We're going to continue in our
examination of the book of Hebrews chapter 11, that magnanimous
portion of scripture wherein the Hebrew writer is now going
to sort of close out his argument to the people of God as to why
they need to hold on to Christ and nothing else. That's really
what this is about. He's been seeking to persuade
the first century church of Hebrew Christians that Christ is not
only all, but that Christ is all you need. That's what he's
doing. He's seeking to persuade them
that not only has God the Father placed in his hand all authority
and all power and all dominion and everything necessary for
life and godliness through a knowledge of him, but he's seeking to persuade
these Hebrew Christians to land their eternity-bound soul smack
dab in the person of Christ and leave it there. Because they're
struggling as we know. They're struggling with whether
or not Christ is sufficient enough to get them from this life to
the next life. But we know better, don't we?
We know that Christ is more than able to deliver us from this
present evil world and to bring us into the glories of his Father. But now, why do we know that?
Why do we believe that? Why do we trust that? The answer
is because God has given us faith, hasn't he? Every believer, every
child of God, every man, woman, family, every congregation that
has come into a saving knowledge of God where their soul has rested
on the promises of God, know that God is more than able to
keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of his glory. So I want to talk to you today
about the life of saving faith. That's that's the title of our
message, the life of saving faith. Now, If I spent the next 10 minutes
talking to you about faith in terms of its propositional and
doctrinal component or element, we'd be talking about faith in
terms of the nature of the word of God delivered to us with its
inherent promises that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be what? And so the Bible from Genesis
to Revelation lays out the argument that salvation is found in none
other but the Lord Jesus Christ. No other name. Under heaven,
given among men, by which we might be saved. Do you believe
that? Now, you know that's a narrow
message. You know that, right? You know the world doesn't believe
that Christ is the only way. You do know that, right? So when
you take up a narrow message like Christ alone, you know that
you're standing against the whole culture of the world. Everybody
believes that every way of man is right in his own eyes. Is
that true? Most people you you do the statistics and most people
believe they're going to heaven Do you do you know that most
people believe they're going to heaven now watch this but
those same people don't even believe that there's a hell See
we have a natural propensity to believe that we deserve good
and So if there's an afterlife and there's a favorable place
with blessings and bliss and glory and all of the things that
we imagine or are set forth in the Word of God in terms of the
state of glory, we actually believe that we deserve to go there.
That's not true, is it? We don't deserve to go to heaven.
No one deserves to go to heaven. Do you know there's not a soul
in heaven that's there because they deserve to be there? There's
not a soul in heaven that's there that deserves to be there other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he deserves to be there.
Now, because he is there, there are others that are there also,
but they're there because of him. One of the things that the
Christian ministry seeks to try to compel men and women to understand
is that without faith, it's impossible to please God. And what the writer
now is dealing with in terms of the people of God is trying
to get them to understand we better not play games with faith
We better understand our faith That faith also better materialize
itself in our life That's why I'm actually wanting to talk
to you today under the headings that are in your outline about
the life of faith The life of saving faith. What do you mean
by that pastor the life of saving faith? I mean that now the writer
to the Hebrews, after arguing for 10 chapters about the superlative
nature of the glory of God in Christ, having made Christ greater
than the angels, greater than Moses, greater than Joshua, greater
than Melchizedek, greater than Aaron, greater than all the Old
Testament sacrifices, greater than the Old Covenant, that Christ
is the head from whom all things flow. Christ is the greatest. He's argued that for 10 chapters.
And now in the 11th chapter, you know what he's about to do?
He's about to show us how men and women from the beginning
of time actually believed that message and it materialized in
their life. So we are compelled by the 11th
chapter to contemplate the life of saving faith. Under your first
point, the nature of faith. I just want to touch on this
briefly without any lengthy development. We've heard this verse quoted
many, many times, right? Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things what? Now, you and
I know that a statement like that with those particular conjunctions
there need to really be explained. It needs to be dissected. It
needs to be analyzed. What do we mean that faith is
the substance things hope for see what I'm saying sometimes
we as Christians quote Bible verses don't we and we don't
even know what we talking about okay so when the author says
faith is the substance of things hope for obviously he's connecting
faith with future expectations right faith is is the substance
of things what? Hoped for. And then he goes on
to say the evidence of things what? Not seen. So there's two
characteristics to which faith hinges itself. It hinges itself
on future promises and also unseen realities. Is that the nature
of faith? Absolutely. See, faith believes
in what God says will occur tomorrow, doesn't it? Faith also believes
in the things that are not seen. Like we believe in a spiritual
dimension, don't we? We believe in angels. We believe
in the spirit of God. We believe in the fact that there
are demons. We believe that there is a spiritual
dimension, a first heaven, second heaven, and third heavens. Don't
we believe that? We also believe that there are things that take
place outside of the scope of our limited empirical abilities. Meaning, I believe what took
place a thousand years ago and 2,000 years ago when Christ came
into the world in our human nature. I believe that. Do you? Well,
for me, that's an unseen thing because I wasn't there. Am I making some sense? So what
the Bible does when it gives you and I biblical propositions
and promises and statements, it actually gives us a portal
into realities that we have never seen. And it allows us by this
gift of faith to believe that those things occur. Were you
there when God created the heavens and the earth? Were you there
when He laid out the foundations of the universe and draped this
glorious universe with its billions of galaxies the way He did and
exquisitely ordered it in the fashion that He did? Were you
there? Were you there when he ordered the events that transpired
in Genesis chapter 1, day 1, day 2, day 5, day 6, and on the
7th day? Rested? You weren't there, were
you? Neither was I, but I believe it. So I am believing unseen
things or things that transpired outside of the scope of my capacity
to verify it empirically, right? I also believe in tomorrow. in
terms of God's sovereign purpose to bring to pass his will in
a way in which it will correspond with his promises. And one day
I'll believe I'll be with him. Now, faith in this context is
said to be substantive. The word is translated several
different ways in your Bible. But the most practical way for
me to give you a definition of faith in this context is this.
The word simply means a sort of assurance that what God said
he's going to do will occur. In some of your Bibles, it's
translated faith is assurance. Isn't that right? Now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for. That word is really a business
term. And prior to the first century,
that word was used when contracts were drawn up, when a person
purchased property. Like you purchased some land
and you made a deal with the bank. You don't actually have
the land yet, but what the bank gives you in exchange for your
money is a certificate of ownership. You guys got that? A certificate
of ownership. And that's what faith is. A certificate
of ownership that that which God has promised, He will bring
to pass. Faith is a certificate of ownership. It's a gift from God to us to
affirm that He's good on His promises. Now in the context
in which I'm speaking, faith now is something very objective. For the believer, what is God's
certification and God's assurance to us that everything that he
said he would do, he will do? Jesus Christ. Christ for us is
God's assurance. Jesus Christ becomes for us the
evidence and the assurance that all that God said he will do.
You need to get that now. See, because what God is offering
to you and I in exchange for his promises is the evidence
that he can make it good through the person of his son Jesus.
Jesus is the yes and the amen of God for all of his promises.
You guys understand that? He's the yes and the amen. So
when God gives us his promise, when he gives us his word, he
has verified that word in the person of his son. Have you received
his son? If you have received God's son,
you have the certificate of evidence, the credible record of what God
has stated he will give you because you got his son. That's what
we mean by now faith is a substance of things. Hope for that's on
an objective level now on a subjective level Faith is now the evidence
of things what not seen the evidence of things not seen Now we are
talking about the gift of faith that God plants in our heart
By which we rest in the reality that all that God has said will
occur You know, there was a day when you didn't believe God,
isn't that right? and in fact While as yet you and I were not
believers in God, the Bible made no sense. And on some occasions
the Bible was out and out ridiculous in its claims, right? But when
faith is planted in the heart, and it's not faith they get from
God, Does everybody believe God? No. The world is not a believer
in the true and the living God. The world does not bow the knee
to Jesus Christ. The world does not accept the
evidence that God has given us in the scriptures or in Christ
that what God says is true, but we have it. And what the Spirit
of God does is He plants in your heart and mind the ability to
believe God. This is the work of God that
we believe on Him whom He has sent. And the writer to the Hebrews,
while he is opening up with the basic concept of faith, he's
getting ready to funnel us into the practice of those to whom
the Word of God came, planted faith in our heart, and caused
those people to live out their faith. Does that make sense,
saints? See, we do argue with people who say they believe in
God. that if they have, if they bear no credible evidences that
they believe in God, then their faith is a vain faith. Do we
not say that? We say to men and women as James
says in James chapter 2 around verse 20, 21, faith without words
is what? Faith without words is dead.
And what the Hebrew writer is about to do now is demonstrate
that authentic saving faith manifests itself in a life of faith. The just shall what? Live by what? And that's what
the writer is getting ready to demonstrate. He's getting ready
to demonstrate now when you have been blessed to hear the word
of God and that word of God has made an impact in your soul in
a conversion where your eyes are open to the truth. It moves
you in a direction of following God and that following God for
you and me becomes a lifestyle of what? Faith. A lifestyle. A lifestyle of faith. And that
lifestyle of faith, ladies and gentlemen, in the life of every
believer, is designed for us to glorify God. So in your outline,
it's very clear a number of points. You do believe that faith cometh
by what? In that Romans 10, 17? Faith
comes by hearing. And hearing by what? So where
the Word of God is not preached, where the Gospel is not preached,
we have no confidence that men and women can actually experience
the gift of faith. Is that right? God has to actually
plant faith in the heart through the preaching of the Word and
men and women discover whether or not they believe God. Because
you cannot believe on something you do not know. You cannot believe
confidently or concretely in something of which you are not
knowledgeable of. And so the Bible tells us in
John chapter 17 verse 3, And this is eternal life, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. When a man or woman is actually
born again, they actually believe God, and that belief materializes
itself in a pattern of life called faith. And that's what our author
is ready to now deal with us on, and that is the subject of
the life saving faith the life of saving faith not only is it
required that the Word of God be preached so that we might
believe on him whom he has sent but the mind must receive that
truth proclaimed is that right 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses
4 through 6 once again reminds us of the penetrating nature
of the preaching of the gospel This is so critical to be reminded
of because we're talking about as the author is driven by his
argument to compel the Hebrew writers to continue walking with
God. He wants us to understand the
nature of saving faith. What does verse 4 say? Let me
start at verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are what? And see, listen, not everyone
believes the gospel, not everyone is trusting Christ. And so while
as yet men are not believing the gospel, we know that the
secondary cause for which they are not believing it is that
the enemy has blinded the minds of them that do not believe.
Isn't that what the Bible says? Verse 4, in whom the God of this
world, who is that? The devil, hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not. So now, child of God, if you
don't know this, here you are a believer, and you are now occupying
space with a non-believer, maybe in the workplace, or maybe at
school, maybe anywhere, and you realize that they don't understand
the gospel, They don't trust Christ. They have a lot of questions
about whether or not God exists, whether or not God could have
actually created the heavens and the earth in six days, whether
or not Christ's death at Calvary actually atoned for sin, whether
or not there's a heaven, whether... They have a thousand questions,
don't they? While legit they are raising those questions,
here's the problem. They are blinded. Now, if you
don't make sure that you understand that basic condition of the spiritual
nature of the man or woman who is not a believer, you will try
to do something that's impossible. And do you know what that is?
You try to persuade them intellectually and rationally that God is, when
in fact what they need is a revelation from God himself. Now, now, now,
stay with me with that for a moment. This is important. Because I
think what the Christian church has often done is try to reason
men and women into the kingdom without using God's apparatus. The thing that you and I are
to do in order to see men and women translated out of darkness,
that's what it means to be blinded, darkness, into his marvelous
light, is we actually need to believe in the efficacy and power
of God's word to open the eyes. Do you believe God's Word is
able to shed light on the blind eyes of human beings? Do you
believe God's Word is able to open the heart to the truth of
the gospel? Do you believe that? Do you believe
that the Spirit of God works through the Word of God to break
down all the barriers and resistance and hostility and indifference
and antipathy of men against the truth of God? Then your job
and mine is to pray that God accompanies our efforts. to share
the word of God with men and women as we faithfully do it. See, it's only going to be by
God himself using his word to bring men and women into a saving
knowledge of Christ. And when once he does, Paul describes
for us what happens. Watch this. He says in chapter
4, verse 4, he says, The mind of those who believe not the
God of this world have blinded, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ who is the image of God should what? Shine unto
them. Light. Light has to penetrate
the darkness. Light. See, we all think we're
walking in light, but until we see the glory of God in Christ,
we are in abysmal darkness and we don't even know it. While
as yet the Word of God has not penetrated our hearts and brought
us into a knowledge of Christ, we're believing the most stupid
stuff on planet Earth, aren't we? We're committing ourselves
to ideas that are nonsensical, irrational, and ultimately they
are damning, aren't they? The whole world operates out
of silly notions about God. Silly notions. And here's how
blinded we are until God opens our eyes. We're blinded to the
degree that we're ready to argue with God, debate with God, oppose
God, defy God. But God in his mercy is willing
to overwhelm or overcome all of that resistance to bring men
and women into a saving knowledge of him. You remember that day
when it happened to you? It was humbling, wasn't it? But
it was necessary. You remember the day when you
were in your proud, self-righteous, presumptuous, knowledge, competency,
accomplished status, saying, that makes no sense. The Bible
tells us with the natural man, the things of God are foolishness
to him because he cannot know them or perceive them. It simply
means that we don't have the capacity to agree with God until
he changes our mind. And when he does, he says it's
like the light that shines out of darkness. That's why we sing
the hymn, uh, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was what? But now I what? That's right. I was blind, but
now I see. I was bound. I was blind. God broke the shackles, opened
my eyes. I see the world through his lenses
now. That's a glorious day, isn't it? It's humbling, however, to
know that you didn't even know that you were blind. And that's
that's part of the struggle to him. David says, Paul says here
over in verse five, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus,
the Lord and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake. Now,
Mark, verse six, here's the point. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our what? That's in
our innermost being. That's in our true self. That's
in the core of our person. That's our intellect. That's
our rationale. That's our emotions. That's our
volition. That's the whole of our inner
man. The lights are cut on so that we begin to see God in all
of his glorious truth. in the person of His Son, Jesus
Christ. And we love Him for it, don't we? So the Word is preached
by which faith comes, the mind is illuminated, and then the
heart responds. That is that inner man. This
is what God demands of us. He demands that our inner man,
our heart, respond in obedience. Turn with me in your Bible to
Psalm 27, verse 7 and 8. I want you to hear how David
puts it. I'm defining briefly for us Faith in its impact, faith
in its power to actually get a hold of our lives and save
us. Faith in the manner in which the gospel comes through the
word of God to bring us into a saving status with God. You
guys have heard this verse before, but I want you to hear it again.
Now you and I know that David was a man after God's own heart.
You believe that? Was he? But didn't David have his problems?
Now, and again, religious folk may not understand this, and
certainly non-believers may not get this, that to have a right
relationship with God does not mean that I have to be perfect.
But in order for me to have a right relationship with God, on God's
part of the equation, He has to qualify me with attributes
and aspirations and desires and passions towards Him that constitutes
our relationship. It does not mean, however, that
I don't have my foibles, my weaknesses, my characteristics that are actually
antithetical to what I want to be. When God makes a man or woman
born again, we enter into what is called a civil war. And the
territory of that civil war is our mind and our heart. And the
good I would, I do not. And the evil that I would not
do, I find myself doing. And I discovered that I am in
conflict with my fallen nature. I'm inclined to evil, but there's
something new in me that says, I don't want it. I don't desire
it. I want God. That's the new thing
in us. Is that right? That's the new
thing in us. And then God is going to teach
me how to subdue that old man so that I am brought into conformity
to do the will of God. We call that sanctification,
don't we? And so here's David, just in case some folks are finding
excuses not to listen to David. I love me some David. I love
me some David. I know that he was operating
as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I still
love me some David. Listen to verse seven. Listen
to what he says. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Do you cry out to God? You will
when you're in trouble. You will when you're in need.
You'll cry out to God when you are limited in your capacity
to do what you want to do. And as a child of God, watch
this. God puts us in situations where we got to call out on God
a lot. It becomes natural for the born
again believer to call on God. And one of the things with which
we know God was pleased with David is because David had a
heart after God to seek God. Here, oh Lord, when I cried with
my voice, have mercy also upon me in what? Now mark this child
of God. Just because you call on God
doesn't mean God has to answer you. Who do you think you are? Just because you call him, you
have no right for the God of the universe to actually bow
his ear and listen to you. David was smart enough to know,
Lord, if you would be merciful, answer me. Got it? When God answers
us, it's according to his what? Mercies. Mercies. See, this is called coming to
God humbly. Coming to God humbly. Listen
to what he goes on to say. Now, mark this now. When you
said... Now, you see what David is doing?
He's reminding God of what God stated about what it means to
walk with God. And this is gonna launch us into
the whole idea of the life of faith. God, when you said, when
you said, which means David knew God's word, didn't he? Did David
know the word of God? Thy word that I've hid in my
heart that I might not what? Sin against you. With my whole
heart have I sought you. Oh, let me not wonder from your
commandments. Your precepts are my delight.
Your statutes are wonderful to me and take not the word of truth
utterly out of my mouth. David hung his whole soul on
the Word of God. He says, I have seen an end of
all perfection, but your commandments are broader than them all. They
are sweet like the honeycomb. Sweeter than the honeycomb to
me. This is what David said. He loved God's Word. See, every
believer loves God's Word. We love it. And David did too.
And here's what he said, Lord, when you see it, now watch this,
here's what God says, seek ye my face. Got it? Stay with me now. See, why would
God save you if it wasn't for you to seek him? Are you hearing
me? Now he sought you first. Don't
you ever get it twisted. We don't seek God, God seeks
us. The good shepherd came and sought us out. We were lost,
God wasn't lost. You know how folks say, I found
God, God wasn't lost. God was never lost. We were lost. I found God. No, you didn't.
God found you. He came and got you. He called
you. He quickened you. He rescued
you. He saved you. Let's get our doctrine
right right about now. Listen, and God is not, you know,
to be comprehended in some kind of temporal, spatial dimension,
whereas he's over here or over there. The omnipotent sovereign
God is omniscient. You can't go somewhere to find
God. God is. So Pharaoh was told by
Moses, when Moses, now, when I go into the greatest king in
the East at this time who ruled the world as it were, who am
I supposed to say is sending me? And he says, tell Pharaoh,
I am that I am. I am that I am. And see, this
is a fundamental component to our theology. A right knowledge
of God is critical to our strong faith. Do you understand that?
We don't serve a peon God who is limited in his dimension,
in his temporality, in his scope of being. God is infinite in
his power, infinite in his nature, infinite in his purpose, infinite
in his work. And all of that is beyond you
and me. But what it means is when we call upon God, we're
not going anywhere to call upon God. We are calling upon God
from right where we are. Because God is not far from any
one of us. Am I making some sense? That's
why if a man or woman ever calls upon God, they will call upon
God right where they are. And listen to what David says.
When you said, seek my face, watch this. Here it is. My heart
said, Thy face, Lord, will I see. I've just given you a basic working
definition of what it means to walk by faith. It means to seek
the face of God. It means to seek the face of
God. We have talked about the face of God in the very redemptive
sense of Jesus Christ being the face of God, is he not? We have
just heard that God has caused the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God to shine out in the face of Jesus Christ.
But there's a day coming when all believers will, in this magnanimous
event, see God face to face. Isn't that right? That's the
ultimate objective of the believer in all of that anthropomorphical
terminology, to see him face to face. So when we say that,
we are really talking about our journey of faith, are we not?
I want to see God, don't you? I want to see him. In whatever
way he is meant to reveal himself to me, I want to see God. And so the life of faith moves
us out in obedience in that direction. Are you following me, saints?
And it's very important for you to know that. I could quote also
Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13. You've heard it before. Go there
before we go back and run through these other points quickly. What
am I stating? I am stating that when we talk
about faith, faith is more than us merely saying that we believe
God. but that in believing God, that
faith now materializes itself in a lifestyle that pursues God. So you've heard it before in
Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of what? And not of
evil, to give you an expected end. That's the promise, right?
Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me,
and I will what? Listen to you. Watch this. And
you shall what? Seek me and find me when you
shall search for me with what? That's the qualification, child
of God. So see now, we in trouble, aren't we? Go back to Hebrews
11. We are in trouble. We love quoting verses that get
us in trouble. We really do. We love quoting Bible verses
that get us in trouble. Now, come on now, what do you
do at any time with your whole heart, let alone seek God. But you know what he just stated?
It's only when you seek me with the whole heart that you will
find me. See it? So he's really getting at a characteristic
of our pursuit of God that learns to put everything else aside
and make God our highest priority. That's what he's talking about.
And what he's getting ready to do now is marshal out the witnesses
to show us that it can be done. A man or a woman can be brought
to love God in such a fashion that their life is carved out
to follow God. Do you believe that? That's what he's getting
ready to do. And so now I want to call you to point number two
called the Model and pattern and life of faith. Do you see
that in your outline? The model and pattern and life
of faith in Hebrews chapter 11 verses 4 through 11. What does
he do? he begins to describe the life of people like Abel
and the life of people like Enoch and the life of people like Noah
and the life of people like Abraham and Sarah in that what he does
he he begins to marshal out into our presence listen to me now
the witnesses and We have now witnesses to affirm and verify
God's claims. And you and I want to contemplate
the idea of these witnesses. Do you know what verse two tells
us in Hebrews chapter 11? For by it, that is faith, the
elders obtained a good what? Do you know why they obtained
a good report? I want you to follow this now. And the elders
are the witnesses that are coming out. These people that God is
gonna marshal out in front of us. There are 17 names that he
gives us in Hebrews 11. Everywhere from Abel all the
way down to Samuel. Now you and I know a lot of Bible
names, right? We know Ruth, the Moabitess. We know Sarah. We
know Hannah, right? We know Jacob. We know Isaac. We know Abraham. We know a lot
of people. We know David. We know Jonathan.
We know a lot of people in the Bible, right? And those people
who live for God are in this recorded account that we have
called those who have a good report. There's some serious
implications here, but I'm going to make it very simple. People
who have attained unto a good report are people who have lived
by faith, are you ready? And died in faith. I'm gonna
make it simple for you now. The folks who are part of the
good report are people who lived by faith and they also what? Died in faith. Why would God
give us in this list of believers folks who started running and
then stopped? Folks who said they would go
but didn't go. Folks who started in the way
but left the way. Am I making some sense? So the
elders that received a good report are men and women who lived and
died in faith. We are back to what we have been
arguing in terms of the nature of true saving faith from the
last several chapters. Faith perseveres. Faith hangs
in there, doesn't it? Faith perseveres. It continues,
doesn't it? Faith hold on, doesn't it? That's
the nature of faith. Now, we're not talking about
how faith looks when it's holding on, because sometimes it doesn't
look good, does it? Does it look good always? I wish
it could. Now, in a few months, I'll be
talking about the nature of faith in terms of the fruit-bearing
desire of Christ towards us, John chapter 15, because we all
should be bearing fruit. But our tree looks bad sometimes,
doesn't it? But a bad tree is not the same
as a dead tree. You better write that down. because a bad tree can look like
a dead tree and it's still alive. So I'm saying when you go through
this so-called hero halls, the hall of heroes of faith, and
you start examining each one of these persons back in their
own historical account, they don't always look that good.
Do you know who they got in this text? Samson. Samson received a good report. Nobody would want Samson in their
church. But he received a good report. Do you understand that? Jephthah. I had a sister come
to me a few weeks ago. Why on earth would Jephthah make
a vow to burn his daughter up if God gave him the victory?
You guys remember that account? Lord, whatever comes out of my
door, I offer it up in sacrifice if you give me the victory. That's
wild, isn't it? And Jephthah is in the Hall of
Fame of Faith. He believed God. See, it don't
always look good, doesn't it? But discernment will help us
to understand the difference between that which is alive and
that which is dead. And it's critical to know. And
I'm not going to go through any of the Hall of Faithers here.
I'm simply going to affirm to you that their life was one where
they first heard the Word of God. And that word of God actually
brought them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And then it
moved them out into a life of obedience before God. That's
what I'm pressing home. I'm pressing home that the 11th
chapter says, if God called you, you're on your journey. If God
called you, you are making your way somewhere. He doesn't call
you to stay right where you are. I am not talking geographically.
I am talking spiritually. Because when he calls you, he
calls you with a purpose, doesn't he? And when God calls us to
a life of faith, children of God, it's going to correspond
to the pattern that we have talked about before. And let me cut
to the chase with this. When a man or woman hears the
gospel and believes the gospel and trusts Christ, watch this
now, unless there are major exceptions to the rule, you're not going
to find true believers not hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
It's not going to happen. The nature of true believers
is that they're going to want to know God's Word. They're going
to study God's Word. They're going to love to be under
sound teaching and sound preaching so they can grow in God's Word.
The other thing you're going to learn about believers is that
they love to fellowship with the people that love to fellowship
with God. That's the other thing you can
find about true believers. You can also find that true believers
are learning how to separate those unprofitable things of
their life from the things that please God. Every true believer
wants to do the will of God. Is that a fair statement? Every
true believer wants to do the will of God. You're not gonna
find believers that are serious about God meandering around in
this world kind of lost, waiting and abiding their time until
they die. Every true believer that's serious about God is going
to have a journey of faith that is consistent with what it means
to be a believer. I want you to understand that
because in our present generation, folks kind of have a designer
faith. where we kind of carve out our
own kind of faith. You know, I serve God my way. Your way ain't going to work.
God has a way to follow him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Listen, it's because when he plants his nature in you and
he plants his nature in another person and he plants his nature
in another person, they all have that same nature. And so they
mind the same things. They love the same things. And
then we are on a course of faith. Now, I've said this before. There
are two kinds of races that we run. And what the Hebrew writer
is going to do when he opens up chapter 12 is tell us about
the race we're to run, right? That we are to run this race
with what? Patience, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Is that true? So when you get
saved, you and I are running a race. You believe that? We're
running a race. And that race ends when we die
or when Jesus comes back. It's a race of faith and it's
a race of the gospel. There are two races the Bible
talks about. The gospel race and the race
of faith. And every one of these persons
in our text has done that. If I were to just take, for example,
just a few of these witnesses here. Let's just say we'll start
off with Abel. You guys remember Abel. He didn't
live long. We don't know how long he lived,
but he didn't live long. But he knew God, didn't he? And
he loved God, didn't he? But his brother what? Cain killed
Abel, didn't he? But Abel was able to leave a
testimony that he knew God and God loved him. And you know what
the Hebrew writer says? His sacrifice yet speaketh. It yet testifies
that he had a relationship with God. And here's what I'm getting
at. There's going to always be an evidence of our faith that
we are able to leave behind that we have a relationship with God.
We take Brother Enoch, that's the next fellow in your account.
You remember Enoch? No, you don't. You weren't there.
But the text talks about him. Stay with me for a moment. I
mean, if you were there, you are certainly a miracle. I know some of us are old enough
to remember what it was like before the flood, but the testimony that Enoch left
was that he walked with God, didn't he? Did Enoch walk with
God? He walked with God. Now, ladies
and gentlemen, when you walk with God, doesn't that mean you
cannot walk with other people? You cannot walk in other ways. That to walk with God makes many
other things exclusive. That means you make choices that
determine the quality and nature of the thing you have chosen
to do. And for us, Enoch is a remarkable, remarkable example of communion
with God, and fellowship with God, and union with God, and
oneness with God, and consecration with God. It's beyond me, is
it beyond you? When I think about how the text
says, and Enoch walked with God, I mean, because we all walk with
God who are believers, isn't that right? But I don't know if I
walk with God the same way Enoch walked. The text tells me that
Enoch's walk was so pleasing to God that he took him. I remember that at 18 years old
when God saved me. I'm reading the Genesis account,
chapter 5, and I read about this brother named Enoch, and all
it said in a couple verses was, and Enoch walked with God, and
he was not, for God took him. I'm like, what kind of fellowship
is that? Where God is so pleased with
it that he snatches a brother up out of it. See, I had my own
vision at 18. I had him taken off, you know,
kind of just levitating in the air, just walked on into and
just disappeared. I don't know how it was. The
text didn't say that, but that's how you think, right? What I
knew intuitively, and I was dumb as a goat back then, I knew that
there was something to his walk with God. that I wanted. I knew
that there was something to the walk of Enoch with God that I
wanted. Now actually what I'm sharing with you are faith paradigms,
too. I'll give you just a couple more.
In our account it also talks about Abraham. And Abraham has
a long lengthy history, right? But he believed God, didn't he?
And Abraham had his call out of Ur of the Chaldees. He's got
to go to a land that he didn't know nothing about. That takes
faith, doesn't it? It takes faith to believe God when he tells
you to get up and leave your familiar environment and go somewhere
where you have absolutely no knowledge about. And then along
the way, God is telling Abraham all kind of other stuff. Take
up and adopt the concept of circumcision. You're going to be the father
of a multitude of nations and get him and Sarah are as impotent
and barren at 90 and almost 100 years old as anyone can be. It's
as if all that God said is not coming to pass. What was God
doing? Testing and trying his what?
But the Hebrew writer tells us Abraham looked for a city whose
builder and maker was God. And he did not stumble at the
promises of God. He did not stagger. He believed
God. But now when you and I read the
report, it looks a little bit different, doesn't it? Come on
now, tell the truth. So we have two sides of the vision.
We have God's view, which he sees through the pristine eyes
of Abraham's substitute. who is Jesus. And then we have
our human view where we are struggling, trying to do this thing according
to God's word. And it don't always look good.
Am I making some sense? See, so now faith is not that
we don't struggle. Faith is that we don't quit.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Faith is that we don't quit.
We don't stop. We don't give in. We don't throw
in the towel. It's persevering faith. It's critical to your
understanding in mind. And then the other thing that
I wanna say that's so important before we move on is, when we
are talking about saving faith as a lifestyle, it's going to
always pattern itself after gospel principles. This is what I meant
earlier about avoid the idea of a designer faith. See in America,
And in Europe, we like to just kind of carve our own way out.
It's called kind of an independent entrepreneurship, right? I love
the idea of being an entrepreneur, don't you? I like running my
own business, going when I want to go, coming when I want to
come, and doing things the way I want to. But you can't do that
with faith. You can't carve out your own
path. Now, God will give us all unique gifts and unique talents. and in those unique gifts and
talents that God gives us, guess what you and I are supposed to
do? We are to bring them into conformity to Jesus Christ. Philippians
chapter 127, let your lifestyle be as it becometh the gospel
of Jesus Christ. You know what that means? Whatever
you do in word or deed, do it all to the glory of God. And
it must somehow aid and abet the cause of the gospel. Am I
making sense, children of God? In other words, I'm not living
such an independent life over here that when a person looks
at my life, they don't see any correspondence with my life to
the cause of the gospel. And see the cause of the gospel
is that we go into all the world and preach it to every creature
by every means necessary Do you remember what paul said in first
corinthians chapter 9? He says I have become all things to all
men that if by any means I might what win some Is that not a good
method of thinking? See now, when you go, I have
become all things to all men. You know what that means? I'm
ready for God to use me any way he wants to, drop me anywhere
he wants to, and cause me to be salt and light anywhere God
wants me to. Because my job is to glorify
God wherever I am. And this is what we're talking
about with the life of faith, children of God. The life of
faith doesn't just kind of drift along. It actually ultimately
runs the race. So in your outline we have on
the point number three, the individual race. Do you see that? The individual
race. You find in your Bible where
the term run is used frequently. Galatians chapter 5 verse 7.
Galatians 5 7. It'll come up on the screen in
a moment for those of you who are looking and don't necessarily
have your Bibles. The idea of running is the idea
of being in a race. Which means you understand something
about the rules of the race, the nature of the course of the
race, and the goal of the race. You guys follow what I'm saying?
If you ever ran track and you were a short distance runner,
you understand a 50 meter run or a 100 meter run required certain
rules. If you ran longer distances,
200 meters, 400 meters, 1,000 meters, 5,000, the rules were slightly
different. When you ran in relays, the rules
were different than running the single races. Am I telling the
truth? And you know what Paul said? If we run a race, we must
run lawfully lest we disqualify ourselves in the run. So you
and I have seen in the Olympics these awful, awful occasions
where they are running the 200 or the 400, and that brother
is in his lane or that sister is in their lane, and they start
looking to the left and start looking to the right. They start
looking at other people and they start drifting out of their lane
and they come around the turn and they look like they're in
front and they cross the finish line only to be disqualified
because they were minding other people's business rather than
their own. Are you hearing me? What I'm getting at is this.
Listen to me, child of God. God calls you and I to run this
race and mind our own business. Stay in the lane. So as you run
you stay in the lane and the goal for us is to finish Finish
did not talk to you about that last week at the end of the message
how Paul said in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 I have fought a good
fight. I Have ran a good race He talked
about finishing his course See what the Hebrew writer has marshaled
out in front of you and me are people who have finished You
got that They finished. These all died in faith. Look at it for yourself. Verse
13. Listen to what it says. Yes.
Opening of verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the what? but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were what? Strangers and pilgrims in the
earth. This just blows me away, because
here's what it's saying. They died in faith, saints, not
having received any tangible promise of what God had said,
but they saw them afar off. Didn't receive them, but saw
them. Isn't that the way faith was defined in verse 1? Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things what?
Now listen to what it says. They were persuaded, they embraced
them, and they what? Confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. I'm saying now what kind of motivation
drives a man or woman or a people group to live according to promises
that don't come to pass in this lifetime? What's driving them
to not only see them evolve, not receive them, but be persuaded
of them and embrace them and confess that they are strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. See, these are characteristics
of faith, aren't they? And they're remarkable. I mean,
you know, don't let these pass you by. True saving faith believes
in things that it does not yet receive. It embraces them as
being true and it is willing to confess to the world, I believe
God in all these things. Well, I just want to share with
you two motivations as we close as to why they would die in faith
and why you and I would die in faith. Two motivations. One is
something that we don't talk about a lot, but it's fairly
consistently set forth in the scriptures. What happens when
a man or a woman runs a race, crosses the line first, and finishes. They are rewarded. They're rewarded. Are you hearing me? So stay with
me. I'm going to just drop this on you as something to think
about. I thought about this when I read this verse about people
like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the others. What would compel
men and women to live for God fundamentally not experiencing
any of the actual promises that he had given them. And in many
cases, if you read the rest of chapter 11, they were persecuted. They were cast out. They were
made to live in the mountains and in the dens and in the rocks.
And they were killed for the faith of the gospel. How does
a man or woman live for God in the face of persecution, in the
face of hostility? Of whom the world is not worthy
to receive, the text says. How did they do that? By what
our text just said. They saw the promises of Pharaoh. They
embraced them. They confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims in this world. And they also believed,
ladies and gentlemen, in the reward. They believed in the
reward. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 35.
Listen to what Hebrews 10 verse 35 says. Here it is. Cast not
away therefore your confidence which have great recompense of
what? Do you see what he just said?
He says, don't cast away your what? The word confidence is
a synonym for the word faith. Now, come on now. Aren't there
some times in your walk where you are inclined to cast away
your confidence? See what I'm getting at? See,
this point here is going to be critical for you to meditate
on. This one is going to be critical for you to meditate on. And again,
we don't teach this Much here, we don't emphasize on it much
because of the danger of a false idea as to why we would pursue
a reward. But you cannot read your Bible
anywhere in the Scriptures where God does not reward faith. You can't read anywhere in the
Bible where God does not reward faith. In fact, the Magna Carta
of this statement is Hebrews 11, verse 6. The one that comes
unto God must believe that he what? And is a rewarder, a rewarder,
a rewarder, a rewarder of them that what? Diligently seek him. So stay with me for a moment
now. When we believe God, we also believe that God is a rewarder. It becomes a motivating factor
for pursuing God. This has to be true. The Hebrew
writer says here, cast not away your confidence, which have great
what? Recompense. You know what recompense
is? Recompense is the rate of exchange
that you get when you do a hard day's work. At the end of your
workday, guess what you want? You want your money, don't you?
You want to get paid for your labor, don't you? You're anticipating
getting paid. Listen to me, child of God, this
is exactly what Paul meant when he says, I have run a good race,
I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith. Henceforth is
laid up for me a what? Crown of righteousness. A crown. That was his reward. He's using
the metaphor of running a race. They were crowned after they
ran. And what I'm getting at is this.
There must be something for us to get a hold of in the area
of the reward that will become a motivating factor for you to
continue pursuing God. There must be because the word
reward is running all through the scriptures You know what
the bible says in revelation chapter 11 concerning those two
witnesses that were killed We've been studying that over the last
several weeks as we look at rewards revelation chapter 11 tells us
in verse 18 Your judgments have come and it is time for your
servants to be rewarded See when christ comes back He's giving
out rewards Stay with me for a moment, because I want this
to settle with you. I want you to think this one through. And
I know why God is compelling me to lay this on your heart
and mind, because of the basic economic principles of our life.
You know how we go to work for somebody? And we work diligently
for them, don't we? Because we want to be what? Paid. The sister said paid. Could have
used the word rewarded and kind of kept it more biblical. The
sister said, I want to get paid. But technically speaking, the
word reward is pay. It's pay. And you know what my
soul was thinking? My soul was thinking, what kind
of God do I have? Who loves to reward his people
for their service to him. What kind of God that I have
who loves to recompense? believers for every act of faith
that they exercise in his name. Is anybody in the house understanding
what I'm getting at right about now? That the idea of the reward
has nothing to do with you meriting it? It has everything to do with
the privilege of you being gods. And the nature of God is this,
anyone who confesses my name and believes on me and tells
the world who I am, they are going to receive manifold blessing
from me in this life and in the world to come, because that's
just who I am. And it means a lot. It means
a lot in the area of faith because see what you and I are dealing
with is a world that's not void or vacuous. It's hostile against
God. It's antagonistic against God.
And when God sees his lambs and his sheep standing up for Christ,
declaring the gospel for Christ, taking hits for Christ, suffering
for Christ. He says, now you just hold on.
You hold on. You hold on. The sufferings of
this present time aren't even worthy to be compared with the
storehouse of God's riches and his blessings that he's going
to pour out on his people. See, and this is so important
for you to get. Can I tell you why? Because it's
everywhere in the scripture. The book of Revelation closes
with it. He is coming and his reward is with him to give unto
every man according as his work shall be. Stay with me now. You know what that means? That
means everybody getting rewards. The wicked and the righteous,
the just and the unjust, the saved and the damned. Every man
will receive according as his words Shall be are you guys following
me? You need to you need to think
that through Know what that means every one of us all of us as
human beings are obligated to God to give an account for our
actions Are you hearing me? So I'm not gonna let you get
away with a lopsided gospel. I'm just gonna tell you the truth
right now So when you run across those bumps in the Bible say,
okay pastor talked about that not jumping over that See Jesus
is coming he's going to reward every man according as his work
shall be. The man or the woman that does not live by faith is
going to get the reward of unbelief. The man or the woman that lives
by faith will get the reward of faith and the reward of faith
is many. You know how that word can be
described? As the promises of God. It can be described as God's
inheritance to us. It can be described as the blessings
of God to us. You know how John puts it in
1 John 5, John 2? He says, and this is the promise
that he has promised to us, eternal life. Eternal life. Eternal life. So I want you to
get this in your head. One of the motivating factors
for mature believers is that when we leave this world, we
not only enter into our rest, we enter into our reward. Reward
now you can stay humble and disavow the implications of that truth
if you want to The reason why I'm embracing them. It's not
so much because I want the reward But I want God to be glorified
and is rewarding the Saints Because there is an element of glory
on the part of God where he is taking pleasure in Rewarding
his people for having loved him in the world and suffered One
of my brothers asked a question in the men's meeting last night.
Pastor, you're talking about the souls under the altar in
the sixth seal who are crying out to God. How long? How long,
oh Lord, before you judge the blood of your servants on the
earth? They want judgment. And then the brother asked me,
well, where are the crowns at? Didn't the Bible say something
about crowns and folks getting crowns? I said, yeah, Revelation
4. But what do we do when God gives
us our crowns? We take our crowns off and we throw them at his
feet. And we say not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto
your name be glory. Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord,
but unto your name be glory. Because you are worthy, you are
worthy, you are worthy to receive honor and blessing and glory
and dominion forever and ever and ever. See, the true believer
simply wants to go through the process the rewards so God can
be glorified in honoring faith because he honors faith but we
don't want that crown I want God and so right along with the
Hebrew writer as God was Abraham's exceeding great reward I want
God as my reward now I want to close this message by one fundamental
motive here's the motive for which I want you to run and I
want you to run lawfully and I want you to finish I want you
to run this race because all believers do. I want you to run
lawfully because all believers do. And I want you to finish.
Here's the motive. Because Christ ran. Your master
ran. Did he run? Did he run from glory? Did he leave his glorious place
at the right hand of his father? and run into this world 2,000
years ago? Did he run into the womb of a
woman named Mary and assume a human nature? Did he run? Did he run
out of her womb to be here for some 12 years and then to rise
up and go to the temple because he was compelled to be about
his father's business? Mom and Daddy said, what you
doing here? Don't you know I must be about my father's business?
Was he running the gospel race? Did he run all the way to Calvary
Street Did he hang on Calvary Street? Did he die on Calvary
Street? Did they bury him? Did he rise
again the third day? Did he ascend into glory? Is
he at the right hand of God right now? I'll tell you where else
he is. Are you ready? Watch. He's at
the finish line right now. He's at the finish line right
now. Stay with me for a moment. Jesus is at the finish line,
and he's telling you the way you get from here to there is
to keep your eyes on him, run this race lawfully, and when
you cross the finish line, guess who you get to see? Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. He's the one that's going to
give you the crown. He's going to place it on your
head. He's going to reward you with the reward of himself. See,
now I know that I'm going to finish because he finished. See, and if he finished, I'm
finished because I was in him when he finished and he's in
me to help me finish. This race is run and this race
is done. I'm already in glory. It just
has to unpack itself. Am I making some sense? Now,
as we get ready to partake of the Lord's table, I'm going to
say one thing. If you are not a believer in Christ, please
don't partake. You got to get right with Christ.
before you to eat the bread and to drink the cup. If you're a
child of God, you may join us in the Lord's table. We're going
to have the offering at this time, the table, and then we'll close
in a word of prayer. Amen.