh, if God could just send Elijah
back. If God could just send Moses
back to stand in this pulpit, Moses would be like, what are
y'all looking for? He's not in these shadows. He's not in these miracles. He's
alive. So going to all of these old
things, these old habits, these fleshly, earthly vessels, these
hopes and ideas and dreams of a better life, worrying and wondering,
What tomorrow is going to hold? Making plans. Oh, I'll do this.
If the Lord wills, James says. It's like going to the tomb and
wondering why Jesus isn't there. So where is then the center of
this commendation? Where is this good report? He
is not here. He is alive. It is finished. Peter says it. He says that we
should listen to the Old Testament. We should listen to the Old Testament
prophets. And that the prophets themselves,
get this, Peter says the prophets themselves are a better report
than their own eyewitness of Christ. Because it's not the experience
of seeing. It's the life of being born again
by the Spirit of God to know and to trust and to live as Christ
lives. And I'm ahead of the text by
faith. By faith, we understand. Here's a way of looking at it.
We understand that the universe was created by the Word of God. From nothing. And I could go
through the Psalms. I could probably pull 15, 20
verses if I had time to look down and try to do some cross-referencing.
I don't know what the addresses are. But out of nothing, God
knit the universe. He spoke it into being. There
it was not. Then it was. And none of us were
there to see it. That's a critique against the
Scripture. Moses wasn't there to see it. How'd he write about
it? I mean, you know. God revealed it to him. by faith. But the point is, not that you
believe it was created, but that you believe it was created by
the Word of God. There was nothing in God said
and then there was. Haven't we already heard this
argument? Yeah. In the very beginning, first
four or five chapters are already there. But we've already heard
this numerous times. When God desired to show more
convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable
character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with a what? With a word!
With an oath! With a promise! So that by two
unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to
hold fast to the hope which is set before us. We have this sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul. So you think I'm poetic, I'm
just parsing out my own verbiage for the same language that Paul
writes. A hope that enters into the inner
place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner
on our behalf. He's been there, having become
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And the list
goes on and on. I could show you in almost every New Testament
letter that the Word of God is the instrument, the agent of
anchoring us in faith. So what do we believe? We believe
what God has said. We believe what God has promised.
God, by His Word, created all that there is. The Bible has not given us the
privilege of figuring all that out. Timing it out, measuring
it out, all this stuff. God could make it however He
wanted. The point is, by the Word of
God. To reinforce that which He's
already told His readers, which He's telling us today, so that
what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Now think about that for a second. I've got to get myself to heaven.
I've got to get myself in faith. I've got to get my faith in order.
I've got to get my faith stronger. And all I envision is just pulling
up these faith weights and doing all this exercise. Richard Simmons
out here, hey, we're going to do the faith thing. We're just
working it out for Jesus when we're not to work it out. We're to know that Christ has
finished it. Christ has finished it. And there are some things
to work out. There are some things that we
do. There are some things that God calls us to. We know that. We've
already been through some of those. We've seen those in this text
already. And we'll see some more when
we get over to chapter 13. But right now, we need to center
on this reality that no matter what we're looking for, no matter
what kind of endurance we need, no matter what type of stress
we're under, no matter what it's costing us, The better possession
is guaranteed. The better promise is secure. Because if God from nothing created
the universe and everything in it, which is immensely immeasurable
and infinite. You ever thought about what is
infinite to us is finite to God. Then by the same word, God declared
you his. By the same oath, by the same
word, He sent His Son into the world, who is called the Word
of God. And by the same promises from
Him through the prophets, come the same promised One, who is
Jesus, who taught the same promises that the Father had been given
since the dawn of creation. And not only did He finish the
work, He brought it to the pages of this text by his apostles
and now we continue in it. We need to devote ourselves to
the apostles teaching. That's why our faith feels fragile. It's OK to inquire of the Bible.
It's OK to really get in there and think about incredible things.
It's OK to move outside its pages and are wondering. But it's not going to strengthen
our faith when we do that. Evidence does not create endurance. As a matter of fact, I would
say that historically, from the record of Scripture, that when
God would show His people miraculous things, they would believe for
a few minutes. How dare we think we're any different than the
people at Sinai in our humanity? who were there at the tempest.
At the tempest. Hearing boom and singing. Hearing
the commands. And they thought it couth to just worship calf. At the foot of that mountain. I mean, even a criminal doesn't
go to the sheriff's department and do his robbery. I mean, the common criminal has
got more sense than that. The God of the cosmos is discussing
things with Moses and they're having a pagan party. You know,
God, He's up there, He can't see us. I mean, that's how dumb
we are, y'all. And by the mercies of God, he
takes his dummies out of that. It doesn't mean we're not drawn
to that. And you need to know where I stand on this thing.
I've said it before and I've taught it in that context that the whole
of Judaism is akin, the best that Aaron could ever do was
to milk gold and worship a cow. And I'm willing to bet there
are times in the priesthood of Israel where a lot of those guys,
it was no different. in their mind and what they did
at Sinai. But that which is unseen was
created out of the, that which is seen was created out of nothing. And so the same thing is true
for the universe. We have been taught that by the
spirit of God, through the word of God, that the promises of
God are the promise that you cannot see is secure because God has
said it. There it is. Where is your hope? Your hope
is in that which he has promised. Your hope is in the word of God
and all that is there. This is what I was on till I
started thinking about calves and gold. We. We need to focus more on seeing
what Scripture is teaching us about the promises of God in
Christ than we do enjoying the ride of studying the Bible. Let me say that again. We need
to invest our minds in learning and recapitulating, reevaluating,
Rehearing what the Bible says concerning the promises of God
in Christ rather more than we do our study of the Bible. It's very interesting. But beloved, the gospel that
gives endurance is not found in a journey of interests, is
it? No. in the person of Christ. It's
found in hearing the very word that created the universe. The
very word that promised life. The very word that became flesh.
And the very word that is the glory of God. Who awaits us. Who is at the right hand of the
majesty on high. That's the promise. That's the hope. And that is
the assurance and the conviction of you. Because that's what faith is.
Let's pray. Father, there is little to be
said that your word doesn't say. There's nothing really even necessary
sometimes with commentary. exposition as you've called us
to as teachers, Lord. It's just flipping through the
pages of the same book to show us the same thing, the same truth,
the same argument over and over again showing that it is consistent
over and over again that you've promised eternal life to your
people and you've secured it through Jesus Christ and that
good deposit, that seal is your spirit within us that causes
us to rest in that which we cannot see. As Peter has said to us. As you
have said to us through Peter, though we did not see Christ,
we love him. And though we have not seen him
and we have we are not seeing him now, we love him. We love
him because we see his love for us. We see your love for us through
him and in your love for us, you have secured us for an everlasting
life, for an everlasting hope, for an everlasting destiny in
the midst of your glory. And so in this truth, in this
word, in your promises, Father, we rejoice. Though we are suffering,
though we are hard at work, though we don't know where we should
go or how we should pray at times, Lord, you will not cast us aside.
We are absolutely yours and there is nothing, absolutely nothing
that can separate us from the work of Christ, which is your
love for us. And we are yours. So grow us in that knowledge,
grow us in that resolve, grow our faith in its smallest place
to believe in Christ because it is what you have done in our
hearts and minds and souls. And Lord, no matter what. Let
the gospel be our endurance as we come back to your scripture,
as we hear again and again the story of redemption, which is
your promise of life. In Christ we pray.