Guest speaker Jeremiah Nortier | Hebrews 11:17-19 "What Is Biblical Faith?"

Well, as I mentioned earlier, it didn't occur to me to double up. And so this young man, Jeremiah Nordier, drove up from Arkansas, spent some time with us Thursday night. In fact, we were up till 1 .30 spending time the other night, way past this old guy's bedtime, I think.

I would encourage you to look up his YouTube channel, which is Apologetic Dog. I'll let you explain that one. I would think Apologetic Eagle of Victory, but no. He does a lot of excellent work, especially if you're familiar with the Church of Christ.

There's a lot more of them down in Arkansas than there are around here. And he's done some pretty interesting long-term debates with some of those guys. And also, it seems that he, let me know this, that in his neck of the woods are the only two full Preterist churches in the whole United States.

Yeah, exactly. Anyway, it's been so good to get to know him, and I look forward to hearing him preach. So why don't you give a big welcome, Jeremiah Nordier.

Biblical Faith, Assurance, and the Church’s Identity

Well, no doubt this morning you will hear a Southern twang. So that is my gift to you from Arkansas. So my name is Jeremiah Nordier. If you look on the back of your bulletin, you'll see 12 .5 Church. Thank you, Kevin, for praying for us.

We're a three-year church plant. So 12 .5 comes from Romans 12, verse 5, which is a spectacular verse about the church. Even though we are individually one of another, we are one together in the body of Christ.

And so in Jonesboro, this is like the buckle of the Bible Belt. There's churches everywhere, so we wanted to be distinguished a little bit. And so people are like, 12 .5, what does that mean? Is that what time y 'all meet?

And I'm like, no, it's a Bible verse. And believe it or not, in Jonesboro, it's very hostile to Reformed theology. And so there's been rumors that this is the five points of Calvinism 12 months a year.

And I'm like, yes, but no, it comes from a Bible verse. So please keep us in prayer. This is gonna be a wonderful connection we have with y 'all from here on out. And so we'll be praying for y 'all. In fact, 12 .5 prayed for this church this morning before the service, so praise God.

And so the apologetic dog, why? Well, so as I was pursuing apologetics, I was talking with my wife, praying about what the ministry should be grounded in. And the verse comes from 1 Timothy 6 .20, where Paul tells Timothy, oh, Timothy, guard the deposit that's entrusted to you.

So it's a guard dog mentality. And then Paul says, avoid pagan philosophy and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. So how do we do that? Standing on the word of God. And we expose those contradictions of those worldviews that oppose Christ and his lordship.

And so that's just a little bit about my ministry and who I am. I'm married to Allie Nortier. She is the better part of our relationship. I tell people she's the better 75%. She's my better half, for sure.

We've been married coming up on eight years and we have a lovely baby boy, JJ, who is 10 months. And at 12 .5, he's referred to as the apologetic puppy. So anyway, just very blessed by the Lord. If you would, please turn with me and obtain your copy of God's word to Hebrews chapter 11.

What Is Biblical Faith?

So as you're turning there, I want us to be thinking about the question, what is biblical faith? And so as we're thinking about this question, I'm reminded of the words of our Lord that come from the Sermon on the Mount, where he spoke a lot about the sons and daughters of our father in heaven and the citizens of the kingdom that are by faith, faith alone in the perfect savior alone, we are children of God and citizens of this kingdom.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasts the people of God with the religious hypocrites, the Pharisees who trusted in their own works and their own self-righteousness. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

And so we begin to learn that faith is a matter of the heart before God. The Pharisees had it wrong. They sought glory from men with their works and they give lip service to God. In fact, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and said, you are those who justify yourself before men, but God knows your heart.

And so one time in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explicitly uses the word faith. He is instructing believers on how to lay up treasures in heaven. And he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he will provide for our every need as he sees fit.

And so I know a lot of times when we think about that, that's a lot easier said than done. God is sovereign over his creation and yet oftentimes we worry about ourselves and about the future and we become anxious about many things.

And so Jesus says, but if God so clothes the grass and the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. And so that's all of us at times, is it not?

We are like little children that are being bombarded by the world and our heavenly father time and time again extends his grace and his mercy towards us. I love how Jesus says, oh, you of little faith.

This reminds us that we are not made right before God and saved by mighty and great works that we have accomplished, but by faith. That little faith is a gift of God. That little faith was a work of the Holy Spirit who began that good work in you and brings it to completion, amen.

And so by God's grace, that little faith that saves will be transformed into a great faith that rests in the savior's finished work on our behalf. And so as we look at Hebrews chapter 11, I want us to examine this more.

What does biblical faith look like? And so many of you are probably familiar with this as the heroes of the faith. This is the great chapter of faith. And that's because this book was written to show the Hebrews that salvation was by faith and faith alone.

And this was not a new and innovative teaching. And so if the writer of Hebrews could make his case with Abraham, then he knew that they would listen up, that this is true of Abraham, that this would be true of us as well.

And so this was during a time where Second Temple Judaism was twisting and distorting the Old Testament scripture as a means of earning God's favor by keeping his law and commandments. And so the book of Hebrews is an apologetic book to say, no, no, no, salvation has always been by grace through faith and not by our accomplishments.

And so I want us to be thinking about that this morning, that we are justified by faith and we live out our faith in sanctification. And so we will be spending this morning looking at the person of Abraham.

So our main passage is Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse 17, where we read, By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Let's pray this morning.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for allowing us to be able to gather this morning and look at your word. God, your word is truth and we pray that your truth would illuminate our hearts and mind. God, give us ears to hear.

God, give us eyes to see. And Lord, transform us from the inside out. Lord, we love you and we praise things in your name, amen. And so we'll be talking about Abraham. Abraham is one of the most important figures in the entire Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

Abraham is often referred to as the friend of God, right? A lot of times seen as the father of faith. And that is because Abraham was justified by faith long before the Mosaic law. And so he models for us how salvation is for all people, whether a Jew born under the law or Gentiles without the law.

And so a very important verse that I would love to encourage you to write down this morning is Genesis 15, verse one. And then verse six, this is a very important verse that is repeated, I think, five times throughout the New Testament.

If it's repeated that much, it's pretty important. Genesis 15, six says, and Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. So Abraham was counted as righteous or justified by faith apart from his works.

And so if you could show a Jew that this was true of Abraham, that this is definitely true of you. And the reality is, is it's true for us as Gentiles 2 ,000 years later after Jesus's ministry. Abraham was justified by faith and he also lived by faith.

This means that he demonstrated his faith by his works to other people in the watching world. And so this is a beautiful truth that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

The Apostle Paul repeated this in Ephesians chapter two. He says, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So this is the entire context of Hebrews chapter 11.

We have a great cloud of witnesses, many examples of saints that live their lives to the glory of God. And so as we're looking at the context here in Hebrews 11, actually look with me at Hebrews 10, 38.

This is kind of the thesis verse that Hebrews 11 flows out of. But my righteous one shall live by faith. Other good translations say, the just shall live by faith. That means that this justification, we are justified by faith and my righteous one shall live out that faith.

So this comes from the Old Testament Habakkuk 2 verse four. This is another important verse. Our salvation has always been by grace through faith, meaning what? Justification is by faith and that faith is lived out in sanctification.

So Habakkuk 2, 4 is repeated so many times in the New Testament as well. And so in Hebrews 11, we see this theme, by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Sarah, and on and on it goes. And so the natural question is, what is faith?

So look with me at verse one in Hebrews chapter 11. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And so we see a little bit of a parallelism going on here. That word assurance means firm trust.

This is a category of the heart, right? Firm trust in things that we are looking forward to that are real. And that other phrase, the conviction of things not seen, that word conviction is similar to the word assurance.

Conviction is an inner desire that will reveal itself in a changed life. And so faith is a matter of the heart. It's assurance, firm trust, it is internal. Biblical faith is a person's heart trusting in the God who has revealed himself in his promises of salvation.

Biblical faith brings conviction to live out our lives to the glory of God, amen? True faith is so important because without it, we cannot please God. Look with me at verse six in Hebrews chapter 11, where we read, and without faith, it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Faith is not merely knowing facts or having knowledge, but is a wholehearted devotion to God's presence and fellowship with him in every part of life. Did I say every part of life, right? We pray for our nation, we pray for every part of our life that God has blessed us with.

And so faith will pervade how we live in light of God's grace. Abraham had the faith that pleased God. Abraham's faith was real and persevered through trials because he trusted in the promises of the all-powerful God who cannot lie.

Sometimes we gloss over that. God is the God of truth. His promises are absolute. That's the thing that you can trust will never change, right? So we must put our faith in the God of truth, the God who cannot break his own standard or deny himself.

So look back with me at verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

And so I wanna talk about that word tested because Abraham's faith was tested. That means that if you today profess to be a child of God, then your faith will also be tested. God does not test a person's faith to prove anything to himself because he knows all things, but rather God is testing an individual to show them whether they have a mere professed faith that James 2 said is a dead faith, or to see if we have the real thing, true saving faith that perseveres to the end.

And I believe that is the key to having assurance of your salvation, going through trial after trial in this fallen and broken world. And if we find our hearts longing for King Jesus, looking to him as the author and the perfecter of our faith, then we see the value in going through trials, right?

I believe the passage earlier is referenced that the Lord chastens whom he loves. That chastening, it's not gonna always feel good, but we need it because we have a loving, gracious heavenly father that won't leave us to suffer in our sin.

He's gonna actually intervene in our lives. And so for the child of God, trials can be perceived with joy. I believe that's the point of the opening verses of the book of James. He says, my brother, and count it all as joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

As the child of God, as we go through trials, we understand that this is like precious metal and gold going into the furnace. All the impurities are being burned up. And when we pull out that precious gold and metal, it's more valuable, right?

That's what our faith is like when we go through trials. God is molding us and shaping us more into the image of his son. And so we talk about that word sanctification, to be set apart. We are being less like the world and more and more to the image of Christ.

That's where we get the word saint, set apart. We are being sanctified. And so for the child of God, as we go through trials, our hearts ought to draw near to God's word, spending precious time with him, letting that increase our trust in the promises of God.

We will be reminded of his love, his goodness, his grace, his mercy, and his absolute sovereignty in all things. And you know what's gonna happen? That will alleviate any kind of doubt in your heart and in your mind, and that will renew your assurance and give you joy.

Amen?

We need a little bit of that from time to time, don't we? And so the point is, whatever happens in this world, if you have doubts, if you look at something that's happening in the world that causes you discomfort, go back to God, go back to his word, look to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And when you do that, your heart won't be clouded with those doubts and those fears. And so in the life of Abraham, he had the faith that persevered through trials, and dare I say, probably the hardest trial imaginable.

Look with me at verse 17 again. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. Does anybody know what the writer is getting at when he mentions offered up here? He was going to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

That's heavy. I'm a father of a baby boy, he's 10 months old. I have trouble relating to this story. I just, my heart begins to just melt. So I want us to understand that this was a trial for Abraham.

God was commanding Abraham to, like we just heard, to sacrifice his son. And so Isaac, not only was his son, but he was the only son of promise. He was the unique son that would carry the gospel promise.

Through Abraham's offspring would come blessings for all the nations to the entire world. Through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob would come forth the long-awaited Messiah. And so I think about Abraham when he's being told to offer up his son, to sacrifice his son.

I'm sure there was a lot of thoughts flowing in and out of his mind, like what? You want me to do what again? I can't imagine. How did Abraham have the faith to persevere through the worst trial imaginable?

I believe the key is in verse 19. We read, Abraham, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. God was able. Of course God was able.

He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is almighty. He is omnipotent, all powerful. The scriptures declare, hallelujah for the Lord, our God, the almighty reigns. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. How did Abraham have the faith to persevere through the worst kind of trial?

He knew God was able. Even when Abraham couldn't see the big picture. Resurrections weren't just happening every day in Abraham's time, right? And so he was reaching to say, well, God's gonna keep his promises.

He may do something unthinkable like resurrect from the dead. He knew that God was able even to keep his promise in the most impossible circumstances. And so we looked at Romans four earlier in the liturgy.

Romans four also speaks of another trial in Abraham's life and says, no unbelief made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

That is biblical faith. That is the kind of faith that is pleasing to God. That is the kind of faith that perseveres through trials. That faith, listen, cannot be manufactured by man, but comes from above and is given from God as a gracious gift.

Amen?

Turn with me for a moment in your copy of God's word to Genesis chapter 22, going to the other side of the scripture. And I want us to consider this trial that Abraham went through more in depth. And so if you would look with me at Genesis chapter 22, starting in verse one.

I want us to examine this account more in detail to see what persevering faith looks like in the midst of trials and testing. Verse one. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham.

And he said, here I am. So I wanna pause just briefly and emphasize that word tested again. And I wanna say, I love the King James Bible. Do we have any copies out there this morning?

Any King James? Oh, we got one.

Okay, I like it, I like it. I love the King James because it's a word for word translation. And what's interesting here is the King James says something a little bit different than most of our scriptures.

It says, God did tempt Abraham. And I believe that this is incorrect of the context because God is testing Abraham. And this is important to note theologically because in the New Testament, James says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. And so it's important to note that this is the context that God is not tempting Abraham, but he is testing him. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus prays to our heavenly father and uses these types of categories.

In one of the petitions, he says, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus has given us the categories that God, yes, sovereignly will test us by ordaining trials, but he will never dangle temptation in front of us by his loving hand.

However, God permits the devil, the evil one, the great tempter to come into the picture. And so we are to earnestly to pray that in God's providence, he would show us favor and grace and that in his providence, he would deliver us from the wiles of the devil who entices our flesh with temptation.

So God tested Abraham. Look with me at verse two. He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go into the land of Moriah. And offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

And so we see that phrase again, his only son. Abraham had other sons, but this is the unique son of the gospel promise. And so think about what's going through Abraham's mind here. Are you telling me to kill my son?

Wouldn't that be murder or human sacrifice? I'm just saying, I don't know all the thoughts that probably Abraham was going to. And you know what? This would not have been murder. This would not have been those things.

So when you look into the Hebrew and Greek word for murder, this carries malicious intent. That's not Abraham. He's obeying God no matter what. And God is the author of life and therefore death, right?

But what we see with the life of Abraham is he does not question God, he loves him. He's willing to be obedient and he knows God is able, okay? So look with me at verse three. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac.

And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Now it's interesting to note.

That Abraham got up early here. And I'm sure the night before was really tough going to sleep. Has anybody else had tough evenings trying to go to sleep? Because maybe you're about to have a really important day the next day.

This is Abraham. I'm sure it was hard to go to sleep, but I would like to think he did get some rest because he was trusting in God. Perhaps he was praying, trusting God, I trust you with what's gonna happen, how you will perfectly provide, how you see exactly what's going on.

And so what does Abraham do the next day? He gets up early, quickly to obey God. And notice how there's two more people here. There's two young men, probably a couple of Abraham's hired servants. And these young men's presence here in the context is really, really important.

And so in verse four, on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship, don't miss this, and come again to you.

Abraham was confident that he and Isaac would return alive to the two young men. And so the point that I'm stressing here is that Abraham was demonstrating his faith before other people, before men. Remember?

Remember the thesis verse in Hebrews chapter 10 that all of Hebrews 11 is demonstrating? The just shall live by faith. Abraham was living out his faith in front of two witnesses. And there's a third witness, who is it?

Isaac himself would be the third witness of this account of Abraham's faith. This is interesting because later, the law would establish the truth of a matter on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

And so we not only, these three witnesses saw Abraham's faith being displayed, but later, all of Israel would have God's law seeing Abraham's faith. This would be millions, millions of people seeing Abraham's faith.

Being demonstrated.

And as Christians in the New Testament, we have all of God's word, but in James chapter two, we also get to see what true saving faith looks like as it's being worked out.

Right?

James two is famous for saying about Abraham, faith was active alongside of his works and faith was completed by his works.

Right?

Faith without works is dead, Jeremiah. Don't forget that. And I want to say, yes, biblical faith, that trust that God is able will result in a changed life filled with good works to glorify God. But James two also lets us know that someone who merely professes to be a child of God, professes to be a saint with no fruit in their life, they show us that they have no real heart change at all.

Their professed faith is a dead faith and is useless. And so Abraham in Genesis 22 is showing mankind how true saving faith works. But Abraham was already justified in the sight of God way before Genesis chapter 22.

Does anybody remember where? Genesis 15, six, right? And chapter 15 comes before chapter 22, right? The last time I checked. That verse once again says, Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Abraham was justified by faith before God. And we're starting to see his faith being lived out in works before man in chapter 22. So we have to remember that God knows the heart of man. God knows the heart of Abraham and that he had faith, right?

God is all powerful. God is able to keep his promises and Abraham trusted him. And so one last time, bear with me. I want to emphasize this point. Abraham was justified by faith before God and he was justified by works before man.

And so from our perspective, we see Abraham's faith put on display. Look with me at verse six. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand, the fire and the knife.

And so they both went together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. And he said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?

Abraham said, God will provide. God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they both, both of them went together. That's an intense moment, right? I start to picture my son and being in that situation and Isaac looking to Abraham, always trusting his dad.

Where's the stuff for the sacrifice? And when Abraham said that God would provide for him the lamb, I'm sure Abraham had in his mind, it's my son, Isaac. But Abraham trusted God. He knew that God saw exactly what was going on, that he knows all things and he will perfectly provide.

Verse nine.

And when they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar and there and laid the wood in order to bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or anything or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

Man, can you kind of feel the weight, the release of like, man, God worked it out perfectly. Abraham knew that this was going to happen in some way. He knew that everything was going to be okay. But someone else knew is on the scene, right?

Back in verse 11, we see the angel of the Lord. Have you ever been reading in the Old Testament and come across the angel of the Lord and thought, who is that? Just me? So the angel of the Lord, this is God appearing in a physical form that can be seen and heard by man.

And so context would clue us into that with how the definite article is being used, the word the. In the Old and New Testament, there's references to angels of the Lord and angel of the Lord. But here we have the angel of the Lord.

This shows that there is something unique and separate about the angel of the Lord from all other angels. And so in other places in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord speaks as God, identifies himself as God and exercises the responsibilities of God.

And so the perfect example of this is Moses at the burning bush where the angel of the Lord spoke to Moses and there explicitly told him that I am, I am the eternally existing one. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And so the angel of the Lord calls out to Abraham here and commands him not to harm his son, Isaac. And then he says this puzzling statement. I don't know if you caught it. The angel of the Lord, which is God, this would be Jesus in the pre-incarnate form, says for now I know that you fear God seeing that you have not withheld your only son, Isaac, from me essentially.

And so that's puzzling, right? Is this saying that God did not have knowledge beforehand of what was going to take place? And so there's no doubt that God perfectly knew what was going to take place with Abraham because scripture is clear.

I believe in 1 John 3 says God knows all things, right? Our hearts may condemn us because when we look inwardly, there's a whole lot of sin that we're warring against, but God knows all things. And we can trust in the promises of the one who knows all things that says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those essentially who are trusting in Christ, right?

So God is omniscient. That's not the intent of what's being communicated here. The Lord searches all hearts and understands even the intentions of the heart. So God knows that Abraham's heart feared God even before this circumstance.

And so God was simply speaking to Abraham in terms that he would have been familiar with, right? We see this all throughout the scriptures. Back in Genesis 3, Adam sinned and God calls to Adam and says, where are you?

Does that mean that God didn't know where his location was? No, God was asking a question to provoke a response. God often in scripture designed statements to reveal to us truth that we can clearly understand.

And so John Calvin in his account of Genesis 22 says, God was speaking on our level so we may understand that Abraham passed the test. God not only knew what Abraham was going to do, but he purposed and ordained this event the exact way that it came about.

And it was for us to see that God was there, that he testifies to the fact that the just shall live by faith. Look with me back at verse 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide as it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. So remember, that's exactly what Abraham said to Isaac back in verse eight.

Abraham had an unwavering faith that God would provide, fully convinced that he was able to do what he promised. God was showing Abraham that no matter how impossible the circumstances are, he could trust him.

That is biblical faith. Abraham had faith, yes, but he learned and grew in his faith. And so we learn a principle here that even when we are unsure how God is going to keep his word, we too can be certain that he is faithful and that he will grow us in our faith through trials.

Abraham acknowledged that God had provided. And so he named this place Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. And how did God provide? The text says with a ram, a ram that was caught in the thicket by his horns.

And this ram, this male sheep was in the place of, right? Instead of Isaac, right? He was a substitute, right? We're starting to see glimpses of something that is to come. This is a picture of something much more that God was doing on Mount Moriah.

This was a presentation of the Lord's eternal grace, continual provision, and all encompassing wisdom. Jehovah-Jireh does not mean that the Lord did provide. It means that the Lord will provide. In other words, this name does not memorialize simply a past event, but it anticipates a future reality.

This entire account of Genesis 22 foreshadows the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look back at verse two. Isaac is Abraham's only son, his unique son of promise. This picture is Jesus, who is the only son of God, the unique one that was sent by the father to be the savior of the world.