I invite your attention to the
epistle to the Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. As you locate your passage, let
me bring to your mind that there are, in various places across
this country and across the world, Many halls of fame, a hall for
fame for this and a hall for fame for that. And if you go to one of these
halls of fame, you'll find statues and pictures of famous people
associated with this or that. Paraphernalia equipment that
they used. There is no officially sanctioned
Christian Hall of Fame, neither do we want one. We are not a
people given to statues and relics and paraphernalia regarding those
who've gone before us. But there is a Hall of Faith. Not a hall of fame, but a hall
of faith. And it is recorded in this 11th
chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. And you can hear, read
of some of our heroes. Great men they were, and great
women they were. We're going to look at just about
five of them this morning. because I'm going to begin in
chapter 11, verse 1 of the epistle of the Hebrews, and we'll take
you down to verse number 13, where it is found my text and
the subject of my message. These all died in faith. He's all died in faith. Now what
is faith? If you would like a very succinct
definition, I could give to you the acrostic F-A-I-T-H, forsaking
all, I trust him. That briefly describes faith. It forsakes all that I am, all
that I have, and it puts all my hope and confidence in Jesus
Christ. Forsaking all, I'll trust Him. But the writer to the Hebrews
here tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. Now that's a strange language.
Hope has no substance, but faith puts substance to our hope. What
is our hope? It's Jesus Christ. More than
anything else, our hope is Jesus Christ. Have you ever seen him? No. Has he ever physically appeared
to you? No. But you can lay hold of him,
can you not? In faith you lay hold of the
substance of Jesus Christ. He's the substance of all our
hope. The evidence of things not seen. The proof of them. How do I know
that I have an inheritance in heaven? Paul says, I have already
obtained it. It's mine. How can it be mine
if I have never set foot on it? I have laid hold of it. It's
mine. Christ is mine. I've never seen
him, but I have embraced him. How did I embrace him? By faith
and never to let him go. We read that by faith the elders
obtained a good report, a good testimony. We're talking about
the heroes of our faith. They go all the way back. to
the morning of creation. If Adam and Eve lived in the
dawn of creation, and they did, this one Abel we're going to
read of, he was in the early morning of it. And you're going
to read about various others in the Old Testament times, and
then to them you could add those who lived in New Testament times. The heroes of our faith, they
obtained a good report all the way down from Abel until, if
you will, Jotaro, and then beyond. By faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which
are seen were not made of things which are visible. Were you there
when the world was created? No. How can you be sure it was
created? God said so. That suits me. I've embraced it. By faith I
understand that God made the heavens and the earth and all
that He is here in. Now we come to the first of five
individuals who exemplify this faith. We read in verse 4, By faith,
Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through
which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and through it he, being dead, still speaks. In Abel, we're going to see,
by faith, worshiping God, or if you will, by faith approaching
God. The only way to worship Him,
the only way to find acceptance with Him and to approach Him
is through faith. Now let me tell you about A.L.
He's the second of Adam and Eve's sons. The first is Cain. When he was born, his mother
said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. The commentators will
tell you that her words could mean, I have gotten a man, even
the Lord, as though she thought Cain was the fulfillment of the
messianic prophecy of the seeded woman who would crush the head
of the serpent. Well, she was wrong. Parents
are not incalibrate in naming their children. Cain, he was
not the Messiah. He was the hope. Now comes Abel. He's got an interesting name.
His name means breath. Breath. This word throughout
or in the scriptures is also translated vanity and nothing. It is as though she looked at
Cain and said, our hope is in him and Abel. He's not much. He's just a breath. Well, there
came a day when these two were going to approach God, making
an offering for their sins. Abel is a farmer and a good one. Of course, he lived in the day
before the curse of the ground had become full, and it was not
as polluted then as it is now, but he has tilled his ground
He has harvested his crop, he's just as pleased as he can be.
The melons and the leeks and the onions and whatever else
he desired, he has grown them and they look good. The fruit
from his trees he's probably filled some cornucopias of the
produce of. My, I did this, I raised these. and he puts them there displayed
for God when God walks by and looks over. Hey Bill, what are
you doing? Well, I have gathered some rocks
uncut by my hands and I have made an altar and I went out
into the plots that the Lord gave to me, and I looked among
the first things, and I found the best lamb there is. I mean,
it has no spot, it has no blemish, and I'm sacrificing this best
lamb the Lord gave to me. I'm going to sacrifice it to
Him. Who told you to do that? Nobody. But I do know this, that
when God was going to make our parish acceptable in his sight,
this is what he did. He made an altar. He brought
a lamb and sacrificed it and clothed them. Now, if it was
good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for me. And
he does. He sacrifices. that land that
is there without blemish and without spot, but the first names
of his flock, and God comes by and says, the Cain that might impress you, but not
me, walks over to Abel and says, I accept your offering. I accept your offering. Let me
tell you, friend, if you want to rightly worship God, if you
want to approach God, if you want to be accepted by God, do
not come with the works of your hands. Come through the land
that takes away the sin of the world. Joe Terrell was a man
gifted with skills in mechanics and carpentry and other things.
He could have impressed us with his skills, He never tried to
impress God with them, did he? No. What was he doing? Trusting in the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world. And if you want to worship God,
you'll have to do it like Joe Terrell did, through faith in
Jesus Christ. Second, by faith Enoch was translated
so that he did not see death. and was not found because God
had translated him. For before his translation he
had this testimony that he pleased God. In Abel we find that by
faith worshiping God or approaching God. In Enoch we find that by
faith pleasing God. His name means dedicated or consecrated. Oh, he was. He was. He was so
dedicated to God and so consecrated to God that even God was pleased. Even God was pleased. And God
took him. It is as though one day God came
down and knocked on Enoch's door and says, let's go for a walk.
So Enoch and God go for a walk. He walked with God, this picture
says. And as they walk, Enoch is pleasing
God. He pleased God. What pleases
God? God is a father. He is the father. I have learned this. If you want
to make a father happy, make much of his son. Make much of
his daughter. You want to make me happy? Talk
about my son. Talk about my daughter. I will
be happy. That pleases me. What pleases
God when you talk about His Son? When you exalt His Son? Joe Carroll
did that. He pleased God. I hope you're endeavoring to do
so. Hope you're walking with God. Walking before Him and pleasing
Him. How do you do it? Third, Noah. By faith, Noah being divinely
warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared
an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned
the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according
to faith. Noah. He is evidently the only
man before the deluge, the flood, who was said expressly to be
named by his parents other than the three children of Adam and
Eve. The others, after Adam and Eve's children, were evidently
named after their birth. Noah's father named him, named
him, a name meaning rest, because his father said, this one, Noah,
he will give us comfort regarding the curse that this world is
under. Well, again, parrots are not
infallible in naming their children. He was as wicked as all the rest
of them, for we read that in that day God looked down from
heaven and could not find a righteous man in all the earth. And then Noah found grace in
the sight of the Lord. Did not earn it, did not merit
it, he found grace. And then the Lord said, Noah,
I'm going to destroy the world with water. What kind of water? It's going to rain. Lord, it
has never rained. No, it will. It will. Now, I want you to build me an
ark, a huge boat. It's going to take you a long
time to do it, but my long suffering will last until you finish. I want you to build an ark for
the salvation of your family and for the condemnation of those
who will not believe me. And I want you to preach the
whole time you're doing it. And here they come, hey Noah,
what are you doing? Building an ark. Why? It's going to rain. And God's
going to flood this entire earth. Noah, you're a fool. It has never
rained. It will not rain. Enough water
to cover the earth. You're a fool, Noah. He did this
for years, obeying God. He obeyed God when all around
him, mopping and storming. Here's a man who is faithful.
in obeying God regardless of what is said about him, regardless
of who says it. And then he finishes. He finishes
that article. It is made exactly and precisely
as God had said it should be. And then God said, get into the
ark, bring your family with you, and he did. Got into the ark
and God shut the door. Then God opened the heavens and
the rains descended and the fountains of the earth opened. Noah condemned the world, but
through his obedience, saved his family. That's all God requires of us.
Obedience. Obey Him. Joe Terrell did. He's known for
it, renowned for it, his obedience to the Lord in the face of mockery
from others around him. He obeyed. Fourth person. Verse 8, by faith Abraham obeyed
when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward
receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where
he was going. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promises in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. for he waited for the city which
has foundation, whose builder and maker is God." All right. In Abel, worshiping God by faith. In Enoch,
pleasing God by faith. In Noah, obeying God by faith. In Abraham, following God by
faith. not knowing where you're going.
The Lord came down to Abraham. Abram was his name in that day.
There was not a gospel preacher anywhere around in Ur of the
Chaldeans. So Jesus Christ went down himself
and preached the gospel to Abram and saved him and said, now follow
me. Where are we going? You do not need to know. Just
follow me. But, I do not know where I'm
going? No, you'll know when you get
there. Follow me. Okay. He packs his tent, he gathers
his herds and his flocks, and off he follows the Lord. Hey,
where are you going? I did not know. Hey, where did you get there? I'm
following the Lord. Wherever he says to go, that's
where I'm going. And off he went, following him,
living in tents the whole time. Perhaps wakes up some morning,
and the Lord said, let's go. Yes, sir, I'm packing. We're
going. And off he went. That's what
faith does. It follows the Lord. You may
not know where you're going, but you'll know when you get
there. And the Lord will tell you when
you have arrived. That's how Joe Terrell ended
up in Rock Valley, Iowa. Following the Lord. Then we find Sarah, verse 11. By faith, Sarah herself also
received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child even
when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had
promised." All right, in Sarah, Abraham's
wife, we find trust in God through faith. even to do the impossible. The Lord comes down and says
to Abraham, Sabbath's going to have a son
with you. The scripture says that Abraham fell to the ground
laughing. Lord, are you sure I'm a hundred years
old? She's 90 years old. She has never
been able to bear a child and now you say we're going to have
a child in our own age when it's physically impossible? Sarah
is over inside the tent and she heard this and she's laughing. God was not laughing. He was
serious. And they did. She trusted God. Not only did she go where God
would lead Abraham, her husband, but she said, well, I'm 19 years
old. I am past the age of childbearing. My womb is bearing. My husband
is too old to conceive with me. But God said it. That settles
it. I believe it. Now that's what faith does. It
trusts God regardless of the circumstance. Then what do we
read? Verse 13. These all die in faith. That's my text. That's the subject
of my message. My message is short. You just
heard my introduction, but the message is short. Two points.
First, these all died. Well, of course they did. That's
the common end of every one of us. You are either dead or you're
dying and about to die. I have descended from hundreds
of generations of my forefathers, and every one of them is dead.
My father, and my mother, my grandfather, my grandmother,
my greats, my great-greats, all the way back, they're all dead.
And I'm going to follow them as soon. These all died in faith. But the first point is they died. Every one of us is going to die.
You're not going to escape it. Now you may say, but wait a minute
preacher, Enoch did not die. Well, let's consider him for
a moment. He did not see death, the scripture
says. He is the exception to the rule. He is the exception that proves
the rule. But in another sense, he did
indeed die. He departed this earthly temporal life to enter
into the heavenly eternal life. Furthermore, he is typical of
us if we are alive when Jesus Christ returns. When He comes
back, the dead in Christ shall rise first and they that are
alive shall be caught up together with Him. So you're going to
die unless you are alive when Jesus Christ returns. Even so,
come Lord Jesus. These all died. How did they
die? The circumstance of their death
is quite unimportant except for this, they died in faith. Matters not where they died,
matters not how they died, the important point is they died
in faith. It does not say they died in
the faith, there is no definite article before the word faith,
they died in faith. Well yes, they died in the faith,
Not everybody who's in the faith will die in the faith because
we're told some will depart from the faith. But if you are ever in faith,
ever in faith, you're going to die in it. You're going to die
in it. These all died in faith. Look into the promises. Look
into the promises. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and
Sarah looked to the promise of the land that God gave them before them. Abel and Enoch and Noah
did not have that promise, but they had another one. They had
a promise that God made in the dawn of creation. When the gospel
was first preached in the Protevangelium, when the gospel was first preached,
God himself preached it. And he said, the seed of the
woman will have his heel bitten by
the seed of the serpent, but the seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the servants." And that's the gospel. That's the
gospel. God himself preached it. And all these, from Abel, Enoch,
and Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Sarah, and all the
rest of our heroes in this hall of faith, they all embraced that
promise. Messiah is coming. He's going
to suffer death for us. But he will crush the head of
our oppressor. He will crush the head of Satan.
And we shall be saved. I want you to embrace that promise.
If you never have before, I want you to embrace that promise right
now. I have put my faith in Jesus
Christ. He's the substance of all my
hope. He's the evidence of everything
I have never seen that I desire. Trust me right now. In a few minutes, you're going
to walk out those doors. Do not walk out those doors.
until you have put your hope and faith and confidence in Jesus
Christ, the same forsaken all, I trust Him. For you may never
have an opportunity to come through those doors again. It may be that some of you who
leave this building today will never enter another building,
never have another opportunity to hear the gospel, But I hope
that for every one of you, when we come to an occasion like this,
in your memory, we can say that he or she died in faith. Nothing else matters. Nothing
else matters. Died in faith. If you've never
trusted Christ, do so now. If you have trusted him before,
keep on trusting. Die in him. O God, our Father,
to the glory of your name, to the honor of your Son, Jesus
Christ, bless this gospel, we pray. We thank you for this good
report of this elder who died in faith. We pray that the same
may be true of us as well. Be pleased, we pray, to bless
our memory of Him. Be pleased, we pray, to bless
our worship of Your Son, who has made all these blessings
possible unto us. To Your glory in Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.