I've entitled the message for
tonight, Dying in Faith. The first three words of this
verse, these all died. We're all headed toward death,
young people, old people, we're all headed toward death. That's not a morose way of thinking,
it's just so. Our life is compared to a vapor. When you're out in the cold and
you breathe, the vapor appears and it disappears. These earthly
lives are compared in scripture to a vapor. James says, what
is your life? Even a vapor that appears for
a little while, a little while. Well, time's
flying. And the older you get, the more
you see that. Time's flying, headed toward death. What is death? People look at
it as the end of the process of life, the circle of life. You're born, you live, you die. It's all a part of life. People's funerals now are called
celebrations of life. Don't call my funeral that. The moment you and I die is the
beginning of conscious, eternal existence. Think about that. Conscious,
eternal existence. either in heaven or in hell. I love what the Lord said to
that man, if you will enter into life, this is not life. It's really not. Somebody says,
well, you're eating and drinking and breathing and doing well. This is still not life. Life begins upon death. eternal conscious existence in
heaven or in hell. Now I can see the attraction
to atheism to a natural man. You know why? There's no eternal
punishment. I can see the attraction to that.
I can see the attraction to universalism, the fact that everybody's going
to, not the fact, but the error, that everybody's going to wind
up being saved. There's an appeal to that, because
if that's the case, no one will be in hell. But deep within the
recesses of our conscience, we know God is. I'm saying this
to you. I'm saying this to all men. We
know that God is. We know that he made the world. He created the universe. Nobody
made him and he will reward the righteous and he will punish
the wicked. Nobody is going to get by with
a thing. That is God, and deep down we
all know that is so, even if we deny it, we know it's so. Why is there death? These all
died. Why is there death? Well, Paul
answers that question for us in Romans chapter 5 verse 12
when he says, For by one man sin entered the world. Now I want you to
think of that statement. By this one man, by this one
action, this one action of disobedience to God, sin entered the world. And death by sin, that's why
there's death. So the death passed upon all
men in that all sin. Now listen to that scripture.
It didn't say merely that Adam's sin was charged to their account.
It says when Adam sinned, I sinned. When Adam sinned, you sinned. Now I realize that there are
people who will dislike the implications behind that. How could I be charged
with a sin that was committed when I wasn't even born. I've
got problems with that. Well, I guess I can understand
that, but were you born when Christ perfectly kept the law? Can you say, I don't want to
have anything to do with His perfect obedience? Same principle. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, and that
all have sinned. When Adam sinned, you and I sinned. And I think this is so interesting.
Before Adam sinned. Now get this, before Adam sinned,
God said to him, in the day you eat thereof, He didn't say if you eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said in the day
you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Death was pronounced before
there was death. Adam ate of the fruit, he died,
he became spiritually dead. He didn't die physically that
day, you know that. As a matter of fact, he didn't die for 900
some years after that, but he became spiritually dead. And
you and I are born into this world with a spiritually dead
sinful nature. Sin comes natural. Sin is as natural as breathing. You don't have to teach your
children sin. It comes natural. You don't have
to teach your children to lie. It comes naturally. You don't
need to teach your children to be selfish. That's the way we're
born into this world. These all died. Had Adam never sinned, he would
have never experienced death, but he sinned. And this death is so final. It's appointed to men once to
die. Time of your death has already
been appointed. Nothing you can do to change
that date. It's appointed to men. Once to
die, and after that, the judgment. Standing before God in judgment. Now this passage of scripture
doesn't merely say these all died, but it says these all died
in faith. Well, that's the way I want to
die. These all died in faith. Now he's talking about Abel.
He's talking about Noah. He's talking about everyone he's
mentioned in this passage of scripture. He's talking about
Enoch. He's talking about Abraham. He's talking about Sarah. And
he's talking about every single child of God. This is going to
be said of every single child of God. These all died in faith. They persevered all the way to
the end in faith. And upon their last breath, even
if they didn't have a consciousness, even if hospice was called in
and they didn't know who they were for the last two weeks or
two months or whatever of their life, if they're a believer,
these all died in faith. Now, there are two ways to die. The Lord said, if you believe
not that I am, you will die in your sins. Dying in your sins, being raised
again in your sins. If I die in my sins, I will hear
those awful words to me, depart. This is Christ speaking. Depart,
ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. That's
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, to that one who does not die
in faith. If I die in faith, oh, if I die
in faith, I'll hear these words, come. Ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Now, there's only two ways to
die, to die in your sins or to die in faith. And oh, if I die in faith, I
will spend eternity My conscious existence of eternity will be
in perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, beholding
his face and worshiping him. Face to face with Christ my Savior,
face to face. What will it be when in rapture
I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me? This will be the epitaph of every
believer, these all died in faith. They lived in faith, they persevered
in faith, and they died in faith. Verse 13, these all died in faith,
speaking of all of God's elect. This refers to every believer.
If I'm a believer, this is the way I'm gonna die. I'm gonna
die in faith. Die believing the gospel. Die looking to Christ
only. When I take my last breath, if
I have consciousness, I will be trusting only Him, believing
in His absolute sufficiency to save me. These all died in faith. If I don't have consciousness,
that'll still be true with regard to me. These all died. in faith. But look what it says next. This
is an interesting statement. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises. Now what does that mean? Does
that mean they heard the promises of God and they rejected them?
Of course not. You know it doesn't mean that. If that were the case, they would
not have died in faith. The whole time, here's what this
means. The whole time they walked here
upon this earth, they never experienced the promises in their bodies. They believed them. Now let's consider the word,
the promises. The promises of God, exceeding,
Peter said, exceeding great and precious promises, the promises
of God. Salvation is all because of the
promise of God. Now listen carefully. If you
and I are saved, if we die in faith, here's why. God promised
we would. God's promises cannot be without
effect. If God made a promise with regard
to this sinner, Todd Nobert, he's going to die in the faith. Guess what? I'm going to die
in the faith. We read in 2 Timothy 1.1 of the
promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to Galatians
chapter 3. Verse 18, for if the inheritance, heavenly
glory, likeness to Christ, eternity in heaven is of the law, if it's
given to me because of some act of obedience on my part, it's
no more promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Look in verse 26 of the same
chapter. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew
nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free.
There's neither male nor female. All fleshly distinctions will
be done away with. Aren't you looking forward to
that time? No fleshly distinctions. For you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you be Christ's, then
are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the what? The promise. The promise of God. Salvation's
either by works, what I do, or what I promise to do. Oh Lord,
if you save me, I promise I'll never do that again. Right, right. Or the eternal, sovereign promise
of God. The promise of salvation, the
hope of salvation is that when I die, I will stand before God
as one who has never sinned. Now, think about that. If I die in the faith according
to the promise of God, when I stand before God in judgment and God
looks at me I will be one who has never committed a sin, one
who has kept God's law perfectly. One who has loved God with all
my heart and I've loved my neighbor as myself. There will not be
anything negative about me to be brought up on judgment day.
It's all perfect. He's perfect. He never sinned. He's pleasing to me. God will
look at me and listen to me. God doesn't pretend. He doesn't
treat me as if this were the case. I will be accepted by Him
as one who has never sinned, one who is perfectly obedient. That is the promise of the gospel. It's what's called in the Bible
justification. You remember that poor publican
in the temple beating up on his breast, crying, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's how he saw himself. And
if you see yourself as you are, that's how you'll see yourself.
The sinner. Definite article. The sinner. And you know what the Lord said
with regard to that man and every other man who sees themselves
in that light and prays the same prayer this man prayed? I tell
you that man went down to his house justified. cleared of all guilt, nothing
to be guilty about. Justification doesn't mean you're
forgiven. You are forgiven, but the reason you're forgiven is
there's nothing to forgive you for. You're justified. Your sins
are blotted out. You stand before God perfect. Now, what a hope. What a hope
according to the promise of God. What a hope when God sees me. He sees someone who has never
sinned. 1 John 4, 17 says, as he is. Does he have any sin? No. As he is. Did he ever sin? No. As he is, so are we. in this world. Now that is the hope of the gospel
according to the promise of God. If I stand before God like that,
it's because He promised I would when God told Abraham of the
multitude of his descendants. At the time, Abraham didn't see
any of them. As a matter of fact, He didn't see anything but his
old, worn-out body. But you know what? He believed
God. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Being fully persuaded, God persuaded
him. That's why he was fully persuaded.
being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able
also to perform. Now that's how the believer feels
about God's promises. What he promised, standing before
him justified, having everything working together for my good
and his glory, All things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. What
He promised, He was able also to perform. Now, when God's Word
tells me I'm justified before Him without sin, sinless, perfect,
I do not experience that in this life. I have the same experience that
Paul had in this present life. There is no time, there is no
time when I'm not made to say my sin is ever before me. I find in the law that when I would do good, Evil
is present with me. To will is present with me. I
would never sin again. By the grace of God, I mean that.
I would never sin again. To will is present with me. But how to perform that which
is good, as far as the performance of that desire, what did Paul
say? I find not. I have not experienced the promises
of God in this body of mine, nor have you. And that will be true of me until
my last breath. That's just the facts. I die in faith having never experienced
sinlessness. Now let's go back to our text
in Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 13, these all. died in faith, not having received
the promises in their own body in the experience of sinlessness,
but, that's a great word in the scripture, but, but God, but
God, but having seen them afar off. When Abel offered up that lamb,
he saw the promises of far off. He didn't believe the blood of
that lamb, that lamb could take away his sin and make him perfect.
But he saw what that lamb pointed to that would come some 4,000
years later, the lamb of God. Enoch, when it was said that
he pleased God, he didn't look at himself and say, yeah, I do
please God, look how good I am. No, he knew that without faith
it was impossible to please God. Noah, when he built that ark,
he spent 120 years building that ark. I love to think about that.
120 years. He saw the promise of God afar
off. He saw salvation was in that
ark and that ark pointed to the coming one whom that ark represents,
the Lord Jesus Christ and being found in him. Abraham, oh, he
saw the promise of far off. When he offered up Isaac and
the substitute ram was provided for him and the scripture says
he went down the mountain rejoicing, he saw the promise of far off. He saw how the Lord provided
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. These men had the same faith
you and I do. They saw it afar off. They were
looking forward to it. We're looking back, but it was
the same faith because it's the same object of faith. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sarah, the same. She saw these
promises afar off. She saw the Christ coming through
her seed. They saw the promises afar off. I love 2 Corinthians 1, verse
20. It says, all the promises of
God in him are yay and amen. That means they're not conditioned
upon you doing something to make them work. That's what Sarah
tried, if you'll remember there, in Genesis chapter 16. They're
all yea, they're all sure, they're all certain, they're all amen,
so be it. This is what I love. They saw
the promises afar off. But look what it says next. These
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them. Now, the word persuaded in the
original is in the passive tense. That means somebody persuaded
them. And I know who persuaded them.
The same one who persuaded Paul when he says, I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. The same one that's
persuaded me. The reason I believe is because
he persuaded me to believe. You know, preaching, among whatever
else it is, it's persuading people to believe. It's not just delivering
a lecture. I want you to believe the gospel.
I want you to be persuaded to trust the entire salvation of
your soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm, but he's commanding
you. I'm not giving you any commands,
but he's commanding you to believe on his son. Don't wait for anything. Don't wait for an experience.
Don't wait to get better. Believe on Christ right now,
just as you are. I've been persuaded. That's why
I'm persuaded that nothing could separate me from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God persuaded me. And
I am persuaded. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off
and were persuaded of them. If God persuades you, you'll
be persuaded. If you're not persuaded, it's
because He hasn't persuaded you. When He persuades you, you're persuaded. You know this is the gospel. You know this is your only hope.
But look what it says next. Not only were they persuaded
of them, the scripture says they embraced them. They embraced them with hugs.
and kisses. They embraced these promises
as absolute good news, the best thing they ever heard. They embraced them. They loved them. They welcomed
them. They came to them as good news.
They embraced them. You know when it says Christ
is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and that means
he was slain for sin before the foundation of the world. That
means my sin was paid for before the foundation of the world in
the person of my Lord Jesus Christ. You know what I do? I embrace
that. I embrace it with hugs and kisses. I love it that way. I welcome this as the good news
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When I hear that He chose me
in Him before the foundation of the world, that I should be
holy and without blame before Him, you know what I do? I embrace
that. Good news. When I hear that there's
none righteous, no not one, there's none that understands, there's
none that seeketh after God, they've all together come out
of the way, there's none that doeth good, no not one, you know
what I do? I embrace that. You say, what is there to embrace
about that? Well, it teaches me to not look to myself for
anything in my salvation, to wholly look outside of myself
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I embrace that. I embrace that. I'm glad. I'm glad. I wouldn't
want it any other way. When I hear that we're justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus,
I embrace that. Good news. When I hear He by
Himself purged our sins with no help, no contribution from
me and you. I embrace that. I love that. Tell me more. This is what I
want to hear. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When I hear that in Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily and I'm complete in Him, I embrace that. When I hear, by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I embrace that.
That's good news to me. When I hear that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, I embrace that. That's the faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. When I hear to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, I embrace
that. the promises of God and this
is the promise that he has promised us even eternal life. We embrace, we welcome, we receive
as good news the promises of God. Now lastly, these all died But they all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed."
Now, this is a very important word. They confessed. And there's something public
about confession. You can't be a private Christian. There's
something public about confession. If I won't confess, I don't really
believe. With the mouth, with the heart
man believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. And if I can't even confess with
my mouth what I want to, I'm going to identify with those
who do. I want to show whose side I'm on. You know, this is
a true story. In the Revolutionary War, when
the men were going out to battle against the British, there was
a little old woman that went out with a broomstick. And they
said, you can't do anything with that broomstick. She goes, I
know, but I'm going to show whose side I'm on. And that's what
every believer does when he confesses Christ. I'm on his side. Confess. It's public. You confess and you believe.
The word means agreement. We believe the same thing. Every
believer believes the exact same thing. There's not believers
that believe different things. Believers all believe the same. You say, well, what about all
these denominations? You can't support any of that
from scripture. I mean, according to the scripture, every believer
believes the same thing. They all, without exception,
believe that Christ is all in salvation. And they believe He's
all to be preached, and they don't want to hear anything else.
Every believer is at perfect agreement. That's what confession
is. You confess the same thing. When
you confess, you plead guilty. I plead guilty to believing that.
After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God
of my fathers, believing all things which were written in
the law and in the prophets." Now, there's a very interesting
verse of scripture. It's found several times in the
beginnings of the gospel. But when John the Baptist was
preaching, it says, regarding the multitudes that heard him,
he said, He baptized them, confessing their sins. Now think about that
phrase. It's several times in the scripture.
He baptized them, confessing their sins. They came and confessed
their sins and were baptized of him. Now does that mean that
before they entered the waters of baptism, they made a public
confession to everybody of their personal sins, I'm coming clean. Are you now? That's not what that means. It
doesn't mean before they could be baptized, they first had to
confess their sins publicly to John the Baptist or anybody else.
Let me give you some good advice. Don't confess your sins to anybody
but the Lord. It's nobody else's business. Confess them to the
Lord. Take sides with God against yourself
with regard to your sin. Confess your sin to the Lord.
Ask for deliverance from your sin to the Lord, not some man. Well, here's what they were saying.
When they confessed their sins, they were saying, this is their
confession of sin and this is their confession of the gospel.
I am so sinful that the only way that I can be saved is by
the perfect life, the sin atoning death, and the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. My only hope is that I am in
heaven. Him. When He lived, the only
righteousness I have is His righteousness. When He died, the only sin payment
I have is His bloody death on the cross. When He was raised
from the dead, I was raised in Him. I am so sinful, and I'm
not talking about trying to wallow before me in about, oh, I'm so
sinful. I'm not talking about that at
all. I'm talking about it in my heart. I know that I'm so sinful that
the only way I can be saved is if I am in Jesus Christ, the
Lord, and he did everything for me. That's the believer's confession
of Christ. And that's why baptism more than
anything else, is the believer's public confession of Christ. I'd like to be like Peter when
Peter said in 1 Peter 3.15, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Regard Him as holy. regard him for who he is. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready, be always ready to give an answer to every
man that asks you. Wouldn't you like to be around
somebody and they see the way you deal with trials? and they see your non-judgmental,
merciful, gracious attitude toward them, toward all men, and they
say, I'd like to know a reason for the hope that's in you. You
know what I'd say? My hope is that Jesus Christ
lived and died and was raised for me. This is all my hope and
all my salvation. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might be
just like these saints of old, that we might die in the faith not having received the promises
but seeing them and being persuaded of them and embracing them and confessing
that through your promises that's made this earth not our home
where strangers and pilgrims waiting for that day that you
call us into your presence and we'll be with you eternally.
Bless this word for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen.